> The end of an era
>  by The Hand of Pony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1. Reunion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia tried to think back on the events that led to herself and her sister becoming the rulers of Equestria. She remembered the scowl Platinum had given her when she'd said that Luna would rule by her side, and she definitely remembered the screaming argument they'd had over it. Not even the centuries that had passed since that night could bring her to look back on it with even the slightest hint of nostalgia.

Still though, Platinum had looked upon her with pride at their coronation, even if that feeling never made it so far as to be granted to Luna as well. Alicorns had been crowned as the rulers of the fledgling nation of Equestria, and the future had been secured, as well as the peace between unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi.

The memory had since soured for Celestia. The only thing that had been secured for Platinum was her legacy. A legacy built on lies, abduction, and the cruel imprisonment of a mare that deserved no such treatment for any reason. At the very least Celestia could be glad Platinum granted mercy to both Luna and Faust by separating them and adopting Luna as her own as she had done with Celestia, even if the reasons for doing so had been very different.

Celestia tried to put these thoughts aside, but it was proving difficult to do so. It felt like her entire childhood had been poisoned by the revelation that Platinum wasn't her real mother, and had stolen her away from the alicorn Faust as soon as she was born. All so Platinum could maintain some semblance of control over Equestria after she died.

She wished she could do as Luna did and not care, even if she doubted just how genuine Luna was in her assertions. As they say, the lady doth protest too much.

"Your highness?"

Celestia blinked as she gathered her bearings, then looked down at her assistant Raven, who seemed troubled by Celestia's lack of attentiveness. A piece of parchment hovered in the air between them. Another document awaiting the royal signature. The amount of those seemed to have doubled, if not trebled, since Mareitania had been released from the clutches of its previous rulers.

"Apologies Raven."

"I can come back later if you wish?"

"No, that won't be necessary." Celestia skimmed through the document, picked up the important parts she needed to know, signed it, then moved onto the next. She wasn't sure why the overthrow of another nation had resulted in such an increase in paperwork, especially since she thought she'd hammered out most of it during the time she spent in the country after the end of the civil war.

Celestia frowned in confusion at the next document held before her. It was a complaint from one of the merchant ships involved in trading with Mareitania. Apparently they'd been receiving a less than friendly reception in Neigh Orleans if the heavily armed soldiers keeping watch on them were any indication. The other indication was that they were banned from travelling beyond the docks themselves.

"These two are similar to that," Raven said as she helpfully held up two more documents for Celestia.

"Hmmm..." One complaint could have been ignored as the captain of a particular ship being touchy. Two could be a coincidence, but three might be enough to cause concern when there's not been a problem until now.

"Seems the world revolves around Mareitania at the moment," Celestia muttered to herself. "Didn't the Griffonian ambassador want to meet with me over concerns she had about Mareitania?" Raven nodded. "Did she say about anything specific?"

"No your highness," Raven replied. "She refused to discuss it with anypony but yourself. Do you think these letters and what she wants might be related?"

"I hope not, but perhaps it wouldn't hurt to bump her meeting up the schedule."

"How far up?"

Celestia turned to one of the guards that flanked the dais upon which her throne rested. "Could you locate the Griffonian ambassador and inform her I'd like to see her immediately." 

"Ah, that far up," Raven said as the guard saluted and raced off to fulfil his princess's command. "If you're seeing the ambassador now, would you like to reschedule this for later?"

"I think that rather depends on what the ambassador has to say. We'll keep going until she arrives."

Celestia sighed internally as Raven nodded and presented the next document for show. While she was still pleased that Mareitania was now a free country, it didn't seem to come without a massive raft of troubles. The native pegasi of Mareitania had elected to leave the country enmass after the way they were treated there, meaning that a massive project had to be created for Equestrian pegasi to work in Mareitania. That should've been the end of the issue, but the problems only ramped up from there as the curious and friendly pegasi of Equestria had an unpleasant introduction to the rather bigoted ponies of Mareitania. Six pegasi were beaten half to death in the first fortnight for going where they weren't welcome, and the solution of keeping the pegasi confined to the newly made city of New Pegasopolis was hardly the best reaction to a problem that shouldn't exist at all.

The other end of that problem was the Mareitanian pegasi, who weren't integrating into Equestrian society. Admittedly some of them had barely been in the country for more than three months, and Celestia certainly wasn't expecting instant results, but they weren't even trying to integrate into Cloudsdale where the population was almost exclusively pegasi. Being reluctant to mix with unicorns, and especially earth ponies, was something Celestia could understand, but other pegasi? Not so much.

Celestia scribbled her name onto the bottom of yet another document, and resigned herself to the fact that none of this was going to fix itself any time soon.

"You know, Princess Twilight is coming to Canterlot today," Raven said, cutting into Celestia's already errant thoughts. "Perhaps you could ask her to take a look at some of these?"

Celestia shook her head, "She's here to see Trixie and the rest of her friends. I really don't want to disturb her from that."

"If you say so."

Celestia smiled, appreciating that Raven only wished to lighten her work load a little. She was about to speak her reply when the doors of the throne room swung open, granting access to two guards and a silvery griffon hen, whose youthful appearance belied the wit, intelligence, and brutal cunning that lay below. It was a brutal cunning that Celestia could run circles around, mostly due to age and experience, but it was there nonetheless.

"Thank you for agreeing to come on such short notice ambassador Deetra."

The griffon hen, Deetra, closed the distance to throne and bowed deeply, "Thank you for finally taking my concerns over Mareitania seriously, your highness." 

"That depends. While I take all concerns over Mareitania seriously, you haven't in fact given us the slightest bit of detail as to what your concerns are."

"That's because they're rather sensitive your highness, and should be for the ears of a princess alone. Which is why I would prefer for your assistant to be out of the room."

Celestia resisted the urge to roll her eyes, taking the request for Raven to leave with the usual grace she gave the griffon's dramatic nature. Rather than make an issue of it, she smiled and nodded for Raven to depart. "I am all ears ambassador," she said once it was just her, the ambassador, and a half dozen guards that didn't count for some reason Celestia had never understood.

The griffon eyes bored into Celestia for a few long seconds, but there were no cracks in Celestia's expression she could exploit. Instead she did the next best thing, and rather bluntly said "Mareitania is building up its military strength."

Celestia took the revelation with a significant pinch of salt. "Oh? Last I heard they were downsizing their army. What makes you think that they're increasing it in size?" Celestia enjoyed the small twitch her complete lack of concern caused in the ambassador.

"We have reports-"

"Reports from whom?"

"From our intelligence services-"

"Your spies you mean." Celestia matched the glare she received from the griffon with a cool stare.

"You cannot bring a new player onto the geopolitical map and expect other nations to not be curious, Princess. Regardless of what the source of our information is, I have no reason to doubt their assertions that Maretania is building up the size of their army as we speak."

"Mmhmm... And you're sure this isn't their response to the large number of griffons crowding their skies? The first griffons they encountered made it very clear what their intentions for the country were."

"Just as Princess Luna made it clear that Mareitania was still under Equestrian protection," the ambassador said back smugly.

"Those claims you made of Princess Luna being in Mareitania are wholly unsubstantiated."

"Yes, and I do hope she enjoyed the five months she spent in Las Pegasus with the Wonderbolts." Celestia let the griffon have that one since the entire thing about Luna's lengthy absence seemed to have become a running joke where others were concerned. "That is besides the point though. The fact remains that Mareitania is building up its military strength, and we wish to know why."

"First off ambassador," Celestia said sternly, "you have provided no proof at all of what you're claiming. And secondly, I do not rule Mareitania, so even if what you're saying is true, it has nothing to do with me, so I cannot say at all why they would do what they are apparently doing as I do not know."

"Then you are unaware that yesterday morning they were gathering up all the weather pegasi you sent to their country in Stalliongrad, and loading them onto a train to return here?"

"Excuse me? What reason would I have to believe that?"

"I'm sure you'll believe it once you hear the news yourself. If the train bringing your pegasi back departed yesterday, they should have made it back to Vanhoover by now, meaning that, as the pegasus flies, you should be hearing about it soon." The ambassador smiled as Celestia's famous composure slipped a little. "Keeping an eye on your neighbours sometimes pays off."

"There are hundreds of miles between Griffonia and Mareitania ambassador, so I doubt that you really count as neighbours. Also, you would have had to receive the news yourself only recently, meaning the news would have been delivered directly to you instead of to the Empire. Celestia's expression grew stern, "You've been warned about having uninvited griffons coming here Deetra."

The ambassador bowed apologetically, "My apologies for the breach in etiquette, but as it involved ponies of your nation, it was deemed important enough to come straight to me so I could warn you."

Celestia raised an eyebrow at the griffon before her, "Which you weren't going to do. You're here now because I asked you to be, not the other way around."

"Actually, I was on my way here when your guard found me." The ambassador looked to her left as the shadow of a pegasus flashed over the stained glass windows on the west side of the throne room. She smiled as she saw Celestia do the same. Only the Royal and Night guard were permitted to fly that close to the castle, and both of them knew the routes they took, and when. The pegasus that just passed was not a scheduled patrol. "A little late, but still within expectations."

"Mind your tone ambassador."

"Apologies your highness. Perhaps we should wait and see what they have to say."

"Perhaps we should." An uncomfortable minute passed in the throne room as they waited. Normally Celestia would've engaged in small talk, but her mood sucked away her desire to do so. Even the ambassador was reluctant to say anything further as Celestia brooded upon her throne. Thankfully the awkward silence ended as Raven re-entered the throne room.

"Sorry to disturb you your highness, but we've received an urgent message from Vanhoover."

Celestia eyed the ambassador as the griffon sat and fluffed her chest in a show of pride. "Of course Raven, send him in." They waited again as Raven fetched the pony with the message. Thankfully it was a much shorter wait as Celestia wasn't sure how much longer she could put up with the smugness that radiated from the ambassador.

The guard ran up to the throne and saluted crisply, "Sorry to disturb you your highness, but I bring urgent news from Vanhoover."

"The pegasi have all been sent back from Mareitania?"

The guard blinked, "How..?" He shook his head, "Yes your highness, all but one of the pegasi were returned."

"All but one? Why keep one?"

"Maybe they missed them your highness."

"Perhaps." Celestia smiled at the guard, "Thank you for the message. Please, inform Raven of everything, then go rest." Celestia held her smile as the guard saluted and left, but not without showing the slump his exhaustion left in his posture. Then she turned to the ambassador, who had swapped her smug demeanour for a thoughtful one.

"Why would they miss only one? Or was it intentional?"

"I don't know," Celestia admitted, "but rest assured that it, as well as your other claims, will be investigated fully. Thank you for bringing this to my attention ambassador."

The ambassador bowed deeply, "I am at your service your highness. If you require the services of our nation, do not hesitate to ask," she added before turning and leaving, a slight bounce to her step.

Celestia frowned deeply as soon as the griffon was out of sight, "Raven, has Princess Twilight arrived in Canterlot yet?"

"Her train should be arriving in the next hour I believe."

"Good. Send some guards to meet her at the station and inform her that I need to see her here before she goes to see her friends. And have somepony wake my sister too. The three of us have some matters to discuss. Oh, and cancel my appointments for the rest of the day."


-0-0-0-


Twilight's heart felt heavy in her chest as she made her way through the corridors of Canterlot hospital. That didn't make a huge amount of difference to her though, as it was a sensation she'd grown all too familiar with in the last six months. What had been discussed with Celestia and Luna after she was practically dragged in front of them was just another kick to it while it was down.

Still, she didn't want to focus on that. Today was supposed to be happy as it was the first time she and her friends were all going to be together since their return from Mareitania. No doubt there was going to be some heavy topics discussed, but she still wanted some positivity to take place before she ruined it all.

"Come on Trixie, you can share one nugget."

"No, they're my nuggies! Hooves off!"

"Really Trixie? Nuggies?"

"Yes nuggies. My nuggies. With a delicious cheesy centre. You live in Canterlot Fleur, so I'm sure you can find somewhere that sells nuggies, meaning you don't have to nick mine!"

"You're eating off the kids menu!"

"Because the adult menu sucks. Seriously, who calls celery dips a meal?"

"They're a starter Trixie."

Twilight stood outside the door to Trixie's room, listening to the fairly good-natured argument taking place within. She took a deep breath, put on a smile, and pushed the door open. "Hi guys."

"Oh hey Twilight!" Trixie said happily in greeting. "Want a nugget?"

"No thanks, you know I don't like cheese."

Fleur gawped at Trixie, "You what? Twilight gets offered one, but not me?"

Trixie nodded and gave Fleur a humourless smile, "That's because Twilight's been to see me more than once in the last six months, not forgetting that you actually live in Canterlot."

Fleur almost choked on her next words, "I-I'm a busy mare Trixie-"

"You come to the hospital for the filly's treatment every week!"

"Hey! Don't drag me into this!" the filly shouted as Fleur glowed with embarrassment. "And if you must know, her therapist said to distance herself from reminders of what happened in Mareitania, since being constantly reminded of it really wasn't helping anything."

"Really?" Trixie grinned suddenly, "I know I'm hot stuff Fleur, but I'm not a poker."

"Really Trixie? Really?" Fleur growled and flexed her hooves as the rest of them tried to pretend that hadn't happened.

"Sorry, couldn't resist." Trixie grinned sheepishly and nudged her dinner tray towards Fleur, "Nugget?" She frowned as Fleur took two and passed one to the filly, then frowned deeper as she realised something. "How have you been avoiding reminders when you live with one of them?"

"With great difficulty," Fleur replied with her mouth full.

Octavia looked up at Twilight and smiled, "So where did those guards drag you off to from the station?"

"Canterlot castle. Celestia had something she wanted to talk to me about. I promise I'll tell you all later, but I'd rather hear how you're all doing first."

"The honest answer, or the ones we tell other ponies?" Octavia asked cautiously.

"The honest answer."

"Then truthfully," Octavia swallowed, "not great, but you know that already."

"I don't," Fleur said, turning her chair towards Octavia. "What's up?"

"Well... That's just it; I'm not entirely sure. I'm doing a lot better than I was, but there's just something stopping me from getting fully comfortable. I mean Summer and Vinyl have been wonderful," she gave the blue pegasus Summer a smile, "but everypony else..." Octavia shook her head ruefully, "I was performing at a concert around a month ago, and was mingling once it was over, as you do, when somepony said something about their troublesome neighbours. Without really thinking I said I knew somewhere they could hide the bodies if they got too much. I mean, I know my sense of humour's taken a turn for the morbid since getting back, but they looked at me like I suggested cannibalising foals." Octavia sighed and rested her head on a hoof, "Nopony here seems to understand."

"I know what you mean," said Fleur in agreement. "When I first got back all everypony wanted to know was 'where have you been Fleur?' and 'what's under the bandage Fleur?' and of course I didn't want them to know. Eventually their pestering me about it got too much, and I finally told the press what happened, mostly, and..." Fleur growled a sigh, "I might as well have told them that I add a new scar every time I murder a pony." Fleur hung her head, "It made me feel like it was my fault it happened. Ponies in Equestria just don't know how to treat this kind of thing. Even the filly's been having trouble."

"Oh?"

The filly nodded and sighed, "Yeah. I'm not surprised about ponies giving me shit for having no wings when I tell them my name's Swift Wings, but some of the other kids at school are complete assholes about it. They kept teasing me, and wanting to know why I thought I was a pegasus when I 'clearly' wasn't, and where I got the scars from, and blah blah blah, so I told them everything. And I mean everything."

"What happened?" Twilight asked after a moment of silence.

The filly pulled a face and shrugged, "They didn't get it, at all. They said I had to be making it up, then teased me about being an orphan of all the stupid things to focus on. On the bright side though, I've gotten pretty good at fighting. There's nothing more satisfying than beating the snot out of colts bigger than you."

"I'm so proud," Fleur cheered, giving the filly a hug. "Thankfully, the treatment for regrowing her wings is going great, so hopefully some of the teasing will stop once they're fully back."

"How is the treatment going?" Summer asked, her interest piqued.

The filly jumped up and slid the bandages around her middle up, showing the short stumps of her growing wings, "Pretty good I think. It'll still be months until they grow back fully, and more until I can fly, but there aren't enough healing devices around yet, so I'm lucky to get in once a week as it is."

Summer ran a hoof over one of the stumps, "That's great. They don't have many healing devices in Ponyville hospital yet, so I don't really have an idea on how fast they work for regrowing limbs. Especially if they're only treating you once a week."

"Eh, it's fine." The filly shrugged and pulled her bandages back into place. "I'm used to having no wings, so I'm not bothered. The only thing I can't get used to is how much it itches. It's enough to drive me nuts sometimes." The filly jumped back into her chair and grinned at Summer, "I guess things are going well at Ponyville hospital then?"

"Oh yes! Everypony there's been so nice, and I'm learning so much. Really Twilight, I can't thank you and Luna enough for getting me a placement in there."

Twilight waved it off with a hoof, "It's the least we could do. You're too good to force you through years of medical school and maybe fail because you're behind in terms of literacy. A practical education was a much better idea, if a little unorthodox."

Summer's smile shrank, "I know I'm still not great at writing, but I am getting better. Nurse Redheart trusts me enough to do some of the simpler paperwork on my own now, and Octavia and Vinyl are still teaching me at home too."

"Not just us though, is it," Octavia said slyly, giving Summer a nudge and making her blush. "I'll tell them if you don't."

Summer squirmed in her seat, "I've met somepony."

Fleur sat up, her eyes sparkling with interest, "Ooh, and who is the lucky stallion?"

"Mare."

"Right, mare. Sorry."

"'s okay. Her name's Nightglider, and she's a pegasus, and she's... Well, she's wonderful. We met a couple of months ago, and I think it's going really well."

"Eee!" Fleur squealed excitedly, "I'm so happy for you! At least one of us is having a great life after Mareitania."

Summer's gaze dropped to the floor, "I haven't told her yet, about what happened to me. About what I was forced to be."

"Why not?" Fleur asked softly.

"Because I'm scared to. What if she thinks I'm a-a- a whore or something! Or if she thinks I'm disgusting because I had sex with stallions, even though I didn't want to! What if she leaves me? I-I don't want to lose her!"

"The best I can say there is tell her. Unless you're willing to lie to her for the rest of your life, the only thing you can do is tell her. If she really loves you she'll understand, and it won't change her feelings for you at all."

"I know," Summer sniffled, "but I'm still scared."

"Just...don't hide things from her. It'll only get worse if you do." Fleur smiled as Summer nodded. "Still, I'm really happy for you Summer."

"Thanks," Summer croaked as she wiped her eyes free of the tears that had arrived there.

"So," Trixie said with a huff, "is nopony going to ask how I am?"

"You've had a six month vacation, sat here eating 'nuggies,'" Octavia said with a bemused grin.

"Only because they won't let me leave! I'm sick of being here, but they won't release Trixie until her treatment is finished, but it's never going to be finished because they refuse to believe me!"

Octavia sat up and shared a look with Fleur, "What do you mean they refuse to believe you?"

"They seem to think that me falling to dark magic is a result of me refusing to come to terms with the death of my parents. They don't believe me when I tell them how they died, and they don't believe me when I tell them of what I did during the war. They accuse me of having delusions about what really happened, and that I'm trying to make myself out as a monster because of the guilt I feel over not being there when they died. I've had three letters, one from Celestia and two from Luna, confirming the events I'm recounting for each of the doctors I've had so far, and now they're trying to get me to express my regret for all I did under the influence of dark magic, and that once I realise that regret, I'll start to get better. No mention at all of helping me with the complete breakdown I suffered after failing to avenge my family."

Octavia cleared her throat politely after Trixie's outburst, "And why don't you just do what they asked?"

Trixie gave Twilight a fleeting glance and hugged herself. "Because the only thing I regret about my dark magic is how it ended. Maybe some of my methods could've used some work too, but otherwise I don't regret having the strength to help us win the war in Mareitania. I don't even really want to use it again, but they're all stuck on making me want to regret it all, and then say sorry to the ponies I killed. We were soldiers in a war, and we did what we had to."

"I thought you just said you wanted to stop using dark magic?" Twilight said, confused over what Trixie was trying to say.

"And I do! But that doesn't mean I have to totally regret using it, or make phoney apologies to dead ponies for killing them, especially when they were on the opposite side in a war!" Trixie kicked the leg of her bed and sat back with a huff. "Let's just change the subject before I get angry. Angrier. Apparently that interferes with my treatment or something. How about you tell us what's up with you Twilight?"

"Me? Oh, I'm fine."

"You're a terrible liar Twilight," said Fleur. "Still a terrible liar that is."

Twilight sighed and closed her eyes, "Fine. I've been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, but that's really not the problem." Twilight realised what she just said, "Okay, it's certainly a problem, but the real thing that's getting me down is my friends in Ponyville. They just...refuse to accept what I did in Mareitania. I told them everything, or at least the things not about any of you, and the looks on their faces... Fluttershy didn't speak to me for a week afterwards, and she only spoke to me when she did because I went looking for her. Applejack said I had to be lying about some of it, and now refuses to talk about it at all. Rainbow was the most interested, but even after telling her some of the tamer stories, she soon stopped asking. Rarity pretends it didn't happen, and keeps giving me little gifts to make me feel better, and Pinkie..." Twilight hugged herself, "Even though she tries to be cheerful around me, every time I look in her eyes all I can see is how sad she is because she can't make me smile like I used to."

Fleur pressed a hoof to Twilight's side, "You told them about when you died?"

"Yeah. Heh, they asked me if I was okay, like dying was no more severe than catching a cold. Then I showed them Swordy, and they just seemed confused as to why I would keep it."

"What about Spike?" Trixie asked.

"I think he's taking it worse than all of them. He wants to help me, but when I have nightmares, and wake up screaming because I've had nightmares, or I can feel the blade that killed me, there's nothing he can do, and it hurts him. More than once I've had to comfort him because he's so distraught over it." Twilight rubbed her tears away before they started to fall, "I think the short answer is that no, I'm really not okay."

"And you're still friends with these ponies?" Trixie asked dismissively.

"Of course I am Trixie! Those ponies are everything to me, just as all my friends are. We're still friends even if we are going through a bit of a rough patch, and things will get better. They just need to stop thinking that we can go back to the way things used to be, because we can't. I can't."

A heavy atmosphere settled in the room as each pony reflected on their issues. "A fine bunch of messes we are," Trixie said after a while.

"At least we have each other and our loved ones to get us through it," said Fleur. She meant it to be uplifting, but the looks on Twilight and Trixie's faces informed her she missed the mark. "So," she said to try and change the subject instead, "I've heard interesting things about your niece's crystalling Twilight."

Twilight snorted into a giggle, "Yeah, you could say that. I didn't even know the Crystal Heart could be broken, let alone from a foal screaming."

"An alicorn foal," Octavia reminded them, like Twilight could possibly have forgotten. "I'm sure their screams count for more than most foal's."

"Hold on," said Trixie, "let me get this straight. Your niece screamed and broke the Crystal Heart."

"Yep. Completely shattered it."

"Isn't the Crystal Heart meant to keep the frozen north at bay?"

"How do you know that?" Octavia asked suspiciously.

"I read about it in a magazine once, not long after the Crystal Empire came back. My point is, why isn't the Crystal Empire a giant crystal popsicle?"

"I took the heart I got from Caverndown up with me. I was hoping Cadence would help me understand it better, but in the end it found use as a temporary replacement until we could fix the proper one. It's not as powerful as the proper Crystal Heart by a long way, so we still had to fix it pretty quick. Thankfully a pony called Sunburst came forward with some pretty good ideas on how to do it."

Trixie grinned at Twilight, "You mean you couldn't?"

"The spell book I needed was destroyed, and I also then had a massive panic attack at the thought of thousands of crystal ponies dying. Especially those from Caverndown, considering I played a fairly significant part in destroying their first home. I was still pretty rough after only having been back for a couple of months at that point. I'd probably keep my head a little better now."

"Uh-huh. So what's the news on Mareitania these days?"

Twilight grimaced as the conversation suddenly swung onto the topic of Mareitania. "You can find out soon enough," she replied cryptically.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Twilight bit her lip, the words she was about to say not really being something she wanted to say. Ever. "Mareitania sent all the pegasi back this morning."

"What?" Fleur said loudly, shocked at the news. "Why? How are they getting their weather?"

"We don't know, but that's not all. Apparently they've been restricting the merchant ships to the docks, and not letting them stay once their business was concluded. I'm talking about fully armed soldiers keeping them under control. Speaking of which, the ambassador from the Griffon Empire has said that Mareitania is building up their military strength, when they were previously decreasing it."

Fleur sat back and covered her face with a hoof, "What the hell are they thinking? Have Daybreak and the others gone mad or something?"

"That's what Celestia wants us to go find out." Twilight said the words quietly, like she didn't want them to be said.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Fleur shouted. "Why the hell is she asking us to go?!"

"Because we're the big heroes of Mareitania," said Trixie. "Isn't that right Twilight."

"More or less. It won't be a long visit; a couple of weeks at most. Long enough to find out what's going on." Fleur groaned into her hooves as the filly stared blankly at the wall. Octavia and Summer both looked ill. The only one with even a hint of a smile, was Trixie.

"Well this is a fine to-do. I wish I could come with you, but alas I'm confined here, with my nuggies."

"Actually I've already given written permission to the hospital allowing you out for the trip to Mareitania."

"Shit."

"Maybe permanently, if it goes well and you're on your best behaviour."

Trixie groaned loudly, "Well, now I am both intrigued and mortified. Good effort Twilight; fuck you so much."

"Please Twilight," Fleur begged, "tell me you aren't serious."

"I thought you wanted to go back?" Octavia said to Fleur.

"Under my own terms! Not because things are going to shit! Again. Already. Not to mention the massive issues Trixie's probably going to have with seeing High Rock again."

Trixie looked shiftily from side to side, "Yeah. Those."

"Part of her terms will be to keep her inhibitor on at all times," Twilight said quickly, making Trixie groan in annoyance.

"You are really selling this to me Twilight."

"I'm sorry okay. Believe me, the thought of going back isn't something that fills me with joy either. If we had an embassy in the country we could ask them, but the parliament voted against letting us have one. Which now I think about it..."

"When are we leaving?" Octavia asked, her words sounding flat and toneless. Summer was staring at the floor beside her, the occasional quiver running through her.

"A few days time." 

"And if they don't let us in?" 

Twilight shrugged, "Hopefully that won't be a problem."
> 2. Strange goings on
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight was having a nightmare, but for once it was at least semi intentional, and she had even put herself to sleep so she could have it. A nice dream would have been preferable, but beggars can't be choosers.

There was one creature in the world that might give her a clue as to what might be going on, but that creature only lived in dreams, and had been frustratingly illusive of late. Enough so that Twilight was tempted to think she might have had a hoof in what was going on if she wasn't wholly incapable of doing so.

"Where are you?" Twilight muttered as she dragged herself through the bloodied landscape of her dream, winding through the deceased bodies of her friends and loved ones. A sight that had become distressingly familiar of late, and would've effected her more if she wasn't making efforts to make this a lucid dream. "Nightmare!"

"I'm here! Stop yelling." The corpse of Luna sat up and emitted a series of grisly cracks as the bones popped back into place and rapidly mended themselves. Black spread across the blue of her coat, like ink spreading through water, and the figure slowly opened their eyes, revealing two turquoise orbs with slitted pupils. Then she hunched over and hugged herself as she nervously glanced about.

"What's up with you?" Twilight asked after a moment. "I haven't seen you in months."

"I've...been hiding," Nightmare admitted in a quiet voice.

"Hiding? Hiding from what? Luna?"

"No, there's something else here in the dreamscape, and it's searching for something, or someone."

"You?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's looking for Luna, but every time she shows up it vanishes. Maybe it thinks I'm Luna, and Luna's something else. I don't know." Nightmare shook her head, "It doesn't matter either. It's here now, so I can't stay long Twilight. You better get on and tell me what you need."

"Alright. Do you know what's happening in Mareitania?"

"I don't know. As I said, I've been hiding, so I haven't had any time to go exploring much."

"So you have no idea why they've sent all the pegasi back to Equestria, bar one? Or why they won't let the merchant ships into the country any further than the docks of Neigh Orleans? Or if they really are building up their military strength?"

"Is that why you seem to be heading back to Mareitania?"

"Sadly, yes."

"Wow. Sucks to be you."

"Sucks to be all of us. I don't suppose- Nightmare?" Twilight cocked her head as Nightmare's body locked up, her eyes wide in shock and agony. "Nightmare! What's wrong?"

"It's here! It's here! It's here!" Nightmare hissed again and again in a pained voice, right before a blinding blast of agony tore through Twilight's consciousness, ejecting her into the waking world.


-0-0-0-


Twilight gasped and kicked violently, knocking herself off the seat she'd been sleeping on. She grabbed her head and touched a hoof to her horn, finding it to be strangely hot. "Nightmare!"

"Is that how you reassure ponies that you're only having a nightmare, and not some kind of seizure? You just wake up and shout 'nightmare!'"

Twilight cracked an eye open and winced at the bright light. Above her, sat on the seat opposite was Trixie, watching her with barely concealed amusement, but also with some concern. "No, it's... I don't know." Twilight stood and shakily pulled herself back onto the seat, finding it damp with her sweat. "Just forget about it."

"Done and done. It's about time you woke up anyway; we're almost at the border."

Twilight looked out of the window, trying to find her bearings, "Already? But I was only asleep for five minutes."

"Try three hours. Then you woke up and screamed that thing I'm supposed to forget about."

Twilight rubbed her head as her thoughts and memories settled back into place. Something had just happened to Nightmare, but what that was would have to remain a mystery for the time being. Hopefully she was okay. Or at least as okay as an incorporeal amalgamation of Luna and Nightmare Moon that lived in the dreamscape could be.

"How close are we?"

"Literally minutes away," Fleur answered from further up in the carriage. "So get your shit together Twilight, because the noble leader has to do the talking."

"Right. Noble leader. That's me. Totally me." Twilight sat and tried to get the rest of her marbles to bounce back into place, watching the others as she did. Summer and the filly were staring glumly out of the window, watching the scenery pass, while Octavia tried to hide the trembling of her hooves. A trembling that was only getting worse the closer they got to their destination. Fleur was pacing back and forth, grumbling to herself, and Trixie... Trixie was playing with her horn.

"It'll fall off if you keep touching it," Twilight said, repeating a line that her father used to say to Shining Armour. Never to her though for some reason. And it's not like horns could just fall off anyway. She never understood it.

"Trixie should've thought to change her mane style so it hides the inhibitor."

"I'm sure they would work it out anyway. Especially when they see you eat. I didn't think it was possible for an adult to cover themselves with that much ketchup."

"Hey! It was mostly on my hooves, and I didn't have a fork, okay. Leave Trixie alone about her misfortune when it comes to basic things that I've done with magic since as long as I can remember!"

"Okay, sheesh. I was joking Trixie."

"You know, Trixie had almost forgotten what massive jerks we all were to each other. I liked forgetting that."

"Even though you were the biggest jerk of us all," the filly said loud enough to just be heard.

"And don't you forget it!" The train lurched suddenly, throwing Trixie to the ground where the filly laughed at her. "Trixie hates trains!"

"At least we're not in a box this time," said Twilight.

"Guys, shut up!" Fleur shouted as she opened the window nearest to her. "We shouldn't be slowing down yet."

Twilight threw her own window up, and looked outside. Towering above her on both sides of the train were the stone walls of the pass that led into Mareitania. One of the first things that had been done to expedite the movement of pegasi into, and out of the country, was to expand the railway all the way up to Stalliongrad, and eventually beyond. Fleur was right that they shouldn't be stopping yet, and the reason why was the buffer blocking the rails just inside the end of the pass.

The train ground to a halt, and Twilight teleported herself outside the carriage to have a closer look. There wasn't much to see, but the fact that the buffer was there was enough to tell them they mightn't be very welcome.

"What do you think Twilight?" Fleur asked as she cautiously jumped out of the carriage, stumbling as she landed on her bad leg.

"I think somepony is making a half-assed attempt at keeping us out of the country. Well, not us, per se, but everypony. I guess we walk from here, and see what we find."

"Is that really the best idea?"

Twilight shrugged, "It's the best we have."

"And if they tell us to leave?"

"Then we say fuck 'em, and fly to High Rock. If it goes really wrong, I left a teleport beacon in Canterlot, and I can get us all out of here in the blink of an eye if need be. I'll get the others up and ready to go if you tell the train to head back to Equestria once we're away." Fleur nodded, and Twilight teleported back into the carriage.

"What's going on?" Octavia asked as soon as the flash from Twilight's spell dissipated.

"We're walking."

"All the way to High Rock? That'll take days Twilight!"

"Actually..." Twilight grabbed some empty saddlebags and tossed a few bits of food and water in from the royal carriage's small supply, as well as a healing device, just in case. "I only want to find somepony in the border patrol or whatever, just to gauge how friendly they are. Then, depending on that, we'll fly the rest of the way, which will only take a few hours at most."

"Sweet!" the filly chirped happily, while Trixie groaned.

"Now come on, we need to get going." Twilight pushed the door of the carriage open and jumped out, Summer following her with a fluttering of wings. Octavia jumped out without hesitation, while Twilight had to lower Trixie and the filly to the ground.

"The guards don't seem happy about it, but they'll go as soon as we're out of sight," Fleur said as she met them beside the train.

"Let's get going then." Twilight set the pace, starting into a steady trot that the others easily kept pace with. She wasn't about to show it, but Twilight was worried. Blocking the train from entering the country seemed unnecessarily hostile, and she was almost tempted to draw her weapon and prepare her spells in case they were attacked. She also felt silly for thinking like that, but if she'd learnt anything from her previous time in Mareitania, it's be prepared for anything.

It only took a few minutes to reach the end of the pass, and what Twilight had mistook for another buffer at a distance was actually a barricade set across the rails. She could see glimpses of ponies behind it, alerted by the train stopping, and slowed her pace so as to not spook them.

"Uh... Hello?"

"Turn around, get back on your train, and go."

The voice sounded familiar. "Is that you Wick?" Twilight asked. There was some muttering from behind the barricade, then the head of Wick, one of the higher ranking soldiers of the former Mareitania Liberation Front, popped up over the barricade.

"Holy shit... Lady Twilight? Trixie? All of you, what are you doing here?"

"Wondering why you sent all our pegasi back, and are threatening our merchants in Neigh Orleans." Twilight scanned her eyes across the barricade, "I'm now wondering about all this too. What's going on Wick?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't!" Wick shouted angrily.

"Then can you let us in to ask somepony who can?"

"Ungh..."

"Please," added Fleur.

"Euurgh...fine! But only because we owe you." He dropped out of sight, and a few moments later a gap opened up in the barricade, letting Twilight and her friends through. Twilight smiled appreciatively, then immediately gasped at what she saw on the other side. There were easily three hundred soldiers, as well as two steam tanks.

"What is all this?! Are you expecting an invasion or something?"

"It's complicated," Wick said wearily, and Twilight was perfectly willing to believe him. "If you follow me I'll find you a carriage to get you to High Rock."

"Actually, I was thinking we could just fly there. It'd be a lot quicker."

"No," Wick said sharply. "I must insist you take a carriage."

"Why does it sound like they were expecting somepony to turn up here?" Fleur whispered into Twilight's ear. "Somepony who wasn't us."

Twilight half nodded at Fleur's words, agreeing with them. Unable to verbally respond to them, Twilight kept speaking to Wick. "What'll happen if I don't want to go by carriage?"

"Consider it part of the agreement of you being here."

Twilight sighed and nodded, "Alright then. Lead on Wick." They followed after Wick, noting his relief and giving Twilight a chance to whisper back to Fleur. "What do you think?"

"I think that either this is a trap to make us hostages, or they're trying to hide something."

"That sounds more likely," Octavia agreed in a whisper of her own. "What do you want to do Twilight?"

"Let's just play along for now."

Deciding to stay quiet before they were overheard, they faithfully followed after Wick as he led them up to a carriage that happened to be waiting conveniently, totally out of place in a military setting. "Let me just find you a couple of ponies to do the pulling, and you can be on your way," he said, leaving them alone for a moment.

"What do we do Twilight?" the filly asked in a harsh whisper.

"We do exactly as he asked," Twilight replied calmly before grinning. "We travel by carriage."

Octavia raised an eyebrow at Twilight, "Meaning what exactly?"

"Meaning you get in and hold on." Twilight stood quietly, trying to appear as inconspicuous as possible while the others clambered in, then made her way around to the front of the carriage. She frowned as she found it was already designed to be pulled by a single pony, which suggested that Wick intended for them to have guards.

Deciding to worry about that later, Twilight hitched herself up to the carriage, and stretched her legs and wings out. Then she spotted Wick coming back, and immediately set into action.

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

"Travelling by carriage! Just like you said!" Twilight shouted back, her legs straining against the weight, and her wings pumping as she tried to drag the carriage into the air to escape the soldiers chasing after them. A generous application of magic to lighten the carriage, and then they were airborne.

Wick stared up in horror at the carriage as it sped away into the sky. "Snowbright's going to kill me."


-0-0-0-


"Hah! That was awesome!" the filly cheered as they gained more and more altitude.

"I can't help but feel like we're doing the wrong thing though," said Octavia. "We were told to go to High Rock and ask the council what was going on. Not do this!"

"They're hiding something Octavia," Twilight shouted back, loud enough to be heard over the wind. "Frankly, I'd rather find out what."

"Maybe that's a good place to start," Fleur said uneasily. She pointed towards the city of Stalliongrad, and towards the thick plumes of smoke coming from the various industries there. Under the leadership of the Duchy of Mareitania, Stalliongrad had been the heart of the Duke's war machine, and to see it in full swing was unsettling at the least.

Trixie looked down as the sun glinting off something caught her eye. Railway tracks, leading from the border to Stalliongrad, and out the other side towards Prance, were in the middle of being constructed. "Look at all those rails. Why are they still building them if they've blocked the border off?"

Twilight shook her head at that question, "They're still going to create a rail network within their own borders Trixie."

"Yeah, but they don't have any trains."

"What's that then," said Fleur. She pointed at a long, sleek steam engine nestled in what looked like a newly constructed train yard outside Stalliongrad. It was twice the length of any train Equestria had yet built.

"Yeesh," Trixie groaned. "Overcompensating much?"

"The sooner we get to High Rock, the better," Twilight muttered.


-0-0-0-


Twilight set down a couple of miles from High Rock, almost getting dragged along the road as the carriage's momentum knocked her off her hooves she was that tired. It was decided after that, that Octavia would pull the carriage the rest of the way while Twilight sat inside and rested.

She knew they'd arrived when her horn tingled as it came into contact with the anti-teleportation field around High Rock. She dragged herself up to look out of the window, and was rather surprised to see it looked almost exactly as it did when they left the country six months earlier.

There were still plenty of soldiers around though, as evidenced by the well armed greeting they received at the massive gate at the bottom of High Rock. It quickly became more friendly when Twilight and her friends jumped out of the carriage, and there was even a few cheers from the assembled soldiers.

"At least these are pleased to see us," Trixie commented in a quiet grumble.

Twilight didn't even have to ask as the gates were opened for them, and they trotted through, returning as many of the friendly greetings as they could before making their way up the ramps to the keep.

"Something about this still doesn't feel right," said Fleur, keeping her voice low.

"Shh," Twilight whispered back. She didn't disagree though. The tingling on her horn was only getting worse the closer they came to the keep, and it bothered her that Trixie and Fleur weren't affected by it. Trixie was maybe protected by her inhibitor, but why Fleur wasn't bothered seemed strange. It almost made Twilight want to tear at her mane to scratch an itch inside her head.

The doors to the keep were already open by the time they made it to the top of the ramps. The council leading the new minted Republic of Mareitania, consisting of Daybreak, Ivory, Lord Hayfield, and Sour Mash, were stood waiting, and Twilight soon forgot about the sensation in her horn as she run over to Daybreak and tackled him, then Ivory, in a hug. Then she spotted Daybreak's daughter Thorn behind him, and dragged her into a hug as well, while her friends greeted other ponies besides. "It's so great to see you guys!"

"We were hardly expecting to see you here Twilight," Ivory said warmly. "In fact, we didn't have any warning at all..."

"Oh, really?" Twilight laughed nervously, "That's odd."

"Isn't it just," Snowbright said coldly as he trotted out of the keep.

Twilight resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "Nice to see you too Snowbright."

"Really though Twilight," Daybreak said in a more serious tone of voice, "why are you here? Not that we aren't pleased to see you, but your visit was hardly expected."

"Hardly expected? You sent all our pegasi back! How are you supposed to get your weather without pegasi?"

"That's what you came to ask?" Snowbright asked incredulously.

"Well, that, and we have reports of you restricting our merchants access to Neigh Orleans using armed soldiers to keep them under control. Then there's the small issue where you've blockaded your own border against us, and have been accused of building up your military."

"Oh?" Snowbright half smiled at them, "And who accused us of that?"

"The-uh... The griffons did actually."

"Those same griffons that wanted to use the civil war as an opportunity to plunder our country? Those same griffons that fly over on spying missions at least once a week? Those same griffons that would benefit from us having a weak military?"

Twilight swallowed nervously, "Yeah, those griffons."

"That's enough Snowbright," Daybreak said harshly, interrupting before Snowbright could speak again. "Our guests have travelled a long way, and they must be tired." He smiled at Twilight, "Why don't we get you settled in, and then we can all have a good catch up."

"Sounds good to me," Twilight said back as she warily eyed Snowbright, who merely nodded.

Daybreak clapped his hooves together, "Great! You guys come with me, and lets see if Ivory can't spend some time removing the stick from Snowbright's ass."

Twilight looked about with interest as he led them into the castle. Nothing much seemed to have changed about the place at all, but it was still interesting to see the place without the cloud that hung over her head like the last time she was here. The biggest difference seemed to be how lively it was compared to six months ago. A nice, everyday kind of lively, rather than the somber 'making plans to kill ponies' kind of lively.

Twilight stopped and smiled as a young colt and filly, one sandy yellow, and the other light brown, scampered across the hallway in front of them. She was about to carry on and pay it no mind when she saw Fleur freeze up and whine in the back of her throat. "What? What is it?"

"Those were Tracker and Opal! Pearl's kids!" Fleur hissed. "Why are they here Daybreak? Why?"

Daybreak winced guiltily, "Ah... Yes. They didn't do so well mixing with unicorns at the orphanage..."

"What does that mean?"

"Some unicorn filly said something nasty about Opal, and...uh..."

"Just spit it out Daybreak!"

"Let's just say it's lucky they were caught before Tracker did too much damage. At least nothing one of Twilight's healing thingies couldn't fix. There was no way they could stay in the orphanage after that, so now they're back here where we can keep an eye on them."

Fleur closed her own eyes and whimpered, "This is all completely the opposite of what my therapist told me to do."

"We could confine them to their room if you want?"

Fleur hesitated, looking for all the world like she wanted to say yes. She didn't though, and shook her head slowly. "This is their home, whereas I'm just a guest."

"If you say so," Daybreak said with a shrug. "We'll do our best to keep them where you aren't."

"Appreciated."


-0-0-0-


Twilight leant back and patted her hooves on her belly, satisfied with the meal that just filled it. So far things had been very cordial, and their hosts had been very gracious in giving them nice rooms and an exquisite meal. What they hadn't done though, was answer any questions in the slightest. Her horn still felt like it was infested with termites too, but nopony seemed to feel it except her, so she stayed quiet about it.
Feeling brave, Twilight leant back forward and crossed her forelegs on the table before her. "So, while I appreciate the hospitality you're all showing us, I hope you realise this isn't just a social visit."

Fleur burped politely and nodded, "Quite. Frankly some of the things going on here have been rather suspect."

"And what business is it of yours?" said Snowbright while the council exchanged nervous glances. "You're not in Equestria now, your highness."

Twilight's expression turned cold, "Firstly, if you're going to call me your highness, could you at least not sound like you're constipated as you say it, and secondly, Equestrian citizens are involved, so it is entirely our business."

"And don't think we haven't noticed the way you four keep looking at each other," the filly added, pointing towards the council.

Ivory cleared her throat, "Things have been rather tricky here of late. With the increased presence from the griffons, we've been forced to take steps to...ensure the safety of our borders."

Twilight squinted incredulously at the council, "And that involves threatening our merchants, blocking your borders, and returning all the pegasi...why?"

"Because, if we do come to blows with the griffons, we don't want any of your ponies getting hurt," answered Daybreak.

Twilight was a little annoyed that they hadn't thought to ask Equestria for help, but felt pushing that issue wouldn't help. "But what about your weather?" she asked instead. "Nothing will grow, and your country will die if you don't have pegasi to produce your weather. Your ponies will starve."

"We'll manage," said Daybreak. "We still get a lot of snowmelt from the mountains, and if we build reservoirs to capture the water we can irrigate most of the land during the summer."

"But it'll take months to set that sort of thing up! Years even!"

Daybreak shrugged, "As I said, we'll manage."

"But-" Twilight stopped as Fleur nudged her and shook her head. "Fine, okay, you'll manage. At the very least you could tell us why you missed sending one of our pegasi back."

Ivory raised her eyebrows in something that looked like surprise, but fell just short of being genuine. "Oh? Oh dear. I'm terribly sorry Twilight, but without our own fliers it was hard to make sure we didn't miss any pegasi in New Pegasopolis. Unfortunately we destroyed the city, so if she was still there, I'm afraid she... might've been killed."

Twilight's surprise caught in her chest, robbing her of her ability to speak for several moments until she could force it out. "You what?!"

"If the griffons attacked, New Pegasopolis would've been all too easy for them to capture and use against us," Snowbright explained. "We had no choice but to destroy it."

The buzzing in Twilight's horn intensified a little, and she was about to say something when Octavia spoke up. "That's a good idea actually." Even Summer nodded in agreement, even though she looked queasy doing so. In fact, most of her friends except for Trixie were in agreement with Snowbright, while Trixie was watching the ponies around her, looking just as confused as Twilight felt.

"You can't be serious!" Twilight shouted. "New Pegasopolis was more than just a place where the pegasi lived! It was a symbol!"

"It was an easily exploitable weakness," said Mash.

"The griffons aren't going to attack you! They might not like it, but they  respect the old treaty Mareitania had with Equestria."

Snowbright smirked cruelly at her, "And can you guarantee they won't?" 

"B-but- I-" Twilight exhaled heavily. She knew she couldn't guarantee that, and she knew that they knew she couldn't. "Even if they do, how does closing your border and threatening the merchants of your closet ally help you in the slightest?" 

"Are we not mentioning the dead pegasus?" Trixie asked quietly.

"She isn't dead," said Twilight. "The kind of power required to destroy New Pegasopolis fast enough to catch a pegasus in it as well, is rather beyond the unicorns here." Twilight saw Ivory's eyes tense. "More than likely she's in hiding, or flying back to Equestria," she added, noting the relief in Ivory.

"Then we shall make efforts to find her if she's still in the country," Lord Hayfield said diplomatically.

Fleur smiled and nodded, "We'd appreciate that, thank you. I think it best we talk more tomorrow once we've all had some rest. I'd rather not ruin a fine meal by having an argument. Goodnight all."

Fleur stood and departed, the filly, Octavia, and Summer following after her. Twilight was about to keep talking when she felt the pull of telekinesis on her leg, and found Fleur giving her a meaningful look, her horn glowing as she pulled on Twilight's leg again. Taking the hint, Twilight smiled at the council, "Goodnight." Following Fleur, Twilight looked back at the council, just catching their expressions of relief before they were hidden again.

"That was weird, right?" Trixie asked once they were out of the room and alone.

"Which part?" Twilight sullenly asked back.

"All of it! Besides the fact that they possibly killed one of our pegasi while they casually destroyed New Pegasopolis, they're hoping to set up a country spanning irrigation network in time to not starve because they got rid of all the pegasi. I'm no engineer, but I know impossible when I hear it."

"They said they'd manage," Fleur reaffirmed. "What reason have we to doubt them?"

"What reason?" Trixie looked at Fleur like she'd just sprouted a second horn. "Have you lost your mind Fleur? There's no way they could do that! And you know it!"

Fleur glared angrily at Trixie and Twilight," You two are unbelievable, you know that. They said they can set up an irrigation...thingy, then they can do it. Stop insulting them by saying they can't."

"And what about New Pegasopolis?" Trixie retorted. "You know there was no real need for them to tear it down! What kind of message is that going to send to pegasi outside the country? Especially considering this country's rather rocky past where ponies with wings are concerned!"

"If the griffons took the city it'd become a flying fortress," Octavia half shouted, adding her own voice to the argument. "They were right to do that!"

"Not if they hadn't kicked all of our pegasi out of it," Twilight said evenly, not wanting to raise her voice at her friends, even if they weren't so bothered by doing so. "Even if the griffons were going to invade, which they very likely aren't, not even they would attack a city full of Equestrian citizens and risk war with both Mareitania and Equestria at the same time."

"Equestria doesn't even have an army Twilight!" Fleur said back. "If the griffons really wanted to, what would stop them invading us, huh? I'm sure they'd find some way to coerce the princesses into raising the sun and moon, so that wouldn't be the problem. Maybe they could find some way to do it without the princesses at all."

Twilight took a step back, "What are you getting at Fleur?"

"I- I don't know..." Fleur delicately rubbed a hoof up and down her forehead, "I have a headache. Talk to me again tomorrow when you've hopefully become more reasonable. Come on filly, we need to do your therapy before we go to bed."

"Uh, sure, be right there." The filly spared Twilight and Trixie a pity filled glance before running after Fleur. Octavia followed as well, not saying a word, while Summer smiled weakly and wished them a good night.

"What is up with them?" Twilight asked rhetorically. She then reached a hoof up and scratched her horn, "And why does my horn feel like it's full of ants? It's enough to drive a pony crazy."

Trixie cocked her head slightly, "What are you talking about?"

"My horn's felt funny ever since getting here. You and Fleur didn't seem to be affected, so I didn't bother mention it."

"Twilight, I haven't felt my horn do anything much in months. Much longer and I might start thinking I'm an earth pony."

"Right, I guess it's just me then." Twilight rubbed her horn again, then dropped her hoof to the floor. "I wish I knew what was going on here."

"Maybe we should have a look around? See what dirty little secrets they're hiding?"

"They shouldn't have any dirty little secrets." Twilight paced backwards and forwards, grumbling under her breath. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're right. There's something going on here, and I want to know what."

"Okay!" Trixie said happily. "I go upstairs, you go downstairs?"

"No. I'm sorry Trixie, but I can hide using my magic. You can't, and I really think getting caught would be very, very bad."

Trixie's ears flopped back as she sighed, "Oh..."

"I really am sorry. Could you go keep an eye on our friends and tell me if they behave any weirder than they are already?"

Trixie snorted, her ears still back. "Sure, I guess even a magic-less pony like me could do that."

"Trixie..."

Trixie waved Twilight off, "Oh...don't. I got nopony to blame except myself. And all the other ponies involved. Can't forget them!" Trixie sighed again and started to slowly trot to where the others went. "Stay safe Twilight."

Twilight smiled after Trixie, and held it until the blue unicorn was well out of sight. Then she slumped, and rubbed her horn again. "Here goes six months of almost being a normal pony, straight down the drain." She started walking, her hoofsteps slow and heavy, "This country is seriously bad for my health."


-0-0-0-


Twilight hid out of sight around a corner, staying quiet as she listened to the sound of hoof beats growing quieter as they moved further away. Then she slipped around the corner and followed after them, making sure to keep her own hooves stayed as quiet as possible.
This sort of thing was what the last hour of her life had consisted of, and Twilight was seriously beginning to think she was an idiot. She didn't know where she going, or what she was looking for, and certainly didn't know to what end she was hoping to use whatever she found. Most of the rooms she found were also locked, and while she could solve that problem with force, it would only create another problem later on.

Twilight stopped at the next corner to peek around it. It led to a stairs with two guards posted at the bottom, and she quickly ducked back before she was spotted. Clearly there was no more progress to be made that way, so she started heading back the way she came, creeping past doors that gave her an infuriating lack of information as to what was in them.

"We'll have to go over the plans again tomorrow, okay? Okay. Goodnight." Twilight froze at the voice ahead, and panicked as the unmistakable sound of hooves started to draw nearer, all while she was stood like an idiot in the middle of the corridor, guards one way, and whoever was approaching the other. Twilight jumped to the closest door and pulled at the latch, only to find it locked, as were the next two. She fought to keep a squeal of fear from escaping her mouth, and desperately cast a spell that would render her invisible, cursing herself for not doing it sooner.

She closed her eyes, the two things the spell didn't seem to make invisible, and tried not to move as movement would cancel the spell. She needn't have bothered putting so much effort into it though as the pony she was hiding from walked straight into her, knocking her over, and revealing her. Twilight scrambled to her hooves and prepared an attack, expecting one back.

"Twilight?"

Twilight stopped casting and slowly turned towards the owner of the voice, first afraid, then confused because of the lack of shouting. In fact, the owner of the voice seemed to recognise her well enough to be on a first name basis. Standing further up the corridor was a earth pony mare, light yellow mane and tail, with a darker yellow coat, and much to Twilight's relief she recognised who it was. It was Honeydew, an expert on steam power that defected to the rebels during the civil war.

"Honeyd-!" Twilight started to say with airy relief, only to wind up almost choking on the hoof that was rather inelegantly shoved halfway into her mouth.

"Shh!" Honeydew whispered harshly. "What are you doing here Twilight?!" Twilight's eyes flicked down at the hoof that currently occupied her mouth. "Right, follow me."

Honeydew withdrew her hoof, giving Twilight a chance to try and scrape her tongue on the back of her own hoof as Honeydew sorted through a small ring of keys that she pulled out of her bags which seemed to be mostly full of rolled up papers. She stuck a key in the nearest door and unlocked it, waving Twilight in after her into a dark room.

"What are you doing here?!" the mare hissed once they were inside.

"Nice to see you too Honeydew," Twilight replied sarcastically, lighting her horn up to give them a light to see by. The walls were covered in designs, leading her to suspect that this was Honeydew's own office that she'd been dragged into. "Wait, what is this?" she asked, spotting some familiar designs in the chaos.

"No! Don't look at those!" Honeydew squeaked. She dove for the designs, but Twilight plucked them off the wall with her magic before Honeydew was even a third of the way to them.

"Are... Are these steam tanks?" Twilight glared accusingly at Honeydew, "I thought these went back to Equestria! How do you have them?"

"Those are new," Honey admitted weakly. "I remembered the designs easy enough, even without the originals."

"But I thought you hated steam tanks?"

"I do!" Honeydew shouted back, quickly dipping her head in embarrassment at how loud she'd shouted. "I do," she repeated once they were sure nopony was coming.

"Then why make new ones?"

"Because the council ordered me to." Honeydew looked around surreptitiously, "Twilight, you need to get out of here."

"Out of this room?"

"No, out of the keep! Something really wrong is going on here, and you need to get out of here before you get into serious trouble!"

"Not until I get an explanation." Twilight sat and folded her forelegs, making it very clear she wasn't going anywhere until she'd heard everything. "The faster you tell me, the faster I'm out of your mane."

Honeydew appeared to wrestle with herself for a moment, then stamped a hoof. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

"I think the entire thing would be a good place to start, but how about you tell me why they sent all the pegasi back to Equestria."

"That I don't know. The council asked to see me a couple of weeks back, asking me to start work on a large scale irrigation network, and told me to have a series of reservoirs built by the winter."

"But the land would dry up within at least three months. Nothing would grow, and ponies would starve long before the winter."

"I know!" Honeydew said with exasperation. "I have no idea why they're asking me either! I'm not an architect, or a builder, or whatever the hell they need me to be for this! And it's not like I don't have enough on my plate with getting the railway up and running, as well as building more of these fucking steam tanks!"

"Keep it down!"

Honeydew sucked in a breath and released it slowly. "Sorry."

"It's alright, really. So you're saying this all started about two weeks ago."

Honeydew shook her head, "Things started going weird about four months ago, not long after Princess Celestia left, and not long after the Viscount's trial."

"The Viscount's trial? What happened there?"

"The Viscount was to be put on trial as the last surviving member of his family. Every crime imaginable was put on his shoulders, even ones that there was no possible way he could have committed, but ponies didn't care. They just wanted him to pay for what the Dukes' had done to this country."

"I'm guessing they hung him." For a second Twilight was a little annoyed that she wasn't more bothered by that. She was certainly bothered by what Honeydew said next.

"No, he was never hung. He did something. Made some kind of bargain for his life in exchange for something, but I don't know what. The point is that the council agreed to it, and hat's when things started to change. The council started holding meetings in secret, and putting motions through the parliament that should never have passed, but each one passed almost unanimously."

"What kind of motions?"

"I wasn't there to see them, but I know a lot of them involved the military, and national security."

"Because of the griffons?"

"No," Honeydew said quietly. "Almost none of them were about the griffons, while at the same time a lot of anti-Equestrian sentiment popped up almost overnight and started spreading amongst ponies."

Twilight was surprised, "What did we do? We helped this country!"

Honeydew nodded, "I know, but when I try to remind ponies of that, I usually end up getting some trite along the lines of, 'We could've done it without them.' I know we couldn't, and not long ago they knew they couldn't."

Twilight couldn't believe what she was hearing about any of this, and her suspicions were throwing a few things her way that seemed unlikely. The Mareitanian's had been keen to work with Equestria at one point, even if it was all mostly by trade. Now they barely seemed able to tolerate having Equestrians in their country if the sudden removal of all the pegasi was any indication. None of this made sense to her. Why would the council let this happen? Were they the source? Twilight needed to find out.

"So you have no idea what happened to suddenly make everything like this?"

"No, not really. The Viscount made a bargain, ended up getting spared, then things started changing. I try to keep out of it now. I'm having enough headaches lately without adding a few figurative ones to them."

"Headaches?"

"Yeah. They started not long after the Viscount's trial, and I have no idea what's causing them. I try to spend as much time as I can in Stalliongrad now. They don't come as often there."

That didn't seem like much of a coincidence to Twilight. "Has anypony else had these headaches? Or any other feelings like unicorns having itchy horns or something?"

"A few of us here have had the same headaches, but I haven't heard any unicorns say anything about itchy horns."

"Great, so that's still just me." Twilight frowned and tapped her hoof irritably. This whole thing was just giving her more questions, and not a lot of ponies willing to give answers. As helpful as Honeydew had been so far, she didn't seem to know the reasons for what was going on any more than Twilight did herself. She also doubted the council would be any more forthcoming if they were involved. Perhaps she'd have to consult an unexpected source.

"Where's the Viscount now?"

"In the dungeons I think. While his bargain kept him alive, the council were wise enough to keep him locked up."

"Was his trial supposed to be public?"

"It was."

"Then how did they explain away their decision to let him live."

"Something about letting him live out his days in misery. Apparently death was too quick and easy an escape for him."

Twilight barked a bitter laugh, "Likely story." Honeydew shrugged in response. "Thanks for telling me all this Honeydew."

"If anypony can fix this, it's you," Honeydew said, giving Twilight a hopeful smile. "Seriously though, you need to get out of here now, before we're both caught."

"Right, of course." Twilight stood and cracked the door open to look along both ways along the corridor outside. Thankfully the coast was clear. "Try to stay out of trouble, okay?"

Honeydew smiled weakly, although it was as much a grimace as it was a smile. "Don't you worry about that. I'm far too useful for them to let something happen to me."

"Still, take care of yourself."

"You too Twilight."

Twilight gave a final nod to Honeydew, then slipped out the door to hurry to her next destination. Hopefully, when she went to see him, the Viscount would be feeling talkative.


-0-0-0-


At the very least Twilight felt she could be thankful that the entrance to the dungeons were exactly where she remembered them being. She suspected she might have swore loud enough to give herself away if they had actually gone through with the immense amount of effort it would take to move it, cut out of stone as it was. It did seem they'd put a door in the entrance though. A rather solid one, unlike the revolving door the former occupants of the keep would likely have needed if they had bothered to put one in at all.

There were also guards, but they didn't seem particularly alert. Maybe even they thought only an idiot would attempt to break into the dungeons. Unfortunately for them, Twilight was just the idiot they weren't expecting. The question was how to do it without being spotted, or raising suspicion.

Last time she'd been required to break into the dungeons at High Rock, she'd transformed herself and her friends into breezies, and snuck in through a drainage pipe under the dungeons. She had no reason to think that would happen so easily a second time though. Not that it'd really been that easy the first time either.

After waiting several minutes, and weighing up her options, only to conclude she had few, Twilight shrugged, squeezed her eyes shut, and teleported to the other side of the door. The lack of guards shouting in surprise gave her enough confidence to open an eye far enough to see that she'd successfully teleported to exactly where she'd meant to go. "Phew." 

Breathing a sigh of relief, Twilight started trotting down the cold stone stairs into the dungeons, her horn providing the only source of light, and being the only thing between her and not falling painfully down the stairs.

The dungeons themselves were only slightly more lit up than the stairs. A few lanterns dotted around illuminated the path between the rows of cells on both sides of her, while the last one lit up the cell in which a rather haggard Viscount lay on his bunk and peered up at her through the gloom.

"Hello Francis."

"You aren't a pony I expected to see," the Viscount replied, his voice rougher than Twilight remembered it being. It was also considerably less full of itself.

"Neither are you, but here we are."

"And to what do I owe this visit from royalty?"

"I want to know what you gave them in exchange for your life," said Twilight, trying and failing to keep the edge out of her voice. "Everything's going wrong since you did, and I want to know what it was."

The Viscount chuckled darkly, "My my, is Equestria finding themselves less in control of Mareitania as you thought you did? What if I told you I merely gave them an idea?"

"A simple idea from a pony like you would hardly cause this much trouble."

The Viscount smirked at Twilight, his eyes glinting in the light of her horn. "Never underestimate the power of a idea Princess, or it might just tear your world from under you."

"And you'd like that, wouldn't you."

"Oh very much yes," the Viscount grinned. "And sometimes, wishes do come true."

Twilight glowered at the smug stance the Viscount adopted, then decided to even the playing field a little. "So," she began, drawing the word out, "I'm guessing you were hoping for more than just being allowed to live in exchange for what you gave them. Or is being stuck in here exactly what you wanted?"

"Consider this proof that your council can't be trusted. Yes I pleaded for better accommodations in the keep, but once they had what I gave them they threw me back in here."

"No more than you deserve."

"You stole my country away from me! If anypony deserves to be in here, it's all of you!"

Twilight didn't even try to contain her disgust, "That's more like the Viscount I remember."

"Duke!"

"Whatever. The fact is you're still in here, so clearly your plan wasn't as great as you hoped."

"I don't know," the Viscount said, suddenly calm again. "I got one of the things I asked for, and I'll have the other soon enough, and under the circumstances, two out of three ain't bad."

"I'm guessing one of those things was your life."

"Correct."

"I have no idea what the other thing could be though."

"Oh, it's not something I asked for. It's just something I want, and will have soon enough."

Twilight rolled her eyes, "And what might that be?"

"Revenge. Payback for what you and your country did to mine!"

"Uh-huh. So, what idea could you possibly give them that would spell the undoing of Equestria?"

The Viscount stretched out on his bunk as he grinned up at Twilight, "Why Princess, all I did was reward their faith."

"Reward their faith." Twilight felt the last reserves of her patience start to crumble, and what was mean to be a calm question, came out a lot louder. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

"You're supposedly a clever mare; you'll work it out."

"You're right, and when I do, your little scheme will be over."

"Not that easily I think. Goodnight to you Princess."

"Francis," Twilight returned with a rigidly polite nod. Keeping a pretty tight lid on her frustrations, she left the Viscount to his dark hole, not feeling the slightest bit of pity for him. As far as she was concerned, the fact that the council kept him in the dungeons was a sign that not everything was broken around here.

Once she was out of sight though, Twilight felt no compunctions about showing her annoyance. "Why Princess," she mimicked in a squeaky voice, "all I did was reward their faith. You're supposedly a clever mare; you'll work it out." She shuddered with suppressed anger, "Asshole."
She stopped at the bottom step of the stairs back up to the keep, and tried to think for a moment before climbing. What did he mean by idea? Rewarding their faith isn't an idea, it was an action, but they had no faith in him to reward. If anything, Twilight was surprised that they bothered to listen to him.

"Besides, the only faith ponies have around here is-" Twilight froze, then turned and jumped into a glide that swiftly carried her back to the bottom of the stairs, from where she set into a hard gallop that carried her past the Viscount's cell fast enough to not let her hear too much of his mocking laughter.

Twilight slowed as she neared her destination, and slowed to a complete stop when she found that the entrance to the lower cells was exposed, and had a pile of rubble around it. There were even some tools left here, discarded after whatever had happened. Twilight felt her stomach tie into a knot. If all this was here, there was no way they didn't find what was down in the dark below.

Taking care to not trip on any of the chunks of stone scattered down the stairs, Twilight quickly descended into the darkness, her horn the only source of light in the inky black of where she was going. It was the same once she reached the bottom, and whereas there had once been a glow from the furthest dungeon to provide some illumination, that was now gone, confirming for Twilight that the worst had happened. The cell door being slightly ajar only confirmed it further. The worst had come to pass. Faust was free.
> 3. She who would be queen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight must have stared at the open door of the cell that had formerly contained the single greatest threat to Equestria, as well as the world, for more than ten minutes. During those minutes she'd sat, almost had a panic attack, and now did nothing as her mind just failed to comprehend the enormity of the situation.

She did eventually manage to pull herself together, and crept into the cell. As soon as she stepped onto the rune covered metal of the cell the room lit up with a pale blue glow as the magic nullifying runes were activated by the light coming from her horn. Apart from that though, the room was empty, with not even a source of water to be found, as Faust had said when Twilight first met her around a year prior. All there was, was the faintest hint of a breeze coming from the corridor beyond through the now opened cell door.

It wasn't missed by Twilight that inside that cell might well be the safest place in the world now that Faust was free.

Twilight's mind danced on the edge of panic as she repeatedly failed to think of what to do. A horrible fear had settled onto her mind, and again and again she failed to conjure up a response to any of this. The idea of Faust being free was something that had haunted her since she originally met the self-proclaimed first alicorn, and now that it had come to pass, Twilight had nothing. Well, she had panic attacks, but they weren't helpful, apart from to break her out of her dumbstruck stupor.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Twilight gasped between heavy breaths, a shaking hoof clasped to her trembling chest. "It's okay Twilight, just breathe, in and out." Following her own advice, Twilight tried to steady her breathing. "That's it, nice and steady. Everything's fine...except it isn't! How could this have happened?!" Twilight looked around the cell again, ignoring the shivers worming their way through her body. She knew what she needed to do, and that was to get back to Equestria, but not before doing a few other things.

Feeling that most of her wits had rattled back into place, Twilight left the cell, making her way back up the stairs and through the dungeons until she came to the Viscount's cell, where she stopped. "How long did you know?"

"About the alicorn?"

"Of course the alicorn!"

The Viscount smiled up at the ceiling, "Does it matter? I've known about her for a few years. My father showed me in the hopes I might realise how much of a burden our rule carried."

"Then why didn't you release her before now?"

"Do you really think she would've been any sort of ally? She despised us as much as she does you."

"Then why release her at all?" Twilight asked weakly. She already knew the answer, but still wanted to hear it anyway.

"Because, leading up to my trial and inevitable execution, I had absolutely nothing to lose, and a whole lot to gain."

"But this won't return you to power!"

"I know, but seeing Equestria knocked of its pedestal is well worth it."

Twilight shook her head in disgust, "You don't even realise what you've done, do you? You've damned the entire world just to get some petty revenge, and to save your slimy hide!"

"If I'm the kind of pony to have a slimy hide, why are you so surprised by my efforts to preserve it? And as for the world... It can burn for all it affects me." The Viscount pushed himself up onto his elbows, "Yours and Equestria's days are numbered Princess, I suggest you spend them wisely."

Twilight slammed her hooves up against the cell door, "I should kill you right now!"

"Except you won't, because you're a better pony than that."

Twilight laughed bitterly, "I used to be. Months of being haunted by the nightmares this place gave me hasn't exactly improved my attitude, and you just made one of those nightmares come true. Now give me one good reason I should let you live."

"I can tell you where both Faust and your pegasus are!" the Viscount said quickly.

"I'm listening."

"They're both here in the keep. For some reason Faust is keeping the pegasus close to her, which is probably why she isn't down here with me any more."

"What does she look like?"

"Like a pony with wings?" The Viscount flinched as Twilight slammed her hoof against the door. "What? There are probably only four ponies in this country with wings right now, and you, Faust, and my pet are three of them. I assume she's here since you are?"

"Her name," Twilight growled, 'is Summer."

"Of course it is."

"Now tell me what this pegasus looks like!"

"She was a dark purple-grey colour, with a dingy green mane. Or at least I think it was. Apart from that, the only thing I really remember was that she kept some sort of pink bow in her hair. Cried for a day when they took it off her. Or that might have been the torture..."

"They tortured her? Why?!"

"I couldn't tell you. Her screams were too loud for me to pick up anything useful."

Twilight slammed her hoof against the door again, then fell back onto all fours. There was only one pony Twilight knew with that colouration, and also wore a bow in her mane, and that was Flitter, a native of Ponyville. There was a chance it wasn't her, but knowing who the pegasus might be only made her feel worse.

"So are you still going to kill me?" The Viscount tried to sound confident, but it wasn't hard to hear the fear behind it.

Twilight shook her head dismissively. "I was never going to kill you," she said. She set off into a canter that carried her away from the Viscount, whom she really hoped she wouldn't be seeing again soon. Once she was far enough away she teleported, hoping nothing bad had happened to her friends while she was gone.


-0-0-0-


Twilight slammed the door open to Trixie's room, causing enough panic in the blue mare to throw herself off the side of her bed in a shrieking panic. "Wah-hah-hah-haaa! Twilight! You scared the crap out of me! And ow. That too," Trixie added, rubbing the back of her head after its collision with the floor.

"Trixie, listen to me. We are in serious trouble, and we need to get out of here."

"Trouble? What kind of trouble?"

"Possible evisceration by an ancient alicorn."

Trixie pursed her lips and unwrapped the sheets from around herself, "That's a new one. Are you sure though? Because I don't remember seeing a lot of ancient alicorns around here during our last visit. Apart from Luna anyway, but I'm guessing you don't mean her."

"Trust me Trixie, there is an ancient alicorn here, and she is not a fan of us."

"Why not? I'm sure we have many fine qualities that she might like."

"Because-" Twilight stopped, realising that she was going to have to explain the entire thing about Faust. She also realised that she didn't want to have to do it multiple times. "Look, it's complicated, and big, and might warp your view on a lot of things, and I'd rather explain it to you all at once. Go get Octavia and Summer, and bring them to Fleur's room."

"If she's even speaking to you at the moment. She said some very unkind things after you left earlier."

"Just...do as I asked. Please."

"Ugh, fine..." Trixie left, muttering under her breath too quietly for Twilight to hear over the sound of her own heart beating in her ears.

"Okay, I'm sure Fleur will be perfectly reasonable. And definitely won't shout at me. Straight away." Taking a deep breath, Twilight left Trixie's room and knocked on the door to the room Fleur was sharing with the filly. She didn't get a reply, but considering it was pretty late at night, that wasn't a surprise. "Fleur? Can you hear me?" she asked through the door.

"Wha' the fuph you wan'?" was the muffled reply she got.

"We're-" Twilight groaned and entered the room, "We're in trouble Fleur, big trouble, and I need you both to get up right now."

"What the hell did you go and do now?"

"I- What? What the hell is your issue with me Fleur?"

"My issue? My issue is that you're going around being such a damned... Equestrian about things!"

Twilight blinked blankly at Fleur's words, "Huh?"

"I don't know either," said the filly. "She's been like this ever since dinner. You'd almost think she was possessed or something."

"Possessed huh? Or enchanted..." Twilight jumped up onto Fleur's bed, and stood over the mare, using her weight to trap Fleur's legs under the sheets. "This is going to suck for you Fleur, and I'm sorry for that."

"What are you doing?! Hel-!" Fleur's call for help was cut off as Twilight clamped her mouth shut and focused her magic on Fleur. Twilight didn't know exactly what she was doing, but she needed her friends on her side if they were going to get out of there.

Twilight began by scanning through the magical frequencies around her. She was familiar enough with Fleur to know how her magic felt, so all she had to do was find an unfamiliar magical presence, and eliminate it. Twilight almost fainted when she found it, and the itching in her horn intensified until it felt like her horn was on fire. The magic affecting Fleur wasn't just in her. It was everywhere, permeating every inch of the air and building around them. Whatever spell was affecting Fleur was mean to affect everypony in the keep all the time.

"You're hurting her Twilight!" Twilight's attention snapped back into the here and now as the filly shouted at her. Beneath her, Fleur's eyes rolled back in her head as she struggled weakly against Twilight. Not wanting to prolong things, Twilight isolated the frequency, and placed a spell on Fleur that would hopefully block the effects of the magic around them, at least for a time. With the enchantment permanently surrounding them, her counter spell would possibly degrade after time, meaning she might have to recast it if they were here long enough. Sure that the spell was working for now, Twilight jumped off the bed and released Fleur, who immediately reached up and clutched her head in her hooves.

"Nnnnngh! What. Did. You. Do?!"

"I'm sorry Fleur, but there's a spell being cast in here, and it's affecting everypony in the keep. I had to stop it from affecting you too."

"It feels like you jammed a knife in my head! And why's my horn so fucking itchy?"

"It is?"

"Yes! Seriously Twilight, I know we told you about casting unwanted spells on ponies."

"Like you would have let her if she'd asked," said the filly.

"Oh yeah? And why aren't you taking a magical jackhammer to the skull?"

"I-" The filly frowned thoughtfully, "I don't know. Twilight?"

"Maybe the spell affects ponies through their own magic, or relies on a pony having an intact magical system in their bodies, and since you don't have your full wings yet, your innate magic might be too screwed up for it to work. That might also explain why it didn't affect Trixie either, because of the inhibitor she's wearing."

"But Summer and Octavia are probably under the spell too," said the filly. "Are you going to have to do to them what you did to Fleur?"

Twilight winced, "Yeeesss...but I know what I'm doing a bit better this time, so it should be a bit nicer for them."

"Lucky them," Fleur groaned bitterly.

Twilight swallowed nervously, "Are you with me Fleur?"

"Yeah, I'm with you. My head still fucking hurts though. And how come you're not affected by whatever this spell is?"

"It should pass. As for the other thing, I have no idea why I'm immune."

"I call alicorn shenanigans," said the filly, eliciting a shrug from Twilight.

"Perhaps. It doesn't matter right now. All we have to do now is wait for Trixie to get the other two, and hopefully fix them. Although, if you two could get ready to grab Summer in case they aren't cooperative, that might be good."

"And why aren't you grabbing Summer?" Fleur asked sullenly.

"I'll be grabbing Octavia. You know, the big- Okay, not big, but definitely strong earth pony. I should probably only cast this spell on one pony at a time, so it's probably best I do Octavia first."

Thankfully they didn't have to wait long for Trixie to return with Octavia and Summer. They walked into the middle of the room, and Fleur and the filly walked around them back to the door, blocking it as Fleur whispered something into Trixie's ear.

"What do you want Twilight?" Octavia asked coldly. "I don't appreciate being woken up like this."

"How do you feel about Equestria?" Twilight asked cryptically.

"Equestria? Equestria's a- Equestria's- Octavia rubbed her head and grimaced, "Why are you asking me that?"

"Would you say you're a fan of Equestria?"

"What? No, of course not... Wait. What am I saying? What's going on Twilight? Why are you asking me this?"

"You're under a spell," Twilight explained calmly. "One meant to twist your views against Equestria, or something like that. I can stop it if you let me."

"It's for the best Octavia," Fleur added.

Octavia seemed to consider it for a moment, then backed off, her eyes darting about wildly. "No! I'm not letting you mess with my head! Get away from me!"

Twilight sighed, "Grab them." Fleur and Trixie pounced on Summer, pinning her to the ground. Octavia jumped to her aid, but found herself unable as Twilight grabbed her head with magic, and forced Octavia to look at her. A flash of magic, and Octavia collapsed to the ground, holding her head and groaning.

"Octavia!" Summer shouted, wriggling a leg free to try and crawl towards the fallen mare. "What did you do to her?"

"You can find out in a moment," Fleur grunted. "Twilight, a little assistance please?"

"Yeah yeah, hold your horses."

"What do you think we're doing?" Trixie hissed. Twilight cast the spell on Summer, and motioned for the other two to get off her while she groaned and clutched her head. "You're not going to do that to me are you?" Trixie asked as she watched the two stricken mares.

"No, you seem to be protected by your inhibitor."

"Really? For once I'm actually happy to be wearing it then." Trixie poked Octavia on the ribs, "Y' alright there?"

"Why am I so blasted itchy?" Octavia asked back. "And what in the world was that about?"

"There's a spell being cast throughout the keep," Twilight explained. "I'm not sure what it does specifically, but it seems to twist a ponies thoughts into hating Equestria. Or something like that anyway. I think it's at least partly responsible for what's happening around here."

"What do mean 'partly?' What else do we have to blame this on?"

Twilight bit her bottom lip, and her chest convulsed with words that fought to not be said out loud. It took her a moment, but she did eventually say it. "The Lady of the North." The blank stares everypony gave her did not encourage her.

Fleur was the first to speak. "Please tell me you're joking, because this is a really bad time to lose your mind."

"I wish I was, and I hope you're ready for this, because I'm about to do some serious damage to what you thought you knew." Twilight took a deep breath to steady herself before attempting to explain. "When we came here to rescue you Fleur, I found a lower set of dungeons, and in the one occupied cell I found her, an alicorn, the Lady of the North, except she calls herself Faust. She'd been locked up down there by Princess Platinum not long before the exodus."

"So she's real?" the filly asked, not really sure what Twilight was saying.

Twilight nodded, "She is."

"And you left her locked up down there? Why would you do that?!"

"I was going to release her, but when she confessed a desire to see Equestria destroyed for what Platinum did to her, I rather changed my mind. I thought I'd let Celestia and Luna know first, and see what they thought."

"Why would Princess Platinum lock this Faust up like that?" Octavia asked. "It doesn't seem like something she'd do."

"And how'd she do it?" Trixie asked as well. "I don't imagine Princess Platinum as having the power to defeat an alicorn."

"She didn't," said Twilight. "As Faust put it, Platinum used her father's 'attack dog' Sombra to subdue Faust."

"Sombra," Fleur said flatly. "As in King Sombra? The mad, dark king of the Crystal Empire?"

"The very same," Twilight said with false cheer.

"He would at least be a match for an alicorn," said Trixie. She looked down at the floor, "I should know."

"Actually, he wouldn't have stood a chance. Faust is... Well, she's a lot more powerful than me, Luna, and even Celestia. In fact, even if Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and I combined our powers, we'd still probably not compare to her. She's in a league of her own, and the only comparison I can think of in terms of power is Discord, but even then..."

Trixie cocked her head in confusion, "Then how the hell did Sombra beat her?"

"He didn't; she surrendered. She was pregnant, and she surrendered in case their battle harmed her foal. Of course, if she'd known that it was her child that Platinum wanted, she might not have given up so easily."

Fleur shook her head, "This is ridiculous Twilight! How are we supposed to take any of this seriously? Platinum wouldn't do any of that!"

"Maybe you can ask Faust herself when we go and find her," Twilight said coldly. "Ask her about her one thousand five hundred year imprisonment, and about her vendetta against Platinum and Equestria, and about her daughters Celestia and Luna! I know how ridiculous this sounds, but I'm not lying!"

"Celestia and Luna were her daughters?" Fleur said back weakly.

"Celestia is what Platinum wanted. She knew the time was coming for the three tribes to unite, and since Faust was responsible for holding the Windigoes back, capturing Faust released them and triggered the exodus that led to that, which was a rather happy-ish accident. Platinum wanted Celestia to raise to become the ruler of the united tribes, which I know sounds altruistic, but isn't when you consider that Celestia was raised for that position by Platinum herself."

Octavia gasped as she worked it out, "She wanted to maintain her line of power, and what better way than to put your immortal daughters on the throne. So she stole them from Faust..."

"Actually, Luna was born later and given away." Twilight looked each of them in the eyes, "You speak nothing of this to anypony, you got it?" Twilight waited until she had at least a nod off all of them. "Good. Celestia's father was Starswirl the Bearded. I don't know how that union really came to be, but there we are. Luna though, was conceived later, while Faust was in prison, and it wasn't willingly. Faust took Luna away as an act of mercy, but never had any intentions of letting her rule. It was Celestia that insisted they rule together, much to Platinum's annoyance I might add."

Fleur had to clear her throat before speaking, and even then her voice was weak. "You mean to tell us that Luna was conceived through...rape?" Twilight nodded weakly. "Who? Who was it?"

"Sombra." Twilight shut her eyes as they all expressed their disgust.

"At the same time though," Trixie said thoughtfully, "I can't help but feel like that makes a certain kind of sense. And just how old are Starswirl and Sombra? If what you're saying is true, then Starswirl had to have been at least seven hundred and fifty-ish, when he was last seen."

Twilight shrugged, "Something like that. Dark magic might have sustained Sombra's life, but how Starswirl did it I have no idea."

Octavia sat hard and hugged herself, "I can't believe the entirety of the Hearthswarming story is a lie."

"It's still true," Twilight said to her. "It's only the motivations of some of the characters that have changed."

"This is insane," Fleur muttered.

"It doesn't matter how insane it is! The fact is that Faust hates Platinum, and wants to see Equestria destroyed in revenge. And it gets worse, because she hates Luna, and because she was raised by Platinum, hates Celestia too. Well, probably. She also wants to enact something called 'the plan,' whatever that is. I'm guessing it's nothing good, and she wants to do it to the entire world. Do you see why I left her locked up down there now?"

Trixie frowned at Twilight, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because we were in the middle of rescuing Fleur, then we had to get her back, only to find Puddingarde under siege. Oh, and I died, lest I forget. We all had enough going on without me adding that to the list, and after I told Celestia and Luna about it they asked me to keep it a secret. There was also the thing where the Church of the Lady might have found out and released her. Seems I was looking at the wrong ponies though, because it was the Viscount that told the council about her in exchange for his life. Basically he's damned the world just to keep himself alive."

"And you think this Faust's behind all that's going on here?" Octavia asked as Fleur slumped onto her bed.

"I know it. The missing pegasus is with her too, according to the Viscount."

"Why the hell did you leave her down there where she could be found?" Fleur groaned.

"Because we had nowhere where we could contain her power. The cell she was in was lined with the same runes that the anti-magic armour was made of, and they restrained her with metal bands covered in those runes. Even with all that, and over a millenia of starvation, I could still feel how powerful she was. Until we had somewhere to put her we had to keep her here, although I have the feeling Celestia might not have been as honest about that as I thought she was."

The filly held up a hoof, "I have a question."

"Yes filly?"

"What the fuck are we supposed to do now?"

"That...is an excellent question." Twilight absent-mindedly rubbed her itching horn. "The only thing we can do is try and save the pegasus, then use my beacon to teleport back to Equestria. The problem is, is that the pegasus is with Faust, so we're going to have to go see her, which I doubt they want us to do."

"Is the pegasus that important?" Trixie asked. "I mean, is it worth risking all of us just to save her?"

"Yes," Fleur answered quickly, raising her head off the bed. "You all did it for me, so why should she be any different?"

"Fleur's right," Twilight said in agreement. "There's also the fact that this pegasus might have a lot of useful information we could use."

Trixie held her hooves up in surrender, "Okay, I was just checking. Trixie wasn't about to tell you not to save them. What I do want to know is how we get to this Faust pony."

Twilight shrugged her shoulders to loosen them. She hadn't realised how tense she'd become as she told them about Faust. "I think we need to go have a chat with Daybreak."

"What kind of chat?" Fleur asked suspiciously.

"A not very nice one."

"Couldn't you just use your spell on him?"

"Hmm..." Twilight considered it for a moment, but shook her head as she decided against it. "Not yet. Apart from being unsure how he'll be affected by my spell after prolonged exposure to Faust's, I also don't want him acting suspicious to the others here, mostly for his own protection." 

"But you can't let her control him! Or any of them!"

"Look," Twilight said sharply, her aggravation spilling into her words, "I wish I had some way to fix this, but I don't. We need to save the pegasus and get back to Equestria where we can hopefully think of a plan. Saving Daybreak and the others might have to wait." Twilight stopped, expecting an argument back, but got none. "Let's go find Daybreak and hope this doesn't end with us dead or captured."


-0-0-0-


"This'd be easier if we knew where Daybreak's room was!" Trixie whispered harshly into Twilight's ear. "Maybe if you thought of that before making us wanted mares."

Twilight smacked Trixie across the chest with the back of her hoof, then pushed the unicorn up against the wall. "Firstly, we are not wanted for anything. Secondly, I am trying my very best to not have a freak out, panic attack, or some other kind of episode right now, and I would appreciate it if you didn't keep yammering on at me!"

"What's going on here?" Both of them turned guiltily towards Fleur, who had just come around the corner with the others in tow.

"Twilight's being a bitch!"

"Said the pot to the kettle."

Fleur rolled her eyes, not really caring. "Whatever. We found Daybreak's room."

"You did?" Twilight and Trixie looked at each other. "How?"

"We asked a guard," said Octavia.

"And he told you without asking why you needed Daybreak in the middle of the night?"

"Uh..." Fleur grinned uneasily, "That does seem a little suspicious now you mention it."

Twilight nodded emphatically, "Ya think?" Twilight sucked in a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, "Nevermind. It doesn't matter if the vipers know we're about to walk into their nest. Lead on," she said to Fleur.

It turned out that they hadn't been far from Daybreak's room at all, and it took barely thirty seconds for them to reach it. Twilight hesitated with her magic on the latch, then released it. "You guys should go back to your room for now."

"What?" Trixie burst out, annoyed that after dragging them all together, Twilight wanted to split up again. "Why?"

"Because Daybreak might react better if he thinks you're not working against him, that it's all just me. He might see it as less of a threat to Faust if there's only one of us confronting him over it too. Don't worry, I'll still come and get you before we go see Faust."

Fleur covered Trixie's mouth before she could refuse outright. "Are you sure? You're not going to get violent are you?"

"Mildly threatening at most."

After a moment Fleur nodded, "Okay, but you better come and get us."

"I will, and not just because I might need to know where you all are to make a swift getaway."

"Alright then. See you in a bit."

Twilight waited until they were gone before making a move. She retook the latch in her magical grip and prepared herself for whatever came next. "Alright," she said to herself, "time to make some friends into enemies." She pushed the door open, and let a gentle light spring to life on her horn as she entered the room. Daybreak was sound asleep, so she shut the door again and unceremoniously poked him on the chest. "Wake up."

"Whassat? Wha's going on? Agh, bright." Daybreak cracked an eye open to glare balefully at Twilight. "What are you doing in here?"

"Where is she Daybreak?"

"What? Where's who?"

"You know exactly who I mean. Where. Is. She?"

"And I'm telling you I don't know who she is! What the hell is this Twilight? You come in here in the middle of the night, and-"

"Shut up!" Twilight stood up against the bed so she towered over Daybreak. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, so stop fucking with me and tell me where Faust is!"

Daybreak sighed and gave Twilight a long, cool stare. "You know, she was right about you Equestrians. You're all nice and friendly as long as you're getting what you want, but as soon as somepony says no, you get vicious."

"She's just trying to turn you all against us! We've done nothing but help you ever since me and my friends set hoof in this country."

"Oh? And was it helping when you tried to hide our Lady from us? Huh? Was it?"

"She is dangerous Daybreak!" Twilight shouted, stamping a hoof on the side of Daybreak's bed in frustration. "I know she hates Equestria, and while I can't really fault her reasoning, the pony she blames for all this has been dead for centuries! Are you really willing to let your country be dragged into a war with Equestria just because she hates us?"

"This is about more than that," Daybreak growled. "This is about protecting our identity as a country, and you're trying to change us. And at what point did I say we were going to attack Equestria? Now you're saying I'm delusional too?"

"B-but that's what Faust wants... She wants to destroy Equestria, and force the world to change into what she thinks it should be."

Daybreak stared blankly at Twilight, "What are you even talking about? All she wants is Mareitania to be safe, and even though she told us what happened to her, she hasn't once suggested attacking Equestria. She wouldn't be able to either since she doesn't rule this country. I really think you ought to check your facts before making accusations Twilight."

"Wha'?" Twilight felt as though the carpet had been pulled from under her. In her mind Faust had already declared herself as supreme ruler of Mareitania, and was building up to her war against Equestria and the world. Apparently that wasn't true, and it actually bothered her more. "What about the military build-up? What's that about?"

"I told you, it's for national security. The griffons are a threat, and we'll be ready for them should they try anything."

"And sending the pegasi back? There's no way you can get that irrigation network up and running anywhere near in time."

"And we won't need to. Our Lady has proven herself capable of controlling the weather all over the country. We didn't need your pegasi any longer, so we sent them back."

Twilight dropped back onto all fours and backed off muttering to herself. "This is all wrong..."

"Maybe it's wrong because you're trying to make it wrong," Daybreak said back.

"She is dangerous!" Twilight insisted.

"And to her, you're dangerous. And yet she wants to see you, and I can't for the life of me think why when you wilfully left her locked up to rot, and even sealed over the entrance to where she was kept."

"She does?" Twilight wasn't going to say it out loud, but she thought this had trap written all over it. Then she thought about the other thing Daybreak said. "What do you mean sealed over?"

Daybreak shrugged, "It is what it sounds like. Either you, or Luna, or even Celestia completely sealed over the entrance, and tried to make it look like it wasn't even there. Since you seem surprised, I guess it wasn't you."

"No," Twilight replied in a tiny voice. While she knew Faust was still here, she hadn't been aware of the lengths Celestia had gone to hide the entrance. It made it sound a lot more permanent than Celestia had said it would be. 

"At any rate," Daybreak continued, unaware of what was going through Twilight's head, "she wants to see you and your friends. Can't imagine why though."

"When?"

Daybreak shrugged again, "Now, if you want? She doesn't seem to sleep much lately, always working on something. Nothing malicious, if that's what you're thinking."

"O-okay," said Twilight. After all her aplomb in trying to force Daybreak into talking, to hear that Faust not only knew they were here, but wanted to see them, was supremely unnerving. The desire to flee was building in Twilight quite rapidly. "None of this explains why you kept one of the pegasi."

"Faust merely wanted to ask one a few questions."

"So you tortured her?"

Daybreak was stunned for a few seconds, "We did not torture anypony!"

"That's not what the Viscount said."

"And you'd believe him of all ponies? Really? Besides the fact that we would never do anything like that?" The incredulous look Daybreak gave her told Twilight that he might have had a point.

"Okay, so maybe you didn't do that, but she is still a citizen of Equestria, and is being held here unlawfully, and she will be returning with us."

Daybreak rolled his eyes but nodded, "I suppose that can be done. I'm sure our Lady has all the information she desires anyway. Now, are you going to see her, or do I have to have you escorted up to her?"

"We'll go."

"Excellent. Follow me."


-0-0-0-


Dread was turning Twilight's stomach into smorgasbord of unpleasant sensations as Daybreak led her and her friends up into the higher reaches of High Rock keep. While she wasn't quite convinced they were being led to their deaths, it still felt like they were being led into a manticore's den.

Eventually Daybreak stopped outside a door that didn't seem any more distinguishable from any of the others, and turned to face all of them, his expression serious. "I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here, letting you see her like this, so you even think about harming a hair on her head..." Daybreak left the threat open ended, which was fine in Twilight's opinion as it didn't need an end.

"Are you kidding?" Fleur said happily. A little too happily in Twilight's opinion. "I can't believe we're going to meet the actual Lady of the North! This is so exciting." The wink she gave Twilight was enough reassurance for the alicorn that she wasn't being serious.

"At least some of you are excited," Daybreak said darkly, directing a dark glare at Twilight. He pushed open the door and led them into the room beyond where, lay upon a large padded dais at the rear of the room, was Faust herself, smiling kindly at them. "My Lady, sorry to disturb you at such a late hour, but the ponies you wanted to see wished to meet you now."

"It's quite alright Daybreak," Faust replied in a warm voice, quite unlike the one Twilight remembered from their first meeting. "I've been looking forwards to this. You can leave us."

"But-"

"Please."

Daybreak bowed deeply, "As you wish my Lady. I shall be outside if you need me."

Faust held her smile until Daybreak was out of the room, then let it slip a little. "I must say I was surprised when I learnt all of you had arrived here. I was certainly expecting a diplomat, but all of you? The heroes of the liberation?" Faust smiled again, "At the very least I should thank you all for your part in freeing Mareitania from the Duke and his ilk, as it led to my freedom as well, so, thank you."

"You're welcome!" The filly said cheerfully.

Twilight studied Faust, and while the alabaster alicorn was still painfully thin, she did seem to be filling out a little. Her coat and hair was smoother and cleaner apart from the short patches where the rune laden bands she was forced to wear had rubbed her coat away. Her ribs were showing less, and her legs seemed to have a bit of meat to them, but she was still a long way from being fully recovered. Twilight doubted that any of that really affected Faust's magical ability. She could feel the power radiating off Faust, and magically speaking, it was like looking at the sun.

"You're looking well," Twilight said after a moment.

"Freedom agrees with me."

"Does it agree with the pegasus you're keeping here?"

"Ah, you speak of dear Flitter. I dare say she must be wanting to spread her wings and fly by now."

Twilight lowered her stance and flared her wings. "Give. Her. Back."

"Gladly." Faust cleared her throat, "Guard? Could I have your assistance please?"

Barely seconds later a guard burst into the room, "Is everything alright my Lady?"

"Certainly. I was hoping you might bring Flitter here so we might talk with her?"

The guard bowed deeply, "At once my Lady."

Twilight scowled at the departing guard, then turned it on Faust. "I know what you're doing, and I know about the spell you're casting on everypony here, trying to make them think what you think."

"What I think?" Faust laughed pleasantly, making Twilight scowl deeper. "Not quite. You can actually attribute the way everypony is thinking to  your good friend Snowbright. Not that he's aware of it of course. It's his belligerence towards Equestria that I'm using to turn everypony against you. Interestingly, if I use the spell on him it only reaffirms what he thinks, making it even stronger, which I can then use again. It's a vicious circle, and eventually the only catharsis these ponies will have is to destroy Equestria in my name."

"You're not even going to deny it?" Fleur asked, shocked.

Faust gestured towards Twilight, "One of the reasons I'm doing this is sat right in front of you, so why should I bother." 

"Trixie's wondering how she plans to do all that just by making the ponies in here crazy."

They were surprised when Faust tutted in disgust, "As loath as I am to even associate myself with them, the Church of 'the Lady' shall be doing more than spreading my good word."

"The spell," said Twilight. "You're going to use it to spread your influence. But how?"

Faust shrugged, her skin shifting horribly over her bony frame. "Excuse me if I don't tell you all my plans."

"Why are you telling us this much?" Octavia asked, echoing what the rest of them was thinking.

"Just so you realise how helpless you are. You can't stop what's coming, and I hope that thought comforts you in the weeks and months to come." Faust looked up as the guard re-entered the room with a pony cowering behind him. "Ah, thank you kindly."

"My Lady," the guard said back before leaving again.

At first glance Twilight couldn't see anything much wrong with Flitter, save for the bags under her eyes from sleep deprivation. A closer look revealed more. Faint bruises covered her body, barely visible through her coat, and her mane looked like it had been torn out in places. Her wings were almost threadbare, showing signs of feathers having been pulled out. The most telling sign was when Flitter opened her mouth to speak, revealing that the front teeth on both her upper and lower jaw had been removed. Likely painfully so.

"Princess Twilight," whimpered Flitter, her ears falling lower than they already were. She lisped slightly from the loss of her teeth. "I-I'm sorry! I d-didn't want to tell her!"

"You tortured her!" Twilight shouted, her anger reaching a new high. "You fucking tortured her!" Twilight teleported Flitter behind her, as the mare seemed too afraid to move herself in Faust's presence.

"I'm afraid so," Faust sighed. "I assure you that if she'd been more forthcoming with what she knew, we wouldn't have had to do a thing to harm her, but she was remarkably resilient. More so than her appearance would suggest."

"I really didn't want to," Flitter cried. "I'm so sorry Princess!"

"It's okay Flitter, it's not your fault." Twilight shushed the tearful mare and let Fleur and the others comfort her while Summer checked Flitter's injuries. Twilight faced Faust and spread her wings in a protective wall between Faust and her friends. "Why would you do that to her? What could she possibly know that required you to torture her?"

"I didn't lay a hoof on her myself if that's what you were thinking."

"You might as well have! And why her? Is it because I know her? Are you trying to get under my skin by hurting the ponies I know?"

"Nothing so perverse, I assure you. After having ponies ask around the other pegasi here, I discovered I needed a pony from Ponyville, and Flitter here was one of only four from there that took part in the weather program. It was simply her misfortune that she was the one we decided to question."

"Question about what?!" Twilight's wings twitched irritably, her desire to attack growing each time Faust dodged the question. "Tell me!"

"About you, actually."

"What?" Twilight's wings drooped slightly as she stopped putting any thought into what she was doing with them. "About me?"

"Not just you, but you're certainly a pony of interest. I didn't really realise you were an ascended alicorn until dear Flitter told me, but I should have suspected as much since the magic of the Tree of Harmony flows through you." Faust smiled amusedly, "Seems the tree has chosen its own champions."

"You know about the Tree of Harmony?"

"Certainly. I did create it after all, from a heavily modified seed of the Tree of Life. Or the golden tree as the legend here would call it. I planted it far away where I hoped the greed and foolishness of ponies wouldn't cause it to wither like its parent. Apparently I didn't go anywhere near far enough."

Rather than be shocked that Faust had created the Tree of Harmony, Twilight actually found herself relieved. "If you know about the Tree of Harmony, then you know we have the power to stop you." Her confidence didn't last long though as Faust started to laugh.

"Oh my, you are vastly mistaken. I put a lot of myself into that tree, and I'm sure I don't need to tell you what that means."

Twilight's heart sank. Magic cannot be turned on itself, and if there was a lot of Faust's magic in the Tree of Harmony, "The tree won't harm you..."

Faust rolled her eyes and scoffed, "The Tree of Harmony doesn't 'harm' anything, Twilight Sparkle, but it will go to great lengths to restore the balance of the world. The Tree of Life failed because it tried to maintain order rather than harmony, but unfortunately chaos is far too prevalent in everything for that to work. The Tree of Harmony takes a much broader view. Broader than even my own. You are correct that it wouldn't 'harm' its mother though."

"Then what is this all about? You tortured Flitter just to be told what you already know?"

"Just because the powers of the Tree won't affect me doesn't mean it isn't a threat to my plans. What I hope to achieve will be the pinnacle of Order and Harmony, but the road to that destination is wrought with chaos. The Tree is likely to oppose the things I must do, and so I had to learn how to counter it, and to do that, I had to learn about you. Then it turned out it wasn't just you I had to learn about."

"Please," Flitter cried softly from behind Twilight, "I'm so, so sorry."

Twilight felt her chest seize as she figured out where this was going. Faust wanted to stop the Tree of Harmony, and the Tree of Harmony acted through herself and her friends. Even the loss of one of her friends might break the chain. "Don't you dare hurt my friends!" she wheezed through a throat that had become almost too tight to speak.

"I'm not a monster Twilight; your friends will be perfectly safe and well cared for. But don't be mistaken in thinking you can protect them from this. Honestly, while I was concerned at first, you being here was actually a blessing in disguise." Faust raised her head, the beginnings of a spell forming on her horn. "Don't worry, you'll be seeing them soon enough."

Twilight acted before Faust could finish her spell, and in her mind was already swinging her enchanted blade Swordy before she'd even fully materialised it inches above Faust's head. The blade appeared and whistled through the air, barely even slowing as the fantastically sharp blade sliced through Faust's horn, cutting it off cleanly a few inches above her forehead.

Faust's scream of agony almost shook the walls, and a second later her guards scrambled into the room, a unicorn and an earth pony, pausing with their weapons ready as they saw Twilight standing over a dehorned Lady, a thin sliver of blood dripping from her sword. Their hesitation didn't last for long, and Twilight quickly teleported between them and her friends, Swordy flashing from side to side as she destroyed their weapons.

"What did you do?!" Daybreak shouted in horror as he followed the guards in and saw the bleeding and weeping form of a now hornless Faust.

"She tried to attack me!" Twilight shouted back. "Daybreak, she is not what you think she is! She tortured Flitter!" Daybreak glanced fleetingly at Flitter, but didn't seem to really see her. Instead he started shouting for guards as loud as he could.

"Twilight!" Trixie half shouted, half whispered. "Cast the spell on him and get us out of here!"

It took Twilight a moment to work out what Trixie was talking about. As soon as she did she fired the spell she used to free her friends from the influence of Faust's magic right at him. He howled in pain and fell to the floor clutching his head, but Twilight had no way to really tell right at that moment if what she'd done had actually worked. Instead she used the short moment of confusion to knock the guards back, and slam open the nearest window.

She jumped out and took flight, hovering outside the window. She could hear the shouts of ponies getting closer, and urgently waved for her friends to follow her. "Come on, come on, come on!" she urged, catching them in her magic as the filly and Summer jumped out, followed by Trixie.

"Stop right there!" 

Twilight erected a shield, catching the blast of magic that sizzled through the air towards Octavia and Flitter. Seeing that their time had run out she dragged the rest of her friends out through the window and flew away as fast as she could, out of range of the anti-teleportation field around the keep. She looked back as blasts of magic and arrows followed them into the dark, and as she prepared to teleport them back to Canterlot, she was surprised to see the top half of High Rock keep was lit up like a beacon in the night as every anti-magic rune glowed with power, trying to contain Faust's magic. 

"Twilight!" Fleur cried, a flash of magic from the keep narrowly missing her. "Get us out of here!"

Twilight refocused herself and concentrated on the thread of magic that connected to her teleport beacon in Canterlot. She gave the keep one last look, then released the spell, leaving but the merest sparkle of magic behind as she and her friends vanished into nothing.
> 4. Bold moves
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia and Luna sat side by side on their private balcony overlooking the city of Canterlot, enjoying each others company in that short time they had where their respective duties met. In the west the moon sunk out of sight, Luna bidding it goodnight as Celestia greeted the sun in the east, happily watching it spill its golden light across the land, and across others beyond Equestria.

"You know sister," Luna said after a while, "I cannot for the life of me remember why I grew to resent this sight. It's funny really. It used to pain me to do this, but now I'm glad to do it each and every day."

"While I'm happy to hear that," Celestia replied cautiously, "I can't help but wonder why the complete change of heart."

"Because the night sky is best enjoyed at night," Luna replied playfully. "Honestly though, without madness clouding my thoughts, the day is just as lovely as the night, only for different reasons. I guess being productive does work better when one can see what they're doing."

"If only we all possessed the aptitude for the night that your thestrals enjoy."

"It's the bat wings isn't it? They do look pretty cool."

Celestia rolled her eyes and smiled, "And now I can cross hearing you using the word cool in that context off the bucket list."

Luna smiled unsurely at Celestia, "What in the world are you doing with a bucket list? It's not like you'll be dying any time soon."

"And it's things like what you just said that become famous last words."

"And when do you plan on completing your bucket list?"

"I don't know, ponies keep inventing new things for me to add on. The world will likely have ended before I get around to finishing it."

Luna consolingly patted Celestia on the back, "And that is why I don't have a bucket list, and not just because such things were unheard of before my banishment. Now if you'll excuse me, I wish to use the gym before showering and going to bed. Good morning to you Celestia."

"And good night to you Luna." Celestia contained her amusement over Luna going to the gym, as it seemed to make little difference to the health and wellbeing of alicorns. Frankly, a millenia of feasting on cake had done little to damage Celestia, save for giving her a more curvaceous figure, so she reasoned there was little risk of dying from it, and an even littler need to work it off.

Sadly though, as much as she wanted to stay where she was, musing over lifes little intricacies, she had a country to run. She stood and gave the sun one last, longing filled glance before heading into the throne room where her assistant Raven would have a cup of tea ready and waiting for her. To Celestia's everlasting lack of surprise, there it was in its usual place by the throne. It was her fervent hope that one day Raven would surprise her with a coffee, but that would be far too daring for a mortal to do to their immortal princess.

"Good morning your highness."

"Good morning Raven. I don't suppose you've heard anything from-"

"Waah! Oof!" 

Celestia raised an eyebrow as six- no, seven ponies appeared from thin air in the middle of the throne room, landing in a pile, and causing a ripple to appear in her tea. Then the other eyebrow joined its sibling as Celestia worked out who it was. "Twilight?"

"Help Flitter!" Twilight shouted as she pulled Fleur and Summer off herself, and teleported out of the room.

"Twilight!"


-0-0-0-


A series of rapid teleports accompanied the fastest flying Twilight had ever forced herself to do, and yet Ponyville still seemed painfully far away. She needed to be in Ponyville now, and it felt like she was trudging through molasses trying to get there. A cry of anguish accompanied the tears flying off her cheeks as she pushed herself even harder.

After a journey that felt like hours, but was only minutes, Twilight slammed her hooves onto the dirt road in the middle of Ponyville, and ironically found herself totally unsure of where to go. All of her friends were possibly in trouble, and she was only one mare.

"Twilight!"

Twilight almost collapsed with relief as Rainbow Dash zipped through the air towards her. "Rainbow! Thank goodness you're alright! I thought..." Twilight stopped as she saw the semi panicked expression on Rainbow's face. "Rainbow? What's happened?"

"Some creeps just attacked me while I was sleeping! A bunch of unicorns blew holes in my house, then they tried to catch me with some kind of net! I would've fought them off, but there was too many, and I had the feeling they knew what they were doing, so I thought I'd come find you until I remembered you were in Mareitania... Wait, why are you here?"

Twilight grabbed Rainbow by her shoulders, "Rainbow, I know you want to know what's going on, but we're in big trouble. I need you to go check on Fluttershy and Applejack, while I check on Pinkie and Rarity. Can you do that?"

"But why would they attack us?" Rainbow asked, looking back over her shoulder towards her house.

"Rainbow Dash, please!" Twilight's voice cracked, "Can you do that?!"

Rainbow hesitated at Twilight's behaviour, but swiftly nodded. "Yeah, okay; Applejack and Fluttershy, got it! Be back in a jiffy!"

"Tell them to go to my castle when you find them!" Twilight shouted after Rainbow, "And everypony with them too!"

"But Fluttershy's on her own."

"I know!" Twilight shouted. "And I really hope she still is," she added to herself, saying it loud enough for only herself to hear. Twilight watched the rainbow trail of Dash's flight dissipate for a second, then shook herself out of her stupor. She spurred her legs into action, her wings temporarily forgotten, and headed towards Rarity's place as it was marginally closer than Pinkie at Sugar Cube Corner. Her heart sank as she got closer and saw the front door hanging off its hinges.

"Rarity!" Twilight cried as she galloped into Carousel Boutique, slamming the door aside with her shoulder. Inside was a mess, with furniture and cloth scattered around from what appeared to be a fierce fight. Whoever had caused it was long gone though, and likely Rarity with them.

"Rarity!" Twilight shouted again, hoping against hope that the fashionista was still here having fought off her attackers. "Rarity! Please...answer me."

Twilight's ears perked up as they caught the sound of a sniffle, but it was rather squeakier than she was used to hearing from Rarity. "Sweetie Belle?" There was no reply, so Twilight followed the sound to the cupboard under the stairs and pulled the door open. She found Sweetie easy enough, half hidden under a shelf and behind a mop bucket, curled up and trying to cry as quietly as possible.

"Sweetie, it's me, Twilight."

Sweetie uncoiled enough to look up at Twilight, then sprang up to grab Twilight around the neck in a hug that bordered on feverish, "Twilight!"

Twilight returned the hug, "It's okay Sweetie, I've got you." She patted Sweetie on the back, comforting the young filly until her cries turned into whimpers and her hold around Twilight's neck loosened. "Are you okay Sweetie? They didn't hurt you did they?"

"N-no, but they took Rarity!" Twilight closed her eyes, her worst fear confirmed. "You have to get her back Twilight! You have to!"

"And I will, I promise, but there are other ponies in danger and I need to help them as well. I'm going to teleport you to my castle where you'll be safe. Just look for Spike and he'll look after..." The way Sweetie seemed to shrink made Twilight stop talking, and when Sweetie couldn't look her in the eye anymore she almost cried herself as she remembered something important. Spike usually stayed with Rarity when Twilight was away without him. "What's wrong Sweetie?" Twilight asked anyway, hoping it was something else entirely.

"They got Spike too," said Sweetie. "They put him in chains, and said they'd h-hurt Rarity if he even tried to breathe fire..."

Twilight closed her eyes, unwilling and unable to express in front of Sweetie Belle how much she hurt right now. Sweetie needed her to be stronger than that for a little bit.

"Then as long as they're together I'm sure they'll be fine," she said weakly. Sweetie looked about as convinced as Twilight felt. "Look, I need to go help other ponies that could be in trouble. I'm going to teleport you to the castle, and once you're there I want you to stay in the throne room until either I, or somepony else you know comes in."

"On my own?! I'm not staying on my own!"

"Sweetie Belle please, it's the safest place for you to be right now."

"But what if the bad ponies are there as well?"

"A-" Now she thought about it, her castle would be a good place to lay a trap for any of her friends that fled their homes. Maybe sending Sweetie there wasn't the most prudent decision.

"Alright, you can stay with me, but if I tell you to do something, anything at all, you do it, and you do it fast. Do you understand?"

Sweetie Belle nodded without hesitation, "U-understood."

"Good." Twilight lifted Sweetie up onto her back, and wasted no time in galloping out of the boutique and heading to Sugar Cube Corner, Sweetie hanging on for dear life. 

Twilight could hear the ponies within before she even got there. The crying of the twins along with the desperate pleas of Mrs Cake for them to be quiet were the predominant sounds, but the clink of chains could also be heard under the racket the twins made.

Twilight slammed open the stable door that led into Sugar Cube Corner, and froze at the sight of two unicorns putting chains on Pinkie, as two more unicorns, as well as two earth ponies held the Cake family at knifepoint. It was fairly obvious to Twilight that they were Shades, part of the Mareitanian intelligence network set up by the rebellion during the civil war, and they certainly had no business being in Ponyville, or Equestria for that matter. They also seemed surprised to see her, and not the happy kind of surprised. It was the kind of surprise you get when one of the deadliest ponies you know catches you doing something that they don't want you to do.

Twilight didn't waste time shouting, or making demands that they give Pinkie back and don't hurt anypony. Instead she teleported Pinkie and the Cake's safely behind her. The chains that were holding Pinkie clattered to the ground without the mare they were meant for to support them, and Twilight almost grinned as the Shades backed away from her. She did grin at the looks on their faces as she summoned Swordy.

"Pinkie, get Sweetie."

"You're not going to...kill them, are you?" Pinkie asked as she slipped Sweetie off Twilight's back.

Twilight was about to say they deserved it, but as she looked back at Pinkie, she didn't see fear, or anger, or anything that she might have expected to see. Instead she saw worry and concern, although whether it was for the would be abductors, or Twilight herself she couldn't tell. Either way, it was enough to stay Twilight's hoof.

Twilight sighed and dismissed Swordy, "No, I'm not going to kill them, but I might have to hurt them really, really badly, until I can capture them, or they surrender." Pinkie didn't say anything, but did nod before averting hers and Sweetie's eyes. It was unnecessary though, as Twilight closed the doors behind her, which would save their eyes, but not necessarily their ears.

Twilight loosened her shoulders, suddenly relishing the chance to get a little payback on the ponies that would dare hurt and abduct her friends, and had no qualms about threatening foals to do it. Not that were any right alicorns to pick a fight with, but these ponies had definitely picked the wrong one. "So, who's first?"

One of the unicorns, a mare, held up a hoof, "Ma'am, please, we were just following orders. We really didn't know you kn-"

"Don't care." Twilight picked up a chair and smashed it across the mares head before the mare could even get so much as a hoof up to block it. She went down cold, and Twilight didn't waste time worrying about her any further.

The other five Shades were a little more cautious than their unconscious fellow, and spread out around Twilight to try and attack her from all sides. It was a wasted gesture on Twilight as she teleported from the middle of them to behind the other mare in the group, and bucked the earth pony hard enough to send her flying into one of the other Shades.

A knife flew towards Twilight, held in the light green magic of one of the other unicorns. She dodged it, then grabbed it in her own magic, fighting a very brief battle of wills as the unicorn tried to keep control of the blade. He failed, and the knife flew straight back at him, hitting him above the knee of his front right leg hard enough to go straight through the bone.

Twilight turned as he collapsed, her side catching the brunt of a magical blast that sent her sliding across the polished wooden floor. Her return blast was rather more effective, smashing the unicorn against the wall, and taking him out the fight as he didn't get back up after.
Having taken three of her attackers down, Twilight moved herself so she could keep an eye on all of them. The mare she'd bucked was crying with pain, and seemed unable to stand, making Twilight think that she may have broken something of the mare's. Counting her out of the fight, Twilight had two unicorns left, both armed with knives.

Twilight didn't attack immediately, and stood there giving them the silent hint that they could give up and surrender. They mustn't have fully understood her intent though as one threw their knife at her, hoping to distract her as the other ran in close.

Twilight snatched the blade out of the air and unexpectedly rammed into the unicorn running at her. He fell, winded as her shoulder barged into his chest, and she swept the knife across his back legs, just above the middle joint, and deep enough to severely damage the ligaments there, if not completely sever them. He was still dangerous being a unicorn though, and she took a moment to knock him out.

The remaining pony, whether through determination or fear, took up one of the fallen blades and charged towards Twilight as she was distracted. He swung the knife, scoring a deep gash on Twilight's side. Then his world went sideways in a serious way as a pulse of telekinesis knocked him away. He scrambled back to his hooves, then screamed as his original knife was forced through the middle of his horn and twisted, splitting it in two. A hoof to the back of his head temporarily ended his pain.

Twilight cursed herself for getting sloppy as she took a moment to compose herself. A quick scan with her magic confirmed that her attackers were all still alive, which was one less thing she'd have to explain, then she thought of something else. Although she wasn't a true fan of the genre, Twilight had read enough spy thrillers to think that she maybe knew a thing or two about it. To stop them leaking information, a spy might be given a false tooth containing a poison capsule to kill themselves with in the event of capture. A thorough inspection of all their mouths confirmed that she was indeed dead wrong about them thinking to do such a thing.

Satisfied that nopony was about to start foaming at the mouth and die, Twilight limped over to the exit. The looks on everyponies face as she opened the door wasn't one she liked, but otherwise paid it no mind. 

"I don't suppose any of you have some rope or something? Two of them won't be walking in a hurry, but it'd still be best to immobilise them. Horn inhibitors would be good too, but I suspect that's asking too much."

"Tw-Twilight," Pinkie stammered, "you're- You're bleeding."

"I know," Twilight said dismissively. "I'll be fine. I really do need some rope though."

"B-buh..." Pinkie looked like she could cry as she saw the carnage inside the shop.

"Pinkie!" Twilight snapped, dragging Pinkie's attention back to herself. "Pinkie," Twilight repeated softer. "Can you find me some rope please. I promise you I didn't kill anypony, and that they'll all recover, but I need to tie them up before they all wake up." Technically not true, as she could make them sleep for hours if she wanted, but Twilight felt they deserved every second of pain they got.

"O-okay. Rope, okay. Uhh..." Pinkie looked around, then perked up as her eyes settled on a building site up the road. "Ooh! I bet they have rope that we could borrow! I'll be back real quick, okay?"

"Thank you Pinkie." Twilight sat heavily as Pinkie galloped away. The adrenaline that had carried her this far was starting to wear off, and without it she could feel her wound, along with a few bruises that she'd not really noticed receiving. She could also feel her worries come back into focus without something to distract her. Rarity was gone, along with Spike, and she really hoped Rainbow came back with good news about Applejack and Fluttershy.

A breath tickled her ear, "Here you go."

"Yah! Pinkie!" Twilight glared at the pink pony that had appeared behind her, "Really not the time."

"Sorry," Pinkie sheepishly said back. She had a few coils of rope around her neck which Twilight took off her and tested, pleased with what Pinkie had bought her. "Twilight, who are these ponies? Why'd they try to take me away?"

"They're..." Twilight sighed and shook her head, "That's a hard question to answer, but you're not the only one they went after. They've got Rarity and Spike, and they attacked Rainbow at home, but she got away. I've asked her to check on Applejack and Fluttershy."

"W-what about the other ponies here? Are they in danger? Did they take Flitter away too?"

"It's just us they want Pinkie, and they did have Flitter, but she's safe back in Canterlot now."

"Oh. That's good, I suppose."

"I suppose," Twilight echoed. Pinkie said nothing more, and stared blankly at the floor, unable to really process what was going on. Twilight left her to it to go tie up the ponies in Sugar Cube Corner before they woke up. She also had to think of what to do without inhibitors for the unicorns. She could do the second best thing and use dark magic crystals to nullify their magic, but honestly, she was past that stage, and did the third best thing and removed the issue altogether. She was on a roll with dehorning things today, and didn't see why she had to stop.

Some of the unconscious ponies were starting to stir by the time she finished, and all four unicorns would be waking up to a special kind of agony, so she felt that perhaps it was best to keep them, as well as those still conscious, from being trouble for at least a little longer. She'd just finished casting the sleep spell when Pinkie called her name.

"Twilight? Princess Luna's here with a load of bat ponies in armour. Should I tell them you're busy and that they should leave a message for you?"

"No, I'll be right out." Twilight limped back out to the sight of several dozen of Luna's Nightguard, resplendent in their purple armour. The effect was slightly ruined by the large amount of them that were squinting in the morning light. Slightly more resplendent, and considerably less squinty, was Luna, bedecked in a bright silver armour that might have been half the reason the thestrals were struggling.

"Luna! I'm so happy you're here!"

"I came as soon as I was able Twilight, and thought I should bring backup." Twilight caught her thestral friend Shadow wink and salute at her. "What's happening here?"

"There's Shades here. They've got Rarity and Spike, and tried to take Pinkie too, but I got here in time to stop them. I have Rainbow checking on Applejack and Fluttershy, but she's been too long and I really need to go find them. Could you take care of things here while I go looking?"

"Of course Twilight."

"Oh thank you Luna. I have prisoners in Sugar Cube Corner that need moving to my castle, or Canterlot. Whatever, I don't care."

"Your castle will do for now. Captain?" A burly thestral stallion stepped forward and saluted to both princesses. His name was Greywhisker, and on their first introduction a couple of months ago, Twilight had been impressed to learn he was near six hundred years old.

"Orders mistress?"

"Secure the prisoners in Twilight's castle, then have most of your ponies begin searching for our stolen ponies and dragon while the remainder protect the village."

"At once mistress."

"Twilight, go do what you have to do."

"Thanks Luna. Pinkie, please stay with Luna." Pinkie nodded listlessly, which was good enough for Twilight at that moment in time. She launched herself into the air and orientated herself towards Sweet Apple Acres, since it was the closer of the two places she needed to go. She was only halfway there when she found Rainbow coming the other way.

"Twilight! Thank goodness! You have to come quic-" Rainbow's voice broke, and Twilight saw the tears her friend was shedding, which was unlike Rainbow.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Big Mac. He's hurt Twilight, like really bad. Come on!"

Twilight chased after Rainbow, and was either fast enough to keep up, or Rainbow was slowing herself so Twilight could keep up. Twilight suspected the latter.

The situation at Sweet Apple Acres looked the same as it had been at Carousel Boutique and Sugar Cube Corner, with the doors smashed open and the inside being complete carnage. The difference here was that Big Mac lay in the middle of it, blood pouring from several stab wounds as Granny Smith and a sobbing Applebloom tried to staunch the bleeding as best they could.

Twilight froze for a moment, then shook it off. "Big Mac, can you hear me?"

"Nnngh...eeyup." Still being conscious was a very good sign if Twilight remembered correctly.

"Please be okay Big Mac! Please be okay!" Applebloom wailed, fighting the urge to wipe her tears to keep her hooves pressed on a blood-soaked towel.

"Hush Applebloom, stay strong fer Big Mac." Granny Smith looked to be on the verge of breaking down herself, and nopony would've blamed her if she did.

It didn't take more than a few seconds for Twilight to work out that there was nothing she could do to really help, not without her healing device. Big Mac's best chance lay with getting him to the hospital.

"Okay, I'm going to have to teleport us to the hospital because this is too much for me. Rainbow, you fly and meet us there." Rainbow was out the door as soon as Twilight said so. "The rest of you, hold on."

Big Mac was not light, and seemed to possess enough mass for three ponies, but that wasn't a major issue. Twilight's horn sparked, and with a flash they appeared in the main reception of Ponyville hospital, shocking the ponies that had been clustering around the main entrance, trying to see what was happening in town.

"Help!" Twilight shouted, which seemed to be enough to shock the hospital staff into action. Nurse Redheart eased Applebloom to the side and took over trying to staunch the bleeding, while another nurse took over for Granny Smith. Doctor Stable took one look and immediately shouted for a trolley, although they had to rely on Twilight to lift Big Mac on when it arrived.

Both Twilight and Granny Smith had to hold Applebloom back as her big brother was wheeled off into the depths of the hospital, but not before they heard Doctor Stable's departing words. "What I wouldn't give for an S.h.d right now."

Rainbow also chose that moment to crash through the entrance and skid to a halt just before she reached the patch of red on the floor where Big Mac had lain. "Is he going to be okay?" she asked once she caught her breath.

"He should be," said Twilight. "Doctor Stable said he wished he had an S.h.d, although I don't know what he meant by that."

"Really?" Rainbow threw her legs into the air, "A healing device Twilight! How could you possibly not know that since you invented them?! Why aren't you getting one anyway?!"

"They have one, don't they?"

"Seriously Twilight?! You're betting in them 'maybe' having one?"

"...Be right back." Twilight disappeared with a flash, and true to her word, reappeared moments later with the prototype healing device that she built in Mareitania. Unfortunately that meant she was the only one that could use it. "Rainbow, come with me."

"Uh, sure, but...why?"

"Just come on!" Twilight raced through the hospital, heading to where she remembered the operating theatre to be. Big Mac was already hooked up to oxygen, and the medical staff were prepping themselves for surgery when Twilight ran in. 

"What are you doing?!" Doctor Stable shouted. He started to run to move Twilight away from Big Mac when Nurse Redheart held him back.

"Just wait."

The Doctor's eyes lit up as Twilight set up her healing device and started to feed magic into it. "I didn't realise you had one of those Princess. I was about to send Coldheart to go get ours."

"It's the prototype," Twilight answered. "Only an alicorn, or a really powerful unicorn can use it, which is why I still have it. Now please, I need to concentrate.

A hushed quiet fell over the operating theatre as they let Twilight do her thing. A few minutes after she started, the bleeding from Big Mac's wounds was stopped, and Twilight heard more than a few sighs of relief from the assembled ponies as Big Mac's chances of survival grew exponentially. 

Twilight regretted asking for quiet though. Operating the healing device only required a pony to act as a battery, and very little else. Without something to focus her attention on, Twilight found herself thinking, and with that came all the horrors the day had given them, and it was barely six in the morning.

Twilight didn't bother to ask if the Shades had gotten Applejack, as the cowpony would be right there with them if they hadn't, but there was one other pony that she didn't know the fate of yet.

"Did you find Fluttershy?" The small shake of Rainbow's head was enough to tell her the answer. The tears said a lot more.


-0-0-0-


An oppressive silence hung over the throne room in Twilight's castle, occupied as it was by three ponies instead of six. Pinkie sat hunched over the map table, and had barely said a word in the hours since learning that four of her friends had been kidnapped, and why. Rainbow wasn't much better. She kept twitching her wings, and pacing back and forth as she desperately sought for some way to fix everything. Twilight forbade her from joining the search, as flying into the hooves of the enemy wasn't the best idea they had.

Twilight supposed it didn't really matter any more though. The longer the search went on, the less likely they were to find anything. The Shades had probably escaped with their prizes, and Faust had gotten her way and had effectively neutralised the Elements of Harmony from interfering with her plans. What would capturing one more pony really mean to her now, other than to be another mouth to feed? No amount of thinking could tell her why they kidnapped Spike as well though.

"This is your fault!" Rainbow shouted at Twilight after a while. "Ever since you went to Mareitania nothing's gone right! Now you're telling us that there's some crazy alicorn that hates the world in charge of that place! You should never have gone there!"

"They went to help ponies," Pinkie said quietly. "You can't hate them for doing that."

"Like fun I can't!"

"Dashie please, don't fight."

"Then tell me how to fix this! Tell me where to go to get my friends back and I'll forgive everything!"

"They aren't just your friends," Pinkie reminded Rainbow.

"Well they sure as hell aren't Twilight's! Fluttershy could barely stand to be around her after she told us what she'd done. And now Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike are who knows where because of what she did!"

Twilight closed her eyes and sighed, "I'm right here you know."

"Are you? Really? Because I'm pretty sure that for the last six months I've only been talking to the ghost of the Twilight I used to know!"

Twilight's eyes snapped open, "And how well would you have coped, huh? Forced into a situation where you became a monster while trying to help ponies, or become one by leaving them to suffer!"

"Better than you!"

"Girls, please..." Both of them ignored Pinkie. 

"And you're such hot shit that nothing ever bothers you? Rainbow Dash has to kill a pony and she just shrugs it off as no big deal? I can tell you now that that is how psychopaths are made!"

"No it wouldn't be nothing! But I wouldn't let it tear me apart like you did! You can barely wake up in the morning without falling apart-" Rainbow gasped and struggled to breathe as she felt something cold stab through her chest, and looked into Twilight's eyes as the alicorn's horn blazed.

"You feel that Dash? That is what I feel every time I wake up. And you know why I feel it? It's because, to my p.t.s.d addled brain, the difference between waking up in the morning, and waking up as a cold body in a morgue after having died, is the temperature I wake up at. You try waking up with that feeling every day, and see how well you cope!"

"Twilight!"

Twilight released Rainbow and backed off, suddenly very aware of just how far past too far she might have gone. To Rainbow's credit, she didn't attack, or run away, but watched Twilight warily. "I'm sorry Rainbow, I shouldn't have done that."

Rainbow licked her lips to get some moisture back into her mouth after what she had just felt. "You really feel that every morning?"

"Occasionally I'm really lucky and wake up feeling refreshed. Those are the best days. Truthfully, I was so preoccupied back in Mareitania that I never thought about a lot of this stuff, but ever since I came back I've have nothing but time to think about everything that happened, and it's made it worse. And now the past's coming back to both haunt me, and bite me on the ass."

"What?"

"Guys, the ponies in Mareitania followed me to free their own country. Now they're being twisted to hate us and all we stand for because of a mare that can't see past her own revenge. These are ponies I know Dash, friends that I once trusted with my life, and now... Now they've become the monsters that'll haunt other ponies dreams, and it hurts. And now they've stolen Rarity, Spike, Fluttershy and Applejack..."

Twilight slumped over onto the map table, and started crying softly, a sound that tugged uncomfortably on Rainbow's heart. "Aw nuts... Twilight, I never meant to yell at you. It's just that you've been so distant ever since you came back, and now this has happened, and... And I don't know what to do. I shouldn't have taken it out on you, and honestly, we've been rubbish friends to you while you've been struggling with all this as well. Can you forgive me?"

Twilight yanked Rainbow into a hug, "There's nothing to forgive Rainbow, and I really don't want to lose any more friends today. For what it's worth, I'm sorry for everything too. You were right when you said this was my fault, because partly it is."

"Don't say that. How were you supposed to know any of this would happen."

Both of them released their hug and looked up to find Pinkie giving them an extremely watery smile. "Can I have hugs too?" Pinkie almost cried with relief as Twilight and Rainbow hugged her from both sides.

"We'll have to have a proper group hug when we get the others back," said Rainbow. "I guess it's just us 'til then."

"Yeah," Twilight said wistfully.

"How do we get them back?" Rainbow asked hopefully, making Twilight sigh.

"I guess we can only hope that Luna and her Night Guard can find them before they leave the country. That's a slim hope though as they've got to have prepared for us searching."

"And? Can't we find them using this?" Rainbow patted her hoof on the map table. "If this can find friendship problems, surely it can find our friends?"

"But I don't know how to do that. I don't even know if it can do that. I haven't gotten it to really do anything since we discovered it, apart from those problems in Manehatten, Griffinstone, and the Smokey Mountains." Twilight didn't say there had been a forth instance, mostly because it involved her. For the last four months the only thing the map had shown was her friends cutie marks circling around where they were now.

"You can still try though," Rainbow insisted.

"Rainbow, I-"

"Twilight! Please! Just try."

Twilight wanted to refuse, but the sheer desperation Rainbow displayed stopped her. Instead she used her magic and activated the table. As predicted, it showed the same thing as it had for the last four months. "That's all it does," said Twilight as she averted her gaze from both the map and her friends.

"Wh- What is this Twilight?" Dash looked closer at the image of hers, Pinkie's, and the others marks rotating around Twilight's castle.

"Remember when you all came running here around four months ago because your cutie marks were flashing?"

"Yeah, you told us it was a false alarm, which we found kinda weird, but why would you lie t-" Rainbow frowned as she worked it out, "You did lie to us, didn't you. How could you do that Twilight? Is this why I feel like something's wrong every time I'm around you? Because this map is sending my flank messages telling me so?"

"I'm sorry, but I didn't want you all to worry about me, to think I was hurt and broken, and that our friendship needed fixing. I'm supposed to be a princess, to be strong and able to deal with anything. The map showing me as a friendship problem just made me feel like more of a failure, so...I lied. I wanted to fix it myself. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that it made things worse."

"You- You- Arrgh!" Rainbow shouted her frustration into her hooves, then slammed them onto the map. "For being the smartest pony I know, you really are incredibly dumb sometimes!"

"You shouldn't be afraid to let us help you Twilight," said Pinkie.

"I know," Twilight whispered. "I-" She lowered her head to the map and hid her face under her legs. "I'm such an idiot."

Rainbow nodded heartily, "You really are, but you're still our friend, and we do still love you despite your many, many flaws."

"Thanks, I think."

"Now is this really all this map will show us?" Rainbow tried to touch the circling cutie marks, hoping that something might happen. The images phased harmlessly through her hoof.

"I wasn't lying when I said I don't know how to make it do anything else."

Rainbow threw her hooves up in disgust and slumped back in her seat. "Then it's hopeless. I guess we'll just have to go to Mareitania and get them back the hard way. You guys with me?"

"I wish it was that simple," Twilight said before Pinkie could speak. "They'll be taken to High Rock, which is a highly defensible and mostly magic proof keep. We struggled to capture it from a hooffull of demoralised and half starved earth ponies, so trying to take it from a experienced army of thousands of earth ponies and unicorns who have back-up from an insanely powerful alicorn like Faust? We might as well shoot spit wads at them, make rude gestures, and say unflattering things about their mothers for all the difference it would make."

"Then tell me how to beat her!"

"Beat her?" Twilight laughed despite herself, "If we knew how to do that we wouldn't have been so worried about her escaping in the first place!"

"So not even all you princesses could beat her?"

"I don't know. It's possible I suppose, but I wouldn't bet on it, and that's in a favourable situation. Attacking her where she's strongest at High Rock would be suicide."

"Not if all four of you went!"

Twilight could hear the need in Rainbow's voice for them to be able to beat Faust and get their friends back. "We aren't unbeatable Rainbow. Far from it. If we all died and got captured... Equestria definitely wouldn't survive. As it is we have some time to come up with a plan to beat Faust and stop Mareitania."

Rainbow deflated, but still nodded. "Okay, I get it." Twilight doubted Rainbow really did. She could almost see Rainbow thinking that this'd all be sorted out by the end of the week, and they'd  have their friends back and make everything okay again. Twilight didn't have it in her to crush that delusion.

"Why are we all talking like our friends are gone?" Pinkie asked. "There's no way they could have left Equestria yet! Those nasty Shades were still here when you got here Twilight."

"They only need to capture one of us to stop us using the Elements," Twilight explained. "If they attacked each of you at different times and split up for their retreat, their chances of succeeding increases significantly. Honestly, they could have kidnapped just Fluttershy and I doubt any of us would have noticed until they were long gone because she lives so out of the way."

Rainbow sat back up again, like she'd thought of something. "Where do you think they'd go? I mean like, which way?"

"Logically they'd head back towards Vanhoover to use the land route to Mareitania, but that's so obvious even I wouldn't do it. They could head south and meet a boat, or hide out in the Everfree forest until the heat dies down, then escape. Or they might have some sort of stored teleport that they could use to travel straight back to High Rock. These are just the options off the top of my head Rainbow, and I'm sure I could think of more if I keep trying."

"Rrgh!" Rainbow slumped back again and smacked her head against the back of her throne, "I hate feeling like this! Our friends are in danger and we can't do diddly-squat!"

A knock at the door punctuated Rainbow's shout, and the thestral Shadow Seeker entered, her helmet held nervously to her chest. "Sorry to disturb you Twilight."

"You!" Rainbow jumped into the air, "Tell me you found them!"

Shadow shook her head, "Nothing. We found a lot of tracks around Fluttershy's cottage, but they head in two directions, and become impossible to track around the Everfree. There was hardly anything to go by from Sweet Apple Acres, and tracks lead everywhere in Ponyville, so tracking Rarity was never really an option to begin with. I'm sorry."

"What now then?" Twilight asked as Rainbow sunk deeper into despair. Her own voice was tight with the definite news that her friends were gone.

"Princess Luna's calling off the search and heading back to Canterlot, and she requests you three join her there to discuss what to do. We'll worry about the prisoners Twilight, so all you have to do is get there."

"Oka-" Twilight swallowed as her voice broke. "Okay. What about the families of those missing? Are they getting help?"

"I'll mention it to the Princess."

"Good. Thanks Shadow."

Shadow gave Twilight a small, tight smile. "I wish I'd done something to be worthy of thanking."

Pinkie started sobbing as Shadow left, and Rainbow surreptitiously wiped some tears of her own away. Twilight didn't have any more tears to shed right then. All she felt was numb. Even so, she still got up and embraced Pinkie as the earth pony cried for her lost friends. A moment later Rainbow joined them.
> 5. More importantly, how do we fix this?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Twilight!" The sound of Trixie shouting her name being brought Twilight out of her thoughts long enough to see Trixie, Fleur, Octavia, and the filly running towards her as she, along with Pinkie and Rainbow, entered Canterlot Castle. "Are you alriiight... Ahem, I mean, what can we do to help?"

Twilight managed half a smile as Trixie almost asked the one question they had learnt during their time in Mareitania to never ask. Twilight wouldn't have minded though, even though she suspected they already knew the answer would be a resounding 'no.'

"I could use a hug," Twilight answered weakly, and almost started crying again as they all piled in. Instead she distracted herself by asking where Summer was.

"She's gone back to Ponyville," said Octavia. "She wanted to make sure that Nightglider was okay, as well as Vinyl. I thought I'd wait for you to come back here."

Twilight leaned into the hug towards Octavia to show her appreciation of that. "Thanks," she said, before breaking the hug off. "What's going on here?"

"Luna and Celestia are shouting at each other while they wait for you and Princess Cadence to arrive," Fleur replied. "Almost like they weren't expecting the ancient alicorn hidden beneath High Rock to ever become a problem."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but-"

Fleur shushed Twilight with a hoof. "I'm not mad Twilight, I'm just... Alright, yes I'm mad, but it's nothing we can't look past since you had plenty of reasons to keep it a secret. Anyway, I was going to tell you that there's also a pony here to see Pinkie."

Pinkie pulled herself out of her misery long enough to look up. "There is?"

"Yeah," the filly confirmed, "and she is super boring. Like super, super boring," she added in a monotone.

"Filly," Octavia said warningly, as Pinkie whined in the back of her throat, "don't make fun of her sister Maud like that."

"Snnrrkt! Sister? Hah!" The filly's laugh died off as she saw they were all serious. "You're serious? Wow. How did-? Uh, sorry Pinkie."

"'s okay, I hear that a lot. Where is she?"

Fleur nodded at the filly, "Could you show her please?"

"What? Ugh, fine..."

"And stay with them until I come and get you."

"Yes mom."

"And don't call me that!" Fleur watched as the filly led Pinkie away, "Cheeky little shitbag. Anyway, I guess Celestia and Luna want to see you now," she said to Twilight.

"All of us," said Twilight. "Unless you don't want to that is. That includes you Rainbow."

"Don't worry, I'm in."

Twilight smiled at her friends' support and led the way to the throne room, stopping for a moment to listen to the raised voices within.

"Even if they hadn't kidnapped three of the bearers of harmony, there is still the fact that this is an attack on Equestrian soil by a hostile foreign nation! You cannot seriously expect us to simply take it and do nothing?"

"And what do you propose we do Luna? We find ourselves under threat from a heavily militarised nation, and you want to place your focus on three missing ponies?"

"Three missing po-? Those three are more than just missing ponies Celestia. They are an important part of our country, not to mention being a huge defensive asset against threats like, hmm, psychotic ancient beings of unfathomable power?"

"We have no idea if the Elements would even work on Faust. I too dearly wish to secure the return of those ponies that we both consider friends Luna, but we cannot place all our hope on a plan that might not even work."

"I'm not saying we rely entirely on them, but having them returned is important enough to consider."

"Quite the discussion they're having in there."

Twilight and her companions all jumped at the voice that came from behind them, and they all turned to find Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armour stood watching as they all eavesdropped on Celestia and Luna.

Twilight winced guiltily, "Sorry Cadence, but we didn't want to disturb them."

"We're sorry about your friends Twily," said Shining. "It seems impossible to think that they could get stolen right from their own homes like that." He nuzzled Twilight and hugged her, joined a second later by Cadence.

"We'll get them back Twilight."

"I know. I guess this means you both know what's going on."

Shining nodded, "We just had a briefing off Equis, although it was a little sparse. Frankly I'm getting a little sick of the secrets Celestia and Luna are keeping."

"I kept it too," Twilight muttered.

"What's Equis?" asked Octavia.

"Equestrian Intelligence Service," Twilight answered her.

"Really? And where the bloody hell were they when we were in Mareitania?" 

"They didn't really exist then, as such. It used to be two separate branches of the Royal Guard and Night Guard, and used the guards themselves as agents. However, after the relative successes of the Shades in Mareitania, Luna convinced Celestia to merge the two branches into a new body consisting of specially chosen members of the Royal and Night guards, along with room for some other non-native Equestrians like zebras, griffons, Saddle Arabians, and whatever else might join eventually."

Fleur rolled her eyes, "To spy on our neighbours I assume?"

Twilight shrugged, "I don't know, and honestly, I don't really care."

Trixie's nose scrunched as she thought intensely, "Wouldn't the abbreviation of that be E.I.S?"

"It is," said Twilight, holding back a sigh. "The agents themselves started calling themselves Equis, and tend to use it in the third person a lot, so you should like them."

"Ooh, she's getting snippy."

Twilight tensed at Trixie's offhoof comment. "Snippy? Three of my friends, and the dragon that's like a little brother to me have kidnapped, and you're calling me snippy?! Are you actually fucking kidding me right now?! Do you really think I want to answer inane questions while they're subjected to goodness knows what? Really?"

Trixie squeaked in the back of her throat, then stopped and tried to speak again. "Sorry Twilight."

"At least Celestia and Luna know we're here now," Cadence observed as Twilight's shouting ended the argument between the two sisters. She was proven right as the doors to the throne room were opened by the guards a moment later.

Twilight stormed in, her frustrations building to a head. While she knew she was partly to blame, there were two more ponies in the throne room she blamed more, and one of those was more to blame than the other since she was meant to take care of the problem. Celestia gave them a tiny smile, turning Twilight's frustrations into lava that coursed through her chest.

"You lied to me!"

Celestia took a step back at Twilight's outburst. "Excuse me?"

"You sealed Faust away in her prison for good! They had to break through rock to get to her! Rock that only you could have put there! You never intended to release her, did you!"

Celestia closed her eyes and sighed, "I'm sorry Twilight, but I had little choice. Faust refused to listen to reason, and without somewhere here capable of holding her, I had no other options but to leave her where she was for the time being. I was going to ask for your help in devising a way to contain her once you'd recovered from your time in Mareitania, but it seems we weren't the only ones who knew about Faust if they managed to find her so soon."

Twilight glared at Celestia, wanting to punch her in her perfect fucking teeth, then shifted her ire to Luna, who had less punchable teeth, albeit they were still perfect. "Did you know about this?"

"I'm...afraid so Twilight. While I'm not proud of the choice, if Faust wouldn't give up her crusade against the world, then we would have to keep her where she was. As much so to keep her hidden from the Mareitanians than any other reason. Their belief in her would make it much easier for her to manipulate them."

"Nah, she's just straight up using magic to do that," said Trixie.

"She is?" Luna hummed to herself. "While I was hoping she'd play the long game and attempt to win the Mareitanians over to her cause, using magic could be a weakness on her part. It certainly suggests a lack of patience."

"That depends on the nature of the enchantment," said Cadence.

"If you have input Cadence, we would gladly hear it."

"Oh sure," Cadence said happily, before turning her voice and expression cold. "First though, I have a few things I want to say to you."

"Now is hardly the time to air your personal grievances Cadence. I realise that-" Luna stopped as her sister touched her shoulder.

"I think she's earned it this time Luna."

"Thank you auntie." Cadence theatrically cleared her throat, "Okay, so firstly, I am very disappointed in you two for deceiving Twilight after all she's done for you. She deserves better than that. And secondly, when are you going to stop keeping secrets from Shining and myself? First you send Twilight off to Mareitania, and only told us when you couldn't keep it a secret any longer, and now there's a threat to the world that I'm hearing about now from intelligence ponies that only found out themselves from you this very morning, while Twilight's friends were being kidnapped! As a princess of Equestria, and co-ruler of the Crystal Empire, I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be informed of issues that could potentially be a threat to both those things."

"Cadence, I-"

"Stop keeping secrets from me, stop lying to me, and stop treating me as though I'm an inconsequential lump of pink fluff!"

Celestia nodded, thoroughly cowed. "Understood Cadence, and I'm sorry to both you and Shining for treating you like that. I assure you, from now on you'll be a part of all of this."

"Good. Now about that enchantment, if it's magic based, it should be easy enough to break, but if it's emotion based, it's much harder. It's no great feat to make ponies love or hate something, but once that feeling is in a pony's head it's much harder to get out. The problem is that from the sounds of it, an emotion based enchantment would be far more subtle and likely to work for what Faust wants."

"It affects a pony through their inherent magic," said Twilight. "I could block it easy enough."

"Block it? But spells like that aren't permanently cast! You cast them, and then they work until they're cancelled, or removed!. That's it, otherwise you're constantly having to cast the spell. And these spells affect you through the heart and mind, not your magic!" Cadence rubbed the side of her head and groaned, "I guess that means we're dealing with a kind of magic that we've never seen before."

"Or is so old we've forgotten it," said Twilight.

"Either way, the source of that spell must be an object rather than a pony since I doubt Faust would wish to keep casting it constantly."

Twilight shrugged, "She couldn't anyway, not after I lopped her horn off."

"Quite," Cadence mumbled. "Still, unless we plan on counter-spelling everypony in Mareitania, I doubt there's much we can do beyond hope she doesn't spread its influence in other countries as well."

"So that closes that avenue," Luna muttered to herself. "Then our only hope might be to rescue the taken bearers of Harmony, and hope to defeat Faust directly."

Twilight's chest seized, caught between her desire to get her friends back, and to tell them that the Elements would have no effect on Faust. She knew it was fruitless to throw their efforts into something that wouldn't work, and may only damn them further in the long run by distracting them from other, more effective avenues.

"That won't work. The Elements I mean, they won't work against her."

"How can you be sure of that?" asked Celestia.

"Because Faust told me so herself. She created the Tree of Harmony from the last seed of the Tree of Life, which was the original Golden tree of Mareitania. The Elements wouldn't do anything to the pony that created them."

"Then why take our friends at all?" Rainbow asked loudly.

"So we can't use the Elements against her army or followers," Twilight replied weakly. She hated herself for talking them out of saving her friends, but it was for the greater go- Twilight sighed, unable to finish justifying this even to herself. Her friends were right about her. She had changed, and not for the better if she was able to throw them under the bus like this.

Rainbow looked at Twilight with obvious confusion, "What are you saying Twilight?"

"I'm saying-" Twilight swallowed to keep her voice from breaking. It didn't stop the wave of self loathing that hit her though.

"She's saying that putting all our effort into rescuing your friends might only end up hurting all of us in the long run," Shining finished for Twilight. "We should put our efforts into other avenues that have a better chance of working."

"What? No!" Rainbow squeaked, her voice cracking. She grabbed Twilight and forced the alicorn to look at her, "You don't mean that! Tell me you don't mean that!"

"I'm sorry, b-but I do. Getting them back is almost impossible, and the cost would be far too high just to end up with a weapon that doesn't work. I wish it wasn't so Dash, but it is."

"They're not weapons Twilight! They're your friends!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight pried Rainbow's hooves off her, "If we broke them out, Faust would only come after all of you again, and next time she mightn't try to take any of you alive!" Twilight gave Rainbow a moment to let that sink in. "While our friends are in her possession, she has no reason to kill them, or come after the rest of us! And if we rescue them, and end up with no way to stop Faust..." Twilight didn't finish, letting Rainbow's imagination do the work of filling in the gaps. It clearly worked too as Rainbow released her and sank to the ground.

"But there has to be a way to get them back! Maybe... Maybe Discord could do it?"

"Rainbow, I really-"

"Discord!" Rainbow raised her head and shouted towards the ceiling, "Discord! I know you can hear me!"

"Rainbow!"

"You rang?" The doors to the throne room slammed open, knocking the guards over, and a wave of rubber ducks flowed in through the open doors with Discord surfing at its head on a wheel of cheese. It was entirely unnecessary, but that was Discord for you.

Rainbow was stunned for a moment, "I can't believe that actually worked."

The wave petered out and stopped just short of the gathering of ponies, Discord jumping off to give everypony a cheery smile. "My-my, the faces in this place are longer than usual. It's a good thing you called me." He pulled out a stethoscope and pressed it to Luna's chest, "Hmm, still have a heart of stone I see."

"Discord!" Rainbow zipped up and into Discord's face. "Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike have been kidnapped!"

"Really? How odd. I usually notice things like that." Discord stuck a finger in his ear and jiggled it about, "My sensors must need calibrating. Wait, did you say Fluttershy?"

"I'm being serious Discord! We need you to get them back!"

"And what do I get in return?"

"Get in return? Are you serious? They stole our friends! They stole Fluttershy!"

Discord nodded thoughtfully, "You make an excellent point. Very well, let us sally forth and rescue these fair maidens!" Discord jumped onto Shining Armour's back and pulled a lance from his nostril, Shining remaining remarkably nonplussed through it. "Hi-ho Shining away!"

"Get off me."

"Gosh you're all boring." Discord slid off Shining and into a puddle on the floor. "Very well, let's be reasonably sensible about this. Where are they, and who took them?"

"They're in High Rock Keep in Mareitania," said Celestia, a slight glimmer of hope in her eyes. "They're being held under the orders of an alicorn called Faust."

"Did you say alicorn?" Discord snapped back into shape. "Unless I'm mistaken, save one bubbly, bitesize bundle of destructive potential, all the alicorns in the world are currently residing within this room."

"Apparently there's one more," said Luna, "and she's old. Possibly even older than you, and claims to be the first alicorn."

Unexpectedly, Discord's eyes widened and his ears folded back, confusing the others in the room since Discord had always been nothing if not cocksure in most things he did. "Describe her."

Luna pulled a face as she thought. "Tall, white, with a...reddish, I think, mane and tail. Has an inkpot and quill for a cutie mark."

Discord stepped back, shaking his head and mumbling to himself. "No, it couldn't be her It couldn't be."

Twilight looked up at Discord, "Are you alright Discord?"

Discord's focus snapped onto Twilight, and he seemed to regain his awareness. "I... I need to go," he said curtly, and promptly vanished with none of the showmanship he usually displayed.

"Discord!" Rainbow shouted as Celestia and Luna exchanged nervous glances. Anything that rattled Discord was definitely worth getting rattled about themselves. "You get back here! Discord!"

Twilight sighed at the empty space Discord had occupied, "He's gone Rainbow, and I doubt he's coming back any time soon.I've never seen him look so worried."

"But he has to save our friends! He- He has to!" Rainbow slammed her hooves on the ground and screamed up at the ceiling again, "Traitor!"

"He hasn't betrayed anyone," Celestia said gently. "Frankly, if Faust worries Discord so, then that only proves how much of a threat she is. We need to find a way to stop her."

"And you guys can't just beat her?" Rainbow asked, her voice crackly after shouting like she had.

"Highly unlikely," said Luna. "In a fight between us and her, I fear she could easily pick us off one by one."

"Then why not put all your magic into Twilight again? It kinda worked against Tirek, and Tirek beat Discord easily, offense fully intended."

"Tirek caught Discord by surprise," said Celestia. "I doubt it would have been so easy if Discord had been prepared for it. I'm afraid to say that if we put all our magic into Twilight, and Twilight lost, we would all lose. Equestria would be utterly defenceless against Faust without us. I'm afraid this is a foe we know very little about, and I feel we must first learn about her to adequately counter her."

"Discord sure seemed to know something about her," Rainbow said bitterly.

Luna raised a hoof, then lowered it again as words temporarily failed her. "We cannot count on Discord after this. I'm afraid Celestia is right, as I am also afraid she doesn't realise the full implications of what she says. Finding even a smidgen of information on Faust could take months, or even years if it's even possible in the first place. Faust is currently weak and wounded, buying us some time, but once she is able, her war will come, and we must be prepared to hold out as long as possible until we have a way to defeat her."

Cadence was horrified, "You can't be serious Luna! You can't expect us to go to war over this!"

"Cadence is right," said Celestia, giving her sister a hard stare. "There's been no war in Equestria for over a thousand years now, and I won't condone preparing for one that might never come."

"And what if it does? Do we roll over and show our bellies, hoping she shows mercy?"

Shining cleared his throat, edging his opinion into a conversation that he felt was mostly for the princesses. "Can't we ask our allies for aid?"

"It's unlikely they'd help at this junction," Celestia said tiredly. "Our actions in Mareitania drove many nations to treat us with suspicion, and are afraid that we might do something similar to them."

"There is also the issue where we firmly established to the world that Mareitania is our ally," Luna added. "What Mareitania does would be viewed as something we fully support. Therefore, many would see their military build-up as a threat from both them and us. I'm afraid that our actions have only played to Faust's favour by leaving us isolated. Our only option is to defend ourselves until we can stop Faust."

"The other nations suspicions would only become worse if we built up an army of our own," Cadence pointed out. "They may not help at all even after Mareitania attacks if they still see us as a threat."

"Yes," Luna agreed, "but once Mareitania attacks us the truth would be revealed regardless. Without an army of our own we would be extremely vulnerable. I fear we're damned if we do, and damned if we don't."

"Our other option would be to let Faust win without fighting," said Twilight.

"That could be the favourable option here," Cadence said before Twilight had a chance to say otherwise. "It would certainly reduce the loss of life. How would we even build an army anyway?"

"Out of volunteers," Luna answered. "We have a lot of the industry necessary to supply an army already in place, with some adjustments anyway, so the biggest task would be recruiting and training."

"And if we don't have enough volunteers?"

Luna didn't answer immediately. She didn't want to. "Conscription," she replied after several moments.

Cadence pushed away from the table in disgust, "I can't believe I'm hearing this. Why waste all these lives in a war that we might not even win? We should be putting all our focus into stopping Faust before a war can even begin."

"But that could take a very long time," Twilight said to Cadence. "There may not even be an Equestria left by the time we find a solution. If we can find one."

"So now we're fighting a war we might not win at all! This is just getting better and better!" Cadence stared at a point somewhere in the air above them, before looking at Celestia. "You're being awfully quiet."

"The stakes are higher than you realise. Faust has a plan for the world, although we don't know what that plan is. Equestria is likely first on her list of conquests simply because she despises us, but once we are defeated, the world will follow. As much as I wish it wasn't so, I'm afraid Equestria will have to stand as a bulwark between Faust and her goal, even if we have to stand alone."

"So you support building an army," Cadence said flatly.

Celestia seemed to shrink upon hearing the question, "I don't support it, and the thought of war in Equestria sickens me, but I'm afraid we might not have a choice. Faust must be stopped, and it's our responsibility to do so. We must fight."

"And what do you think Twilight?"

Twilight started as Cadence spoke to her, and realised she was trembling. The thought of going through another war was terrifying, but the thought of what Faust might do if she won more so. She knew they had to fight, if only for their own survival, and that of the world. "I agree with Luna and Celestia. We have no choice but to fight, Cadence, as much as I don't want to. Equestria might be the only thing between Faust and a dark future for the world."

"Shining?" Cadence turned to her husband, hoping to find one last little island of sanity in the ocean of madness she currently found herself treading, but only found resignation on the face of her beloved.

"I don't think we have much of a choice here," he said weakly. "Fight at the cost of thousands of lives, or surrender at the cost of so much more. It's your decision whether the Empire gets involved honey, but I say we fight."

Cadence looked around the room, but found the same resignation on the faces of most of the ponies there, except for Rainbow who seemed angry yet determined, and Luna, who met Cadence's gaze with one of pleading, which Cadence hadn't expected. Spending lives to save lives was an idea that seemed patently absurd to her, yet there was only two options, and the other was apparently not much better. Then there was Flurry Heart to consider, and what kind of world she would grow up in. One with war, or one with whatever plans Faust has for it? Which was worse?

Ultimately Cadence knew they had little choice. If they fought and won, at least the world would have a chance to return to the peaceful and prosperous one it was before. "We fight," she said at last, in a voice weak with disgust for what she was saying. "The Crystal Empire stands with you."

"Thank you Cadence," Celestia breathed. Frankly she was disappointed in herself that it took so little to sway her own opinion, and she was glad Cadence had held out for longer.

"So, what now then?" Twilight asked. "Where do we even begin planning something like this?"

"I'm afraid you don't," said Celestia. "We have something else in mind for you if you're willing. Something that will keep you out of the war."

"What? But you- you can't keep me out of this!"

Luna smiled at the smaller alicorn, "Twilight, what you're about to do instead may be the difference between us winning and us losing."

"What? I don't... I don't understand."

"Twilight, we are putting you in charge of finding a way to defeat Faust."

"Me? But I don't even know the first thing about her! How am I- How are any of us supposed to find a way to defeat her when so little is known about her?"

Celestia shifted uncomfortably, drawing attention to herself. "There was one pony that we suspect knows plenty about Faust," she said. "Starswirl the Bearded. My father."

"No he doesn't!" Twilight blurted out. "I have read most of his literature, and his journal that you gave me. Nowhere, not even once does it mention Faust."

Luna took over from Celestia. "Not in his public writings, no. He purposely bequeathed his journal to us before we saw him last, so he might have made a point of not mentioning her in it."

Twilight's gaze alternated between Celestia and Luna, "Where are you going with this?"

"Starswirl had a secret retreat," Celestia revealed. "Somewhere where he could perform his research in peace, and do whatever he did. Even we don't know what he did there. More to the point though, if there was anywhere in the world where information on Faust could be found, it would be there. For all we know he could still be living there."

Twilight brightened up, a tiny smile forming at the thought of finding the treasure trove of information Starswirl must have hidden away. More exciting was the prospect of finding Starswirl himself. "Where is it?"

Celestia and Luna shared an awkward glance. "That's the problem," said Luna, "we don't have the slightest idea where it is."

"I tried to find it several times over the centuries," said Celestia. "Unfortunately my duties here prevented me from staging a proper expedition, and I was reluctant to give the task to somepony who wouldn't appreciate what it was they were looking for, which is why I never mentioned it to anypony."

"So how am I supposed to find it then?"

"That is up to you," Luna told Twilight. "You will be granted full access to everything Starswirl ever wrote in the hopes you could glean the location of his hideaway. Use whatever methods you wish to find it Twilight, or all may be lost."

"Yeesh," Trixie snickered, "no pressure."

Twilight ignored Trixie, and not because the unicorn was one hundred percent correct. "Alright, I'll do it. You with me Dash?"

"If it gets us closer to getting our friends back, heck yeah!"

"I'm afraid Rainbow can't go with you," said Luna.

"What?!" Rainbow flared her wings threateningly, "Why not?"

"Because you're a Wonderbolt," Luna said simply, "and we are effectively at war. I'm afraid your commitment to the Wonderbolts and the safety of Equestria overrides anything else right now. I'm sorry."

Rainbow wilted under the weight of Luna's words, and her wings sagged to the ground. "B-b-but Twilight needs me! My friends need me!"

"Equestria needs you."

"My friends need me more!"

Luna growled under her breath, really not in the mood for such petulant whining when there were far bigger things to concern herself with. She was immensely grateful when Twilight spoke up instead.

"It's okay Rainbow. What Luna's asking is far more important. All you'll be doing with me is reading through dusty old scrolls, which I know you'll hate. If you stick with the Wonderbolts you'll be in the thick of things, making sure there's still an Equestria to save, and be first in line to save our friends when the time comes."

"But what about you? And Pinkie? I don't want to leave you guys!"

"I'll be fine Rainbow, and Pinkie will either come with me, go back to Ponyville, or maybe go home with her sister. Whichever she does, she'll be fine too. You're the one that's most in danger here."

"Then why are you okay with me going to fight?"

Twilight didn't answer for a moment, wanting to formulate a reply that didn't make her sound like she wanted to get rid of Rainbow, which she really didn't, but didn't also make her sound like she was emotionally dead inside and okay with her friend risking herself like Rainbow inevitably would. She was actually halfway to begging Luna to let Rainbow come with her just to avoid the issue.

"I'm not," Twilight replied eventually, "but we both know it's the right thing to do. We're all going to have to make sacrifices before this is over, and this is just one of them. Keep Equestria safe for me, yeah?"

Rainbow rubbed her eyes and nodded, "Fine, but you better take care of yourself without me."

"So had you." Twilight hugged Rainbow, and they both held each other tightly for several seconds until they broke it off. Rainbow then faced Celestia and Luna and saluted.

"What are your orders?"

"Nothing for now Rainbow Dash," Celestia said kindly, knowing how hard this must be for the Element of Loyalty. "You can stay until the meeting is over to say your goodbyes."

"Okay. Thank you."

Twilight sighed with a mix of sadness and relief. She knew Rainbow only wanted to protect what friends she had left, but her uses would be limited in the expedition to find Starswirl's retreat. That didn't make it easier though. Leaving her friends behind was one thing, but telling them to stay behind was another. Still, they all had a job to do, and they would do it.

"Beg pardon," said Shining Armour, "but who's to be in charge of Equestria's defence? Apart from what exists in the Royal and Night guard, and the Wonderbolts, we have no real command structure."

"We are yet to determine any of that as yet Shining," said Celestia. "Ultimately though, leading the defence of Equestria falls upon us, the princesses. We can either choose to share command, or nominate one or two of us to lead our forces in battle. As I feel my skills are better utilised elsewhere, I'm nominating Luna as leader."

"In that case I also nominate Luna," said Twilight. "How about you Cadence?"

"I'm hardly the right pony to lead an army Twilight, so I agree with Luna being in sole command."

Luna dipped her head in a small bow, "Thank you for your confidence. If it's acceptable with you Cadence, I'd like to borrow Shining for a little bit as his knowledge from his time as Captain of the Guard would be most useful."

Cadence looked at her husband, who shrugged back, "I'm yours as long as you need me."

"Thank you. Celestia, I think it's time to make the declaration."

Celestia nodded sadly, "Very well. I'll make the public announcement tomorrow morning; Equestria is now under threat of war."


-0-0-0-


"This is insane," Rainbow muttered, leaning back into the padding of the sofa she shared with Pinkie and Maud. "Equestria is really at war."

Twilight nodded, having never thought she'd see it happen either. She wanted to think that they should never have gone to Mareitania, but then she just felt guilty at the thought of leaving all those ponies to suffer under the Duke. What she certainly didn't think it was, was fair. Two countries getting dragged into conflict because of Faust. It made the idea of beating her all the more delicious.

"Why did Celestia say we were at war?" Fleur asked. "Mareitania hasn't actually attacked us, or declared war on us, or anything?"

Twilight rolled her eyes and prepared herself to explain. "After Equestria demilitarized itself centuries ago, laws were written for what situations an army could be raised in. First is if we are attacked. Second is if we are threatened with war, and third is in defence of an allied nation. The third option is off the table, so to legally create an army, we have to be under one of the first two conditions, and it'll be too late to do so once we are actually under attack."

"Oh..."

Twilight wanted to explain further, but felt it would only confuse the issue. The only reason she knew that much was because she'd had to learn these things as a princess. Otherwise Celestia kept a firm lid on all things military, apart from the E.U.P, which wasn't really an army. It just looked like one.

She was stirred from her thoughts by a knock at the door, followed by Celestia entering through it. She wore her usual impassive smile, but it wasn't hard to see how troubled her eyes were.

"Sorry to disturb you all, but I have a task for Rainbow." Celestia held a letter up in front of Rainbow that the pegasus took in her hooves. "Take that to Captain Spitfire please. It's a summons to a briefing Luna will be holding with Shining Armour tomorrow."

"Okay, gotch- I mean, yes ma'am." Rainbow saluted for emphasis. "I guess that means it's time for me to leave then." She stood and embraced Pinkie, causing the pink mare to start crying again, then hugged Twilight. "You two better take care of yourselves."

"And you," Twilight said back. "What you're doing makes my job sound easy."

"Yeah..." Rainbow started to leave, but kept looking back, unwilling to make the final steps towards leaving them for good. She stopped, her hoof on the threshold, "Bye guys," she whispered.

"Bye Rainbow."

"B-b-bye..." Pinkie fell against Maud and sobbed as Rainbow went out of sight.

Twilight's eyes lingered on the doorway for a moment, before she turned to Celestia. "What about me?"

"Canterlot's about to become a very busy place, so I've ordered the transfer of all Starswirl's writings to your castle in Ponyville. Apart from that, I'm leaving it all to you to decide how you go about this, what ponies you use, and where you go."

"Okay." Twilight wanted to say more, but seeing Celestia still raised her hackles enough to make her need to bite her tongue around her fellow princess.

"I wish I could talk more, but I think you understand that there is much for all of us to do, and that we need to do it. Take care of yourself Twilight."

"You too," Twilight said back, at least capable of being genuine in her sentiment that time.

Twilight waited until Celestia was gone, then sat back and sighed before turning to Pinkie. "Are you sure going back to your family farm is what you want to do?"

"I-I-I'm sure. I'm not a smart pony like you, so I won't be much help with what you're doing, and the thought of being in Ponyville without any of my friends..." Pinkie shook her head, "I'll be safe at home, and maybe I can find some other way to help while I'm there." Pinkie smiled as bravely as she could.

"As long as you're sure." Twilight pulled Pinkie into a hug, then looked at Maud as she impassively watched, "Please take care of her."

"I promise."

Twilight held the hug a little longer, then let go, allowing Maud to pull Pinkie to her hooves. "Let's go home Pinkie."

"'kay. Bye Twilight."

"Goodbye Pinkie."

Twilight waved until Pinkie was out of sight, then let her hoof fall to her side as she found herself wishing both Rainbow and Pinkie could come with her. But she knew that Rainbow couldn't, and she understood Pinkie's reasons, even if she disagreed that Pinkie wasn't smart. Pinkie was a lot smarter than she ever gave herself credit for.

She was disturbed as a white body, a grey body, a blue body, and a small yellow body surrounded her on all sides and held her, reminding Twilight that while her Ponyville friends were gone, she was far from alone.

"Thanks guys." She sniffed and wiped her eyes, trying to get herself to at least look normal, and capable. She did still have a job to do after all. "So, the quest is before us. Who's with me?" Fleur and Octavia immediately looked guilty.

"I want to Twilight," said Fleur, "but this sounds like it's going to involve a lot of travelling, and there's no way I can do that with my leg; I'd only slow you down. That and Swift can't interrupt her treatment or her wings might grow back wrong."

"Hey!" the filly squeaked, "Don't drag me into this! I want to go with Twilight!"

"Filly, you can't."

"But Twilight could do my treatment easy!"

"Do you really think Twilight has the time to do that? And drag my slow ass around? I'm sorry filly, but we can't go."

"How about Twilight decides then?" The filly looked up at Twilight, her eyes large and dewy. She stuck her bottom lip out as well. Twilight swallowed nervously as the lip trembled.

"I'm sorry filly, but Fleur's right. Your treatment has to come first." Twilight started to sweat as the trembling intensified. Fleur must have been giving her lessons.

"Pleeease?"

"Oh alr- No! No, I'm afraid you cannot come." Twilight almost collapsed as the filly released her from her grip.

"You guys fucking suck."

"Noted." Twilight wiped away the layer of sweat that had built up on her brow. "How about you Octavia?"

Octavia shook her head, unable and unwilling to look at her friends. "I... I can't..."

"Why the hell not?" the filly asked.

"Because- Because I just can't, okay! I'm sorry, but I just can't put myself through that again."

"We're getting away from the war this time," Trixie pointed out. "In fact, I might say what we're doing is pretty damn safe in comparison. Safer even than staying here."

Octavia didn't agree. "You have no idea what you're getting yourselves into," she said, her hooves starting to tremble. "I can't bear the thought of getting any more blood on my hooves, so please, don't make me go."

"It's okay Octavia," Twilight said soothingly. "Nopony is making you go."

"Okay, I just- I-" Octavia ran a hoof back through her mane, "I'm sorry, but I just don't have it in myself for another big adventure. I'm also not saying this entirely for myself. If I go, Summer will go, leaving behind the life she just started to build for herself. Please don't ask her to go too."

"I won't," Twilight promised. She couldn't fault Octavia for not wanting to go on another adventure after Mareitania, and she didn't want to tear Summer's life apart either. That didn't mean that theirs and Fleur's refusals didn't sting, but she could mostly understand.

"You guys suck," Trixie said, accurately echoing the rest of Twilight's thoughts that didn't understand. "The fate of the world is hanging in the balance here, and you're being all 'boo-hoo-hoo, I can't do it.' What the actual fuck guys?"

Fleur rolled her eyes and smirked, "I take you're going then?"

"Oh hell yes I am! I've got nothing better to do, have no responsibilities, and-"

"Am completely emotionally dependant on Twilight?" Octavia suggested.

"What? N-no I'm not! Why would you even say that? Idiot..." Trixie blushed, but persevered, "Besides, I think the whole 'fate of the world' thing is the major overriding factor here."

"I wasn't lying," said Fleur. "I'd jump right into this with you if I could, but I'd only slow things down, and the filly can't interrupt her treatment. I also think Octavia having a mental breakdown might slow things down as well."

Octavia rubbed the tips of her forehooves together in a circular fashion, "You didn't have to say it quite like that you know. Fleur isn't wrong though Trixie; we really aren't the best ponies for this."

"Fine, whatever. I'm going anyway."

Twilight smiled at Trixie, happy that at least one of them was coming. "Trixie, they have good reasons, so stop it." Twilight pulled them all back into a hug, "I'm going to miss you guys-"

"While we're off saving the world," Trixie added. "But, I guess I'm going to miss you too."

"Good luck you two," said Octavia.

"And take care of yourselves," Fleur said as well.

"And bring back souvenirs," said the filly.

"Okay," Twilight said back to all of them. She sank deeper into the hug, and was suddenly struck by the feeling, surrounded as she was by her friends, that after all that had happened there was something she was forgetting.
> 6. Old friends
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight blinked in the harsh daylight as she and Trixie walked out of Canterlot castle. With the amount that had gone on that day it was bizarre to think it was barely midafternoon.

"Boy have these ponies got a surprise coming," Trixie commented idly. It took Twilight a moment to work out she was talking about the ponies walking by, each of them painfully unaware of the coming storm.

"They'll find out soon enough," Twilight said back, mostly for the sake of having something to say.

"So, where do we begin with all this? I don't think the two of us are quite going to cut it."

"Oh? Is the Great and Powerful Trixie admitting to not being up to the task?"

Trixie shrugged, "Twilight, I barely know the first thing about Starswirl the Bearded."

"You know how to read though, don't you?"

"Yes Trixie knows how to read!" Trixie snapped back. "I'm just thinking that it mightn't hurt to consult an expert or two about the mysterious pony we have to find."

Twilight smiled sideways at Trixie, "Starswirl's been my idol for most of my life Trixie. Trust me when I say that there's not many ponies that know more about him than me. The only pony that might know more is Moondancer..." Twilight jolted as a memory struck her, "Moondancer! She was an even bigger fan than I was! I bet she'd... Oooh..."

"What?"

"It occurs to me that I haven't spoken to her in over two years... I get the feeling she might not be very receptive to me asking for her help."

"Over two years? You mean when you moved to Ponyville?" Twilight nodded weakly. "You mean you moved to Ponyville and cut ponies you knew from Canterlot out of your life?" Trixie playfully batted Twilight on the side, "Some princess of friendship you are."

"I know, I know, and I didn't intentionally cut them out. I just barely paid attention to them while I was here, then never looked back after meeting..." Twilight swallowed back the lump that formed in her throat as she thought of her Ponyville friends. "The point is... The point is that I was a terrible friend to those ponies, and it might be too late to fix that. I don't even know where Moondancer lives."

"Do you know anypony who does?"

Twilight thought about it for a moment, and remembered something about a different obnoxiously loud blue pony she used to know. "I might."

"But?"

Twilight anxiously chewed her bottom lip, "But they are also one of these friends I horribly neglected. I don't think going 'hey you, do you know where Moondancer lives?' is going to go down well. In fact, it might be better to give up on this idea altogether."

Trixie rolled her eyes are Twilight's weak attempt to get out of reconciling with her past. "Twilight, we need ponies that know about Starswirl, so swallow your pride, raise your tail, and take it like a mare."

"Easy for you to say."

"I've been taking it like a mare for the last six months Twilight! I'm sure you can manage doing it for a little bit."

"Fine... Let's go find Muh... Mih... Minuette! Yes, Minuette. She'll probably know where Moondancer lives."


-0-0-0-


Barely a thing had changed about Minuette's house in the last two years, save that it was now being graced by the presence of a purple pony that was on the verge of an anxiety attack. The little window boxes were the same, the hourglass shaped door was still the same colour, and the cheery humming coming from within was hauntingly familiar. Once again Twilight was left feeling that only she had changed while the world remained oddly static around her.

"You know, this'll go faster if you stop staring and go knock," said Trixie.

Twilight whined in the back of her throat, and begged her heart to slow down a little as she edged towards the door. She raised a hoof to knock, then froze as the humming within changed tempo, becoming even more upbeat. Twilight suddenly felt guilty for dragging her problems here and started to back away when Trixie ran up, knocked on the door, then jumped away again as she grinned at Twilight.

"Coooming!"

"Trixie!"

Trixie smirked up at Twilight, "No backing out for you, Sparkle."

"But I wasn't ready!" The door opened and Twilight snapped her head back around and put on her best rictus grin, "Hi Minuette!"

"Twilight! Oh my gosh! Of all the ponies I was expecting to see, you certainly weren't one of them! And look at you, being a big alicorn princess and everything now! You know, my co-workers thought I was lying when I told them we were friends back in the day!"

Twilight awkwardly rubbed the back of her head, "Uh, yeah... Well that's me now, a big alicorn princess, and everything, heh-heh." Twilight swallowed her embarrassment and tried to focus on the point of why she was there. "Look, I'm sorry to disturb you but-"

Minuette's eyes lit up as he thought of something. "Wait-wait-wait! I know what'll prove we used to be besties back in the day! Wait right there!"

Twilight sighed as Minuette ran back into the house. This was really not what she wanted, or needed right now. "Maybe I should have gone to look for Lemon Hearts." She re-donned her grin as  Minuette ran back out with a camera floating in her magic.

"Okay! This will prove once and for all that you and I used to be totally best friends! Uh..." Minuette spotted Trixie and waved her closer, "Hey, do you mind taking a... Wait..." Minuette squinted as she scrutinised Trixie. "Do I know you?"

Trixie's eyes darted about, and she grinned uneasily as remnants of a life she no long lived came back to haunt her as well as Twilight. "...no?"

"You sure? You look just like some magician I saw once who was a little bit full of herself. The something and something...Triskie I think?"

"It's Trixie!" Trixie blushed at herself. "I mean, that's what she'd say her name was, if she was here to correct you. Yep. Totally. Different. Pony. Who is not me."

Minuette squinted at Trixie a little longer, then shrugged. "I guess I'm wrong then. Still, it's uncanny how much you look like her. Where was I... Oh yeah! You mind taking a picture of me and the princess?"

"Of course! No problem! No problem at all." Trixie took the camera in her hooves, and took a moment to let Twilight's put-upon smile to grow a little shakier before pressing the button. She was interrupted though as Minuette suddenly had an idea.

"Wait! Twilight! How about you spread those wings of yours? You know, really fluff 'em up!"

Twilight spread her wings, trying to keep her smile in place as Minuette spread her legs out parallel with Twilight's wings. This was so far off the beaten track of how she had wanted this to go that she was expecting to find a lost tribe of pygmies at any moment.

"Oh that one is definitely a keeper," Trixie said happily, pushing the button that would immortalise this moment for the rest of time.

Minuette took the camera back into her magic and bounced with joy, "Eeee! Thanks Twilight! Thanks...you!" she said to Trixie. "This'll really show those doubters who's right!"

"You're very welcome," Trixie said back, ignoring the death glare Twilight was giving her.

"So, what can I do for you anyway?" Minuette asked. "It's not like you to just come here for no reason. And where's Spike now I think about it? Isn't he normally with you?"

"Spike's... Spike's gone away for a while," Twilight answered hesitantly. It wasn't a lie as such, but it hardly felt like the truth either. Truthfully Twilight found it easier to think like that as well.

"Aw, that's too bad. I would've loved to have seen the little guy again."

"Me too..." Twilight caught herself and shook away the misery that was creeping up on her. "Yeah, uh, I was wondering actually if you knew where Moondancer was living these days? I really need to talk to her about...a special research project Princess Celestia has me working on. I thought Moondancer would be the perfect pony to work on it with."

"Moondancer? Hmm..." Minuette cocked her head and look up at the sky as she thought. "To be honest it's been over a year since I've even talked to her. I see her going to the library sometimes and wave, but she never waves back." Minuette shrugged, "Maybe she just needs new glasses or something. I don't know."

"Yeah, maybe." Twilight doubted it though. She and Moondancer had been very alike before she left for Ponyville, and usually spent their time nose deep in a book. It wasn't hard to think that maybe Moondancer had forgotten to look up every now and again.

"I'm not totally sure where she lives though, but I know where her sister works, and I bet she knows! Come on! Let's fly! Y'know, fly, because you have wings? Tee-hee!" Minuette bounced off into the distance, leaving Twilight to direct a groan at the pavement.

"Twilight?"

"You're enjoying this, aren't you."

Trixie nodded and smiled, "You bet I am, and you can't stop me. Now come on, let's 'fly!' Y'know, because you-"

"I get it! Shut up!"


-0-0-0-


Twilight and Trixie had silently elected to hang back as they let Minuette do the talking. The scowl that Moondancer's sister had given Twilight as they walked into the coffee shop she worked at was more than enough to inform them that Twilight was not high on her list of favourite ponies, and frankly she possessed the kind of eyebrows you didn't argue with. When they scowled, you prayed for your life.

Minuette trotted out of the coffee shop and held up a napkin with an address scribbled on it. "Okay, so she was a bit reluctant to give me Moondancer's address for some reason, but when I told her that you wanted Moondancer's help for a research project, she seemed a bit more willing. Weird right? Anyway, Moondancer lives out by the stadium, which isn't too far from here."

"Thanks Minuette; you're a lifesaver."

"Uh-oh."

"What?"

"That sounded almost exactly like 'thanks for the help, now I'll take it from here.' Come on Twilight! You're not just going to love me and leave me are you? We could get the gang back together, go find Moondancer, and have a proper catch up. It'll be great!"

Twilight tried to hide her grimace, and was fairly sure she failed. "As much as I want to catch up with you, Lemon Hearts, and Moondancer, I-"

"And Twinkleshine."

"Yes! Her! And her, yes. The fact is though-"

"And Lyra Heartstrings, but she lives in Ponyville now, so you probably see her all the time anyway."

"Uh, yeah... All the time." I really am an awful pony. "The thing is, this research project is big, and very, very important-"

Minuette gave Twilight an appraising look. "How important? Like 'suddenly run off to Ponyville without telling anypony to defeat Nightmare Moon' important? Or merely, 'I'm Twilight, and I love research to the exclusion of everything else' important?"

Trixie grinned at Twilight, "They have a scale. Did you know they have a scale?"

"No, I did not," Twilight hissed back. "And truthfully Minuette, it's the former-"

"So long as it's not as bad as Discord or Tirek then."

"Why?" Trixie asked. "What did they do to you?"

"Well, Tirek stole my magic, which was really kinda sucky, and Discord made it so I could only see behind me."

"Really? How'd you cope with that?"

"By walking backwards of course. How else?"

"Of course," Trixie deadpanned.

Twilight took a deep breath, "Okay Minuette, I get it; I was a terrible friend to all of you, and I didn't even say so much as goodbye before leaving, and I'm sorry for everything, I really am, and I promise I'll try and make it up to all of you once the project is over. Truthfully though, what I'm doing is really important for the future of Equestria, and I really can't drop it for a reunion, no matter how much I want to."

Minuette smiled sadly, "I get it. Once a hero, always a hero. I'm going to hold you to that promise though, and I won't hesitate to drag the girls to Ponyville to see you if you won't come here."

Twilight smiled and choked out a laugh, "Okay, but the project might take a while. I'm sure you'll understand once you hear the news tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Why tomorrow?"

"Because tomorrow, everypony will find out. I wish I could tell you, but until tomorrow it's-"

"Top secret princessy stuff," Trixie finished for Twilight.

Minuette rubbed her chin and hummed, "Top secret princessy stuff does sound important... Very well Twilight, I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow then. You take care of yourself, and give Moondancer my love. Bye-eee!"

Both of them stayed quiet as they watched Minuette leave with a hop in her step. Twilight hated herself for various reasons that stifled her desire to want to say anything, and Trixie was just straight up confused.

"I know she seems like a happy pony, but I'm pretty sure there was some serious barbs hidden in what she was saying."

"That's Minuette," Twilight sighed. "She could make the death of a loved one sound like fun."

"Speaking from personal experience, I really doubt that." Trixie kept watching after Minuette until the mare turned a corner and went out of sight. "Anyway, let's hope Moondancer isn't as emotionally crippled as Minuette was after you abandoned her."

"You do realise I could send you back to the hospital right?"

"I'll be good."


-0-0-0-


The sight of Moondancer's house filled neither of them with optimism. The boundary wall was crumbling, the garden was overgrown, and the roof sagged. It seemed too much to hope that the pony this building housed put more effort into her own upkeep than she did her abode's.

Trixie summed it up thusly, "What a shit hole. What are the odds she's actually dead in there and nopony's noticed yet?"

"Don't say that."

"You know I'm right though. That is exactly the kind of house where ponies see it everyday, yet ignore it until some curious kid goes in one day only to find the skeleton of its owner surrounded by the skeletons of two dozen cats. The same cats that ate their loving owners face after they weren't fed for-"

"Will you shut up Trixie!" Twilight shouted, stomping a hoof in annoyance. "You are really picking the wrong day to push my buttons, so unless you want to go back to the hospital with several broken bones and a concussion on top of a case of crazy, I suggest you shut your Luna damned mouth!"

Trixie raised a hoof, then slowly lowered it again. "You make a valid point. I'm sorry."

Twilight sighed out through her nose, "Thank you."

"Still, if she is dead in there I totally called it."

"Ugh." Twilight made her way up the surprisingly intact path, mostly because stones possess a certain durability, and stopped in front of the front door. Lacking a lot of other options now she was there, Twilight knocked, breaking a chunk out of the aging door that had all the apparent durability of tissue paper.

"Yep, that's totally going to endear you to her."

"Oh for the love of... Seriously Trixie, get off my case. You've been doing your best to annoy me ever since we left the castle, and I really wish you'd stop."

"What? I've been in hospital for six months, and I have a lot of time spent not annoying you to make up for, so I'm trying to compress it all in now so I don't distract you during something important later."

Twilight stared deadpan at Trixie, "Really?"

"It also helps to distract you from your woes."

Twilight had to consider that for a moment, and couldn't deny that getting annoyed at Trixie did distract her from the crushing reality that three of her friends had been kidnapped, and-

"What do you want?"

"Dah!" 

Trixie sighed and pouted at the bespectacled pony glaring at them through the now opened door. "Damn it, I was so sure she'd be dead. Good job we didn't make bets."

"Moondancer!" Twilight gasped, "I-um... Hi. It's me, Twilight." Twilight grinned hopefully, only for Moondancer to groan and slam the door shut in her face. "I'm sorry about the door. I can pay to have it...fixed..." Twilight groaned quietly, "I was expecting this to go better."

"I don't know. I think this is going perfectly..." Trixie cut herself off as Twilight glared at her, her eyes giving promises of violence if silence wasn't immediately achieved. "Shutting up now."

Twilight made a zipping motion across her mouth at Trixie, then turned back to the door to peek through the hole she'd made. "Look, Moondancer, I'm sorry I haven't been back to see you for a while, and I know that what I'm saying now won't make up for that, but I need your help. Equestria needs your help, so won't you at least hear me out?"

The door creaked back open, showing the entirety of Moondancer. Trixie had to clamp her hooves over her mouth to stop herself laughing at the ridiculous topknot she wore in her mane. Or at the scruffy black turtleneck she wore that had buttons for some indecipherable reason. Or the eyebrows. The glasses weren't great either. They had tape in the middle of them.

"What's wrong with her?" Moondancer asked as Trixie's eyes bulged from suppressed laughter.

"Just ignore her. Please. As hard as it might be."

"Uh-huh. Look,Twilight Twinkle, as much-"

"Sparkle."

"Whatever. As much as I would love to entertain your fantasy of Equestria possibly needing my help, I'm far too busy studying to waste time on you. Good day." Moondancer slammed the door shut again, temporarily befuddling Twilight at how she managed to do that without breaking it.

"And that's that," Trixie said cheerfully. "We tried, we failed, we moved on with our lungs still blissfully intact."

"Starswirl's secret retreat," Twilight said loudly. She waited, and in her head she could hear Moondancer fighting against her own curiosity, and felt incredibly vindicated when the door creaked back open.

"What did you say?"

"Starswirl the Bearded's secret retreat. That's what we're trying to find, and there is nopony I know that knows more about Starswirl the Bearded than you."

"I've never even heard of that. You're making this up."

"I swear I'm not. Celestia told me about it earlier, and told me that it may contain knowledge crucial to the future of Equestria. The problem is she doesn't know where it is, which I why I was hoping you would help me find it. Come on Moondancer, you know I wouldn't lie to you."

"That is just one of many things I thought you wouldn't do to me," Moondancer said back, her voice laced with bitterness. "I want first credit with finding it if I help you."

"Uh..." Twilight looked back at Trixie, who shrugged in return. "That's not the point behind us finding it, but if that's what you want it's all yours."

Moondancer considered it for a moment, then nodded. "Very well, but this doesn't mean that we're anything more than research partners."

"I can accept that," Twilight said back. Truthfully, she was just glad to have Moondancer on board.

"I'll go pack."

"You can catch the train to Pon-" Moondancer was already gone though, leaving her door wide open, allowing both Twilight and Trixie the perfect view of inside. An inside that was stacked high with books and takeout boxes.

"Holy crap," said Trixie. "How can a pony eat that much takeout and not be the size of a house? Anyway, you better shut the door before all her cats escape."

"She doesn't have cats!"

"And what makes you say that?"

"Because she's allergic to them!"

"Y'know what, that makes total sense now you say it," Trixie guffawed. "She does look the type to be riddled with allergies."

"Trixie, will it absolutely kill you to be nice to Moondancer? The last thing we need is you being a complete jackass to her and chasing her off."

"Fiiiine... But if she wiggles those ridiculous eyebrows at Trixie a little too much I won't be held responsible for what I might do. How'd you know telling her about what we're looking for would work anyway?"

"Because I know myself very well," Twilight replied morosely.

"But she's not you..."

"I know."

"I'm ready to go."

"Dah!"

"Moondancer," Twilight said once her heart had slowed a little. "I was going to say you could catch the train to Ponyville tomorrow instead of packing now. Don't you have to inform your landlord you're leaving, and sort your rent out, and other things?"

"My parents own the house and pay the tax on it, and I don't earn enough to pay taxes elsewhere. Frankly I think they bought it so they didn't have to look at me." Moondancer locked the door and deposited the key in her bags. "Nopony's even going to notice I'm gone."

"Well that's horribly depressing," said Trixie. She started walking back down the path, then stopped to look back at the other two. "Shall we?"


-0-0-0-


Moondancer looked up from the journal Twilight had given her to catch her up on everything that had happened in Mareitania since it was relevant to what they were doing now. Trixie had to look away as Moondancer raised her eyebrows at Twilight.

"You died."

"Uh, yes, yes I did."

"But you got better again."

"I... Yes, that is also true.

"Uh-huh." Moondancer glanced back down at the journal, "How is any of this even remotely connected to finding Starswirl's retreat?"

"If you got as far as me dying, then you must have read about what I found in the dungeons when we rescued Fleur?"

"Faust, the Equestria hating super alicorn you were telling me about earlier?"

"It's a little more complicated than that, but a lot of it is rather personal to Celestia and Luna, so I didn't write a lot about her. The point is she's free, and we have to find a way to stop her."

"And you're saying Starswirl knew the most about her, even though he never mentions her in his writings."

"Right."

"So," Moondancer delicately cleared her throat, "to sum up, we have to find a place that nopony is even sure exists, to find information that might never have been written down by a pony that's likely dead, to stop an all powerful alicorn that for all intents and purposes, cannot be stopped."

Twilight winced, "It doesn't sound so good when you put it like that..."

Moondancer snapped the journal shut and stood suddenly, "I've changed my mind. Stop the train, I want to get off."

"Moondancer please, I'm not asking you to get into a fight. Even if all you do is give me an area where I can start looking, that'd be more than enough. You could go home after that."

"Or you could do something with your life," said Trixie.

"Excuse me?" Moondancer growled as Twilight's hoof smacked against her own face.

"What is it you actually do with yourself?" Trixie asked Moondancer.

"I study."

"Study what?"

"Science, magic, history, economics, pottery. Stuff like that."

The flat and emotionless delivery of those subjects really made Trixie question just how much Moondancer really enjoyed them. "So, what? You're going to become a professor or something?"

"No."

"A...teacher?"

"No."

"A quizmaster?" Moondancer shook her head. "You're really planning on just spending the rest of your life studying? Wow Twilight, you really did break her."

"Trixie..."

"My point is, you can spend the rest of your life being a sad loner, studying at home, or you could be the pony credited with finding the lost retreat of Starswirl the Bearded. A literal treasure trove of ancient knowledge that could massively benefit the future of pony kind, and not just by helping us defeat Faust. Come on Moondancer! Isn't being the pony to discover all that worth a little risk?"

Moondancer rubbed a hoof up her leg, "I don't know..."

"I'll tell you what. You do this, and I'll buy you a really nice pair of tweezers. How about it?"

"Tweezers? What would I need those for?"

Twilight clapped a hoof over Trixie's mouth before she could say why. "And that's enough out of Trixie." Twilight smiled awkwardly at Moondancer, "She's not totally wrong though. Finding Starswirl's retreat could be the opportunity of a lifetime, and it would certainly win you the respect of the academic community, and make you part of history. Is that really not worth helping us?"

Trixie pulled Twilight's hoof away from her mouth, "Also the future of the world. That's important too. You can't study when Equestria's been destroyed!"

Moondancer sank back onto her seat, "You're not actually giving me much of a choice here, are you."

"Moondancer, nopony is making you do anything."

"It's just that not helping us might spell disaster for the world."

"Trixie!"

"What? I'm being honest here!"

"I know, and it's not helping!"

Trixie grinned at Twilight, then glanced at Moondancer, and was surprised to see a hint of sadness in her expression, although it was soon buried by the disdain that was her usual expression. "You alright there Moondancer?"

"I'm fine, although I have no desire to keep listening to your childish bickering." She picked Twilight's journal up in her magic and harrumphed, "If you need me, I'll be over there, reading the most ridiculous story I've ever encountered."

"Okay. Just wait until the bit where I go utterly mad with dark power. It's a cracker!" Trixie kept smiling as Moondancer walked away, tutting all the way. "Yeah, she's totally on board."

"And how can you tell that?"

"Because she's desperately lonely, and this is the only way presented to her so far that allows her to reach out to another pony in the hopes she doesn't die alone after a sad and cat-less existence." Trixie cocked her head slightly and looked at Twilight with puzzlement, "You mean you didn't pick up on that?"

Twilight shoved Trixie over, "You're insufferable."

"Moondancer will be as well for a while until she gets so crushed under her own emotions that she has no choice but to open up. It'll probably be a real tear jerker when it happens." Trixie sat back upright and smoothed her coat down where Twilight had pushed her, "Anyway, who else are you going to sucker into helping with this?"

"Who else? How many ponies do you think we need?"

Trixie shrugged, "I don't know. I just thought that if Celestia's going to be sending you everything they have on Starswirl, that it had to be a lot of stuff, so the more ponies we have reading, the quicker it goes. And I'm not going to deny that I'm perhaps not exactly research assistant material, and am slightly more suited to the physical aspect of this mission. Surely there must be some other pony you know that had a fancy education like you, who maybe knows a thing or two about Starswirl the Bearded?"

"Maybe there is..." Twilight said, a certain person coming to mind. She concentrated, and a book popped into existence in front of her, its cover emblazoned with an image of Celestia's cutie mark.


-0-0-0-


Twilight held her arms around herself as she waited by the statue at Canterlot high school, or at least what was left of it after her humanoid counterpart did her best to destroy it. She tried to tell herself that it was because she was cold, and certainly not because her anxiety was telling her that Sunset didn't need to get involved in any of this.

Not that she wasn't cold though. It might have been nearing summer, but the weird, hairless, vaguely simian bodies these humans had always felt cold to her without a coat of hair to insulate them.

"Twilight!"

Twilight looked up and managed half a smile as Sunset ran towards her, along with six others and a purple dog in tow. Twilight held still as six of the seven people piled around her in a group hug, her counterpart thankfully keeping her distance, but she felt no joy from it. She was simply too tense.

"Oh Twilight, I'm so sorry about your friends. Are you alright?"

Twilight didn't look at Sunset. Or rather not at four of the people there that stood behind her. She felt bad for not looking at Applejack, Fluttershy, or Rarity, but looking at them felt ten times worse. The fourth person was the one that looked just like her, but that was purely because she found it plain weird. She was also holding her own Spike, fully completing the mockery Twilight felt she was experiencing by being here.

"Not really," she answered after a moment.

"That's fair, I guess. Look, whatever you need Twilight, I'm here for you."

"Thanks Sunset."

"And if you need our help too," said the human Fluttershy, "you know we'll be more than happy to help after how much you've done for us."

Twilight forced herself to look up at the human approximations of her stolen friends, and gave them a shaky yet sincere smile. "Thanks guys, I mean it. I take it Sunset told you everything?"

"She did indeed," Rarity confirmed, "and I must say that Faust sounds like a terrible danger, although I must admit I feel somewhat sorry for her too. Hopefully she'll simply realise what's she's doing is wrong."

"As nice as that would be, it's not something we should really count on." Twilight dropped her gaze back to the floor again, "Are you really all okay with Sunset going back through the portal to help me?"

"Sure we are Twi...light?" Applejack looked between the two Twilight's and frowned. "Pony Twilight? Princess? We shoulda worked this out beforehand. Anyway, what I was gonna say was that helping you is important to all of us, and that Sunset'll only be on the other side of that portal if we need her."

"Yeah," Sunset agreed. "Ooh! That reminds me." Sunset slipped her backpack off and dug into it, pulling out the book that bore her cutie mark. She wistfully brushed a hand over its cover, then pressed it into Rarity's hands, as Sunset trusted her the most to not lose, break, or otherwise misuse the book to message her ten times a day. Especially since there wasn't much room left. "You can use this to keep in touch with me if you want. I probably shouldn't take it with me anyway, in case it stops the portal from opening whenever we want, or something. I don't know." She also took her magic necklace off and gave it to Rarity. "I suppose you better have that too."

Rarity smiled at Sunset and slipped the book into her own bag. "Don't you worry Sunset, I shall take good care of them. Now come here. You might be gone for a little while, so it's only appropriate we say goodbye properly."

Twilight couldn't watch as Sunset's friends piled into a group hug, including her doppelganger. While she was glad Sunset had agreed to help, separating Sunset from her friends to help get her own friends back was too ironic for Twilight to not feel guilty over.

She was still looking away when Sunset tapped her on the shoulder. "You okay Twilight?"

"Huh?" Twilight blinked, then realised she had tears in her eyes and quickly wiped them away. "Sorry. Are you ready to go?"

"All set."

"Okay then." Twilight started walking back to the portal, then stopped. "I think it's only appropriate to give you fair warning that we'll have a Trixie with us."

"The Trixie I read about in your journal after you came back from Mareitania?"

"The very same."

"The same Trixie that made my own dalliances with dark magic look like a joke in comparison?"

"Yep."

Sunset smiled awkwardly, "I'm sure she'll be fine. I mean, the Trixie here might have locked us in a dark room under a stage with the intention of leaving us to die, but I know she's a good person really. I'm sure pony Trixie can't be that different."

"I think it's only fair to say she's no worse than me." Twilight stepped aside and gestured to Sunset, "After you."

"Okay then." Sunset stood before the portal and squared up to it. "Nothing to be scared of Sunset," she said to herself. She gave her friends one last wave then stepped through into a vomit inducing whirl of ridiculously bright colours, before being spat out the other side. She tried to balance on her hind legs, then fell onto all fours. "Okay, right, four legs and hooves. Four legs, and hooves." She jogged on the spot and smiled as it all came back to her, "Yeah, like riding a bicycle."

"What's a bicycle?"

"Huh? Oof!" Sunset fell forwards and smacked her chin on the incredibly hard crystalline floor as Twilight smacked into her rear, having come through the portal behind Sunset. She also slid a few meters as the incredibly hard crystal floor was also incredibly smooth.

"Crap! Sorry Sunset."

A purple hoof waved in front of Sunset's eyes, and she took hold of it to pull herself up. "My fault. I should've moved."

"Seriously though, what's a bicycle?"

"It's something humans ride," Twilight answered while Sunset stared at a blue pony that could only have been Trixie. To the side of the room was another pony with a cream coat and glasses, but Sunset didn't recognise who she was, and the mare seemed too busy reading to even acknowledge the ponies coming through the inter-dimensional portal.

"Uh-huh," Trixie said back to Twilight's answer. "That explains nothing." She held a hoof out towards Sunset, which the yellow pony shook. "You must be Sunset Shimmer."

"You've heard of me?"

"I have indeed."

"All good I hope?"

"I daresay that stealing an Element of Harmony, turning into a demon, and enslaving an army of teenage 'humans' to wage war on Equestria was hardly your best moment. And frankly it's the dumbest plan I've ever heard, and that's from the pony that's gone mad with dark power twice, and covered Ponyville in a giant fishbowl while she enslaved children to pull wheel-less chariots."

Sunset blinked, "What?"

"My point is I can hardly judge you."

"What?"

Trixie bowed before Sunset, "The significantly humbled, and currently powerless Trixie, at your service."

"...what?" Sunset looked at Twilight as the alicorn consolingly patted her on the shoulder.

"I tried to warn you."

Sunset pointed sideways at Trixie, "Is she trying to out evil me or something?"

"Hah!" Trixie laughed, "That's hardly a competition."

"I don't know," Sunset said back. "On top of what you know about, I did terrorise a high school for years. I did...also try to kill Twilight."

"Oh please, hooves up who hasn't tried to do that at some point." Moondancer, her nose still in her book, raised a hoof, while Twilight's hooves all stayed on the floor."

"I'm counting 'got myself killed' into this, since I'm the only one to actually succeed at killing me." Twilight said in return to the way Sunset was looking at her. "And truthfully, Trixie did put a lot more effort into it than you."

"I've also successfully killed hundreds of ponies," Trixie said with an odd mix of pride and shame. "Does that make me the most evil out of us?"

"Sounds like it?" Sunset said slowly, really unsure as to how this topic had ever come up.

"Nope," said Twilight. "If the number of ponies killed is what we're going by, then I win by a landslide."

Trixie raised an eyebrow at Twilight, "Oh? How so?"

"Destroying Caverndown alone nets me at least a thousand ponies killed. Then there's the ponies I killed myself, and the ponies I ordered other ponies to kill, and then there's the ponies I sent to their deaths with orders to kill those other ponies." Twilight fell quiet, really wishing she hadn't gone into this. "Sorry. You guys keep making introductions."

"Right." Sunset was still extremely unsure of what she'd just brought herself into, and watched Twilight nervously as the alicorn hugged herself and trembled. "You're not evil Twilight."

"Open to debate," Twilight muttered. She vaguely waved a hoof towards Sunset, "Just give me a minute."

"Ooookay then." Sunset trotted over to where the one pony she didn't know was still sat reading. "And who might you be?"

"Moondancer."

Sunset nodded and waited a beat, but no more information seemed to be forthcoming. "Okay, so are you a friend of Twilight's?"

"No."

"Oh, okay." Sunset waited again, but Moondancer had chosen to become mute again and hadn't so much as looked at her through their entire exchange. "It's...nice meeting you anyway." 

"Mmhmm."

Sunset left Moondancer to her reading, and found Trixie smirking at her while Twilight continued holding herself. "It's been while since I've been the most normal person, or pony, in the room," Sunset said to herself. She froze as Trixie sidled up to her with an overly seductive walk.

"So, Sunset... The way Twilight described you and the things you've been up to, I was half expecting you to be an alicorn."

Sunset frowned at Trixie, then looked at her back, finding it totally devoid of wings as she had fully suspected it would be. "Why would you think that?"

"Because you turned into a..." Trixie turned to Twilight, "What did you call it again Twilight?"

"A friendship seraphim," Twilight said without looking up.

"Yeah, one of those, whatever they are. But she said you grew wings!"

"Yeah, but they were made of magic rather than actual wings." Sunset looked sideways at Twilight, "Just how much exactly has she told you about me?"

"Loads. It helped take her mind off the guilt of dragging you into her crap, and the way she described it all... I think I might have discovered who Twilight's really been gay for this entire time."

"For fuck sake! I'm not gay!"

Trixie smiled smugly at Twilight as the alicorn angrily stomped up behind her, "Welcome back."

"What?" Twilight was almost surprised to find that she was no longer a trembling wreck. "That's so not fair. Anyway, is it wrong for me to be impressed by Sunset's achievements?"

"Not at all. I bet it takes a lot of work to get a flank that fine."

"That's not what I meant! And maybe I should be feeling bad for dragging her into this strange little dynamic you and I have."

"And maybe it's your flank I'd rather be thinking about," Sunset said to Trixie in a saucy enough tone to make any stallion blush. It was certainly enough to send Trixie into panic mode.

"Heck no, you do not get to think about my flank! Trixie's flank is very much off limits. To mares anyway."

Sunset winked at Twilight, "So she does speak in the third person."

"What?" Trixie looked between Twilight and Sunset, finding them both grinning at her. "Oh, great. So this is how it feels to get ganged up on. Figures it had to happen at some point."

Twilight smirked at Trixie, "Yes she speaks in the third pony, although she does it a lot less than she used to."

"Wait... Are you referring to the song stealing Trixie through that weird portal?" 'Song stealing?' Sunset mouthed to Twilight. Twilight shook her head in the hopes Sunset wouldn't ask further. "What's she like? Wait! What are her parents like?"

"Her parents?" Sunset rubbed a hoof down the back of her neck, "Her parents are actually...gone."

"They are? How?"

"Uh..." Sunset looked pleadingly at Twilight, but she seemed just as curious. "Alright then, they were caught up in some gang thing where a gang wanted revenge for something, I don't know what, and burnt their house down, only it wasn't their house that the gang was supposed to target. They...didn't escape the fire, except for Trixie."

"Oh..."

Twilight nuzzled Trixie, "I'm sorry Trixie. I wish I could be surprised, but that world runs with a strange parallel to our own."

"I know. I guess I just wanted to think that Trixie at least had a happier story than my own, even if she is a song stealing harpy. Did they at least catch the ones that did it?"

"Most of them yeah. The only one to get away with it was their leader, some guy who called himself the Duke."

"Mother-fucker! Is he still alive?"

"Trixie, I'm not letting you go there to kill him for your revenge."

"But-"

Twilight stomped a hoof, "No."

"Aww..."

"It wouldn't matter anyway," said Sunset. "I think he got killed not too long ago, but I have no idea how."

"That's something at least." Trixie stared at the floor, then sighed explosively. "Whatever, I don't care. How about we start thinking about what we're supposed to be doing."

"Uh..." Twilight looked around the room, then remembered that they weren't actually in the library. "I don't have much of Starswirl's work here, but I guess that can get us started until all the rest of his work gets sent here from Canterlot. Follow me."

Since the library was right next door, it wasn't exactly what you could call a long journey. As Twilight had predicted, Trixie was utterly unimpressed, but she was at least pleased that the sight was enough to make Moondancer look up from the book she had been reading even while she walked.

"All these belong to you?"

"Yes and no. Most of them are government property, and are replacements for when the Ponyville library got destroyed by Tirek."

Moondancer turned on the spot, taking in the entire library. "This is a public library?"

"That's right."

"Then why can't I see any books missing from the shelves?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to ask the ponies of Ponyville why that is," Twilight grumbled with a pout. "Anyway, let's get started." Twilight picked a book off a shelf and held it front of Trixie. "Trixie, you can have the abridged biography of Starswirl the Bearded to get you started."

"Yay..."

"The rest of us, pick a book and see what you can find."

Sunset looked over the shelves, finding quite a number of books on Starswirl. "Not that I want to question your methods Twilight, but what should we even be looking for?"

"Oh! Right. I guess that if his retreat was somewhere in Equestria, we'd have found it a long time ago, so we likely can rule that out. Perhaps we should look for mentions of places outside of Equestria, with places being mentioned multiple times, or in multiple sources, being the more likely. I imagine we won't find much without Starswirl's own writings, but this should at least get us warmed up."

"That hospital doesn't seem so bad now."

"And you can definitely consider no whining as one of the rules Trixie."

"Bitch."


-0-0-0-


Twilight awoke with a start, and felt about her chest for something that wasn't there, but that time it was mostly out of habit. A deep, rhythmic banging that echoed through the castle had awoken her, and it took her a moment to realise it was somepony knocking on the door, and therefore nothing she could blame Trixie for. She had no idea why that was currently her 'go to' explanation for unknown noises though.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Twilight struggled out of her bed, tripping over a front hoof that had become tangled in her sheets overnight. She teleported, hoping to save herself from a unfortunate meeting with the floor, but only succeeded in moving the inevitable somewhere else, and her face smacked into the ground right by her front door instead, which was no softer.

Grumbling, Twilight stood and rubbed her pained nose, then pulled the door open to find Octavia smiling nervously, along with some Royal Guards, and a cart stacked high with books under a tarpauline. "Octavia? What are you doing here?"

"These fine gentleponies offered me a lift home after I missed the last train back to Ponyville last night. I would have come with you, but you and Trixie left so quickly I thought you wouldn't want me to come with you..."

"Huh? Oh! Oh Octavia, you didn't have to think that."

"So you're not mad at me? Or Fleur? Or any of us?" Octavia drooped as Twilight took a moment to answer. "You are, aren't you."

"No! Not at all! I'm just..." Twilight ushered Octavia to the side so the guards could start moving the contents of the cart inside. "I'm just used to having you guys around when things got rough. I understand your reasons for not coming, but I have to admit I was a little hurt by it at first. It's fine though, really. I've found a couple of ponies to help me out besides Trixie, so I'll be fine. Besides, I thought it was very sweet of you to think of Summer like that."

"She needs stability Twilight, and uprooting her to go piling after you is the opposite of that."

"I know, but if there's a war coming to Equestria, then stability isn't going to happen I'm afraid."

"I know." Octavia smiled bravely, "Fleur and I talked about it, and while we won't be of much use to you, we have decided to help in other ways if we can. If Equestria is going to build an army, then they'll need medics. I might not have it in me to do the task itself, but Summer and I can at least teach. And Fleur wanted to talk to Luna about assisting Equis if she could. At least then we'll still be doing something to help."

Twilight nodded, pleased that they weren't trying to get out of the coming fight. Even if was only in a small way, the fact that they still wanted to help was nice. "Sounds like a great idea. Your skills and experience would be more use elsewhere anyway since all we'll be doing for the next few weeks is reading. Although, if you want to help with that, I'd appreciate it."

"Of course. I want to head home to see Vinyl and Summer first, but I'll drop by when I can."

"Great! Thanks Octavia." Twilight waved Octavia off as she made her way into town to her own home, then made her own way back inside, making sure to give the guards plenty of room to do their work, even though she could do it all herself in a fraction of the time. Trixie, Sunset, and Moondancer were all waiting by the library, watching the pile of literature grow with varying emotions. Trixie looked like she wanted to die, while Sunset grew more apprehensive the taller the pile grew. Moondancer though, was acting like a filly on Hearthswarming.

"I didn't know half these books even existed!" she said excitedly to Sunset.

"I guess you never made it to the Starswirl the Bearded wing in Canterlot Castle then?"

"I applied for permits once, but it was denied because curiosity wasn't a good enough reason apparently."

"Yeah, they are pretty strict about who gets to see inside that place. Still, I'm sure the unfettered access you get now is probably worth the wait." Sunset looked over as she noticed Twilight arrive out of the corner of her eye. "Morning Twilight. I guess Celestia wasn't kidding when she said she wanted you to go through all of Starswirl's writings."

"Actually, judging from the amount here, I'd say this is only half of the collection from Starswirl's wing."

"What?!" Trixie shouted. "You're fucking kidding right?"

"And I doubt she'd send the spell scrolls either," Twilight continued.

Trixie stared blankly at the growing pile and groaned, "How did Starswirl get anything done if he spent this much time writing?"

"A question for the ages," Twilight replied offhoofedly. "At any rate, we have our work cut out for us, so we better get started."
> 7. Stand together
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

For once in her long life Celestia was reluctant to raise the sun. Although any clock you looked at would tell a different story, for her, raising the sun reinforced the fact that through the inexorable process of time, tomorrow had become today, and today she had to tell Equestria, and the rest of the world, that they were under threat. A threat so huge even she felt that she struggled to comprehend it fully.

The problem was that the rest of the world probably wouldn't listen. Even if she hadn't unintentionally done her best to alienate Equestria's neighbours, many of them would still see a rogue alicorn as a pony problem, and therefore a problem for ponies to fix. Even the more far flung pony nations like Saddle Arabia and Mustangia would likely say so because they don't have alicorns, and don't understand the threat one like Faust poses. Equestria could very well face this crisis on its own.

Celestia twitched an ear at the faint clop of a hoof on the marble floor right next to her, and looked around to find Luna standing almost next to her. "You snuck up quietly."

"I've been shouting your name for the last five minutes sister. You are almost ten minutes overdue on raising the sun. Ponies will start to worry soon."

Giving in, Celestia lit her horn and teased her sun up over the horizon, heralding the completion of turning tomorrow into today. "I can't believe this is really happening Luna. Equestria hasn't seen a war in a thousand years. Can our ponies even cope with such a thing?"

"They must Celestia, or all may be lost."

"And what makes you think that? Perhaps Twilight could find a solution regardless of what we do, and we could be throwing thousands of lives away for nothing."

Luna wrapped a wing around Celestia's shoulders, "Were it that simple. You said yourself that Equestria will have to stand as a bulwark between Faust and the world."

"I know what I said Luna, but none of this is the fault of the ponies here, so why should they suffer for it?"

"And who do you blame?"

"Platinum. The Dukes of Mareitania. The ponies that released Faust." Celestia sighed heavily, like her heart was breaking. "Us."

"Us? This is exactly what we tried to prevent!"

"And in our arrogance we assumed that we were the only ones that knew about Faust, and in doing what we did, we only gave the Mareitanians further reason to turn against us. We are as much to blame for this as anypony else."

"Let us not forget the Viscount, since he's the one that told the council of Faust."

"Indeed."

A taut yet companionable silence surrounded the two sisters as they watched over the lands before them, thinking of what was to come. Luna was imagining the victory of Equestria over Mareitania, while Celestia could only see loss, even if they won. While she could rationalize all day long about why she wanted Luna to lead the war effort, the truth was one they both knew; Luna was simply better at it.


-0-0-0-


The throne room had been filled with row upon row of seats in preparation of the announcement. Seats that had been slowly filling up with diplomats, prominent members of the E.U.P, and a large number of press ponies whose unfortunate task it would be to spread the news to those places beyond Canterlot, and possibly even beyond Equestria.

The one pony Celestia couldn't see from where she could observe from the side of the room, was Cadence, and asked her assistant Raven where she had gone.

"She making her own announcement to her ponies," Raven told her. "I also suspect she was a little upset with you for various reasons, if it's not too bold for me to say, your highness."

"As ever I appreciate your candour Raven." At the very least Cadence had left Shining Armour behind as Luna had requested. His experience, as well as that of many others, would be crucial in the days to come.

"I find myself at an unexpected loss," said a voice from behind Celestia. She turned to find the Griffonian ambassador Deetra standing there, almost looking bashful at disturbing Celestia. "I never thought to see the day something like this would happen in Equestria."

"And how do you know what's happening?"

"There are only a few conclusions to draw here Princess, and after the hasty setting up of this announcement, the most likely is that Equestria is under threat. Rest assured that I have said nothing to the others here."

"Good." Celestia said nothing for a moment, wondering why the griffon wasn't gloating. She couldn't ask outright, but there was something else she wished to know. "If I might ask Deetra, what was yours and your country's opinion of my actions in Mareitania?"

"Both the Emperor and I thought it was rather bold actually, and frankly, historically speaking, we've often wondered why you let the sorry state of that place continue for so long."

Celestia was surprised by the answer, although she didn't show it. She was so used to being the only one to deal with Mareitania for so long, she didn't think others might have had opinions on how it was ran. "Is that so? So you were more surprised by my inaction?"

"Now that our two nations are no longer at each others throats, it's been an observation of ours that while you are a master at statecraft, you avoid conflict wherever possible. The number of conflicts you were involved in shrank considerably after the unfortunate banishment of your sister, and while I can only read historical documents on the matter, I can only assume it was because of her loss that change came about."

Celestia chuckled humourlessly, "Am I truly that obvious?"

"Not really. All I can say is that you and your sister appear to be two halves of a greater whole, and you need each other to balance yourselves out. Not that your approach didn't work of course, and I doubt the world would be as it is without your constant diplomacy, but there are times where conflict cannot be avoided."

Celestia nodded sadly, "Very true, but I originally asked what your opinion was of us interfering with Mareitania. Were you not bothered?"

The griffon thought about it for a moment. "I won't say I wasn't bothered, but I will say that I wasn't worried. I'm sure you would know the consequences of interfering with Griffonia well enough to not make such a risk."

"Of course I do," said Celestia, keeping her face carefully impassive.

"Anyway, I had best be taking my seat for the announcement." Deetra bowed before Celestia, "Princess."

Celestia nodded back, "Ambassador." She watched the griffon head to her seat, and silently cursed the griffon for working out what the announcement was about before the time. In all fairness though, the griffons spies seemed to know more about Mareitania than she did herself.

"I do like how she always makes time to talk to you when you least want it," said Luna as she walked up to Celestia, having watched the exchange from a distance.

"Then you'll also like that she's worked out what the announcement is."

"I doubt she's worked out everything. There's no way she could possibly know about Faust."

"No, and I'm not sure if she will."

Luna raised a sceptical eyebrow at her sister, "Explain."

"Obviously I won't be telling anypony of our connection to Faust, and I may decline to mention what one of the founders did to her publically, but how do we explain what Faust is without scaring ponies? How can we hope to win against such power?"

"So you're going to lie."

Celestia shook her head, "I don't know if I should or shouldn't. That's why I'm asking you now."

"I think the simple solution is to simply neglect to tell them exactly how powerful Faust is. Not telling them about us and Platinum I agree with, but you cannot really hide what it is we're fighting against. Lying has not exactly served us well lately, so I feel that minimising that would be advantageous."

Celestia closed her eyes and nodded, "You're right of course. Let us hope that Cadence keeps her own announcement in the same tone as ours then." Celestia stood tall and stretched her wings out before letting them fall back into place. "It's time," she said with the grace and composure the ponies of Equestria expected from her.

"I'm right with you sister."

Celestia stepped out into view of the ponies in the throne room, and the flash bulbs of the press ponies lit up the room as each one vied for the best photo of the two princesses. Celestia hoped they didn't try to go for before and after pictures.

Together they waited, stood side by side before the throne as the paparazzi slowly took the hint that they should stop. Anticipation filled the room at what this announcement could be about, and Celestia found herself looking at Deetra, the griffon doing something unique to a small number of species in the world. The griffon was giving her two thumbs up.

"My sister and I would like to thank you all for coming today, although it is with heavy hearts that we stand here before you. I am sure many of you have heard of the rumours that have come out of Ponyville yesterday, and it is with no reluctance that I can confirm that that those rumours are true. Yesterday morning, an attack was made on Equestrian soil on both its ponies and a princess no less, resulting in the abduction of three ponies and a young dragon. Those ponies were none other than Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity, who may be better known to you as three of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. The dragon was called Spike, and is a close personal friend to all of the bearers of Harmony."

Whispers started spreading around the room, and Celestia raised a hoof until all was silent again. "As tragic as this news is, I'm afraid the bad news does not end there. The attack was carried out by Mareitania. A Mareitania that has fallen under the control of a previously unknown alicorn named Faust, who has manipulated the leadership of Mareitania into not only forgetting the kinship and friendship our two countries briefly enjoyed, but has also succeeded in turning them utterly against us here in Equestria. She has made her intentions against Equestria, and furthermore the world, very clear, and her abduction of the three bearers of Harmony is merely the first move in what can only be a prelude to war between our two countries."

Celestia didn't interrupt the uproar this time, and stood patiently as ponies shouted questions at her. Luna wasn't so inclined to wait though, and stomped her hoof three times, giving the hint that Celestia wasn't done yet. Slowly order returned to the room, giving Celestia a chance to keep speaking.

"I can appreciate how shocking this is to hear, especially after all the support we as a nation, gave to the uprising within Mareitania, but I should make it clear that the alicorn Faust is the one you should direct your ire at. However, that doesn't change the fact that Equestria is now under threat of war, and that in response we will have to take up arms to defend ourselves. Starting upon these words, Equestria will begin efforts to create an army to defend our lands from an all too possible attack from the army of Mareitania. In the coming days we will begin recruiting volunteers willing to do what must be done to protect our homes, our friends, and our families, and I would implore those of you able to, to sign up to protect all you love. There are dark times ahead, but I know that if we all stand together, we can prevail, both for the future of Equestria, and of the world."

The clamour returned as soon as Celestia stopped talking, but this time no effort was made to halt it as plenty of ponies here clearly had questions that they would want answered. Picking at random, Celestia pointed at one of the press ponies waving and shouting for her attention.

"What do you mean by us being under threat of war? Is that really justification for building an army?"

"Threats have been made against Equestria, and the alicorn Faust wishes to see our country destroyed. If we are lucky, we could hopefully resolve this issue without resorting to war, but if not, Equestria needs to be ready, or we could be overrun within weeks of an attack."

"And what of the alicorn Faust? How could you have not known of her before she took control of Mareitania? How can you know of her intentions when it's only happened so recently."

Celestia struggled to find an answer, and was relieved when Luna stepped up instead. "We do not know the origins of Faust, and have only become aware of her very recently. Whatever her reasons are for attacking Equestria, they are irrelevant in the face of the threat both she and Mareitania presents. Suffice to say, she has made her hatred of us very clear through both words spoken to us, and actions taken against us."

"Will you be leading us against them Princesses?"

"Princess Luna will be lea- ahem, leading our forces on the battlefield," Celestia answered to the blurted out question. She rapidly swallowed, hoping to chase away the tremor that was starting to creep into her voice, and she hoped the ponies gathered here didn't notice.

"And what of Princess Twilight? We she be taking any part in this?"

"Princess Twilight will be heading up a special research division in the hopes of ending this war before it can begin. She will be playing no part in military actions." Celestia stopped as Raven trotted up to her, and whispered nothing in particular in her ear. Its only purpose was to give them an excuse to cut things short. It was a gesture she strongly appreciated. "I'm afraid our time is running short here, so we will only answer one more question." Celestia pointed to a pale mare wearing a green beret, who had her hoof raised.

"After the upset caused by your decision to interfere in Mareitania, do Equestria's allies still stand with us?"

"The Crystal Empire has confirmed that they will stand with us, but we cannot speak for any other nation at this point due to how recent these events are." Celestia hoped to hell that one could fly. "I'm afraid that's all we have time for. My assistant Raven will answer any more questions you may have. Thank you."

Celestia left the throne room, and slumped against a wall as soon as she was out of sight. "Honest opinion Luna; how do you think that went?"

"Better than I imagined actually. All we have to do now is brief the E.U.P, and hope to convince our allies that we do need help, and are still worth helping."

"The briefing is all yours Luna."

"As are the diplomats yours. Hopefully they see the threat that Faust is, and see the benefit of aiding us against her.


-0-0-0-


Celestia had managed to restore her composure by the time she had made it to where she was meeting the ambassadors from other nations. Those of them that showed up anyway. Minos, the secretive nation of the minotaurs, had cut off ties once the news of Equestria's dealings in Mareitania had become public, although that was the only nation that had. All the others just made their displeasure known in as loud a way as was possible, save the Yaks, who didn't seem to care about what outsiders did to one another. So far they hadn't even bothered to send a diplomat, which was both a problem and a blessing in so many ways.

"Thank you all for agreeing to meet with me," Celestia said to the assembled diplomats as she entered the room. "Equestria is in dire need of allies at this time."

"And you would have us fight this war for you?" asked Zehran, the zebra stallion representing Zebrica. A couple of others nodded with him.

"I'm not asking you for anything as yet, but I said that Faust is a threat to the world, and I meant it. While her conquest might start with Equestria, believe me when I say she has designs for the rest of the world as well."

"And why should we believe that?" said the mare representing Mustangia; a young cream and violet earth pony called Overture. "For all we know you could be manipulating us into fighting this war with you, when she poses no threat to us at all."

Celestia sighed at having reached this point in the conversation already. "If you seek proof of her intentions, then I can provide none, but rest assured that I am not wrong in my assertions. Faust considers the world to be... tainted, and wishes to enact something that we've only heard called 'the plan.' While I don't know what that plan is, I doubt it's something we wish to see come to pass."

"And how are we to know this is not just an imagined threat?"

"Because Faust told me as much herself."

"Then you've spoken with her?"

"I have." Celestia took her place at the table in the room, and waited for the ambassadors to take their place. "I hope you know well enough to keep this information away from the public?" Celestia waited for them all to agree before continuing. "Faust hates Equestria because one of our founders, Princess Platinum, wrongfully imprisoned her before the exodus of my ponies to Equestria. Platinum then left her in that cell as the exodus began, and Faust remained there until the founding Duke of the Duchy of Mareitania claimed Unicornia. He didn't release Faust either. She's been imprisoned for one and a half thousand years."

Amira, the pink and dark blue ambassador of Saddle Arabia tutted disdainfully, "How could one of you own founders perform such a heinous act?" 

"I don't know," Celestai lied, "but it doesn't change anything about what is about to happen. War will likely come to Equestria, and very little will change that, but if you stand with us, she can be stopped before she becomes a danger to the rest of you as well."

"What is it you actually want Princess?" Amira asked. "Are you asking us to use our own soldiers in your war as a substitute for your glaring lack thereof?"

"While military aid would be appreciated, I will gladly accept anything that could help our cause, be that supplies, weapons, or even textiles to produce uniforms. I know I damaged your trust in Equestria when I supported the uprising in Mareitania, but-"

"Exactly," Zehran interrupted. "You created Mareitania as a problem for yourself, and I see no reason why my country should put anything into helping you out of your own mess. I will put it to the Council of Elders, but I very much doubt they will disagree with me."

Celestia buried a sigh, "I understand, and I hope the Council will at least consider sending aid if nothing else."

"I too will put this to the Sultan," said Amira, "but he feels even more strongly about your actions in Mareitania than I do. I would not get your hopes up."

Overture banged a hoof on the table, "Is this Faust really so big a threat? Why can't you and the other princesses deal with her directly?"

"Because she's powerful, and has an army of thousands at her disposal. She is also very well protected."

"More powerful than you?"

"Yes," Celestia replied bluntly. "A means of defeating her is being found, and I have full faith in the pony finding it, but there's still an entire army between us and her, and that army cannot be so easily beaten."

Overture looked down and nodded thoughtfully, "Alright. Equestria has never done wrong by Mustangia before, and I see no reason why you should now. If this Faust is such a threat to all of us, then I say we're better off standing together."

"Hah!" Zehran smiled cruelly at Overture, "No offense to you ambassador, but the army of Mustangia is no bigger than Celestia's Royal Guard. What difference could you hope to make?"

"Mustangia may be small, yet we still have a larger standing army than Zebrica." Overture turned back to Celestia, "Rest assured I will do everything to convince King Garland to sent whatever military aid to you we can."

Celestia bowed her head, "Thank you ambassador Overture. I appreciate your efforts on our behalf."

"What about you?" Zehran said to the one occupant of the room that had remained quiet so far. "What is Griffionia's take on all this?"

Deetra smiled grimly at the ponies around her, "I'm afraid the Emperor has the final say on what military aid we might send, but owing to the history between Equestria and Griffonia, the chances that he would agree are slim to zero."

"Because no problems a pony has would ever concern a griffon," Overture grumbled. "Griffonia would have been all over Mareitania in the blink of an eye if their pact with Equestria hadn't stopped you."

"I'm afraid the Emperor simply doesn't see Mareitania as a threat to Griffonia, and no longer has the same interest he once did. However, I will do my best to ensure that Equestria has access to whatever information our intelligence services gather from Mareitania."

"Thank you," said Celestia, semi sincerely. It didn't take a genius to work out that the Emperor wanted to see who was going to win the fight. It was an issue she could deal with later.

"Is Griffonstone going to join Equestria?" asked Amira.

"Since the dissolution of Griffinstone's monarchy, Griffinstone has no military to speak of," Celestia answered her. "As part of Equestria they will of course be welcome to join our army, but Griffonstone's inhabitants aren't known for their altruistic nature."

"They're a bunch of mean spirited, money grubbing jerks," Overture translated. "We can't count on them for anything, except maybe to loot the fallen."

Celestia winced at Overture's words, but made no effort to correct them. Griffonstone's inhabitants were famous for one thing, and that was being greedy, opportunistic misers. There wasn't anything she could say to change that since the griffons themselves took a fierce pride in it. They also charged through the nose for mercenary work.

"Are you planning on insulting everyone in the room eventually?" Zehran snarled at Overture. He raised a hoof to cut off her reply. "I have heard enough. I shall relay Equestria's request to the Council of Elders, Princess, but do not expect much from them. Good day."

Celestia held her stance as the zebra left, followed by Amira. Deetra followed them out shortly after, along with Overture after a short attempt at trying to find something to say. Once they were gone, Celestia slumped forwards onto the table, sighing with a mix of anger and resignation.

"Three allies, and the griffons, and the one that helps us is the one you can kick a hoofball across."


-0-0-0-


Luna held back on showing how much the dozen ponies in the room disappointed her. Not for anything they had done, but simply because they were the entirety of Equestria's command structure. Of those dozen, three of them were Wonderbolts, which wasn't helpful either. Celestia had really let Equestria's defence fall to ruins.

At least the job most of them had to do was simple. Before anything else, an army had to be raised, and that at least was something that Luna could wash her hooves of. Her concern was strategy, leaving the creation of the Equestrian military to her sister, and to most of the ponies in this room. Now if she could convince them of the merits of teaching unicorns combat magic, she might feel happier.

To be honest, things were actually going fine, so to speak, and she was content to let Shining Armour do all the talking, since he actually knew a lot more on the subject of Equestria's modern military practices a lot better than she did. In fact, she was almost tempted to pull Spitfire, the captain of the Wonderbolts, aside for a private discussion, as they, along with her own Night Guard, and whatever Royal Guard that weren't swallowed up in training soldiers, were currently Equestria's greatest defensive assets.

Now she thought about it, they were Equestria's only defensive assets, at least until the Crystal Empire's legions were deployed, whenever that might be.

"The training that the unicorns in the Royal Guard receive isn't going to be enough," Luna caught Shining say, dragging her out of her thoughts. "I've had that training myself, and I can tell you now that a hooffull of spells to immobilise a single target, and create a directed light, isn't going to cut it this time."

"Excuse me?" Luna said as she re-joined the discussion. "You mean to tell me that no unicorn in the Royal Guard knows a spell capable of taking a life?" 

"They have weapons for that your highness," said Captain Stormguard, the pegasus leader of the Royal Guard after Shining Armour left the position.

Luna stared at the captain for a long time until he shifted uncomfortably. "Do you think I need a weapon to kill you right now?"

"No, your highness," the captain replied, impressing Luna by how precise an answer it was in the face of what was asked, and who asked it.

"And do you think the Adepts of Mareitania need a weapon to kill you?"

"I suspect they don't your highness."

"And you would be correct. The Adepts were trained to use their magic as both their weapon and their defence, and had a sword only as a last resort. They, along with the pegasi, were the Mareitanian Liberation Front's greatest weapon during the uprising, and believe me when I say that spears aren't going to phase them in the slightest. Magic is going to play a big part in this war should it come, Captain, and the side with the strongest magic will have the advantage. So tell me again what you propose."

"I propose we teach every unicorn possible how to use combat magic, beginning with the unicorns in the Royal Guard."

Luna smiled and nodded, "Very good Captain, although I feel it is not yet enough. The Royal Guard recruit and train earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, all in almost the same way, which is fine for guard duty, but flawed for much else. While you can train a pegasus to fight like an earth pony, you cannot train an earth pony to fight like a pegasus, just as a pegasus or earth pony cannot be taught to fight like a unicorn. Training them all together limits their potential, so propose we separate the training for each kind of pony."

Shining Armour frowned, "You sound like you want to dissolve the E.U.P."

"Not at all. I do however, wish to define it better. Captain Spitfire, I will be holding the Wonderbolts separate from this, as I have other uses for you."

"Yes ma'am."

"Good. Now what I want is to recreate the Mage Corps, and have them act much as the Adepts do in the Mareitanian army. Any unicorn with potential will be moved into the Mage Corps to learn combat magic and shielding spells, while other, less magically capable unicorns will be taught how to use weapons with their magic. Earth ponies will be taught to fight to their own strengths in the Earth Corps, and the Air Corps will consist of pegasi, with exceptional fliers being moved into the Wonderbolts. They will of course be taught mixed pony combat as well."

"What of the Royal Guard and Night Guard?" Shining asked, a small but noticeable frown marring his features.

"The Night Guard will remain under my command, while the Royal Guard may be shrunk to move ponies that volunteer into the army. Otherwise they will continue to exist as they are now in their essential roles. Obviously none of this is final, and may be changed if it is unworkable. Flexibility is important. Now, Shining Armour will continue with the briefing, as I have my own briefing I wish to give the Wonderbolts." The collected ponies saluted Luna, making her smile. "As you were."

Luna gestured for the Wonderbolts to follow her, and they left the remaining ponies to discuss matters. Matters that Luna felt she didn't much help with. As soon as they reached where Luna was leading them, Luna sat down on the ground around a table, and groaned.

"I get the feeling I rather confused them in there. Perhaps I should have explained things better."

Soarin cleared his throat, "Begging your pardon Princess, but if a unicorn isn't in the mage corps, are they in their own group? Or what? And why don't the earth ponies get their own special unit?"

"It's a work in progress," Luna said a little bashfully. "I do hope you at least got the gist of what I was trying to explain?"

"More or less, I suppose," said Spitfire. "It's just that the only breakdown of units where we've seen that is in Mareitania with the Adepts. Are you sure fighting them using their own military doctrine is the best idea?"

"Certainly," Luna replied with confidence. "Mareitania lacks fliers, so we already have an advantage there, and Equestria far surpasses them in terms of magical knowledge, so hopefully the Mage corps will maintain an advantage over Mareitania's Adepts. Some thought has been put into this Captain, and even the griffon army where all members have the same ability is split up into different groups to serve different roles."

"As you say then ma'am."

Luna rolled her eyes, "You hardly need to be so formal around me. You certainly weren't in Mareitania."

"You weren't exactly a princess in Mareitania, your highness, and I do believe you're to be our commander from now on."

"And yet I am still Luna, as I ever am, but I shall not force you to adopt an informal stance with me. I will however have an informal conversation with you." Luna smiled at the third Wonderbolt in the room, "I see you now have your wings back Fleetfoot. I take it you only returned to active duty recently?"

Fleetfoot spread her wings and flapped them once before holding them open. "I was declared fit by the docs' a couple of weeks ago. Just in time to get thrown into another conflict...

"Would that we could avoid it," said Luna. "If you feel you are unfit to participate, th-"

"No," Fleetfoot said with finality. "this is different, and I won't abandon Equestria when it needs me."

"And I assure you it needs you." Luna gestured for the Wonderbolts to join her around the table, and waited as they took their seats. "I suspect you're wondering what my special task for you might be?"

The three Wonderbolts looked at each other for a second, then nodded. "Yes ma'am," Spitfire confirmed.

"Then I shall tell you. It's not exactly hard to see that Equestria is woefully unprepared to fight any conflict on the scale that Mareitania threatens. I don't know by how much they intend to build their forces further, but it isn't unrealistic to think that they could attack us as early as tomorrow if they wished. While that's unlikely, there is still the possibility of an attack coming soon, and while we have only minimal forces to confront them with, we will lose. That is where you and your Wonderbolts come in."

Luna's horn flashed, and a map of both Equestria and Mareitania appeared on the table, side by side, and she ran a hoof along the thin sliver of land that ran around the north of the Luna bay between the two countries. "Currently we don't know enough of our enemies plans to know how they would attack, but there's only one land route between our countries, and that would be the most likely avenue they would use, at least for their heavier forces such as steam tanks. It would be wise to concentrate our defences around that bridge, and around Vanhoover. However, we should not count on that being their only avenue of attack. That is where you come in for now."

Luna moved the map of Equestria aside to focus on the map of Mareitania. "We have no real idea of what is going on in Mareitania. While we might ask the griffons for information, there is no way we rely entirely on them as they could easily mislead us for some reason. Your first task will be for several of your members to create a comprehensive picture of what is happening in Mareitania."

"And the rest of us?" asked Fleetfoot.

"Training. The Wonderbolts will have to be expanded rapidly to deal with this new threat, meaning you will have to teach a lot of ponies how to fight."

Spitfire fought hard to hide her wince, and thought she had until she saw the way Luna was looking at her. "What new ponies might these be ma'am?"

Luna held her gaze for a moment before speaking, "First off, your replacements that were allowed to stay on after your return from Mareitania will have to be taught how to fight since I believe they missed that part of the training at the time. Then there's the reserves, who will be given a choice to join the Wonderbolts."

"A choice?"

"The reserves aren't actually a part of the E.U.P," Luna explained. "While they will be happily accepted into the Wonderbolts, we can't order them to, so it will have to be entirely voluntary. Further to that, every trainee that somehow failed to get into the reserves for reasons other than poor performance, or mental health issues, will be approached with an offer to join. Again, voluntarily. I will also be screening some of the pegasi in the Royal Guard to join you as well."

Spitfire was speechless for a moment at the idea of having to train all those ponies how to fight, and more importantly, how to kill. "Is there a purpose to doing all this training so fast?"

"Yes there is." Luna tapped a hoof on the map of Mareitania, "Once we know what's going on in Mareitania, that is when our biggest task begins. Working in conjunction with my Night Guard, it will be your job to sabotage, delay, and otherwise do whatever you possibly can to slow down any impending invasion of Equestria."


-0-0-0-


Luna stayed quiet as she slunk into the private quarters she shared with her sister. It had been a long couple of days, and she didn't want to make a noise in case Celestia was sleeping on the couch again. She needn't have worried though as Celestia was still very much awake, purely with the intention of speaking with Luna, and the flare of her horn as she filled a second cup of tea for her sister was the only announcement of her presence she gave.

"I thought you would be sleeping," said Luna, accepting the proffered cup in her own magic. "Thank you." Her nose wrinkled as she recognised the smell of camomile.

"I wished to talk to you before I retired, to see what your thoughts on all this was."

"My thoughts?" Luna sat down on a large cushion next to her sister and made herself comfortable. "My thoughts are you're asking me because things did not go so well with you."

"Mustangia stands with us."

"Mustangia?" Luna snorted dismissively. "A pony can spit across Mustangia. The few soldiers they could provide won't make much of a difference. What of Saddle Arabia? Surely they would at least consider helping?"

"I impression I got from them was that they don't think we're really in the danger we claim to be. The griffon ambassador was the only one who seemed to take the threat seriously, but there would be no way the Emperor would give us military aid. She did say that she could get us access to Griffonian intelligence on Mareitania, but I suspect you would rather rely on your own sources."

"You suspect correctly. I've given the Wonderbolts their orders, and in a week we should hopefully have all the intelligence on Mareitania we could ever want, except for what it is that Faust plans."

"Isn't that rather the whole point of gathering intelligence?"

"Then I shall have them go and ask her if it makes you feel better."

Celestia half smiled as she sipped from her cup, "The only thing that would make me feel better is if Faust decided to give up her entire idea of revenge on us, went into hiding, and never showed her face again. I'm afraid that might be some rather wishful thinking on my part though."

"Perhaps. Nevertheless, once we know the basics of what Faust plans against us, we can start buying ourselves some time. If she attacked in even a month's time, we would have no hope of standing against her army."

Celestia was silent for a moment, thinking to herself as to what the repercussions might be for making the first strike. She suspected that the aggression would only make the beings of other nations think even worse of Equestria. "Are you sure sabotaging the Mareitanians is really the best idea Luna?"

"Cease thinking like a politician for a moment sister, and consider the fact that we are horribly outnumbered. We need every little advantage we can muster Celestia, and while we have a little time what with dear 'Mother's' unfortunate dehorning, we should push for that advantage as much as we can."

"Yes, but..." Celestia sighed placed her cup down. "This is why I wished for you to lead the war effort. What you see as necessary steps to surviving this coming war, I see as needless aggression that will only serve to drive others further from us, and make winning this war harder. The only question there is which one of us is right?"

Luna smirked at Celestia, "Me, naturally, since our only allied country in this is the size of a hoofball field. They allied with us for their own protection if you remember?"

"Of course I remember, just as I remember you wanting to aggressively co-opt the Crystal Empire into Equestria after we had defeated Sombra."

"It would hardly be aggressive, and after the loss of their princess, the crystal ponies would have needed firm, fair, and strong leadership. I thought we would be doing them a favour. Not that it mattered in the end anyway, just as how driving away allies that already refuse to fight with us is hardly a big issue."

Celestia shook her head, "I still think that you're risking too much by making the first move. A strike on them could make them retaliate against us in a way we can't defend against."

Luna didn't reply. She knew what they were doing was a risk, but so was inaction. Frankly everything she might do now felt like a risk. There was one possibility that she hadn't mentioned before that could prevent what Celestia feared would happen. The problem was that it wasn't a plan that she was comfortable with herself.

"There is a third option," Luna said after a while. "I suspect you won't like it though."

"It must be drastic for you to even consider saying that to me." Celestia refilled her teacup, "Let's hear it."

"There is an idea that could stop us from looking too aggressive, slow Mareitania down, and prevent the loss of life amongst our own citizens."

Celestia raised an eyebrow at Luna's reluctance to simply tell her what the plan was. "Is there a reason why I wouldn't like any idea that can do all that?"

"Yes, because it involves provoking a war between Mareitania and Griffonia."

There weren't many situations where Celestia could be genuinely surprised, let alone surprised enough to perform a spit take, but as tea dribbled down Celestia's snout, and the window in front of her, Luna was at the very least pleased that she still possessed the ability to make Celestia do that.

"Absolutely not!" Celestia shouted once she had recovered enough to form coherent sentences. "What in your right mind made you even think of that?"

"Griffonia has an interest in Mareitania, regularly sends scouts over it for some reason, have their own army, and have an Emperor that tends to reply to slights with vengeance." Luna took a delicate sip of tea as she let her sister think about that. "The pieces are all there Celestia. All we would have to do is find a way to provoke the griffons into attacking Mareitania, especially now Mareitania is no longer under our protection. The easiest way would be to make it look like the Mareitanians had attacked a griffish patrol, and then make them think that Faust intends to come after them once she was done with us. The Emperor would never take such aggression lying down."

Celestia rubbed her head, unsure of what to think. "I'm not sure what's worse. That you thought of this plan in the first place, or that I listened to it without stopping you."

"You'll at least consider it then?"

"No. As much as I'm tempted to agree simply to save our ponies, I will not agree to such a plan. The griffons aren't responsible for Faust's release, just as they are incapable of stopping her. I will not condone the wholesale slaughter of griffons just to save our own skins." Celestia stood and started walking to her room, then stopped. "I will hear nothing more of that plan, understood?"

"Not a word will be said of it." Luna watched as Celestia nodded and continued on her way. Once the taller mare was gone, Luna poured her tea away, considering the vile stuff to taste reminiscent of lava. As much as she wanted to be a good sister and listen to Celestia, she was also not against ignoring her, and if the Wonderbolts returned with dire news, she was not against taking matters into her own hooves, and going completely behind her sisters back.
> 8. Special training
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow opted to stay quiet as Spitfire led her, along with Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser, the others to have stepped up to replace Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot while they were in Mareitania, to a part of the Wonderbolts headquarters that Rainbow had seen plenty of times before, but had never been into; the mysterious hangar three.

Truthfully Rainbow didn't much care as she understandably had plenty of other stuff on her mind. Not least that she'd been asked to pack up a lot of her life and move to the Wonderbolts' headquarters, as she was now stationed there, or something. Even that paled in comparison to her friends being kidnapped, Twilight going off somewhere, and Pinkie... Rainbow wasn't sure what Pinkie was doing, but she was doing it without her friends, which she knew had to be crushing the poor mare.

"Why are there so many other ponies on base Captain?" Cloud Chaser asked as they flew towards the hangar. "I mean, some of them aren't even in the reserves."

"As of Princess Celestia's announcement yesterday, the reserves, some retirees, and even some washouts, are to be given the choice to become full members of the Wonderbolts. Equestria might be at war soon, and the Wonderbolts will be ready to do their part."

Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser shared a look, "What do you mean they'll be given the choice?"

"I mean just that. The reserves, and anypony else, get a choice over whether they want to join or not."

"But we didn't get a choice," Cloud Chaser said, sounding unsure.

Spitfire smiled without sympathy, "That's because you made your choice when you joined the Wonderbolts and took the oath. From that point on you were in both the E.U.P, as well as the Wonderbolts, meaning you recognised the possibility that you might be called to serve like you are now."

"Oh..."

"You aren't trying to back out of this, are you?"

"No!" Cloud Chaser said quickly. "I mean, no ma'am. I just- It's... just a bit scary. Don't worry Captain, Thunderlane and I have some payback to give for what they did to our friend Flitter."

"Alright," Spitfire glanced at Rainbow and shrugged, "but don't let your need for revenge cloud your judgement, or make you reckless. We're a team, remember." Spitfire landed in front of the hangar and opened a small door set in the larger one. She led them in and stepped aside to let them all have a look around. "Welcome to hangar three."

Row upon row of shelves filled the hangar, full to the brim with armour, weapons, and every conceivable thing a Wonderbolt could need to complete any mission.

"Woah..." Thunderlane looked up and down the shelves, "So, is this the Wonderbolts' armoury or something?"

"That's right," said Spitfire. "In here we have pretty much everything the Wonderbolts need to fight, except for enough armour since our numbers are being bumped up. But apart from that we have combat armour, hoofblades, some explosives we kept over from our time in Mareitania, smoke canisters, incendiary bombs, and a bunch of other stuff." Spitfire pointed sideways at Cloud Chaser as the mare teased a liquid filled glass orb out of a box, "Really, do not drop that, and not because it's probably older than your great grandmother."

Cloud Chaser carefully returned the orb to its place, "What are those?"

"Ogres and oubliettes nerds might call it alchemist's fire, and it does pretty much the same thing. Put simply, the stuff in that orb catches fire when it comes into contact with air. You throw it, it smashes, and boom! You got fire."

Cloud Chaser took a rapid step back from the box, "What the heck do we need that for?"

"At the moment, nothing. All that should concern you right now, is what I'm about to show you." Spitfire led them between the shelves, idly inspecting everything as she went. Apart from a bit of dust, everything appeared ready to go, which was good if the rest of the Wonderbolts returned with bad news. She stopped by the armour racks, picked up a helmet with attached muzzleguard, and tossed it at Thunderlane. He almost fumbled the catch, but managed to get hold of it, and noticed the marks on each side of the helmet.

"It has my cutie marks on it."

"That's right," said Spitfire, tossing another helmet at Cloud Chaser with her own marks on it. "Each Wonderbolt gets their own set of combat armour made the moment they join. For most Wonderbolts, the only time they ever wear it is during combat training, but it seems those times are about to change, and since you three skipped over your combat training when you joined, you're going to have to learn now instead. Spitfire threw another helmet to Rainbow, "Try them on."

Rainbow stared at the front of the helmet for a few seconds, then turned it around and slid it on. It fit perfectly. She clipped the muzzleguard in place and pulled the goggles down, finding the mix a bit claustrophobic, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. A moment later a full body suit with built in armour landed in front of her, Thunderlane, and Cloud Chaser.

"Suit up," Spitfire told them. "We have to go inspire some ponies to join us in a bit, so lets at least try to look the part."
The three of them wriggled into the suits, learning how to put them on with only sparse instructions from Spitfire as she was busy squeezing into her own suit. Rainbow pulled the final zip shut, and jigged up and down, pleasantly surprised by how light the whole ensemble was. It was probably going to drag a little, but otherwise it didn't restrict her movement in the slightest.

"Okay." Spitfire placed her own helmet on her head, "We have one more stop to make, then we'll go meet our new recruits. She led them back down the shelves towards the exit, and stopped in front of another set of racks containing hoof blades. She gave a set each to Rainbow, Thunderlane, and Cloud Chaser, then picked up the pair that had seen her through the war in Mareitania. Sure they might have broke her leg that one time, but they were still hers.

Cloud studied the weapons for a moment, seeming confused by them, "So we're not using wing-blades?"

There was a thunk as Spitfire gently head-butted a shelf. "Where do you ponies get these ideas about wing-blades? They're hard to make, hard to teach how to use, harder to learn how to use, and can be just as dangerous to the user as they can to their enemy. I think the griffon emperor's honour guards are the only ones to even use them as standard any more, and they're mostly just ceremonial.

"Oh. Sorry ma'am."

Spitfire strapped her blades into place on her back legs, put on the bracers on her front legs, then pulled one of the sturdy blades free. "Those blades are now yours, meaning that you maintain and clean them yourself while we're on deployment. They're made of toughened, stainless sky iron, and even though they aren't anywhere near as tough as thunder iron, they can take a beating before they break, and are more likely to break your leg first, as I found out the hard way. Feel free to customise the sheaths and bracers as you see fit, and even engrave or enchant the blades if you can find a unicorn capable of doing so. As I said, they are now yours."

"Neat." Cloud Chaser nudged Rainbow, "I bet Princess Twilight would be happy to enchant yours for you if you get the chance."

"Uh, yeah, sure, I guess."

"Are you okay Rainbow? You seem kinda off today."

"Considering what's been going on over the last few days, I don't know how you aren't." Rainbow pulled one of the blades out, "It doesn't matter how I feel about it anyway."

"I...suppose not."

Rainbow chose to ignore her as she slid the blade back into its sheath, then strapped the blades into place. She just started strapping the bracers on when Spitfire stopped her.

"Wrong way Dash. The bit that holds the blade goes on the front of your hoof."

"They do?" Rainbow spun the bracer around on her hoof. She didn't know a massive amount about hoof blades, but she was fairly sure you attached them to the back of your hoof. "Why?"

"They had a bit of a redesign after we got back from Mareitania. The old way was better for diving, but not much else. It'll make sense during your training, trust me. Anyway, get those on, and let's get moving; the new recruits should be gathered on the runway by now." Spitfire paused, "Okay, I say new recruits, but you know what I mean."

The short flight back to the runway was conducted in silence as each of them adjusted to flying in their armour. As Rainbow has expected, the armour dragged a little, but that was inconsequential to what she didn't think it would do. The insulated suit stopped her feeling the air moving over her body, which she'd never really thought about before. The display uniforms didn't have that issue, but the armour did, and as she wore it, Rainbow felt strangely detached from her movements, like her personal awareness was limited only to what she could see and hear. 

"I guess that's why training in it is so important," Thunderlane said to Cloud Chaser as Rainbow caught the end of a short conversation. Clearly they were having similar issues to herself.

Stood in three rows on the runway were slightly less than fifty ponies, a mix of reserves in their uniforms, retirees from the Wonderbolts, and ponies that didn't quite make the cut to keep their place in the reserves. Rainbow wasn't surprised, although she was aghast, to see a turquoise pegasus with an amber coloured mane and tail standing amongst them. Rainbow was about to ask Spitfire why Lightning Dust had been called up here, but changed her mind as she remembered the mare was an exceptional flyer. It was just her attitude that sucked.

They landed in front of the gathered ponies, and waited a beat for all of them to snap to attention. Rainbow met Lightning Dust's eye, but rather than anger, or hatred, or any of the other emotions Rainbow expected to see on Lightning's face before the mare looked away, she saw shame. Rainbow wasn't about to give Lightning the full benefit of the doubt, or any really, and didn't think it was worth making a fuss over yet.

"Good morning everypony," Spitfire said after a few moments. "I'm not going to beat about the bush here. All of you should know the reason why you've been summoned here today, and if you don't I suggest you read a newspaper sometime. Equestria is in danger, and the Wonderbolts will be doing their part in whatever comes. However, to do that we will be expanding our numbers, and all of you will be given the option, yes, option, to join us if you so wish, because as reserves you are civilians, and I can't order you to join. This is entirely voluntary."

Spitfire stepped back and pointed at the white dotted line running up the middle of the runway. "Any of you that wish to join the Wonderbolts and fight with us through whatever comes, step forwards over this line. Before you do though, I want to remind you that we are a force of elite fliers in service to Equestria and its princesses, and if it comes to war, we will be in the thick of it. It will be tough, it will violent, and ponies will die. If you can't handle the thought of that, do not cross that line."

A hoof was held up, and Rainbow recognised it as belonging to Sky Stinger. She cursed internally, because if he joined, Vapor Trail was sure to follow, and she was...soft. Rainbow felt bad thinking it, but Vapor Trail was shy, demure, and almost as softly spoken as Fluttershy. Rainbow couldn't imagine her in a battle.

"So you're saying that if we cross that line we become Wonderbolts? No questions asked?"

"If you think you have what it takes, then yes. Bearing in mind that you will be soldiers, and you may be required to take lives in the execution of your duty." Spitfire stared hard at Sky Stinger, "I suggest you keep that in mind as you make your decision."

"Heck, as soon as I heard that they would be asking for volunteers to form an army, I was going to sign up anyway. At least this way I get to be a Wonderbolt too." Sky Stinger stepped forward over the line, then grinned back at the ponies behind them. "Best of the best, am I right?"

With the first pony over the line, others soon followed, and to give these ponies their due, there wasn't many that didn't. Among those that did were Vapor Trail, much to Rainbow's concern, and Lightning Dust, to her annoyance, but all of the washouts had seemed keen to join. Rainbow hoped that they decided to not repeat whatever got them kicked out in the first place. It seemed odd to her that the ones that didn't cross the line were a half dozen reserves.

"Okay," Spitfire said once it became clear that those on the far side of the line were staying there. "Those of you that joined, welcome to the Wonderbolts. Or welcome back," she added for those that had retired. "Those of you that didn't volunteer, you are dismissed, and can leave your uniforms at the barracks."

"What?" A pale brown mare with a bow in her red streaked hair waved her hoof for attention. "You never said anything about getting kicked out!"

"Sorry Angel Wings, but there are no reserves now, so if you didn't cross the line, you aren't in the Wonderbolts."

Angel Wings quickly stepped over the line, "I volunteer!"

"Too late Angel. The fact that you didn't cross that line already tells me you don't have what it takes to be a Wonderbolt."

"B-but, I-I-I can do this! I can!"

Spitfire sighed, then smiled gently at the distressed pegasus. "Maybe. Maybe not. Look, if you want to have a chance to join us again, enlist with the regular army, and after some time to prove yourself there, you'll definitely be considered for a place with us. The fact is though, you weren't immediately willing to cross that line to do your part to defend Equestria, and I don't want any pony that might cut and run at the first sign of trouble."

"But I wouldn't do that!"

"Sorry Angel, but my mind's made up. Do what I said and you'll have your chance again. But until then, you're dismissed."
Rainbow watched impassively as the now ex-reserves trudged off, and found herself a little jealous of them having the choice. If she had the choice, she'd go get Pinkie, and go with Twilight. She knew she still could technically, but she knew that would be extreme, even for her.

"Alright, for the rest of you, we have two weeks to turn you into the greatest fighting force Equestria has seen in centuries, which means your training starts today. Unfortunately we don't have enough uniforms for all of you yet, and we don't have enough training blades, so we'll be splitting into two groups. Fire Streak, you and the other retirees already know all this, so if you can start drilling half of them on combat manoeuvres, I'll start on the weapons training."

"Why aren't the other Wonderbolts doing this?" Fire Streak asked. He looked around the area, not seeing a single other Wonderbolt, except for Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane, and Cloud Chaser. "In fact, why aren't they even here? I don't see any of them."

"They're on a mission, so it's just us for now. Anyway, I want two even groups." Spitfire walked through the group, splitting them into two, "Group A will be doing manoeuvres and close quarters flying with Fire Streak, and group B's with me. Dash, Cloud, Thunder, you're with me as well. Dismissed."

Rainbow started following after Spitfire, and missed Lightning Dust falling into step beside her until the other pegasus spoke. 

"Uh, hey, Rainbow."

"Lightning," Rainbow said back tersely.

"I just wanted to say congratulations on becoming a Wonderbolt. You really earned it."

Rainbow finally decided to look in Lightning's direction, and found that she was actually giving Rainbow a convincingly sincere smile. Rainbow didn't buy it for a second. She wasn't about to call Lightning out on it though. Not yet.

"Thanks," Rainbow said when she realised the pause was becoming a bit long.

"So, uh... You're friends with the princesses and stuff right? Is it really true about what they said about Mareitania turning on us? That we might be at war soon?"

"Do you really think this would be happening if it wasn't true?"

"I guess not, but this is kinda huge, you know?"

"Yeah, I do. And that means we'll be having to do everything we can to fight, which means working together. Don't think for a moment that I've forgotten anything you did at the academy, Lightning. You messed up bad, and if you think of acting like that again, I will be giving Spitfire my personal recommendation that you be kicked out again, you got me?"

Lightning took a step back, surprised at Rainbow's aggression. "I've changed Rainbow. I'm not like that anymore."

"Oh yeah? I guess we'll soon see how different you claim to be." Rainbow stepped up her pace and left Lightning behind. If she'd have known that Spitfire was going to invite her, she would have argued against it from the start. Hopefully Lightning's crappy attitude got her kicked out soon enough.

"Alright," Spitfire said, getting their attention while behind her the moustachioed ponies that seemed to hang around the academy set up straw training dummies, and wheeled out a rack of training blades. "Today you'll be learning how to dive, which is the simplest method of attacking a ground based target. However, get it wrong, and it can be just as deadly to you as it can your target."

Spitfire pulled some training blades out of the rack, and attached one to her bracers. "Now, for your safety, these are as blunt as hell." She swung the blade at some dandelions growing beside the runway, and failed to cut through most of them. "See? Unfortunately we don't have the new type of bracers for the training blades, so you'll be learning with the old ones on the back of the hoof, which are better for diving anyway."

"Actually," Cloud Chaser said nervously, "I was wondering why you don't have a blade attachment on the front and back of your hoof, so you can change your blade from front to back, depending on what you're doing."

Cloud Chaser grinned nervously as Spitfire spluttered, "That's... That's crazy talk. Who in their right mind would..." Spitfire waved one of the ponies setting up dummies over, and whispered into his ear for several seconds, whereupon he pulled out a note pad, jotted something down, then ran off. "Yeah... Anyway, I would normally talk you through a demonstration given by one of the others, but since I'm the only one here that knows how to do it, I guess you'll just have to pay attention."

"Captain?"

"Yes Rainbow?"

"I've been told how it's done by Princess Twilight, and I'd like to have a go if you don't mind?"

"By all means Dash, go ahead. Slide your bracers around so they're like the training ones first."

Rainbow did so, then flew straight up, the feeling that she was about to make a fool of herself creeping up on her as everypony watched from below. It took a few tries for her to reach back and slot her own blades into place, then once she was ready, she dived towards the dummy on the ground. The wind whistled in her ears as her target rapidly grew closer, and she swung her rear around so she was leading in with her back legs, bringing them down in the middle of the dummy's back, and plunging her blades into the shoulders of the dummy that collapsed beneath her and slammed into the ground. Hard.

"Aah!" Rainbow yelped as something went pop in her back legs, and she fell back so she ended up sitting on the dummy. "Ow!" Her ears twitched at the sound of slow clapping, and her cheeks burned as she saw it was Spitfire doing it.

"I gotta say Dash, that was the worst good attempt at that that I've ever seen, and was a great example of how to not do it. It was also only half a demonstration. Want to know what you did wrong?"

Rainbow flapped her wings until she hovered a few meters above the ground, and sheathed her weapons. "I came in too fast."

"Not really. As long as you can slow yourself enough you can do that as fast as you like. But you barely slowed yourself at all. You also forgot to take off again after, which is pretty important. In all fairness though you did lead in with your rear correctly, and I couldn't fault you on the stab, so I'll give you a c-minus for that. Good effort. I'm all out of gold stars though, so you'll have to imagine one."

"Yes Captain." Rainbow landed again, and squawked with pain as she put weight on her back legs. She collapsed onto her rear, and whimpered.

"And that is why it's so important to nail the landing," said Spitfire. "This method of attacking is pretty hard on your legs when you're doing it right, let alone doing it wrong. You okay Dash?"

"Yeah, I just need a minute."

"Alright, while Crash takes a minute there, I'll show you how to do it properly."

Rainbow stayed sat and idly massaged her throbbing hooves as Spitfire executed a perfect dive attack. Seriously, that dummy didn't know what hit it. Spitfire ran through it again just in case they didn't get it, then pointed at her first victims to have a go.

"Alright Sky, show me what you got."

"Sure thing." Sky Stinger soared up and readied himself to dive. He fumbled about for a moment, then dropped one of his blades, which fell right onto the dummy, barely disturbing it as the blade stuck in its back.

"That's one way to do it," Spitfire deadpanned. "How about you spend a minute there working out how to draw your weapons without dropping them while Vapor has a go." Ponies chuckled as Sky's cheeks burned with shame.

Vapor managed to draw her weapons first time, and set into a smooth dive that wasn't too fast or too slow. She swung her rear into the lead, and flared her wings to slow herself before landing neatly on the back of the dummy and stabbing it just in front of her own hooves. She then overbalanced and fell forward, bumping her nose on the ground. "Oof!"

"Nice try, but your stab was too near your landing point, which is why you fell over there. Get yourself together and have another go in a minute."

Spitfire pointed at Thunderlane to have a go on a different target, leaving Vapor to try and get up on her own with her blades still attached. She tried to stand, failed, then flapped her wings once and groaned. Rainbow was about to get up and help her when Lightning trotted over and helped her up into a sitting position.

"You alright there...Vapor?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Vapour wrinkled her nose and sneezed cutely, making Lightning chuckle. "Sorry."

"Don't be. That was freaking adorable."

"Voted the greatest sneeze in Stratusburg," said Vapour, blushing.

"Yeah, I can believe it. I'm Lightning Dust."

"Vapor Trail. I don't think I've seen you before. Are you in the academy?"

"I...was. It's a long story."

"Oh, okay. I guess I better have another go at a dive. Nice to meet you Lightning."

"And you." Lightning held a smile as Vapor flew off, and kept holding it, as much as it confused Rainbow. She expected Lightning to make some little comment insulting Vapor or something, but nothing happened until Spitfire called Lightning up for her own go. She nailed it perfectly.


-0-0-0-


"Okay, nice work guys. Tomorrow we'll be trading places with Fire Streak's group, which is going to be one hell of a workout for some of you, so get rested. Wake up call's at six in the morning. Don't miss it."

Most of them collapsed to the ground as Spitfire flew off, including Rainbow, but that had more to do with a desperate need to get out of her armour. As light as it was, it really did get a bit much after a while, and seemed to collect sweat. Once she had it off, she gathered it in her hooves and chased after Spitfire. "Spitfire! Wait up!"

"Is there a problem Dash?"

"I... I wanted to talk to you about some of the ponies here. Are you sure all of them are really what you're looking for?"

"Anypony you particularly have in mind?"

"One or two," Rainbow admitted guiltily. "No offense to any of them; they're all great fliers, but I don't think they're all made of stern enough stuff for what we're going to be doing."

"And you are?"

"Huh?"

"I know what you've done Dash, and I know you've had some experience in a fight, but you've never had to take a life, have you?"

"No, of course not."

"Then to me you're no different to any of the others here. Who knows how you'll react when push comes to shove, and you find yourself having to kill or be killed." Spitfire sighed as Rainbow looked down at the ground, "Look, I know not everypony is cut out for this, and I imagine we'll have a few drop out before the end of the week, but right now, you're all equal, and I won't be taking anypony out unless they either want to, or simply can't keep up with what's expected of them."

"And what about Lightning Dust? You know what she's like! Do you really think she's capable of working as a team through this?"

"Ah." Spitfire chuckled slowly, "So that's what this is about. I'm not going to lie Dash, I had second thoughts about asking her to come here, but all things said, she was an excellent flier. If she's still a reckless glory hound, then she'll soon find herself out again, but so far she's been nothing but helpful and decent to the other recruits. Maybe she learnt her lesson after last time? Give it time Dash, and we'll see if she's still the pony we remember her to be.


-0-0-0-


Five minutes after closing her eyes, it was dawn. Or at least that's what it felt like as they were rudely awoken by a bugle being sounded right outside the barracks. A second later the door banged open, and Spitfire entered, looking far too pleased with herself over what she was doing.

"Up and at 'em ponies! We have a long day ahead of us, so let's get moving. I want you all up and out on the runway in the next forty five minutes! Normally I'd do an inspection, but I think we can skip that today. Tomorrow though... Not a chance. Now get moving!"

Rainbow calmly got up and made her bed as ponies scrambled around her, the fear of Spitfire powering their every action. She wasn't so worried though, and stayed that way as she washed and breakfasted, and still managed to be on the runway before most of the others. They'd learn.

"Keen to get going Dash?" Spitfire asked playfully.

"I'll never learn to sleep on my hooves if I keep sleeping in bed instead."

"Well you must be asleep now because you seem to have forgotten something."

"I have?" Spitfire patted her armour, then nodded at the display uniform Rainbow had put on. "Aw shoot! Be right back!"

By the time Rainbow had forced herself into her armour, strapped on her blades, and found her helmet, she was very definitely the last there. All the impatiently watching ponies made that very clear. "Sorry."

"Uh-huh," Spitfire grunted. "Now that you're all here, good morning! I hope you're all ready for a fun filled day of activities that that will be lasting until the sun goes down." Spitfire grinned evilly as the assembled ponies groaned. "Welcome to the Wonderbolts ponies. Fire Streak, your group will be on weapons training, while my group, we're going to having some fun. Fall out."

Spitfire waited as Fire Streak led his group away. "Now they're gone, let me explain what we're doing. Close quarters flying, or c.q.f, is the skill of flying through narrow spaces. Now I can almost hear you thinking 'that sounds easy,' and it is, but it is also very necessary. If you find yourself fighting in a urban environment, you'll be thanking your lucky stars for this. Follow me."

Spitfire led them to a hole in the ground on the edge of the plateau. "I'm sure you're all familiar with this from the flag hunt we do in the academy, but this is just part of a larger system of caves that go all through the plateau. We've set up a course that you'll be flying, three at a time, while another three fly it in the opposite direction. Your objective is to stick together, make it all through the course, and not collide with the team coming in the opposite direction."

"That's insane," one of the ponies there said quietly to another.

"Hardly," said Spitfire, who heard them perfectly well. "In combat in a city, you will not be aware of where all the other flyers are, and you may well find yourself having to very quickly make enough room for oncoming ponies, while not hitting the sides of any buildings. This is about as close to that as you can get without learning about it firsthoof. Now let's get going. Cloud, Dash, and Thunder, you're up first, against Sky, Vapor, and..." Spitfire smirked at Rainbow, "Lightning Dust. Pick who's leading you, and get ready."

"Alright Dash, you're the best flier here, so I think you should lead," said Cloud Chaser.

Rainbow was about to accept when she thought of the other team, and who was in it. "Actually, I think you should lead Cloud. You're better at cornering, and I know I'll go too fast with them coming the other way."

"Really? Wow. Okay then."

They waited as the other group picked their leader, and Rainbow was surprised to find Lightning being quiet, neither asking to lead, nor suggesting others to lead. Sky Stinger was less so, but agreed on letting Vapor lead in this case. 
Their leaders decided, they took positions on either side of the hole, and waited for Spitfire's signal. "The tunnel splits left and right past here. Cloud, you're going right. Vapor, you're going left. Follow the markers through the caves, and don't crash." Spitfire held her whistle up to her mouth and blew a shrill signal to begin.

All of the ponies leapt up and dived into the hole, alternating between ponies on each team so they didn't collide. Rainbow ended up going last, following just to the side and behind Thunderlane, just as he followed behind Cloud as she navigated the way through the steep dive that came out of a cave into the open air halfway down the side of the plateau.
A marker on a cloud pointed straight up in a steep climb that led to a narrow, vertical entrance, that they had to loop around and fly into sideways to enter. The tunnel opened out on the other side, and they found themselves gliding down a gentle decline with a few horizontal and vertical pillars of rock that they had to dodge around. It occurred to Rainbow that none of these cave formations could be natural.

At the bottom the tunnel went flat, and they caught sight of the cave going left in an impossibly tight turn, but they went past it into a dead end with a flat surface at the end that had a U-turn arrow painted on it. All of them shifted in the air so their rear legs hit the giant sign, and they used it to launch themselves in the opposite direction, and followed the signs that pointed up the tunnel they missed. A tunnel the other group was coming down.

Rainbow threw herself to the side, rolling so her stomach almost scraped the rock, and even then she felt the tip of a feather run down her back as the others squeezed through whatever space there was. Then, in the blink of an eye, the other team was past them, and Rainbow fully understood why this was so important, and thanked Celestia none of them were holding their weapons.

With the other team having passed them, Cloud upped the pace a bit, and quickly led them up a curving incline that eventually turned back on itself, so they had to roll to remain level to the ground. Then there was only some narrow bends that they had to quickly bank from side to side to get through, and then they found themselves flying up through the exit at the top of the plateau.

"Nice work you guys." Spitfire checked her stopwatch, "Hardly an academy record, but still pretty good. How'd the pass go?"

"Pretty hairy," said Thunderlane. "I think I smacked Vapor in the face with the tip of my wing."

"Mmhmm," Spitfire said thoughtfully. "And that would another reason why we don't use wingblades, Cloud Chaser."

"Yes ma'am. No kidding ma'am. I thought smacking my head against Sky's ass was bad enough."

They all looked up as the other team soared up and out of the hole and looped back down to the ground. Spitfire checked her stopwatch again and frowned, "I know it wasn't the point of the exercise, but that was a little slow there guys."

"Sorry," Vapor murmured. "I got nervous about the others coming the other way, and slowed down a bit too much."

"I figured. I'm going to say this now; a slow pegasus is a dead pegasus in battle, so you're going to have to push yourself a little. Still, this was your first time, and there was no serious collisions, so good work all of you. Next teams!"

The first six took a break as two more teams took their positions and flew into the course. Rainbow stretched out onto her back, enjoying the break they had, however short it might be. She was about to congratulate Cloud on getting them through it, when she overheard Vapor.

"I'm sorry I didn't go fast enough guys. If this was a real battle I'd have gotten you killed."

"Hey, no worries," Lightning said as Sky side-hugged his best friend. "This is training right? This is what training's for. A bit more practice, and we'll be through there in no time."

"Really?" Rainbow said before she could stop herself. "You hate going slow!"

"And I still do, but I'm not the only pony in this team, and I'm not like that any more! Sure, the old me would've insisted on leading, gone too fast, left the others behind, and not cared as long as I got through. And the old me would've failed the course. Seriously Rainbow, get off my case."


-0-0-0-


"Okay, I hadn't planned on this today, but apparently some antsy folks took my request for some Royal Guards to train with very seriously, because they're here already." Spitfire gestured back at the dozen grey unicorns in their golden armour, "Any guesses what they're for?"

Nopony said anything, or held up a hoof, until Rainbow hazarded a guess. "Is this to do with those unicorn soldiers in Mareitania?"

"Partially," said Spitfire. "The Adepts are a dangerous bunch at the best of times, but, for anypony that knows the basic rules of pony versus pony combat, they are especially dangerous for pegasi. While they have range, nothing short of a tornado is going to worry them against pegasi. They can shoot us at distance, then shield themselves as we get close, and basically give us a very hard time. We are going to be learning how to counter that as best we can."

With a signal from Spitfire, the guards drew into a circle and raised their horns, forming a silvery shield that Spitfire flew over and stood on. "We'll do the simpler thing first, and learn how to bust shields. And I mean it when I say simple." Spitfire jumped up and slammed her hooves on the shield, barely even touching it. "On your own you have no chance, unless you've rediscovered the ancient art of throwing lightning off your wings. In a group though..."

Spitfire picked out a dozen of the trainee Wonderbolts. "You want to concentrate on as small a part of the shield as possible for greater effect. All of you concentrate a kick at the top of the shield."

The dozen ponies she picked out kicked at the shield, focusing at the point Spitfire said. The shield shimmered, and cracks formed in it, but it didn't break. The cracks filled back in as the guards repaired the shield.

"Okay, now do a dive and kick." Spitfire waited as the trainees complied, and grinned as the shield collapsed. "See? What did I tell you? Easy peasy. Of course, half as many earth ponies could kick that shield down twice as easy, but we aren't going to able to rely on that. Now, the rest of you have a go, and we'll move onto the fun stuff."

Once everypony had a go, they were obviously pleased to discover that the fun stuff would consist of being shot at by the guards. "A pegasi's greatest asset past their wings, and maybe legs, is their eyesight," Spitfire started to explain. "We can see things coming other ponies might not, including magic. As fast as it is, a sharp eyed pegasus can easily dodge incoming magical blasts, which is good, because these gentleponies here are going to spend the next five minutes trying to hit you. Have fun!"

"Wait? Are you serious?" Rainbow asked Spitfire, only to find the other mare cheerfully flying away. Then the sky became remarkably busy as bolts of silvery magic started shooting up into the sky from the guards below. Several quickly found their targets, and there were a few short screams until they worked out the magic being directed at them was totally harmless, and didn't so much as tickle. Then they started trying to dodge them.

Rainbow dodged to the right, narrowly avoiding being hit, then dodged to the right again as another bolt of magic almost hit her. "Fly around," she said loud enough for the others to hear. "We're sitting ducks like this!" To make her point, Rainbow started flying around, keeping an eye on what came from below, as well as the other trainees.

"Damn it!" one of the others cursed. "They're still hitting us."

"They're predicting our paths," said Lightning. "Try flying around randomly."

After a few minutes the hits ponies took grew less and less, until it was mostly by luck that the guards were hitting them at all. Spitfire called a stop to the activity to promise them even more fun.

"I see you've all mostly mastered not getting shot at a distance. Bravo. Now it's time to put it all into practice. Dodging at this distance is easy enough, but it gets harder and harder the closer you get, which is why we're going to make it a bit of a challenge for you. You'll be divided into squadrons of twelve, and your objective will be to take those unicorns down. Gently, mind you."

Spitfire took an inkpad off one of the instructors, "This will be your weapon. When one of those guards gets a hoofprint on him, he is out of the fight. On the other hoof, their magic will now sting, and you will know when it hits you. If you get hit anywhere on your body and wings, you're out, otherwise the rest is entirely up to you. Hits on tails are allowed."

Rainbow found herself teamed up with Cloud Chaser and Thunderlane in their little trio again, while Sky Stinger, Vapor Trail, and Lightning Dust made up another wing of their team. The other six were a mix of ex-retirees and reserves, whom Rainbow hoped knew their stuff. They each dipped a hoof in the ink pad, and took to the skies.

"What's the plan Fire Streak?" Rainbow asked, hoping that the retiree's experience might help them out.

"Split up into your wings and attack from all sides. The more spread their attention is, the better. They'll switch to their shield once we're close enough, so we'll need to work together to bring that down. Past that though..." Fire Streak shrugged, "All you have is luck then I'm afraid."

Sky Stinger scoffed, "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

A whistle from below informed them it was time to begin, and they split up into their wings. They spread out and flew away before looping back around to converge on the ring of guards. Rainbow dived down then flew low, weaving side to side as randomly as she could, hoping the lower trajectory would confuse the guards. She was horribly wrong, and Thunderlane squealed girlishly as a blast of magic hit him on the side. Elsewhere other pegasi were squeaking as they found the shorter distance between them and the unicorns much harder to dodge in. 

Rainbow pulled up as they got much closer, ready to work together with the others to slam down on the shield, only the shield never came, and two more pegasi were taken out as the unicorns kept firing. Lightning shoved Rainbow out of the way of a bolt of magic, surprising her.

"Attack them! Now!" Lightning shouted before diving back down. Rainbow and the remaining members of their squadron quickly followed, and made to attack the unicorns. It didn't work as they hoped.

One of the unicorns grabbed Cloud Chaser in his magic while another blasted her, quickly taking her out of the fight. A trio of guards shot Lightning down, but not before she could slap her hoof on a fourth. Rainbow caught sight of Fire Streak as he rolled low to the ground and slapped his hoof on the ass of a guard, but another caught him and dragged him to the ground before taking him out of the fight.

With most of their squadron taken out, Rainbow decided she could at least take one or two with her, and flew as fast as she could towards one of the guards with her hoof outstretched. She almost reached him when she felt something tug at her, stopping her almost immediately. Then magic grabbed her hoof and very purposefully pressed it against her own face.

One of the guards stood in front of Rainbow and grinned as she remained frozen on the spot. "Poor, poor Wonderbolts. You think you know everything," he said before blasting her point blank on the chest.

"Eep!" Rainbow squeaked as the magic stung as much as was promised, and she flopped to the ground and curled up as the guard released her. She remained there until she saw Spitfire standing over her and tutting.

"That's just embarrassing Rainbow. In fact I dare say this entire thing was embarrassing. A dozen of you against a dozen of them, and they lost only three, while you were wiped out in seconds. And Rainbow, you don't attack unicorns low. They have a much harder time looking up and aiming than they do against what you did. Now get yourselves up so another bunch can have a go."

Rainbow took the hoof Thunderlane offered her, and let him pull her to her hooves. "I guess that could have gone better."

"No kidding." Rainbow tried to rub the ink off her face. "This better not stain." She stopped rubbing as she saw Lightning pull one of the others up, and surprised herself by feeling guilty. Lightning had pushed her out of the way of a magic bolt. If this had been real, Lightning would have just saved her life. "Aw nuts. Lightning, can we talk?"

"Uh, sure, I guess." Lightning sounded as surprised that Rainbow was asking, than Rainbow felt by asking. "What's up?"

"Okay, first I want to apologise. I just assumed you would be like you used to be, and I'm sorry for not accepting you might change. I mean, if this was real you would have saved my life by pushing me out the way of that magic."

Lightning shrugged lazily, "Hey, no worries. All that stuff that happened is in the past, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." Rainbow laughed nervously, "Funny you should say it like that though. What happened to you since I last saw you? I thought you'd hate my guts if you saw me again."

"Oh, I did, don't you worry. If I'd have known where you lived I might have paid you a visit if you know what I mean. From my perspective, you got me kicked out of the Wonderbolts, and completely crushed my dreams. Believe me when I say I might well have hospitalised you if I saw you again."

Rainbow grinned cheekily at Lightning, "You could have tried." Rainbow smiled as Lightning rolled her eyes, "So what changed to make you stop hating me?"

"I did. My life basically crumbled around me. I had nothing to look forward to, or work for, or anything. The one thing I wanted above all else was gone, and all I had left was my hatred of you. And maybe Spitfire. I stopped going to work, I stopped paying my bills, and I stopped washing for like a month, which was pretty grim. I was solidly sitting on rock bottom, and I reached the point that I was so consumed with ineffectual anger I had to either kill myself, or accept that maybe... just maybe, you were right about me."

Rainbow was shocked, and it took her a moment to get herself together enough to speak. "You tried to kill yourself?!"

"No... I admitted you were right about me..." Lightning pulled a face at Rainbow, "Are you even listening?"

"Yeah, sorry. I just-" Rainbow shook her head, "Sorry. Carry on."

"There's not much more to tell. I got help dealing with my anger, and tried my best to start becoming a better pony. A pony more like you. Got another job, started paying rent again, and tried to build a life for myself where I wasn't a Wonderbolt. Of course, I still love flying, so when the news about Mareitania and the possibility of war came out, and I got the summons from Spitfire, I knew this was my chance to really prove I'm a better pony now, and do something good, y'know?"

"A pony more like me huh?" Rainbow sighed as Lightning blushed and nodded. "You might want to aim a little higher than that, because I'm very capable of being a total jerk."

"Yeah, I've noticed, but at least you realise when you're doing it, and apologise."

Rainbow thought of the way she'd sometimes treated Twilight over the last six months, and silently disagreed. "Not always. Still, I gotta say I like the new you, so is it okay if we give being friends another go without either of us being jerks?"

"Sounds good to me." Lightning held out a hoof, and Rainbow bumped her own against it. "I'm still faster than you though."

"Oh yeah? In your dreams Lightning. How many sonic rainbooms have you done lately?"

"That doesn't count."

"Sure it doesn't."

Lightning was about to retort when Spitfire shouted at them. "Hey, lovebirds! You're up again, so get back into your squadron, and get moving!"

"Yes ma'am!" they both responded together.

"Come on Rainbow, we'll get them this time."

"Yeah we will."


-0-0-0-


Spitfire watched with increasing despair as the unicorn guards once again picked apart and utterly defeated the Wonderbolts attacking them.

"It's going to be a long two weeks," she sighed.
> 9. Ponies with questionable intelligence
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fleur straightened her uniform. The uniform that she was very surprised to be wearing. When she approached Luna about the possibility of working with Equis, she hadn't expected anything in particular about the group, and in hindsight suspected she should have. She thought they'd be more like the Shades in Mareitania, which were far less formal. Equis however, at the very least required their liason to the princesses and other branches of the military to wear a dress uniform, with an extremely well starched collar.

"You look decidedly uncomfortable," the filly said conversationally. 

"I'm pretty sure that if I bend my neck too far this collar is going to cut me."

The filly rolled her eyes, "That's not what I meant in the slightest. I was referring to you being the bearer of bad news to the princesses. Just what you want in your first week on the job."

Fleur fiddled with her collar one last time, then sighed explosively, "I guess it was foolish to think they'd give me some safe little job somewhere, shuffling papers around. Especially after they found out I worked with Luna and the Wonderbolts in Mareitania."

"Look on the bright side! Now you can talk like Trixie and be all 'Equis reports,' and 'Equis can confirm,' and stuff!"

"A tendency to talk like Trixie is hardly something to aspire to filly."

The filly sat up and smiled at Fleur," Look, I can tell you're nervous. Perhaps you'll feel better about it if you practice what you're going to tell the princesses on me first?"

Fleur flicked the filly on the end of her nose, "Nice try filly. You know I can't tell you any of this. Quite frankly I don't know why they let you come with me this far as it is. I'm also still incredibly unimpressed you got yourself suspended just to come and support me."

"Oh pfft, whatever. The filly lazily waved a hoof in Fleur's direction, "I hardly need practice crossing my i's and dotting my t's, and what's the point of learning about ancient history when you now know half of it's a lie. Seriously, all the time spent learning about Equestria's founding was really not time well spent."

"Education is kinda important, especially considering what you just said."

"And how much education had you had by my age, huh? I'm almost the same age you were when you left Mareitania, and look how you turned out. Quite frankly, you could hardly read by my age according to you, and now you're working for Equestria's intelligence service." The filly sighed and crossed her forelegs, "And frankly, no amount of telling me is going to convince me algebra is necessary for anything."

"I'm sure it's useful for something filly."

"You could just let me go with Twilight. I'm sure I'll learn loads with the Princess of books."

"She's also the Princess of flashbacks, panic attacks, and having loads to do without you pestering her. You aren't going, and that's final."

"Please? You could make it an early heart's warming present."

"It's hearth's warming, and no. Really filly, I don't know why you keep asking, because the answer is no, and will always be no."

"But it's so boring here! I mean it! Even with the random monster attacks, Equestria is just so safe and... saccharine, it sickens me!"

Fleur sighed and rolled her eyes as the filly tried to look serious. "And struggling to survive day after day was so much better? Really? Stop being a dick about this filly, because Equestria might be at war soon, and we'll all have more excitement than any of us ever wanted."

"You say that like you've never been in a war before."

"Yeah," Fleur waved her scarred leg at the filly, "because I certainly don't have something to remind me of that every damned day. Now shut up, stop asking, and stay here because judging by the guard watching us with a weird expression, I have to go work now." 

"Fine, fine..." The filly shooed Fleur away with a hoof, "Go do your thing. I'll be right here when you're done."

"Fleur raised a suspicious eyebrow at the filly, "Really?"

"Yes really. Twilight would only send me back at this point, so there's no point in me trying to sneak off after her. I'll be right here when you're done doing that thing you're going to go and do."

"Good." Using her magic, Fleur picked up her bag containing all the papers she needed for her briefing. "Now wish me luck." Fleur smiled at the guard, then followed after him as he led her through Canterlot Castle, making sure to keep her breathing under control so as to not betray how nervous she was.

The guard stopped at a door that had very recently acquired a new shiny brass plate saying 'War room,' which Fleur could only take to mean was a room meant for sitting around talking about war, rather than a special room for getting into fights in. She waited for the guard to open the door, then walked in. The room was mostly empty at this point, apart from a large round table in its middle, around which sat Princess Luna, Captain Spitfire, and Captain Greywhisker.

"Good afternoon Fleur," Luna said as Fleur entered and laid her papers on the table. "I see Equis took my advice and made you into our liason."

"You suggested this?"

"But of course. We know each other Fleur, and I know you won't sugar-coat anything just because I'm a 'princess,'" Luna said, adding air quotes for the final word. "I also figured it suited you better than fieldwork, or anything along those lines. Now come and tell us the good news, should there be any."

"Actually, the news isn't as bad as initially thought. I don't know how much Captain Spitfire has already heard from her Wonderbolts, but if she hasn't told you already, Mareitania is far from ready to attack us with a full scale invasion."

"Actually, my Wonderbolts are sworn to secrecy," said Spitfire. She blanched at the face Fleur made at her. "What? I'm not about to give away the fact that I've heard all this before that easily."

"Uh-huh."

"I also had to deliver a sensitive piece of intelligence directly to the princesses, so, yeah, I've heard some things."

"Oh? So now we're skipping over Equis entirely?"

Luna cleared her throat just loud enough to stop then haranguing each other. "Actually that had more to do with the special nature of what they found, and how it affects ponies."

"Yeah," said Spitfire. "The fact that we had to wrestle it out of Sun Chaser's hooves told us enough about it being dangerous."

"Really? So are you going to tell me about it? By me I mean Equis, of course."

"Certainly," said Luna. "Once you have delivered your briefing."

"Now?" Fleur looked around at the three other ponies in the room. "Aren't we going to wait for the others to get here?"

"There are no others," Luna told her. "Up until the point that Equestria has an army to deploy, the only ones actively engaged in Equestria's defence are the Wonderbolts and my Night Guard. Everypony else is busily working on building said army, and have hardly even begun recruiting as yet."

"Okay, so I should just get on with this then?"

Luna nodded once, "Please."

"Okay then..." Fleur placed a large scroll on the table, then unrolled it to show a large map of Mareitania. On it she placed several photos at various points. "Y'know, I really am glad somepony thought to give the Wonderbolts cameras for this. Uh, anyway, I want you to bear in mind my complete lack of formal training for this."

"You did fine in Mareitania," said Luna. "I'm sure you'll do fine here too. Now tell us what these pictures are for."

"Uh, let's start with this one." Fleur pushed a photo towards Luna that showed an aerial view of Puddingarde keep. Within its grounds were a few hundred ponies. "As far as we can tell, Puddingarde is still being used as a training ground for their military. As you can see, there are plenty of ponies there, but not as many as predicted."

"But there are hundreds there," Spitfire pointed out.

"Yes, but there could be thousands. Whatever Faust has planned to get all the ponies of Mareitania on her side, she clearly hasn't done it yet, or it's not as effective as she hoped. Either way, it's slowing her down."

Luna studied the photo for a moment, then nodded. "How many soldiers do you think she has?"

Fleur placed a photo in front of Luna showing High Rock keep, and all around it was a mass of tents. "The highest estimate we currently have between what's at High Rock, Puddingarde, and other places around Mareitania, is fifteen thousand, which brings it back up to what it was when the civil war ended. How many of those soldiers are totally on her side though, is an entirely different matter. The point is that they have enough to invade with, but not very quickly."

"Yes..." Luna studied the two photos side by side. "A good defence could hold them off for some time if we put it in the right place. I doubt it would be that simple though."

"It isn't." Fleur slid another photo over to Luna, depicting a factory in Stalliongrad. Outside it were dozens of steam tanks. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you how those are bad news."

"A counter will be found," Luna said dismissively. "Besides, without the explosives I produced for them, those things are less terrifying than they appear to be."

"There's nothing saying they haven't learnt to mass produce their own explosives."

Luna froze for several seconds, then sighed bitterly as she supposed Fleur could be correct. "Even so, a counter will be made for them. Frankly, without magical fire and pegasi to supply them with water, they will suffer the same problems as when the Duke fielded them against us."

"Not...necessarily." Fleur cringed under Luna's gaze. "These tanks do appear to be larger, and although we have no way to confirm this, we suspect that the extra room might be used to store water and coal, allowing the tanks to operate for longer."

"Marvellous," Luna said dryly. "Still, as I said before, a counter will be found. Now perhaps you can tell us of any other weapons they might have developed."

"Apart from the net launchers to use against pegasi, none that we know of. Of course that doesn't mean there aren't any, but the Wonderbolts could only see so much."

Spitfire pointed her hoof at a picture to the north-east of Stalliongrad on the map, showing a blurry image of a few dozen ponies standing around a few tents. "What are they doing there? Another secret project like the steam tanks?"

Fleur raised an eyebrow at Spitfire's question, "You mean you don't already know?"

"Misty said she only spotted it by chance, and she didn't know what it was either."

"Y'know, your Wonderbolts really need to review just what exactly 'sworn to secrecy' really means. They shouldn't all be telling each other what they found like they went on a sightseeing tour of Mareitania."

"Just tell us what you think it is," Spitfire sighed.

Fleur eyed Spitfire for several seconds before speaking. "Honestly, we don't know either, but judging by where it is in the mountain's north of Stalliongrad, and the mostly civilian presence, we suspect they're simply surveying for further mining opportunities."

"Then why have soldiers there at all?"

Fleur shrugged, not knowing why either. "Protection from wild animals?" she suggested. "Or the army likes to have its hoof in every pie that affects their war effort. I'm afraid I'm just the messenger Captain, not an analyst, so I don't really know."

"So we can conclude it's likely not important," said Luna. "Perhaps we should keep an eye on it at least. Apart from that though, are there any imminent threats we should know about?"

"Imminent, no, but there is something we should definitely do something about before it becomes imminent." Fleur placed another picture in front of Luna, showing dozens of ocean faring ships lined up along the banks of the Mareissippi river, the place of which she also highlighted on the map.

"Good heavens," Luna murmured. "They're assembling an armada. That could easily land a couple thousand soldiers anywhere around the east coast of Equestria within a couple of weeks."

"And they're still building more," said Fleur. She passed over another picture showing a set of very basic dry-docks. "From what we were told by the Wonderbolts, and from some griffon intelligence, these dry-docks are at Whiplash, or Brayside, whichever, and that they're using prison labour to build them."

"Prison labour? They would need a lot of ponies to build that many so quick, so I suppose that makes sense." Luna studied the pictures for a moment, and saw that they looked like many of the merchant ships that Equestria had been sending there before the current crisis arose. "They copied our ships."

"It looks that way," Fleur agreed. "I imagine these are the first ocean faring ships built in Mareitania in over a millenium, so I guess it made sense to copy our ships. At the very least they can't easily get a tank on them, so that's something."

"That's irrelevant," Luna said sharply. "These ships need to be destroyed. That way we force them to attack us over the pass around the north of Luna bay. It seems we have our first target to slow their invasion."

"Actually," Fleur said slowly, "Equis has some recommendations if you're willing to hear them out?"

"Of course," Luna said kindly. "Anything to slow our enemy down."

"Okay, first we suggest tearing up the railway between Equestria and Mareitania. At the moment they could put a train full of soldiers into Vanhoover within the day. They can also use a train to transport their tanks at much higher speeds than the tanks could go themselves."

"A fair observation," Luna agreed. "I shall begin having them dismantled before the day is out. Was there anything else?"

"There is. The wood to build their ships is coming from the forests around Hoovendale. We recommend hitting their lumber operations there as well as the dry-docks around Whiplash. Destroying both of those would bring their ship building efforts to a standstill for weeks."

"Yes, very good. I think we all kn-"

"We also recommend not destroying the ships." Fleur cringed as Luna glared at her.

"I hope you have a good reason for that patently absurd suggestion."

"I do, or at least Equis does. The idea was to wait for them to set sail, then burn their ships at sea..."

"Thus killing thousands of their soldiers in one fell swoop..." Luna sat back and breathed out slowly as she tried to wrap her head around the idea. Considering the disparity in numbers between Mareitania and Equestria, taking out a large number of their soldiers without loss sounded ideal, but such mass killings were hardly the nicest idea. "This is a truly dark suggestion you are giving to me Fleur."

"I know, and I really don't blame you if you ignore it."

"Surely," Spitfire spoke up, trying to keep a tremor out of her voice, "if that was the idea we went with, surely it would be better to let them build more ships to put more soldiers on?"

If Luna was surprised by Spitfire's suggestion, she didn't show it. "You support this idea?" she asked the pegasus quietly.

"I- I'm not sure. It's drastic, but drastic might be the only thing stopping us from being overrun before we're ready for them."

Luna sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, "I daresay that if Celestia, Shining Armour, and anypony else were here they'd dismiss this idea as too extreme. I however, cannot deny the attraction of it, as reprehensible as the idea might be. You said that their army is not ready to attack yet Fleur?"

"They could, but we don't think they're willing to do so until they have the numbers to truly overwhelm us."

"Even though they could already," Luna muttered. "The longer they wait, their numerical advantage shrinks, not grows. With the Royal Guard, Night Guard, Wonderbolts, Crystal Legion, and the soldiers from Mustangia when they arrive, Mareitania still outnumbers us two to one. Surely their plan cannot be to wait for us to build an army and grow stronger."

"Perhaps Faust showed her hoof too soon Mistress," said Captain Greywhisker, the first thing he'd said since the meeting began. Fleur had been beginning to think he was mute.

"Possible. She has displayed impatience in using magic to control Mareitania, so perhaps she had thought herself to be more ready than she actually is. It matters not. We cannot risk them building more ships. Captain Spitfire, Captain Greywhisker, prepare your forces for an assault on Hoovendale and Whiplash. I shall have made a decision on whether to destroy their ships by this time tomorrow. I shall be in touch."

"As you wish Mistress." Greywhisker bowed his head while Spitfire saluted, then both stood up to exit the room.

"Wait," Fleur said before they went too far. "Didn't you say you had some information for me? Something about Sun Chaser?"

"Ah yes." Luna nodded at Greywhisker to continue, and gestured for Spitfire to return to her seat. She then lifted a padlocked metal box onto the table, unlocked it, and pulled out a small wooden figurine. It was one Fleur was familiar with from her time spent in Mareitania, and depicted an alicorn, rearing up with her wings spread and her head bowed; the symbol of the Lady. Straight away Fleur's horn started itching, and she rubbed it idly. "You can feel it, can't you?"

Fleur nodded slowly, her eyes fixed on the idol, "That's the same magic Faust uses to control ponies, isn't it?"

"Not control, but influence. Otherwise yes, that magic is what you can feel."

"And where did Sun Chaser find this?"

"She saw it while doing recon in Bitmark," Spitfire explained. "It was sitting in an open window, and she said she felt drawn to it for some reason, so she stole it. She refused to give it up too, and fought three of us off to try and keep it."

"Did she start to hate Equestria too?"

"Uh, not yet, and Luna counter-spelled her, and the rest of us, so she's fine now."

"That's a pity," Fleur sighed. "It would have been nice to work out how this magic affects a pony. The ponies in Equis have tried asking the ponies Twilight took prisoner in Ponyville questions, but they seem particularly tight-lipped about everything, and we definitely aren't going to resort to torture. Still, when I was there I was affected by the magic within hours, and started feeling negatively about Equestria soon after. The magic in the statuette must be weaker."

"Without Twilight to make a full comparison we couldn't tell," said Luna. "Still, judging by yours and Sun Chaser's experiences, I dare say you might be correct."

"Can I have a look at it?"

"Certainly." Luna levitated the figure over to Fleur who took it in her hooves to have a closer look. It was much tidier than the ones she remembered ponies having back in Mareitania before the civil war, when worshipping the Lady was very much illegal. If she were to guess she'd say it was also carved by magic, rather than by hoof.

"What's this?" Fleur rubbed her hoof over a near invisible seam going around the chest of the figurine, like it had been cut in two then put back together almost perfectly enough to not be noticeable. It didn't make sense to Fleur to make the figure in two pieces, so her only conclusion was that there was something inside.

"What are you doing?" Luna asked when Fleur started trying to pull the two pieces apart with her magic, huffing and puffing as she strained.

"This... thing, comes apart, and I want to-ack -know why! Nngh! Come on you fucker! Break! Apart!" Fleur strained some more, then slammed it down on the table in defeat. "Luna, do you mind?" Wordlessly, Luna picked it up and pulled it apart with little effort. "There was a reason I didn't become an Adept in Mareitania," Fleur grunted. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Fleur picked up the two pieces and inspected them. The top half was flat along where the seam was, so she discarded it, but the bottom half had a small hollow carved into it, and was lit up by a sickly green glow. Fleur tipped it up, and a small gem fell out that was the source of the glow, and she slammed a hoof down on it as it bounced across the table.

"What was that?" Luna asked, her interest piqued. Fleur lifted her hoof off the gem, and picked it up so the could all see it. "I'm guessing that must be the source of the enchantment. I wonder what kind of magic that is?"

"It looks like changeling magic from the colour," said Spitfire. "Wait, is Faust really Chrysalis? Is this all her doing?"

Luna shook her head, "Changelings merely use a kind of mind magic. They certainly aren't the source of it at any rate. Still though, it does look remarkably similar to changeling magic, so one has to wonder which came first, the magic or the changelings? Faust could easily be old enough to predate the changelings, and might have had a hoof in their creation if what Twilight told me about her first meeting with Faust was true."

Fleur looked between Luna and Spitfire as they both stared intently at the gem. "Does it matter?" she asked after a moment.

Luna considered it and shook her head, "Not really. If Faust were really Chrysalis in disguise, we'd know simply because her power would be recognisable. Although, I while suspect that the love and adoration of an entire nation could empower Chrysalis greatly, I doubt it would amplify it to the point of matching Faust's power."

"Again, how does this help?"

"Merely idle speculation," said Luna. "You've seen Faust, and did she seem like a changeling to you?"

"Well, no, but surely the point of a changeling disguise is to very much not appear like a changeling?"

"True, but a changeling cannot disguise their magic so easily, nor can they maintain that disguise without their horn. If Faust truly were a changeling, then her disguise would have broken the moment Twilight removed her horn." Luna smiled awkwardly at Fleur, "Sadly that means Faust is who she claims to be."

"Oh."

"Still, we've learnt that Faust is utilising a form of mind magic, likely similar in nature to changeling magic, which is at least something. If only we knew more about changeling magic we might better learn how to counter Faust's."

"I think we have a bigger problem than that," Spitfire said slowly. "I'm guessing the point of these figurines is to have one in each household in Mareitania, right?"

"I expect so, yes," Luna agreed.

"Those gems could be put into anything though," Spitfire continued. "If Faust somehow got loads of those into Equestria, our entire country would turn on itself."

Fleur snorted dismissively, "If that's what Faust planned, then she should have done it before we stopped trading with Mareitania."

"But we still trade with other countries," Spitfire pointed out. "We've already seen that Mareitania's Shades are more than capable of operating outside of their country, so they could plant those gems in their trade goods. Then, when they're found, ponies would be drawn to the gems, or what they're hidden in, and would want to take them home where their friends and families would be affected. They'd start supporting Faust, and would turn against us. In fact, given enough time, Faust could turn the entire world against us."

"Would it work like that though?" Fleur asked. "I mean, apart from us, and the ponies of Mareitania, nopo- no-one really knows who Faust is. Can they be forced to love somepony they don't even know exists?"

"You raise an interesting point," said Luna. She thought about it, but soon realised that even if ponies, or whoever, didn't fall in love with Faust, or the Lady, then the spell could still turn them against Equestria. At the very least it was still worth being worried about. "I shall inform my sister of this news, and let her warn our neighbours if she so wishes. Apart from that, we shall have to station guards at all our ports and similar places, to scan for these gems. Thankfully they really aren't very hard to detect. Now was there anything else Fleur?"

"I think we've covered it all Luna."

"Then I shall wish you good day. I imagine the filly is probably whining about being bored by now."

"If she's not wandered off somewhere." Fleur nodded to Spitfire as the Wonderbolt passed by, then gathered up the map and photos. "So, how did I do Luna?"

"Back in the day we used to point at a place and say 'we attack there!'" Luna smiled at the unsure expression on Fleur's face. "Alright, perhaps there was a little more to it than that, but we certainly didn't have cameras, or even a fully worked out concept of intelligence gathering. Because of that, I'll say you did fine. You told us what we needed to know, and we hopefully have a plan to move forwards with, although I still need to decide on the boats."

"Thanks Luna. I look forward to working with you more."

"Likewise. Now, if you'll please excuse me." Luna placed the two halves of the figure, as well as the gem, back into the metal box, then picked it up in her magic. "I imagine it best that this not be left lying around."

Fleur half bowed to Luna as she left, then released a breath that she felt like she'd been holding since entering the room. "I guess that could have gone worse." She picked up the map and photos, and shoved the whole lot into a saddlebag that she slung over her back. "I still felt like an idiot though," she muttered as she exited the room and closed the door behind her.

"Ahem."

Fleur froze at the polite, yet annoyed sounding attempt to grab her attention, then turned on the spot to see Spitfire lounging against the wall. Thankfully the pegasus appeared to less annoyed than she sounded, but Fleur knew for a fact that Spitfire was fully capable of hiding her emotions. 

"Can I help you Captain?" Fleur asked as politely as she could.

Spitfire pushed off the wall and walked up to Fleur so they were almost face to face. "I do believe you can. Do you really think having the Wonderbolts sworn to secrecy from each other is either necessary, or practical? Sworn to secrecy to others outside of our unit, sure, that I can agree with to stop things getting out, but to each other? You risk damaging our own effectiveness on future missions when we don't all know the facts."

"Look, I'm not the one that ordered you keep everything secret from each other. I'm also not the one that'll be telling anypony that you not only failed at that, but also didn't even try, and did in fact break that order on purpose. I agree that it's a stupid order, but I'm the new mare in Equis, and have absolutely no influence whatsoever, so I can hardly ask them to rescind that order. I will however recommend you keep breaking that order so long as you do only keep it in the Wonderbolts."

Spitfire stared at Fleur for several uncomfortable seconds, then cracked a grin. "So long as we understand each other. Seriously though, you ran the Shades for a while in Mareitania. Why the hell are you just some glorified spokespony to the princesses?"

"Because Luna requested it, and Equis already knows more about how the Shades work than I do, so what I know is already irrelevant. I think the only reason they gave me a position was because I had Luna's blessing. Otherwise they might have laughed at me and told me to fuck off, like I sort of wished they had done. I was an idiot to think of asking to join them."

"Yeah, well..." Spitfire shrugged, "After all we did to help the Mareitanians, I think all of us that went there are idiots. Look at what our hard work and sacrifice has brought us to; war between Equestria and Mareitania. Really makes it all seem totally worth while, doesn't it?"

"You can say that again," Fleur sighed. "Look, I'll ask to try and get Equis to review some of their policies on what you said, but that's all I can really do as it's totally out of my hooves."

Spitfire nodded in appreciation, "That's all I'm asking. Now come on, I thought you had to find your trouble-maker?"

"You mean Swift?"

"Swift?"

"Swift Wings. It's the filly's real name."

Spitfire winced, "Ouch..."

"Yeah, it's not surprising she decided to not use it. But we kind of have to now because ponies aren't allowed to not have names here."

"She's having the same treatment that Fleetfoot had isn't she? Shouldn't she have her wings back soon?"

"Yeah, but it's still going to be months until she can even attempt a flying lesson. Thankfully she's not too bothered about how long it takes. I just hope she can still get the treatment while Equestria gets dragged through the shitter. Anyway Captain, how are things with you?"

"Still training all the new Wonderbolts up to scratch. Now the rest are back it's going a lot quicker, giving me a lot of time to worry about pointless bullshit like the reserves I dismissed because they didn't join us. Judging by the way Prince Shining Armour yelled at me, it wasn't the right thing to do, so I've given some of them a chance to join again if they want. Only two of the six I dismissed joined, while the others want to sue for unfair dismissal, even though it wasn't a paid job, and the reserves have been disbanded for the duration of the war, so they have no grounds, and no reserves for them to sit around in. It's like they just wanted to be stunt fliers without all the responsibilities of being in a military unit, or something."

"Oh..." Fleur looked sideways at Spitfire, "That does sound like a heaping pile of bullshit."

"It does when you consider that I've always had the authority to dismiss anypony I wish from the Wonderbolts and the reserves as long as I have adequate reason." Spitfire shrugged, "I guess that isn't the case any more."

It wasn't a long walk back to where Fleur had left the filly, and as Spitfire and herself made it there, she wasn't sure whether to be ashamed of being surprised that the filly was exactly where she'd left her, albeit rolling around on the seats whining about being bored.

"Swift?"

"Huh?" The filly snapped upright at the sound of Fleur's voice, then relaxed as she saw who it was. "Oh, you're done. About time too. And as you can see I am exactly where you left me, having resisted the overwhelming urge I had to disappear somewhere purely to piss you off." The filly looked up at the pony next to Fleur, "Hey Spitfire."

"Hey filly. You seem to have the beginnings of wings again."

"I know right! I can't wait until I have the ends of them too! Then I'll be a real pegasus!"

Spitfire almost choked on her next words and looked sideways at Fleur, "I can't tell if that was sarcasm or not."

Fleur swivelled a hoof back at Spitfire, "Eh, who knows with her? Anyway, get your shit together filly, because we're done here, and I'm pretty sure that means I can't just sit around the castle looking pretty any more."

The filly looked around with exaggerated slowness, "Yeah... I didn't bring anything with me. And don't you have to drop all that stuff off with Equis? I'm pretty sure you're not meant to carry it around with you all the time."

"I'll drop it off on the way out-"

"Aren't you supposed to inform Equis about the gems and the statue things?" Spitfire interrupted.

"...fuck, I guess so." Fleur groaned towards the ceiling, "Why did I want to do my part in all this again?"

"My guess is it's because you're an idiot," said the filly. "I also guess I'll continue to acquaint myself with this rather plush seat I've been sat on for the last hour." The filly grabbed a cushion, and nuzzled it with a sigh. "Oh cushion, you are my only friend."

"Drama queen."

"I guess I better get going," Spitfire said as Fleur and the filly glared at each other. "It was good seeing you again Fleur, and I guess I'll be seeing more of you in the future."

"Assuming I don't get fired first."

"Assuming that, yes. See ya."

"Farewell Captain." Fleur watched Spitfire leave, then collapsed onto the seat next to the filly. "Y'know, if you'd just gone to school you wouldn't have to sit around here."

"And what? Learn more lies about Equestria's history, then find out what new method those assholes at school have come up with to torment me? Sure, sure, sounds like good times. I'll be sure to recommend it to all my friends, if I can make some."

Fleur smiled sympathetically and ruffled the filly's mane, "Come on, it'll get better."

"Yeah, maybe they'll all get killed when Mareitania invades."

Fleur was stunned for a second at the sheer vitriol on those words, and fervently hoped the filly didn't really mean them. "Don't even joke about that."

"Who's joking?"

"The amount of crap you put up with as a kid, and a bunch of schoolponies are getting you down? Really? I thought you just normally kicked your way out of trouble." The filly turned her head away from Fleur and snuggled into the cushion. "Okay, this is clearly something more serious. I'm going to report back to Equis, then you and I are going to have a talk about this."

"Whatever."

"I mean it. Something's just triggered this off, and I intend to find out what."

The filly turned her head back enough to peek at Fleur out of the corner of her eye, "Can we have ice-cream too?"

"Are you paying or me?"

"Har-har Fleur."

Fleur smiled at the filly then patted her once on the back, "Chin up filly. I'll be back in a bit, so keep on keeping out of trouble."


-0-0-0-


The head of Equis was a unicorn stallion affectionately known as Muckraker, although Fleur had no idea if that was his real name, or if it was actually affectionate in the slightest. He'd formally been a reasonably high ranking member of the Royal Guard, and had been entirely involved in their intelligence department before being made head of Equis when the two units merged. His second in command was Eclipse, the thestral mare that had been head of the Night Guard's intelligence. Again, Fleur had no idea if that was her real name, and was frankly too scared to ask as the mare had the most piercing gaze she'd ever encountered. It left Fleur with the feeling that Eclipse knew more about her than she knew about herself.

It was that gaze Fleur found herself failing to meet as she stood before Muckraker's desk, reporting on how the briefing with Luna went. Eclipse stood off to the side, frowning as she passively tore the secrets from Fleur's head, while Muckraker had the temerity to smile at her like she hadn't delivered the worst briefing possible.

"So the Princess is at least considering our proposal," Muckraker said to nopony in particular. "That's good. A shame that she decided to keep the statuette instead of letting us have a look at it, but hopefully she gives it to the right ponies to study. Learning how to counter that magic sooner rather than later could change the course of this war before it even begins."

"We shouldn't even begin to rely on that," Eclipse said to him, drawing her unforgiving eyes away from Fleur long enough to do so. "Even if we could counter that magic in any meaningful way, we have no idea whether it'll change how the ponies of Mareitania think."

"Of course." Muckraker gave Fleur a friendly nod, "Good work Fleur; you're dismissed for now."

"Actually I have one more thing to ask on behalf of Captain Spitfire concerning the level of secrecy required within the Wonderbolts. She wants to lessen the restriction on discussing matters with other Winderbolts."

"Absolutely not," Eclipse replied almost before Fleur had finished speaking. "She might be foolish enough to trust every pony within the Wonderbolts, but there are ponies in there that could easily betray knowledge to the wrong ponies, even unknowingly. The less they all know, the better for the rest of us."

"Isn't that a little paranoid?" Fleur asked slowly, earning herself the full intensity of Eclipse's gaze. "She accepts keeping the information within the Wonderbolts, but thinks keeping what they know from each other to be a hindrance to what they might be doing when they're in Mareitania."

"Some of the Wonderbolts were civilians a mere fortnight ago," said Muckraker. "I realise our restrictions seem a bit harsh, but with Mareitania's Shades being fully capable of operating within Equestria we have to be careful about who knows what, because the newer recruits might not be very careful with what they say. If the Shades found out that Princess Luna intends to strike the shipyard at Whiplash, and the lumber mills around Hoovendale, they could turn it into a trap for the Wonderbolts and Night Guard, and cause serious harm to our ability to strike them in their own country."

Fleur nodded. She could see their point perfectly well, and had no intention of trying to make them change their mind. She very much doubted whether Spitfire would have any intention of accepting that though. "Understood."

"Good. We'll be in touch."

"And Fleur," Eclipse said coldly, "don't bring your daughter to work again, or you may find yourself out of a job."

"She's not my dau- Ahem. I mean, yes ma'am."


-0-0-0-


"Huh... that was quick." The filly quickly jumped up to make room for Fleur as she flopped onto the sofa beside her.

"I hate my boss. Bosses. One is overly nice to the point I can't tell whether I did a crap job or not, and the other just scares me. What the hell possessed me to think this was a good idea in the fucking slightest?"

"Maybe we should have gone with Twilight."

Fleur rolled her eyes at the extremely casual way in which the filly said that. "Nice try, but the answer is still no. Now get up; ice-cream was mentioned, and I think I need it more than you do at this point."

"You don't have to tell me twice." The filly bounced once on the seat, then down onto the floor to stand impatiently in front of Fleur as the older mare dragged herself up. "Come on! Move those sweet butt cheeks."

"You're fifteen; don't say stuff like that to me, it's creepy."

"Was it creepy before I became your quote, daughter, unquote?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was."

"Oh. Well I'm not going to apologise." 

"Didn't think you would. Come on, let's get out of here before I forget where the exit is."

The walk to the exit was conducted in silence, because it was really only two minutes away, and that was literally the longest the filly could go without talking when it wasn't a life or death situation. Instead Fleur smiled politely at the guards, who, rather than adhering to the protocol of staring stoically ahead, followed the former supermodel with their eyes, simultaneously wondering why she was there, and why did she have to leave? Also, who was that kid following her?

Outside was a much different story. Normally Canterlot was an incredibly vibrant city, bustling with activity. Since the announcement of a possible war with Mareitania though, it had changed drastically. Tension filled the air, and ponies didn't go about their lives with the same happy, carefree attitude that they normally did.

Fortunately that didn't prevent ponies from remembering that they still needed to make bits to live, regardless of the doom and gloom that had settled over the city, meaning that every store, café, and restaurant was open for business as usual, including the ice-cream parlour that sat almost exactly halfway between Canterlot Castle and home. Its position also afforded them a pretty good view of a lot of the city.

"So, what's up with you?" Fleur asked once the waitress had delivered their desserts.

"Am I a real pegasus Fleur?"

Fleur paused with the spoon held halfway to her mouth, "Excuse me?"

"Am I a real pegasus?"

"Yeah, that still doesn't make sense to me. Do you not feel like a pegasus?"

"I guess so." The filly poked her spoon at her icecream, "It's just that the kids at school have started telling me that I'll never be a proper pegasus, even if I get my wings back. For some reason it actually bothers me when they say it."

"You do realise that what they're saying is totally absurd right? You're a pony, and you have wings. And since you aren't an alicorn, or a thestral, that leaves you with the singular option of being a pegasus, no matter what a bunch of idiots tell you. Now, what are you filly?"

"'m a pegasus," the filly murmured quietly.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I'm a pegasus," the filly repeated a little louder.

"One more time."

"I'm a pegasus!"

"Damn right you are!" Fleur grinned at the small bulges that formed under the filly's bandages as she tried to flare her wings. If she acted like a pegasus, thought like a pegasus, and had the wings of a pegasus, chances were she was a pegasus. Or a thestral, but the lack of cat-like eyes argued against that one. "Now stop being silly, and eat your icecream before it melts."

"Only on the condition that you tell me what's bothering you."

"Fair turnabout I suppose." Fleur ate another mouthful while she composed her thoughts. "I feel like an idiot."

The filly nodded thoughtfully, "Nothing new there then. Good talk Fleur."

"Hah, funny. What I mean is that I feel horribly out of my depth in Equis, and I have no idea why. I practically ran the Sh-" Fleur stopped as she remembered they were in public, and probably shouldn't say such things out loud. "I practically ran that group in that place we were in, and even though I didn't really know what I was doing, I still felt like I knew better then, than I do in my current role as a glorified... whatever I am. I just feel really stupid for even asking to join them."

"Uh-huh." The filly swallowed her mouthful and wiped her mouth on her leg. "Do you think the problem might be because you're not in control? Back when you ran 'that group,' you were in the thick of everything, and knew what was going on. You were also part of Twilight's inner circle. I mean, fucking hell Fleur, even I was part of the inner circle, just by sheer dint of knowing you guys. Now though, you're a glorified 'whatever,' and it bugs you to not know what's going on, and to be at the bottom of the pile, when you were once on top of it."

"...damn, filly."

"Was I right? My other suggestion was that you have gas."

"Sort of right. I think it's because this whole thing feels bigger than what we did in Marei- that place. Back then we were pretty much answerable only to ourselves, whereas now we have princesses, and superiors, and all that jazz. I think I miss the rather informal nature of what it was back then, and don't like the pressure of now knowing exactly what happens if I fuck up."

"But that's not your job," the filly pointed out. "You just give briefings to Luna. Getting the information is other ponies jobs."

"And? What if me being sloppy completely negates the work they do simply because I miss something out?"

The filly shrugged, "Then quit if you think you aren't up to it."

"I-" Fleur wanted to say she couldn't do that. She knew she couldn't really, because she had to do something to help Equestria, but she also couldn't deny that quitting sounded really good. "I don't know. I think I'll just have to get used to it. Maybe something will come up that I can do instead, but until then, I'm the glorified messenger pony to the princesses."

"Tough life, ain't it."
> 10. First strike
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The royal air yacht was a level of comfort that Rainbow had rarely had the luxury of experiencing before, save for her few visits to Canterlot Castle. Sure it was a little dusty from being kept in storage for so long, but that hardly detracted from how nice it was. Rainbow hadn't even been aware that there was a royal air yacht until it had pulled up at the Wonderbolts headquarters the day before, and had been told that it was used exclusively by the princesses on long trips abroad, the last of which had been thirty years prior. 

The only reason Heaven's grace had been brought out of retirement now was because of the sheer size of it. Despite being nearly a hundred years old, it was still the largest airship in Equestria by far, and its enchanted hull negated its own weight, meaning it easily housed the Wonderbolts, and three hundred of the Night Guards, as well as the equipment they needed for the mission. At least it did if you didn't mind sharing rooms. Even so, it certainly beat flying to Mareitania and back in one night.

Rainbow sat on deck, leaning over the guardrail and watching the ocean twinkle with the last rays of the soon to be setting sun. She been there for the last hour, just quietly contemplating the fact that she was about to go and kill ponies in the first strike of a war that hadn't technically begun yet. She finally felt that she understood Twilight now that she was having to do these things, not because she wanted to, but because she had to.

"Hey Rainbow, looking for company?"

Rainbow didn't need to look to see that it was Lightning Dust that had spoken to her, and she was almost tempted to brush her off, but she didn't need Lightning to think that Rainbow was giving her the cold shoulder mere hours before they launched their attack.

"Sure." Rainbow still didn't move as Lightning sat beside her, both of them ignoring the activity around them as the others mentally prepared themselves for their mission. Some of them were pumping themselves up, while others exercised quietly to prepare their bodies. Others were like Rainbow, and kept to themselves.

"So, you ready for this?" Rainbow snorted a sigh at Lightning's question, telling Lightning more than enough. "You're not going to back out of this are you?"

"Of course not. I'm just scared alright? Is that a problem?"

Lightning quickly held up her hooves in submission, "Dude, no. I'm not going to lie and say I'm not scared just to try and impress you or something. What we're about to go and do is crazy, and I think you'd be nuts to at least not be concerned. Heck, even Spitfire's wigging out about it, and she's actually got combat experience. The only ones that seem fine with it are the bat ponies, and who the hell knows what they're thinking?"

"Got something against bat ponies?"

"Only the ones in the Night Guard. They always seem so uptight, and devoted to Luna. It gives me the creeps."

Rainbow looked back at where some of the Night Guard were quietly talking to each other. "Say what you want about them, I'm happy to have them on our side. From what Twilight told me about them, they could probably wipe the floor with us in seconds."

"That good huh?"

"They can live to be up to eight hundred years old or more, and looking at some of them, yeah they seem younger than us, but could easily be two or three hundred years older. And they're part dragon, which makes them tough as hell. Some of those guys have probably had more combat experience than us in the time before we were even born than we'll ever have in our entire lives."

"Woah..." Lightning looked back at the thestrals with a newfound respect. "Wait, how can something be part dragon? Did ponies breed with dragons at some point? Is that even possible? Don't dragons lay eggs? Do bat ponies lay eggs?"

"Don't ask me. I'm just telling you what Twilight told me. They're mostly pony, part dragon, and part bat. She wouldn't tell me how they came to exist, or why there's no mention of them anywhere before the whole Nightmare Moon thing."

"So it's a secret?"

Rainbow shrugged, "Maybe? Who cares? They're on our side, and that's good enough for me."

"I guess." Lightning hooked her forelegs over the side of the airship and looked in the same direction as Rainbow as the sun dropped below the horizon. In a few hours they'd be in Mareitania, and would be making ready to begin their mission. "Rainbow?"

"Yeah?"

"If you die, can I have your blades?"

"No."

"Aww."


-0-0-0-


"Hooves in the air in fifteen minutes ponies!" Soarin shouted as he trotted around below decks. Fleetfoot would be telling ponies the same even lower, while Spitfire waited up top. "That means to move your keisters!"

Rainbow checked the zips on her flight suit were all done up, then started the surprisingly awkward process of strapping her blades into place on her hind legs. She pulled a blade out of its sheath before she started, checking the two small runes on either side of the blade still glowed with the purple of Twilight's magic. It felt comforting to have a small bit of Twilight with her.

She slid the blade back into its sheath and strapped them on, then hovered in the air as she drew them to check that her bracers were on solidly. They were, so she sheathed her weapons, stuck her helmet on her head, and sighed because she was ready, and this was actually happening.

"Maybe you should get a haircut," Thunderlane said to Cloud Chaser as she put her helmet on. "Maybe then you'd be more comfortable."

"No way! This is like my signature hairdo! No way am I cutting this off."

"Then you could at least have the decency to stop whining about your helmet being too tight?" Thunderlane placed his own helmet on his head, and did the strap up while Cloud pouted angrily at him.

"You whined for days about that thing squashing your mohawk during training."

"That's different."

"I hardly see how it's that diff-"

"Guys," Rainbow interrupted. "Quit chatting and get ready. We'll be taking off in ten minutes."

"Sorry Dash," Cloud said as she squashed her mane into her helmet and strapped it on. "Ready to go."

"Okay, you guys head up top. I'm going to go see if Lightning and her wingmates are ready." Both of them saluted lazily at her, then walked off while Rainbow headed in the opposite direction. She stopped a few doors down and knocked before entering, finding Lightning and Sky Stinger holding Vapor Trail on both sides. "Are you okay?"

"We're fine," Sky answered flippantly. "Vapor's just a bit nervous."

"And I don't know how you aren't," Vapor snapped breathlessly at him.

"Me? Nah. I'm pumped up, y'know? Totally ready to go and kick some ass!"

"I hope you're not so pumped up and busy kicking ass that you forget about us," Lightning said snidely.

"No worries you guys; you can totally count on me."

"I hope so." Lightning squeezed Vapor a little tighter, "You good Vapes?"

"Yeah, I'm good. I can do this." Vapor breathed in deeply, and exhaled slowly, "I can so do this."

"Atta girl." Lightning released Vapor and rechecked her gear, while the others did the same. "I get the feeling I've forgotten something. You guys go ahead, I'll catch up."

Rainbow stood aside to let Sky and Vapor pass, then raised an eyebrow at Lightning. "Have you really forgotten something?"

"Nah, I just thought you wanted to talk."

"I was only going to ask if you really think Vapor's up for this?"

"Vapes? She's fine. It's actually Sky that bothers me. Either he's putting on a big show and is actually going to crumble when the mess hits the fan, or he's going to do something stupid and get himself hurt. Even worse he might get me and Vapor hurt too."

"I thought you were the leader?"

"Yeah, but that only makes me obliged to save him from himself." Lightning shook her head and tried to put it out of her mind. "Whatever. There's only one way to find out what he does, and that's by doing this. I guess we better head up."

"After you."  It was only a short trip to the top deck, and most of the other Wonderbolts were already waiting, although they still had to wait a couple of minutes for stragglers to arrive. The bat ponies of the Night Guard were assembling below decks, and were receiving their own briefing off Captain Greywhisker, while Spitfire would give the Wonderbolts their briefing on the top deck.

"Alright ponies," Spitfire said loudly once they were assembled. "I'm going to go over this again for those of you that are hard of hearing. We will be hitting the shipyards at Whiplash first. Most of you will be providing cover for our bombers." Spitfire waved at the two dozen Wonderbolts that wore their display uniforms because their own combat armour hadn't been made yet. "Anything that takes a shot at them, you take them out. Your secondary objective is to stop ponies putting those fires out. Once we're done there we'll be moving south towards Hoovendale, firebombing the ships they've built along the way. At Hoovendale it'll be the same deal, but there should be less resistance by a long way."

"What about the bat ponies Captain?" one of the Wonderbolts asked.

"They have their own mission, although I've not been told what that mission is. What I have been told is that they'll make a distraction, and if we're lucky they'll draw most of the attention away from us, otherwise what they do makes no difference to us. Now do you all know what you're doing?"

The gathered Wonderbolts all replied at once, "Ma'am, yes ma'am."

Spitfire nodded her appreciation, "Good. This is your first taste of real combat for a lot of you, so keep your heads, stick together, and above all else, kick some ass! Altius volantis Wonderbolts!"

"Altius volantis!" they all cheered back. Spitfire pecked Soarin on the cheek, clipped her muzzleguard into place, and gestured for everypony to start taking off. 

Rainbow started running and jumped off the edge off the edge of the airship, Cloud Chaser and Thunderlane following after her, joining her in her short dive to give themselves momentum. They pulled back up, joining the rest of B squadron as they formed up around Fire Streak. Lightning, Sky, and Vapor fell into position beside them, while ahead of them A squadron formed up around Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot. Soon after the remaining squadrons formed up behind them.

"Woah," Thunderlane gasped as he looked back at the airship. Rainbow did the same, and was inclined to agree as the Night Guard streamed out of the side hatches of the ship, vanishing into the darkness below. "I wonder where they're going?"

"Doesn't matter. Let's just focus on what we're doing."

The town of Brayside lay before them, a thousand tiny lights lighting up the streets, unaware of the danger that silently glided through the night. The town wasn't their target though, and neither was the massive building to the north that Rainbow could only assume was the prison. Their target lay between the two; the half dozen wooden structures on the river banks that held a half dozen ships that ranged from a basic structure, to almost fully built.

Even though no work was being carried out at night, the dry-docks were still lit up, showing the ponies guarding them. A couple dozen at most by Rainbow's estimate, although that was liable to change as the alarm was raised. By all accounts it was an easy mission with an easy target. All Rainbow had to do was go down there and kill some ponies. Easy. It sounded easy anyway.

Spitfire wheeled to the left, then circled around the town, the rest of the Wonderbolts following her, even as they went further away from the dry docks. Rainbow looked back at her wing-ponies, both of them shrugging back at her. Were they waiting for the distraction? Was it late? Was it coming at all?

As if in answer, a flash of light lit up the night, followed swiftly by a thunderous boom that Rainbow felt through her feathers as much as she heard it. Fires on the roof of the prison highlighted the plume of smoke that rose into the sky, just about covering the dark figures that slipped into the prison through the hole they'd blown in the roof.

"As distractions go," Lightning muttered, "that's definitely in my top ten."

"Blades out Wonderbolts!" said Spitfire, managing to both shout and whisper at the same time. Alarms started sounding as the thestrals attack on the prison progressed. It also drew some of the guards from the dry docks, but there were still plenty left. Rainbow clipped her blades into the diving position, and waited for the signal to attack, which came sooner than she both wanted and expected it to. "Dive, dive, dive!"

Spitfire's squadron went in first, diving sharply towards the docks. In seconds they'd taken out a hoofful of guards, cutting them down with ruthless efficiency. Then came B squadron's turn. Fire Streak started the dive, everypony following after him, then splitting up slightly as each wing picked their targets.

Rainbow focused on a unicorn that was trying to hide behind a stack of boards on the scaffolding around the dry-dock. Apparently she was making more noise than she thought because he looked up and saw her coming, and in that moment she locked eyes with him, and saw the same fear in him that she felt herself as she dove towards him, the first pony she was going to kill.

Rainbow couldn't go through with it, even without him pointing a weapon at her, and as he brought his crossbow up, Rainbow tucked her left wing and rolled, breaking off the attack. He didn't break off his attack though, and a split second later he fired into the space where Rainbow had been. A space now occupied by Cloud Chaser.

"No!" Thunderlane shouted as Cloud Chaser screamed, plummeting down onto the scaffold and crashing into the stack of boards the unicorn had been hiding behind.

Rainbow turned in midair and pumped her wings, fighting momentum and gravity to get back to Cloud Chaser as fast as she could. Thunderlane got there first, thudding down onto the wooden planks as Cloud Chaser cried in agony, her hooves wrapped around the shaft of an arrow buried in her gut. The unicorn stepped out of hiding, and the two stallions froze as they spotted each other.

Thunderlane was quicker, and still had his blades drawn. Driven by adrenaline and his fear for Cloud Chaser, he pumped his wings to push himself forwards, and punched at the other stallion hard enough to pierce his blade straight through the armour he was wearing. The unicorn stared at Thunderlane in horror, then slowly keeled over, pulling himself off the blade, and falling over the side of the scaffold.

Rainbow hovered in the air, breathing rapidly as Thunderlane clumsily sheathed his weapons and scrabbled back to where Cloud Chaser was still wailing in pain. He stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do, yet totally sure of who to blame. "What the fuck did you do Rainbow?!"

"I-I-I-," Rainbow stammered, words escaping her.

"Why didn't you get him? Why'd you break off?"

"I- I couldn't-"

"Ngghh!" Cloud whimpered, her breathing sharp and rapid. "It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!"

"Rainbow!" Lightning swooped down and tackled Rainbow onto the scaffold, "Don't just hover there you idiot!" She looked up at Cloud, then back at Rainbow, "What the hell happened?"

"That bitch," Thunderlane shouted, "broke off her attack and got Cloud shot because she's too fucking chicken shit to go through with this!"

Rainbow closed her eyes as Lightning glared her. "I'm sorry..."

"Can it," Lightning growled. "We need to get Cloud back to the airship. Vapor!"

Vapor landed lightly on the scaffold as Lightning shouted her name, "Yes Lightning?"

"Help Thunderlane get Cloud Chaser back to the airship, and quick, because those fire bombs are going to start falling soon." Vapor nodded, and picked Cloud up on one side, while Thunderlane picked her up on the other. Cloud screamed as they picked her up, but they ignored it as they flew her away to safety. "Rainbow, you're coming with me."

Rainbow kept staring at the patch of crimson where Cloud had lain, unable to think of anything else. She'd fucked up, and Cloud might have gotten killed because of it if that unicorn had aimed slightly upwards. Was this how Twilight felt? With every action she'd taken in Mareitania resulting in ponies getting hurt? How did she live with it?"

"Rainbow!" Lightning smacked Rainbow around the side of the head, her hoof stinging as it collided with Rainbow's helmet. It had the desired effect though as Rainbow looked up her in shock from being struck. "We need to move, Rainbow!"

"R-right." Lightning half dragged Rainbow to the edge of the scaffold, and jumped off, pulling Rainbow with her. Giving the choice between falling to the ground below, and spreading her wings, Rainbow chose the latter, although her instincts had already chosen before she'd even thought about it. The simple action of flying had a galvanising effect on her, opening her mind to everything else around her, and by the time that Sky Stinger fell in with them, and they made it back to B squadron, Rainbow was far more aware.

"Where's Cloud, Vapor, and Thunderlane?" Fire Streak asked as they formed up with the rest of the squadron.

"Cloud got hurt," Lightning told him, saving Rainbow from having to. "Thunder and Vapor are taking her back to the airship."

"Damn it, and there I was thinking we'd got through unscathed. Will Cloud make it?"

"I should think so sir."

"Good, good." There was a tinkle of broken glass below them, and a Fwoosh as the first fire bombs were dropped on the dry docks. The flames quickly started to devour the dry, tar smothered wood, and within minutes the entirety of the dry-docks was ablaze, even as ponies below started to try and extinguish the flames.

Shields sprung up around three of the most complete ships, suffocating the flames that had reached them, and protecting the wooden vessels from the conflagration around them. A dozen unicorns stood nearby, most of them shielding the ships, while the remainder shielded the unicorns.

"I'm betting those are Adepts," Fire Streak said thoughtfully. "Spitfire!"

"I see them. We'll take out the shields, you follow us in and take out the unicorns." Spitfire wasted no time in putting her words into action, and dived with her squadron towards the shielded Adepts. A few bolts of magic raced up towards them, but with most of the Adepts focused on their shields, they were few and easy to dodge. Spitfire's squadron reached the shield and kicked at it in unison, destroying it utterly and staggering the Adepts, then flew off while B squadron attacked.

Rainbow kept behind Lightning as they dived in, then pulled off as Lightning slammed down on the back of a mare, plunging her blades between the unicorn's shoulder blades. One of the blades must have stuck, because as the unicorn fell, Lightning was dragged down with her. She fought to free her blade, and panicked as one of the other Adepts turned to attack her.

"No!" Rainbow shouted as the Adept's horn lit up. She charged and tackled him with her shoulder, the spell he was about to cast at Lightning shooting off into the air instead. He tried to kick Rainbow off, and unlike the first pony she tried to attack, this pony wasn't fearful. He was determined, and knew full well it was kill or be killed. Now, Rainbow knew it too.

With a cry born of fear and desperation, Rainbow reared up and slammed her hooves down on his chest, her blades piercing through his armour like a hot knife through thin ice thanks to Twilight's enchantments. She reared back up and stabbed him, again and again, splashing herself with his blood with every fresh attack on his corpse.

"Rainbow!" Lightning braced her rear legs against the body of her victim, and pushed, freeing her blade. A quick check told her that Spitfire's squadron had looped back to help them, and that the unicorns were all taken care of, giving her a chance to talk to Rainbow.

"Rainbow, you can stop. You got him." Rainbow kept stabbing the corpse, either ignoring Lightning, or not hearing her at all over the sound of her own rapid breathing. "Rainbow! Stop!"

Rainbow paused in mid-stab, then slowly fell to her rear. She looked at Lightning, then back at the body, then scrambled away from it like it was the first time she'd seen it. "A-are you okay Lightning?"

"I'm fine Rainbow, thanks to you." Lightning bumped an elbow against Rainbow's shoulder, "You saved me."

"I... I had to. I couldn't just let him kill you."

"I know, and I hope you realise that I'd do the same for you. We all would."

"Yeah, I guess." Rainbow smiled weakly at Lightning, not that Lightning could tell through the muzzleguard.

"Now come on, I don't think Wonderbolts are supposed to spend this much time on the ground."

"Right behind you," Rainbow said, and meant it. She'd just had to kill a pony, but she did it to save Lightning. She realised that maybe she'd been thinking about this all wrong. She thought that to kill a pony you had to enjoy it on some fundamental level, which she knew was probably wrong to begin with, and a horrible thing to think about Twilight, but couldn't see another reason why. She never thought that you did it to save yourself, or your fellow soldiers, or your loved ones back home, or because sometimes you simply had to. It wasn't all about the killing at all, but could be about saving those that pony might hurt later. It was still a bitter pill to swallow, but she felt it was one she could swallow again and again if she had to.

"Alright," Spitfire said, looking over the carnage they had wrought once they had reconvened in the sky. The dry-docks and their contents were burning strongly, and were well beyond being salvaged. "I think that's part one well and truly over. Time to start heading south."

"Captain Spitfire!" A shape loomed out of the darkness, turning into the thestral Shadow as the light from the fires illuminated her. She tossed a salute in Spitfire's direction, "Good to see you again."

Spitfire returned the salute, "Likewise. You want something in particular?"

"We've completed our mission, so Captain Greywhisker is letting us assist with yours if you want us to?"

"Sounds good. Head back to the Heavens Grace and order them to start heading south along the river. You can burn their ships along the way, while we head on south to Hoovendale."

"Okey dokey!"

"Let's move Wonderbolts."


-0-0-0-


The flight to Hoovendale took half an hour, which was plenty of time for the events at Whiplash to sink into ponies minds. Most of the Wonderbolts flew in silence, contemplating just what it was that their first battle had turned them into. Others seemed far less worried.

"Did you see that dive I pulled off going after those Adepts?" Sky Stinger said for the third time. "I mean, wow! What a rush, y'know? That mare didn't know what hit her!"

"A thousand pounds of ego by the sounds of it," Lightning said to Rainbow out of the corner of her mouth.

"And that flip I pulled as I pushed up off her! That was intense!"

One of the other former reserves, a pink mare named Meadow Flower, who was also in B squadron, flew up into Sky's face. "Do you even hear yourself?" she shouted angrily. "You just killed a pony, and you're going on about what acrobatics you pulled off! What is wrong with you?"

"What's my problem?" Sky shoved Meadow Flower away, "What's your problem?"

"My problem? My problem is that you're a psycho!"

"Really? You sure you're not just jealous of how much better I am than you!"

"Rrrgh!" Meadow Flower launched herself at Sky with the obvious intent to attack. Rainbow threw herself in Meadow's way as Lightning held back Sky.

"Knock it off!" Rainbow shouted as Meadow tried to push her off.

"Let her fight me! She'll just lose anyway!"

"Hey!" All of them froze at the sound of Spitfire's shout. She hovered beside them, with Soarin and Fleetfoot to either side of her. "You think that because I'm not in your squadron I can't hear what's going on? Meadow, get back in your wing, and Sky, for the love of Celestia, please shut up. We can all do what you did, so stop acting like it was some amazing thing only you can do. And maybe show a little consideration for those around you."

"Sorry ma'am," both of them intoned. Spitfire nodded and returned to the front. Meadow returned to her wing, while Fire Streak glared at both her and Sky.

"Knock it off the both of you. If I see you causing trouble, or boasting like an idiot, or getting Spitfire's attention like that again before we complete this mission..." Fire Streak left the threat open, but none of them needed to guess that he meant there'd be trouble. He pointed a hoof at his eyes, then at the two of them.

Rainbow groaned quietly as the flight continued without incident. We wasn't sure why Sky Stinger's ego had come back, but it had, with a vengeance. She'd hoped her intervention between him and Vapor back at the academy had fixed that, but it seemed she couldn't have been more wrong.

Five minutes of blissful silence brought them to Hoovendale. The small village was surrounded by massive clearing of felled trees, when previously the lumber operations there had been fairly small scale during the uprising. Various bits of machinery dotted the clearing, while the sawmills themselves sat in the middle, surrounded by piles of wood.

"That looks nicely flammable," Spitfire commented cheerfully.

"Almost like it was meant to be," Soarin agreed. "Those machines are going to take a bit of work though."

"Nah, the explosives on the Heaven's Grace can take care of those when they get here. Let's take out the guards for now, if there are any. We'll be done in no time if we split up into wings."

Rainbow followed Lightning as they picked a direction and flew. She had no idea what they were expecting to find as the place did seem completely deserted, which suited her just fine. If they could do this without getting into another fight at all, even better.

"You guys see anything," she asked as they looped around for another pass.

"Nah," Sky said boredly. "Pity-"

"Don't," Lightning warned, directing a glare at Sky.

"Fine..."

They could see the Heaven's Grace as they came back around, and the dozens of ponies flying back and forth from it. Most went to the sawmill, while some flew to the machines around the clearing. Spitfire hovered in the middle of it all, a satisfied look on her face.

"What's going on?" Rainbow asked as they made it to where Spitfire was.

"Well, since there doesn't seem to be any resistance here at all, we've decided to do something a little special with the help of the thestrals."

"Like what?"

Spitfire grinned, "You'll see. Head back to the ship and prepare yourselves for a show."

"Yes ma'am." Happy to be dismissed, they flew up to the airship, although Rainbow insisted they went slow as she tried to see what it was the thestrals were carrying. They were carrying black metal orbs with a protrusion, from which a white cord snaked. Not even she had to guess what they were as she knew they were explosives.

They settled on the deck and stripped their helmets off, relishing the cool air blowing against their faces, and keeping watch as the thestrals did whatever they were doing below. Sky wandered off to do whatever he did, leaving the two of them alone. Feeling that now was the best time to do anything, Rainbow had something she wanted to ask Lightning.

"Why'd you send Vapor with Cloud?"

Lightning looked at sideways at Rainbow, a small frown on her face. "What's that matter?"

"Cloud was my wingmare, so I should have gone with her."

"I don't know if you noticed, but you had almost gone catatonic. Cloud needed help, so I sent Vapor."

"You're protecting her, aren't you?"

"What? No, I-" Lightning stopped at the way Rainbow was looking at her, and grunted under her breath. "Fine, you got me. I'm just not sure Vapor can handle this, y'know?"

"She couldn't be any worse than me. First contact with the enemy, and I totally chickened out, flubbed the attack, and almost got Cloud killed."

"I saw what happened Rainbow, and I think you're being too hard on yourself. If you kept on your course, he probably would've hit you instead. While it might've been you chickening out, doing so might have saved your life."

Rainbow disagreed. "It should've been me that got hit."

"That's stupid talk, and you know it."

"Says the pony protecting Vapor from all this."

"...nngh... fair point. Still, why aren't you going to see Cloud?"

"I will as soon as I know we're done here. If I go running off just for us to get attacked, and somepony gets hurt because I wasn't there..." Rainbow shook her head, "No. No way am I letting that happen."

Lightning kept watching Rainbow out of the corner of her eye, then shrugged. "Alright, whatever you say."

A few minutes later Spitfire flew up with most of the thestrals. She landed, then waved at the helmspony to get his attention, then made a circling gesture and pointed east once she had it. A moment later the entire ship lurched and started to turn, it's propellers humming through the air.

Spitfire looked east towards the distant light of a sun not yet risen, and nodded to herself. "Alright Shadow, give the signal."

"Signal?" Rainbow asked, only for her ears to buzz as Shadow opened her mouth and emitted a noise far beyond any non-thestrals range of hearing. A moment later Rainbow's ears buzzed again as an answer came from below, or several answers, although she had no idea how she could tell that. She was proven right though as several thestrals flew up from around the sawmills.

"Any moment now." Seconds later a flash lit up the clearing, followed by a bone shaking boom that made the entire ship vibrate. Soon after it happened again, and again, as the various pieces of machinery exploded into pieces. A pattern soon emerged that sort of spiraled anticlockwise around the clearing, growing closer and closer to the sawmills in the middle, before that too exploded into a fireball that rose up into the sky as bits of building rained around in a large circumference.

Almost as if it wanted to see what the fuss was, the sun rose and peeked over the mountains to the east, shining a dim light over the area that showed how complete the destruction of the sawmills was. And it was complete. Almost nothing remained except for what had failed to get thrown about by the explosion, and what was still whole was burning instead.

Spitfire sighed happily, "I love the sound of explosions in the morning. Now lets wrap this up and get back to Equestria."


-0-0-0-


Rainbow waited until they were past the border of Mareitania and out over the ocean before finally deciding to even try and relax. Most of the other Wonderbolts had gone below decks, leaving her alone with the Night Guard, most of whom were chatting quietly. None of them seemed too bothered about what they had just done, and in the end Rainbow had to go before she yelled at them for being so nonchalant about it all. She also had to go and see Cloud Chaser, which she knew she had been putting off, mostly because she knew Thunderlane was going to be there too, and he was likely to be far more vocal about how unhappy he was with her than Cloud would be.

She stepped down through the hatch into the well lit interior of the gondola, and immediately gagged at herself. Now she was in the light inside she could see just how much blood she was covered with, and it was a lot. She swallowed down her disgust and ran to the small room she shared with her wingmates. Thankfully, and unsurprisingly, it was empty, meaning there was nopony to complain as she threw her helmet into the corner and wrestled her weapons and bracers off, not even bothering to properly undo them in some cases. The flight suit was tougher, and Rainbow was almost frantic as she pulled and tore at it, trying to peel it off herself as fast as she could without having to touch anything with blood on.

"Get off of me!" Rainbow rolled onto her back as she struggled her way out of the suit, and finally managed to get it past her hips and down her legs, allowing her to kick it into the corner. She got up and sat panting as she stared at the suit, willing her breathing to slow, but it only seemed to grow faster in line with her disgust. Her stomach churned, and she threw up before she could even think of finding something to to throw up into. Her stomach heaved again, but nothing came out. There was nothing to come out, but that didn't seem to matter to her stomach as it kept heaving and heaving for several minutes.

Slowly her stomach calmed, and she wiped her mouth in the hopes that she was done. What surprised her the most was that she wasn't crying through any of this, and she was almost tempted to hate herself for not being more upset about that. As much as she could justify it, she had still just killed a pony, and felt that she should be more bothered about that. As much as she tried though, the mental image of the pony that had tried to kill Lightning, the pony that she had killed, just didn't worry her as much as she felt it should, which only worried her in a different way. What kind of pony was she if she was okay with this? Was she okay with it? She honestly couldn't tell at this point.

Rather than sit there for any longer, dwelling on it and hating herself for not being something she felt she should, she found some paper towels to clean up her vomit with, and as she tossed the sodden paper into the trash she wondered how the others were dealing with it. Lightning had seemed rather capable during the attack, and didn't seem to have any issue with killing, which only made Rainbow wonder how Lightning was so okay with it. Was Lightning actually more torn up about this on the inside than she was showing? That still wouldn't explain how she was able to cut a pony down so easily. In fact, it seemed to Rainbow that most of the Wonderbolts had an easier time of it than herself. Was she the abnormal one?

In the end Rainbow decided to stop thinking about it. They were at war, and she'd have to do her part to protect Equestria, as must all ponies, regardless of how she felt about it. 

Rainbow turned to go see Cloud, but paused as she caught sight of herself in the mirror above the sink in the small bathroom. Blood speckled her face, and for a moment she felt her disgust rising in her throat again. She looked away from the mirror, then back again, and sighed. She'd probably better wash before going to see Cloud, and that would involve having to look at the blood on her face.

She let the tap run for a moment, letting the system heat the water a little before splashing it onto her face and scrubbing the blood away with her hooves. She looked back up at the mirror and watched the pale red rivulets of dirty water run down her face. She rinsed her face again and looked at herself once more, and found herself to be looking more like the Rainbow she usually saw in the mirror, although the usual Rainbow didn't frown quite so much. She tried to put a smile on, but it lasted mere seconds before vanishing again, so she gave up and dried her traitorous face before heading out to the medical bay.

The ship was not as quiet as it seemed to be from within her room, and Rainbow found herself walking slowly, not so she didn't disturb anypony, but so she could hear what was going on in some of the other rooms. Some were silent, either because they were empty, or because the ponies within them had decided to try sleeping, but others contained the hushed words of whispered conversations, or the sound of a pony trying to cry quietly, maybe while being comforted by their wingmates. As much as Rainbow felt guilty at the thought, she was glad she wasn't the only one struggling with this.

"You can't turn ponies into soldiers in two weeks," said the voice of Fleetfoot from one of the rooms around Rainbow, who stopped moving altogether to try and home in on where it came from. "We had months and months of training for this, and even then we struggled at first. I remember screwing up my first attack in Mareitania, then seeing one of the pegasi we trained carry it out just fine because, well, they're different to us. Let's face it Spitfire, ponies in Mareitania are just made of sterner stuff than Equestrians."

"She's not wrong," said Soarin. "Even the more experienced Wonderbolts weren't exactly at their best tonight. Blaze pussed out on all of her dives tonight, and I swear Surprise was crying the whole time. What kind of example is that going to set for the rest of them?"

Spitfire sighed deeply before replying. "I know what you're saying guys, but we don't have longer to turn these ponies into soldiers. They're either going to have to learn quick, or we are going to have to declare ourself unfit as a unit to do what's being asked of us. Tonight was easy compared to a lot of the stuff we had to do during the uprising, and yet we had so many cock-ups it's almost unbelievable that it went as well as it did, with only a half dozen injuries, and amazingly, no fatalities. Hopefully now they've got some experience they'll step their game up."

"We got lucky," Fleetfoot said harshly. "There's no other way to describe it. Cloud Chaser got taken out seconds into the fight, and frankly she's damn lucky to not be dead. If she hadn't tried to pull up that arrow would have got her in the face, and this unit would have had it's first casualty in this war. Doesn't mean she shouldn't have followed Dash instead though."

"Too bad it couldn't have been Sky Stinger," said Soarin. "I swear, if that little prick had kept boasting the way he was, I might have punched him myself. I bet he's going on about how great he is to Vapor right this very second. I don't know how she puts up with him, let alone why she wants to jump on his gigglestick."

"I don't get how he's so oblivious to it," Fleetfoot laughed. "Back when we were cadets, making goo-goo eyes at somepony and giving them an invitation to the showers meant nothing to do with getting clean."

"Obliviousness and boasting aside, he did do well tonight," said Spitfire. "I just hope he doesn't get too cocky and get himself killed."

"I hope he gives a thought to what he's actually doing at some point," Soarin sighed. "Doing a wicked dive and a backflip when killing somepony is all well and good, but not if you completely forget the part where you did actually kill somepony. Meadow Flower was right to get pissed at him."

"I know," Spitfire agreed. "If it looks like his antics might risk somepony other than himself getting killed, something might have to be done about it. Until then though, we need him, so I'm just going to leave it. Mostly because right now I'm beat." Spitfire yawned and smacked her lips. "I'm going to bed."

"Does that mean..?"

"To sleep, Soarin."

"Aww..." 

"Yeah... I'm not sticking around to hear you two go at it, because I know you will," Fleetfoot said with a small shudder of disgust. "You two have fun. I'm just going to check on our wounded before going to bed."

"But I just said I'm going to sleep."

"I know what you said."

Rainbow froze as the door next to her opened, and grinned sheepishly as Fleetfoot saw her. Rather than make an issue of it though, Fleetfoot said nothing as she shut the door behind her, then nodded for Rainbow to follow after her.

"So, how much of that did you hear?" Fleetfoot asked after a moment.

"Enough to know we aren't as great as we think we are. And that Soarin thinks Sky is a prick."

"He's not the only one. Feel free to tell Sky that, but the rest of it you keep to yourself."

"Are we really that bad?"

"Honestly, no." Fleetfoot smiled faintly as Rainbow looked at her with surprise. "I'm not saying we were great either. This was an easy target where we had the element of surprise, a numerical advantage, and a distraction, yet we still had five ponies seriously hurt, and at least half of us unable to go through with what was asked of them. Even those drafted in from the Royal Guard flubbed a few of their attacks."

"Then how are we not bad?"

Fleetfoot shrugged, "Because what we did was perfectly normal for a first time. I'm not going to lie though, in a serious battle, we would not only have lost, but I imagine a lot of us would've been killed too. If the Wonderbolts are going to not only survive this war, but make a real difference in it, we need to get a lot better." Fleetfoot smiled at Rainbow, "Don't sweat it right now though."


"Kind of hard not to," Rainbow sighed."

Fleetfoot stopped Rainbow outside of the medbay, "Look, Rainbow, I can see you're kicking yourself about Cloud, but you really can't keep blaming yourself for it. In fact, I'm willing to bet Cloud herself doesn't even blame you."

"How could she possibly not blame me?"

"You'll see." Fleetfoot opened the door and gestured for Rainbow to enter. Although she was reluctant, Rainbow did so, only to meet the angered glare of Thunderlane.

"What the fuck are y-" Thunderlane cut himself off as Fleetfoot entered the room behind Rainbow, and backtracked mentally as she walked up to him.

"Is there a problem Thunderlane?"

"N-no ma'am. I simply think its insensitive of Rainbow to come see Cloud right now."

Fleetfoot looked at Thunderlane funnily, "Insensitive of her to come see her injured wingmate? Thats a new one."

"Beg pardon ma'am, but its Rainbow's fault that Cloud's here in the first place."

Fleetfoot chuckled quietly, although it seemed more theatrical than genuine. "You're in for a surprise." Fleetfoot turned to Cloud, who was watching the exchange owlishly. She was wrapped in bandages around her middle, and was on a healthy dosage of painkillers fed through a drip. "Cloud Chaser, perhaps you could tell Thunderlane and Rainbow exactly what it was you did wrong."

"You're blaming her?" Fleetfoot held up a hoof in front of Thunderlane's mouth, and gestured for Cloud to speak.

"I followed too closely behind Rainbow," said Cloud, her voice slurred by her medication. "That unicorn was about to attack her, she pulled out, and I was too close to react in time, so I got hit."

"But that's not why she pulled out!" Thunderlane shouted. "She pulled out because she couldn't go through with it!"

"It doesn't matter why she pulled out," Fleetfoot told him. "In the situation it was the right thing to do, and it certainly wasn't Rainbow's fault that Cloud was too close behind her."

"But you taught us to bunch up!"

"In tight spaces, yes, but even then we never said to fly right behind one another unless it was the only option."

"But none of this would have happened if Rainbow had gone through with her attack!"

Fleetfoot growled under her breath, annoyed at Thunderlane's stubborn insistence that Rainbow was to blame for this. "If Rainbow had gone through with the attack, she might be here right now, or worse she might be dead. Stop blaming her for something that she couldn't help."

"But-"

"Thunderlane!" All of them looked at Cloud as she shouted Thunderlane's name, surprised at her outburst. "It's not Rainbow's fault! Stop blaming her for my screw up!"

"I-uh... I" Thunderlane looked around at all of them, and gave in. "Alright," she sighed. "Alright, I'm sorry for blaming you Rainbow."

"You don't have to apologise."

"Well, I have, so just accept it so we can move on."

Rainbow was about to refuse as she felt Thunderlane had nothing to apologise for, but decided to that it wasn't worth arguing with if it meant an end to the problem. "Apology accepted." She smiled at Thunderlane who only nodded back, leaving her with the impression that perhaps he really did still blame her, but hopefully he'd calm down on his own.

"Okay, I'm going to go check on the others," Fleetfoot said once she thought the situation was under control. "You guys play nice, and try to get some sleep at some point."

Rainbow watched Fleetfoot as she went other to the next bed, happy that she'd been there as Rainbow knew she couldn't have defended herself even if she hadn't been thinking it was her fault Cloud had got hurt. She still thought that a little, but not enough to make her want to sob apologies to Cloud.

"How you feeling Cloud?"

Cloud smiled dreamily, "I don't know what they put in this drip, but it's some good stuff. I get to stay on it too, at least until the S.h.d is freed up to use on me."

"You mean you aren't the most injured here?"

"Nope. Mad isn't it? Lime Jelly got hit by a spell that took a massive chunk out of her. Apparently she's lucky we have a S.h.d, because she'd be dead by now if we didn't."

While Rainbow was surprised that Cloud could talk about a fellow Wonderbolt almost dying so easily, she suspected the drugs made it easier. "Are they still using it on her?"

"Yeah, and I have no idea when they'll be done. I'm next in line though."

"That's good, and I'm glad Lime Jelly's going to be okay."

"Mmhmm. Now how about you tell me and Thunderlane what happened after I became a pincushion? Surely we must have missed something good judging by all the explosions."


-0-0-0-


Spitfire stepped off the Heaven's Grace as soon as it docked at the Wonderbolts HQ, and saluted Princess Luna who stood quietly waiting for them to arrive alongside two of her Night Guard, as well as Fleur, who wore a dark suit. "Mission accomplished."

"Very good Captain."

"I can't speak for your Night Guard though."

"Captain Greywhisker will fill me in later. For now though, I simply wished to be here for your debriefing, and to hear what happened during your mission. It might be important to hear it myself in case there are any improvements that could be made for your next mission."

"Of course. If you would follow me to my office ma'am, I'll tell you everything."

Rainbow watched quietly as Spitfire led Luna away, leaving the rest of them to disembark in their own time. Rainbow was at least thankful that Luna didn't want to talk to her, because she didn't want the Princess to think she wasn't up to defending Equestria.

"I know it's been pretty hush-hush," Lightning said from beside rainbow, her own wingmates beside her again, "but have any of us actually asked what exactly the thestrals were up to? It seems odd that they'd attack a prison. Were they rescuing somepony? Or breaking all of the prisoners out? Or what? I hate not knowing stuff."

"I'm pretty sure that anything done by Luna's personal guard isn't supposed to be known by the rest of us."

"I know, but, y'know... whatever. I'm going to go hit up the showers, then get something hot to eat. You coming with?" 
Lightning suddenly thought of her wingmates and quickly decided to clarify something. "No homo."

Rainbow sniggered at Lightning, but nodded. "Sure, sounds good."

"Hey, we should do that too," Vapor said hopefully to Sky. "A nice hot shower would be amazing."

"Hmm, nah," said Sky, totally oblivious to the nature of the invitation, and to the way Vapor slumped as he rejected it. "We're going to have to work on getting even better for our next mission, so I'm going to go get some practice in. I'll see you all later."

Lightning patted Vapor on the back, "He'll work out what you really mean some day."

"What? I don't know what you're talking about." Vapor blushed coyly and looked down at the floor. "I-uh, I need to go. See you later."

Lightning grinned after the rapidly retreating Vapor, "Heh, they're so adorable. Now come on, I'll race ya!" Lightning jumped over the rail and sped off, leaving Rainbow still sat on the airship with no intention of racing anywhere as she thought back to what Lightning said about the Night guard's private mission. There was only one reason she could think of as to why Luna would risk them attacking the prison, and since nopony came back with them, it was pretty clear that whoever Luna was looking for wasn't there. Clearly her friends were being kept in High Rock keep.


-0-0-0-


"You did what?"

"I hardly feel as if I really need to repeat myself Fleur."

"I know, but..." Fleur sighed and tried to think of how to explain this to a being that was older, considerably more powerful, and hopefully wiser than herself, without sounding like she was talking to a child. "You're the one that suggested the formation of the Equestrian Intelligence Service, correct?"

"That is correct," Luna confirmed with a nod.

"Then why would you order your Night Guard to attack the prison at Whiplash without at least informing us?"

"Because it was a last minute addition to the mission, and I didn't have time to inform you before they departed."

"But you had all day after that!"

Luna fixed Fleur with a cool stare, "I have command of all military activities carried out by Equestria, do I not?"

"Of course you do Luna."

"Which includes the activities of Equis, yes?"

Fleur winced uneasily, "...yes?"

"Then I imagine I am capable of doing things without having to inform Equis until I am good and ready."

"But that's not the point," Fleur whined. She could see Luna's point though, as misguided as she felt it was. "It just makes our job harder."

"Do you wish to hear what they were doing there, or not?"

"Apologies Luna, please continue."

"Their primary objective was to release the prisoners while providing a distraction for the Wonderbolts and their mission."

"Free the prisoners?" Fleur had no idea why Luna would order her Night Guard to release all the prisoners, especially after the lengths they went through to get them all in there. "Why would you do that?"

"Any trouble we can cause for the Mareitanians slows down their efforts against us. Time and resources will have to be spent repairing the prison, and recapturing the escapees."

"Isn't this just creating a problem for us further down the line?"

"Compared to the problem we currently face?"

Fleur had to admit that maybe Luna had a point that future problems really did pale in comparison to the current ones. "Very well. I also suspect that, due to their continued absence, that the captured Elements of Harmony weren't being held in Whiplash."

"Indeed not, but we suspected that all along. It's safe to say that for now, they are well beyond our reach."

"Understood. I  hope those poor girls are okay." Fleur skimmed through her notes and nodded. "Unless you have more to tell us then, I think that's it. I'll report your mission for the Night Guard's and the Wonderbolts' success, back to Equis, and see if we can't find some other ways to slow Mareitania down. See you soon Luna."

"Farewell Fleur." Luna sat back as Fleur left, and pondered the Night Guards true failure. The attack at Whiplash had utterly failed to attract a single griffon.


-0-0-0-


"Applejack!" Rarity shouted in a whisper, pressing her face up against the bars of her cell so she could see. "Applejack, are you there?"

"Rarity, you better have a good reason to be whisperin' my name so loudly."

Rarity gasped with relief that Applejack had answered. "Oh thank goodness! I was terribly afraid they were going to do something terrible when they dragged you away like that." Rarity gasped again as Applejack stood where Rarity could see her, as well as the black eye and bruises she'd been given.

"It ain't that bad Rarity."

"But why would they do that to you?"

"Would you believe that I have no idea? And I'm the one they done it to. Anyway, I've been back fer hours, so how could you not know I was here?"

Rarity prodded a hoof at the bags under her eyes, "I'm afraid I may have fallen asleep. Being trapped in this place is surprisingly exhausting. But enough about me, what did they do to you?"

"Well, first they gave me a nice hot meal. Said it was courtesy of the Lady. They let me eat in peace, then as soon as I was done they asked me what I thought of the Lady. Now you know I ain't gonna lie, so I told them she's still an evil harpy fer locking us up in here." Applejack gingerly poked her black eye and chuckled. "Don't think they liked that very much. Kept telling me I'd learn to love the Lady one way or another."

"Oh Applejack, you could have lied to them."

"And end up trapped in that lie? No thank you. I'm almost more afraid of what they'll do if they think we do actually love the Lady. Besides, didn't they do something like that to you yesterday?"

"Not like that. They-uh... gave me a choice. They told me they only had three meals for us, and that I would have to pick which one of us went hungry. I hated the thought of one of you going hungry, so I... chose myself."

"Oh Rarity, y'all didn't have to do that."

"Ah-ah, not a word Applejack. It's important that you all keep up your strength if we're to make it through this."

Applejack sighed and nodded, "Fine, but it ain't no good for us if you waste away givin' all your food to the rest of us. Y'all need to eat too sugarcube. Still, at least you ruined their fun by not being selfish. Guess they just don't know about you and your generous nature."

"Just as they don't know you if they think you're going to lie."

"Darn straight." Applejack turned her head to look further down the passage. "Hey Fluttershy, ya alright? You're being awfully quiet."

"'m okay. As okay as I can be."

"They haven't done anything bad to you have they?"

There was a long moment of silence before Fluttershy answered. "They made me pick an animal to kill!" she cried. "Forced me- Forced me to pick an animal for them to kill in front of me, and- and- and said they'd k-kill one of you if I didn't! I- I-" Fluttershy wailed, sucking in deep breaths, just to squeeze them back out in as she cried louder.

"Aww shucks..." Applejack raised her hoof to her head to remove her hat, only to remember she'd not been wearing it when she was abducted. "I'm sorry Fluttershy. I guess I got nothing worth complaining about."

"I want to go ho-o-o-ome!"

"We all do," Rarity said quietly, brushing her dishevelled mane out of her eyes. "Spike darling?"

There was a clinking of chains as the occupant of the cell next to her moved at the sound of his name. "Yeah?"

"Are you okay?"

"I'm chained up, and forced to wear a mask so I can't breath fire." Spike let that reminder sink into Rarity's head. "All things considered, I'm not bad though. Almost feels like they've forgotten about me."

"Or they don't care because you ain't got an Element bound to you," Applejack sighed and nodded at the inhibitor on Rarity's horn. "I don't suppose you're any closer to getting that do-hickey off your horn yet Rares?"

"I think it would rather defeat the purpose of wearing it if it came off that easily. I'm afraid the only way I can think of to remove it would be to break my own horn, which for obvious reasons, I'm not going to do. Not least because it would still leave me without magic."

"Figures."

"Are you not tempted to try bucking the door down again?"

"After my last try, not so much." Applejack banged a hoof against the thick bars of her cell door. "I hate to say it, but this place is locked up tighter than a house with no doors. Still, I don't think we should give up on getting out of here entirely."

"You sound like you have a plan," Rarity said hopefully.

"'Fraid not, but I did hear somethin' interesting while I was getting beat up. Apparently there was some attack on that prison place down in... Whiplash, I think they said? That's gotta be ponies lookin' for us, right? Maybe even Twilight!"

"It has to be!" Rarity frowned as a thought hit her. "But how could she possibly hope to get us out of here? You've seen this place Applejack, and that Faust. There's no way she could get us out of here."

"I know, but knowing Twilight, she ain't gonna give up easily."

A deep chuckled echoed from nearby, "Is that what you think?"

"Oh lordy... Shut up Francis! We don't wanna hear it! Twilight kicked your sorry ass, so she's sure as heck gonna kick Faust's! I betcha she has a plan on how to do it already!"


-0-0-0-


"Twilight?"

"Yes Trixie?"

"You've been staring blankly at that page for like an hour now. What are you doing?"

Twilight blinked a few times, then stared at the accusing blob of saliva she'd left on the priceless, one of a kind tome written by Starswirl himself. She sighed, and turned to face Trixie.

"I have no idea. I'm going to bed."
> 11. Hitting the road
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight stirred at the sound of her door opening as quietly as possible, and her ears twitched at the sound of hooves tapping gently on the floor as somepony made their way around the side of her bed. It took a lot of mental wrestling to wake herself enough to the point she was able to speak, but she managed it. "Ngh, who's ther-"

THWAAARP!

"YAAAHH-AHH!" A wave of telekinesis pulsed from Twilight's horn in her panic, throwing aside everything around her, and smashing the pony assaulting her ears against the wall, along with her bedside table, breaking it to pieces. "What the fuck?!" A quiet chuckling from by the wall alerted Twilight that her attacker was very much still there, and she scrabbled to her hooves to find that, perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Trixie, lying on her side, and not moving much. "Trixie!"

"Ehehehe... Ow. You know, after six months of being in hospital, I'd almost forgotten what pain feels like."

"What the hell Trixie? I could've seriously hurt you! What were you thinking?!"

Trixie reached a hoof out towards the offending noise maker, but couldn't quite reach it, so gave up. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I had a look around your castle and found an air-horn," she said by way of explanation. "So I thought I'd give you one of our good old fashioned, stupid wake up calls." Trixie slowly rolled onto her chest, "I seem to remember them hurting less though."

Twilight growled, then started the short process of reassembling her bedside table, while taking care to not reveal some of its contents. Just because she wasn't inclined towards ponies in a certain way, didn't mean she didn't sometimes have needs. "You know, that wasn't funny back in Mareitania, and it isn't funny now. I could have really hurt you."

"I think you might have..."

"Pull that crap again, and I'll be inclined to find out if this place has a dungeon I can lock you in at night." Twilight nodded with satisfaction as she fully repaired her furniture, then hopped off the end of her bed. "I'll go start breakfast," she said, leaving the room in a huff.

"Wait," Trixie called after the departing alicorn. "Carry me."

"No!"

"Why do you even have an air-horn? Twilight? Twilight? Are you ignoring me?" Trixie turned enough to see out of the door, but Twilight has gone. Instead, Moondancer was there, looking annoyed, but she always looked like that.

"You deserve every moment of suffering you get."

"Oh please, you say that to me every day."

"And every day it's true," Moondancer said back before leaving.

"Wait! Moondancer! Will you carry me?"

"No!"

"Aww... Sunset?"

"Not a chance Trixie!"


-0-0-0-


Twilight held her healing device over Trixie as all of them ate breakfast, with Sunset  helping Trixie since her legs weren't feeling too clever, and her magic was still inhibited. Hopefully this morning would be the last time that she tried something like this.

Twilight realised what she'd just thought and dismissed it immediately.

Twilight cleared her throat, "So, girls... First I want to thank you all for helping with this. Octavia too if she were here, but even so, I'm afraid time is becoming an issue. It's been two weeks since we started, and I really think we ought to start looking for this place, rather than sit here and read books. We really cannot spend any more time on this, so I think we need to point out some possible locations."

"Well none of the books I've read have even mentioned this secret retreat," said Trixie. "Are you even sure it exists?" Trixie turned nervous at the way all of the others had started looking at her. "What? Is that not what we were doing?"

"We were looking for commonly mentioned locations in his writings," Twilight told her in a tight voice. "Not for mention of the retreat itsel- You know what? Forget it. What'd you find Moondancer?"

Moondancer pushed her glasses up her nose as she consulted her notes. "I found quite a few mentions of the Crystal Empire, and the frozen north, but we know it's not in the Empire itself because Starswirl wouldn't have been able to use it while the Empire was banished. All the mentions of the frozen north concerned the windigoes though, and no actual studies of them, so I'm not sure we should include them or not. Other than that, I have him as having spent a lot of time studying the ancient temples around the Tenochtitlan Basin and the Forbidden jungle, which is odd, because I thought that place was fictional."

"It's very much real," said Twilight. "And every bit as dangerous as the Daring Do books make it sound."

"You've been there?"

"Once, about two years ago. I can see why that place would interest Starswirl though. Anywhere else?"

"There was a few mentions of the Badlands, Minos, the centaur homeland, and a few mentions of lands in the far south, but nothing to the degree that it seemed relevant since he never went to visit a lot of those places."

Twilight nodded thoughtfully as she jotted these places down, "Okay, good. Sunset?"

"Same as Moondancer about the Tenochtitlan Basin, and there was a few mentions of the Badlands, as well as Saddle Arabia. Then there was the three whole books he wrote about the Circen desert."

Moondancer looked inquisitively at Sunset, "Isn't circen old equish for round?"

"Round?" Trixie sniggered. "Why the hell would it be called a round desert?"

"Because it's a square, obviously," Sunset replied sarcastically, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "According to Starswirl the desert is pretty much a mathematically perfect circle, centred on the ruins of an ancient city. He spent years studying this place, trying to discover its secrets, so I think it's good to add to the list."

"Yeah..." Twilight noted it down, then looked at the major culprits they had so far. The Badlands, the Forbidden jungle, the Frozen north, and the Circen desert. The biggest outlier in those four was the Frozen north. The entire place was inhospitable, and she very much doubted Starswirl chose that place to create his retreat. The problem was that the desert was likely inhospitable as well.

"What about you Twilight?" Sunset asked.

"Hmm?" Twilight looked up as Sunset spoke to her, "Oh, uh, yeah. The notes Octavia left me mentions a few of the same places as you, but included a few attempts at studying the Dragon-lands, which fits in nicely with what I discovered. I really doubt he built his retreat there though, since dragons aren't exactly known for being welcoming."

"So that leaves us with the Badlands, the Forbidden jungle, and the Circen desert as our main culprits." Sunset tried to count them off on her fingers, then blushed as she remembered not having any.

"Yeah, but I get the feeling he never built his retreat in the Circen desert either, since it's just as inhospitable as the Frozen north."

"Not always though," said Moondancer. "If there's the ruins of a city there, then it must have supported life at some point. If anything, I'd say the Badlands is unlikely since pretty much everything in that place is hostile."

"Lots to study there though," Sunset pointed out. "What do you think Twilight?"

"Truthfully, I don't think he built it in any of these places," Twilight said tiredly. "Celestia's own research to find the retreat all came up with the same ideas as us, and they're all silly places to build his secret retreat. What she does mention though, was that he managed to research these places, and be of service to Equestria, all at the same time, and looking at some of the dates on these books, I have to agree. He'd finished writing a paper on the indigenous creatures of the Badlands two days before he started one on the significance of the frescoes in the temples in the Tenochtitlan basin. Then a week later he started researching something else in a different place before he'd properly finished that, all while being at Celestia's beck and call. How could he have possibly gotten around that fast, and still be available to Celestia?"

Trixie waved her hooves in circles, "Magic."

"Well, obviously. But he couldn't possibly have the power to teleport around like that on his own. Not even alicorns can do that!"

"Then he must have had some kind of teleport network set up," said Sunset. "He was a master of portals, and stuff like that. It's the only logical solution."

"That's what Celestia thought. If we find his teleport network, we can find his retreat."

Trixie looked around at the others as they all agreed with that assessment, while she didn't. "I think you're getting too excited. If he did have a teleport network, then surely he'd have a way in Equestria to travel to it. If so, why hasn't Celestia found it?"

"She did mention it," said Twilight, "but thinks that it either broke at some point, or was intentionally sabotaged. She's never found anything anyway."

"So, what? We're going to go traipsing off to wherever in the hopes of finding some ancient portal to Starswirl's secret retreat?" Trixie threw her hooves into the air as Twilight nodded, "This sounds even more improbable than finding the retreat itself!"

"It's all we have Trixie."

"The great hope of Equestria and the world..."

Twilight stomped a hoof angrily, "Unless you have a better idea Trixie, this is pretty much the only chance we have of finding a way to defeat Faust!"

"And how about we just fight her! I fought you just fine when I went nuts, so surely you and the other princess could fight her!"

"I was holding back against you Trixie!"

Trixie felt like she'd been slapped, "You were?"

"Of course I was! The problem I had fighting you was that I didn't actually want to really hurt or kill you, which kind of limited my options."

"Oh, I see. Then that makes you even more powerful than I thought, so fighting seems like an even better idea."

Twilight shook her head, "Even if that were true, the fact is that we don't think we can defeat Faust, hence why we're going for this desperate kind of plan."

Trixie dismissed the idea, "I really don't think she could possibly be that powerful. The only thing I can think of as being that powerful is Discord."

"And Discord ran away as soon as he heard about her. What does that tell you?"

Trixie was quiet for a moment, "It tells me that if this desperate plan doesn't work, we're so fucked."

Twilight slumped in her seat, "And Bingo was his name-o."

"What about other ideas?" Sunset asked. "How about stealing her magic like Tirek stole all yours?"

Twilight shrugged at the suggestion, "And put it where? Tirek was the only one capable of containing that kind of magic, and I really don't think he's willing to share his secrets. And even then, he could probably only steal something like hers or Discord's power when he was near his full strength, and we have no idea how he even did it."

"Couldn't you contain it?"

Twilight almost laughed at the suggestion, "I could barely contain the power of Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. Faust's power would probably burn me from the inside out. I'd rather not find that out, y'know?"

"So..?" Sunset said hopefully.

"So we have this plan, and this plan alone." 

"...bummer."

"You said it." Twilight quickly cleared the table of stuff, and summoned a map of the world, with Equestria sitting rather egocentrically at its middle. "So we're agreed that the Frozen north is to be excluded?"

"I think we'd have to be even more desperate than we are now to risk an expedition there," said Sunset.

"Right, so that leaves our best chances of it being the Badlands, the Tenochtitlan basin, and the Circen desert." Twilight placed at marker on the map for each of those places, finding that it made a nice curve heading southeast from where they were now. It also cut through the middle of Saddle Arabia. "Didn't one of you mention Saddle Arabia?"

"I did," said Sunset.

"Then I guess we get to have a look around there too." Twilight stared at the route they had to take, then shrugged. All they had to do now was follow it, and hope they found the proverbial needle in a haystack.

"The odds of this working are stupidly low," said Moondancer.

"I guess that means you aren't coming then?" Trixie asked.

Moondancer glared icily at Trixie, "A walk through some of the most dangerous places in the world doesn't sound like fun."

Trixie blinked at Moondancer a few times, "I can't tell if you're joking or not."

"Well, I'm in," Sunset said proudly.

Twilight jolted in surprise, "You are? But what about your friends? What about your whole life you have in the other world? I'm not asking you to come and leave that all behind Sunset, you know that."

"And you don't have to. Equestria is my home Twilight, and it's in danger, along with the entire world. What kind of person, or pony, would I be to just walk away from that?" Sunset grinned cockily at Twilight, "I'm in Twilight, and you better accept that."

Twilight swallowed and nodded, trying to keep the torrent of thank yous she wanted to say under wraps. "Thanks Sunset, glad to have you on board. What about you Moondancer?"

Moondancer looked from pony to pony, then sighed heavily. "I never wanted this, but if me coming with you increases your chances of success, then I'll come. Especially now that there's a pony I actually like going."

"Aww, I like you too."

Moondancer scoffed in disgust, "I really wasn't talking about you Trixie."

"Pfft, whatever."

"Anyway," Twilight said to change the subject, "thank you both for coming. Since we have a long way to go, we better start getting ready if we're going to leave by tomorrow."

"You'll have to leave me out of that," said Sunset. "I'm going to have to go back through the portal and sort my life out before I can come with you. And explain all this to my friends." Sunset sighed and smiled weakly, "I can see this being emotional."

"Yeah. Speaking of your friends..." Twilight walked over to a small chest and pulled a couple of books out of it before presenting them to Sunset. "I know you didn't have much room left in your journal, so I made these for us so we could keep writing. I guess now you should give one to your friends instead so you can keep in touch with them."

Sunset took one of the books and hugged it to her chest as she started to choke up. "Thanks Twilight. I- I can't believe I'm almost crying already. I'll try to be back by tomorrow morning. See ya!"

"Give them my love too!" Twilight shouted after Sunset as the mare practically ran out of the room. While she was ecstatic that Sunset was coming, Twilight still felt horrible for separating Sunset from her friends, even if it was Sunset's choice.

"Hey! Equestria to Twilight!"

"Hmm?" Twilight realised she'd been staring at the door Sunset left through for a while, and that she also had tears in her eyes that she quickly wiped away. "Sorry Trixie, I was just thinking."

"Uh-huh. Maybe you could tell us what we're going to be doing instead."

Twilight nodded as she quickly ran through a mental checklist of everything they might need. "First we're going to need saddlebags. Good ones. And a book of enchantments for preserving things. Then we're going to need a lot of food."

"Yes, those sound like normal requests."

Twilight smiled at Trixie, "Wait until I tell you about the bottomless canteens I devised."

"And when can I see those?"

"As soon as I make them."


-0-0-0-


Trixie idly played with the ring in her ear, then drummed her hooves on the counter in Twilight's kitchen once that got boring, while doing her best to annoy Moondancer as she sorted through the shopping list Twilight had given them. Moondancer seemed impervious to Trixie's attempts to irritate her though, and so she started making popping noises as well, before giving up when that achieved nothing either. "Are we done now?"

Moondancer narrowed her eyes at Trixie's question, "Done? What have you got to be done with? You didn't do anything!"

"Trixie showed you where the shops are."

"I know where the shops are!"

"And I provided moral support."

"Doing this with you has been absolute hell!"

Trixie pouted at Moondancer, "Would it hurt you to be a little nicer?"

"Yes! Now go away! I'm sure Twilight might have some inane task for you that won't surpass your meagre capabilities."

Trixie was stunned, and found herself unable to reply for several seconds. "Wow, that actually hurt my feelings. Bravo Moondancer, bravo."

Moondancer rolled her eyes and continued sorting through their purchases, only stopping after Trixie not only failed to leave, but sat there staring, her bottom lip jutting out slightly. "What?"

"I'm waiting for you to apologise."

"As soon as I'm made aware that hell has in fact frozen over, or is otherwise filled to the brim with flying pigs, I will get right back to you. Until then, please leave me be so I can get this done."

"Ugh, fine..." Trixie flopped to her hooves and dragged herself out of the kitchen, making her way through the castle to where she'd last seen Twilight. Thankfully it was easy enough to find the alicorn, mostly due to the flickering purple magic that came from the slightly ajar door. Trixie pushed the door open, and averted her eyes as what Twilight was doing threatened to blind her. "Dude! That's fucking bright!"

Twilight pushed her welding goggles up as Trixie squeaked, and let the heat dissipate off her horn for a moment. "Perhaps I should have put a sign up saying 'do not enter.' Are you alright?"

Trixie blinked rapidly, trying to dispel the after images she had floating around in her vision. "Were you welding? With your horn?"

"Yes. Why? Is that a problem?"

"No, I just didn't know you could do that until just now." Trixie blinked again as her vision cleared, then looked at what Twilight was building. It looked like an oversized water cooler, if water coolers had glowing, purple, spinning things attached to where the water came out. "What the hell is this?"

"This is our bottomless canteens. Basically it teleports water straight into our canteens as we use them. Then I've connected it to the water in the castle, so it refills itself. Neat huh."

Trixie studied the contraption intently, not sure where to even begin if she had to build one herself. "And you didn't think to make one of these when we were in Mareitania?"

"Firstly, I didn't know how back then, and I wouldn't have had time. Mostly though, Mareitania was, for want of a better word, a 'civilised' country with clean water available in most places, so this would be unnecessary. In the Badlands, and the Circen desert though, not exactly a lot of water, and I imagine the water in the Forbidden jungle isn't exactly problem free."

"Uh-huh." Trixie looked at the rough wooden frame holding it together, then at the spinning... thing, which was a mess of bits and bobs that held four gems, none of which were the same size, shape, or colour. "Why do all your creations seem really haphazard?"

"Really?" Twilight deadpanned. "You're criticising that?"

"Yes really! Apart from this thing, your healing device was a confusing bunch of wires and gems glued onto what looked like a fold out lampshade, and that crap around the portal looks like a half dozen afterthoughts slapped together."

"I work with what I have in the time I have to build things." Twilight plucked a sapphire out of what she knew was a amplified teleportation matrix, and held it up in the air. "If you keep on you won't be getting any nice, clean water on our travels."

"Alright! Sorry! Sheesh!" Twilight placed the gem back in the matrix, which seemed to suck it back into place. "So how come you can teleport water halfway around the world, but not us?"

"Because it's in small quantities, I can use an amplifier, and it isn't a quartet of complex, living organisms. Does that answer your question?"

"More or less," Trixie nodded.

"Good. Now why are you here, pestering me, instead of helping Moondancer like I asked?"

"Because she's being mean to me."

"And did you deserve her being mean to you?"

"Well, yeah, probably. That doesn't mean she had to call my capabilities meagre though."

Twilight slid her goggles back into place so she could finish welding the pipes that refilled the tank together. "You'd be more capable if you took that inhibitor off," she said as she started casting again.

"Not a chance," Trixie said as she averted her eyes from the bright light that Twilight was producing. "What if I take it off and turn evil again? The last time I used magic I tried to kill you! What if I end up trying to do that again?"

"Then I'll kick your ass again," Twilight replied dismissively. "Really though Trixie, I think you're being a little paranoid about this. Your magic isn't going to do anything you don't want it to. Just avoid dark magic and you'll be fine."

"But I'm scared Twilight!"

Twilight sighed and stopped what was doing. She pulled her goggles down to hang around her neck as she thought of how to tell Trixie she was being silly, without telling her she was in so implicit a way. "Look, I know none of us liked what happened with you back in Mareitania, but you can't hide from your magic forever."

"Yes I can. I've managed without magic just fine for months now, and I don't see why I should start using it again if I don't want to."

"So walking into some of the most naturally hostile places in the world isn't a good enough reason?" Twilight nodded with respect, "You must be a brave pony to do that."

"Uhh..."

Twilight smiled kindly at Trixie, "Look, I know you're nervous, and considering you have eldritch beings claiming ownership over you, I can't exactly blame you, but there is nothing you can do that we can't fix unless you really wanted to do it. Or go on a murder spree, as unlikely as that is. You are in charge here Trixie, not them."

"I don't know Twilight. This sounds like a bad idea."

Twilight stood and hugged Trixie, the blue mare going stiff before accepting and returning it. "Do you trust me?" she whispered into Trixie's ear.

"Twilight, you're almost as big a bag of crazy as I am."

"That's not what I asked. Do you trust me? Or do you at least trust me to wipe the floor with you on the off chance you do get taken over by dark magic?"

"Is it 'destroy Trixie's confidence day' or something? I might, possibly, beat you-"

"Trixie!"

"Yes! Yes I trust you!"

"Good." Twilight grinned and held the inhibitor up in front of Trixie's face, "Because this would be totally awkward if you didn't."

"What? No!" Trixie snatched at the inhibitor, but Twilight moved it away too fast. "Give it back Twilight!"

"Not a chance."

"Please!" Trixie started hyperventilating, and pulled on her mane as panic took root in her mind.

"Trixie, the more you think something bad is going to happen, the more likely it is to happen. Calm down, and think for a moment. I took it off the moment I hugged you, and you didn't even notice. There's been no surge of dark magic, and you've not lost control, or anything. In fact, your horn hasn't so much as made a spark. You're fine."

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm absolutely fine." Trixie kept repeating the words as she forced herself to calm down. As much as she wanted to though, she wouldn't, and soon worked out that it was because she was angry rather than panicked, and that Twilight was its target. "You fucking bitch!" 

Twilight stepped back as Trixie swung a hoof at her, "I am, I know, and I'm sorry, but look, nothing bad has happened in the slightest."

"Raargh!" Trixie leapt at Twilight, knocking her over and standing over her. "That! Wasn't! Funny!" Trixie screamed, punctuating each shout with a slap to Twilight's face.

"It wasn't meant to be! And I'm sorry! Now please calm down!"

Trixie didn't move, remaining standing over Twilight as she decided whether to slap her again, her rage not abating for one moment after the stunt Twilight had pulled. Then it slowly started to occur to her that even though she was angry, her dark magic hadn't so much as stirred.

"This seems unnecessarily sexual," Moondancer said from the doorway, having caught a heavily breathing Trixie standing over Twilight, who lay on her back. "Anyway, I was just going to tell you I'm done. All you have to do now is whatever you were going to do to all that stuff Twilight." Moondancer blushed and shuffled away from the door, "I'll leave you two to it."

Trixie groaned and punched Twilight on the chest. "Ah! What was that one for?"

"That was for Moondancer thinking we're lesbians."

"If it helps, she doesn't now since she's still stood outside the door."

"Eep!" There was the sound of rapidly retreating hooves.

"Well that's creepy. Seriously though Twilight, what the hell made you think that was a good idea?"

"I really am sorry Trixie, but you needed to see that nothing bad was going to happen. That would never happen if you were too afraid to take the inhibitor off."

"If you'd just said you were going to take it off I might have reluctantly agreed! Because, y'know, I trusted you! What a mistake that was!"

"You would have let me take it off?"

"Yes!"

"...Oh. Now I feel like more of an asshole than I did anyway." Trixie groaned and moved off Twilight, allowing the alicorn to roll onto her chest and poke her tender face. "That's going to bruise."

"Shut up!" Trixie snapped at Twilight. She rubbed her temples and tried her best to calm down. "Why did you have to make me angry Twilight? You know what used to happen when I got angry."

"It's not happening now."

Trixie turned to glare at Twilight, "Believe me it's really fucking tempting." Trixie sucked in a deep breath and released it harshly. "Princess of friendship my fucking ass," she grumbled to herself. "Princess of no interpersonal skills more like. Is it that hard to ask for permission sometimes? I don't think it is. This is way worse than the coat dye incident, and that was already pretty fucking shitty."

"Is it?" Twilight asked weakly.

"Yes! It is! You stupid, shitty..." Trixie sighed as Twilight shrank back and looked down at the floor, "Adorably well meaning pony. Fuck!"

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah, you said that."

"And I mean it!"

"Noted." Trixie gingerly touched her horn, like she expected it to explode if she was too rough with it. In the privacy of her head she was a little bit terrified of the bony protrusion on her forehead, and wanted nothing more than to put the inhibitor back on. She also knew that she'd lied when she said she might have let Twilight remove it, and truthfully just wanted an extra reason to be mad at her because what she did was still a shitty thing to do. At the same time though, the lack of reaction from her horn was upsetting in a way.

"Why isn't my horn doing anything?"

"What do you mean? What were you expecting to happen?"

"I don't know! Just, something! Some magical surge, or flash of light, or something to show that my power's been unleashed again."

Twilight managed an extremely weak smile that hung nervously to the corners of her mouth. "It really doesn't work like that. After so long your magic might take a little time to work again. Have you tried using it?"

"Are you crazy?! Of course I haven't!"

"Then perhaps you should." Twilight picked a screwdriver out of the toolbox she'd used to build her water tank, and placed it in front of Trixie. "Try to pick it up."

"Oookay..." Trixie focused on the screwdriver, trying with all her might to pick the tool up off the ground. Try as she might though, she couldn't find the slightest sliver of magic with which to do it. She couldn't even manage a few weak sparks. "Great! So now I can't even do magic at all!" She kicked the screwdriver away, "You think I'd be happy about that."

Twilight picked the screwdriver back up and returned it to its place in front of Trixie. "It just needs a little time Trixie. Don't give up, and try not to get frustrated with it. The last thing we need is dark magic stepping up in your normal magic's place. Keep practicing while I finish this off, and it'll soon come. You'll see."


-0-0-0-


The sound of a sword being drawn echoed through Twilight's mind, and she burst into wakefulness, shouting as she felt about her chest for a wound that wasn't there, while her heart thundered in her chest. A chest that had a rapidly fading sensation of cold stabbing through it.

She slumped back in her bed, gasping for air as her sweat covered body worked out that she was uninjured, and in no danger of dying. It had been a while since she'd woken up like this, and the sweat drenched sheets she was entangled in were but one reminder of how much she hated it. Who knew that dying could leave such a mark on the psyche?

Groaning quietly to herself, Twilight picked up her alarm clock in her magic, only to find it was due to go off in ten minutes anyway, which did at least mean that she'd gotten some sleep last night, even if waking up like this left her exhausted. She was tempted to try for another half an hour in bed, but the damp sheets weren't exactly the most comfortable, and she did plan on leaving today, so perhaps it really wasn't worth it.

A quick wash later, and Twilight made her way out of her room. She could hear an alarm going off down the hall from Moondancer's room, so she'd be up soon, while the door to Trixie's room was wide open, and her bedding undisturbed.
Concerned about what Trixie might be up to, Twilight kept going, checking the more obvious rooms for signs of the blue unicorn. The most obvious one she found was the throne room, whose door was ajar, letting the flickering light from within shine into the corridor. Wondering what was causing it, Twilight pushed the door open, and recoiled at what she found.

Dark purple and black flames burned in patches around the floor, and danced between the roots of the Golden Oaks library suspended above the table. A dark sigil covered the table itself, glowing with unnatural light, and behind it, sat on Twilight's throne, was Trixie, her eyes leaking smoke as her horn bubbled with dark magic.

"I lifted the screwdriver," Trixie said in a cold voice that sounded like several ponies speaking at once. "Lifted it right up."

"Trixie! What are you doing?!"

Trixie stood and slammed her hooves on the table, "I warned you Twilight! I warned you this would happen!"

Twilight danced back as Trixie threw the screwdriver onto the floor before her. Like a lot of the room, it burned with dark fire. "Trixie, stop! You can't let this magic control you! You're better than this!"

"Am I?" Trixie slid out of her seat, and stalked around the table towards Twilight, moving with a catlike grace. Twilight froze as Trixie sashayed towards her, too entrapped by her own horror to do anything else.

"What's the matter Twilight? Scared? You shouldn't be. After all, you made this happen." Twilight flared her wings as Trixie walked behind her, brushing against Twilight's tail before coming around the other side. "Oh Twilight, I've been looking so forward to this." As Twilight tried to get some moisture back into her mouth so she could speak, Trixie grinned nastily and raised a hoof which she gently pressed against Twilight's nose.

"Boop."

Twilight had no idea what was happening, shown succinctly through her total inability to form a complete word, let alone sentence, as she flapped her mouth uselessly while fixated by her own nose. "Huh?"

Trixie cocked her head, maintaining her grin. "Whatever is the matter Twilight? Has booping you been your weakness this entire time?"

"I... What?"

In a flash the dark fires and sigil were gone, and the magic on Trixie's horn faded to a soft pink as the smoke from her eyes dissipated. The grin didn't go anywhere though, "Gotcha."

"...Wha?"
"By the way, I don't know when it happened, but my illusions have gotten a lot better."

"Nngh." Twilight rubbed a hoof along the bridge of her nose, "Does this make us even now?"

"Not even close."

"Oh come on! You almost gave me a heart attack! And I've already almost had one of those this morning as it is."

"So you admit that you were thoroughly rused by all this?"

"Yeah, you got me alright. Bravo, good job. Now please don't scare me like that again."

"Oh please, it wasn't that bad."

"I already have serious hang-ups over having to fight you the first time Trixie! Having to so something like that again is literally one of my greatest fears." Twilight took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, hoping it would help her calm down. "Not that I've ever told you that."

"In my defence, I didn't know that," Trixie said imperiously. Then she thought of something. "Hold on. If that's one of your biggest fears, why were you so keen for me to remove my inhibitor?"

"Because I knew that you'd be in control. Because I trusted you."

"Oh. Shit." Trixie sighed to herself, "Can we just move on from this? It's turning into one of those confusing situations that I don't care for. You're still a bitch, and a shitty pony for taking off my inhibitor like that, just so you know, since that was my biggest fear."

"And I'm sorry for that."

"I also lied when I said I'd let you take it off if you had asked," Trixie admitted.

"I'm minutely less sorry, but still very sorry."

Trixie nodded, glad to put this behind them for now. Hopefully Twilight might at least learn a thing or two about asking permission. "So, why is fighting me your biggest fear?"

"Actually it's fighting any of my friends like that."

"Okay, but I still want to know why?"

"I don't like hurting my friends."

"Wait, so you're not worried about losing?"

Twilight grinned at Trixie as cockily as she could, which at that moment wasn't cocky at all, "Never even crossed my mind."


-0-0-0-


Trixie watched idly as Twilight enchanted their bags with spell that would preserve anything kept within them. There had been some long winded explanation about the bag freezing time within themselves, and Trixie had wanted proof of that, but had been told that the spell ended as soon as the bag was opened again, and resumed when it was closed, so she had no way to tell if it worked or not. She only had the assurances of Twilight that it did.

Then Twilight started shrinking all their food, so that you could fit a week's worth of meals into your hoof. The whole process was rather bizarre, and beyond Trixie's ability to comprehend, so she decided to not worry about it. Chances are that if it's magic, and Twilight's casting it, it probably worked. This did raise some other questions though.

"Why are we doing all this travelling by hoof? Can't you just shrink us and fly? With the time thingy spell-"

"Time dilation.

"That. I won't even know we've been flying, so no freak-outs."

"No can do I'm afraid."

"Why not?"

Twilight stopped what she was doing to explain. "Firstly, the effects of casting a time dilation spell, and a shrinking spell, on a pony at the same time is entirely untested. I'd rather not find out if it has negative effects in the middle of this. Secondly, Moondancer has a metal plate in her head, so I can't shrink her."

Trixie turned to look at Moondancer, who blushed as she furiously pretended to not listen. "How'd that happen?"

"I fell down some stairs, and cracked my skull," Moondancer hissed between her teeth.

"Lame. Still, why does that stop you from shrinking her?"

"You know that thing where we had to remove the-uh, nails from Fleur's hooves when we rescued her from High Rock."

"I seem to remember that you chickened out, so I had to do it."

"Well, yes," Twilight mumbled. "The point is we had to remove them because metal shrinks at a far slower rate than organic matter, or not at all in some metal's cases, and the nails would  have torn her hooves apart. The same would apply to Moondancer, except having your head torn apart is probably even less survivable."

"So we're having to walk because of Moondancer?" Trixie glared at Moondancer, who was still pretending to not pay attention. "Gee, thanks Moondancer."

"I'm quite happy to stay here if not for the fact that you'll probably need me," Moondancer growled back.

"Does that mean you can't teleport her either?"

"Actually, that's no problem. The amount of magic it takes to teleport a living creature is more than is needed to teleport metal, so the plate in Moondancer's head won't matter in the slightest."

Trixie snorted a laugh. "Boy, that sure is convenient," she said, make Twilight smile brightly at her.

"It is, isn't it. Anyway, I'm only enchanting one of our bags each with a time dilation spell, so if I have to I can still shrink you and Sunset, and carry Moondancer. Besides, how are we supposed to find what we're looking for if I'm just flying us around everywhere?"

"Point poorly made."

Twilight finished shrinking the last of the food, and placed it in Sunset's bag, placing that next to the others. "Okay, that's food sorted. At least until we can hopefully buy more in Saddle Arabia if we need to. What else is on the list Moondancer?"

Moondancer consulted the checklist Twilight had given her the previous day. "We have food, water, and bedding sorted. One of the new healing devices that we can all use, as well as one of the prototypes. Sun cream and sunburn lotion. And rope, for some reason. All that's left then is personal effects, and an entire Sunset that's still not back. I'm not seeing Trixie's brain on this list either."

"When you're as brilliant as me, you don't need one."

"Sure. Anyway, apart from those two things, I think we're ready." 

Twilight nodded thoughtfully as Moondancer listed the things off. "You've already brought what you need Moondancer, and I suppose you have too Trixie, except for one thing."

"What's that?" Trixie asked in confusion, pretty sure she could fit her current possessions in a shoebox.

"I'll show you." Twilight led them out of the kitchen, including Moondancer since she was also curious, and back to the portal room, which tended to double as a room for assorted knickknacks. Towards the back of the room was a chest that Twilight dragged into the middle of the room. "Open it," she said Trixie.

Trixie did so, but not without trepidation as she eased the lid open. Her eyes went wide, and she slammed the lid fully open, squealing happily as she saw what was inside. "My armour! You didn't throw it away!" She picked up the helmet and placed it over her head, "Still fits too!"

"Of course I didn't throw it away." Twilight smiled happily as Trixie assembled the armour around herself, although it was more because Trixie was happy than anything else. The armour itself certainly wasn't a reminder of happier times. Quite the opposite. "Even if you never used it again, I thought you might want to keep it."

Trixie struck a pose towards Moondancer, "Neat huh?" Moondancer merely rolled her eyes. "This, I think, is worth forgiving you for Twilight. I thought I'd never see it again."

"I was going to keep it as a surprise until you were better, because I wasn't sure how you would react to it. Now you might need it though."

Trixie lost some of her joy, "That's an understatement. Still, thanks Twilight."

Moondancer watched with interest as Trixie removed the armour and made it vanish. "Do we all get a suit of armour like that?"

"If you can find me a suit of armour to enchant, I will happily teach you how."

"You enchanted it to make it tougher, right?"

"...yes?"

"Think you could do that to my glasses since they're the only pair I have, and I don't want to lose, or break them."

Twilight thought about it, then shrugged. "I don't see why not."


-0-0-0-


"So what's that one do?" Moondancer asked, pointing to one of the runes around the enchanting circle Twilight had drawn with chalk on the floor.

"That's strength. That'll make them really hard to break. Then there's resistance, which will basically keep them clean forever. And summoning, so you can summon them to yourself, even if you lose them. All you have to do now is let me engrave your glasses, and then you can enchant them."

"Okay." Moondancer passed Twilight her glasses, and sat squinting at everything around her. Her eyesight was terrible at best, and diabolical at worst, and even a few meters away was little more than a blur of colours. "Will this take long?"

"Only a few minutes."

Moondancer nodded, and waited quietly until the peculiar whir of machinery behind her pricked her ears. She turned around, seeing various purple flashes that were very hard to decipher without her glasses, but quickly became very obvious as there was a final flash which produced an orange blur that hurtled towards her. She had unwittingly sat in front of the portal.

"Aaaahhh!" Moondancer and Sunset both screamed as Sunset flipped head over heels, bringing her rear into a collision with Moondancer's face, and sending them both flying into a pile of books that collapsed over them.

"Ugh, ow," Sunset groaned as she pushed books off of herself. "Sorry Moondancer."

"No, I guess it's my fault for sitting there," Moondancer said back grumpily. She'd never been slapped by a pony's entire ass before, or even part of one, and didn't much care for the sensation. What she cared for even less was when she sat up and Trixie started laughing. "What?"

"Oh my fucking Celestia!" Trixie howled, "Her mane looks just like yours Twilight! Ahahaha!"

"What?" Moondancer quickly felt the top of her head, finding that the bobble had fallen out of her mane. "No!" she shouted, scrabbling about in the books to find it, "Where is it?!"

"Looking for this?" Sunset found the bobble and held it up for Moondancer, who snatched it out of her magic to quickly fix her mane. "Why does your mane look like Twilight's?"

"Shut up! I don't want to talk about it!"

"Why? We already know you have a stripe like hers, so why is it an issue?"

"I said I'm not talking about it!"

"Alright, alright," Sunset said while Trixie was still chuckling to herself. Sunset heaved herself out of the pile of books, then offered a hoof to pull Moondancer out, which she accepted. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Moondancer replied, exasperated. "Twilight, are my glasses ready?"

"Sure." Twilight placed the newly engraved glasses into the enchanting circle. "Now I just need you to feed your magic into the circles, and you'll be done."

"Twilight, I can't even see the circles, let alone feed magic into them."

Twilight waved a hoof in front of Moondancer's face, "Can you see my hoof."

"Just about." Moondancer followed Twilight's hoof as she moved it down to the ground.

"Just aim your magic an inch past the ends of my hoof. Moondancer squinted harder, and could just about see the chalk circle if she really tried, and started feeding her magic into it, making it light up.

While Moondancer worked on that, Twilight turned and smiled at Sunset, "How'd it go?"

"About as well as you'd expect," Sunset sighed. "They cried, and I cried, so they cried more, and then I cried more, sooooo... yeah, it was a mess. On the practical side of things though, Rarity and Applejack agreed to store most of my stuff until I come back, and I gave up my flat, which was a hole anyway, so no loss there. I also talked to Principal Celestia about my finals, and she said I can do resits, or make up tests, or equivalency exams, or whatever, so I'm not totally boning my future."

"Well, that's... good." Twilight looked at the portal, feeling guilty. Again. "Sunset, are you totally sure about this?"

"I am. This is way more important than some exams for me not to Twilight."

"I was talking more about your friends."

"Oh, yeah, right." Sunset floated the other of the two books Twilight had given her the day before over to herself. " I gave them the book, so we can still stay in touch. Speaking of books..." Sunset plucked the book with Celestia's cutie mark off the pedestal above the portal, closing the portal completely, and brought it down to hold in her hooves. "No point in inviting trouble by leaving the portal open, " she said before passing the book to Twilight.

"Agreed," Twilight said back, placing the book on a shelf. "Anyway, we're all packed, so now you're back we can get this show on the road. By road I of course mean train to begin with. The closest place in Equestria to the Badlands is Dodge Junction, so that's our first stop."

"Sounds good." Sunset squinted and shielded her eyes as a flare of magic from Moondancer's horn lit up the room for a second before dying completely.

"Did it work?"

"Let's find out." Twilight picked up the glasses and gently tried to bend them, and nodded as they didn't flex in the slightest. Then she smacked them against a shelf and threw them across the room.

"Hey! Stop that!"

Twilight picked the glasses up and inspected them. They weren't bent, broken, or even scratched. "I think it worked," she said before eyeing Trixie up across the room. "Hey Trixie, grab one of those big tomes behind you and go long!"

"Don't you dare!" Moondancer's horn flashed, and the glasses vanished from Twilight's magic to reappear in front of her and drop to the floor. "Oh. I guess that works," she said, picking them up and putting them on. "Honestly, could you try not destroying my only pair of glasses?"

"Sorry Moondancer. I knew they'd be fine though. Anyway, we're all here now, and we're all packed, so I think it's time we were off."


-0-0-0-


Using her magic, Twilight sealed her castle from intruders. Having some kind of key would be easier, but the tree that had built this place had neglected something so simple as a lock. Still, using her magic did mean that she didn't have a key she could lose, which was a small silver lining.

With the castle on lockdown, Twilight adjusted her bags, took a deep breath, and turned around to take the first step of their journey. She stopped before she began though, as she saw Trixie pouring the water out of her canteen, shaking it up and down as the last drops fell out.

"I thought this thing was supposed to be bottomless."

"Close it, wait thirty seconds, then try again," Twilight told Trixie, before setting off, her head held low at Trixie's antics. Thirty seconds later there was a splashing sound as Trixie poured the water out of her canteen again.

"Well I'll be damned..." Trixie closed the lid and waited before opening it again and pouring the water out once more. "That modern fusion of magic and technology eh? Marvellous."

"Are you going to do that all the way?" Moondancer asked sarcastically.

"With this I shall bring water to the desert, form a lush oasis, and become as a god to the primitive natives of the land. They shall grovel at my hoof, or suffer my wrath."

"Or we could get on and do what we're supposed to do," said Twilight.

"Well, yeah. Afterwards though, I shall be known as Trixie the Almighty, Goddess of the Endless Waters!"

"Except it comes from here, and isn't endless, and would pull Equestria into a drought as you teleported the water elsewhere, as well as bankrupt the treasury trying to pay my water bill, so no, you will not be Trixie the Almighty, Goddess of the Endless Waters while I'm here to smack sense into you."

"And so ends my reign before it even begins," Trixie sighed. "Thanks Twilight."

"Any time. Really."
> 12. Semper Pie
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Is she still sitting there?" Limestone growled, pointing an accusatory hoof at the back of Pinkie as the pink mare stared listlessly out of the window with Gummy perched on her head. "I don't work my hooves to the bone on this farm just so she can spend all her time staring out of the window!"

"She misses her friends," Maud replied laconically.

"So? And that suddenly pardons her from ever doing work again, while we slave away to put food on the table?"

"You spend twenty bits a month on hair products, just to maintain your mane spikes," said Maud. "That's two hundred and forty bits a year."

"And? What's your point? I work for those bits!"

"No point."

Limestone growled again, and looked around the room until she spotted their other sibling, sitting in the corner where she almost blended in with the wall. "You're with me aren't you Marble? You think Pinkie's just being pathetic sitting there, don't you?"

"I-I-I think... that she-"

"See? Even Marble agrees with me!" Behind Limestone, Marble leaned against the wall, wondering why she even bothered to try and have an opinion since Limestone would only ignore it anyway. 

"What do you propose then?" Maud asked, still having not taken her eyes off Pinkie. Sometimes it was quite hard to tell if she was still breathing she was sitting that still.

"What do I propose? I propose that she gets off her butt, and does some work! What? Were you going to say we should go ask them in Mareitania if they would pretty please give her friends back?" Limestone mockingly fluttered her eyelashes at Maud, then returned to her usual scowl. "Don't be ridiculous."

"We could go and ask," Maud said back, mostly ignoring Limestone's sarcasm, "but I think we'd need to join the army to do it."

"Really? Can you really see Pinkie joining the army? Could you see yourself, or Marble joining the army? I know, let's give Marble a sword and see how tough she looks!" Limestone stomped over to Marble and dragged her out of the corner, "Go on Marble, go tell Pinkie she should go join the army to get her friends back. You're her twin, so she'll definitely listen to you!"

Marble started to stammer a refusal, then stopped, and steeled herself as she decided that she was going to do exactly what Limestone told her to do, purely to spite her bossy, bullying sister. Pinkie might be a motor mouth that spoke over her, and for her, ninety nine percent of the time, and totally destroyed her social skills, leaving her with only 'mmhmm' to cover the other one percent, but at least Pinkie was nice for all one hundred percent of the time she spoke over Marble, whereas Limestone, not so much.

Marble walked up behind Pinkie and gently tapped her on the shoulder, causing the pink mare to turn her head just enough so she could see Marble smiling bravely at her. "Hey Marble. Sorry I haven't been much fun lately."

"Th- Tha-"

"I knew you'd understand." Pinkie sighed and turned back to the window. "I don't know what to do Marble," she said, her head bobbing up and down as her chin rested on her leg. "Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike have been taken away, and now Twilight has to go on some big mission to save the day, while Rainbow fights in the Wonderbolts. Both of them are so brave, but me? I'm useless."

"Y-you're nnnn-"

"Aww," Pinkie giggled, "it's nice of you to say so, but it's true. I'm not as brave as Rainbow Dash, or as strong as Twilight. She might have done some horrible things, but I know those things still hurt her now. Even so, she's still able to keep going, even without her friends."

"You sh- sho-"

"You're right, I should do something to try and get my friends back, but what? What could I possibly do?"

"M-m-maybe you cou-"

"Join the army? I don't know Marble, that sounds a little extreme. I mean, fighting ponies? Kill-" Pinkie swallowed hard as her voice stuffed up trying to say the word. "Killing... ponies? I don't know if I could do that Marble."

"Ra- Rain-"

"I know Rainbow has to. Twilight can too." Pinkie started to frown as thoughts began percolating in her brain. "I bet none of my friends would be afraid to stand up to a bully like Faust. Even Fluttershy. So why should I be any different? Why should I be the one afraid to do what has to be done. If beating Faust and Mareitania would make ponies happy again, and get me my friends back, then I should help, right?"

"I-I-I-"

"Don't try to talk me out of this Marble! My mind's made up. Pinkie Pie is going to join the army, beat the bad guys, and get her friends back!"

"Are y-y-"

"Yes I'm sure!" Pinkie bounced up and grabbed Marble in a hug, "Thanks for the talk Marble. You really are the bestest little sister by two minutes anypony in the world could ever ask for!"

"You're wel-welc-"

"Everypony, I've made a decision! I'm going to join the army, and get my friends back!"

"What?!" Limestone screeched. "Marble, I was joking!" Limestone glared at Marble until she looked away, for all of two seconds. "Pinkie, you can't go and join the army! It's dangerous! You could get killed!"

"I don't care. It's just as dangerous for everypony else going to fight, so why should I avoid it when they don't?"

"I- No! I forbid it!"

"That's not your choice," Maud told Limestone.

"And you agree with this?"

Maud nodded once, "I do, and I'm going with her."

"What? No!" Pinkie shouted. "You don't have to join just because I do!"

"I know, but I still am. Protecting Equestria is the right thing to do." Maud twitched her mouth up at the corners as she smiled at Pinkie.

Limestone looked back and forth between Pinkie and Maud, unable to work out what was going on. "Have you both lost your mind? You can't join the army! And if you won't listen to me, perhaps you'll listen to mum and dad!" Limestone almost ran over to the stairs, and shouted up it. "Mum! Dad! Pinkie and Maud are saying they're going to join the army!" Limestone smirked at Pinkie and Maud, confident that their parents would soon talk them out of it.

"Then may providence see fit to guide them safely through the conflict ahead," their father, Igneous shouted back down a moment later.

Something snapped within Limestone's head, and she stared blankly for a moment. "Wha- What did you just say?" Limestone backed away from the stairs as her parents descended. "Did you just agree with them?"

"Let it not be said that the Pie family neglected to perform their part in the protection of our beloved homeland," Igneous said to all of them. "If Pinkamena and Maud wish to defend Equestria, then they doth go with our blessing."

"Yes!" Pinkie cheered. "Parental permission! Come on Maud! Let's go to the recruitment booth in town!"

"Fine!" Limestone interrupted with a shout. "Just go! It'll just be me and Marble like it has been ever since you and Maud left!"

"Okey dokey captain grumpy. See you in a few hours!" Pinkie pushed open the door outside when a high pitched squeaking stopped her. All of them looked around, trying to discern its source, until they all looked at Marble, who seemed fit to burst. "What's up Marble? Don't you want us to go? You're the one that talked me into this!"

"N-n-n..."

"Don't worry Marble! I promise you we'll be fine, and we'll take great care of each other, won't we Maud?"

Maud nodded at Pinkie's words, "Yes Pinkie. You don't need to worry Marble."

"No, I-ack!" Marble gasped as Pinkie swept her up into a bone crushing hug."

"I'm going to miss you while I'm gone too Marble!" Pinkie released her sister and patted her on the head. "We won't be going yet though, so we can do our proper goodbyes later. Come on Maud, let's get moving!" Pinkie bounced out of the door, Maud walking at her usual pace behind her. 

"I can't believe this is happening," Limestone muttered as they all followed them out to see them off. She turned to Marble to berate her for talking Pinkie and Maud into this, but stopped as she saw Marble going red in the face as she anxiously trotted on the spot. "Marble? What are you doing?"

"Take me with you!" Marble shouted as loud as she could. "Please!"

Pinkie and Maud looked at each other, then walked the short distance back to where the others were standing. "Are you sure you really want to come with us?" Maud asked their youngest sister.

"Yes! Yes, I am!" Marble looked to her parents, seeking their approval. "Can I?"

"Of course," her mother said with a stiff but loving  smile. A smile that grew as Marble hugged her.

"No..." Limestone ground her hooves into the dirt, and stayed that way even as her sisters left. "How could you do this?" she angrily asked her parents, "How could you let them go?"

Igneous and Cloudy Quartz shared a look. "Art thou more upset that they hath gone without you than thou wouldst admit Limestone?" Igneous asked his daughter.

"What? N-" Limestone bit her tongue before she could lie to her parents. What she wanted was for them all to stay on the farm where it was safe. What she wanted least of all was to be left on the farm without any of her sisters at all. "They could get killed!"

"And that thought weighs heavily upon us," Igneous replied somberly. "But if it is fate that the protection of Equestria claim the lives of our beloved daughters, then so be it. We shall both mourn their loss, and celebrate their bravery."

"If you wish to go with them, you would have our blessing," said Cloudy.

"Indeed," said Igneous. "It would be hard, but your mother and I can take care of the farm whilst you art away."

"Of course," Cloudy continued, "if you wish to stay it would be most appreciated, and without Marble, it would fall to you to aid me with the treatment of my fungal hoof infection."

"Uhhhhh..." Limestone looked back and forth between her parents and her sisters in the distance, and made her decision. "Hey! Wait up!" she yelled to her sisters. "I'm coming too!"

Igneous leaned towards his wife as Limestone kicked up a cloud of dust as she chased after the others. "I thought thine hoof troubles had been cured several moons ago."

"They were," Cloudy said back. "I endeavoured to keep up the illusion because Marble didst enjoy the time away from Limestone. I never really required that Marble assist me in the first place."

"Then why encourage Limestone to go with them? I would be elated should she have remained just so she might be safe here."

Cloudy smiled sadly, "Because she would be miserable if she remained, and we agreed we would support their decision to join the military if they so wished." Cloudy watched her husband nod in sullen agreement. "I also feel that having somepony yell at her for a while would do wonders for Limestone's manner."

"Thou art a shrewd mare, wife."


-0-0-0-


There was already a short queue of ponies at the recruitment stand in the small village of Rockton that sat a few short miles from the Pie family rock farm. In this part of Equestria there were predominantly earth ponies, but there were a few unicorns and pegasi dotted about too.

"I can't believe we're doing this," Limestone grumbled as the four sisters joined the end of the line.

"Then go home," Maud told her.

"I can't. If any of you got killed, mum and dad would be devastated. I'd be devastated. If me coming with you means we all come home alive, then that's what I'll do."

"That's nice," Maud said with a tiny nod. "Unrealistic, but nice."

"We'll be fine," Pinkie said, care free. "After all, we have plot protection!"

Limestone stared blankly at Pinkie for several seconds until the need to blink grew too strong. "I know I shouldn't ask, but what are you talking about?"

"Plot protection. Four sisters, going off together on an adventure, facing unknown dangers and stuff, and if they stick together and look out for each other, they all come back! Just like in a story!"

Limestone stomped a hoof and growled, "This isn't a story Pinkie! This is the real world, and we could very easily get hurt, or killed. There's no such thing as plot protection!"

"Y'know, when we all come back after rescuing my friends and saving the day, you're going to realise exactly how silly you sound right now."

"And you're going to have a real nasty wakeup call Pinkie," Limestone said back.

"Next!" Behind them, the next pony stepped up to the booth.

"At least we're not the only ponies here," Pinkie said conversationally as they shuffled along in the line. "Think how many ponies there must be joining up in places waaay bigger than Rockton."

"Then they clearly don't need us," said Limestone. "We should just go home, and stay safe until the war's over."

"Not until I have my friends back," Pinkie said back, full of determination. "Are you going to be a party pooper the whole time? Because you can go back home if you want?"

"Either we all go home, or none of us go home."

"Alrighty," Pinkie shrugged, "but it's only you saying that."

"Next!"

Pinkie saw that she was next in line, and pronked up to the two Royal Guards manning the booth. She slapped a hoof on the flimsy wooden table they sat behind and smiled at the both of them. "Hi! We'd like to join one army please!"

The grey unicorn guard on the right raised an eyebrow as Pinkie's sisters gathered around. "All four of you?"

"Absolutely!"

"Alright then." He nodded at the other guard, a pegasus, who produced four forms and placed them on the table. "Fill out these forms, then take them into the village hall behind me for your physical and psychiatric evaluation. Should you pass both of those you'll be given further instruction." The stallion placed four pens on the table, "Please return the pens once you've filled out your form."

"Okey dok-"

"Next!"

"Yeesh, some ponies." Pinkie picked up her form, and quietly filled it out, poking a few holes through it with the pen until she decided to use Maud to write on. Similarly, Marble used her back, Limestone used Marble's, and Maud used Limestone's, so they ended up sitting in a square.

"Do you think they want my full name?" Pinkie asked after a few minutes.

"Yes Pinkie," Maud replied.

"But only it's mum and dad that even use it. Maybe I should just put Pinkie Pie."

"Put your full name Pinkie."

"But it's so boring, and strict sounding."

"Put your full name Pinkie," Maud insisted.

"Alright, alright. You don't have to be so pushy Maud."

"Sorry Pinkie, but it does say to put your full name."

After the brief altercation about Pinkie's name, the rest of the paperwork was done in a surprising amount of silence considering who was doing it. "Fin-ished!" Pinkie sang, while on her back she could feel Marble come to the bottom of the last page. "All done Marble?"

"Mmhmm," Marble answered affirmatively.

"Awesome! How about you Limestone?"

"This thing is asking for way too much personal stuff. And some of these questions are weird."

"I'll take that as a yes. How about you Maud?"

"I am finished."

"Alright! Then let's go do the next part!"


-0-0-0-


Pinkie hummed to herself as she sat in a curtained off section of the building they were directed into. She had no idea why they couldn't just call it the village hall since that was exactly what it was, but she figured that the guard ponies were mostly right in that it was, most definitely, a building.

"I'm not sure how being a three time saviour of Equestria counts as being an occupation," the pony that Pinkie assumed was a doctor said after a few minutes.

"It would be five, but Fluttershy stopped the dragon that was smoking up the place, and beating that nasty old King Sombra and saving the Crystal Empire was totally all Spike."

"I see..." The doctor picked a pen up in his magic and scribbled out most of what she wrote, leaving just 'baker' behind. Then he thought about it and added 'Element of Harmony,' since he did actually know full well who Pinkie was. "Now then Miss Pie-"

"Just call me Pinkie!"

"I'm afraid I won't be doing that Miss Pie. Now, you aren't on any medication are you? For either physical or mental conditions?"

"Nope!"

"And have no disabilities?"

"Nope!"

The Doctor noted a few things down on his clipboard, then paused when he saw the section on vaccinations, seeing that Pinkie had put 'do all the needles I had to have jabbed into me as a kid count?' He decided that was probably close enough to being a yes to not worry. "Could you stand on the scales please?"

Pinkie bounced off her seat and onto the scales in one movement, and stood there as the doctor wrote down the result. "Very good. Now I'm going to ask you a question, Pinkamena, and I want you to answer honestly. Why do you want to join the military?"

"Because those meanies kidnapped my friends and took them back to Mareitania. I figured that joining the army would be the best way to get them back." Pinkie cocked her head at the question, "Why does that matter anyway? I thought you wanted ponies to join?"

"I'm required to ask," he said as he wrote down why, figuring that somepony on a higher pay grade could work out what Pinkie actually meant.  He knew most of this would be worked out in the training process anyway. All that was required of him was to make sure a pony wasn't joining simply so they could hurt or kill other ponies. Even with that small caveat, he was told to be pretty flexible because they needed the recruits.

"Okay, everything seems to be above board here, so I'm approving you to move onto the physical test."

"Yes!" Pinkie hoof-pumped, "Nailed it!"

The doctor picked up a stamp and pressed it against Pinkie's form, then gave it back to Pinkie. "If you could make your way out to the playing field behind the building and give that to one of the guards, they'll carry out the physical test once they're ready.

"Okey dokey! Thanks doc!" Pinkie popped the form into her mane, and waited for the doctor to open the curtain before bouncing out. Maud was waiting quietly in the corridor between curtained sections, staring straight ahead. "Hey Maud. You still waiting to go in?"

"No, I'm finished. I'm waiting for you and the others."

"Ohhhh, okay." Pinkie cocked an ear at the sound of a nearby 'mmhmm,' that could only have been her baby sister, while further away she could hear Limestone grunting short, sharp replies before sweeping the curtain aside and storming up to Pinkie and Maud.

"Apparently I'm slightly overweight," she growled. "Like it's my fault I had a big breakfast!"

"Maybe if you ate food for breakfast," Pinkie said slightly nervously, knowing how sensitive Limestone could be about her weight, "y'know, instead of rocks."

"Don't tell me what I can and can't eat Pinkie!" Limestone sat down hard, the faint clunk of rocks coming from her stomach as she did. "They passed me anyway, so I guess it didn't matter that much. Besides, I'm more likely to pass than Marble with her shyness, and that stupid stutter."

"Hey!" Pinkie half shouted. "You take that back! Her stutter is adorable and precious!"

Limestone rolled her eyes, "Sure. I would ask her opinion on that, but she'd only tell me I'm 'mmhmm,' and that I should 'mmhmm.'"

"Uh! Why are you so awful to her?"

"Me? What about you? You always talk over her, even when she's talking to you! I'm just trying to toughen her up."

"I fail to see how forcing her to eat worms that one time counts as 'toughening her up,'" Maud said flatly.

"Oh yeah," Limestone sniggered, "I'd almost forgotten about that."

"It was only three weeks ago."

"Was it? Wow, how the time flies." Limestone looked up as a curtain opened and Marble walked out. "So, you ready to go home?"

"Mm-mm," said Marble, holding up her papers for them all to see. There was a pass stamped onto it.

"You've got to be kidding me," Limestone grumbled as Pinkie cheered and hugged Marble. "Just how desperate for ponies are they?"

"They let you in," Maud said flatly.

"That better have been sarcasm."


-0-0-0-


"Good afternoon everypony," the guard on the playing field said loudly enough for the twenty or so ponies there to hear him. "Now that you've all  proven that you're at least bright enough to pick up a sword without hurting yourself nine times out of ten, it's time to see if you're fit enough to do a little exercise without dying. We will be doing pushups, or wing-ups for the pegasi, sit-ups, and a little light jogging, or flying, in what will be your first little taste of military life. Any questions?"

"Yeah, will the disparity in strength between earth ponies and unicorns be taken into account?" Pinkie lowered her hoof as everypony looked at her. "What? I just want it to be fair for everypony."

"There's only like, two unicorns here Pinkie," said Limestone. "I'm pretty sure it won't matter."

"Actually, the pink pony is right," the guard told them. "A unicorn scoring slightly lower on the physical test is acceptable, as it is for pegasi. Now, because I lack ponies here to help me with this, I want you all to pair up and help each other as you take it in turns. We'll be doing pushups first, and you'll all have two minutes to do as many as possible. Choose your partners."

Pinkie automatically went for Maud, then stopped as she thought about the way Limestone had been talking about Marble, and how it wouldn't be nice to leave them together. "Hey Marble, do you wanna be my partner?" Her younger sister nodded eagerly, glad to not be with Limestone. "Okay, you go first, and I'll count."

A shrill whistle blew, signalling the start of their two minutes. Marble set into action, pumping out push-up after push-up at a wholly unsustainable rate, that she slowed down considerably from after the thirty seconds. "You can do it Marble! Best pusher-upper ever!"

"You're supposed to be counting Pinkie," Limestone grunted, not taking her eyes off Maud as she also did push-up after push-up, not even seeming to be winded in the slightest.

"And I am! She's on twenty seven- no, twenty eight, twenty nine, now thirty, thirty one, thirty two-"

Another whistle cut across the field, and a moment later the guard asked for the scores. Internally he sighed at some of the lacklustre results, which were verging on a fail for some of the ponies here. He instructed them to swap over, and blew his whistle again.

"Come on Pinkie!" Pinkie shouted at herself for encouragement, "You can do it!" The world turned into an alternating blur of up and down as Pinkie performed push-up after push-up, not stopping until the whistle blew again. "Phew! That was tough. How'd I do Marble?"

"Mmhmm-mm-hmm."

"Thirty seven? Aww! I thought I did way more than that!"

The results of the sit-ups were much the same as the push-ups, except that it seemed to involve a lot more grunting for some reason. Still, everypony at least scraped through by the lowly standards the guard was given to pass them on, and they moved onto the final test.

"Ten laps of the playing field as fast as you can," the guard said as they all lined up. "Or thirty laps flying for the pegasi. Trotting is permitted for non-pegasi but your score is determined by how fast you do it. Also, you must not leave the track, or you will be disqualified. You must not touch any of the others to even help them up if they fall, or you will be disqualified. If you simply cannot run that far, you are... that's right, disqualified. However, if you are disqualified, you will have a chance to do it again until you are qualified."

The guard blew his whistle, and watched sullenly as they all set into motion. There was no real way any of the ponies here should fail for fitness reasons, because ponies were literally built for running. Some of the overachievers would inevitably do it as fast as they could, but that was always the case. Most of them settled into a canter, and stuck together through the course, which is what he preferred to see.

Naturally the pegasi finished first, even with the extra laps, and he quietly stamped an approval onto their papers, followed by every pony that finished. Nopony left the course, or interfered with each other in any way he could see, so simply because they were all able to do it, they all passed. He'd be more excited if the standard to pass on wasn't so low. While some were doing thirty to forty push-ups, the pass was fifteen, and push-ups weren't all that hard for short pony bodies. The pass for sit-ups was to do ten, hopefully without bitching too much about it, and the laps simply had to be finished. Even a thee legged pony could fill those requirements.

"Congratulations ponies, you've all passed the required fitness test," the guard announced, trying to put some enthusiasm into it. "That means you've all qualified for boot camp, and induction into the Equestrian army. Your training will be taking place at the newly built Camp Freedom at Rainbow Falls, to which you will be going tomorrow morning. You will be given papers as you leave here that you will need to keep with you until you arrive there, and you will also be given a list of items you will need, or want to bring with you, as well as a list of things you can't bring with you. Everything else you need will be provided. Other than that, be at the train station at eight a.m, and welcome to the army. Dismissed!"

Pinkie immediately grabbed her sisters and smushed them into a hug, "We did it girls! We all got in!"

"Yay," Maud and Limestone said together, equally monotone, while Marble smiled, cheering on the inside. She was finally getting away from the farm, even if Limestone came with her.

"I know right? Exciting! Come on, lets get our papers, then go tell mum and dad the good news!"

There was only one way off the playing field that didn't involve going back through the village hall, or flying for those capable, and by the small gate there was a pair of tables with two more of the identikit Royal Guards. One of the tables was stacked with papers, with the other was covered in empty green duffle bags.

"Name?" the first guard asked boredly as Pinkie walked up to it.

"Pinkie Pie!"

"There's no one by that name here. I have a Pinkamena Diane Pie, but that's it."

"That's me!" Pinkie cheerfully told him.

"Then please use your full name." He placed the papers in front of Pinkie, "Keep hold of these until you're asked to give them at the training grounds at Rainbow falls, and make sure you sign them before that. Losing them will mean you having to do this again, so please don't. Also take one of the bags provided."

"Yeah, what's the deal with those?"

"Standard issue. If you can't fit it in the bag, you can't bring it, so I suggest you pay close attention to the list of what you can and can't bring with you."

"Okey dokey! Thanks mister guard sir!" Pinkie grabbed the papers, as well as a bag, and sat nearby as she waited. To pass the time she read the list of things she couldn't bring. Apparently they didn't really want you to bring anything save your papers and toiletries, as everything else would be provided. She froze as she eyes fixed on something. The list said no pets. "No pets? What is this madness?!"


-0-0-0-


"I'm sure they won't notice if you bring Boulder," Pinkie said to Maud as she helped her sisters pack. "He's small, and well behaved, and he totally wouldn't get into any trouble, not like Gummy."

"No Pinkie, the rules are there for a reason. Besides, Boulder will be much safer here with mother and father."

"And Gummy."

"Yes, and Gummy."

Limestone eyed the both of them, not seeing what the issue was. Gummy was about as much fun as a rock, and Boulder had a weird tendency to stare unblinking at you, which was odd for something without eyes. They were better off without them.


-0-0-0-


"Now Limestone, I implore thee to be kind to thine sisters," Igneous said, embracing his eldest. "You will need to look out for each other."

"Yes father."

"And you should not be afraid to speak up for thineself," Cloudy told Marble.

"Mmh-" Marble caught the stern yet loving gaze of her mother, and decided to use her words. "Y-yes mother."

"And Maud," said Igneous, "worry not how the others treat you. Thou art perfect as though art."

"Yes father."

"And Pinkamena," Cloudy said at last to Pinkie, "try to be good."

"Uh! When am I ever not good?"

"Pinkamena..."

"Yes mum."

"Now gather ye all around, so that we might embrace." The entire family piled into a rather stiff, but no less loving group hug. The train had already been at the station before they had arrived, and the time was quickly approaching when they would have to leave. "I beg of you all, stay safe. Now get ye all upon the train."

The four sisters picked up their luggage, slung it over their backs, and made their way onto the train. It was mostly empty, so finding seats wasn't an issue. Pinkie picked the ones nearest their parents, and slid the window open as the conductor shouted "All aboard!"

"We're going to miss you guys so much!" Pinkie shouted to her parents as the train slowly started to eke its way forwards.

"And we you," her parents shouted back, somehow without actually shouting.

"And take good care of Gummy and Boulder! Bye-eee!" Pinkie made room for her sisters so they could all wave to their parents, doing so until they were out of sight of each other.

Cloudy sighed sadly and leant against her husband, "I do hope they stick together and remain safe and well in the times ahead."

Igneous nodded stiffly, wishing the same. He also had other concerns. "Beloved, how exactly does one care for a toothless baby alligator?"

"I hath not the foggiest. Thankfully Boulder's needs are relatively low, save that we not accidentally lose him. I'm more concerned about how we two can run the farm. We art not as young as we once were."

"Mayhaps the unicorn Trixie Lulamoon is still available to hire," Igneous said thoughtfully.

"Her?" Cloudy replied scornfully. "No offence my beloved, but she was flipping useless."


-0-0-0-


Pinkie ducked down as she realised that the train was not only going into Ponyville, but also stopping too. "Uh oh."

"What?" Limestone asked, unamusedly watching Pinkie's antics.

"We're in Ponyville."

"And?"

"And ponies know me here!" Pinkie raised her head so she could peek over the lip of the window as the train pulled into the station.

"I'm really failing to see the problem here."

"Actually, so am I." Pinkie sat back up to look at all the ponies on the station. There were easily two hundred, if not more, and she idly began listing off their names, not that she thought her sisters were listening. Pinkie herself was more concerned about whether to be happy so many ponies she knew were going, or worried that so many ponies she knew could end up getting hurt when the fighting started.

"Pinkie?"

Pinkie turned away from the window at the sound of her name, finding the mint green unicorn Lyra standing by them, looking at her with perplexity. "Oh, hey Lyra! Are you going to go fight too?"

"Yep," Lyra said morosely. "We all got to do our part, right?"

Pinkie looked up and down the train, but didn't see the pony she was looking for. "Isn't Bon Bon with you?"

"Bon Bon... Bon Bon's..." Lyra sighed, "I don't know what Bon Bon's really doing, but she's definitely doing something. I just have no idea what that is. Anyway, I thought that if I join then there's more soldiers, so the war ends faster, so we can be back together sooner."

"Absolutely," Pinkie agreed. "I'm joining to go get my friends back."

"I guess we're all doing this for the ponies we love then. Anyway, good to see you here Pinkie. Hopefully we can see more of each other through training."

"Yeah! That'd be great!"

Lyra stumbled as the train lurched back into motion, "Heh, better find a seat somewhere. See ya later Pinkie."

Pinkie waved after Lyra, then turned back to the window, still unsure of what to make of all these ponies she knew joining up. Plot protection couldn't cover all of them.


-0-0-0-


"I'm guessing those are the Rainbow Falls," Limestone said as she looked out of the window at the massive rainbows cascading from the clouds above a large plateau.

"It would seem that way," Maud agreed. "I've never been here before. I wonder how this plateau was formed?"

"Pretty sure they won't give you the time to perform a geological survey."

"That's a pity."

"Yeah, sure. I'm just glad we're here because this train is getting pretty crowded." Limestone gestured idly to the dozens of ponies around them. The train had stopped several more times between Ponyville and Rainbow Falls, and each time up to at least a few dozen more ponies piled on, sitting where they could, and standing when that wasn't possible. That was still only a portion of the ponies they saw around the station as the train rolled in to its final destination.

"Wow-ee!" Pinkie pushed her face up against the window to try and see all the ponies there. "Look at all those ponies! There must be hundreds here!" Pinkie pulled back from the window as Marble tapped her on the back and pointed out the window on the other side, towards a forest of tents, and hundreds, possibly even thousands of ponies around them, running around and performing drills. "Woah... That's a lot of birthdays to remember."

"That's your biggest concern?" Limestone rolled her eyes and grabbed her luggage, throwing over her back. "Whatever. Let's just get on with this."

Limestone bulled her way through the crowd, and Pinkie brought up the rear, partly to make sure Marble didn't lose her nerve and get lost in the crowd, and partly to apologise to all the ponies that Limestone shoved aside. Slowly they filtered their way through the crowd to an open sided tent, with a dozen harried looking ponies sat behind desks, asking the recruits for their papers.

Limestone split off to a desk, leaving her sisters to split off to one of the other desks. Pinkie chose one, and was immediately asked for her papers, which she produced from her mane. The unicorn quickly skimmed through it, and stopped at the occupation section before shrugging. "So, you're a baker?"

"That's really only my job description. Baker, Element of Harmony, saver of ponies... I've done it all."

"I see. Unfortunately we have plenty of cooks already, so your baking is going to go a little underutilized for now." The pony wrote Pinkie's name and a number on a tag, and attached it to Pinkie's bag, "Move onto the next section for tent assignments."

"Okay! Thanks muchly!" Her sisters were already waiting for her by the time she was done, and together they moved on to a bunch of ponies standing around a sign saying tent assignments. "Hi!" Pinkie said brightly to one of the ponies standing there in a green uniform, "We're looking for a tent."

"Go stand with those ponies there," the mare said, pointing to a group of half a dozen ponies, all mares, and each carrying their own luggage as well as a look of trepidation. "You and you," she said, pointing at two other ponies, "go with them."
Pinkie smiled as one of the other ponies that were pointed out was Lyra. "Hey again Lyra. Maybe this means we're going to be roomies!"

"Looks that way," Lyra laughed. "It'll be nice to be with a pony I know."

"Speaking of, this is Maud, Limestone, and my twin sister Marble." Pinkie pointed at each of her sisters as she said their name. "I forgot to make introductions back on the train."

"And I forgot to introduce myself." Lyra smiled and waved at Pinkie's sisters, "I'm Lyra Heartstrings."

"Hello Lyra," Maud said as Limestine grunted and Marble smiled shyly back.

Before anything more could be said, the mare that directed them to the group walked up to them, "If you'll follow me I'll show you to your tent. That's actually an order by the way, not a request. Along the way I'll explain the very simple rules. First, keep your tent clean and tidy, because they will be inspected regularly. That means no rubbish, no dirt, and roll your sleeping mat up every morning. Secondly, anypony caught stealing from ponies in yours or other ponies tents will be severly punished, and possibly even discharged. I assure you there's no reason for you to do this, and will not be tolerated. Keep to those two rules, and things will go a lot nicer for all of you."

"Is sharing stuff allowed?" Pinkie asked.

"If you have something you want to share, sure, but make you you bring enough for everypony. Nopony wants to be excluded after all." The mare stopped outside an empty tent with a tag stitched above the door displaying the number two hundred and forty two. "This is it, your home for the duration of your training, so I suggest you remember that number. If you'll leave your bags here, I'll show you to the comissiary where you'll get your bedding and uniform. It's also where you'll be able to buy things during your time here, but we request you to not do that until we have all the ponies here situated. Now leave your bags, and lets get going."

Pinkie entered the tent, and let her sisters pick their places before choosing hers. Limestone and Marble claimed the far end of the tent, placing their bags so they were opposite each other, while Maud placed her bag next to Limestone's. Pinkie placed hers next to Marble's, and jumped as a bag landed beside hers.

"You don't mind do you?" Lyra asked. "I'd rather be by a pony I know."

"Of course I don't, but I'm betting we'll all know each other by the end of the day." Pinkie smiled at the others claiming their spaces in the tent, "This is going to be so great!"

"Get a move on ladies!" the uniformed mare shouted before Pinkie could start asking names. "I have a lot of other ponies to show to their tents, so I need to get a move on."

Not wanting to annoy the pony, all the mares quickly picked their places and trotted back out of the tent, which the uniformed mare took as a sign to start moving again. She led them to a large marqee and stopped the entrance, "Here's where you'll be given your bedding, uniform, and other things, including instructions on what will happen next. Good luck recruits."

The group started filtering into the tent, and was immediately fed into a queue, moving from section to section as each pony was given their bedding and unforms, all starting with two ponies in the same green uniform that asked for their names. "Name?"

"Pinkie Pie. No, wait, make that Pinkamena Diane Pie."

One of the ponies, a unicorn, started sorting through papers until she found Pinkie's, and showed it to the other pony who started making adjustments to a device of some kind. A minute later, two small metal tags on a length of thin chain was placed in front of Pinkie. The tags both displayed her name and that number from earlier. "Make sure to wear those at all times."

"Why are there two?"

"Just move onto the next section please."

Pinkie shrugged and moved on to where a Royal Guard in his golden armour was inspecting each pony that stopped in front of him. Some ponies passed him without issue, while others were directed to a area where a dozen barbers were set up, trimming back the length of ponies manes and tails. Pinkie stopped in front of him, and let him have a look.

"Mane seems fine, but tail is a little long. Head through there to get it cut."

Pinkie nodded and started to walk in when a whimper from behind her stopped. Marble stood there, nervously eyeing the barbers, giving Pinkie an idea. She ran a hoof down her mane until it straightened out, "Actually my mane's pretty long too. Can I have it cut?"

The guard shrugged, "If you want."

Pinkie smiled back at Marble and walked into the barber section. A second later she heard the guard order Marble in after her. "Don't worry Marble, we'll both get mane cuts together." Marble smiled in appreciation, then looked back as Maud and Limestone joined them.

"My tail is too long," Maud explained.

"And they're going to mess with my mane!" Limestone growled.

"It'll be fine girls-"

"Next!"

"-You'll see." Pinkie jumped into an empty barbers chair, "Just a little off the top."

"Uh-huh," the barber hummed, indifferent to what Pinkie said as he picked up a scissors and started trimming down Pinkie's mane, hacking great big chunks out of it. A few minutes later he was still working on the same spot as Marble sullenly walked to an empty chair.

"Seems I have my work cut out for me," the barber said cheerfully, picking up a pair of sheers and removing most of Marble's mane in one go. "Don't worry hun, I'll give you something nice, you'll see," she tried to reassure Marble as the first sign of tears built up in her eyes.

True to the barbers words, the mane cut suited Marble quite well, ending up quite similar to what it was before, but much shorter. Marble gave the barber a shaky smile as she was shown her new mane style in a mirror. "See? It's not that bad! Now just let me trim a bit off your tail and you can be on your way."

"I don't get it," the pony cutting Pinkie's hair said as he kept working on Pinkie's mane. Besides finding some rather odd objects at times, no matter how much he cut off, there never seemed to be any less. He'd tried to brush it out straight, but the mane had fought back by eating the brush. "How am I supposed to do anything with this?"

"Hold on." Pinkie pulled her mane out and twisted it in a spot. "Cut it right there." The barber did so, and the mane sprang back into a short straight cut.

"...what?" The barber watched as Pinkie did the same with her tail, and cut it where instructed. "This makes no sense. Anyway, I guess you're done."

"Thanks!" Pinkie jumped out of her chair just as Marble climbed out of hers, "Looking good Marble! I can't even remember the last time I saw both your eyes at once."

"Th-th-thanks Pinkie." Marble flicked the end of her mane with her hoof and sighed, "I feel naked."

"I guess we can fix that once we get our uniforms. Come on!"

"W-what about-"

"Maud and Limestone?" Pinkie looked back at where Maud was quietly having her tail cut shorter. Limestone on the other hoof, was glaring death at the barber, and growled every time she moved the scissors close to her mane. "I think Limestone might be a while. We'll catch up with them later."

Together they left the barber section, rejoining the queue just in front of where ponies were given their uniforms. Why they really needed uniforms was beyond Pinkie since they never usually wore clothes, but she assumed that the answer was more to do with making ponies more camoflaged than their usual bright colours.

"Size?" 

"Huh?" Pinkie blinked, then remembered where she was. "Oh, uh, medium I think. She's the same," she added, pointing to Marble. "We're twins!"

The stallion she was talking to looked incredulously between the pink and grey mares, "You don't say. Anyway, here's your uniforms," he said, placing two dirty-green shirts and trousers down in front of them, as well as two belts. "We'll get spares to you as soon as we have more delievered as due to demand we're a bit short at the moment. Until then, it's your job to wash and take care of those. Now move along and grab your bedding."


-0-0-0-


Pinkie lay back on her bedding, and looked up at the roof of the tent. So far nothing much of note had really happened, and while being given gifts was great, even if they were all the same greeny-brown colour, she was expecting to have to give something back for them. Still, she'd had some time to meet the rest of the ponies in her tent, and was happy to learn she even knew one of them from Manehatten; Azure Velour, one of the dancers from the club above Rarity's boutique there. Aside from her, there was Top Spin, Pyrelight, Amber Delight, Sweet Deal, Crystal Moon, and Dusty Breeze. She hadn't learn much about them as yet, but it was only a matter of time.

"How much longer are they going to keep us sitting around here?" Limestone whined, much like she had ever since she'd returned from the barbers. There was hardly any difference to her mane, but Limestone loudly and obnoxiously reassured all of them that there was.

"They have a lot of ponies here," said Maud. "I'm sure they'll get around to us soon enough."

"Exactly!" Pinkie said in agreement. "I'm sure they didn't ask us to come here just to sit around all the time."

"Maybe y'all should enjoy the peace while it lasts," said Dusty Spring, one of the few pegasi from Appleloosa. "I'm sure they'll have us all running around like idiot soon enough."

"Not all of us," the unicorn Pyrelight said in a rich Canterlot accent. "I've already passed approval for entry into the Mage corps since I was a student at Celestia's school for talented unicorns, so while you're all running and flying around, I'll be honing my magic to defend Equestria with."

Crystal Moon, another unicorn, but from Vanhoover, laughed at her. "I really don't think you know what you're talking about there. What makes ya think that just because you've got fancy magic that ya haven't got to use your legs eh?"

Pyrelight scowled at Crystal Moon, "I'll have you know that I did not join the military just to go slogging through the dirt. My magic-"

"Is just a benefit," said Sweet Deal. "If you were really going to be set apart from the rest of us, I'm sure they would have given you a tent with the rest of the unicorns joining the Mage corps. Hate to say it Pyre, but chances are you're doing the same as the rest of us."

"Besides," said Lyra, "how do you know you've already passed for entry to the Mage corps? I graduated from the same school as you, and nopony's even mentioned the Mage corps to me."

"Well, one would just assume that a graduate from Celestia's school for talented unicorns would be granted immediate entry to the Mage corps."

Top Spin sniggered at the haughty mare, "Do all pegasi get entry to the Wonderbolts just because they can fly? I don't think so."

Pyrelight looked away from Top Spin and raised her nose in the air, "You're just jealous, Top Spin, because earth ponies don't have a specialised unit like the Mage corps."

"Don't need one when you're all the best to begin with," Top Spin replied with a grin.

"Not talking for anypony else here," said Amber Delight, spreading her wings and glancing nervously at their tips, "but I'd rather not join the Wonderbolts, or their equivalent. What they're doing must be way more dangerous that what the Air corps would be doing."

"Don't see why there isn't a special unit for earth ponies," said Azure. "Once again, earth ponies get the short end of the stick."

"Actually, we expect earth ponies to be able to do it all," said a voice from outside the tent. A moment later the tent flap opened, and a Royal Guard entered the tent. "Now I want you all on the parade ground asap for orientation. You've got ten minutes recruits, so get moving."

"You heard him!", Pinkie shouted gleefully, glad that something was finally going on. "Let's go so we can meet all the new ponies!"

Pinkie led the way, weaving through the field of tents to take the shortest route to the parade grounds. Plenty of other ponies seemed to be doing the same, so it was easy for her to conclude that all the ponies there would be going. She was wrong though, and after reaching their destination and waiting a few minutes, only a couple of hundred had turned up.

"What a bloody shower! Look at you all standing around willy-nilly. I want you to stand in nice, even rows recruits!"

Pinkie moved in the confusion, doing her best to stick with her sisters in the confusion as the recruits all tried to form rows at the same time. Slowly they formed some semblance of rows, but it was still far from desirable.

The brown stallion that had shouted at them to get into rows sighed and rolled his eyes theatrically, "I can see we're going to have to start with the very basics with you lot, such as forming straight lines, standing still, and perhaps even walking without falling over more than once every hundred meters! I am Drill Sergeant Knocks, and for the duration of your time here I will be both your best friend, and your worst nightmare. Not even Princess Luna could hope to save you from me recruits!" The drill sergeant smiled nicely at all the recruits, "I'm sure we'll all get along like a house on fire. If we're lucky there might even be survivors."
> 13. Not a place to bring your family
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The burning sun in the sky, the hot breeze, the dusty roads, the faint smell of cherries that permeated everything... Actually, that one wasn't too bad, and while Twilight might once have been reluctant to say anything against the sun, they all agreed that Dodge Junction, with its uncomfortably warm southern location, left much to be desired, like some shade, a cool drink, and a train ride somewhere else. Sat in the singular inn that Dodge Junction had, they had at least two of those things, but the third was definitely off the menu.

"I'm pretty sure it's only going to get worse from here on in," said Twilight. "I've never been to the Badlands, but I'm fairly sure it didn't earn its name by being a lush and vibrant land. Not to mention the creatures that live there, as well as the changelings."

Moondancer pushed her breakfast around on her plate and sighed, "I'm not going to pretend to not mind, but after freezing all of last night, I now feel like I'm sweating my own body weight every hour. How could ponies possibly live here?"

Trixie rapidly chewed the chunk of toast in her mouth, and swallowed. "Y'know Moony, you could maybe, possibly, remove that rather thick and noticeably black turtleneck you insist on wearing."

"I am not taking my sweater off, and stop calling me Moony!"

"But it's cute! And it works so well with the group; Sunny, Moony, Twily, and Trixie. Perfect!"

"I think you can leave out calling me Sunny as well," Sunset said quietly.

"Why? What could possibly be so bad about that?"

"My parents called me Sunny, and we didn't exactly part on good terms."

Trixie rolled her eyes, "Great, so now we all have tragic back-stories. And here I thought that yours would at least have a nice start."

Sunset shrugged, "I'm not going to go into it as I made peace with it long ago, but the fact is I hate my parents, so don't use their pet name for me."

"Oh pssh," Trixie scoffed, lazily waving a hoof at Sunset, "it's just a name, and hating your parents hardly sounds like a good reason to get snippy at ponies."

Twilight leaned forwards and rested her chin on her hooves as she smirked at Trixie, "Is that right... Lulamoon?"

Trixie stopped and narrowed her eyes at Twilight, "Now why did you feel the need to call me that?"

"I don't know what you mean Trixie," Twilight said innocently; "it's just a name. That, and only my brother gets to call me Twily."

Trixie threw her hooves up in the air, "Fine! I guess we'll all just go around calling each other by our proper names if it makes you all feel so much better!"

"I knew you'd unders-"

"That still doesn't explain why Moondancer won't remove her sweater. Are you horribly disfigured under there or something?"

"Of course I'm not! I just don't want to take it off!"

"Strip!" Trixie started to chant, "Strip! Strip! Strip! I'll give you ten bits if you do!"

"Rrrgh!" Moondancer snatched her breakfast up in her magic and stormed off to another table, putting her back to the rest of them.

"Nice work Trixie," Sunset said sarcastically, while Twilight glared at the blue mare.

"I gave you one simple instruction Trixie, which was to be nice to Moondancer. Care to explain that?"

"She'll feel better if she takes it off."

"Even though she doesn't want to."

"Exactly! Clearly she doesn't know what's best for her, and I'm trying to help. That, and I want to see what's under there." Trixie looked at Moondancer as the unicorn sullenly ate her breakfast, "I'll get her naked some day."

Using her magic, Twilight grabbed Trixie's nose and pulled it around until they faced each other. "Ignoring that comment, unless it gets to the point that she's about to suffer from serious heat stroke, you are going to leave her alone, is that clear?"

Trixie rolled her eyes at Twilight, "Crystal, your highness."

"Good! Now eat up! We have a long journey ahead of us, and I'd like us to actually make some progress on it today."


-0-0-0-


Twilight placed some bits on the bar to pay their bill, and lifted her gear onto her back as the others did the same. The time had finally come to go walking into one of the few places in the world that's ponies had no real business going. To say that they were excited about the prospect would be highly inaccurate.

"This is the worst idea in the history of ideas," Moondancer grumbled, making both Trixie and Sunset snigger to themselves. To them this barely even ranked in the top five.

"It'll be fine," said Twilight, trying to sound confident. She held the door open for the rest of them, and joined them on the dirt road that led out of town, and eventually out of civilization. "If we're careful the changelings won't even know we're there."

"And if they do find us?"

"Then they better outnumber us pretty good."

"Actually," Sunset said, unsure, "I was thinking it might not be a bad idea to look for somepony who could guide us through the Badlands. I'm sure there must be somepony in this dustbowl crazy enough to have been there before."

"I wouldn't count on it," Twilight said back, dismissing the idea. "There's never really been a reason good enough to warrant taking the risk of going in there. If it wasn't for the fact that Equestria is in a bit of a situation, I'd suggest bringing an army with us, or not going at all. All the same, the Badlands are surrounded by cliffs on all sides, with two entrances, so the odds on getting lost if we follow the cliffs are nil."

"The trick is to not get caught?"

"Exactly," Twilight nodded. "Now come on, dithering and putting this off won't make it any easier."

"What are we even looking for in there?" Trixie asked.

"Moondancer?"

Moondancer looked up and adjusted her glasses as Twilight said her name. "Right. Starswirl's journals on the time he spent here said he made camp on a small plateau amongst the cliffs on the west side of the Badlands. He also said the outskirts of the Badlands were the only places not always affected by a massive magical dead-zone that covers most of the area."

"What did he say about the changelings?" asked Sunset.

"Almost nothing. He studied a lot of the flora and fauna of the Badlands, but there's barely even a mention of the changelings, apart from the occasional feeling of being watched, which I can only assume was about the changelings."

"That's decidedly unhelpful."

"He was probably not including them in case ponies found out about the possible connection he has with them, if Faust's to be believed," said Twilight. "I doubt ponies would think well of him if they found out he created the changelings."

Trixie shook her head bemusedly, "That still sounds like a steaming pile of horse apples to me. While he might have been powerful, he was still only a unicorn, and I really doubt he possessed the ability to create life."

"I know," said Twilight. "I'd like some answers to that as well. Still, we're not going to find anything out by hanging around here."

The journey south was mostly done in silence, save for the chirping of insects and the occasional complaint. The other major sound was the laboured breathing of Moondancer, who started to lag behind after a few miles.

"This is exactly what I was talking about," Trixie said to Twilight. "She'd probably feel way better if she took that stupid jumper off, plucked her eyebrows, and changed her mane style." Trixie blanched as Twilight glared at her again, "Fine, but I'm still right about the jumper."

"As afraid as I am of the idea," said Sunset, "I think Trixie might be right."

"See! Unnecessarily insulting, but at least she agrees with me."

"Fine, I'll go talk to her." Twilight trotted back to where Moondancer was slowly plodding along, her chest heaving with every breath. "Hey Moondancer, are you struggling a little?"

"Too hot," Moondancer said bluntly. "I'm not used... to carrying... this much weight... in this kind of heat."

"Uhh..." Twilight glanced back up the road to where Trixie was nodding vigorously at them. "Maybe it would be a good idea to remove your jumper, so you don't overheat."

"No," Moondancer stated firmly. "Is this Trixie's plan? To get you... to ask me?"

"No, it's my plan to stop you from getting heat stroke and being seriously ill."

Moondancer stared flatly at Twilight for several seconds. "Even if I believed that, the fact is that I burn in the sun way too easily, so I'm keeping it on."

"But we have sun block."

"No! No! No! Stop asking, because I'm not taking it off!"

Twilight took a step back from Moondancer in surprise, "Okay, sheesh, I won't ask again. If you think we're getting too far ahead, give us a shout, and we'll slow down to let you catch up."

Moondancer sniffed haughtily and adjusted her gear before trotting past Twilight with her nose held high. A second later she gasped angrily as Twilight trotted past her with ease.

"Yeah, she's not taking it off," Twilight said to Trixie and Sunset once she caught up to them, falling into step with them as they started to walk again.

"She's not going to be a problem is she?" asked Trixie. "This seems horribly familiar to what happened with Octavia when we got to Mareitania. I doubt we'll find many kindly old mares to nurse her back to health out here."

"I think you'll find this is almost the polar opposite of what happened to Octavia, but you're not wrong either." Twilight looked back at where Moondancer was slowly trudging along behind them. "Maybe it wouldn't hurt to dump some water on her once in a while."

Slowly the land on both sides of the road started to rise, meaning that within a few hundred meters they were walking down through a canyon, that did at least afford them a little shade from the glaring sun. It also showed them the warnings daubed onto the sides of the canyons, warnings of the dangers ahead, and a few friendly suggestions that they turn back before it was too late. Not that they weren't going to ignore the warnings anyway, it certainly would have been easier if it weren't for the fact that most of the signs were written in a dark red.

"Is that blood?" Trixie asked a little sceptically. "It looks like blood. I didn't think ponies were into writing things in blood. Maybe if there were a few skeletons around, still lying where they fell, desperately trying to finish their warnings before their life ended I'd believe it, but there's nothing."

Sunset turned around to look at the dozens and dozens of warnings written on the canyon walls, "I'd believe it more if there was only one warning. I really doubt ponies would need more than a few before thinking coming down here's a bad idea." She looked up at the warnings that were several times higher than she could reach. "I also doubt that dying ponies had the strength to fly and write messages in their own blood."

"But who would write fake messages?" Moondancer asked once she caught up.

"The changelings I bet," Sunset replied. "Who else would have an interest in keeping ponies and whatever out of the Badlands? I imagine if this was Celestia's doing she'd use actual signs instead of this."

"But is it real blood or fake blood?" Trixie asked.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say fake," said Twilight. "I doubt Chrysalis would sacrifice a meal just to do this."

"Even after she's sucked all the love out of them?" Moondancer asked with a shudder.

Twilight thought about it, then shrugged, "Love isn't a finite resource, so I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that. Come on guys, let's not dwell on these obviously fake warnings, and get on with this."

Twilight marched stoically past the blood red warnings, and within another hundred meters she passed out through the end of the canyon, and into the dry, rocky, sun-blasted confines of the Badlands. She also staggered sideways as the full strength of the sun blasted against her, reminding her that down here in the south was a horrible place to be for oh so many reasons.

"You think Celestia does this just to piss Chrysalis off?" Sunset said as she shielded her eyes from glaring sun. "I want to think not, but too much of me says it's true."

"I wouldn't put it past her," Twilight muttered. She looked back as Moondancer groaned, "You okay there Moondancer?"

"Are we in hell? It feels like we're in hell."

"No, but this is probably the closest thing you can get to it."

"What's that?"

Twilight shielded her eyes and squinted in the direction that Trixie was looking, trying to discern through the shimmering heat what had caught her attention. It looked like a spire made of rock, but seemed too smooth and rounded to be a natural formation. There was also dozens of black dots hovering around it. "Oh dear."

"What?"

"I do believe that's the changeling hive."

"Oh. Shit." Trixie dropped her own hoof back to the ground, then shrugged. "I guess we're not going on a whacky adventure where we try to kill Chrysalis then?"

"Not on your life. We'd fail miserably, get captured, and probably have interesting things done to us. Very interesting, and very horrible things."

"How interesting, and how horrible?" Moondancer asked nervously.

"Lets just say my brother goes into a nervous sweat whenever he sees a bug in the castle, and leave it at that. He has to get Cadence or one of the guards to deal with spiders now."

"But the changeling invasion was almost three years ago now."

"As I said, very interesting, and very horrible things." Twilight grabbed her canteen and drank greedily from it as she thought. There was no real way to hide from the changelings, so she wasn't going to bother. The best they could hope was that they weren't spotted, as they likely couldn't defend themselves, not only because the changelings possessed highly superior numbers, but also because their magic was limited. Even holding her canteen in her levitation seemed to be taxing her more than it should.

"We should try and get to that plateau as soon as we can."


-0-0-0-


Trixie upended her canteen over her head, drinking as it splashed over her head, soaking her completely. "This endless water thing is incredible. Best invention ever!"

"Do I need to remind you of the magic dead zone we're in?" Twilight said, annoyed. "The magic on that canteen might stop working at any moment, and then you'll have no water. Or you might strain the enchantments making it work even here on the edge of the dead zone, and break it completely."

"Alright, I'll stop, sheesh."

"You're also washing your sunblock off."

"Trixie sweated that off hours ago, so that's hardly the issue."

"Put more on then!"

"I did! I sweated that off too."

"Guys?" Sunset said quietly, her throat too dry to shout. She opened her canteen and drank to fix that.

"Then keep putting more on!" Twilight continued, amazed that Trixie wasn't currently as purple as herself from sunburn.

"We're going to run out if I keep using it that fast. I'm pretty sure we should save some for that circle desert place as well."

"We can buy more supplies in Saddle Arabia Trixie, so don't worry about that."

"Guys!" Both of them stopped and turned to Sunset as she shouted at them, Sunset in turn pointing back at Moondancer in the distance, sat unmoving, and barely visible through the shimmering heat. "I think Moondancer's in trouble."

"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" Twilight gasped as she trotted back past Sunset towards Moondancer.

Sunset directed a flat stare at Twilight's rear end, "Because I didn't think it was my job to keep an eye on Moondancer perhaps? I only just noticed." Sunset sighed bitterly and followed after Twilight, Trixie just behind her.

"Moondancer? Are you okay?" Twilight asked as she reached Moondancer, who was sat on the ground, panting heavily. She still had enough focus and energy to glare angrily up at Twilight.

"Do I look like I'm okay?! I'm too hot, I feel sick, and the ground is burning my hooves."

Twilight sighed and pulled Moondancer's bags off her back, "You've got heat stroke. I warned you that you could overheat if you didn't take that jumper off."

"And I'm still not taking it off!"

"Oh come on! What is it that's stopping you from taking it off? Are you determined to make yourself ill?"

"I'm not taking it off, and that's final!"

Twilight stared at the obstinate Moondancer until she started to get uncomfortable. She also made a decision. "It's not final."

"Excuse me?"

"You have heat stroke, you are making yourself ill, and you're slowing us down in what could possibly be the worst place to do so! Either you take that jumper off willingly, cool down, and try to get better, or I'll take it off you by force!"

"She will too," Trixie warned Moondancer. "She has issues with personal space."

Moondancer gawped up at Twilight's steely glare, shocked at the sudden aggression that she'd shown. "You don't mean that."

"Fucking try me Moondancer."

Moondancer stared up at Twilight a little longer, then growled. "Fine. Fine! You wanted this, so now you can deal with it!" Moondancer lit her horn and raised her legs, pulling the jumper off as fast as she could and throwing it to the ground, although Sunset caught it before it landed. "Are you fucking happy now?!"

"Uh... Yes?"

Moondancer was shocked. "Aren't you going to say anything?"

"About what?"

"About these!" Moondancer shrieked, pointing at all the small, evenly spaced scars running up and her front legs. "Go on! Take a good long look!"

"Maybe you should stop shouting," Trixie suggested, only to be ignored.

"So you have some scars. That's hardly worth making a big deal of right now in place that we are."

"Twilight," Sunset said nervously, "you do know what those are, right?"

"Yes I know what they are!" Twilight shouted at Sunset, making her flinch. "And I also know that I'm probably the reason she put them there!"

Trixie frowned as she felt the ground tremble beneath them. She was fairly certain that wasn't normal. "Uh, guys, maybe you really should stop."

Moondancer stared open mouthed at Twilight with tears in her eyes, "So you know what these are, and what they're about, and you won't even acknowledge them?!"

"Guys, I really think you should stop shouting."

"Believe me Moondancer, they are incredibly acknowledged, and internally I am loathing myself quite severely, but right now we are in a place where we could be easily captured by changelings, stung by something poisonous, or eaten by something much bigger than us!"

"Guys! Shut up!" Trixie shouted as the tremors suddenly intensified.

"Or what Trixie?!" Twilight shouted back, only to fall silent as her brain suddenly registered the quaking earth. "Oh."

"What is this Twilight?" Sunset asked nervously, only for Twilight to throw Moondancer's bags onto Sunset's back, and her own onto Trixie's.

"Run."

"What?"

"Run!" The urgency in Twilight's voice spurred them all into action, and they began running as fast as they could in the opposite direction they came from. Seconds later the ground burst open where they'd been standing, and a massive, pink, worm-like creature rose up through the rock and dust, opening its maw to reveal the wriggling black tentacles in its tri-jawed mouth, and roared.

"What the fuck is that?!" Trixie screeched in shock, putting on a burst of speed as the creature lurched towards them.

"Tatzlwurm!" Twilight shouted back, only just being heard over the sound it made as it crashed onto the ground. "Keep going! I'll hold it off!"

"Are you serious?!"

"Yes! I am! Go!" Twilight spread her wings and used her momentum from running to lift herself in the air and loop back around to where the tatzlwurm was pushing itself along the ground like a snake. A massive, ten ton snake. Due to its size it didn't look like it was moving all that fast, but it wasn't only matching Trixie's, Sunset's, and Moondancer's speed, it was catching up to them.

"Oh no you don't!" Twilight dived towards the wurm, firing blast after blast of magic at it, scorching its scales and making it roar in pain. It reared up to confront its attacker, shooting its tentacles out to try and snatch her out of the air. Twilight deftly dodged them, and looped back around, only to be surprised as it coiled up like a spring and launched itself into the air.

Massive jaws snapped through the air, far too close for Twilight's comfort, but thankfully the beast had all the grace and manoeuvrability of a rock in the air, and it was easy enough to dodge. She looped back around and conjured a telekinetic blast that blew the wurm sideways into the cliff with a bone shaking crash.

The tatzlwurm fell back to the ground in a shower of rocks, and it took a few moments to shake itself loose. Twilight watched as the wurm shook its head in a daze, and thought it was about to give up when its tentacles snapped back out again, wrapping around her rear leg, and dragging her back towards its tooth filled maw.

"Get off!" Twilight fired blast after blast at the tentacle, which thankfully didn't seem as invulnerable to her attacks as the thick scales that covered the rest of the wurm. After a few tries she successfully blasted through the fleshy tendril, and pushed herself back into the air, the spasming remains of the tentacle still firmly wrapped around her leg.

The tatzlwurm wailed in agony as Twilight kicked the remnants of its tentacle off her leg. It coiled up defensively as it shifted backwards, trying to get away from her, but couldn't find a hole to escape into, not when it thought Twilight might still attack it. Then it looked sideways towards where her friends where still running, and it, along with Twilight, saw Moondancer lagging behind, struggling to run at all. A much easier prospect than Twilight.

"No!" Twilight shouted as the tatzlwurm squealed with delight and crashed face first into the ground, vibrating its scales so it less dug through the earth, and more swam through it, almost as fast as it could travel on the surface. It didn't go very deep though, as Twilight could see the earth cracking as it sped in a beeline straight for Moondancer.

As fast as it was though, Twilight was faster, and she overtook it just as Sunset and Trixie came running back towards Moondancer. Twilight slammed down on the ground behind Moondancer, grabbing her with magic to throw her towards the other two, both of them catching her in their telekinesis just as the tatzlwurm burst up through the ground, right underneath Twilight, smacking her up into the air. She formed a shield around herself, that the tatzlwurm clamped its jaws around, trying to crush her.

Twilight could hear her friends frantically shouting her name, and could feel the thud of magical impacts hitting the tatzlwurm's scaly hide. Logically she knew it should head back underground to safety, but as that hadn't happened she suspected that it wouldn't until it could close its mouth, which her shield was preventing it from doing. It wouldn't take long until it could though, as its mass of razor sharp teeth were already splintering her shield. She couldn't go back, and couldn't stay where she was. She could teleport out, but that could mean the wurm going back after Moondancer, so that left her with one option.

Twilight pushed herself past the teeth, and into the wurm's gullet before collapsing her shield, and sliding down into the warm, slimy darkness around her.


-0-0-0-


"Twilight!" Trixie screamed as the tatzlwurm's mouth finally snapped shut on Twilight. It keened with delight and started retreating back into the ground with its prize. "Twilight! Get out of there! Teleport! Blow your way out! Something!" 

Sunset fired another bolt of magic at the tatzlwurm, "Maybe if you helped me!"

"I- I can't! I don't want to go crazy again!"

"But Twilight's in there!"

"Twilight can't die! I can!"

"Perhaps not, but it's going to take a long time to recover from becoming worm poop!"

"It's too late anyway," Moondancer said as the wurm vanished out of sight. "It'll never come back now."

"Not until it's hungry enough to come after us anyway," said Sunset as she collapsed to the burning ground with a sigh. "What the hell do we do now?"

"We find Twilight," Trixie said firmly, unwilling to bridge any argument. "It's kind of a cliché to say this, but we can't do this without her. We find the wurm, save Twilight, and get the fuck out of this place."

"And how do we do that, huh?" Sunset asked harshly. "How are we supposed to find that thing in the entirety of the Badlands?"

"I don't fucking know!" Trixie shouted back. "Why am I the one that has to have ideas?!"

"I think I know how to find it," Moondancer said during a lull in their argument.

"Oh yeah?" Trixie asked hysterically, "How's that then?"

Moondancer gestured at a pebble in front of her that was bouncing around as the ground shook again. "I think we find it when it comes back for us now."

The ground burst open barely a dozen meters away from them, and the tatzlwurm stretched up into the air, screeching as its tentacles writhed around frantically. The display would have been terrifying, if it wasn't for the smoke that poured from its open mouth. Seconds later a red mark appeared below its head where its throat was, below the red crest that surrounded its head, and traced around the wurm's neck. Immediately after that, its head fell off.

"Fuck!" Trixie shouted, grabbing Moondancer and diving out of the way of the spray of blood that came from the wurm's body. The body collapsed to the ground, still writhing in the wurm's death throes, just as the mouth on the head kept opening and closing. The body smashed hard into the ground, and Twilight tumbled out of it, along with Swordy, covered head to tail in blood.

"Did I get him?" Twilight asked once she'd stopped rolling, her voice a little slurred. "I think I got him."

"Twilight!" Trixie started to run towards Twilight, then stopped at the edge of the pool of blood that still poured from the writhing body of the wurm. "Twilight, you're alright!"

"So I did get it then. Oh good."

"Twilight! You're alright!" Moondancer gasped, still shocked at Twilight's sudden return.

"So it would seem." Twilight tried to stand, but slipped on the blood all around her, smacking her face on the ground, and getting a mouthful of dirt and blood. She quickly spat it back out, "Urgh! Aargh! Bleh! Pfffeh... yuck. Yay me." She stood and walked out of the blood, "Somepony give me my canteen please, I really don't want this to dry on."

Trixie wordlessly passed Twilight her canteen, a little unsure what to say to the blood soaked mare as she sat and tipped the water over herself.

Twilight sighed as she scrubbed at her coat with her magic, "Well this seems like an auspicious beginning to our journey. We've barely started, and I'm already covered in blood."

"Is that all you're going to say?" Sunset said to Twilight, still stunned by the sudden turn of events.

"What would you like me to say?"

"I don't know! But I do think that you'd say something after killing one of the biggest creatures I've ever seen!"

"Actually, the females are even bigger," Moondancer said timorously.

Sunset blinked incredulously at Moondancer for a few seconds, "You mean this isn't the biggest they can get?"

"Oh no, this is just a male. You can tell by the crest around its head. The females don't have that. Also, they're bigger."

"How are you so calm about this?" Trixie asked Moondancer as she sat there dispensing knowledge.

"I'm not calm! You're calm!"

"Ah."

"And how are you so nonchalant about this, huh?" Sunset said to Trixie accusingly. 

"Do you really want to know the answer to that?"

"Yes!"

Trixie patted Sunset on the shoulder, "Kill a few hundred ponies, and then you'll understand."

"Oh you did not just play that card."

"Girls!" Twilight shouted as she poured water through her tail, trying to get it at least reasonably clean. "As much fun as having an argument sounds about now, we can't stay here if we're going to reach the plateau before sundown. If you two keep carrying our bags, I'll carry Moondancer."

"But I don't want to ride you; you're all gross and covered with blood."

"Tough. You've given yourself heatstroke by being so stubborn about your jumper, and believe it or not, I didn't just throw myself down the throat of a tatzlwurm because I thought it'd be fun. I did it because I want you to be okay. So I'm going to carry you, and you're going to like it."


-0-0-0-


The journey continued in a strangely awkward silence after that. None of them seemed to want to broach the subject of Twilight killing the tatzlwurm, and none of them, save Trixie, knew what to even think about it. Trixie herself didn't care, and would've been humming happily to herself if it wasn't for the fact that she was quietly dying in the heat, and from the extra work carrying Twilight's belongings. At the very least, she was coping better than Sunset with Moondancer's stuff, thanks to being fitter.

Since nopony was bringing up the tatzlwurm, and the silence was making Twilight feel guilty, like she'd done something wrong in saving them from it, she decided to poke the other elephant in the room. She knew it was likely to start another argument, but it possibly beat trudging slowly in silence.

"So," Twilight said after a while, "do you want to talk about it Moondancer?"

"Talk about what?"

"About the scars."

"What's there to talk about? You know what they are, and why they're there. I thought that you didn't want to talk about them."

"I do! I just-" Twilight stopped, unsure of how to go about this. "I know I fucked up when I left Canterlot. I left without saying so much as a goodbye, and I'm sorry for that. But you know what I was like back then! I'd get sucked into things, and barely even notice the world around me. I'm sorry for just up and leaving Moondancer."

Twilight prepared herself for getting yelled at, or tears, or even the most unexpected thing, an acceptance of her apology. What she hadn't prepared for was silence, of which there was an awful lot. If it wasn't for the fact that she could feel Moondancer going tense, she might have thought Moondancer had flat out ignored her. "Moondancer?"

"That's it? You really think that's what this was all about? You really think that you leaving without saying goodbye was enough to make me do all this?"

Twilight winced guiltily, "I'm guessing it's not?"

"Of course it's not! You were my best friend Twilight, since we were little fillies! We did so much together! Then you left, just like that! You discarded me like a piece of trash! Like I was nothing to you!"

Twilight winced again, "And I'm sorry, I really am."

"On the day you left I was throwing a party Twilight. Sure it was only small, with you, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, and Lyra invited, but it was a big deal to me! Do you remember what you did?"

"I didn't go," Twilight said quietly.

"You didn't go! My best friend, whom I invited weeks before, didn't go! The first time I was really putting myself out there, after all the time it took the others to convince me that ponies might like me, and want to be my friend, and you, my best friend whom I've looked up to for years, didn't come!"

"Moondancer, I-"

"And then a year later, there came another huge kick in the teeth when I saw you parading through town at your coronation, the friends that you threw me away for right beside you! Then not long after that you were named the princess of 'friendship.' Friendship? Don't make me laugh! I've never been so hurt in my life Twilight, and I never wanted to be hurt like that again! Which is why, even though we're working together now, we are far from friends."

Trixie sighed and rolled her eyes, "And how many ponies do you know that would let themselves get swallowed by a tatzlwurm to save your life? I bet the number is pretty low."

"Stay out of this Trixie," said Twilight.

"Fine..."

"Do you know what I was doing when I missed your party?" Twilight asked Moondancer as Trixie sulked silently.

"Reading, I bet."

Twilight almost blushed at being caught so easily, "Yes actually. I was doing the research that would lead to the defeat of Nightmare Moon, and the return of Princess Luna. Then Princess Celestia told me to go to Ponyville to oversee preparations for the Summer Sun celebration, and also to make some friends. I didn't plan on leaving myself at all.

"But you had friends!" Moondancer gasped as she realised something, "You never even told the Princess about us? We were in the same class together! A class taught by the Princess herself sometimes, and she didn't even know we were friends?!"

Twilight lowered her head, in both shame and irritation. "As I've said, I was crap at the whole 'friend' thing back then. But my point is that I was sent away by Celestia, and it led to the defeat of Nightmare Moon. If I had gone to your party, we'd probably be on year four of eternal night about now."

"Okay, fine, I won't deny saving the world from eternal night was a nice bonus, but you still never came back after! Yes you missed my party, and yes you moved to Ponyville, but you could still have come back and apologised for missing my party, and said goodbye, and all the other things that would have gone a long way towards not completely tearing my heart out!"

"I know, and I'm sorry! I really am, but what were you thinking pinning all your hopes of a social life on me? Relying on me for social validation? Me, the pony that once forgot to go to her own birthday party? Me, the pony whose mother had to remind her of her friends birthdays and other things? Me, the complete social retard with only the most basic of social skills required for survival? What were you thinking?"

Moondancer went stiff, "You're blaming me now? Really?"

"No, I am still incredibly at fault here, but you picked the worst pony possible pony to build your social life off of. And why did me leaving suddenly stop you from talking to your other friends?"

"Because I didn't want them to hurt me either! Lyra left just after you did, and I thought the others would go too, so I hid. I locked myself away, and threw myself into my studies, and did everything I could to save myself from getting hurt ever again! And then you rocked up to my door with that- that- fucking... bitch, Trixie-

"Hey!"

"-And acted like nothing had happened! Like you hadn't left me the shattered remains of a mare that once thought she could have been somepony worth being liked! Right now I'm not sure what I should hate you for more, leaving in the first place, or coming back and dragging all these feelings back up!"

Twilight sighed and nodded, "And because of what I did, you ended up self harming."

"From the sound of it, you should be glad that's all she did."

"Shut up Trixie!"

Trixie jerked as Twilight shouted at her, "What? That wasn't me!"

"No, it was me," Sunset said, glaring angrily at Twilight. "What the actual fuck Twilight? How could you have done that to her? If that had been me in her position, I probably would've done the same thing she did. The fact that you could point out that she was wrong to be friends with you in the first place is just the icing on the cake."

"I'm not sure if you've noticed," Twilight growled, "but I have said plenty of times that I was a crap friend. I was crap at being friends, and I am so, so sorry for hurting you Moondancer, and I would do absolutely anything to try and make it up to you, but I really can't accept that you thought of me as your best friend when I did nothing to deserve you calling me that."

"You liked the same things as me, Moondancer explained. "In fact, you even introduced me to the classics. Sure our other friends were nice, but you were the only pony that I could talk to about these things. Don't you remember spending hours talking about the latest magical theories? Or the time we spent trying to work out some old alchemical recipe one of us had found? Don't you remember any of what we did together?"

Twilight stopped walking and closed her eyes as memories started replaying themselves in her head, all of them revolving around her childhood with Moondancer. They really had done so much together, but at the time she hadn't known what she had, and certainly hadn't appreciated it. Looking at it with what she knew now though...

Twilight sat hard, tipping Moondancer off her back, and when she opened her eyes again, they were brimming with tears. "We spent three hours arguing over the implications of Morari the Maneless' writings on magic's affect on non-magical materials. It turned out my book had a typo, saying that a magicless material would nutrify the magic's effect, instead of nullifying it. I always found that a bit strange until I saw your copy. Nopony else in the class would have even known who Morari the Maneless was."

"Mmhmm."

"Oh Celestia, what have I done?" Twilight turned to look at Moondancer, "I know I've said it before, but I'm so sorry Moondancer. Could you ever forgive me?"

"After you threw me away like old garbage? No." Moondancer stood and walked past Twilight, glaring at her as she passed, "Now you know what I lost when you left, and how it feels."

"That still doesn't explain why you cut yourself," Trixie pointed out.

"Because I wanted to feel something other than pain."

"That... doesn't even make sense."


-0-0-0-


Twilight stayed behind the group on her own for the hours after Moondancer had given her a verbal thrashing. Moondancer herself was at the head of the group, stoically leading the way despite how ill she felt. Trixie and Sunset stayed with Moondancer, which Twilight was fine with as she didn't need Trixie being sarcastic at her, and Sunset she knew was pissed at her for what she said to Moondancer. Twilight didn't even know why she said it. Sure it was a fair observation on her part to point out that using a pony like Twilight as the focus of your social life was a terrible idea back then, but it didn't need to be said. Honestly, after Mareitania, it was a terrible idea now as well.

"Great job Twilight," Twilight muttered to herself, berating herself again for what felt like the hundredth time. "Moondancer is understandably pissed at you, but Sunset? That was a masterful move indeed. Just what we need to make this mission a success."

Twilight didn't notice that the others had stopped until she almost walked into them, although she definitely noticed the dirty look Sunset gave her. "What's going on? Why have we stopped?"

"I think that's the plateau," said Moondancer, pointing a hoof up at a ledge that jutted out, halfway up the cliffside. "Even if it isn't, it's probably a good place to stop for tonight."

Twilight looked up at the sky, checking the position of the sun. By her own reckoning, it should have been another few hours until they reached Starswirl's plateau. Still, if it wasn't what they were looking for, Moondancer was right that it was a good place to stop, especially considering her condition.

"Fancy going to check it out, little miss wings?" Trixie said, nudging Twilight on the side.

"Uh, sure." Twilight spread her wings, and winced as a lot of her feathers stuck together with dried blood. Clearly she hadn't paid enough attention to them as she was trying to clean herself. She was not looking forward to preening them.
Her wings were still capable of flying though, and she lurched into the air, wobbling slightly as her sticky feathers didn't move like they should have. She compensated by flapping harder, and was almost exhausted by the time she reached the plateau. "Should've just teleported."

The plateau itself was empty, and was barely big enough to warrant being called a plateau. Six ponies could probably sleep here comfortably, but more than that would be risky. Still, it was shady, and probably well protected from anything below that didn't have wings. If there was just some sign that Starswirl had been here it'd be perfect.

"There's nothing up here," Twilight shouted down to the others.

"Then maybe you could fix that by bringing us up there!" Trixie shouted back. Twilight did so, teleporting them up in a violet flash. Trixie staggered and blinked away the dots in her vision before looking around. "Huh, there really is nothing here."

"Floor's been magically smoothed," Sunset observed, running a hoof over the mostly flat surface, "so I dare say this is the place."
Twilight ran her own hoof over the ground, and nodded, agreeing with Sunset's assessment. "Still, you think there'd be something here. Even just a circle of rocks where his campfire was."

"Probably not a good idea," said Trixie. "A fire would be visible for miles around. It would definitely be spotted by the changelings," she concluded, pointing at the massive hive in the distance.

"It's the right place," Moondancer said firmly. "Starswirl described what he could see from here in his journal, and I think it matches up. With the ground being made smooth with magic as well, I can only conclude that we're in the right place."

"And there's nothing here," Twilight sighed. Realistically she knew it was silly to think they'd find what they were looking for right off the bat, but it would have been nice.

Trixie groaned and slumped to the ground, "Typical. It would have been nice to not have to go running all over the world to find what we're looking for." She levitated a miniature apple out of her bag and restored it to its original size before viciously sinking her teeth into it.

Without saying a word, Moondancer walked to the middle of the plateau, set her bags down, drank from her canteen, then lay down and rested her head on her bags. A minute later she was asleep, her chest rising and falling slowly. They could only conclude that she was exhausted to be able to do that.

Trixie pouted at the sleeping Moondancer, "Wish I could do it that easy."

"She could always do that," Twilight said wistfully. "Every time she stayed over at one of the others houses, the goal was to stay up all night, but every time she was always the first to conk out."

"And you never noticed, because your nose was buried in a book?" Sunset said, raising an eyebrow at Twilight. Although it wasn't said viciously, the accusation was obvious.

"No," Twilight answered, hanging her head. "I never went. I always thought they were kind of silly, even though Moondancer begged me to go every time. Because she wanted me to go..." Twilight sighed, "I know I've hurt her, but I had no idea how much until now, because I never realised how much she cared about me."

"And then you blamed her for that."

Twilight closed her eyes at Sunset's words, "I know. It was stupid and cruel of me to say that, and I wish I hadn't. Doesn't make it any less true though."

"Twilight!"

"You didn't know what I was like back then Sunset! The fact that I was totally oblivious to how Moondancer thought of me should be enough to give you a hint. I really wasn't born the Princess of Friendship, and- and- I don't know. Sunset, can I talk to you in private please?"

Trixie scoffed at Twilight, "And what am I? Chopped cabbage?"

"Sorry Trixie, but Sunset... has a better perspective on these things than you do. You keep a eye out for trouble."

"Ugh, fine." Trixie stood and walked to the edge of the plateau, laying down and hooking her hooves over the edge. They could still hear her grumbling as they walked to the rear of the plateau, which narrowed down into small crevice, in which Twilight saw something twinkling in the built up sand. She picked it up and inspected it, uncovering more pieces as she did.

"A broken mirror? Why is there a broken mirror here?"

"Maybe it was Starswirl's shaving mirror or something," Sunset said irritably.

"I'm pretty sure Starswirl the bearded wasn't called so because he shaved." Twilight picked up a few more fragments and twirled them in her magic. "Maybe-"

"Twilight, I'm hot, I'm tired, and I'm fairly pissed at you for what you said to Moondancer. Say what you're going to, so I can finally have a break."

Twilight looked at the mirror shards for another few seconds, then dropped them. "Alright, I'll be quick then. How do I fix things with Moondancer?"

"I don't think you can. Good talk Twilight."

Sunset started to rise, and Twilight pulled her back down. "Please Sunset, I'm being serious!"

"You might well be Twilight, but what you did was cold, even by my ex-villainous standards. If I'd have done that to a pony, I would have at least got some malicious glee out of it, but you were so unthinking that you didn't even realise how much she needed you, let alone how much you hurt her. And then to blame her for latching onto you as a friend, especially when you two had so much in common..." Sunset shook her head, "That's a special kind of fucked up there."

Twilight stared at Sunset for several seconds, "Wow Sunset."

"What?"

"You've read about what I did in Mareitania, and you know how that's affected me, so could you please consider that, yes, I am a little fucked up at times. I know that's no excuse for what I said to Moondancer, now, or in the past, but still."

"You're also the 'princess of friendship,' remember? If anypony should know how to fix this, it's you."

Twilight nodded sadly. She knew there was no point in pushing Sunset for an answer when she was angry. "Okay, then could you at least do Moondancer a favour and try to be her friend. She deserves as much." Twilight quirked a small smile at Sunset, then stood to go join Trixie.

"You know you almost had her friendship back today," Sunset said as Twilight started to walk away. "You helped her, and carried her when you could have made her walk. You saved her from the tatzlwurm, and all of us I suppose, which makes it really unfair for me to be angry at you." Sunset grinned apologetically, "Anyway, if you hadn't blamed her for wanting to be friends with you, you could have been friends now. I suggest you keep on being nice to her, and showing her that you care, and hopefully she might soften towards you."

"Okay, I'll do that. Thanks Sunset."

"You're welcome."


-0-0-0-


The arrival of night was a curious thing in the Badlands. The air turned cold, but the rocks held the heat, so in the end you were glad for the cool air as it gave respite from the heat from the ground, and yet you were thankful for the warmth of the rocks for saving you from the chilly bite of the cold night air. It didn't seem fair.

Gradually the cold won though, and as the chill grew, they started to feel it. Moondancer was still fast asleep, and shivered occasionally, so Twilight unrolled Moondancer's bedding, lifted Moondancer, and placed it beneath her without disturbing her sleep. She even got a small smile in return as Moondancer snuggled into the warm material, which was nice.

Not given much else to do, and not yet inclined towards sleep like Moondancer and Sunset, she went and joined Trixie on the edge of the plateau as she kept watch. "Seen anything Trixie?" A tiny snore answered her, telling her that Trixie had very much fallen asleep. "Trixie!" she whispered harshly, smacking the blue unicorn on the side.

"Snggkt, mnah... What?" Trixie asked, opening her eyes just a crack to look at Twilight.

"You fell asleep."

"Mmn? Cool story bro..." Trixie closed her eyes, then yelped as Twilight levitated her into the air. "What the hell Twilight?"

"Go to bed Trixie. Now. I'll take watch."

"Don't have to tell me twice. G'night."

Twilight sighed irritably as Trixie sauntered away, grabbed her bedroll, and half unrolled it before falling asleep on it. She couldn't quite understand why the others were as tired as they were, because she'd done just as much walking, carried Moondancer for a while, and fought and got eaten temporarily by a tatzlwurm. While the obvious answer was the whole alicorn thing, it still seemed unfair, even if it was convenient.

Twilight put it out of her mind and turned said mind towards keeping watch. Luna's moon shone brightly over the barren expanse of the Badlands, illuminating everything. Even at the distance she was, she could still make out the changeling hive, it's sides lit up almost silver in the moonlight. She wondered briefly what it was made of as it obviously wasn't natural, and concluded it must have been made in much the same manner as termites built their nests. Then she stopped thinking about it as that was a little bit gross.

A flash of movement caught her eye, dragging her attention back to the area around the plateau. She couldn't see anything, save for dozens of pony sized rocks that just lay about the place. The problem was that she wasn't able to remember them being there when they arrived. Sure she wasn't paying a huge amount of attention at the time, but she was fairly certain that that would be something she would notice. She also really doubted moving rocks were really a thing.

Feeling paranoid, and yet rather silly, she picked one of the rocks up and floated it towards her, and was immediately struck by a sense of wrongness. The rock felt far too light for its size, and had a strange, almost organic feel about it. She turned it over a couple of times, and bounced it in her magic, confused about what her magic was telling her. It was telling her the rock was alive. 

Fully ready to dispute that, she wound up her magic to toss the rock away when it opened a pair of pearlescent blue eyes and chittered at her. "Eeeyaaah!!" Twilight tossed the rock away, but it flashed green, changing form into a chitinous black pony-like creature, that she knew full well was a changeling, and caught itself on its wings, soaring back up towards her as the area around them lit in with an eerie green fire as the other rocks turned into changelings.

"Changelings!" Twilight shrieked, hoping to wake her friends. She erected a shield over the plateau, and turned to her friends, only to find changelings stood over them, baring their fangs at her. Fangs that dripped with venom. "No!" Twilight shouted, only to feel a weight slam into her and clamp its own fangs onto the back of her neck, followed by another on her shoulder. Straight away she felt dizzy, but despite that she kicked the changelings off her and crawled towards her unresponsive friends.

More changelings piled on to Twilight, and she tried to use her magic to blast them away, but whatever the changelings fangs had injected her with destroyed her focus, and her horn lit up in a uncontrolled mass of sparks that quickly fizzled out, having done nothing to deter her attackers as more jumped on her, biting her again and again. Black creeped in around the edges of her vision, and her limbs felt leaden as she tried to fight the changelings off, and in the end she couldn't fight it, or them, any more. She flopped onto her side as her eyes drooped shut, and the last thing she remembered seeing was a pair of dragon-like eyes, and a big, fang filled grin.
> 14. The mild peevedness of the swarm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A sharp smack to the nose rocked Twilight's head back so it impacted on the rocks behind her, rapidly returning her to consciousness in a rather hurried and unpleasant way. Twilight groaned as pain blossomed in both places that had been struck, and she tried to reach up and rub her nose, only to find herself totally unable to move as she felt her entire body was enclosed in something that seemed almost rubbery. It was certainly strong enough to stop her from moving, although she struggled anyway, earning herself an amused titter from something standing right in front of her.

"Ah, there she is," a sibilant voice hissed with a strange double tone that Twilight recognised all too readily. "About time too; I was beginning to think I'd been misled about the vaunted durability of alicorns."

"I really don't fucking need this right now Chrysalis," Twilight grunted, still keeping her eyes shut against the pain that throbbed through her skull. Much to her small delight, it took several seconds for Chrysalis to muster a response.

"Quite the potty mouth you've developed there Sparkle. Most unexpected for a princess of Eque-"

"I'm going to stop you right there," Twilight interrupted, finally cracking her eyes open to see the black, chitinous mockery of pony-kind before her. "My name is Twilight. Twi-light. It's really not any harder to say than Sparkle. Also, my potty mouth is hardly the issue here when you seem to have abducted us."

Thwap! Twilight's head hit the rock behind her again as Chrysalis back-hoofed her. "Disrespect me again, and we shall see just how durable alicorns truly are." Twilight wisely kept her mouth shut, but still glared daggers at Chrysalis. "Better. And for your own edification, it's Queen Chrysalis."

"Very well, your highness. My point still stands. You have kidnapped us, and I would like to know why." Twilight looked down at herself, finding herself to be completely cocooned, except for her head, in a tough, yellow-green substance. Knowing what she did about changelings, she decided it best to not to think too hard about what it was made of.

"Did you truly think I would not notice your passage through my lands? Do you really think me to be blind? Even if I hadn't known of your presence the moment you arrived, the fact remains that I would have found out the moment you murdered one of my pets!"

"Pets? You mean the tatzlwurm? You own those things?"

"I do," Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at Twilight, "and I do not look kindly upon those that would harm my little darlings, let alone kill them."

"Forgive me your highness, but it attempted to kill us. I only did what was necessary for our own survival."

"Just as I do what is necessary for ours," Chrysalis said back. Her horn lit up in a sickly green colour, and she held up a small object that Twilight knew  had to have been pilfered out of her bags. It was the speaker stone, their sole method of contacting the other princesses, and of calling for aid. Chrysalis grinned, and with a flex of her magic, crushed it to near dust.

Twilight swallowed, hoping to play off how important that one small item had been. "And now you've killed my pet rock, so I guess that makes us even."

"Do you think me stupid 'Twilight?' I have created and used enough such devices in my time to know a speaker stone when I see one. How else do you think I contact my children when they are out in the world?"

"Uh, hive mind telepathy?"

"Hive mi-" Chrysalis shook her head slowly, "The things you ponies think about us. No, we use the same methods as everybody else. Well, everybody with magic. Anyway, now I've destroyed your speaker stone, you can no longer contact your precious Celestia and call in the army you're building."

"Call in our army?" Twilight laughed as she worked out what it was that Chrysalis was thinking. "Oh boy, you have got this so very wrong. The army we're building isn't intended to attack you, it's to defend ourselves from a hostile invasion."

"An invasion? An invasion from where?"

"Mareitania."

"Mareitania? I thought Mareitania was an ally of Equestria?"

"It was. It no longer is."

"Explain."

"No. I don't have to tell you anything Chrysalis, not after you attacked and abducted us. Tell me where my friends are, and I might at least consider it."

Chrysalis chuckled and stepped aside. Now that her immediate view wasn't filled with black chitin and weird, membranous hair, Twilight could see that she was in a round room, hollowed out from bare rock with only a small, circular entrance. She could also see her friends. Sunset and Moondancer were stuck to the wall in cocoons much like Twilight's own, while Trixie, also cocooned, hung from the ceiling. All of them had the same stuff their cocoons were made of covering their mouths.

"See? Perfectly unharmed," said Chrysalis. "I suspect you thought that I'd be sucking the love out of them. Not so." Chrysalis pointed at Sunset, "While that one has much love to share, the other two are somewhat harder. The white one buries her love quite deeply behind very thick walls, and would take much digging to share it, while the blue one, for all the messed up love she has for you, is very angry to the point that it's hardly worth the effort. However, if you were to tell me why you are trespassing in my land, I may consider being merciful." Chrysalis brought her face close to Twilight's, "Tell me why you're here!"

Twilight regarded Chrysalis coolly for several seconds, deciding whether to tell her or not. She figured that it didn't really matter if Chrysalis knew their purpose here, while telling her might potentially aid their way if Chrysalis let slip any knowledge she had.

"We're looking for Starswirl the Bearded," Twilight said eventually.

"Starswirl the Bearded?" Chrysalis scoffed "He's dead."

"Maybe, maybe not, but either way he has knowledge that could be used to defeat our enemy."

"Mareitania?"

"No. Faust."

"Faust? Faust..." Chrysalis repeated the name several times, looking around the room as she did. "Faust. Why does that sound so familiar?"

"She's an ancie-"

"Silence!" Chrysalis started pacing around the room, muttering to herself. "I know I've heard that name before, but why? And where?" She stopped pacing suddenly, and turned to face Twilight. "I will return shortly Sparkle. There is something I must do."

"Could you remove my friends gags before you go?" Twilight winched at the angry glare Chrysalis gave her, "Please, your highness?" Chrysalis started to leave again, but a second later her green magic surrounded the gags of Twilight's friends, tearing them off.

"Yeowch!" Trixie squeaked, wrinkling her muzzle after the gag tore an unpleasant amount of hair off. "Dammit Twilight! You were supposed to be keeping watch!"

"Really?" Twilight said back, totally deadpan. "I hadn't been on watch five minutes when they attacked, having used your... inattentiveness, to sneak up close."

"I'll have you know I was highly attentive the entire time."

"You fell asleep!"

"I was lulling our foes into a false sense of security."

Twilight looked around the room they were in with exaggeration, "Good job then." Twilight rolled her eyes as Trixie stuck her tongue out, then looked to Sunset and Moondancer, "Are you guys okay?"

"I'm fine, physically," Moondancer replied sullenly, squinting in Twilight's direction due to her glasses being missing.

"Sunset?"

Sunset grinned weakly, "I want to say I've been in worse situations, but this is really taking the biscuit."

"I know. We'll get out of this, somehow." Twilight looked back up at Trixie, "Are you okay Trixie?"

Trixie struggled in her cocoon for a moment, making it swing back and forth, until she gave up and slumped, "I have never wanted to stretch so badly. Any ideas on how to get out of this?"

"Not really," Twilight admitted. With their magic nullified, her ideas were limited. "Barring the unlikely possibility of a friendly changeling saving us, or the even less likely scenario of Chrysalis releasing us, I've got nothing."

"Are friendly changelings even a thing?" Moondancer asked.

"We have one documented case that currently lives in the Crystal Empire," Twilight told her. "He sometimes foal-sits my niece. There's also some other one that turned up at a wedding in Ponyville, but I only heard about that second hoof. At any rate, I really don't think two's going to be setting a precedent for friendly changelings though."

"Can't you break out of that cocoon using your freaky alicorn strength?" Trixie asked a moment later.

"I don't think so." Twilight tried to break out, but with her front legs trapped beside her, and her rear legs pulled out straight below her, she couldn't push in the direction a pony's strength naturally lay. "Nngh! Nope!" Twilight relaxed and panted, "Not a chance."

"You need a changeling to get out of that," a voice said from the door. It was noticeably feminine, and possessed a not unpleasant hum to it.

"Please be friendly, please be friendly, please be friendly!" Trixie prayed quickly.

"Who's there?" Twilight asked towards the entrance of their cell. A moment later a small changeling entered, and sat down in the middle of the room, giving Twilight an appraising look.

"This one thought you'd be bigger, like your Princess Celestia."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the unusual comment, "And this seems rather brave of you, coming in here like this without your queen knowing," she said to their visitor. 

"Why be afraid when you have nothing to lose?" the changeling said back. It sat there for longer, carefully studying Twilight, just as she studied it back. Visually, it seemed no different to any other changeling, save for its smaller stature, but maybe that simply meant it was a young changeling for all she knew.

"You mentioned a changeling that lives with ponies. Do you speak of Thorax?"

"Yes!" Twilight answered with a shout, hoping that they had indeed found an ally. "Are you a friend of his?"

"Thorax is an abnormality. This one would like to study Thorax, to see what makes Thorax different. See why friends are more important to that one than hive."

"Study Thorax how?" Sunset asked.

"Through scientific method. Also kill Thorax and remove brain to study, just to be sure." A smile formed around the changelings fangs as they all gawped at it. "That was a joke. Killing Thorax would render the tests meaningless. Much simpler and less messy to just ask."

"Great," Trixie groaned, "we managed to find the one changeling that's as much of a nerd as you three. You're not going to study us are you?"

"This one already is. Is not too impressed by what it's learnt so far."

"Gee, thanks..."

"However, the amount of venom required to render an alicorn unconscious was of much interest. It required six times as much as regular pony, even though alicorn pony not much bigger. Celestia sized alicorn may require even more."

"Did you factor in her adrenal response?" Moondancer asked. "Since she was awake and prepared to fight, her adrenaline may have countered your venom to a point."

Trixie groaned again, "You guys are unbelievable."

"Her adrenaline response was considered, yes, but the conclusion was still the same. A single dose of venom, or maybe even a double dose, would not be sufficient. A triple dose might work, but would take more time to affect an alicorn, and would wear off faster. Fascinating really. This one wishes she could study it more in depth."

"Why do you refer to yourself as 'this one,' and it?" Sunset asked, although she wasn't going to point out the changeling's rather stilted speech. She didn't want to offend their only chance of a rescue too soon.

"After the departure and betrayal of Thorax, Queen banned use of pronouns, to help maintain hive coherency. Queen says the individual is the enemy of the hive. Queen, for once, may not be right because policy going down about as well as pony eating meat."

"Does she at least let you have your own names?"

"For sake of identifying each other, yes. You may refer to this one as Mayfly."

Moondancer frowned at Mayfly, "Don't mayflies have really short life spans?"

Mayfly shrugged, "The Queen is not without her sense of humour, even if it is at this one's expense. Siblings find it funny because this one is smaller than them, and was not expected to survive for long, but this one proved them wrong by being smart."

"Well I think it's a lovely name," Sunset said, directing meaningful looks at the others. "I'm Sunset, and these are Twilight, Moondancer, and Trixie." She gestured with her head towards each of the ponies as she said their name. "I also get the feeling you're not a huge fan of Chrysalis. If you're willing to get us out of here, we'd be happy for you to come with us. How about it?"

"Not possible," Mayfly stated bluntly. "Ponies can't disguise themselves, so escape highly improbable. This one isn't willing to risk itself for little chance of success."

"I could introduce you to Thorax," Twilight offered, a little desperately. "I'm sure he'd be delighted to tell you why he left."

"Bribery doesn't make your escape any less improbable."

Trixie delicately cleared her throat, "Please?"

Mayfly cocked her head slightly as she looked up at Trixie, "How odd, this one wasn't expecting to hear manners in this situation."

"So you'll help us?"

"Of course not."

"I'll let you feed on my love if you help us."

Mayfly stuck her tongue out at the offer. "Much love, but much more anger, like bad taste in food of ponies. This one doesn't wish to become sick. Love of yellow unicorn much more palatable."

"Then I'll let you feed on her instead!" Trixie tried to bring her hooves up to beg, then gibbered to herself as she remembered she couldn't actually move. "Just, please let us out!"

Twilight couldn't mistake the desperation in Trixie's voice, and worried about it as it wasn't exactly something she was used to hearing from Trixie at all. "Are you alright Trixie? You're starting to sound a little freaked out."

Trixie shuddered and tried to slow her breathing, "I might be getting just teeniest, tiniest bit claustrophobic, being trapped in this cocoon and all. Kind of reminds me of those damn fetters I had to wear. I hate not being able to move."

"This one could administer venom to knock you out if you wish?" Mayfly offered.

"Y'know what, I'm actually tempted."

"But due to cocoon, venom would have to administered via your face."

"And now I think I'll pass."

"Ponies are odd."

"Yes they are." All of them cringed at the sound of Chrysalis' voice. All of them cringed more as she folded her lanky frame through the narrow opening of their room, followed by two guards in blue armour. "I don't remember giving you permission to talk to our prisoners, Mayfly. Explain yourself."

Mayfly bowed before Chrysalis, but it was easy to tell from the way she almost ground her face against the floor, that there was far more fear in her action than there was respect by a long way. "Apologies queen, but this one was curious about the ponies. This one has never seen one before."

"Well maybe if you learned to speak sensibly, you could be sent to gather."

"But inability to use pronouns confuses this one's speech patterns." Mayfly jumped and squeaked as Chrysalis stomped a hole-ridden hoof by her head. "Please forgive it, it meant no disrespect."

"Say it with me. The individual is-"

"Is the enemy of the hive. This one remembers."

Chrysalis bent down until her face was almost level with Mayfly's. "That one better not forget," she said before straightening up and roughly kicking Mayfly towards Twilight. "Now cut them loose. I have something I need to show them."

"Are you certain Queen? They could be dangerous."

"They're harmless without their magic, now do as I command."

Twilight watched with both fear and fascination as Mayfly crawled up her front and dribbled... something down the front of her cocoon that dissolved the tough, rubbery material like hot water through ice. She squirmed as the substance reached her coat, then relaxed again as it did nothing. It was still pretty gross though.

"Enzymes in saliva only react to cocoon," Mayfly explained. "Nothing to fear."

"Okay." Twilight waited as Mayfly crawled away and up the wall towards Trixie, then pushed forwards. With the strip missing out of the front of her cocoon, is was easy enough to push her way out, although it was hardly elegant as she flopped to the floor, her legs protesting from being held at such unnatural angles for as long as they were. Chrysalis was watching her intently, so she decided to play it safe, and sit on the floor as non-aggressively as was possible as Mayfly lowered Trixie to the ground.

"Ooohhh... that is almost sexual," Trixie moaned as she stretched out her legs and back like a cat. "So, Chrysalis, how come you can use pronouns, but your minions can't? Isn't 'the individual' the enemy of the hive?" Trixie flinched back and closed her eyes as Chrysalis' fangs snapped shut mere inches from her face, then peeked an eye open to see Chrysalis still only inches away.

"I am the hive," Chrysalis answered. "And I suggest you keep your pretty little mouth shut as I only need one of you alive."

"Okay," Trixie squeaked nervously, then grinned nervously at the way Twilight was looking at her.

"Idiot," Twilight muttered, still waiting as Mayfly freed both Sunset and Moondancer. As nice as it was that they were being released from their immediate captivity, there was still the huge and all encompassing question as to why? Chrysalis was watching her intently, ready to react to any aggressive moves Twilight might make, forcing Twilight to decide that perhaps she should just wait for answers instead.

"Follow me," Chrysalis commanded, folding her lanky frame back through the exit. The rest of them had no problems, apart from pony hooves not having all that much grip on the smooth, rock like material that the hive was made of, and whatever that was still wasn't worth thinking of too about. Twilight was already of the opinion that changelings made too many weird substances by far.

"What of this one your highness?" Mayfly asked once they were out of the room.

"Go find their belongings and bring them to the entrance, then wait there." Mayfly bobbed her head in compliance, and rapidly buzzed away as Chrysalis started leading the four ponies through the hive.

Twilight gasped in amazement at the cavernous interior of the hive. It was fairly obvious from the lack of stairs that it was meant only for changelings to traverse, and would actually be a nightmare to attack if that had really been their intent. No stairs, lots of open space for the changelings to attack in, and- Twilight jumped to the side as the round doorway she was passing suddenly closed itself, and another opened further up the in the hollow. Apparently the hive could move of its own volition, like it were alive. As if changelings weren't already weird enough.

"Are you seeing all this?" Trixie said out loud, not quite sharing Twilight's sense of disgust. Even the hum of hundreds of changelings around the hive wasn't enough to quieten her. "How does it move like that? Super weird."

"I can't see anything," Moondancer grumbled, squinting at everything around her as she followed the most colourful blurs in front of her. "You don't make it sound like I'm missing much though."

"At least it's nice and cool down here," said Sunset. "At least compared to outside anyway," she added as the hive wasn't exactly cold either.

"For the comfort and convenience of its inhabitants and visitors," Trixie said in a nasally voice, "the hive is maintained at a pleasant twenty degrees centigrade at all times."

"Don't you ponies ever know when to shut up?" Chrysalis growled. "I will never understand how a species so insufferable became so successful."

"Perhaps if you told us where we're going instead?" Twilight asked. Since Chrysalis was leading them deeper into the hive, the question was becoming more and more prudent.

"The Font of Queens," Chrysalis told her.

"And what's that?"

"A source of great knowledge," Chrysalis answered, giving the word great a negative emphasis, "as well as a massive pain in my flank."

"Uh-huh..." Chrysalis didn't seem to be any more forthcoming on what that was, so Twilight decided not to ask. Not that she could anyway while a cacophonous screeching filled the air as they passed by a chamber filled with small black and white grubs being attended to by several harried looking changelings. Twilight fought down her need to gag, and kept following after Chrysalis.

Eventually they reached their destination, although that could only be assumed as Chrysalis led them into a large, darkened chamber that was lit up by an eerie green glow that originated from the gelatinous green pool in its middle, that had a thick layer of mist wafting over it.

"Is this the Font of Queens?" Twilight asked, keeping back from the pool. She didn't know if it was a trick of the light, or real, but the pool looked impossibly deep, and there were things moving about in it, ghostly images that Twilight swore were looking right at her. She didn't think it possible, but the bar for changeling weirdness just got set a little higher.

"I've brought the ponies as you requested," Chrysalis said to the pool. "Now tell them whatever it is you want to tell them, so I can get on with my life."

The ponies jumped back as the mist over the pool suddenly billowed upwards, assuming the form of a changeling queen like Chrysalis, but with some notable differences, like the shape of the horn, and the pattern of holes in her legs. It was hard to tell if she was a different colour due to being made of mist, but it was enough to assume not. At any rate, the weirdness bar went up yet another notch.

"Ah, so the usurper has returned with our guest," the ghostly image cackled. "I half expected you to murder them out of your spite for us."

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the ghostly queen, "If the need for them to live wasn't so dire, I may well have. Now tell them what you know, so we can end this farce."

"Very well. Gather round ponies, and let me have a good look at you."

Twilight took a few tentative steps towards the pool, and tried to straighten up, even though her gut was telling her to run a mile. "Who are you?"

"I am Primum, first queen of the changelings, and you are Twilight Sparkle, princess of Equestria, are you not?"

"That's right. We've come to the Badlands hoping to find Starswirl the Bearded, and-"

Primum waved a ghostly hoof, "I know why you're here. The usurper had the decency to at least tell me that much."

"Why do you call her the usurper?" Trixie asked, earning a snarl from Chrysalis in return.

"Don't you dare answer that!"

"She defied the cycle!" Primum boomed, as did a mass of other voices from the pool. "Rather than give her body and knowledge up to the pool at the end of her hundred year reign, she chose to instead murder her successors as soon as they are born, and keep living. Now the changeling race stagnates under her rule!"

Chrysalis stomped her hooves and fired a beam of green magic at the image of Primum that barely caused a ripple in the mist. "I will not condemn myself to an eternity in that accursed pool!"

"Then at least rule my changelings better than you are! The way you're going, a simple cold could wipe out our race before long." The two queens faced each other down, before Primum turned back to Twilight. "I believe you seek a way to defeat Faust, correct?"

"Yes! Do you know how?"

Primum shook her head, "I never met Faust. Starswirl spoke at length about her in the early days, but after she went missing he left, and didn't return until centuries later, where he kept his distance. Hopefully out of shame for his failure."

"So Starswirl did create the changelings?"

"He broke us! Before his meddling we were a race of simple shape-shifting bugs, that used camouflage to feed on the energy of larger beings! Then he came with his magic that wasn't his own, and changed us into what we are now; a race that feeds on love, but does nothing to engender it!"

"But I thought he sought to remove the excess of negative energy from the world by creating things that fed on it? Why would he create you to do the exact opposite of that?"

"He left, before he completed us, and I was forced to adapt before his incompetence destroyed us completely. I know what we were supposed to be, but without him, or his borrowed magic, I had no choice but to become what we are now, or die."

"What magic are you talking about?" Sunset asked as Twilight thought about what she had heard so far.

"Starswirl called it the Gift of Life. Faust gave it to him to continue their great work after she was forced to contain the Windigoes, their first great failure. If Starswirl was to be believed though, not even Faust knew from whence the Gift came."

"And what did it do?"

"It creates life," Primum answered. "Magic could create a body with sufficient power, but it cannot bring it to life without a soul. The Gift of Life can do that. However, it can also alter what already exists, as it did to us. It can also prolong the life of its user considering how old Starswirl was at the end."

Moondancer squinted up at the ghostly queen, although all she could see was a pale blob, "Why didn't he come back and-uh... finish you?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to ask him that yourself, if he still lives."

"As fascinating as this all is," said Trixie, "and it really is, none of this helps us to either find Starswirl, his retreat, or to defeat Faust."

"I know," Twilight sighed. "Are you sure you don't know anything about where Starswirl is? Or how to defeat Faust?"

"I'm afraid I know not of where Starswirl is, but I can tell you that the mirrors are the key. I don't know why he was so fascinated by them as portals, but he used them to travel around. If you can find one of his mirrors, you will find him."

"I think we already did," said Twilight, looking sideways at Sunset. "Unfortunately it was broken. I'm sure it's safe to say that any mirror left out in the wild would be."

"Perhaps, but I'm sure it's not too difficult for a great alicorn for yourself to mend a mere mirror so long as you have enough pieces."

"Enough pieces..." The primary question in Twilight's mind was 'would that work?' Repairing a mirror was easy enough, but using different pieces of different mirrors less so. She could think of ways to do it, but the magical proponent confused it. Theoretically the mirrors all led to one place which would act as a nexus, otherwise Starswirl would've needed a dozen mirrors in each place, so the spell in each mirror shouldn't be an issue because they'd all be the same. But would it still work to combine pieces from several mirrors? Twilight didn't know, and was worried that without an original frame to hold the mirror, it'd be a waste of time to even try. Still, if things got so hopeless that she'd be willing to try it, she might as well have the components she would need.

"Okay," Twilight said after a few moments of frantically thinking about it. "Thank you Primum. Is there anything you can tell us about Faust? Anything at all?"

"From what I've heard about Faust from the usurper is true, and that she seeks to attack Equestria, then she is already far from the kind and gentle pony Starswirl always described her as. I know she's powerful, and I know that she likely won't look kindly on us changelings. If you cannot defeat Faust, more than just Equestria is doomed, which is the only reason we are aiding you."

Trixie raised an eyebrow, "Aiding us? By not keeping us as prisoners?"

"Or by killing you," Primum said amusedly. "I grow weary. It takes much effort to speak to you like this, and I must rest. Chrysalis, give me your word that these ponies are to be released unharmed to complete their mission."

"You expect me to give up my prize? Are you even serious?"

"In the best interest of the changelings, yes, now give me your word."

"You have my word," Chrysalis said begrudgingly through her teeth.

"Excellent. Best of luck to you Twilight Sparkle, you'll need it." Primum's image lost coherency and slowly collapsed back into the pool, leaving four stunned ponies, and one mildly irate queen of the changelings.

"You are going to get out of my hive, get out of my land, and you are going to do it by tonight, or I won't have any issues about sending my pets after you. Is that clear?"

"Very," Twilight said, looking up at Chrysalis. "Show us the way out, and we will gladly get out of your mane."

Chrysalis grunted and started walking back the way they came, the four ponies following after her. None of them said a word as they went, sensing that aggravating their host when she was already unwillingly releasing them, probably wasn't the beat course of action. Even Trixie sensed the mood enough to keep quiet.

A blast of heat told them they were nearing the exit, and as Chrysalis had ordered, Mayfly was there with their belongings, which Twilight was relieved to see hadn't been tampered with. Perhaps the changelings had left the bags behind on the plateau at the time because they were more interested in their captives. Either way, they still had food and water, so that at least wasn't going to be a problem.

Chrysalis snatched the bags off Mayfly, and threw them at Twilight. "There, you have your things, now get out of here before I change my mind."

Twilight looked at Mayfly as she averted her eyes from Chrysalis, and wondered briefly what she could do about that small issue, besides the obvious. Then she shrugged mentally as the obvious often worked.

"Actually, I don't really know where we are now," Twilight said, purposely sounding unsure. It wasn't exactly a lie either though. The sun was in front on them, so they were at least facing east or west, but that left a fifty percent chance of picking the wrong direction.

"And what do you expect me to do about it?" Chrysalis asked sneeringly.

Twilight glanced briefly at Mayfly, "Perhaps you could lend us a guide until we're out of your lands? Just so we don't get lost, and so we don't run into any more of your pets."

Chrysalis followed Twilight's eyes back to Mayfly, and growled. "Don't think I can't see what you're trying to do Sparkle. You think you can take Mayfly with you, save her from my 'wicked' grasp."

"Not at all! She can come back once we're away!"

"Hhmph, plenty of time to convert her to your ways." Chrysalis grabbed Mayfly and threw the diminutive changeling to the ground before her.

"My Queen, I don't- Aah!" Mayfly squealed as Chrysalis smacked her and pressed her head to the ground with a hoof, pinning her and grinding her face into the dirt.

"What have I told you about that word?! And don't you dare think that I haven't heard of your disquiet, your... malcontent. I have eyes and ears everywhere within my hive, Mayfly. I know these ponies bargained for your help in escaping, and I know it was only your fear that stopped you, not your loyalty."

"I seek only to obey my Queen!" Mayfly cried fearfully.

"Chrysalis, stop!" Twilight shouted, a bit bewildered by how the situation had suddenly hurtled in this direction. "How does killing Mayfly help anything?"

"I'd rather see her dead than turned into another traitor like Thorax!" Chrysalis applied more pressure, making Mayfly cry in pain.

"But she's one of your people! Your children! Doesn't that mean anything?"

"The lives of all my children are in my hooves Twilight Sparkle, to do with as I wish! If I should execute a traitor, it is my right to do so!"

"Then- Then-" Twilight looked around desperately, trying to think of a solution that would end with Mayfly not being killed. The hundreds of changeling eyes she could feel on her didn't help, and only made her wonder where their mercy for their sibling was. Then it struck Twilight that perhaps there was something else that Chrysalis would be willing to kill in Mayfly's place.

"Kill me instead," Twilight said as strongly as she could. "Let Mayfly go, and kill me."

"You?" Chrysalis said back, sounding disgusted. "You would give your life for a worthless drone like this?"

"I would," Twilight nodded. "But if she is truly worthless to you, you have nothing to gain by killing her, and nothing to lose by letting her go. Don't you at least have enough of a heart to do that?"

"I certainly have a heart Twilight Sparkle, but it looks nothing like your weak pony one! I'm more inclined to kill her now just to spite you than for any benefit it may bring me!" Chrysalis started putting weight on her hoof to crush Mayfly's head when Trixie's voice interrupted her.

"Then perhaps we should let fate decide."

"What?" Chrysalis spat at the blue unicorn.

Trixie reached back into her bag and pulled out a single golden bit. "How about it hmm? Toss a coin for the fate of Mayfly?"

"No deal."

"Then I'll sweeten it. I toss the coin, and if it comes up heads, you kill both Mayfly and Twilight. If it comes up tails, you let Mayfly go, which quite frankly should be a relief. How about it Chrysalis? All you lose is a hungry, worthless mouth to feed if you lose. Hardly sounds like losing at all, does it? Honestly, I'm not sure why we want that burden either, but there we go." Trixie grinned at Chrysalis, "Princesses, am I right?"

Chrysalis eyed Trixie for several seconds, then nodded, easing the pressure off Mayfly's head a little. "Very well pony, I'll play your little game. Killing both Mayfly and Twilight sounds like too good an offer to pass up, even though I could easily kill them, and you, and the others if I so wished."

"Excellent choice", said Trixie, a little nervously after what Chrysalis had just mentioned. She flicked the coin into the air, watching it flip over and over before deftly catching it in a hoof and covering it with the other. "The moment of truth," she said, slowly uncovering the coin again to reveal it lying tails up. "Tails. Mayfly and Twilight get to live."

Chrysalis screeched with rage, and for a moment it seemed like she was going to kill them all anyway. Instead she lifted her hoof off Mayfly's head and stamped it on her thin, gossamer wings, twisting it, and tearing her wings to shreds. "You are banished!" Chrysalis shouted at Mayfly as she screamed in agony. "If you ever return here I will kill you, slowly, and painfully. The same goes for all of you blasted ponies as well." She released the tattered remains of Mayfly's wings and took a step back, "I suggest you get out of my sight!"

Chrysalis turned and disappeared back into the darkness of the hive, leaving four stunned ponies, and one crying changeling, as well as a few hundred observers. Twilight hurried forwards to help Mayfly, but recoiled as the changeling bared her fangs and hissed viciously. "I'm sorry Mayfly! I never meant for anything like that to happen!"

"But it did! Stupid pony!" Mayfly hauled herself to her hooves, and stood on legs that shook as she buzzed her tattered wings, sending a few bits of lose gossamer flying away. "I wanted to leave, see the world, and maybe bring back something of value to the hive to prove my worth! Earn Queen's approval! I didn't want to leave forever, and I certainly didn't want to be banished!"

"I'm sorry, but from the way you were talking before, I thought you wanted out of this place?"

"You thought wrong!"

"Please, let me help you." Twilight moved towards Mayfly, then jumped back as the changeling bared her fangs and snapped at Twilight. "Please, I'm only trying to help you!"

"Don't need the help of stupid pony!" Mayfly shouted before walking past Twilight, hissing at her as she passed. After a few moments she stopped, "Are you not coming stupid pony? South is this way."

"You're helping us?"

"It's death to stay here, and am not welcome in Equestria, so best to go south into jungle, which is where you are going. Besides, tricky pony saved this one, so this one at least owes her enough to get her to jungle."

Trixie looked between Twilight and Mayfly, not sure what to do or say. "Actually, my name's Trixie," she mumbled.

"But what about your wings?" Sunset asked as Mayfly started walking again.

"They return on next molt. Is no big issue."

"But..." Sunset looked to the others as Mayfly kept going, but they had nothing to add to the situation, being just as confused by it as everypony else. "I have no idea what just happened. Really. Chrysalis just let us go."

"Seems our enemy is enough to scare the changelings into not stopping our mission," said Twilight. "Believe me, this was not something I could have ever predicted happening." Twilight thought for a moment about how bad Faust had to be if an ancient and long dead queen of the changelings could coerce Chrysalis into releasing them. It proved a worrying though, at least until Moondancer provided a distraction as she searched through her bags and started to panic.

"My glasses aren't here! I need my glasses!"

"You really can't see anything?" Trixie asked as Moondancer frantically searched through her bags.

"Well, instead of a big dark blur, I can now see a big light blur, but that's just because we're outside." Moondancer's horn sparked as she tried to summon her glasses, "I can't summon them either!"

"Queen's throne creates big no-magic zone that blocks all magic except changeling magic," said Mayfly, having returned because nopony was following her. "Could we maybe get a move on before Queen returns and murders us all?"

"But I need my glasses. I can't see without them!"

"They must still be at the plateau," said Twilight. "I need to go back there anyway to get the mirror fragments we found, so I can have a look for them while I'm there. Mayfly, which way is west?"

Mayfly pointed in a direction. "West is that way stupid pony," she said.

Twilight bit her tongue to stop her shouting at Mayfly about calling her stupid pony. "Okay," she said brightly instead. "I'm going to fly there, then head south. I should hopefully meet you there." She spread her wings, then stopped as her feathers all pulled at each other. "What the..?" She inspected her wings, then almost gagged as she saw that on top of the dried on tatzlwurm blood, they were now covered in changeling cocoon goo. "That's just nasty."

"Winged ponies can't really fly here anyway," said Mayfly. "Needs magic, and Queen's throne cancels that magic too."

Twilight sighed and nodded, "I guess I'll have to run there then." She took her canteen off her bags with her hooves, and looped its strap over her neck before checking its contents. It was only half full, meaning the no-magic effect was preventing it from refilling. "There goes washing my wings." She wondered briefly if it would be simpler to tear out her feathers and regrow nice, new clean ones. "Guess I'll have to run the entire way. Trixie, could you-"

"Take your bags, I know. Get going."


-0-0-0-


"I'm curious," Sunset said as they put distance between themselves and the changeling hive. "Why did Primum call Chrysalis an usurper for breaking 'the cycle?' What did she mean?"

"Old Queen not know what she talking about," Mayfly said dismissively. "Queen Chrysalis is one true queen."

"But there is a cycle?"

Mayfly nodded, "Changeling queen get replaced every hundred years in old days, and old queen adds herself to font to preserve knowledge for future queens. Queen Chrysalis doesn't want to do that."

"So we gathered," said Sunset. "How long has it been since she broke the cycle?"

Mayfly shrugged, "No one really knows, but it might be many centuries since she did. She killed many of her daughters and absorbed their essence to maintain rule and health."

"That's pretty brutal," said Trixie. "Couldn't one of you replace her?"

"A drone?" Mayfly burst out laughing, "Funny!"

"I'm being serious."

"You are?" Mayfly saw the look on Trixie's face, "Oh. In that case I make this simple. Only queens can lay eggs, not drones. Drones don't even have gender. Can imitate orifices and protrusions of both males and females for intimacy with targets, but neither are for use in reproduction. In short, a drone cannot replace a queen."

"But you sound female," Sunset pointed out.

"Matter of choice, I assure you." Mayfly cleared her throat and banged a hoof on her chest. When she spoke again it was in a deep and definitely male baritone. "Can imitate many voices to complete deceptions." She reverted back to her usual voice, "Be silly if big male sounded like this."

"Oh." They walked on in silence for a little longer, until a burning question prodded at Moondancer's mind.

"If there's a changeling queen, does that mean there's a changeling king?"

"No king, only queen."

"Then how can Chrysalis reproduce like she does."

"Queen chooses to reproduce asexually, to keep changeling race pure."

"What do you mean she chooses to do that?"

"Old queens gathered genetic material from unwitting males to reproduce with. Queen Chrysalis doesn't do that, to keep changelings pure."

"So you're all pretty much carbon copies then? That's ridiculous. Not to mention dangerous."

Mayfly cocked her head at Moondancer, "Dangerous? How so?"

"Without genetic variance, your kind could become very susceptible to illnesses. Basically, a single disease could wipe out your kind because it would be able to affect you all the same way, and spread very easily."

"Oh..." Mayfly looked at floor for a moment as they walked. "Suddenly, reasons why old queens angry at Chrysalis make much more sense. Perhaps separation from hive will protect this one in such a case."

"Y'know," Trixie said, having been listening with half an ear as they walked, "you seem a lot less upset about this than you did an hour ago. What changed?"

"Am changeling, am adaptable. Already imagining new possibilities presented by banishment from the hive. One of those may include curing the plight of the changelings if Queen continues to rule as she does. Questions for Thorax may have to wait until after that. Stupid pony still stupid for making this happen though."

"Can't argue with that," Trixie said happily.


-0-0-0-


"This was... a stupid... idea!" Twilight panted as she galloped through the sun blasted land around her, her hooves kicking up great clouds of dust. If there were any more tatzlwurms around, they'd definitely find it easy enough to locate her.
For all the things Twilight had done of late, it seemed bizarre that the greatest challenge she was taking was running flat out through the Badlands. Endurance running hadn't been high on her list of things to prepare for, yet here she was doing just that, in the worst possible place. She was sweating buckets, and her water was running dangerously low. One of the many dangerous things currently figuring in her life.

Twilight skidded to a halt as something large, hairy, and eight legged scuttled out of a hole in the ground in front of her. "Nope!" she said loudly, taking a wide berth around the arachnid. If she'd had her magic it would've been a very different story. Snakes were bad, but at least they didn't scuttle.

"Fuck! Everything!" Twilight screamed as she accelerated away from the spider, feeling slightly better as she did. Still, she could see her destination now, as best as she could through the shimmering heat. She slowed, and once again swallowed the contents of her stomach, unwilling to waste any liquids.

It was still satisfying to feel her canteen grow heavier as she reached the base of the plateau, and even more satisfying to teleport up to it, whereupon she immediately regretted not bringing her bags because she now had nothing to transport the mirror shards in. She sat and groaned loudly, and waited for the next piece of bad news.

Nothing became apparent, so she sifted through the built up dirt in the crevice she first found the mirror shard in, and found several fragments, and even a few gem stones. What she found was still well short of an entire mirror though, and suspected that the rest must have been too small to survive, and either wore down to near nothingness, or got blown away. Even so, it was a start on what was an already more desperate plan than the first two iterations.

On top of that, there was the issue of transporting what she'd found, at least until she got back to her bags. "It's fine, I can transmute a rock into a bag. No biggy. It's only altering materials at the atomic level." Twilight looked down over the edge of the plateau to the ground below, where a glint caught her eye. "Moondancer's glasses!" She levitated them up towards her, then slowed as something clung to them. It was another spider.

"Gross, gross, gross!" Twilight flicked the glasses as hard as she could, sending the spider tumbling away to land on the rocks below with an audible splat! "Where were all these spiders yesterday?" Thinking nothing of it, and rightfully so, Twilight picked up a rock, turned it into a bag, and dumped the mirror shards, gems, and Moondancer's glasses into it, then prayed that the no-magic zone didn't turn it back into a rock while she was flying.

Or running, Twilight thought as she inspected her wings again. At this point she wasn't sure she could even get them clean without actual soap, and hours to wash them in. Perhaps Mayfly could get the cocoon remnants out, if she were willing, but that still left everything else, including a lot of dirt and dust that had stuck to them. At this point it really did seem easier to strip them bare and grow new feathers. One of the upsides of being an alicorn.

"One at a time, or all at once?" Twilight mused, sorting through and separating her stiff and soiled feathers. She plucked one out, and flinched at the stinging sensation. "Ow. Perhaps it might be better to do them all at once." Twilight braced herself, grabbed all her feathers in her magic, and pulled.

-0-0-0-

Moondancer's ears twitched back and forth, trying to determine what direction what she'd just heard had come from. "Did any of you hear screaming? I swear I heard screaming."

"This one too sensed something, but is not sure what."

Trixie rolled her eyes and dismissed their concerns. "We're like the only ones around for miles and miles. Maybe you're just delirious from thirst or something."

"I don't know," said Sunset. "Last time I heard something like that, I tore a bunch of feathers out of a pegasi's wing." She blushed as they all looked at her, "What? I was a total jerk back then, I don't deny it."


-0-0-0-


"Ahh-ha-ha-hoowww! Ah-ha-ha-howww... owww... Mother fucker! Why the hell in Celestia's name did I think that was a good idea?" Twilight lay on her stomach, not really sure of when she ended up on it, and blinked the tears out of her eyes. Even as she watched, the blood dripping from her wings slowed and stopped, allowing her to gingerly wash the blood off, renewing some of the pain.

Twilight hissed through her teeth as she washed her bare wings, this time the water running red with her own blood. She was barely two days into this venture and she was already beating herself up, on top of everything else that had happened. "What's retirement age for an alicorn?" she asked out loud, getting no answer in reply. "It better be the same age as everypony else."


-0-0-0-


It was some hours before Twilight wearily trudged into the small camp that had been set-up by her friends in the canyon leading south out of the Badlands. Somepony had been kind enough to set up her sleeping bag for her to flop onto bonelessly. Almost as an afterthought she threw Moondancer's glasses towards Moondancer, managing to hook their arm into the neck of her jumper.

"Ah ound y' gla'es," Twilight mumbled into the soft, inviting padding of her sleeping bag. It was so very soft, and so very inviting, like a big, fluffy, bundle of comfort, waiting to take her into its embrace.

"Uh, thank you Twilight."

"So, is you pulling your feathers out some kind of anxiety thing?" Trixie asked as Moondancer fumbled her glasses onto her face, forcing Twilight to abandon her descent into sleepy land.

"I knew I recognised that scream!" Sunset shouted triumphantly. Then her ears wilted as she scuffed a hoof in the dirt in embarrassment. "Yeah, I just heard myself, so you don't need to tell me just how insane I sounded."

Twilight rolled her head to the side so she wasn't speaking into her bed. "Wings were too goobered up with stuff to even try flying, and I can't properly bath them. I figured it was easier to pull them out and grow nice clean ones." Twilight's spread her skinny, featherless wings, grossing the others out, but also showing them the pointy nubs of newly growing feathers. It actually made her wings look rather deadly. "A couple of days and they'll be good as new."

"So not an anxiety thing?"

"No, Trixie," Twilight sighed. "Not yet anyway." Twilight twisted her head and smiled up at Moondancer, "So, what do you think about your first couple of days adventuring with us?"

Moondancer removed her glasses and cleaned them, more out of habit than actual need as she found the motion soothing. "I think that it's a fair introduction to your lives. Honestly though, I'm really trying to not think about it."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm so freaked out about it that I'm not freaking out at all, because it's not possible to freak out that much at once."

"Oh. Well, good. Sunset?"

"Nah, I'm good. Changelings are a new one, but this is all par for the course really."

"Fair enough." Twilight searched about for their newest companion, but couldn't see her. "Where's Mayfly?"

"She said she wanted to go think about some things?" Sunset told Twilight.

"But was she okay when she said that?"

"It's hard to tell, and not only because she seems impossible to read. After a little bit she seemed excited about the new opportunities she had, so I'm erring on the side of optimism."

"Tha's good." Twilight yawned deeply, sucking in air for several seconds before forcing it back out. "Maybe she can tell me about it tomorrow, because today's already been too weird for me to want to continue it. Goodnight." 

"Goodnight Twilight," said Sunset, along with the others.

"Oh, and Trixie?"

"Yeah?"

"If we get captured, or attacked, or anything before tomorrow morning, I'm holding you personally responsible, and will do my best to make sure you die first. Is that clear?"

"Oh Twilight, you say the nicest things sometimes."


-0-0-0-


Sunset hung back, chewing nervously on her bottom lip as she trotted alongside Twilight and Twilight alone. She'd silently encouraged the others to give her and Twilight a short moment of alone time, because needed to ask Twilight something. The problem is that Twilight was walking with her head level with her body, which was a sure sign that something was bothering her. Still, progress was never made by timid ponies, so, gathering her courage, Sunset pushed ahead.

"Twilight, can we talk?"

"Sure," Twilight grunted with all the enthusiasm of a dentist's patient. "What about?"

"About you, actually."

Twilight straightened up to look at Sunset, "Why do you want to talk about me?"

"Because I... firstly want to apologise for coming down so hard on you the other day about Moondancer. What you said was still wrong, but I should have thought that you aren't really the pony you used to be. But that only leads me into wondering why you aren't the pony you used to be? What happened Twilight? What happened to that happy, loving pony you used to be, that always put her friends first?"

Twilight looked sideways at Sunset, not trying to hide her scorn. "Well gee Sunset, you might as well ask why I'm such a miserable sack of shit these days?"

Sunset sighed harshly, already hating how this was going. "Well, fine, if that's the way you want to play it. Why are you such a miserable sack of shit Twilight? And don't just say 'because Mareitania.'"

"Then what do you want me to say? Is this even purely about Moondancer? Because it doesn't feel like it is."

Sunset went quiet for a moment, surprised that Twilight had caught on to her so easily. "No, it isn't. I think it's about all your friends Twilight. Don't get me wrong, I will always be thankful for what you did for me, and I will always try to be there for you in return, but I look at you now, and I don't see the person that gave me a rainbow flavoured bitch-slap, then pulled me out of the pit of my own making with promises that things could, and would get better, then giving me the best friends I could ever ask for. Instead I see a person that would kill me in a back alley somewhere to save herself the inconvenience of having to put up with my crap."

Twilight stopped in her tracks, her jaw hanging open at what Sunset had just said. "Are you kidding me? Are you actually fucking kidding me? I- Well, besides the fact that you think you can say stuff like that to me and think it's somehow okay, you couldn't be more wrong. From my current perspective, I would probably steal the crown back, leaving you to you own devices on the other side of the mirror, or set a trap to capture you if you tried to steal the crown again. Especially since Celestia would also beg me to not hurt you, not that I would have set out to do so anyway. I certainly wouldn't kill you unless you put me in a situation where I had no other choice! Also, bearing in mind that you had tried to kill me, this seems a little judgemental."

Sunset quickly back tracked on her thoughts, because Twilight was actually right, and Sunset felt like a bitch about it. "Sorry Twilight. I guess that... I don't know. You killed that tatzlwurm and barely even said a word about it, so I guess that's how I thought you treated everything you have to kill."

"To a point, it is, because dwelling on all the death would crush anypony. The thing is, if I could have scared it away, I would have, but I couldn't hurt it very much, then it went after the weakest of us, and then it ate me, so I didn't see what alternatives I really had that ended with all of us alive. If I had scared it away, I bet it would have only followed us and attacked us later, so I did what I thought I had to. I didn't actually want to kill it all."

"I see."

"Is that how you see me now? As a killer? A horrible, uncaring killer, who offered to let herself be killed so that Chrysalis would spare Mayfly?"

"No Twilight! No! I..." Sunset sighed, not seeing how to go about what she was trying to say anymore. "I'm going to be honest here Twilight. You pretty much sacrificed the world in your fight against Tirek to save your friends, and Discord, who had betrayed you. Now though, four of those same friends are trapped in prison, and you're leaving them there, and I don't understand it."

"What's there to understand? You think I don't want them back? That I don't spend hours everyday just thinking about them? That they're likely going to hate me because instead of rescuing them, I went off on a big adventure to stop the stupidly powerful alicorn preventing me from saving them? That same alicorn that's threatening everything else I love and care about? You think I'm not worried about Rainbow fighting, or Pinkie if she gets caught up in this? How about my friends from Mareitania, huh? Because I'm worried about them too, believe it or not."

"Then why do you never mention any of this?"

"Because I can barely function as a pony as it is! Do you really think I need to smother myself in all my fears and worries all the time as well? I'm already hating myself for what I did to Moondancer in the past, and more now for what I said to her yesterday, as right as I still think I am about it. Do I have to worry about losing you as well because you look at me and no longer like what you see?"

"What? No! Of course not!"

"Then what do you want me to do Sunset?" Twilight stopped and sat, wiping away the tears that had started to leak from her eyes. "If you have some way in which I can save my friends, stop Faust, protect the world, fix all of my mistakes, and maybe me with it, I would really, really love to hear it. Otherwise we're stuck in this situation where there is no right answer to any of that."

Sunset silently wrapped her legs around Twilight's neck in a hug, holding the alicorn as she silently cried. "I'm sorry Twilight, but I had no idea you thought any of this."

Twilight sniffed and wiped her nose, "It's fine."

"No, it's not fine. Far from it. The thing is I don't know what to do about it either."

"Keeping on being my friend would be nice. I really don't want to lose you as well Sunset."

"And you won't, barring some really awful, and hopefully unlikely behaviour on your part. Really though Twilight, you can't keep going like this. I'm actually starting to see what you said to Moondancer as a subconscious attempt to push her further away, to save her from your crap."

Twilight laughed weakly, "Maybe it was for all I know."

Sunset hugged Twilight a little tighter, "I'm here for you Twilight, so if you ever want to talk, or shoulder to cry on, or even a just a hug, don't hesitate to ask."

"Can you help me patch things up with Moondancer?"

Sunset made a face as she looked down the road to where Moondancer, Trixie, and Mayfly was waiting for them to start moving again. Unsurprisingly, Moondancer had her back to them. "I hate to say it, but even if it's possible, it's going to take time, and pushing it won't help."

"I know, but even if she keeps on hating me, she shouldn't let that stop her from having friends." Twilight looked at Moondancer, then Mayfly, followed by Trixie and Sunset, before closing her eyes and sighing. "Everypony needs friends Sunset."

"And don't I know it," Sunset grinned. She released Twilight and pulled her to her hooves. "I guess if we're going to do this and get your friends back, we better keep moving."

Twilight nodded, and managed a smile. "Thanks Sunset, although if you call me a killer like that again, I might have to say nasty things about you behind your back."

Sunset laughed, "Brutal Twilight, brutal."
> 15. Bon Bon voyage
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fleur walked intrepidly down the corridors of Canterlot castle, heading towards the one place there that she had only grown to despise further with the more time she spent there. The offices of Equis, plain and unassuming as they were, housed, in Fleur's opinion, the laziest bunch of ponies ever. She never saw them doing anything, and if she wasn't involved in some capacity, she was sure they'd never do anything at all.

She also knew that was likely wrong, and that she was just being a grumpy old nag. There was surely some rule where only those at the top knew everything. It was a stupid rule.

Still, Fleur kept her thoughts to herself as she entered the Equis offices, unless Eclipse did in fact possess mind-reading capabilities, in which case she was probably about to get fired. For thinking. Fleur sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to banish the crap crowding her head before knocking politely on the door to Muckraker's office.

"Come in."

Fleur half opened the door and stuck her head through, seeing Muckraker sat behind his desk as he always was, while Eclipse stood nearby. "You wanted to see me?"

"Quite so Fleur. Please, come in and take a seat."

Fleur did so, not sure why she felt so nervous about it. Maybe they were going to grant her deepest desire and fire her for gross incompetence.

Muckraker smiled pleasantly at Fleur, "We've been very pleased with your work so far." Muckraker paused as Fleur sank in her seat. "Fleur?"

"Sorry, but it's such a... relief to hear that," Fleur said to him, hoping nopony was picking up on the stream of curses coursing its way through her head.

"My apologies if you thought you were doing poorly," Muckraker said back. "Anyway, in light of your exemplary work, we've decided that you're the perfect pony to work on a very important mission."

Fleur quickly jerked back up in her chair, "You know I can't do fieldwork!"

Eclipse grunted at Fleur, "We are well aware your injuries sustained in Mareitania prevent you from fieldwork, and frankly your... below average magic capability would remove you from that possibility anyway. We have something else in mind, for which we think you would be highly suited."

"It didn't last time..." Fleur mumbled darkly.

"Indeed," said Muckraker, not hearing what Fleur said. "What we will be asking you to do will be little more than an extension of your current duties. Tell me Fleur, have you ever heard of Smile?"

"Only in that it's something I try to do as often as I can," Fleur said, still smarting from the below average magic comment. Judging by the expression Eclipse now wore, it was definitely not the right answer.

"And so you should," Muckraker said with a smile of his own. "And don't be surprised you haven't heard of it. Smile, S.M.I.L.E, or the Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria, to give it its full name, was an agency that gathered information on, and combatted the various nasties that exist both inside, and outside Equestria. Changelings, bugbears, hydras, you name it, they fought it."

"Dragons?"

"Even dragons, except usually it was only the juvenile ones they dealt with. Full grown ones tend to be beyond the average group of ponies, no matter how well trained and equipped they might be. Anyway, the group was disbanded after a botched mission involving a bugbear resulted in a half dozen civilian deaths, as well as almost blowing the cover on their existence."

Fleur raised an eyebrow, her interest caught. "Is that why monster attacks seem to happen more in the rural areas now?"

"Quite so," said Muckraker. "I also suspect that the changeling invasion of Canterlot might have gone very differently had they still been in operation. However, Celestia wanted complete deniability, so after their botched mission Smile was disbanded and its members sent to live as civilians."

"Okaaay..." Fleur drew the word out because she really couldn't see where this was going, or why it might involve her. "Unless we're about to go monster hunting, I don't see how this is relevant."

"Oh no," Muckraker said with an amused chuckle, "we deal with nations and their inhabitants, which are monsters of an altogether different kind. No, the point I am trying to make Fleur, is that after much begging, wheedling, and cajoling, I have been granted access to some of Smiles' former agents, to aid our own activities."

"If it's such a big secret, how did you know about Smile?"

"It's our job to know such things," Eclipse said curtly. "Just as it's now your job to keep what you know of Smile to yourself." Eclipse left her usual spot, and knocked on a door that led to a side room. A moment later four ponies entered, three mares and a stallion, all but one of them an earth pony, while the other was a unicorn.

Muckraker smiled at the newcomers, who didn't smile back. "Fleur, I want you to meet Rocky Road, Crème Bruleé, Tootsie Roll, and their leader, Sweetie Drops-"

"Also known as Bon Bon," Fleur deadpanned.

Bon Bon froze, "You know who I am?"

"You live in Ponyville. You make sweets for a living."

"Um..."

"You know agent Sweetie Drops?" Eclipse asked, for once looking surprised, much to Fleur's secret delight.

"No, I know Bon Bon, sort of. I've been to Ponyville to visit Twilight enough times to pick up a few things. The monster hunter Sweetie Drops thing is a total surprise though."

"Keep it to yourself then," said Muckraker.

"Why do they all have cake and sweet based names? Do bakers have special skills perfectly suited to monster hunting?"

"Well we certainly know how to give something a good beating," Rocky Road, the big brown earth pony stallion said with a good natured chuckle.

Fleur stared at him blankly for a while, her brain failing to come up with an adequate response. "Okay, I'm going to cut to the chase here. Why do you need them, and why does it involve me?"

Muckraker gestured at the four newcomers, "These former agents are highly trained, and highly skilled spies, assassins, warriors, and-"

"Bakers?"

Muckraker coughed with embarrassment, "Yes, that too. They've also agreed to work with Equis on a very special operation. We hope to insert them into Mareitania to carry out various acts of sabotage, and whatever else, that can't be handled by the Wonderbolts or the Night Guard. Due to your experience with Mareitania from when you lived there, and during the uprising, we want you to be their handler."

"Their what?"

"Handler," said Bon Bon. "Basically, you're in charge of us. You give us the missions, tell us the best plans, and other similar stuff. Handler."

"And how does that work when they're in Mareitania, and I'm here?"

"That's all been taken care of," said Muckraker. "For now, all we need you to do is prepare them as best you can for life in Mareitania, and also to think about the best angle of insertion into the country. Nothing too complex for now at all. We expect to hear back from you at the end of the day with your plans. Dismissed."

"But-"

"Dismissed," Eclipse reiterated, nowhere near as pleasantly as Muckraker had.

Fleur sighed and stood before leaving without protest. The four agents filed out after her, none of them saying a word until several minutes later when Bon Bon noisily cleared her throat just to get Fleur's attention. "Ma'am?"

"It's Fleur. Not ma'am. Fleur."

"In that case, could I request that you continue to call me Bon Bon?"

"Sure, whatever. Rolls off the tongue easier anyway." Fleur glared at the four ponies before her, not sure what to make of them. Bakers turned secret agents, turned back to bakers, before once again becoming secret agents. Some ponies clearly had death wishes. "So what do you want to know?"

"What do you mean?" asked Tootsie Roll, the other earth pony mare in the group. She was a pale blue with a shock of cherry red hair for her mane and tail.

"Well that's just it," said Fleur. "How am I supposed to prepare you for life in Mareitania? Am I supposed to go on about how much of a shit hole it is?" Fleur pointed at Crème Bruleé, the unicorn in the group. She was a rich cream colour, with a caramel coloured mane and tail that grew darker towards the tips. "Do you want to know how badly unicorns used to get treated there?"

"I already read ze briefing," Créme said in a thick prench accent. "I already know 'ow badly ze unicorns were treated, and ze pegasi. What I don't know is 'ow it was to be one of zose unicorns or pegasi."

Fleur stared deadpan at Crème, "You're kidding right?"

"It would 'elp my character greatly to know zese things."

"No, I mean you're kidding about that hammy prench accent right? Sorry, I mean 'fancee' accent," Fleur said with air quotes. "Literally nopony in Mareitania talks like that, at all, in the slightest."

"But I was told that fancee was the same as prench, and that prench was a language used in Mareitania," Crème said, suddenly sounding normal again. "Was that wrong?"

"No, you're right about that," said Fleur. "What you're wrong about is the silly accent, and the fact that prench isn't that widely spoken, even in the city of Prance where it originated. And those few that do speak it also speak basic Equestrian, so by speaking it, and by 'zounding like zis,' you're just drawing attention to yourself."

"But you used to speak like that," Tootsie Roll pointed out.

"Yeah, and it did wonders for my modelling career, sounding all exotic. If anypony had heard me speaking like that in Mareitania though, they probably would have thought I had a speech impediment, and maybe brain damage." Fleur jabbed a hoof at Crème, "It isn't going to work, so don't do it."

"See, it's things like this that we need to know," said Bon Bon. "It's because of this that you were selected to be our handler. The more you can tell us about Mareitania, the higher our chances of success."

"Alright," Fleur nodded, seeing what she had to do, and how much effort it would take. "Then let me first say that Mareitania is a shit hole."

"You already said that," said Rocky.

"And I cannot emphasise it enough. Sure things have probably improved since the uprising, but from the way they're planning to attack us, it's not too hard to imagine that things are still pretty fucking shitty."


-0-0-0-


It had been a long few hours, trying to tell them how to simply fit in in Mareitania. They almost knew more about the military aspects of the country than Fleur did, so clearly they had read the briefing thoroughly, but didn't realise something so simple as a unicorn that badmouths an earth pony in the wrong company could easily find themselves dead in a gutter, with their horn acting as a plug of sorts.

"It couldn't really be that bad, could it?" Rocky had asked in surprise after hearing that.

"Oh no, that's just if the ponies you said it to took matters into their own hooves. The fact is, under the Dukes' laws, the unicorn would still be punished if they were reported. I know the laws are different now, but sadly the ponies aren't. Badmouth the wrong earth pony, Crème, and you'll find out just how bad some places treated their unicorns, regardless of how illegal their actions are now."

Crème swallowed nervously, "So how should I act to avoid such things?"

Fleur rotated a hoof idly as she thought, "Honestly, just be quiet, and if you can, act slightly submissive to everypony, like you haven't gotten used to the new ways without the Duke. Even to your friends here if you really want to sell it. Basically, be a sad little doormat, and disappear into the background."

Rocky slammed a hoof on the table they were gathered around, "You can't seriously expect her to act like that?"

"It won't matter so much down south around Neigh Orleans," Fleur said with a shrug. "Up north though, around Stalliongrad especially, she really will need to be careful. Back before the uprising, a unicorn could find themselves short of a horn just for looking at an earth pony in any way, let alone the wrong way. I doubt attitudes have changed up there that much since the war ended."

"Sounds like a real fun place to go," Bon Bon sighed.

"You have no idea." Fleur steepled her hooves and looked over them at the others. She knew there was no real way to prepare them for life in Mareitania, other than hope that they react to things in ways that won't draw attention to themselves. That, or hope Mareitania had gone through a social revolution in the last six months, where all ponies were actually treated as equals. It sounded laughable, but a pony could dream.

Moving on from that though, there were still other matters to which she felt she should give some thought, such as how to get them into the country. This was all a bit of a moot point if they couldn't even do that.

"So moving on from the societal nightmare that is Mareitania, have any of you put any ideas into how to infiltrate the country?"

"We were told you would be the best pony to ask about that," said Tootsie. "They pretty much told us to ask you about everything."

"Seriously? An entire intelligence unit to use, and I never see any of them, and they never seem to do anything."

"Actually," Bon Bon said, giving Fleur a sympathetic smile, "I bet most of them are busy on counter-intelligence, especially after the Shades managed to infiltrate Equestria, and leave again, undetected, along with three of the Bearers of Harmony. Who knows how active they really are in our country? Honestly, for the lack of an actual conflict happening at the moment, I bet there's one being fought in the shadows."

Fleur stared stupidly at Bon Bon. What she'd just said made an awful lot of sense, but that was no excuse for making Fleur think of these plans. She was a liaison, a giver of briefings, not a plan maker. Still, it wasn't like she didn't know how to do these things after having run the Shades herself at one point. Maybe, she thought, she should quit bitching and get on with it.

"Alright, so walking in, or taking the train are both out of the question. Equestrian ships are no longer travelling to the country, so our options are down to two as I can see it. Flying in, or swimming."

"I think I prefer the idea of flying," said Crème. "Swimming sounds like a lot of effort."

"That depends on whether we can get the resources together to do a pegasus airdrop," Rocky said thoughtfully. "That's also a long way to have pegasi fly with a chariot."

"It's a long way to swim too."

Fleur rolled her eyes, "I was wasn't going to make you swim all the way Crème. I was thinking a small airship could get close enough to drop a dinghy off, allowing you to get close enough to swim in underwater."

"Why underwater?" Tootsie asked.

"Because there's a giant wall on both sides of the river from back when access was blocked to Mareitania, and if I were the kind of pony to think of Mareitania's defence, I would definitely have that well watched. All the same, I think we should definitely go with flying you in first. I'll run it through with Muckraker, and see what he says."


-0-0-0-


"He didn't go for it," Fleur said as she re-entered the room after her short conversation with her boss. "Something about minimising air traffic over Mareitania, apart from military operations. Unfortunately we can't exactly wait for the next one of those, so we're going with plan b."

"Totally saw this coming," whined Crème.

Bon Bon looked sideways at Crème, then back to Fleur. "Not that I'm terribly against plan b, like some, but is it really the best way?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Fleur shrugged. "The fact is that it can get you into Mareitania a lot faster than hoofing it."

"So could flying," Crème grumbled.

Tootsie elbowed Crème on the side, "Seriously, shut up," she said before smiling at Fleur. "Is there really no other way though?"

"None fast enough. At any rate, Muckraker's already making the arrangements, so we're going with it. All that leaves is giving you a few other preparations."

"Such as?" asked Rocky.

"Such as the mind control magic that is pervading quite large portions of the country. If you're going there, we'll need to make you immune to it, and that's a little bit tricky."

"Why?"

Fleur pulled a face, "There's a counter-spell for the mind control, buuuutttt... we don't know how long it lasts. It could be permanent, it could only last a week. At the moment, only pegasi on scouting missions are entering Mareitania, and they only go for a few days at most, and are counter-spelled every time. You don't get that option."

Bon Bon nodded her head towards the unicorn in the group, "Couldn't you teach the spell to Crème?"

"We could, but there's always the risk of her being killed, or captured, or compromised by the very spell she's supposed to counter. In that situation, which is already less than ideal, you could end up getting screwed alongside her. I'm afraid we can't count on Crème. Instead we can enchant a small gem with the spell instead, which leads to a mix of good and bad news."

Tootsie grinned hopefully, "What's the good news?"

Fleur grinned back, but far less genuinely, "The good news is that it works."

Tootsie nodded slowly, "Okay, I assumed that already, but yeah, okay. What's the bad news?"

"Well, originally they planned to place the gems into jewellery, but then they thought that not all ponies wear jewellery, and that jewellery can be lost, or broken, or in the event of capture, taken off you. So they devised a new method where they... implant the gem under your skin somewhere it won't be noticed."

All of them leaned back and groaned. "I want to have a word with 'they,' whoever 'they' are," growled Rocky. "I think 'they' could benefit from some education along the lines of not putting things into ponies."

"It's only like the size of a pea," Fleur said, not that she disagreed. "You won't even know it's there. I'm also to tell you that you don't get a choice, and that they need to do it now if you're to leave in time. Sorry."


-0-0-0-


"I should have told Lyra where I was going," Bon Bon sighed, idly rubbing the small lump on her chest where the implanted gem was, near the inside of her leg where hopefully her leg would hide it. "I hate to think of her sitting at home wondering where I am."

"Lyra," Rocky said thoughtfully. "That's your... marefriend, right?" 

Bon Bon lashed out with a hoof, punching Rocky in the stomach, totally winding him so he collapsed to the deck of the airship. "That's best friend, asshole."

"Hwee... got it," Rocky gasped. "Touchy -hwee- cow."

"I see you haven't lost your touch," Crème giggled as she leant against the guardrail around the airship, the light of the moon painting her coat in pale greys. "Rocky always did love your tender caresses."

"And what about your touch?" Bon Bon said back. "Can you still tie a knot in a cherry stalk with your tongue?"

"Even better. I can tie a knot in a cherry stalk... with my hooves." Crème blushed as the others stared blankly at her, "What? It's a big deal for a unicorn, alright? Fuck off."

"I see you've gotten swearing like true Mareitanians down," Fleur said as she trotted up to them. "I've just talked to the helmspony, and he says we're only a few minutes from your drop off point."

"But you haven't even told us our mission yet?" Bon Bon said to Fleur.

"You'll get your missions as and when I have them to give to you. As it is, you do have a mission, but it's fairly simple. Primarily, try to fit in without getting caught, which hopefully is as easy as it sounds. Once you've done that we want you to get a read on the ponies of Mareitania. We can fly over the country and track their military actions as much as we want, but none of that tells us what the average Mareitanian thinks of the possibility of war. We want you to tell us if they're in favour of it, or against it. Apart from that, keep your ears open."

"Sounds simple enough," Bon Bon agreed. "Are we to just focus on Neigh Orleans?"

Fleur nodded, "For now at least. Once we have more information, we'll start expanding your field of operation. With the new rail system they've set up, travelling around the country as you need to should be simple enough. Of course, if you have anything for me, get Crème to use the speaker stone. I'll keep the other one on me at all times. And try to only use your short range ones when you really need to. Otherwise, keep them hidden."

"What about supplies?" asked Tootsie.

"You have money to buy food with, so that's fine. Anything else you'll have to beg, borrow, and steal if possible. If not, get in touch, and we'll see if we can't have a pegasus airdrop arranged for you."

The airship shook as the gondola dipped into the ocean. Thankfully the design of these things, where somepony had put serious thought into making a boat fly by tying a giant balloon to it, almost meant the gondola could float, which would at least be handy if it crashed at sea. Once it was steady, a couple of crew members lowered an inflatable dinghy into the ocean, and dropped a rope ladder to it.

Fleur smiled at the poor ponies that were being sent to the one place that no Equestrian would want to go. Even she felt too close for her own comfort. "Right, this is it," she said as Crème lowered the large bag containing their gear into the dinghy. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you what to do from here, so take care, and good luck. I'll be in touch soon."

Fleur kept watching as they all climbed into the dinghy, and started to row towards the distant shore, barely visible in the moonlight. "They are so fucked."


-0-0-0-


"We are so fucked," Rocky said as he rowed, letting him look back towards the airship as it lifted out of the water and turned back for Equestria. "Why the hell did we agree to this? Apart from the huge pile of steaming horse-apples this already is, our handler is greener than grass."

"Did you even read what the briefing said about Fleur?" Tootsie asked, giving Rocky a cold stare. "She ran the Shades at one point, got horribly tortured at another, and still kept going. Frankly, I wish she was coming with us."

"You would, wouldn't you? I admit having a pony that easy on the eyes would do wonders for my morale, but not if she ends up being a dead weight with that scarred up leg of hers. Princess Twilight on the other hoof, she sounds like a mare that could get things done."

"She sounds like a mare that would get us caught within days," said Crème. "She's probably one of the most recognizable mares in Mareitania at the moment, along with Fleur, and the others that went."

"Will you all shut up?" Bon Bon said, directing a sharp glare at off of them. "It's just us, and we need to focus on doing our job."

There was a short moment of silence, broken by Rocky. "How much focus do you think I need to row us to the shore? I'm telling you, it's not much."

"There were times after Smile was disbanded that I missed you," Bon Bon said sternly to Rocky. "I can't for the life of me remember why."

Rocky grinned dashingly at Bon Bon, "Was it my good looks, or my stunning personality?"

"It certainly wasn't your ability to lie." Bon Bon smiled as Rocky dropped his grin. "In all honesty though, if I were to find myself on a secret mission in a hostile nation, then I'm glad it's with you guys."

"Hear hear," Crème cheered.

Bon Bon turned to face in the direction the were travelling, and found that they weren't too far off the coast. Technically it was part of Mareitania, so they could have legitimately said they'd made it into the country, but since there was nothing on the coast it would be a pretty hollow victory.

She was still thinking about that and other things when the dinghy slipped up onto the sand of the coast. Bon Bon jumped out and grabbed the short loop of rope on the front, dragging it up onto the beach, which got considerably easier once the others jumped out. She kept dragging it until she met the narrow band of solid land that lay between the sandy beach and the mountains that apparently sounded most of the country.

"Crème, keep an eye out, and Rocky, deflate the dinghy and hide it in case we need it," Bon Bon ordered as Tootsie hoisted the bag containing their gear out of the dinghy. "And try to remember where you leave it this time Rocky."

"That was one time," Rocky grumbled quietly. "Just one measly time. There's a big rock over there," he said, pointing along the beach to where a large rock sat at the end of a furrow. "Take a good look, and remember where it is yourself."

"Fine... Tootsie?"

Tootsie opened the bag and pulled out four small air canisters connected to mouthpieces. She checked them and nodded at Bon Bon, "Scuba gear ready to go Chief. Everything else is accounted for as well."

"Good." They waited a few minutes while Rocky deflated and rolled up the dinghy, placing it into a plastic bag to bury it behind the boulder. Once he was done, they moved out in a steady canter towards where the river Mareissippi met the ocean, and their way into Mareitania.

As much as Bon Bon wanted to deny it, and wanted to hate herself for it; as much as she enjoyed her life in Ponyville, and loved her best friend, it was stale, stagnant, and boring. She was banned from involving herself in the vast majority of things that happened to Ponyville, which was a lot of potentially interesting stuff. The truth was, that right now was the most alive she'd felt in months, if not years. She silently apologised to Lyra.

Sand flicked into the air off hooves as the four ponies galloped up the beach towards the river outlet, the only sound being the breaths they drew as they pushed themselves along. It didn't take too long to reach the outlet, and eventually the one end of the wall. As Fleur had predicted, the wall was guarded, with spotlights set up to shine over the river. What she hadn't predicted was the rope gate stretching across the river to the wall on the far side, blocking ships from going in or out.

"They're really taking this a bit too seriously," Crème whispered as they hid out of reach of the spotlights. "Equestria doesn't even have a fleet to sail up here. I mean, I understand being cautious and all, but sheesh."

Bon Bon held a hoof up to her lips to shush Crème. Her main concern was how far up the river these defences reached. Had they turned Neigh Orleans into a fortress to protect against an incursion from the river? Was the place actually teeming with soldiers? Even if it was, she supposed it didn't change anything.

Bon Bon gestured for Rocky to crouch down so she could get into the bag on his back. She pulled out their breathing apparatus and tossed one to each of her team, along with a pair of goggles, before sealing the bag back up. "These things should be good for at least twenty minutes," she said as she slipped her goggles around her head. "We'll stick to the shallows as best we can, but we will need to be underwater to avoid detection, which means keeping breathing to a minimum around the wall. Once we're past the wall, we'll stay submerged for five minutes before taking a look around. Now follow my lead."

Bon Bon kept low as she moved quickly and quietly towards the waters edge. She paused briefly as she stepped over a scattering of charred wood, then grinned around her mouthpiece as she realised they must have drifted down river from when the Mareitanians fleet was destroyed. Still, she had no time to dwell on it, so she kept going, slipping quietly into the water and trying not to make a sound from the shock the cold water gave her.

She kept her head above water until the rest of her team was in, then gave them a nod before dropping below the surface. Thankfully the spotlights shining on the river provided a small bit of light to see by, but it was only a little. Navigation was mostly done by feeling her way along, and hoping that the others followed her through the murky darkness. She knew they were on course when the dark silhouette of the wall appeared out of the dark, and she kept a hoof on it as she went around it.

Bon Bon's lungs started to burn from the lack of oxygen, so she risked taking a small breath, releasing a stream of bubbles that rushed up to the surface where they hopefully wouldn't alert the guards. With the water deadening every sound from the surface, she wouldn't know if they'd been detected until they surfaced again, which was why she wanted to be well past the wall when they did.

One of the lesser known tendencies of bakers, and especially fate-bound ponies with baking cutie marks, is time keeping. Leave something in the oven too long, it burns, or not long enough and you risk making ponies ill. So when five minutes had passed, they all pretty much felt it in their guts, and surfaced at around the same time, walking up the river bank enough so that they could at least keep their rear hooves on the ground, and their heads above water.

"I think we're clear," said Tootsie, turning on the spot to see all around them. There didn't appear to be any extra activity coming from by the wall, so hopefully that meant they'd made it into the country totally undetected.

Bon Bon took the air canister in her hoof, and spat the taste of rank river water out of her mouth. "Ugh, nasty," she spluttered, sliding her goggles up over her eyes, and holding her sodden mane out of her sight. As Tootsie had said, the wall was still quiet, so Bon Bon turned her attention up river, towards the not too distant glow of civilization. "That must be Neigh Orleans, so we should near the bayou."

"You mean that big swampy tree thing over there," Crème said sarcastically, splashing water to her left. "How'd you miss that."

"I didn't, and shush. We'll head into the bayou and find somewhere to stop for a few hours to dry off and rest until daylight. I'm pretty sure turning up in Neigh Orleans at this hour, soaking wet when it isn't raining, is going to look a bit odd."


-0-0-0-


Bon Bon whined under her breath as somepony nudged her into wakefulness. It had barely felt like ten minutes since they'd climbed into one of the larger trees in the bayou, removed the snakes, and managed to finally get her eyes shut. It must have happened though, because the sun was up, and the swamp was almost humming with the sound of everything that lived in it. Including things that liked to bite.

Bon Bon slapped a hoof on her side as something tried to make a meal of her. She missed, and overbalanced, getting a sudden reminder that they were in a tree, and quite far from the ground as she started to slide off her branch. Only the quick intervention of Rocky saved her from having to murder the collection of alligators that had gathered below.

"Careful there Chief," Rocky chuckled cheerfully as he pulled Bon Bon back onto her branch. "I'm not sure how we could explain you falling to your death on the first day."

"We'll just tell 'em it was your fault Rocky," Tootsie said, grinning at the stallion. "It used to work all the time back in Smile. Anyway, I would say the coffee's hot Bon Bon, but we have no coffee, and nothing to heat it with, sooo... yeah. I think that the sooner we get into Neigh Orleans the better."

"Sounds good." Bon Bon looked around blearily as she noticed something was missing, "Where's Crème?"

"Out scouting a path to the unimaginatively named Swamptown," Rocky told her. "I mean, it's a town, in a swamp, so yes I understand calling it Swamptown, but they could have used a little imagination."

"And what would you suggest?" Tootsie asked Rocky as she made the final preparations of their gear. Most of it was for the insertion and had passed its used. The rest could be broken down into their components, meaning that it would pass mostly unnoticed. Hopefully.

"I dunno, just... something else. What do you think Bon Bon?"

Bon Bon rubbed her eyes and stretched languidly, "You're asking the mare that lives in Ponyville? Besides, I thought if a place wasn't named with a pony pun, it wasn't allowed to be put on the map."

"Oh har-har," Rocky said slowly. "You know that's an urban legend."

"Really?" Bon Bon said back brightly. "Show me where Rockton is on a map then."

"Rockton? There's a place called Rockton?"

Bon Bon winked at Rocky and grinned playfully, "Exactly."

"You're fucking with me, right? She is fucking with me isn't she Tootsie?"

"Rockton is indeed on the map," Tootsie informed him. "It's a small village to the south east of Canterlot, and was built up around the train station that was built there to serve the rock farming community."

"Ah yes, rock farming," Rocky said sagely. "Remind me again why that's a thing?"

"I would, but I don't have all day, and I can see Créme coming back meaning we'll be moving soon."

The tree shook as Créme jumped onto the branches, and a moment later she dropped down into the hollow in the branches where they'd holed up. "Morning Chief," Creme said cheerfully to Bon Bon.

"Morning Créme. Find anything good?"

"Yes and no. There isn't a decent path through the trees from here directly to Swamptown, but there's sort of a path to a place not too far that has it's own walkways leading to Swamptown, so our best bet is to head there. It's a tree house surrounded by hundreds of colourful glass bottles, so it's pretty easy to spot. We might have to swing across some gaps though."

"Good enough," said Bon Bon. "No point hanging around here, so let's pack it up and get moving. Tootsie?"

Tootsie zipped up the large bag they had with them, leaving only their scuba gear in it. Everything else had been disassembled and packed into a quartet of saddlebags. "All good here Chief. Just need to hide this in case we need it later."

"Just secure them to a branch up here and leave them. I doubt many ponies come up here since we had to use a grapple to do it." Bon Bon slid her saddlebags over her head and secured them as Tootsie secured the stuff they were leaving. Once she was done Bon Bon turned to Créme, "Lead the way."

Créme jumped up out of the hollow and onto a wide branch that pointed deeper in the bayou. When that soon ran out she jumped to another, agilely leaping from branch to branch with all the surety of a pony that had been born to do such things. She wasn't of course, hailing from Canterlot, but at the moment she really looked like it. Bon Bon followed after her, equally adept at what they were doing, while behind them Tootsie and Rocky took a little longer as both of them definitely preferred being on solid ground.

Progress was still swift though, and with the added bonus of none of them falling off, they soon made it near their destination. "There's the treehouse with all the glass bottles over there," Créme said, pointing through the trees at the shining mass of glass bottles that lit up the area around it like a colourful disco ball. "We'll need to swing across to the next tree, then across again to the walkways leading to Swamptown. Simple."

"Yeah, simple," Bon Bon said flatly as she pulled a small grapple on a thin rope out of her bags. She swung it around a few times and let it fly upwards, where it found purchase on a branch in the canopy above. A couple of tugs confirmed that it was solid, and she swung across, making it to the other side with ease. She waited a moment, then a pale glow took hold of the rope and pulled it back to where the others were waiting.

While the others swung across, Bon Bon made her way along the branches to have a look at the treehouse, wondering just why exactly somepony would live this far apart from anything, and why they would surround their house with hundreds of colourful bottles? It didn't seem to serve any purpose she could think of.

She was still trying to figure it out when the grapple and rope was held up in front of her in Créme's magic. Bon nodded and took hold of it to throw it again, landing it in the branches not far from the house. She took the lead again, and swung across, gripping tightly until her hooves thudded down onto the moss covered planks of the rope bridge. She swung the rope back, and waited.

"Interestin' way t' travel."

"Ah!" Bon Bon turned to face the source of the voice, finding a wizened unicorn mare sat in a rocking chair at the treehouse, gently rocking back and forth as she looked directly at Bon Bon with eyes that were clearly blind. "Give me a heart attack why don't you?"

"Heh, not my intention girl, but it's not everyday that you see somepony swing onto your porch from the trees. If anything, it should be you giving me a heart attack like that."

"Uh-huh." Bon Bon braced herself as Tootsie swung over, and caught her before Tootsie swung too far.

"And now you're bringing frien's?"

"That's right," Bon Bon replied idly as she swung the rope back.

"Who's this?" Tootsie asked.

"No idea."

"The name's Mama Brew, though you can just call me Mama," the elderly unicorn replied to Tootsie's question. "And who might you two-" Mama raised an eyebrow as Créme landed on the walkway. "Make that three. Who are you three?"

"Just passing through," Bon Bon said before Tootsie could reply.

Mama chuckled darkly, "Funny sounding name that. Are ya all called that?"

"That's right," Bon Bon said with a grunt as Rocky swung into her hooves.

"I get the feelin' you're being disingenuous with me. There ain't no need to be so hostile."

"You're right, there isn't." Bon Bon waited for Créme to pull the grapple out of the tree and coil it up. She shoved it into her bags, and gestured for the others to start moving. "Nice meeting you Mama."

"Uh-huh, you young-uns always in such a rush." Mama shrugged to herself, "Good luck with your mission."

Bon Bon froze, then shook her head ruefully. "Nope, I'm not getting sucked in. Let's go guys."


-0-0-0-


Swamptown. It wasn't much of a name to live up to, yet somehow it did it perfectly. It was not only a town in a swamp, but also a town that was swampy. If anything, it surpassed what it's name would have you expect. It was damp, mossy, and more than a little odorous, along with its inhabitants. Inhabitants that had a questionable taste in what was and was not edible. Frankly, Bon Bon and the others hated it, and so wasted no time in finding transport to Neigh Orleans with a mare that managed to hold at least three conversations with herself at the same time as she pushed her boat along.

"Well that was an experience," Tootsie said, shaking her legs out after sitting in the small boat for as long as they did. "What now Chief?"

"I'm not exactly sure," Bon Bon admitted. They'd been told to discover the general populations opinion on the possible war, but short of sitting in a bar somewhere and hoping somepony talked about it near enough for them to hear, she wasn't sure how to go about that. Or why it really mattered really. "Let's just go for a wander and see what turns up."

Picking a direction, Bon Bon started walking, the others falling into step with her as they started their winding journey around the city. She wasn't sure why, since the two places were very different, but the mixed wood and stone building, and the general feel of the city, reminded Bon Bon of Trottingham, although the ponies living in the two places couldn't have been more different.

Still, as places went it wasn't too bad. Many of the buildings showed signs of recently done work, which she suspected had been part of the Mareitanian Republics project to revitalise the parts of the country that the Duke's regime had deemed unworthy. There was also a friendly vibe to the city that they hadn't been told to expect, with music being played all over the place. Ponies exchanged friendly greetings, nopony yelled at somepony else for having a horn, and it certainly didn't feel like a city gearing up for war.

"Hey, look at that," Créme said suddenly, pointing to the right towards a large open area with a monument at it's middle that stretched on for several meters. "That must be the city centre, where Princess Twilight started the uprising. Let's go have a look."

Not having any reason to say otherwise, Bon Bon agreed, and they followed after Créme into the square. The pedestal that had once held the statue of Duke Ironhoof, the founder of the Duchy of Mareitania, was still empty. It's plaque still held the description it once had, saying who the statue was of, but without the statue itself it seemed silly to leave it as it was. It could be supposed that finding a replacement wasn't exactly a high priority, especially with all spare funds the country had likely being funnelled into preparing for the upcoming war.

The statue wasn't the point though. Behind the statue was a black stone wall, with hundreds of names carved into it, the names of all those from Neigh Orleans that fell in the war to free their country from the Duke. It might have felt more poignant if that country hadn't decided six months later that Equestria was their enemy. At least the Duke confined himself to his country, content to rule it and it alone, even if he was tyrannical despot.

Bon Bon shook that thought away as her eyes skimmed over the names. Princess Twilight had no idea what lay hidden beneath High Rock Keep when she started her mission here, and couldn't have stopped it once she did know, not that stopping a civil war like that would be so simple. If she had abandoned the war, and the war continued to the conclusion it had anyway, they'd probably like Equestria even less than they did now.

"Guys," Rocky said slowly as he drifted away from the memorial to the sides of the square. Sides that were plastered with posters. Anti-Equestrian posters. "I think I found that thing we were looking for."

Bon Bon didn't reply as her eyes took in the sight before her. Dozens of different posters, spread out over the walls where there was room, and sometimes overlapping where there wasn't. She stopped at one of them, depicting Celestia and Luna as dark and evil, with Luna looking rather reminiscent of Nightmare Moon. Both of them reared up, laughing over the caged form of a beaten and broken Faust, while below it said 'Don't let them cage our Lady again.'

"Well shit," Bon Bon muttered as she moved onto the next poster where Celestia and Luna were the same dark figures, holding depictions of the sun and moon in their hooves, while behind them Faust reached out, her eyes running with tears. "Take back what the usurpers took from us," Bon Bon said quietly, reading the words on the poster. "This can't be good."

"The Lady protects us," said Tootsie, looking at another poster depicting a beatified Faust surrounded in golden light, "shouldn't we protect her too?" Tootsie took a step back in disgust, "This is just playing into what that magic is trying to do to the ponies here. Love the Lady, protect the Lady."

"These ponies definitely have a strong propaganda game," said Rocky. "Depicting Celestia and Luna as the monsters that imprisoned their precious Lady is a nice touch."

Créme shook her head at what Rocky said, "Perhaps, but what's missing from those posters? What's not there?" Créme waited a few seconds for them to make a guess, but none were made, so she told them. "Where's Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence in all this? I could understand them not really knowing about Princess Cadence, but doesn't it strike you as odd that Princess Twilight isn't shown as evil here? Ponies here must still regard her to be the hero that freed them."

"No, she's depicted alright," Tootsie said as Créme stopped talking. She pointed to a poster with Twilight in chains. Chains held by a cackling Celestia. "Your hero is the usurpers slave. Fight today to end her torment," Tootsie read from the poster before sighing deeply. "I guess using Mareitania's liberator as a victim here is just the icing on the cake."

"But I thought the dossier on Faust said she hated Twilight as much as she did Celestia and Luna?" Rocky said, his words hestitant with confusion. "Why would they depict her this way?"

"To get ponies to fight," Bon Bon told him. "Nothing more. I imagine Twilight's fate will be just the same as Celestia's and Luna's if Mareitania wins. Cadence is the only outlier here because we simply have no idea what Faust thinks of her. The fact that she's not shown here once says a lot." Bon Bon scanned along the wall, seeing plenty of other posters besides the ones they'd seen already, but they all showed things along the same lines where Equestria and Celestia and Luna were bad. Then there was some graffiti saying 'They were right about pegasuses.' She could only assume that the poorly spelled graffiti was in response to the recent attack on Whiplash and its ship building facilities.

"Hey there," a voice said cheerfully behind them, making them jump. It was as much as Bon Bon could do to not turn around and clock the stallion that had spoken. "Oops, sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

Bon Bon glared at the cheerful white stallion that had disturbed them, "Can we help you?" she asked, silently observing the small symbol of the Lady that he wore around his neck.

"Actually, I was thinking we could all help each other. I couldn't help but notice you looking at all the posters we have around here. Tell me, how do they make you feel?"

Bon Bon cast an eye back at the posters, then mentally smirked. "Pretty angry I guess. These can't really be true, can they?"

"Oh but they are," the stallion said sadly. "It's true that those vile 'princesses' stole the sun and moon from our beloved Lady, and it's true that they cast her deep beneath the earth, trapping her for over a thousand years."

"And what of that one?" Tootsie asked, pointing a hoof back at the poster showing Twilight in chains.

"That one is the most tragic of all. The revelation that Twilight Sparkle, the beloved leader of the ponies that cast the Duke down, and the envoy of the Lady herself, was in fact a slave of the vile rulers of Equestria, shook us all to our very cores. Should we not fight to correct the wrongs committed against her as much as the ones made against our Lady?"

"I'm pretty sure she couldn't have been wearing chains during the uprising," said Créme.

"Not all chains are worn on the body," the stallion said sagely. "Some are worn in the mind, and are perhaps even more insidious for it."

"Please, we have a lot to do today," Bon Bon told the stallion, trying to sound impatient. "Could you please tell me what this is about?"

"Certainly. As you can tell from these posters, our great country is in danger. The usurpers Celestia and Luna have learnt of the Lady's escape from the imprisonment they placed her is, and they are not pleased. They attacked us in our own country not even a week ago! They fear that our Lady is free, and they would attack us for doing what is only right."

"And what is that?"

"To elevate the Lady as the one true and just ruler of both our nations. To cast them down as they cast her down long ago. To free Twilight Sparkle from her enslavement and place her back to her rightful place at the right hoof of the Lady. Mostly though, we fight for the survival of our very way of life."

"By attacking Equestria?" Rocky said sceptically. "I'm pretty sure that they'd leave us alone if we left them alone."

"Not true," said the stallion. "Even now they build their army in preparation for their war against us. To quash us and cast our Lady back into darkness, and take her country for their own."

"Then why order their slave to defeat the Duke?"

"To weaken us, by having us fight ourselves until we cannot fight them."

Créme snorted a laugh, "Even though Mareitania is stronger now than it ever was? This is ridiculous."

Créme froze as the stallion narrowed his eyes at her, "You sympathise with the Equestrians then? You think we are in the wrong to destroy them before they can destroy us?"

"No, of course not," Créme said defensively. "It's just that for them, it would have made more sense to attack the Duke, if what you're saying is true. He would have been far easier to defeat than we are now."

"Just another sign of the usurpers folly I assure you. Now what say you? Do you have what it takes to fight for what is right? Would you join the forces of our nation to help us do what our Lady cannot do alone?"

"You're an army recruiter?" Bon Bon asked, genuinely surprised.

"I am simply a stallion doing what he can to help," the stallion replied. "Will you not at least consider my words and think about joining?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. We'll-uh, definitely think about joining up." Bon Bon smiled at the stallion. "I think we should all do our part after all."

"So we should," said the stallion, "so we should. The army has a recruiting centre around the corner on Winder street, so if you are serious about doing your part, you might want to consider starting there. Thank you for your time, and Lady bless you, whatever you should decide."

Bon Bon held her smile until she felt the stallion was far enough away to not hear her sigh in disgust. "I guess that taught us as much as it could. 'Join the army, and if you don't we'll brand you an Equestrian sympathiser.'"

"Do you think he even knows how wrong he is about things?" Tootsie asked. "Or is that the version of events that's been given to the ponies here? Either way it's all kinds of messed up."

"Either way I think we've seen enough for now," said Bon Bon. "Let's find a hotel, or inn, or something, and report back all the wonderful things we've learnt in the last ten minutes." Bon Bon laughed bitterly to herself, "And here I thought this was going to be hard."
> 16. A Royal visit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia dropped the report her sister had given her and sighed, disgracing the breakfast table with her worries. "Are they really depicting us as villains?"

"You seem surprised sister," Luna replied cheerfully.

"I am, especially after we helped them. Now they're painting us as the ponies that imprisoned Faust back before the exodus."

"Which again, doesn't surprise me as it is at least half true."

"H-half true?!" Celestia spluttered. "What are you talking about? It's not true at all!"

"No?" Luna smiled at her sister, "I imagine that they, or perhaps Faust herself, is keeping it a secret that we are in fact the offspring of Faust. Then if you include the fact that we are the 'daughters' of Princess Platinum, the pony who did actually imprison her, well... it doesn't take much work to blame her crimes on us. Then there's the simple fact that we agreed to leave her locked up where she was until we could contain her ourselves."

Celestia nodded slowly, seeing the sense in Luna's words. That didn't stop it from stinging though. Still, that was hardly the only thing that was annoying her about these propaganda posters. Faust wasn't the protector of anypony, and was in fact dragging their two countries into war. Celestia and Luna didn't steal the sun and moon from anypony, and Twilight... Twilight was most certainly not a slave in any way, and certainly didn't need saving. She supposed that with Twilight still being a hero of Mareitania it made sense to show Twilight as a victim of Celestia to turn the Mareitanians further against Equestria, and herself.

"Are you not going to read the rest of the report sister?" Luna asked, pulling Celestia out of her sullen thoughts.

"I don't think I have the stomach to," Celestia murmured. "Just give me the basics."

"The basics, hmm? Very well. Our agents in Mareitania were told to ascertain how the ponies of Mareitania viewed the possibility of war, and honestly, it's not all bad news. Yet."

"Yet? What do you mean yet?"

"Those posters are mean to play off the magically enforced love for Faust that has been spread throughout the country. A pony not yet affected by that magic can likely see them for what they really are. Now either this magic isn't hugely widespread yet, or isn't as effective as Faust might hope, but opinion on the war is split."

"Okay," Celestia said with a hopeful tone. "Now tell me about the the 'yet.'"

"That will only likely change as Faust's magic spreads. Even so, while not everypony supports the war, at least in Neigh Orleans, there doesn't seem to be any real opposition to it either. Whether that's because there just isn't any opposition to speak of, or because the ponies of Mareitania are just used to doing as they're told, I couldn't tell you."

"Oh," Celestia sighed, "of course. I doubt we have little chance of garnering sympathy with the ponies of Mareitania then."

"Even less than that I'm afraid. It seems our attack on Whiplash has only hardened their hearts against us, and especially against the pegasi. Our agents reported seeing graffiti saying 'they were right about the pegasuses.' Aside from the atrocious grammar, I have no idea who this 'they' might be, but I suspect it refers to the country's former rulers."

"That does make the most sense," Celestia agreed. "I suppose knocking back the Mareitanian view on pegasi is the least of our worries though. Is there anything else in the report worth taking note of?"

"Not really. Our agents simply haven't been there long enough to learn much more than that." Luna picked up her mug of coffee and took a sip, "Honestly, I'm not sure what I was expecting for any of this. Perhaps I should put more concern into how our own ponies feel about the war."

"At the moment recruitment is exceeding expectations," Celestia said glumly. "We can't even fully equip half of them as yet."

Luna laughed once, "Celestia says jump, they ask how high?"

Celestia glared angrily at her sister, "It isn't like that at all!"

Luna met Celestia's gaze, then smiled sadly, "Isn't it though? How many ponies in Equestria truly believe in the princess brand? How many of them think we'll safely see them through this because that is what we princesses do? How many will die before they realise having a horn and wings doesn't make us any less fallible than themselves? You can tell me that isn't the truth, and you'd be right only in that it isn't the whole truth, but still true nonetheless."

"I suggest we change the subject right now," Celestia said coldly.

Luna shrugged indifferently, "Hardly the words of a pony willing to argue their point, but very well. I also have some news from much closer to home if you wish to hear it?"

"Far be it from me to stop you saying whatever pops into your head dear sister."

"Pinkie Pie has joined the army, along with her sisters."

Celestia didn't react straight away, and honestly struggled to take in what Luna had just told her. "Pinkie Pie," Celestia said slowly, just to make sure she had heard correctly. "As in the Pinkie Pie. Notably pink, loves parties, and happens to be a Element bearer?"

"The very same."

Celestia had to make a mental effort to prevent her jaw from hitting the table, "What in the world possessed her to do that?"

"To get her friends back most likely," Luna guessed, pausing to take another sip of her drink. "Shining Armour sent me a message telling me about it in case I wanted to pull her from service."

"Then yes!" Celestia said urgently, "Yes you should do that!"

Luna shook her head, stopping Celestia. "I don't think that is the best thing to do."

"Why ever not?" Celestia gasped, surprised at Luna for even thinking that, let alone saying it.

"We practically forced Rainbow Dash to keep serving in the Wonderbolts. What kind of hypocrites would we have to be to force Pinkie to not fight? I think Pinkie should serve if she so wishes."

"But what if she gets hurt? Or killed?"

"Then she is in the same boat as most of the other bearers," Luna said simply. "Save Twilight of course. Honestly, I'd be surprised if there's actually a pony or weapon capable of stopping a pony such as Pinkie Pie."

"This is wrong," Celestia said weakly. She couldn't imaging a world where a pony such as Pinkie would have to fight and kill ponies. Now she had found herself thrust into a world where that was in fact a thing that was happening. It was more than a little jarring.

"It is the way of things now," Luna said, not without sympathy for her sister. "Moreover, even if I were to think that pulling her from service was the best course of action, I do not have the heart to tell Pinkie she can't fight to save her friends."

"I suppose not," Celestia conceded. "Perhaps we should have found a purpose for her, rather than let her find her own." Celestia sighed and pushed the remainder of her breakfast away, "I suppose I should ask what your next move is against Mareitania?"

Luna raised an eyebrow at her sister, "Now she asks? I really think you should wonder about what I'm planning a little more than that. Have you truly lost your stomach for this after a thousand years?"

Celestia looked away from Luna. "There was never really a thousand years of peace Luna," she said in a tired voice. "Not even close."

"What?" Luna was stunned at the revelation, and perhaps more so to hear it coming from her sister. "Explain yourself."

Celestia crossed her forelegs on the table before her, "Have you never thought about the meaning behind that? A thousand years of peace in Equestria. In Equestria. What about outside it? What was the rest of the world doing? They certainly weren't playing happy families."

"What are you saying Celestia?"

"I'm saying that the one thousand years of peace was perhaps the greatest lie I ever told, even to myself. For the most part I either stayed out of the issues of other countries, acted as a mediator, or if things came to the worst, I chose my allies wisely, and I made sure they won." Celestia laughed bitterly, "A thousand years of peace in Equestria is far from a thousand years of peace just because the conflict never reached our soil."

"Then why are you so opposed to participating in the war we now find ourselves falling towards? If anything, you sound a more capable commander than I."

"I never fought in those wars, but merely stayed here while others fought them in my stead. There was a reason I ensured war never reached Equestria, and that was because I couldn't face it."

Luna cocked her head to the side and tilted her ears back, showing her confusion. "I don't understand sister. You had participated in much conflict before then, so why the total change of heart? I know you were always the diplomat, but something must have led you to do what you did."

"You did, Luna."

"Me? I... I don't understand Celestia. How did I do that to you?"

"I banished you to the moon Luna," Celestia said, her voice growing heavy with suppressed emotion. "After that, I lost more than just my beloved sister. I don't need to tell you of the pony I was after that, but as I came to terms with it, I found my will to fight had gone. I strived to create a thousand years of peace, not because I felt I had to, but because I couldn't face fighting a war without you. I just couldn't do it any more. Of course I had always preferred diplomacy, but I made some horrible agreements over the years if it meant not having to fight. I'm just thankful it all worked out in the end, because my hesitation to fight could have led to Equestria's downfall plenty of times."

Luna blinked a few times as she tried to process what she'd just been told. Back before her banishment, she had always been the fighter, and Celestia the talker, so to hear that Celestia gave up fighting at all after her fall into darkness... it left Luna feeling like it was her fault they ever had to fight a war at all.

"Luna?"

"It would seem I am but a magnet for conflict then. I come back, and suddenly every villain possible starts rearing its ugly head. A thousand years of peace, ended by my return."

"No Luna, that wasn't the point I was making at all! The peace would have been built anyway, with or without you, but it was me losing you that pushed me into creating it. It was my fear of fighting without you that made it happen, not your absence."

Luna went quiet, then shrugged and smiled at her sister, "I suppose it matters not. I shouldn't concern myself with what was. If you must know I plan on striking their manufacturing in Stalliongrad, to slow or stop the production of their tanks and such."

"Huh?"

"You asked my what my next plans for Mareitania were."

"Oh, yes, right!" Celestia blushed, but quickly turned serious again. "Are you sure you're alright with what I just said?"

"Of course," Luna said with a genuine smile. "I don't know why I would even get so worked up about what was only a good thing for the ponies of Equestria. We should focus on making sure those good times return instead."

Celestia smiled back at Luna, "Exactly. So you plan to slow their production of war materials then?"

"As best I can. It might be quite the task though, so I will be leading the efforts myself this time. I've also started planning defensive strategies now that the forces from Mustangia have arrived."

"It's a big wall on the strip around the Luna bay isn't it?"

"There's a little more to it than that," Luna blustered defensively.

"Mmhmm."

"Oh, silence your mocking tongue Celestia. Perhaps I should be asking you if you've heard anything from Twilight?"

Celestia sat back and sighed, "I'm afraid not. If I'm honest I'm beginning to get worried."

"Twilight is more than capable of taking care of herself and her companions."

"I know," Celestia said anxiously, not even trying to hide it, "but her last message said they were heading off to go through the Badlands. The Badlands, Luna. You know who lives there."

"I do indeed, but I have faith in Twilight's ability to get through."

"I do too, but I still worry."

Luna watched Celestia chew on her bottom lip, and decided to move the conversation on. Celestia wasn't the only one to worry about Twilight, but Luna perhaps knew better that Twilight wouldn't let anything stand in her way. "What are your plans today then sister?"

Celestia eyed Luna, seeing through the sudden change of conversation, but appreciating it nonetheless. "Haven't you seen my schedule?"

"...No?"

Celestia rolled her eyes at Luna's coy behavior. Neither of them really knew what the other was up to at the best of times. "I've been encouraged to take a tour around the factory in Manehatten that produces the armour the Wonderbolts use."

"So, by encouraged, you mean forced?"

"That's what I said. They'll also be producing the armour for the air corps, and I was told that a visit would do much to bolster their productivity."

"Were you also told that they're producing a fine, lightweight armour for our mage corps?"

Celestia's expression went flat, "Really? Since you already know so much about this, why aren't you going on the tour while I do the thousand other things I could do?"

"Oh no," Luna laughed, "I'm the no nonsense military leader, and you're the pretty face for the cameras, so you get to go make ponies happy, while I stay here and make serious faces."

"You are the best at serious faces," Celestia teased.

"Exactly! I-" Luna stopped herself as what Celestia said sank in. "That wasn't actually a compliment, was it?"

"I don't know what you mean." Celestia grabbed a napkin and wiped her mouth free of any lingering crumbs, then stood quickly enough to make the table jump. "I'm afraid I have a chariot to catch, so I must away. See you later?"

"Assuming I haven't forced you out of the castle and taken the throne for myself, yes, certainly."

"You know I don't like jokes like that."

Luna folded her hooves under her chin and fluttered her eyelashes at her sister, "And you know I enjoy dark humour. See you later sister. I expect my hoof cleaning at nine p.m. sharp, and I expect your tongue to be spotless in preparation." Luna winked at Celestia, leaving the larger mare to fume as she stomped towards the chariot bay.

"Sisters are the worst."


-0-0-0-


The journey to Manehatten was conducted mostly in silence. Celestia sat in her carriage, watching the clouds drift lazily by, wishing more than anything that she could be as free as they were. 

Soon they'd be landing, and the real Celestia, that only her sister, her guards, and her friends, saw, would be hidden behind the mask she had been forced to don far too much lately. Celestia couldn't put a hoof on where exactly she'd starting having to wear it at all, but could easily say it at least started around the time she sent Twilight, with a mission, to Mareitania. A mission that had led to every problem they now faced. It hardly seemed fair to have their good intentions twisted up and thrown back at them so utterly.

Perhaps even more she now regretted not being more proactive with the Mareitania situation in the past. Maybe Faust might have been a bit more amenable had Celestia found her after five hundred years, rather than Twilight after one and a half millennia. Or maybe if she had never bothered at all. Celestia silently laughed at her self, agonising over what she could have done differently, rather than face what was actually happening.

"Your highness?"

Celestia started as her assistant Raven spoke to her, and took a moment to shake away the clouds that had started to gather in her mind. "My apologies Raven. Are we almost there?"

"Almost. I thought you might like a few details before we landed?" Celestia nodded, and Raven smiled, pulling up a piece of paper to read from. "The owner of the factory, and the pony giving the tour, is a Mr Tough Nut, an earth pony. His wife, Fair Weather, who's a pegasus, is currently pregnant with their second child. She's due soon, so won't be joining us."

"Okay, good," Celestia said, committing those facts to memory for now. "And the factory?"

"Usually makes protective clothing for industrial purposes, with a small side-line on the armour the Wonderbolts use. However, with the war, production has been shifted mostly onto armour, and they've taken on dozens of ponies just to try to even get close to demand. He's also trying to find more factory space."

"Well, we certainly appreciate his efforts. I take it he's being well compensated?"

"The contract was quite lucrative for him."

Celestia nodded idly, "Thank you Raven. I don't suppose you happened to purchase a gift for the little one once... she's..." Celestia trailed off and smiled as Raven held up a gift-wrapped box, "You truly are a marvel Raven."

"I try my best, Princess." Raven shrieked suddenly as the carriage lurched into a descent, then blushed with embarrassment. "I'll never get used to that."

"Believe me, I was like that for the first hundred years," Celestia joked, trying to set Raven back at her ease.

"So I'll never get used to it then," Raven replied grumpily.

"There's no thrill in being used to everything, I assure you." Celestia peeked over the side to see that they were getting close to the ground, then took a deep breath as she set the mask in place. "How do I look?"

"Regal as always, your highness."

Celestia fought the urge to roll her eyes, instead waiting patiently as the carriage wheels gently touched down onto the road, stopping directly outside the factory. A dozen ponies were waiting there, thankfully with none of the fanfare she usually received. Celestia stepped out of the carriage as they came to greet her, and she smiled at the middle stallion which she assumed to be Tough Nut.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr Tough Nut."

"Not nearly so much as it is to meet you Princess," Tough Nut said back, falling into a bow that the others around him mimicked. "It's a great honour that you'd come and see the factory."

"With what you and your ponies are doing to aid Equestria at this time, it's the least I could do." Celestia raised an eyebrow and moved her head to the right as she caught sight of a young colt peeking out from behind Tough Nut's legs. "Oh? And who might this be?"

"This little rascal is Hard Nut," Tough Nut said cheerfully. "Say hello to the Princess Hardy."

"H-h-hello Princess."

"And hello to you Hard Nut," Celestia said back, crouching down to the colt's level to offer him a hoof to shake, which the colt did, albeit nervously.

"The lad got so excited when he heard you were coming to see the factory, I could hardly deny him the chance to meet you."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet the both of you. It's a shame Fair Weather couldn't join us, but I do believe she's almost due with your next foal?"

"Uh, yes! Yes she is! The midwife says that she should be ready to go in a couple of weeks."

"And I hope you're both thrilled to meet your new son or daughter. In fact..." Celestia teleported the gift between herself and Tough Nut, "I may have got a bit excited myself and bought them a little something."

Tough Nut's eyes lit up, and he took the box into his hooves. "You didn't have to do that!"

"I know, but what fun is there in not being able to spoil a child every now and again? However," Celestia smiled apologetically at Hard Nut, "I guess I wasn't totally prepared. So, instead, how about... I let you ride my back as we tour the factory?"

"Really?!" the colt shouted, all his nervousness forgotten. He turned to his dad, his eyes shining. "Can I dad?"

"Well I think it'd be awfully rude to refuse the princess, don't you?" Tough Nut smiled as his son cheered, then smiled more as Celestia picked him up in her magic and placed him on her neck, giggling as he wrapped his little legs around her neck.

"Shall we?" she asked, giving Tough nut his cue to lead the way into the factory, leaving behind two guards at the factory door, while two more accompanied her, along with Raven.

As soon as they entered it was hard to miss the noise. Industrial sewing machines, and other, larger devices, clacked away as the ponies in the factory rushed to construct suit after suit of armour to feed Equestria's burgeoning war machine. Even knowing what they were making, Celestia couldn't help but be impressed by the industriousness of her ponies.

Rather than head towards the factory floor though, Tough Nut led them upstairs and into his office where refreshments had been set out. Initially, Celestia was confused, but kept it to herself as a generous helping of cake was placed in front of her.

"Firstly Princess, I want thank you for considering us to fashion the armour for all your pegasi and unicorns. I really hope we live up to your expectations."

"You've never disappointed us before, so I doubt you will now." Celestia lifted a forkful of cake to her mouth. It was buttercream, with raspberry jam, and it was wonderfully moist. Rather simple compared to what most ponies would provide on a royal visit, but that only made Celestia appreciate it more. "I take it things are going well enough with production?"

"We've just about wrapped up on making the Wonderbolts' uniforms, but that's about it. I hate to say it princess, but it's our suppliers that are struggling to keep up with our demand, more than we're struggling ourselves."

"But Equestria has quite a substantial textile industry."

"It's not the cloth, it's the armour material. The material we use in the pegasus armour is produced magically, weaving a spell into it to make it almost weightless." He nudged a short section of it on his desk towards Celestia. "Give it a try."

Celestia did so, picking it up and flexing it in her magic. As he had said, it was almost weightless. It was also fairly flexible, despite how tough it was. "And how long does it take to produce a piece this big?"

"That big?" Tough Nut hummed, "A few days at least. This is our problem, because the amount we get in a week is only enough to produce a half dozen suits at most, and we burned through both ours and our suppliers stockpile pretty quick."

"And there are no alternatives that could be used?"

"Some," Tough Nut shrugged, "but none good enough. If you want lightweight, flexible, and most importantly, effective armour for pegasi, that stuff is the only real option."

"But the armour my guards wear are made of metal, and they're perfectly light and flexible."

"They're segmented pieces, not as light, and are vulnerable from below, which isn't great for a flier. I don't mean to be rude your highness, but your guards' armour is mostly ceremonial rather than effective. I'm taking my wife's judgement on this, and I believe her."

"I see." Celestia placed the segment back on the desk and turned to her assistant, "Raven, take a note of his supplier, and see if there's anything we can do increase supply."

"Thank you Princess," Tough Nut said as one of his own assistants searched out the supplier to give to Raven. "I'm sorry to lay these worries on you, but I wasn't sure who else to go to."

"It's more than alright Tough Nut. I'd rather you ask for help instead of struggling on. Now then, is there anything else that I could be of assistance with?"

"No thank you Princess."

"Then perhaps we should press on with the tour. I'm quite keen to see how the armour is made." A total lie if Celestia was honest, as even a pony half as old as her would pick up a passing knowledge on pretty much everything. She just figured it'd be more interesting than sitting in this rather crowded and stuffy office, and it would be nice to meet the ponies outfitting their fighting pegasi.

"Uh, of course Princess," Tough Nut said, caught a bit off guard by Celestia's apparent keenness. "If you'll follow me." Tough Nut led the way back out of his office, and turned left onto a walkway that lined one side of the factory. Then he stopped. "This is it really Princess, the entire factory."

"Oh," Celestia said, a little confused at the lack of substance to the tour. "That's... nice. You have a lot of ponies working here?"

"Seventy four in all. I would take on more, but the supply issue would just make them unnecessary."

"Seventy four hmm? I would very much like to meet them. What do you think Hard Nut? Do you want to go have a closer look?"

"Ooh, yeah! Can we Dad? Pleeeease?"

Celestia smiled at Tough Nut as he silently gave in. Clearly he hadn't actually put a lot of planning into her arrival here, judging by the way he thought overlooking the factory counted as a tour. Still, at least he had given in easy enough, but that sort of thing always left Celestia wondering if that was because she was good at out-manoeuvring ponies into these things, or if they were simply afraid to say no. Not a huge issue, but it still bothered her at times.

Things were also helped as Tough Nut at least had the sense to start the tour where the production process begun. "This is the cutting room, where the materials for the suits are cut out according to the patterns provided to us by yourselves." He picked up a swatch of the material they were using, and held it up to Celestia to inspect.

"I have to admit that I don't recognise this material," Celestia said, feeling the cloth with her magic.

"It's a tightly woven cotton overlaid with the same flame retardant material that firefighters uniforms are made of," Tough Nut explained. "It insulates the user, and protects them from most hazards that the armoured parts aren't made to deal with, such as environmental hazards, and obviously fire. Sadly though, pegasi wings have to remain uncovered, so there's always a risk."

"I see." Celestia watched as a mare cut shapes out of a length of cloth, her own eyes twitching back and forth between her work and Celestia. "I take it that once the sections are all cut out, you assemble it into the suit, and the armour is built around that?"

"Half right your highness." Tough Nut placed the cloth back in its holder, and patted the mare cutting the patterns on the shoulder, the mare having almost frozen up from Celestia watching her. "Let's move onto the next part and leave these girls to it."

"Did you say that we provided you with the patterns for these?" Celestia asked, not entirely sure when that happened. So many papers needing so many signatures.

"As a base, yes. Recently though, we employed a skilled seamstress who made some improvements to the designs. In fact, she may as well be our next port of call since she works in the sewing area."

Perhaps one of the strangest observations Celestia felt she could make as she was escorted through the factory, was that out of the dozens of ponies she'd seen working here so far, only three of them were stallions. Whether there was a reason behind that, she didn't know, but it was still noticeable, and therefore not a surprise when she was led to a pink mare working behind a sewing machine, looking like the world had wronged her quite significantly.

"Princess Celestia, meet Suri Polomare. Possibly the finest seamstress we've ever had work here."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Polomare."

Within the fraction of a second the expression of generalized despair was gone, hidden expertly behind what Celestia could only describe as an over-keen shopping assistants face, ready to sell literally anything, including their mother and a case of crabs.

"It's so nice to meet you Princess, mmhmm. I never thought you'd come and see me specifically."

"Tough Nut tells me you're one that adjusted the designs for the flight suits?" 

"Well, the design was quite outdated, mmkay, and no longer matched the materials used to make it, so I made a few suggestions, to improve productivity, mmhmm. I'm also quite involved in the rest of the production here, mmm."

Celestia nodded vaguely, seeing Suri as what she really was, trying to climb the ladder for a promotion to get more pay for less work. She also wanted to hum a mmhmm back in sympathy every time Suri did. "I'm glad they have employees here as capable as you," she said, noting the way several other ponies directed short glares at Suri once she said it.

"Why thank you your highness, mmhmm. I'm just glad to be doing my bit for our country."

"Suri, perhaps you could tell the princess about the rest of the production process since you know more about it than I do?"

Suri's eye twitched once, but she smiled and nodded, "Of course, I'd be delighted to! As you can probably tell Princess, this is where we create the basic flight suits."

"And then everything else is attached afterwards?"

"That's right, mmhmm. The armour plates are stitched into a sort of harness, which is then sewn onto the suits themselves, mmkay? Would you like to see how it's done?"

"I'd love to, mmh-" Celestia realised what she was doing, and quickly turned it into a cough. "Oh, excuse me."

"Mmm... are you okay Princess?"

"Yes, I'm fine thank you. Please continue Miss Polomare."

Suri hummed an affirmative and led them further along the factory to where a group of ponies were creating the sections of armour to sew onto the flight suits. "This part is probably the hardest part, mmkay, because you can't actually sew the armour itself, and the material holding them is also quite tough to sew. We just got a new shipment in if you want to feel it for yourself?"

"Of course."

Suri smiled at Celestia, then walked over to a small stack of crates, pulling the topmost open. There was a clink, and a mechanical ticking started as she pulled the box open to reveal some short red tubes, nestled in padding. "What the-?"

Boom.

Celestia tried to get a shield up over the crates as quickly as she could, but she was nowhere near fast enough, and what little shield she had made was quickly destroyed as the force of the explosion flung her back. She crashed into the wall, turning the world into a confusion of light and pain as the heat from the explosion seared her flesh, and shrapnel peppered her right side.

A wave of flame roared over her for the merest seconds, then it was gone, leaving behind a symphony of death and agony, witnessed best by the one pony that it had likely been made to kill.

It took several seconds for Celestia to make even the tiniest amount of sense of the world. The right side of her face was a mass of pain, along with most of her body, and her eye wasn't working, while her left eye only showed her the blinding afterimage of the explosion. Her ears felt like they'd been filled with cotton wool, and it took several moments for her to even pick up on the sounds of screaming, the blare of alarms, and the crackle of fire burning.

She tried to pull herself up, only for her hoof to slip on something, sending her crashing back to the ground. It was blood, and she stared at it dumbly for a second, before realising where it had come from. Raven lay next to her, her front almost mangled beyond recognition.

"No! No-no-no!" Celestia ignored her pain, and crawled around enough to reach Raven, shaking her to try and wake her up. There was nothing though, no sound, no breath, nothing, she was just... floppy. "No, please... Raven..."

Celestia looked around, begging for help to unhearing ears, as around her were only more bodies and the sounds of ponies in pain. Her guards had been spared the worst ravages of the explosion thanks to their armour, but the concussion alone was enough to kill them as close as they were. Tough Nut also lay nearby, similarly unmoving, as well as several other ponies. Of Suri there was no sign at all, or of Hard Nut, at least until she turned around and found his crumpled form next to the wall in a small puddle of blood. He'd been mostly spared from the explosion, only to be crushed by Celestia as the explosion flung them into the wall.

Celestia howled in anguish, and cradled the small body in her legs, begging to whatever gods might have been listening to spare one as young and innocent as a child, who had no place being killed like this. Agony flared in her face and eye as her tears seeped into her wounds, and her blood flowed heavily from the dozens, if not hundreds of cuts she bore, but she couldn't have cared less. A child was dead because of her, and she was surrounded by the bodies of innocents. If there was any justice in this world, they'd all be alive, and not her, the mare that had caused this.

The heat of the fire drew closer to her, so she placed Hard Nut next to Raven, then pulled Tough Nut over to sandwich the child between them. Then she stopped, not even knowing what kind of a grim tableaux it was that she was trying to create.

"Princess! Princess, where are you?"

"I'm here," Celestia croaked at the sound of her surviving guards shouting her name. She waited as they honed in on her, their wings blowing out the smaller flames.

"Princess! Thank goodness you're alive! We need to get out of here..." The guard stopped as he took in the injuries Celestia had. There was barely a patch on her right side that wasn't burnt, blackened, or bleeding, and it was hard to tell the extent of her facial injuries, covered as it was by the singed remains of her mane. Her right wing was barely there any more, little more than a skeletal limb covered in the burnt stubs of feathers.

"Not without them," Celestia said as her guards stared at her in horror, pointing her head towards the three bodies she'd assembled.

"Princess, they're... gone."

Celestia struggled to her hooves, renewing the agony in most of her body. She almost collapsed from the pain, but refused to if it meant her guards helping her. "I'm not leaving them."

"Princess, we need to get you out of here! That is our first priority, everything else comes after." The guard flinched as something collapsed behind him, hidden by the smoke. "Please Princess!"

Celestia started limping forwards, and tried to bring herself up to her full regal height, but she just couldn't. "Bring them," she ordered in a voice that bridged no argument, before she started limping away through the detritus of the factory.
Yet more bodies lay in her path, having landed where the explosion had thrown them, and gone no further. Worse still were the ones that had lived long enough to die in pain and fear, their faces frozen with the terror of their last moments, begging for help that would never reach them in time. Past that was only screams as ponies caught on the edge of the explosion clung to life.

Celestia wanted to help them all, but she just couldn't. She could barely walk, and her horn, scorched by the explosion, hardly worked. A mare trapped under fallen machinery cried out for help, and Celestia could only turn away and choke on her guilt, no more able to help the mare than she was able to help Raven, or Hard Nut.

Sirens were already screeching away outside as Celestia staggered through the exit, and she almost screamed in fury as a dozen ponies, firefighters and paramedics, ran over to her, trying to help her before anypony else. "Help them," she said weakly, just wanting to be left alone. 

"But Princess, you're hurt!" one of the paramedics insisted, trying to guide her away.

"I'm fine," Celestia insisted, pushing him away. "Help them."

"But Prince-"

"Help them!" Celestia screamed, shocking the mare into stepping back. "Forget me, help them!" She pushed through the group of ponies, aiming for a narrow stretch of grass that lined the edge of the pavement, and collapsing onto it. Seconds later her guards laid the bodies she'd ordered them to bring next to her.

"Princess, we really need to get you seen to."

Celestia shook her head, "Go help the fireponies, please, before any more ponies die. I promise you I'll be fine." Celestia looked up at them imploringly as they glanced at each other, "Please." They hesitated briefly, then nodded to each other and bounded off towards the factory, leaving Celestia blissfully alone.

"I'm so sorry," she said breathlessly, her tears threatening to fall again as she kept vigil over the three bodies, one of which was a dear friend that she'd known for many years now. Was this the price ponies would have to pay for standing by the princesses now? It was far too steep a price if it was.

Time crawled by as she kept watch over the bodies, with seconds passing in hours with her slowing heartbeat being the only thing to keep count by. She didn't care. Instead she was consumed with why this had happened. She knew technically why, but it still burned at her. This was meant to be a simple visit, and yet, through the machinations of the vilest ponies, it had turned into a day of blood and horror.

Celestia sobbed, her chest hurting with each sharp movement, and her right eye, unseeing as it was, burned with the fresh tears. The pain she felt on the outside barely even compared to the pain she felt on the inside, and then she could only call that a fraction of the pain a lot of ponies would be feeling tonight as the news got out, and they found their loved ones cruelly taken from them. More so for Fair Weather, the wife of Tough Nut, and the mother of Hard Nut, who in one short moment had lost both her husband and son.

It was almost a relief when darkness creeped in around the edges of her vision, and robbed her of first her ability to see, then her ability to think. Oblivion sounded nice about now. If only she could stay there.


-0-0-0-


Celestia gasped into wakefulness, a burning agony shooting through her face as the rapid movement pulled on her bandages. She blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the bright light around her, and as she did she came to realise that she was actually in a hospital room, white and clean enough to blind her.

"Welcome back sister."

Celestia searched about until she found the dark blue shape of her sister, her starry mane wafting in an unfelt breeze. "Luna." Celestia sank back and sighed, "Did I..?"

"Die? No, you didn't. You merely fainted from blood loss. I wish the same could be said for all those poor souls. I'm sorry about Raven."

Celestia sniffed, a single tear escaping from her good eye, leading her to investigate the other with her hoof, finding it covered in bandages. For a moment she wanted to ask how bad her injuries were, but concluded that it didn't really matter, and she didn't care. There was nothing that could be done to her physically that was worth worrying about.

"How many? How many died Luna?"

"Sister, I really don't think-"

"How many Luna?!"

Luna sighed, seeing her sister's thoughts turning on herself. Rightly or wrongly, Celestia always blamed herself. "Nineteen dead, thirty three injured, eight seriously. Which only makes me wonder how you survived being so close to the explosion?"

"I tried to contain it, but I wasn't fast enough. All I did in the end was shield myself from the worst of it." Celestia choked as she thought about Hard Nut, "I killed him."

"Killed who?"

"Hard Nut, the colt. He... He was riding on my back when the explosion happened. I saved him from the explosion, only to crush him as I landed. I killed him."

Luna was there immediately as Celestia started to cry again, hugging her and shushing gently as Celestia choked and sobbed. "It's not your fault Celestia, you know that. There was no way you could have stopped that, and no way you could have known. No part of this is your fault Celestia."

"I killed him Luna! I killed him!"

"Faust killed him Celestia! If it wasn't for her none of this would have happened! Don't blame yourself for things you have no control over, and blame the one that made it happen!"

"But we did make this happen! We're the reason Faust is free! We're the reason Equestria is under attack! We're-"

"Not the reason Faust is attacking us though," Luna said calmly. "Please sister, I know you wish to blame yourself for what happened, but it simply isn't true."

"Yes it is. If I hadn't had gone there, they never would have set up that bomb to try and kill me!"

"And that likely isn't true either. Celestia, the Mareitanians know that alicorns can't be killed, so trying to assassinate you would likely be seen as a pointless endeavour. The factory though, is producing armour for our soldiers, marking itself as a military target, and therefore worthy of destruction. You being there when it went off was simply a coincidence."

"You don't know that for sure."

"Not long after I had received the news, and had a bit of time to think about it, I ordered ponies to search other facilities producing arms and armour for our soldiers. We found a similar device in a factory making weapons in Filidelphia."

"And nopony got hurt?"

Luna half smiled, "The bomb has been deactivated and disposed of accordingly. Nopony has been hurt. I've also increased security at these facilities using some of your Royal Guard, leaving them a bit stretched here in Canterlot, but there is little we can do about that. I also have Equis focusing on finding the culprits behind the bombs."

"That still won't bring those that died back."

"No, it won't." Luna didn't know what else to say. Neither of them had the experience necessary to deal with this. Bad enough was the revelation that their enemy had access to explosives, and the know-how to cobble together an effective trigger. Worse was the thought that the Shades were still running rampant throughout Equestria, and could plan further attacks. If the Shades managed to take out their manufacturing, Equestria could lose the war before it even began.

"Can we really do this Luna?"

"Do what?"

"Win."

"You know winning was never the point. The point was to buy Twilight enough time to find a way to stop Faust. If we give up, Faust will start hunting Twilight, and if she's found before she has a solution, it's all over."

"But fighting to lose is just throwing lives away for nothing! Faust doesn't know where Twilight is! We don't even know where she is! Can we really justify buying her time when she can't be found?"

"You want to surrender?" Luna growled, unable to hold back her disappointment. "You want to sit by and watch as Faust subjugates Equestria and the world, changing it all to fit in with her 'plan?' You want us to languish, forgotten in a cell somewhere for the rest of time?"

"We don't even know what her plan is! What if it's actually a benefit to the world?"

Luna scoffed, "Can you even hear yourself Celestia? Do you even know what you're saying? You are talking about the plan of a pony that has no issue with kidnapping, bombings, or the mass brainwashing of countries! She clearly doesn't care for ponies if she can do that, so how could you even consider the possibility that her plan is of any benefit to anypony but herself?"

Celestia closed her eye and sighed, leaning back into the comfort of her bed. Of all the phrases she'd heard in her long life, damned if you do, and damned if you don't had always been one of the more prevalent. It was almost the perfect description of this whole situation, because as much as she might want to think that Faust's plan might not be terrible, if Luna was right it very easily could be. The cost of stopping it though, was high, even if it was the only realistic option.

"What do we do now Luna?"

"Leave that to me."
> 17. Dashed hopes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Dash! Hey Dash!"

Rainbow looked up from polishing her gear as Lightning ran into her room, a newspaper held by her wing which she threw down in front of Rainbow. Rainbow spared it the merest glance, then looked back up at Lightning. "What am I looking at exactly?"

"Didn't you read it? Somepony tried to blow up and kill Celestia yesterday!"

"Really? No way! Did it work?"

"What?" Lightning looked at Rainbow with disgust, "Is that what you think? Don't you even care?"

"Yeah, of course I do, but alicorns are immortal, as in they, like, can't die. Or they do, but they don't stay that way." Rainbow tapped her chin thoughtfully, "I really should have listened to Twilight more about that. Anyway, my point is that Celestia could have eaten the bomb and she'd come back, so I'm actually a little more concerned that they blew up a bunch of ponies in the factory that makes our gear."

"Uh..." Lightning's eyes twitched back and forth as she tried to figure out Rainbow's nonchalance about the news. "You've lost me Dash. Even though she survived, Celestia's still probably really hurt."

Rainbow sighed and dropped her armour onto her bed in preparation to explain this. "You know Princess Twilight?"

"Well yeah, of course."

"To date she's died three times. Once when she became an alicorn, and twice more since." Rainbow fought the urge to grin as Lightning tried gawped at her. "Death for alicorns just isn't that big a deal. I bet that in a couple of weeks Celestia will be totally healed to the point that you couldn't tell she'd ever been attacked."

"Huh. Well, the point is that they attacked her! In Equestria! Doesn't that mean a thing to you?"

"Of course it does! But do you know what also means something to me?" Rainbow quickly read the paper until she found a number, "Twenty two. Twenty Two dead ponies killed in an attack on the factory that makes armour for the Wonderbolts, and-" Rainbow placed her hoof on the paper further down, "- they found another bomb in the place that makes our weapons. This isn't an attack on Celestia, Lightning, it's an attack on us. Celestia was just in the wrong place at the wrong time by the sounds of it."

"But why would they attack us?"

"Because we burnt their ships, blew up their lumber mill, and did whatever it was the bat ponies did in their prison?"

"How are you working this out so fast?"

"Eh," Rainbow shrugged, "it's a knack. I'm also guessing that's why we're bringing our next op forwards, which is why I'm prepping my gear."

"That's not what I meant. What I meant was, how do you know this wasn't an attack on Celestia?"

"Maybe it was! So what? It says they were going to bomb two places, both of which are important to the Wonderbolts, and the bombs were apparently in crates set to go off whenever somepony opened them, so Celestia being there when that happened was probably a total coincidence. Would they be making as big a deal about this if Celestia hadn't been there?"

"Proba-" Lightning went cross eyed as she cottoned on to what Rainbow might be trying to say, that the number of deaths, and the loss of the factory, were getting swallowed up by the fact that Celestia, an immortal, got hurt in an attack that might not have been even aimed at her. "Damn."

"Do you get me now? That the paper-ponies are too busy focusing on Celestia instead of the other stuff?"

"Yeah. I guess knowing the princesses can't die makes it easier to see through that kind of stuff."

"Believe me, I think I was a lot happier before I ever found any of this stuff out." Rainbow started polishing her gear again, but gave up after a few seconds, her heart no longer in it. "This is only going to get worse, isn't it? Have you heard anything off Spitfire?"

"Not yet, but she flew off to Canterlot this morning, so we won't until she gets back. Rumour is though, that Luna might be involved in our next attack."

"You mean, like, leading us?"

Lightning shrugged, "No idea. It's possible I suppose. Might be something worth seeing if it is."

"Kinda suggests that we'll actually be working with the Night Guard again if it's true."

Lightning picked up one of Rainbow's blades, pulling it out and turning it over and over in her hooves. "Are you going to be down with going on another mission?"

"Are you going to try and protect Vapor to the point she does nothing?"

"No, there's no point if things are only going to get worse. We're all going to have to be at the top of our game when that happens, including Vapor."

"And what if it's not enough?" Rainbow asked. Lightning didn't answer.


-0-0-0-


"You can't be serious," Soarin whispered, casting an eye back at the Wonderbolts assembled for their briefing. "What Luna's asking, it's insane!"

"I don't see what your issue here is Soarin," Fleetfoot whispered back. "Taking out their tank production, and their tanks, sounds like a good idea to me."

"But they're in Stalliongrad, and that place is a fortress!"

"Not for ponies with wings."

"But it's proven they have explosives now, and what's saying they haven't made their own anti-pegasus weapons like the Duke did? Stalliongrad was a shit of a place to invade even without those things."

"Doesn't matter," said Spitfire, cutting off any further arguments. "Luna thinks that after the successful attack on the armour factory, they're only going to get bolder. She also suspects it to be a prelude to Mareitania's actual invasion. The forces from the Crystal Empire, as well as Mustangia have been positioned by Vanhoover along the land route, but Equestria's forces are still far from ready, so more time needs to be bought. That's our job."

"Besides," Fleetfoot grinned at Soarin, "with Luna leading the attack, what could go wrong?"

"Famous last words," Soarin grumbled. "I still think it's a mistake to attack like this, right after they attacked us."

"Noted and filed away for later consideration," Spitfire said, giving Soarin a sympathetic smile. "If it's worth anything, I really hope you're wrong."

"You and me both."

Soarin's concerns in mind, Spitfire turned to the assembled Wonderbolts, preparing to fill them in on events. It felt like a lot had changed since the morning, and yet the situation they were in had hardly changed at all.

"Good afternoon Wonderbolts. By now I'm sure that you've read the papers, or at least heard the news, and I'm here to inform you that most of it is true." Spitfire stopped as whispers started spreading amongst the assembled ponies, and waved them back into silence. "What the papers have wrong is that it was an intentional attack on Princess Celestia. It wasn't, and her involvement is purely poor timing."

"Told you," Rainbow whispered to Lightning.

"So any of you thinking of getting revenge for Celestia," Spitfire continued, missing Rainbow's small moment of triumph, "put it out of your mind. Celestia will make a full recovery within weeks, and doesn't need you being stupid for her. If you feel like avenging somepony, avenge the twenty two ponies that died when we next go to Mareitania, which will be sooner than you think."

"After this attack, Luna thinks that Mareitania is drawing closer to launching their invasion of Equestria, which only makes what we do even more important. Tomorrow, in conjunction with the Night Guard, we will be launching an attack against the facility in Stalliongrad producing Mareitania's tanks, as well as taking out the tanks there. It's hoped that by taking out this facility, their plans could be set back by weeks, buying us enough time to field enough ponies to mount an effective defence."

"For the most part, the Night Guard led by Princess Luna herself, will be carrying out the bulk of our objective, while we will be flying cover and hitting a few secondary targets around Stalliongrad. Each squadron will be briefed by your leader on your specific tasks during the mission during the trip to Mareitania on the Heavens Grace, which will be leaving in three hours. I want you all to be prepped well before then, but the time is more or less yours until we leave. Dismissed."

Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot left the room, leaving the rest of the Wonderbolts to talk amongst themselves about what little they heard. Some of them were less than impressed by that.

"Well that was the shortest briefing ever," Lightning said, leaning back in her seat between Vapor and Rainbow. "Hopefully the one Fire Streak gives us will actually tell us something."

"It feels to me like we're being left in the dark," Cloud Chaser said from Rainbow's left. "Maybe what they're asking us to do is way worse than the last time."

"Of course it is," said Lightning. "Last time was probably a test to see if we were up to it. Now we're going to have to step it up a bit, bring our A-games."

"Hey, no problem," Sky Stinger said confidently. "There isn't anything we can't do!"

Lightning sniggered at Sky, "What's the square root of sixty four, Sky?"

"What? What's that got to do with this?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing at all."

"Besides, it's sixteen, because you divide it by four, because a square has four sides."

Lightning raised an eyebrow at Sky, "I'm not sure whether to be disappointed that you got it wrong, or impressed that you can accurately divide sixty four into four. Whatever, let's go get our stuff ready. See ya later guys."

"See ya," Rainbow said back before turning to her wing mates. "We should go get our own stuff ready as well."

"Already have," Cloud Chaser said with a sly grin. "I'm so ready for this."

"Are you sure?" Thunderlane said with obvious concern. "I just thought you'd be a bit nervous after last time, after you got hurt."

"Oh heck no, I'm not backing down because of one mess up. I was declared fit ages ago, and I'm not going to make the same mistake again. This time they won't know what hit them."

Rainbow nodded in approval, "Damn right! This time is going to go way better than last time, I promise you. Especially if Princess Luna's going to be there as well."

"Exactly," agreed Cloud Chaser. "Stop being such a worrywart Thunderlane."

"Can you blame me? I just don't want to see you hurt again."

"I think we're in the wrong profession to be worrying about that." Cloud chastely kissed Thunderlane on the cheek, making him blush, "Your concern is appreciated though."


-0-0-0-


The journey over to Mareitania was very different this time compared to the first time. The first time was done by ponies who were apprehensive yet confident they would ace the whole thing. This time it was done by ponies who had seen the truth, and didn't like the way it looked.

Rainbow had again secluded herself after Fire Streak had finished his briefing. A, and B squadrons had been given the dubious honour of providing protection while the other squadrons hit the other targets around the city, including the steelworks. Luna herself was leading the attack on the tank factory with her Night Guard, as that was deemed the toughest target.

If Rainbow was honest with herself, she'd much rather be on one of the squadrons hitting a target, as her current assignment would be the most likely to bring her into a direct fight with the enemy, which she wasn't sure was something she actually wanted. Demolition sounded much more fun.

"Girding thyself Rainbow Dash?"

"Huh?" Rainbow looked back to see Luna standing behind her, her eyes soft as she smiled at Rainbow. "Oh! Uh, sorry Princess, I didn't hear you coming," Rainbow babbled, surprised to have one of the rulers of Equestria, and her military commander standing behind her. "Can I help you?"

"Calm yourself Rainbow, I only wish to enquire how you are. I haven't seen you since the unfortunate events that precipitated this whole situation we find ourselves in."

"Oh, uh... yeah," Rainbow said, not entirely sure what it was that Luna had said to her. "I guess I'm okay. Still trying to get used to the whole fighting thing."

"Ah yes, that. You're not the only one to struggle with that here, and you certainly aren't the only pony to ever do so. All I can say is that it gets easier. You aren't the only one of your friends that will have to get used to it though."

"You're talking about Twilight?"

"No actually. It is Pinkie Pie of whom I speak. She signed up to join the Equestrian army little more than a week ago, along with her sisters. I feel it only fair to inform you."

"What? No!" Rainbow shouted, taking Luna totally by surprise. "You have to take her out!"

"And why, pray tell, should I do that?"

Rainbow stared at Luna like she'd grown a second horn, "Because she could get hurt, that's why!"

"And how is that any different from yourself?"

"It- It-" Rainbow stumbled over her words, trying to find an argument that didn't sound like a childish outburst. "It just is, okay?" she said, failing utterly.

"I think you'll find that Pinkie has as much a right to fight to get her friends back, and protect Equestria, as you do."

"But Pinkie isn't like that! She can't fight, or kill!"

"Neither could you as of a few weeks ago," Luna said calmly. "Neither could Twilight until she was forced to. I'm afraid in times like these, the ponies we are, and want to be, are irrelevant to the ponies we need to be. I discussed Pinkie's joining of the military with my sister, and we agreed that she be allowed to fight."

"Argh! Great! So now all my friends are in danger, except for Twilight who knows how to fight better than any of us!"

"I think Twilight will find dangers a-plenty carrying out her vital task." Luna sighed as Rainbow turned from her in anger, hanging her hooves over the guardrail of the airship. "I apologise if this news has disheartened you Rainbow, but I only felt it fair to tell you."

"Because you need every soldier possible, I know."

"That isn't it at all Rainbow. One mere soldier isn't going to sway the outcome of a battle, so if it were simply that, I would keep Pinkie out of military affairs. However, that would only be unfair to Pinkie when she wants to do something to help end this and get her friends back, including yourself. I couldn't in good conscience deny her that." Luna watched silently as Rainbow continued to sulk, "I am sorry Rainbow Dash."

"It's fine, I get it." Rainbow said nothing else, and after a few awkward moments she heard Luna sigh and walk away. She wanted to feel bad about treating Luna that way, but the feeling never came. Instead she could only begin to see an inkling of the issues Twilight had with the rule of Equestria after her return from Mareitania. Admittedly, Twilight had saved those issues purely for Celestia, but Rainbow herself couldn't be bothered to make the distinction between Luna and Celestia when both of them wanted the same thing, and were willing to spend ponies lives to get it. Rainbow wanted that thing too, but she suspected her reasons were different than the two princesses' reasons. Perhaps Pinkie's were too.

A stab of guilt finally hit Rainbow. She had no idea why she felt this way, and what did it matter if Celestia and Luna had different reasons to fight as long as they all got what they wanted; a free and safe Equestria. "Aww, feathers." Rainbow turned to apologise to Luna, but the alicorn was long gone. Instead she resolved to do it later. And it would have to be later she observed as they passed over the mountains and into Mareitania.


-0-0-0-


Stalliongrad was not how Rainbow had imagined it. The way Twilight had described it in the few times she was willing to talk about it at all, had left Rainbow thinking of it as some giant walled bastion of unspeakable evil. Instead it appeared to be a large, circular city with a reasonably high wall around it. The evil of its inhabitants was still open to debate though, if the stories were true.

Rainbow looked down over the railing of the Heavens Grace as it slowly drifted closer to the city, its engines cut to silence their approach. Lights twinkled in the darkness as streetlights lit up the roads and alleyways of the city, and, well, it didn't look threatening in the slightest. Only Rainbow knowing that it was making deadly machines of war clued her in to the real threat it presented, otherwise it looked totally normal.

Brayside had looked normal. Rainbow shook her head, determined to not fall into that trap again.

Rainbow was pulled out of her thoughts as Cloud nudged her side and gestured up with her head towards the bow where Spitfire was stood, silently waiting for the right time. The whole thing was being done in silence, so as to not alert anypony below until the attack was well under way. Rainbow found it creepy, but wisely said nothing for reasons other than necessity.

She also wondered briefly where Luna was, but concluded that the Princess was likely below decks with the Night Guard. Rainbow had seen Luna earlier, wearing the same armour that she'd worn when she came to Ponyville after her friends had been kidnapped. Given the time to reflect on it, Luna, Rainbow concluded, was not a pony to mess with, and that was without seeing the two glaives Luna used to fight. Perhaps with Luna leading the attack, things might not go as bad as Rainbow was afraid they might.

Spitfire raised a hoof, then started waving it, signalling them to start taking off. Rainbow did so, jumping over the railing and catching herself on her wings. Immediately she felt in control of the situation, as she always did when she flew. As much as she loved her earth-bound friends, she always felt slightly useless when she wasn't flying. Not that she'd ever say that. Ever.

Rainbow banked left, following the lead of Fire Streak as their squadron escorted another to a textiles factory that was producing uniforms for the Mareitanian army. The other targets, besides the tank factory and steelworks, were a train depot where stream trains were built and kept, and a factory that produced steam powered machinery for use in factories and suchlike. Rainbow was a little iffy on that target, but could see enough wisdom in destroying it to not question it. They were also hitting these places at night to minimise civilian casualties, at least giving them the moral high ground over those that bombed the factory in Manehatten.

The Heavens Grace was already pretty small in the background as Fire Streak signalled them to circle around and keep an eye on things as the squadron they were escorting swooped down towards their target. The textiles factory was pretty out of the way compared of the rest of the targets, having no need to be close to the steelworks for supplies, which is why their squadron was covering the one destroying the factory. Again Rainbow wished she was doing that instead, even if to just put the bit of demolition training they'd received into practice.

"Anypony else feel like this is too easy?" Fast Clip, one of Fire Streak's wing ponies asked. "There's not even an alarm going up anywhere."

"That means it's all going to plan," Fire Streak said back. "Now cut the chatter."

They kept circling until the demolition squadron exited the factory and flew back up to their escorts. "Timer set for two minutes," their leader Wind Speed told Fire Streak. "Better get out of here if you don't want to feel it." 

"Good idea. Let's head back to the others..." Fire Streak trailed off as a piercing cry like an eagle's sounded in the distance, followed by another, and another, growing louder and more frequent until it was almost constant, when just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. "What the hell was that? That sounded like-!" An explosion boomed around the city, but it wasn't from any of their targets. "What is going on?"

"Sir!" Pizzelle shouted, suddenly panicked as she looked into the distance. "The Heavens Grace is on fire!"

"What!?" As they turned back towards the airship, a trail of flame arched up from the city, and collided against the airship's massive balloon, lighting up the area around with a flash that illuminated dozens of figures, half of them bigger than the others, flying around the airship in what appeared to be a vicious dogfight. Occasionally one of the figures would fall from the fight to the city below, confirming their fears that they were under attack.

Fire Streak was about to order that they head to the Heavens Grace when another eagle cry cut through the air, much louder than before, and from above. He had barely a moment to think about it when a griffon clad in mismatched armour swooped down with a sword in his claw that neatly removed most of the left wing of his wingpony Lime Jelly, who screamed as she fell, crashing with deadly force onto the rooftops below before he could even think to try and catch her. 

"Ambush!" Lightning shouted as Fire Streak stared dazedly after Lime Jelly. More griffons dived from above, their cries for blood deafening the Wonderbolts. "Scatter!"

Rainbow wasted no time in doing so as Fire Streak didn't seem to have the wits to order them to scatter himself, and only just managed to avoid getting cut down as another wave of a dozen griffons struck from above. Rainbow rolled left and dived, drawing her blades ready as a trio of griffons split off to come after her and her wing mates.

"We should go for the city Rainbow!" Thunderlane shouted. "We can probably out manoeuvre them in the streets!"

Rainbow quickly looked down at the streets, then back at the griffons, with their larger stature, heavier armour, and larger wingspan. She quickly concluded that Thunderlane was right, and shouted back her agreement before setting into a steep dive that quickly brought them down to street level where they put their size, manoeuvrability, and training into good use, flying through narrow streets, and around corners that the griffons simply couldn't handle.

There was no satisfaction in hearing the griffons cries of frustration though as they eluded their pursuers though, and Rainbow was simply relieved that they were getting away. She knew just what griffons were capable of, and the Wonderbolts' aerial combat training had been left a bit sparse in favour of attacking ground based and magic capable targets, meaning that there was a distinct possibility that the griffons could easily outmatch them. The rest of their squadron was still out there though, having to fight for their lives.

"I thought the griffons were staying out of this?" Cloud said as they stopped in dark street to catch their breath. "Why the hell are they here?"

"I don't know!" Rainbow said back, far more aggressively than she meant to. "I don- I- Argh! What the fuck are we supposed to do now?!"

"We can't stay down here forever," said Thunderlane. "I say we head back up and attack the griffons from below while they're distracted fighting the others."

"We should also go help defend the Heavens' Grace," Cloud added.

"I know, I know!" Rainbow reached up to rub her head, then remembered that not only was she wearing a helmet, but her rather sharp blades were still clipped to her hooves. "Fuck it. Let's go help our squadron, then go help the Heavens Grace. We'll hit the griffons hard from below like Thunderlane said. You ready?" Both Cloud Chaser and Thunderlane drew their blades to show their readiness, "Alright then, let's go!"

All three pegasi pushed themselves back into the air and back towards the rest of their squadron, who seemed to be having mixed odds in their fight. Most of them seemed intent on getting away from the griffons instead of fighting them, and the griffons seemed to be having trouble fighting an enemy that refused to sit still and fight back. None of them saw the three Wonderbolts coming from below.

Rainbow rolled onto her back as she rapidly approached a griffon hen that was chasing after one of the others, and sank her blades into the griffons chest, angling upwards from below the ribcage to avoid the griffon's armour. The griffon screamed in pain, and looked down at the pony attached to her chest before going limp and falling out of the air. Rainbow soon saw her mistake as the angle she attacked at made it difficult to pull her blades back out. She was far too close to the ground for her comfort by the time she did.

Another griffon fell to the ground as Rainbow pulled back up, meaning that either Cloud or Thunderlane had taken one out, increasing their odds even further. Rainbow flapped harder, trying to get back to them, swinging her blades at a griffon as she passed, scoring a lucky hit on his wings that sent him tumbling out of the sky. "That was for Lime you bastard!" Rainbow screamed after him, even if it wasn't the same griffon that had killed her.

Even with three griffons down, the fight was hardly won as their own squadron was scattered and disorganised. Lightning and her wing mates were nowhere to be seen, and the others were just flying scared, desperately trying to not get killed by an enemy they didn't really know how to fight. The only viable option Rainbow could see as she joined back up with Cloud and Thunder, was to take out a few more griffons, then try to reorganise the squadron into something that could put up a bit of a fight.

If there was one advantage to this fight, the griffons were too focused on their chosen targets to notice another of the Wonderbolts moving in to attack them. Rainbow used this to great effect on the griffons chasing after Meadow Flower, Pizzelle, and Sightseer, attacking them from above, plunging her blades into the lead griffon's neck while Cloud and Thunder took out their targets.

"You guys aren't dead!" Meadow Flower gasped as they stopped fleeing, their pursuers dropping to the ground far below. "We saw those griffons chasing you to the city and thought you were done for!"

"Not yet," Rainbow said, trying to sound confident, but not quite able to hear it in her own voice. "Look, we need to start fighting these griffons, so draw your blades and get ready."

"Incoming!" Thunderlane shouted. Rainbow looked up in time to see the three griffons that had chased them down to the city coming back for another try. One of them went down quickly to the combined efforts of Cloud and Pizzelle, the latter distracting the griffon while the former looped around and slashed her blade across the back of the griffon's neck hard enough to sever the spine.

The second griffon flew off after Sightseer, with Thunderlane giving chase, while the third went straight for Rainbow and Meadow Flower. He swung what looked like a cross between a sword and a spear at Meadow, striking her across her chest, then crashed into Rainbow before she could move to help, grappling her and hugging her to his chest, squeezing her hard enough to stop her breathing. "Time to die little pony."

As much as she struggled Rainbow couldn't break free. The griffon was simply too strong to break his hold, and the way he was holding her stopped Rainbow from getting her back legs up high enough to kick him off, while her blades scraped ineffectively over his armour. She fought for as long as she could, but her struggles lessened as darkness started creeping in around her vision. Then she was falling, the griffon having released her as a Wonderbolt slammed into his back, burying her blades deep.

Rainbow felt herself get caught, and as she started to regain her senses she realised that it was Lightning and Skystinger holding her. "You're alright! Wait, where's Vapor?"

"I'm here," Vapor said shakily, hovering nearby. She had her blades drawn, and they had blood on them, telling Rainbow more than enough. She caught Vapor's eye and gave her a nod, Vapor returning it after a moment.

"You alright Dash?"

Rainbow turned back to the pony that had saved her, finding it was Spitfire. "Y-yeah," she replied to Spitfire's enquiry. "Thanks for the save." Rainbow noticed Soarin nearby, a heavily bleeding Meadow Flower held in his hooves. "Is she alright?"

"She will be if we can get her help in time," said Spitfire. "We've taken out or chased off the griffons attacking you, but we really need to get back to the Heavens Grace. The Night Guard are putting up one hell of a fight, but we're outnumbered two to one, and we're suffering for it."

Rainbow pulled herself from Lightning's and Skystinger's grip, and saluted Spitfire, narrowly avoiding her head with her blade. "What are your orders ma'am?"

"Form up on me and get ready because we're going in hard."

Rainbow checked her bracers as she waited for the signal to attack, finding that they were still holding solidly even after the rough treatment she'd given them. 

"Are you really alright Rainbow?" Lightning asked, looking at Rainbow with concern.

"I'm sure I'll have plenty more opportunities to almost die before this is over." Rainbow had meant it jokingly, but the silence she got back told her it wasn't the right move. Thinking about it, it didn't feel like much of a joke. "What happened to you when the griffons attacked?" she asked to cover her awkwardness.

"I was going to follow you, but we had griffons on our tail, so I decided to fly to the airship in the hopes they'd kill the griffons chasing us. Surprisingly it worked. Then I convinced Spitfire to come back to help the rest of you."

"Good thinking. I was worried when I couldn't see you still up here."

"You guys are being super gay right now," Skystinger said to Rainbow and Lightning. "Seriously."

Rainbow looked around Skystinger to where Vapor was still hovering uncertainly, then shook her head at how oblivious he was being about his supposed best friend. She didn't get a chance to say anything on it though as Fleetfoot shouted a warning.

"Griffons headed this way!"

"This is it ponies!" Spitfire shouted. "We're going to fly straight through them and back to the Heavens' Grace. If you get a chance to take one out, do it, but don't risk yourselves until we get back to the main fight. Those carrying wounded, head straight for the ship, drop your ponies, and get back to the fight. Princess Luna will keep them safe. Now go-go-go!"

Rainbow swallowed nervously as the wave of griffons rapidly drew nearer, then met. Both groups were going far too fast to really do anything to the other as even in full armour, colliding at that speed could be deadly. Rainbow just focused on getting through to the other side and accelerated away from the griffons towards the airship where there was a considerably larger fight going on.

Thestrals, pegasi, and griffons zoomed about in a maddeningly confusing display of aerial acrobatics. The griffons were being the most aggressive of the flyers, while the thestrals concentrated on taking down isolated griffons. As for their own fight, the Wonderbolts here seemed more focused on surviving rather than fighting. It didn't look like they needed more fliers to add to it anyway, even though that's exactly what was happening as the arrowhead of Wonderbolts cut into the battle.

Rainbow dropped as a griffon swung a battle-axe at her, keeping herself well below the blade as one of the thestrals used the distraction to quickly take the griffon out. There wasn't much time to think about that as they flew into the melee proper.

The noise was incredible as metal rang against metal, griffons unleashed piercing cries, and thestrals answered with cries that transcended sound to become a physical force. There was also a strange, deep booming sound, that took Rainbow a while to work out was coming from a massive shield that Luna must have put up around the airship. With the Princess distracted with that she was likely unable to fight.

There wasn't any time to dwell on it though. Flying through the battle was like flying through a storm full of razorblades, with most of Rainbow's efforts going into dodging and weaving instead of attacking. That seemed to be the same for most of them though, as hardly anypony around her got a hit in, being far too busy with not getting hit themselves.

Rainbow growled in frustration. In a matter of minutes this whole situation had gone seriously sideways. They were supposed to destroy their targets and leave, nothing more. None of that suggested the possibility of getting into a giant fight with griffons of all things. And now she felt useless as ponies got hurt all around her.

Rainbow snarled and roll out of formation, aiming for a griffon hen that was fighting claw to hoof with a thestral. She charged in, barely even bothering to slow down, and plunged her blades into the neck of the griffon, avoiding her armour. Or at least she almost did. Rainbow's right bracer caught on something as she and the griffon fell, and Rainbow had to brace herself against the griffon's chest and push before coming free with a tearing of cloth. Rainbow took a moment to recuperate, nothing a neckerchief made of black cloth had become trapped in her bracer, and it didn't want to come out.

"What the hell are you doing Rainbow?" Thunderlane demanded to know as he and Cloud chased after her, then dragged her back into motion before any griffons could catch up. "You know you don't fly off on your own like that!"

"I'm sorry, but this is really stupid! How is anypony, or griffon, supposed to win if we're all just avoiding each other all the time?" All of them flinched as the shield around the airship boomed as it was struck again. Not that it mattered much as the shield filled up with smoke from the burning vessel.

"The only thing that could turn this fight now is Princess Luna," said Cloud. "We'll lose the ship and everypony on it if she does that though. We need to get out of here."

"Retreat? Are kidding me? We can beat them if we just try harder!"

"D and E squadrons are almost gone Rainbow!" Thunderlane shouted angrily. "We've lost two, unless Meadow pulls through, and I bet C squadron's lost ponies as well. Fuck knows how many thestrals have been killed, and the Heavens Grace is pretty much lost. We lost Rainbow. We lost bad."

"But..." Rainbow didn't get their point. The griffons weren't that tough, were they? Her wing alone had taken out over half a dozen at least. Unless they'd got lucky in their ambushes, while everypony else was just trying to stay alive.

Before Rainbow could follow her thoughts through to their conclusion, the shield around the airship collapsed with a force that sent anyone close enough tumbling through the air. A series of smaller shields then formed, carrying two dozen ponies, either wounded or non-pegasi, away from the burning wreck. Blasts of magic flew out from beside the shield, picking off a couple of griffons as Luna manoeuvred her shielded ponies to safety.

"Retreat!" Luna shouted in the royal Canterlot voice, being heard for miles around, "Retreat to Equestria!"

A mad scramble started as ponies started to flee the battle, and as the two forces started to separate Rainbow saw what she couldn't before; there were a lot more griffons than there were ponies, and a significantly smaller number of ponies than there was originally. They had lost badly.

Rainbow led her wing up in an arc that re-joined them with the rest of the Wonderbolts as Luna flew amongst them. "Take the orbs," she commanded. "There is one last thing I must do." Rainbow kept to the side as others started pushing the orbs containing ponies away from the battle. She wanted to see what Luna was going to do. She was very surprised when Luna started attacking the airship, riddling the envelope with holes, and cutting through the lines connecting the gondola to the balloon.

The two sections separated, and a blue glow took hold of the gondola as the envelope shot upwards, now unencumbered by the weight it normally carried. A second later Luna threw the gondola at their original target, the tank factory, then shot at a few griffons before teleporting away back to the retreating Equestrians.

Rainbow watched as the massive hull raced through the air, utterly unstoppable, and smashed through the roof of the factory, destroying both itself and much of the factory. She did wonder why Luna would risk destroying the ship like that, but soon realised that destroying it was much better than letting the Mareitanians get it, and at the very least the factory was significantly damaged.

It was hardly mission accomplished though as they fled as fast as they could.


-0-0-0-


The griffons soon gave up trying to chase after the retreating ponies after Luna proved that magic bridged a huge gap in airborne battles. That left the Equestrians with a few hundred demoralising miles left to fly. Luna guided them north to the only land route as getting exhausted with no place to land would only lead to more unnecessary losses. The fact that plenty of ponies there looked like they were fine with that fact was irrelevant.

"Get the fuck off me!" Rainbow cursed, shouting at the blade that was stuck on her hoof. The cloth stuck in her bracer was jamming the release mechanism, and the added frustration was pushing Rainbow over the edge when she already wanted nothing more than to throw her gear away and feel the soothing chill of the wind over her body. "Rrgh!"

"Calm yourself Rainbow," Luna said, her attention drawn by Rainbow's shouts. She pulled the blade free of its bracer, and sheathed it as she pulled the cloth free. "I hear you did well today Rainbow. You alone killed four griffons, while many failed to kill one."

"If I'd done well, we'd have won," Rainbow growled. "Where'd those griffons even come from? Does this mean the griffons have joined Mareitania?"

Luna unfolded the black cloth she'd pulled from Rainbow's bracer, revealing a small symbol. She held it up in front of Rainbow, "Do you know what that symbol is?"

Rainbow squinted at the symbol that was embroidered onto the cloth. It was a fan of three brown feathers, their ends covered in blood. She'd never seen it before. "I have no idea what that is."

"It is the symbol of the Bloodfeathers, a mercenary group associated with neither Griffonstone, or the Griffon Empire. They tend to operate in the far south in the more lawless regions of the world where a mercenary army can always find work. It seems that they have come into the employ of Faust now."

"But, how?"

"How indeed?" Luna sighed and tucked the cloth into her armour. "There is many a question I wish to have answered once I return to Canterlot. I wish I had more to give you Rainbow, but I know not these things myself. Instead I suggest you tend to your friends."

"Is Meadow Flower going to be alright?" Both of them looked at the pink and blonde mare in one of Luna's bubbles. She was unconscious, and her breathing was shallow.

"If she can hold on until we make it to the blockade, she should survive, but until then I shall make no promises. I am sorry Rainbow Dash."

"Yeah, me too," Rainbow said listlessly before drifting back towards her friends. Cloud hugged herself as she flew, while Thunderlane just seemed to be in his own world now the fight was over. Lightning, Skystinger, and Vapor flew nearby as well, to two former flying each side of the latter as she cried softly.

"How you doing Rainbow?" Cloud asked as she noticed Rainbow's return.

"I want to say I'm fine, but we both know that'd be a massive lie. What about you though? Are you okay after, y'know, killing?"

Cloud was silent for several seconds before sighing guiltily. "I want to say no, but I'm more shaken by the fight than anything. I know this probably sounds really specist, but I don't think I'm as bothered by the killing because- because-"

"Because they weren't ponies?"

"Yeah. Is that wrong?"

"Maybe? I don't know. I think I'm too angry at them being there to care that I killed four of them."

"You know we got lucky, right?" Thunderlane said unexpectedly. "If we hadn't ambushed them, we probably wouldn't have been able to get any of them."

"Then how do we beat them?" Rainbow asked back to what Thunderlane said. All of them looked up as Spitfire flew over.

"You don't," she answered for them. "Historically speaking, most aerial battles tend to go like the one we just had, with two sides whittling each other down until one gives up. If the griffons are going to be involved in the fighting, the most we can do is distract them while our ground forces do their thing. You guys did well today, just so you know."

"But we lost!" Rainbow said, exasperated at hearing the same thing from Spitfire that she did from Luna.

"Don't let our defeat sell short your performance. I will say you were pretty reckless at times, from what I saw, but I'm afraid I don't feel like arguing with results right now. Speed and agility are the only advantages we really have over griffons in this case, and sometimes you really need to push your advantages." Spitfire frowned as Vapor sniffled, "You alright there Vapor?"

"Y-yes ma'am."

"First kill?" Vapor nodded listlessly. "Yeah, that's always tough, and so is losing ponies. I can get you somepony to talk to once we get back to base?"

"I-uh, I'll think about it. What's going to happen to all the ponies we left behind?"

Spitfire looked down to the ground, not really wanting to answer. "We'll inform their families, but that's all we can really do apart from hope the Mareitanians treat our dead with respect." What Spitfire didn't have the heart to say was that considering the Mareitanians history with pegasi, that seemed more than a little unlikely.

"That's horrible!" gasped Cloud.

"I wish we could do better for them," Spitfire sighed, "but we can only deal with the fact that we couldn't bring them with us. Believe me, I already feel like I failed them enough. I never prepared any of you for aerial fighting."

"And what's going to happen to D and E squadrons?" Skystinger asked.

Spitfire winced at Skystinger's question. D and E squadrons had bore the brunt of the griffons ambush, and had lost over half their members in the first minute of the battle, and took more casualties in that time than the Wonderbolts had ever lost in their entire history up to that point. At the moment they didn't even have enough ponies left to build a squadron between them.

"Forget that," said Lightning. "What about us? Are we going to be expected to go back there knowing there's hundreds of griffons waiting for us?"

"I... don't know. Let's just focus on getting back to Equestria before anything else. Once we're there we can worry about the other stuff. We will definitely be training in aerial combat though, if griffons are going to be involved in the war. I wish I could talk more guys, but I have plenty of others I need to talk to as well. Are you all at least okay for now?" Spitfire waited until she got a nod from all of them. "Okay, good. Just try to focus on flying for now."

"Easier said than done," Cloud said as Spitfire flew over to Pizzelle and Sightseer, Meadow Flower's wingmates.


-0-0-0-


Hours passed, and the distance to their destination grew shorter, although it was still far too long for some of them. "Meadow Flower's gone," Thunderlane said quietly, watching the medic give up the fight to save her.

Rainbow closed her eyes and sighed as the others either cursed or cried. The cries of Meadow Flower's wing mates could be heard not too far away. "This is so fucked up. I should've gone with Twilight, I should've-" Rainbow pulled her helmet off and wiped her eyes, "Fuck! We're miles from Mareitania and they're still killing us!"

"Rainbow," Lightning warned. "Stop, please."

"No, I'm not going to stop! How could those griffons do this? Just kill so many of us, and for what? A few bits, or whatever it is they use?"

"We killed plenty of them as well."

"Not enough! We're just trying to defend our country, but those griffons killed us for money! Doesn't that make you sick? To think that our lives, and their own, hold so little value to them that they'll fight and kill for money?"

"Yes," Lightning said as calmly as she could, "but why they do it doesn't change anything, so stop shouting, please; ponies are trying to hold it together, and they don't need what you're doing."

"But-" Rainbow groaned and slumped, almost dropping her helmet. "I don't know what to do Lightning. I don't even know how I'm supposed to feel about this, and that just makes me angrier."

"I get it Dash, I do, and I'm telling you now, the next time we meet griffons, hopefully we're going to be ready for them."


-0-0-0-


Nopony got in the way as Luna stormed through Canterlot castle, a scrap of black cloth held in her magic as she made her way to the one individual she felt could shed some light on their new situation. 

Luna burst into the private quarters of the griffon ambassador where the ambassador herself was sitting quietly at her desk, writing a letter until Luna burst through the door and slammed the neckerchief she took from Rainbow down on the desk in front of her. "What is the meaning of this?" Deetra squawked, both shocked and terrified by the sudden intrusion by the livid alicorn.

"Did you know?!"

"Know what?"

Luna slammed her hoof on the scarf, "About this! Griffon mercenaries ambushed us in Mareitania, and I want to know if you knew about it!"

Deetra peered at the symbol on the scarf, "Bloodfeathers?"

"I know the Emperor likes to keep tabs on these groups, in case they ever get used against him, so if anyone would know about the Mareitanians hiring them, it would be you. So I'll ask again, as calmly as I can despite the fact that they killed forty-three of my thestrals, and sixteen Wonderbolts, did you know they were there?"

"No, of course not! Last I heard a month ago, the Bloodfeathers were being employed to expand the frontier in the far south around Abyssinia. They weren't even in the same hemisphere as us, so I have no idea how they ended up in Mareitania."

"Then would you care to hazard a guess as to how a country that shouldn't even know the Bloodfeathers exist, let alone where to find them, managed to employ them to fight?"

"There are dozens of mercenary groups in the world Princess, and I don't find it unreasonable to suggest that they could have put the Mareitanians in touch with the Bloodfeathers. All I can really say is that whoever did it really has something against Equestria."

Luna narrowed her eyes at the ambassador, "Someone like the Emperor for example?"

"No, he wouldn't, I can assure you of that. He hates the Bloodfeathers far more than he hates Equestria."

"And why should I believe that?"

"If you're looking for proof, I can provide none. What I can give you is a promise that our intelligence service will look into whoever it is that got the Bloodfeathers and Mareitanians in contact."

"That same intelligence service that failed to realise and inform us that a thousand griffon mercenaries turned up in Mareitania?"

"I realise you're angry and want someone to blame Princess, but you're looking at the wrong griffon. I'd like to remind you that your own reconnaissance failed to discover the presence of the Bloodfeathers as well. Now I promise you I will do my best to find the culprit behind the Bloodfeathers being in Mareitania, but that's all I can help you with I'm afraid."

Luna relented, not unwilling to believe that the ambassador might actually be telling the truth, and without proof Luna had nothing to accuse the Griffon Empire with anyway. At the very least they might be able to find who was behind the Bloodfeathers employment.

"Very well, I thank you for your understanding of my frustration, and I hope your investigations turn up something quick. In the meantime, I have somepony I have to meet with. Good day."

"Good day, Princess," Deetra said, a little bewildered by what had just happened. She picked the scarf up in a claw and looked closer at the symbol. As much as Luna might insist otherwise, she genuinely had no idea the Bloodfeathers had become involved. She could only hope that she was correct in her assertions that any griffons in the Empire weren't involved either.


-0-0-0-


It had been a long time since Luna had felt the rage she was feeling now, and the feeling simmered beneath the surface as she made her way to one of the many meeting rooms where she'd arranged to meet with somepony that might be able to help. It was therefore a great relief to her that the pony had answered the summons, especially at such short notice.

"Thank you for coming so quick," she said to the white coated and blue maned pegasus before her. "I was worried you wouldn't come at all since none of you volunteered to fight."

Windy Rush leaned forwards and smiled at Luna. "No problem at all 'Selene.' You had my interest the moment you said you wanted us to fight Mareitania. Besides, we have an interest in protecting Equestria as well now, and we'd rather die than see it become another Mareitania."

"How many of the other Mareitanian pegasi are willing to fight?"

"Plenty. Trust me about that."
> 18. Cleanup
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Another griffon flight just went over," Rocky said, peering out of the window of the train carrying him and his companions to Stalliongrad. "This country suddenly got a lot more interesting very quickly."

"I just want to know how many griffons there are," Crème said back. "I've not really paid attention to groups like the Bloodfeathers, and have no idea if they're a thousand strong, or two thousand... five thousand?"

Tootsie looked up momentarily from studying the map of Mareitania they'd been provided with before arriving in the country, "I thought they tended to recruit as they needed, don't they? Luring young griffons in with promises of wealth and adventure? Plays havoc with the Griffon Empire's national service if I remember correctly."

"I doubt that's the reason the Emperor doesn't like them though," Rocky said, lowering his voice as a pony walked past. "He does sound like one to take offense at anything though."

"The Emperor doesn't like them because he employed them once," Bon Bon said, breaking her silence. "Then when he tried to stiff them for the rest of their payment they kidnapped his son to ransom him for the money. Then when he finally paid, his son went joined the Bloodfeathers."

"Wait, you mean the Emperor's son is likely here in Mareitania?" Crème said in disbelief. "That sounds like the beginning of a political nightmare."

"If the Emperor hadn't disowned said son," Tootsie said flatly. "Don't you remember the big hoo-haa from a few years back when the Emperor broke the line of succession by naming his youngest daughter as the heir to the throne?"

"Can't say I do. I sort of shut myself off from the world for a while after Smile collapsed. After the bugbear incident..." Crème smiled tightly, "I was still smarting pretty hard from that."

"I think we all were," said Rocky. "It's all in the past now though, so we should focus on what we're doing now. Speaking of, Bon Bon?"

Bon Bon looked both ways up and down the isle to check that nopony was coming before saying what their objective was. "Demolition op. We're going to do what the entirety of the Night Guard and Wonderbolts couldn't."

"Oh, well that sounds easy," Rocky said sarcastically. "Especially since there's only four of us and our bare hooves."

"Griffon Intelligence is making a drop on behalf of Equis, containing everything we could need to complete our mission. We're to meet with them outside the city tonight."

"Outside the city where?" Tootsie asked.

"At the tank factory that was destroyed during the civil war. Apparently it's been abandoned ever since." Bon Bon put the tip of a hoof on Tootsie's map where the destroyed factory was located. "It's only a couple of miles away from Stalliongrad, so it shouldn't take long to get there. It's also the easy part."

"This sounds promising," sighed Crème.

"While the attack to destroy the tank factory was a failure, Princess Luna did throw the hull of a massive airship through it, damaging it heavily. Because of this there's likely to be an even heavier guard presence, and makes our mission more important because we also need to destroy any remains of the airship before the Mareitanians can learn anything from it."

"So we're going to be making a fireworks show to remember?" Rocky asked, brightening up considerably.

Bon Bon grinned back at him, "We'll be making a fireworks show they couldn't possibly forget, no matter how hard they try."


-0-0-0-


Tootsie let out a low whistle as they came up to the destroyed factory where they were picking up their supply drop. "Princess Twilight really did a number on this place," she said, looking at the collapsed chimneys, twisted metal, and burnt out remains of the factory. "It's almost terrifying what an alicorn can do when they're in the right mood."

"Or the wrong one," Crème said darkly as she noticed the rotted and half buried remains of a pony. "I can't believe they never came back to this place to clean up."

"Maybe it never occurred to the rebels to want to come back here since they had the pony that designed all this anyway," said Tootsie. She jumped up onto the broken remains of a chimney and steadied herself as the rubble shifted. "Unless you meant the Duke's forces, in which case I guess they simply didn't care."

"Getting utterly thrashed does have a way of straightening your priorities," Rocky agreed. "Who cares anyway? I just want to get out of here 'cause this place gives me the creeps. How long until the griffon gets here Chief?"

Bon Bon looked up at the sky and shrugged, "Heck if I know. It's not like flying is an exact science. Fleur said to be here around mid-afternoon, and we are, so that's all we can do."

"What if they got caught on the way here?" Crème asked nervously. "It's not like we can pull this mission off without that gear."

"We'd find a way," said Bon Bon. "Maybe we could steal explosives from the quarry north of Stalliongrad or something... " Bon Bon found herself short of words as she looked up at a wave of magic that swept through the sky, obliterating the clouds that had been omnipresent over the country since they had arrived, and leaving a clear and sunny sky. "What the fuck?"

"Well that can't be good," Rocky said quietly.

Tootsie swallowed as her eyes followed the wave of magic as it passed over them, "It would appear that the alicorn Faust has regained the use of her magic."

Bon Bon nodded vaguely, suddenly appreciating the power that Faust had been described as having. "Crème, get on the speaker stone to Fleur and tell her what we just saw. Now."

"Yeah," Crème said dazedly, before shaking it off and complying with Bon Bon's order. "I didn't even know that was possible."

"A whole new plethora of spells are probably opened up to you when you have that kind of power," said Tootsie. "This is bad. Like, really, really bad."

Bon Bon stamped a hoof at Tootsie's words, "Faust isn't our problem, so stop thinking about it. Only worry about it if the princesses can't stop her, in which case, we've lost anyway."

"Griffon at four o'clock," Rocky shouted as he spotted a laden griffon wobbling through the air towards them. "Wait, if he was flying over the city, why are we meeting here?"

Bon Bon ignored Rocky as the griffon came in to land roughly on the emptiest patch of factory floor he could find, and slid off the box that was strapped to his back. "Pleasant flight?" she asked, waiting for the counter reply. She also noticed he was wearing mismatched armour, and had twin daggers sheathed to his legs earth pony style, with the hilts pointing downward.

"What the fucking hell was that big magic thing?" the griffon gasped breathlessly.

"I said, pleasant flight?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, the weather were perfect," the griffon said as sarcastically as possible. "Now seriously, what the fuck were that?"

"That's was weather management Faust style," Bon Bon replied. "Now why are you dressed like a Bloodfeather? It's making me a bit nervous."

"Nah, I'm definitely with G.I. We're running our own op here for a little bit, trying ta find out why the Bloodfeathers are fighting for Mareitania."

"Oh? It's nothing to do with the Empire then?"

"Not in the slightest, now quit askin' 'cause I probably told you too much already."

"Are you sure it wasn't elements within the Empire that have an interest in seeing Equestria fall?"

"I. Don't. Know. Quit asking." The griffon growled and ruffled his feathers, "It's already bad enough that I'm having to be a glorified delivery boy without you delving into G.I operations. What's even in that box?"

"High powered explosives hopefully," Tootsie said as she pulled the crate open. Then she squealed happily, "With radio detonators! They're spoiling us! They even gave us short range communicators as well. Best Hearthswarming ever!"

"Just don't," Rocky said to the griffon as he gawped blankly at Tootsie. "She's really into this stuff."

"Riiiiight... anyway, is there anything you want to tell me for my own safety?"

"Not sure we're at liberty to say," Bon Bon said smoothly. "However, we advise you to avoid being around the tank factory tonight."

"For how long?"

"Up until the point there isn't a tank factory to go back to."

"Y'know, you ponies can be a lot less cute than you look."

"Ooooh," Rocky hissed. "Now, a pony can call another pony cute, but when a non-pony does it, it's kinda... y'know, not cool."

The griffon snorted a laugh, "Yeah, you can fuck right off with that crap. You ain't fooling nobody. Anyway, I better be off, so good luck with your crazy demo mission."

"And good luck with yours," Bon Bon said before the griffon took off. She watched him go for a while, then turned back to Tootsie, who was still grinning broadly. "Any other toys in there?"

Tootsie smiled a little wider and pulled a quartet of sleek back suits out of the box, "They gave us back our suits." She held one up to her nose and breathed deeply, "Aah... they still smell the same."

"I fucking hate those bloody gimp suits," Rocky grumbled quietly.

"And I never understood why," Tootsie said back.

"That's because you're not a stallion. All you get is a small case of camel toe, which is great, don't get me wrong, but not worth what it does to my own bits."


-0-0-0-


Bon Bon laid back in her hiding spot, flexing her right hoof back and forth, activating the spring loaded dagger that was strapped on there, making sure it still worked after how long it hadn't been used.


Shink.


Bon Bon uncurled her hoof, and the dagger slid back inside its housing. Originally designed with the intention of being able to punch through both the chitin of a changeling, along with what armour it might be wearing, she was sure the blade wouldn't have any problems with ponies and their armour.

If Lyra ever learnt the whole truth about me... Bon Bon sighed and pushed the thought away, and pressed a hoof to the small device hooked around her left ear, activating its microphone. "Check in please."

"Tootsie ready to go."

"Rocky is a go."

"Crème ready."

Bon Bon nodded with satisfaction as her teammates checked in, then looked at her watch. "Okay, it's coming up to twenty to one now. I'm giving us an hour to do this, which is well before the next shift change. If you have any complications, get in touch, and we'll try to sort it out."

"How deadly are we allowed to be?" Rocky asked.

"As deadly as you want. Anypony still alive in the area is only going to get caught in the explosion anyway. Just pick your fights wisely, and try not to get caught." Bon Bon held up her watch and kept and eye on it as it counted down the last minute until twenty to one. "And we're a-go. See you back at the rendezvous."
-+
Bon Bon clicked the microphone back off, and heard the clicks of the others as they did the same. Then she stood, grabbed hold of the secured grapple in her hoof, and dropped backwards off the roof of the building she was on, rappelling swiftly down to the ground where she swiftly tugged three times on the rope, causing the grapple to go loose so she could pull it down after her. She'd always hated those things, as she never trusted when the intuitive spell woven into them to go off at the wrong time.

Her rope and grapple secured, she slipped across the street to the boundary wall of the factory while keeping an eye out for any guards. There seemed to be very few around the factory, and their daytime scouting had shown that most of the forces they'd brought to the city had either departed again, or were being used to patrol the entire city, instead of just the factory, which made things easier. There was also very few griffons, which helped even more since the sharp eyed griffons could spot her a lot easier than a pony could.

The coast appearing to be clear, Bon Bon backed off a dozen meters, then sprinted at the wall before jumping up and using her momentum to run up the wall far enough to hook a hoof over the edge and pull herself up on top. There were short spikes atop the wall, but were spaced out enough to not be a problem as she jumped down on the inside, keeping to the shadows.

The rear end of the Heavens Grace sat on the ground to the side of the factory, having broken off after impact  while the rest of the ship sat lodged awkwardly inside the factory at a roughly forty five degree angle. Bon Bon wasn't the kind of pony to question the princesses, but couldn't Luna have seen fit to set the vessel on fire before she lobbed it at the factory? It would have negated at lot of the destruction work Bon Bon needed to carry out since she was in charge of making sure the airship was destroyed.

The sound of two voices coming closer made Bon Bon freeze, and she pressed herself deeper into the shadows as they came around the side of the factory towards her, a mare and a stallion, whom idly chatted back and forth as they patrolled.

"I'm telling you, those griffons are weird," said the stallion. "I'm not sure what possessed the Council to employ them."

"Thank the Lady they did though, right? Those fucking pegasi could do anything to us, and there was hardly a thing we could do to them."

"I guess, but why are we so in favour of griffons though? They're basically smart birds with cats asses, and that's it. My problem with them is that they have no loyalty to our cause, or any cause. All they do is fight for money, so what happens if Equestria makes a better offer?"

"They wouldn't do that," said the mare. "Surely once they see the reasons we fight, they'll want to fight as well."

"Or they won't have a choice once the brainwashing sets in," Bon Bon mumbled to herself once the two guards had moved on. Fanatical griffons was not something Bon Bon was keen to see in action, not when that same bloody-mindedness that went into acquiring riches was put into something else. 

With the coast now clear, Bon Bon cautiously walked over to the broken off end of the airship, and slipped in through its opening, thankfully finding it deserted. It only took a minute to find a couple of suitable spots to place some explosives that should hopefully destroy it entirely. That done, Bon Bon put some thought into destroying the rest of it. Mostly in how to get up to it.

It didn't take long to conclude that the only way to do that was from inside the factory, so Bon Bon exited the fallen section of airship, and studied the outside of the factory for an unguarded way in. There were plenty of smashed out windows offering a way in, so she picked one a few floors above the ground, and tossed her grapple up to it before quickly climbing up.

There was a metal walkway inside the window which Bon Bon dropped onto, keeping her hoofsteps as light as possible to reduce the noise. As she'd thought, the front of the Heavens Grace reached the floor, although the very end was mostly smashed. It should be easy enough to get inside it from the ground, plant the explosives, and get back out again.

A quick flash of movement caught Bon Bon's eye, and she turned her head enough to catch the sight of Tootsie grab a guard from behind and bury her blade under his chin and into his brain, quickly silencing him. She dragged the body into the dark she'd been hiding in, then crept out to plant some explosives under the workbenches there.

Bon Bon smiled briefly, glad to see her team hadn't lost their edge over the last few years. Then she set her mind back to the task, and started walking around the walkway until she found some stairs leading down.

The factory floor was a mess of scaffolds, components, and half built machines, providing plenty of cover to sneak through towards the remains of the airship. Bon Bon stopped as a guard passed in front of her, idly humming to herself and not paying a massive amount of attention to her surroundings. Bon Bon was about to let her pass, then thought that the mare stood a chance of running into one of her teammates, and decided that a dead mare saw nothing. One alarm, and this was over.

Bon Bon kept low as she crept swiftly towards the mare, staying right behind her until the last moment, all while keeping an eye out for further guards. None came, so Bon Bon jumped forwards alongside the mare and thrust her weapon up under the mares chin. She flexed her hoof, shooting the blade out and killing the mare before she could make so much as a noise, then caught the body as it fell, pulling it sideways and hiding it in the hollow structure of a half built tank.

The coast remained clear for the rest of the distance to her destination, although she did see Crème planting some explosives around the foundry at the far end of the factory, the area suspiciously clear of guards. Bon Bon shrugged and carried on to the end of the airship touching the ground, a lot of which had been cut away to allow easy access, something that Bon Bon made happy use of.

Ropes had been set up down the central corridor of the airship, and thin strips of wood nailed to the floor, making it easier for ponies to traverse the steep floor made of lacquered wood. It also confirmed Equis's worst fear about the stranded airship in that the Mareitanians might try to copy it, either entirely, or to make smaller designs. Without the magic to negate the weight of the gondola, something this size would never fly, assuming that the Mareitanians could find the right way to construct and inflate the envelope. However, that didn't mean that other designs couldn't be based off of what they had conveniently sitting here.

As if she needed further proof of the Mareitanians intentions of the airship, Bon Bon found surveying equipment in some of the rooms she went in as she planted her explosives, left overnight to be picked back up the next morning. She was highly tempted to mess with it, but soon thought of how pointless that would be once they set the explosives off.

Bon Bon kept going until she reached the highest point of the airship, and she could see the night sky beyond. She could also see a griffon nestled in the end, curled up sleeping. Bon Bon didn't want to take a chance on it waking as she worked, so she crept up beside it, held her weapon next to its head, and curled her hoof, shooting the blade out, and killing the griffon without disturbing it. Not a move she was proud of, but one that was necessary.

The coast once again clear, Bon Bon planted the remainder of her explosives, and started the journey back down through the gondola. She exited through the cut open end, and looked left, seeing a raised room at the end of the factory that she assumed was some overseers' office. Not remarkable in itself, but there were candles lit inside the room, and a guard posted at the top of the stairs outside the door. That alone made it worthy of investigating. Even more so since there was still plenty of time on the clock.

Keeping low, and moving from cover to cover, Bon Bon made her way closer to the office. The bored looking stallion standing guard hadn't so much as twitched a muscle the entire time, and Bon Bon wondered if he'd actually managed to fall asleep while standing up. The theory didn't hold though as she reached the bottom of the metal stairs and tapped a hoof on them before hiding. As she expected, the guard looked over to investigate.

"Who's there? If that was you again Dale, this shit ain't funny." Bon Bon stayed quiet, and the stallion snorted as he returned to his position. "Fucking assholes."

Bon Bon frowned quietly, unsure of how she was supposed get up the stairs and into the office without being spotted. She needed to take the guard out, but that was hard to do without getting spotted either. She sat there for a minute until she saw Rocky across the factory, hiding in the shadow from the airship's hull. She clicked on her microphone and very quietly whispered into it, "Rocky?"

It was a few moments until she got an answer, but eventually she heard a click, then Rocky himself. "Yeah?"

"Do you see the office at the end of the factory, by the main entrance?"

Another moment. "Yeah, I see it. Guard standing outside the door?"

"That's the one. I'm underneath the stairs, and I need to take the guard out. Any chance you can come over here and help me?"

"Sure, I was about to plant my last explosives and  head out anyway. Give me a minute, and I'll be right there."

"Save one for the office."

"Can do."

Another click came over the radio, and Bon Bon clicked her own off and waited. She didn't see Rocky do anything, and was a little surprised when he appeared almost next to her. He gave her a friendly nod, then held up his remaining bomb for Bon Bon, who pushed it away, then pointed under the office, gesturing for him to plant it there.

He did as Bon Bon directed, pulling the strip of the package and sticking to the underneath of the office, then pressed a box with two gems in, and waited for one to turn green. That done, he returned to Bon Bon, who gestured for him to pick her up and lift her so she could reach the landing before the second flight of stairs leading to the office's door. It was also behind the guard where he hopefully wouldn't see them until too late.

Rocky crouched down, letting Bon Bon jump up onto his back, before standing and raising Bon Bon enough so she could grab the stairs and pull herself up. She crept up them slowly, thanking the small amount of padding the suits gave them on their hooves to reduce noise, and very quietly raised her right hoof so it was behind the stallions head, the blade pointed between where the neck armour and helmet met. Then she flexed her hoof.

The guard started to fall forwards, but Bon Bon grabbed him before he could fall off the stairs and draw attention. Where she was standing was already exposed enough without having him fall off the stairs in full armour, so stopping him was a priority, followed by propping him up against the wall so he at least looked like still doing his job.

"You okay?" Rocky whispered after a few moments of quiet clattering as Bon Bon tried to get the guard to sit and remain mostly upright.

"I'm fine," she grunted back. She finally got the guard in a halfway decent position, then moved back so she could see Rocky. "Stay out here and radio me if anything changes."

"Gotcha. Still don't know why we're doing this though, since we're blowing this place to pieces anyway?"

"Just-" Bon Bon couldn't deny that she had no real idea why she was doing this either. Sating her curiosity would hardly stand up to scrutiny as a reason, yet that was exactly what she was doing. It was no loss if it was nothing, so that had been enough reason to think 'why not?' "Just stay there. I'll be back soon."

The door opened with a low squeak, and released a waft of air that smelled mostly of candle smoke, which led Bon Bon to wonder if any ponies within were trying to kill themselves through smoke inhalation. Bon Bon poked her head in through the door, finding a single pony within, a pale yellow earth pony mare, who was slumped over the desk at the far end of the room. She was still breathing though, so if it was an attempt at self annihilation, it had failed.

Bon Bon ignored the sleeping pony for now, choosing to focus on all the sketches of the airship gondola, with cross-sections and all the other things that went on with this sort of thing. Bon Bon wasn't an expert, and made no claims to be. Tootsie would probably have been right at home though. All Bon Bon could get from it was that the Mareitanians had taken a strong interest in the remains of the Heavens Grace.

Bon Bon studied the drawings a little longer, but getting nothing from them she decided to move on. They'd be destroyed when the factory blew, so that wasn't an issue. Instead, Bon Bon decided to face the burning question of who the mare in the room was. She wasn't in a uniform, so there was no telling who she was, other than the mare making these designs. She did match the description of a pony that was given in their briefing. A very important pony in the Mareitanian government, whom Bon Bon was sure would be greatly missed for her technical knowhow rather than as a living, breathing pony.

It took Bon Bon several seconds of internal debate over whether to kill the mare, leave her to the bombs, or to wake her and ask some very pointed questions. She theorised that again she had nothing to lose by saying hello.

Bon Bon positioned herself ready to drop her weight on the mare in a way that would clamp her muzzle down against the desk, since she was like that already, stopping her from shouting. The last thing she needed was to get caught in the middle of an already unnecessary endeavour.

Bon Bon dropped on the mare, her left leg pressing down on the mare's muzzle, while her right leg grabbed the mare around the neck. The mare woke immediately, but held down like she was she could only emit a whine as she struggled to free herself in her confusion. "Stop fighting," Bon Bon hissed. The mare slowly stopped struggling, but became no less tense. "The guard outside the door is dead, so he can't help you. However, if you scream, or shout, I will be forced to kill you, understood?" The mare nodded weakly, tears falling. "Good." Bon Bon released some of the pressure on the mare's muzzle, "Who are you?"

"H-Honeydew. I'm the-"

"Chief engineer for the Mareitanian government. I thought as much. What are you doing here?"

"I've been instructed to make a blueprint of the ship that crashed here."

"So you could make your own?" Honeydew nodded. "How far into that are you?"

"I could build one, b-but I don't know how to make it fly. Please don't kill me."

"Stay quiet, and I won't have to."

"You're Equestrian, aren't you?" Bon Bon didn't answer. "Please, get me out of here and I will help you in this war however I can."

"You defected from the Duke's side during the civil war, didn't you? Now you want to defect again. Do you have an issue with loyalty?"

"I joined the rebels so I wouldn't have to build weapons. Then Faust came, and now I'm building nothing but weapons! Please, I don't want to be here any more!"

"Why aren't you going ga-ga over Faust like everypony else here? How are you immune to the magic forcing everypony to love her?"

"Magic? What magic?"

"You really don't know anything about that?" Bon Bon hummed as Honeydew shook her head. "Alright, I'm going to let you go. If you scream, I will kill you. If you try to run away, I will kill you. And if you try to attack me, I will kill you. Is that clear?"

"Yes."

Bon Bon released Honeydew, and took a step back as she sat up and massaged her muzzle. "So you really hate what they have you doing?"

"I do. I just wanted to live a life of peace, using my inventions to help ponies, not hurt them."

"Then do you at least realise that if you were to defect, again, that you'd only be building weapons for us to beat the Mareitanians with?"

"A victory for Equestria ends the war. A victory for Faust just means more conflict. Please, even if you don't use me to create weapons, I still know enough to make getting me out of here worth it!"

Bon Bon silently regarded the mare before her for several long seconds, trying to decide if it was worth the effort of getting her out of there. At the very least she could paint a better picture of the political landscape than they currently had.

"Alright, we're getting you out of here. But, if at any point you become a problem, I think you know what I'm going to do. For your sake, you best not be a problem, because getting you out of here is pretty far from my purpose here."

Bon Bon gestured towards the door, giving the hint that Honeydew should go first, mostly because Bon Bon didn't want the mare behind her. She also clicked her mic on and asked Rocky if the coast was clear.

"I honestly think most ponies in here are dead by now," Rocky replies blithely. "Can't say how long it'll be before ponies from outside start coming in though."

"Right, we best wrap this up then. Crème, Tootsie, if you aren't already getting out, do so. We're extracting a prisoner, and you don't need to get caught if this goes sideways."

"Wait," Crème said slowly, "we were taking prisoners? Since when?"

"Since just now. Trust me, this one might be worth the effort. See you at the rendezvous, over." A pair of clicks was all Bon Bon got back, but that was enough. She prodded Honeydew forwards through the door, and marched her down the stairs, past the still propped up guard, and down to where Rocky was waiting.

"I hope you know what you're doing Chief."

"You and me both. I think it'll be easier to use the tuck in and carry method to get her out of here."

"Aww, I hate that way. You always make me do the carrying."

"What's the tuck in and carry method?" Honeydew asked nervously. Bon Bon couldn't imagine how such a wet blanket of a mare ever achieved the statuses she did in both the Duchy, and the Republic. Still, she was valuable, and Bon Bon didn't really care either way.

"It goes a little like this," Bon Bon said soothingly, right before she punched Honeydew on the head as hard as she could, knocking Honeydew out. Bon Bon cursed and shook her hoof, trying to stop it throbbing. "Think I'm out of practice doing that."

"Worked like a charm though," Rocky said as he hoisted Honeydew up onto his back, and tied her forelegs together around his neck for extra security. "How are we getting out of here then?"

"Silently I hope." Bon Bon led the way, aiming to go back out the way she came in, and then use the rear of the airship to get over the boundary wall. A simple enough method, but getting caught created all kinds of problems, beyond the obvious ones. Trying to hide away with the chief weapons designer in Mareitania would probably trigger one hell of a marehunt as they tried to get her back. Not a desirable situation to be in.

The way back to the window was at least clear, and Bon Bon took a moment to listen out for any patrols before placing her grapple and rappelling down to the ground. A quick look around in all directions, including up, and Bon Bon gestured for Rocky to follow her down, Honeydew dangling off him like an afterthought as he descended.

A trio of rapid tugs brought the grapple down after them, and she led the way to the rear of the airship, slipping back inside it, and shushing Rocky as the sound of talking reached their ears.

"Guess we found the guards," Rocky said with a dirty grin.

Bon Bon rolled her eyes, and made her way through the airship, a blush growing on her cheeks as the two guard ponies changed from regular talking to talking dirty. It was at least a relief that they'd shut themselves in one of the rooms, leaving the stairs up to the top deck, and their way out, clear. All they had to do then, was jump the couple of meters between themselves and the wall.

"This would've been impossible if there were still griffons here."

"There was a griffon here, sleeping up there." Bon Bon pointed up at the broken off part of the airship that pointed up out of the factory. "I imagine there'll still be plenty of soldiers, griffon and otherwise, between us and the rendezvous."

"And here we are carrying a pony that's easily recognisable by them. What fun."

"Oh come on, it's not that far. We'll just have to stick to the quieter streets, like we would have anyway." Bon Bon sighed and set into something between a canter and a trot, that quickly carried them towards their destination, an abandoned building on the east of the city that Fleur told them about. It overlooked the old pegasus compound that had yet to be demolished, although why they hadn't thought to demolish it and build the tank factory there instead was anypony's guess, rather than demolish a functioning part of the city, even if they were slums.

Caution extended the length of the journey, but it was worth it as soldiers patrolled the city at regular intervals. The patrols weren't as heavy as Bon Bon had thought they might be though. She suspected that they knew that nopony was likely to attack them now, not after how things went last time. It would soon come as a surprise to them how wrong they were in that supposition.

The rendezvous was in darkness as they reached it, scurrying across the street and in through the half open door. They could hear the low talking of Crème and Tootsie above them, leaving Bon Bon relieved that they had also made it back. Honeydew was also starting to stir, having stayed out long enough for them to get away.

"Hail, Chief," Tootsie said cheerfully as Bon Bon and Rocky made their way up the half rotted stairs and into the room they were using. "So that's the pony you made such a big effort to extract?" she said as Rocky dumped the half conscious Honeydew onto the floor. "Who is she?"

"Honeydew," Bon Bon answered curtly, leaving Tootsie to work the rest out.

"Honeydew? As in the chief engineer of Mareitania, who designed the tanks and such? Oh wow, this day keeps getting better and better!"

"But why is she here?" Crème asked with a sniff. "I don't remember kidnapping prominent members of the Mareitanian government being on our to-do list."

"She wanted out, so we gave her out."

"You talked to her, didn't you? Why?"

"Because she knows stuff Crème, stuff that we might benefit from knowing. This way we get what we want, and so, possibly, does she."

"Possibly?" Crème chuckled darkly, "You have no idea if we can get her out of here, do you? You've already resigned yourself to the fact we might have to kill her anyway."

"I haven't resigned myself to anything, Crème, now shut your mouth before she hears you." Bon Bon turned her back on Crème as the mare still grinned unpleasantly, and untied the ropes from Honeydew's hooves, only to re-tie them to her back hooves in a way that completely immobilised her. Just in time as Honeydew grunted in pain and started struggling.

"Agh... ow."

"You okay there?"

"Rngh."

"Yeah, sorry about that whole hitting you thing." Bon Bon paused as Honeydew started to struggle against her bonds and cry. "Uh, could you stop that? I know it doesn't look good, but it's just a precaution until we know we can trust you enough."

Honeydew nodded and sniffed, trying to fight back her tears. "Okay," she squeaked in a mouse's voice.

"Good. Now I should probably tell you what's going to happen next. Firstly, there's going to be a massive explosion at the factory, destroying it, the airship, and Mareitania's ability to produce tanks. Then we're going to ask you some questions."

"You're going to destroy the factory?"

"We are. Is that a problem?"

"There are ponies in there."

"Wrong. There are soldiers in there." Bon Bon smiled weakly, "I'm afraid they don't get the same consideration as ordinary ponies. Not that it should bother us too much if that wasn't the case, since your Shades don't seem to have an issue with blowing up civilians."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"It's not important right now. Tootsie, the detonator please."

"Aww man," Tootsie whined, pulling the detonator out and tossing it to Bon Bon. "I wanted to push the button."

Bon Bon deftly caught the detonator and held it in front of Honeydew, "I push this button, and the factory explodes. Of course, if you're serious about wanting to get out of Mareitania, the honour is all yours."

Honeydew stared wide-eyed at the detonator, then shook her head. "I already have far too much blood on my hooves without being the one pulling the trigger directly. Destroy the factory by all means, but please don't make me do it."

Bon Bon smiled slightly, impressed that Honeydew could maintain her morals in the situation, weird as they were. She'd at least gotten the second best response she'd hoped for out of the trussed up mare. "Alright. Tootsie," Bon Bon tossed the detonator back to Tootsie, "the job's all yours."

"Aww yis!" Tootsie scrambled over to a window where she could see the factory. "Big boom in three, two, one!" Tootsie slammed her hoof on the button, and a split second later the entire city lit up in a flash, followed very shortly a deafening boom that swallowed all other sounds until it moved on, leaving behind the crash of the collapsing factory. "Ooh," Tootsie sighed as she fell to her rear, a broad smile on her face. "I think I'm going to need to wash my suit after that."

Bon Bon turned back to Honeydew as the thunder died down, only to find her looking the other way. "If I didn't know for a fact that Lady Twilight never enjoyed the acts her role as leader of the rebellion necessitated," she said sadly, "or that some of her friends refused to kill, I might be inclined to think all Equestrians are bloodthirsty killers."

"None of us enjoy what we do-" Bon Bon told her.

"Except for the explosions," Tootsie interjected.

"Apart from those, but for the most part, we only do what we have to so others don't need to. Right now we need to fight because Faust seems intent on destroying Equestria, as I'm sure you well know."

"I don't know actually. I've only ever seen Faust once, and nothing about her felt right. It certainly didn't tell me her intentions. Honestly, I don't think the council really knows what she wants, but they seem happy enough to do as she asks. You said something about magic forcing everypony to love her?"

"I did. It's how she's forcing everypony to go along with what she wants, but that just makes me wonder how you're immune?"

"I don't know. I've been getting headaches a lot since Faust turned up, especially when I go to High Rock. Is that something to do with it?"

Bon Bon shrugged, "Could be I suppose? We're not the kind of ponies who know about that sort of thing, but it would be good to know if there are others that also seem to be immune like you?"

"I don't know. I've just been keeping my head down and doing the inordinate amount of work they've thrown at me. Questions tend to get a pony in trouble if you ask the wrong ones. I do know Daybreak's been acting a bit off since Twilight attacked him. He keeps trying to fight the Council over decisions, like about hiring the griffons to fight."

"Do you know how the griffons came to end up fighting here?"

"No, but I do know that we can't afford to pay them. Or at least that's what Daybreak tried to argue anyway. I guess it didn't work."

Bon Bon sighed, without knowing why. Getting the answer to the griffon mystery would have been nice, but alas it was not to be. "Alright, what do you know about the three mares and the dragon that was kidnapped from Equestria?"

"Them? They're at High Rock."

"And they're all alive?"

"As far as I know, yes. Are they important? I mean... yeah. Sorry, I guess they are if Faust wanted them."

"Do you know why Faust wants them?" Honeydew shook her head, which Bon Bon accepted, mostly because she knew why herself. "How big is Mareitania's army now?"

"I think there's over twenty thousand ponies in it now, I think? I don't really know, but it's more than there was during the rebellion."

"Does that include griffons?" Rocky asked. The way Honeydew cringed told him enough. "How many griffons are there?"

"A few thousand I think. It's not really my job to know these things."

"And how did you know our side was going to attack the tank factory?" Crème asked.

Honeydew shrugged, "Most of our military manufacturing takes place in Stalliongrad. It was the only real viable target for you after you burnt the shipyards in Brayside."

"What did you do with the bodies of our fallen?" Tootsie asked quietly, her excitement from the explosion having died down from the topics they were discussing.

Honeydew winced guiltily, "They were taken to Whiplash and... incinerated. There was some very mixed opinions about that, but ponies wanted revenge."

"What's the point in desecrating our dead?" Rocky grumbled angrily. "How is that revenge for anything?"

"I don't know okay? How was destroying our lumbermills in Hoovendale fair? That's a civilian target! And what was the point of releasing all the prisoners in Whiplash? Huh? Most of them have either been caught, or surrendered themselves anyway, so it was meaningless!"

"And what was the idea behind killing two dozen civilians with a bomb back in Equestria?" Rocky shouted back.

"Really?" Honeydew scoffed. "And just how many civilians do you think got killed just now from debris from your explosion? Or do they not matter compared to Equestrian civilians?"

"Enough!" Bon Bon shouted, cutting both of them off before they could argue more. "Rocky, not a word. Honeydew, we did not drag you out of there just for you to throw accusations at us. I could have killed you there, or left you to die in the explosion. I spared your life."

"Only because I'm useful to you!"

"Your use is yet to be determined, because so far you've not told us anything particularly useful to our cause."

"So put me to creating weapons then, because that's all I seem to get used for!" Honeydew cried, struggling against her bonds.

Bon Bon pursed her lips, holding back her irritation at Honeydew's sudden change of attitude. If it wasn't for the fact that Honeydew was right about her uses being more mechanical in nature, Bon Bon might have been more annoyed.

"Fine," Bon Bon said calmly. "I'm going to go talk to our superiors. Tootsie, Rocky, keep an eye on our guest. Crème, come with me."


-0-0-0-


"Do you think Honeydew is really worth this effort Chief? Do you really think she's willing to work with us?" Crème asked as she and Bon Bon sat side by side, waiting for orders from Fleur after she left to relay their findings to Muckraker and Eclipse.

"I don't know," Bon Bon admitted. "I'm starting to think I should have just left her where she was. We already have all the blueprints we need to build tanks back in Equestria, so I don't really think we need her for that. Maybe I'm just an idiot."

"A nice one at least. Merciful, as it were."

"That's not why I did it. I would have killed her there, but she asked me to get her out of there. She wants Equestria to win, because Faust winning means more war, although why she knows that when she doesn't know Faust's intentions is beyond me. Maybe she'll be more cooperative once she calms down."

"And if she doesn't help?"

Bon Bon shrugged, "That's up to her now." There wasn't much else to say on the issue, so Bon Bon was glad when the speaker stone crackled back to life a minute later.

"Can you hear me Bon Bon?"

"I can hear you Fleur."

"Good," Fleur sighed, "Although part of me hoped you wouldn't be because of what I have to tell you. Firstly, Muckraker wants to congratulate you on completing your mission, and for the small amount of information you gleaned from Honeydew. However, there's bad news."

"How bad could it be?"

"Your confirmation of Faust's magic returning earlier has upset some ponies. They're convinced that it means Faust's attack is imminent. Between that and the griffons, well, lets just say that extracting Honeydew isn't possible. Neither is extracting you, I'm afraid. Even if it were, her involvement would be to little, too late."

"Understood," Bon Bon replied evenly. "We always knew that was a possibility. What should we do with Honeydew?"

Fleur released a drawn out sigh, "Alright, before I say, I want you to know that these orders come from Eclipse with the support of Muckraker, not me."

"Understood," Bon Bon said back, shrugging at Crème, who merely shrugged back, neither of them sure what Fleur meant by that.

"They want you to kill her, to make sure she doesn't fall back into enemy hooves."

Bon Bon nodded sadly, "I understa-"

"Wait. That's their orders, not mine, although they are my superiors. I'm going to ask you to not do that."

"Really?"

"Really. While there are likely plenty of ponies who would say she deserves to die for creating what she did, I say she's done nothing to deserve such a calloused end, especially since she never wanted to be part of any of this in the first place. I believe that she could be a huge asset to you, and the future of Equestria, but that can only happen if she lives. Obviously I can't tell you to disobey orders, but ultimately you're there, and we are not, so the choice is yours in the end. I won't ask what you're going to choose to do, but if you should spare her, get back in touch with me so I can talk to her myself."

"Underst-" Bon Bon started to say, but the stone died before she could finish. Clearly this had Fleur more upset that she had let on, and knowing what she did, Bon Bon could sympathise.

"What are you going to do Chief?"

"I don't know. What would you do?"

"Me?" Crème thought about it for a few seconds, then sighed and shrugged, "Orders are orders. Frankly I suspect Eclipse and Muckraker know more about this sort of thing than Fleur does."

"That doesn't make them right."

"Are you seriously considering disobeying them?"

"I'm keeping my options open." Bon Bon stood and started making her way back to the others, her mind churning over the possibilities. If she was honest with herself she didn't actually want to kill Honeydew, but disobeying her superiors didn't exactly sit right either. She'd done that quite a lot today already.

"What's the news?" Rocky asked as they re-entered the room. Bon Bon ignored him at first, instead walking over to stand in front of Honeydew.

"Because of the return of Faust's magic, and the arrival of the griffons, we aren't able to arrange an extraction for Honeydew or ourselves. We're effectively stranded in Mareitania unless you fancy rowing back home in that inflatable dinghy."

"Not as such," said Rocky. "What are we going to do with her then?"

"To stop her falling back into the enemy's hooves, we've been ordered to kill her."

"Ah well, can't be helped," Rocky said as Honeydew whimpered and begged as she struggled even harder to escape her bonds.

"Please! Don't kill me! Ple-e-ease! I'm begging you!"

"However," Bon Bon continued, "Fleur has asked us herself that we spare her. She feels that Honeydew could be of use to us."

"Yes!" Honeydew shouted, jumping on the straw that had just been offered to her. "I swear, I'll do anything to help you, please, just don't kill me!"

"I haven't decided yet."

"Why not?" Tootsie asked as Bon Bon kept standing over Honeydew.

"Because while our paymasters are Equis right now, we are ponies of Smile, and Smile doesn't kill unless totally necessary. I don't know if this is necessary. Crème, activate the stone."

Crème did so, then passed the speaker stone over to Bon Bon. Within seconds Fleur answered with a flurry of words that went unanswered until she slowed down. "Bon Bon? Are you there?"

"I'm here."

"Oh good. Bon Bon, I really can't thank you enough for-"

"Slow down Fleur, I haven't decided anything. What I need first is a confirmation from both you and Honeydew that sparing her life is something we all want. Say hello to Fleur, Honeydew."

"H-hello Fleur."

"Hello Honeydew," Fleur said back. "I'm not sure if you remember me, since we had little to do with each other, but I'm one of the ponies that went to Mareitania with Twilight Sparkle to overthrow the Duke-"

"I remember you. Tall. White with pink hair. Had your leg burned in High Rock."

There was a short sigh of irritation from Fleur, "That's me. I'm working for the Equestrian Intelligence Service now, and, well, I'm pretty sure you've met the ponies I'm in charge of."

"You're the one telling them to kill me?"

"No, that's my superiors. I'm trying to convince the ponies with you to spare you. I know you hated building weapons for the Duke, and I know you probably hate doing the same for Faust."

"I do."

"Good. I also suspect you know quite a bit about Mareitania and it's current inner workings?"

"I know some, but I doubt there's any one pony that knows all of it."

"As long as you know enough. I'm not going to bother to ask you if you know what Faust's intentions are, because I think the only pony to know that is Faust herself. Instead I'm going to focus on what we know, which is that she wants to see Equestria, as it currently is, destroyed, and judging by the things she's doing to get what she wants, she seems perfectly happy to burn Mareitania along with it so long as Equestria is taken out of the picture. Obviously we don't want that, and I hope you don't either."

"I can't speak for the others, but I remember what Twilight Sparkle, yourself, and Equestria did for us. Until Faust came and warped things, Equestria was our friend."

"And we would like to be so again. Unfortunately, to do that we will have to stop Faust and win the war, which could be done easier if we eliminate Mareitania's ability to wage war-"

"Which is why you took out the tank factory?"

"Exactly. Unfortunately we can't destroy her source of soldiers, but perhaps we can destroy her means of arming them and suchlike. I imagine that through your position you know plenty of ways we could do that. The only question I have after that is if you're willing to betray your country to help us?"

"I already have once, hoping to build a new country that was better that the one the Dukes built. That didn't happen, and  Mareitania ended up becoming something worse in other ways. I can assure you that I have no loyalty to a country that betrayed me. I do have something to ask of you once this is all over though."

"And that is?"

"A new life away from Mareitania, where I can forget all the things I've been forced to do throughout my life."

"Sounds do-able. You have a deal. Satisfied Bon Bon?"

Bon Bon nodded, a little unsure at first, but growing in confidence that if Fleur was wrong about this, Honeydew could still easily be killed. "I think so. What should our next move be?"

"Getting out of Stalliongrad, but I very much doubt that you can do that with Honeydew. While they're probably going to think that she died in the explosion, that doesn't mean that she won't get recognised, so your first move is to formulate a disguise for her. Get some coat dyes to change the colour of her coat and hair, try to cover up her cutie mark, and maybe get her a dress or something to cover it just to be sure. And, most importantly, think of a new name for her. Once that's all done, Honeydew is pretty much gone."

Honeydew snorted a bitter laugh, stirring up some dust on the floor around her. "That's all I ever wanted."


-0-0-0-


Bon Bon shifted her bags, making sure their contents were very much hidden since black, armoured full-body suits weren't common in Mareitania, and would probably get her in trouble. She was incredibly thankful that ponies weren't getting searched before they got on the train.

Standing beside Bon Bon, bare of bags, but wearing a light summer dress, was a pale blue mare with a lavender mane and tail, almost bouncing up and down in excitement. The only telling thing about her that something wasn't right was the faint briuses around her ankles from having been tied up, and the large one on her head. That was the only thing connecting her back to the yellow mare known as Honeydew.

"You're bouncing like an idiot Bluebelle, stop it before you draw attention."

"But I'm excited!"

"And there was a massive explosion here earlier, killing dozens, including a well known pony called Honeydew. Getting where I'm going here?"

"Ah." Honeydew stopped bouncing, her heart suddenly feeling heavy in her chest. "Sorry. I guess the thought of getting out of here made me forget."

"It's fine, but just try to keep it a bit subdued until we're back in Neigh Orleans."

"Okay." Honeydew shielded her eyes from the blast of steam the train released as it passed them and slowed to a stop. Bon Bon nudged her forwards after Rocky, Tootsie, and Créme had already boarded, hinting she should get on-board as well. She followed them to a seat, fighting back the grin that wanted to spill onto her face. For all it's strange occurrences, today couldn't have turned out better, so long as you forgot that it could've turned out a lot worse.
> 19. Pie family secrets are the weirdest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Drill Sergeant Knocks? Why do we have to run for miles with a heavy pack on our back?"

"Pinkie Pie, why do you feel the need to ask me such silly questions?"

"I just think ponies would be happier if they didn't have to carry so much stuff. You're not carrying anything, so why are we?"

"Because I'm the Drill Sergeant, that's why. Now I suggest you fall back into formation with your sisters, and quit making my ear ache."

"Okey dokey Drill Sergeant Knocks!" Pinkie slowed her pace slightly until she slotted neatly back in between her sisters Marble and Maud, "Sorry girls, I tried."

"Nopony asked you to try," Limestone grunted from behind. "Frankly I have no idea what you were even thinking."

"I was thinking these packs are heavy, and that nopony wants to carry them." 

Limestone tried to formulate a reply, but found she couldn't think of one that could effectively deal with how stupid Pinkie's line of thought was. Then she also realised that she was only enabling Pinkie's bizarre behaviour by taking it seriously, and gave up completely. "Just shut up Pinkie. You know exactly why we're doing this."

"Of course I know, but they've been training us harder for the last few days than they ever have before! I'm tiiiieeerd!"

"And? You want to cry more about that? Look at Maud, she's barely breaking a sweat, and Marble's not complaining."

"Don't... want... to... waste... breath!" Marble gasped while Maud kept her head down, running in her strange, almost mechanical way.

"This is what I'm talking about," Pinkie whined. "How is this helping us do anything? Are we supposed to wow the Mareitanians into defeat with our superior gear carrying skills? I don't think so!"

Limestone rolled her eyes, "That's what weapons training is for Pinkie."

"Well, obviously. I just don't see why we need to do this as well."

"So you can run away from battle easier, Piggy Pie," said a rather unpleasant stallion from behind, followed by sniggers from his trio of equally unpleasant friends. "You and your freak sisters wouldn't stand a chance in a real fight, so I think it's good you're learning this."

"You're doing this too, asshole," Limestone said to the newcomer, a musclebound stallion named by the singular word Reps, who had gone out of his way to make life uncomfortable for most of the mares around him, but saved most of it for Pinkie and her sisters. "Guess they don't have much faith in your ability to not run away either."

"Pfft, please, they just want to make sure I'm ready for anything, including retreats."

"That's good," Pinkie said brightly, "If you're the best at retreating as well, we'll totally be able to follow your lead. Good thinking Reps!"

"Still not why we're doing this," Limestone grumbled as Reps glared at Pinkie.

"Your attitude is going to get you in serious trouble one day Piggy."

"Oh? Have you been talking to Drill Sergeant Knocks about me? He says that all the time!"

"He won't have to say it anymore once you fail training," Reps said as he ran forwards and roughly shoved Marble into Pinkie before running out in front of them where he kicked a pebble up off his rear hoof, flicking it right at Maud and striking her on the forehead. "Suck it freaks!" he shouted back, his friends dutifully sniggering at what he'd done.

"Maud!" Pinkie shouted as her sister staggered to a stop and clamped her hoof over a gash above her right eye. "Are you alright Maudie?"

"I'm fine Pinkie, thank you."

"This has gone too far now," Limestone growled. "If Knocks and the other Drill Sergeants won't do a thing about it, then I will!"

"But then you'll just get into more trouble than him," Pinkie pointed out.

"So I should just let him keep on calling us freaks? Should I do nothing about the fact that he just attacked Maud? Huh? Is that what you're saying Pinkie?"

"I'm not saying that, but fighting him will only make it worse."

"Only if I lose."

"You're not fighting him," Maud said before Pinkie could say anything back to Limestone. She released the pressure off her cut, and wiped her hoof on the grass before standing and adjusting her pack.

"And why, pray tell, aren't I fighting him?" Limestone asked sarcastically.

"Because you won't do it right," Maud replied, picking the pebble that was kicked at her up in her hoof and pocketing it.

"And what, pray tell, is the right way?"

Even though there was no visible change to Maud's expression, you could tell she was almost smiling as she answered Limestone. "Quickly," she said, "and with an audience."


-0-0-0-


The rumours spread quickly around the camp, and although the ponies spreading it were fairly reluctant to do so, the ponies hearing it were rather interested. Reps had made himself quite the reputation around camp, and while there were probably some who would like to see him beat up a mare much smaller than him, the vast majority wanted to see what happened in the hopes that he might lose miserably. After a few hours, the only ones who didn't know were either unaware of Reps' and Maud's existence, a member of staff, or Reps himself, which was probably why he was so caught out when Maud approached him that evening outside the communal washing area.

"I want to fight you."

"What?" Reps said dumbly, like she'd just walked up and politely offered to massage his prostrate.

"I said I want to fight you."

"And why the hell do you want to do that for, freak?"

"Because you're a bully, and I don't like bullies. You also hurt me earlier, and call my sisters and I freaks, like we're somehow more freakish than you are."

"And what? Now you're just going to fight me? Really? You've come here in the hopes of beating me, when in reality we both know I can pummel you into the dirt with my bare hooves."

"You can use a weapon if you want," Maud stated, thoroughly unimpressed by Reps' assertions than he can easily beat her.
Reps stared at Maud for an uncomfortably long time before he said or did anything, and Maud was going to offer her condolences to his brain cells for having to work so hard when they clearly weren't used to it. 

"I can't tell if you're messing with me or not, so how about you get out of here before you get hurt."

Maud shifted her sight to around the both of them, finding quite a few ponies had turned up to see what happened. If she didn't make this happen a lot of ponies were going to be annoyed at her. "If you're scared to fight me, you can just say so."

"Like I could ever be scared of you."

"Fight me then, unless you're too chicken. I understand if you are since your tiny penis gives you and chickens a lot in common."

A hushed 'Oooh' went around the crowd at Maud's subtle burn, and Reps glared at them until they stopped. Then he made a mistake, and gave in. "Fine then, since you want this so badly, I will happily give you a good pounding."

"You can try to," Maud said, holding back her satisfaction at having goaded him into a fight. She backed away as he started to circle around her, and kept herself ready as he stopped and pawed at the ground, not feeling even slightly intimidated as he performed the pony equivalent of a cat fluffing its tail to look bigger.

"Yaaah!" Reps shouted, his hooves cutting into the dirt as he started his charge at Maud, hoping to beat her through mass alone. He was halfway to her when Maud pulled her hoof back and threw at him the same pebble he'd kicked at her earlier, striking him between the eyes with a crack that echoed around the camp. He didn't even have the time to shout in pain as he collapsed to the ground unconscious and kept sliding, stopping just before Maud's hooves.

"I won," Maud said factually as a shocked silence emanated from the crowd, punctuated seconds later by Limestone swearing, and Drill Sergeant Knocks swearing even louder.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing Maud?!"

"Fighting Reps," Maud said as Knocks pushed through the crowd to get to her. "I won," she reiterated, in case he hadn't realised.

"That? That wasn't a fight! That was a massacre!" Knocks nudged Reps, not getting so much as a groan from him. "Somepony get a medic!" he shouted, before checking that Reps at least had a pulse and didn't need a hearse more than a medic. "What did you do to him?"

Maud walked over to where the pebble had landed and picked it up to show the Drill Sergeant. "I threw this pebble at him," she said, being taken aback as Knocks dived for cover behind Reps.

"Fucking hell Maud! Don't point that thing at me!"

"It's only a pebble." Maud pocketed the pebble, intending to keep it. It reminded her of Boulder. "Am I in trouble Drill Sergeant?"

"You just knocked one of the other recruits out with a pebble! I- I... I can't even comprehend the amount of trouble you're in, that's how much trouble you're in!" Knocks stood and dusted himself off as a quartet of medics ran over and started fussing over Reps before rolling him onto a stretcher and carrying him away.

"I hope he's okay," Maud said, watching as they carried him away.

"Then you should have thought of that before knocking him out. Now come with me Maud, so you can tell me just why exactly you did that, and why I shouldn't immediately have you discharged."


-0-0-0-


Maud decided that the recruits really got the short end of the stick when it came to accommodations. They slept in tents, while Drill Sergeant Knocks, through the sheer luck of being himself, got both an office and room inside a genuine building. It took Maud a while to realise that it had been at least a couple of weeks since she'd had a solid roof over her head. She'd happily forego the experience if it meant she escaped having Knocks trying to set her alight through the power of silent glares. She simply stared right back until Knocks gave up to Maud's superior eyeballs.

"Why'd you do it Maud? So far I've had no trouble off you at all, which is something seeing as how you're a sister to both Pinkie and Limestone, so what possessed you to get into a fight with Reps like that?"

"He's a bully. He calls me and my sisters freaks." Maud pointed at the cut on her forehead, "He gave me that earlier."

"And why didn't you come to me instead of going off and knocking him senseless?"

"We have, a few times, but nothing ever happens. I assume it's because you're too busy with a lot of recruits, which is a shame because Reps' behaviour has a very detrimental effect on morale. That's probably why so many ponies wanted to see me do it."

"Ah yes, your little rumours you spread of what you were going to do," said Knocks, clinging onto that fact since he was fairly sure that Maud had just sassed him, but said it so flatly that he couldn't be sure. "Is there a reason you needed so many ponies to see it?"

"Yes. So he couldn't deny that it had happened."

"You really are stone cold Maud."

"If you'd heard the rumours we'd spread, and knew what was happening to be there, you could have stopped us at any time."

"I was ordered not to," Knocks admitted grumpily.

This time it was Maud that was surprised, although, to the casual observer, she didn't show it. Why would somepony order Knocks to let what had happened, happen? More importantly, who? "Who ordered you to do that?"

"Me."

Maud turned towards the voice, finding its owner sat in a pool of shadow beside the door. She didn't need to guess who it was though, as he was a white unicorn wearing purple armour, and could only be one pony she knew. "Shining Armour?"

"Good evening Maud," Shining said politely, moving from his spot to go stand beside Knocks behind the desk.

"You ordered the Drill Sergeant to not intervene?"

"I did."

"Why?"

Shining silently regarded Maud for a moment before quirking the corner of his mouth up in a faint smile. "Because you're Pinkie Pie's sister. Frankly, I wanted to see what you would do, a mare I've heard can break rocks with her bare hooves. You didn't disappoint. The fact that it had to happen to a petty bully like Reps only made it all the sweeter."

"You let him bully us?"

"Unfortunately, yes, and I'm sorry for that, but I wanted to see if what I've heard about you and your sisters from Pinkie was true."

"You could've just asked."

"That's different," said Shining. "While I have no doubt that what Pinkie said was true, I wanted to see what you'd do with such skills in a fight. The fact that you could knock a stallion the size of Reps out with a pebble half the size of your hoof is astounding. How'd you do it?"

"I threw it," Maud stated flatly, like it couldn't have been more obvious what she'd done.

"I realise that, but you must have a serious throwing leg to throw it hard enough to knock him out."

"I could've thrown it harder," Maud said, making Shining raise his eyebrows. "But that would have really hurt him. Reps also did some of the work by running towards me as well."

"I see." Shining went quiet again, then sighed heavily. "I'm not going to lie to you Maud, we, as in the military, are interested in what you can do, but weren't willing to invest time into it without proof of what you could do. You have now provided at least a sliver of proof."

"I don't understand captain."

"You've heard of the basic rules of pony on pony combat? You should have by now."

"Yes. Earth pony beats unicorn, unicorn beats pegasus, and pegasus beats earth pony."

"Very good Maud. Now disregard it, because on the field of battle, against forces just as capable as your own, that advantage is pretty much null. Overpowering unicorns with earth ponies becomes less effective when they have earth ponies to do the same, and the advantage we possessed by having pegasi has been undone by the Mareitanians employing griffon mercenaries to fight for them."

Maud's eyes widened, "Griffon mercenaries?"

"That's right. I'm not meant to tell you, but it's hardly going to remain a secret for long. I will ask you to keep it to yourself for now though."

"Of course."

Shining nodded his appreciation. "My point is, we are looking for every advantage we can get, and you could very well be an advantage if you can teach it to others. Can your sisters also do the same?"

"Pinkie's maybe a little out of practice, but Limestone and Marble can. I'm not sure we can teach it to others though. It's always been ponies in our family passing down the knowledge, so it might be a skill unique to our family."

"Can I at least ask you to try?"

"You can, but I only want to teach two or three to begin with, in case we can't teach it to others."

"We?" Knocks asked.

"My sisters and I. We will also have to be excused from some of the other training taking place here if we're to have enough time to do this. We'll also need somewhere secluded to train."

"You're in no position to make demands here Maud," Knocks began saying, before being interrupted by Shining.

"That'll be fine Maud. Do you have any ponies in mind to begin with?"

"There are three other earth ponies in our tent. I think we should start with them, to see if it's possible to teach what we can do."

"Excellent. I'll make the arrangements for you to begin tomorrow. For now you should go get some rest. Dismissed."

Maud saluted and left, quietly making her way back outside to where her sisters were clustered anxiously by the door. "Maud!" Pinkie shouted in relief as Maud left the building, "Are you okay? Did they kick you out?"

"No Pinkie, they didn't."

"Then what did they do?" Limestone asked.

It took a moment for Maud to answer, being unsure herself as to what happened. In the end, all she could about it was, "I'm not entirely sure."


-0-0-0-


"What's this about?" Azure Velour asked as herself, Sweet Deal, and Top Spin, were led by Maud and her sisters into the depths of a ravine a few miles from the training camp. "I mean, I'm all for getting out of training for the day, but not to go and get lost in a canyon somewhere."

"You're not getting out of training silly," Pinkie explained cheerfully. "Instead you're going to be doing a totally different kind of training."

"Just the seven of us? That doesn't make any sense."

"Actually it's the three of you that'll be training," said Limestone. "We're going to be teaching you."

The three unrelated earth ponies all looked at each other, at least finding comfort in that they all seemed as confused as each other. "Teach us what?" Sweet Deal asked.

Limestone grinned at them, with a little more aggression than needed. "You'll see. Trust me though, you'll like it."

Again the three ponies nervously eyed each other, "You do realise we're all straight, right?" Top Spin said without needing to imply what she was talking about.

"Actually, I'm pretty easy," said Azure. "That doesn't mean I'm okay with this though."

Limestone closed her eyes and growled, "We are not dragging you down here for... whatever it is you're thinking of."

"If only because you don't know anything about that to teach," Pinkie giggled.

"Shut up. All of you. Really. We haven't even begun and I'm getting a headache."

"I'd also like to point out that we're sisters," Marble quavered, her cheeks aflame from the naughtier aspects of the conversation. "Although I'm sure you already knew that."

"We ain't judging," Azure said with a grin. "You all know what they say about country ponies."

"That we hate city ponies for making up such stupid crap about us?" Limestone said, glaring specifically at Azure.

"Well, uh-" Azure awkwardly cleared her throat, "That's fair, I suppose."

"We're here," Maud said before the discussion could devolve further. She'd led them into the deepest part of the ravine, where she'd been told to take them by Shining Armour that morning. As further proof that it was the right place, Shining was already there, waiting along with two other ponies; a grey earth pony, and a light blue pegasus.

"Hi Shining! Hi Octavia! Hi Summer!" Pinkie said happily, bouncing over to hug each of them. "Its been ages since I've seen any of you!"

"We're not here for a social gathering Pinkie," Shining said with a hint of warning, although he couldn't help but grin.

"Oops! Sorr-y! Still though, why are you three here?"

"I'm here to observe," Shining said, "and I've pulled these two from training medics in case any of you get hurt."

"Although," Octavia said warily, "we would appreciate it if none of you got hurt doing whatever it is you're going to be doing. I'm still not great with..." Octavia shook her head, "Nevermind. Just try to not get hurt."

"Not get hurt doing what?" Sweet Deal asked, exasperated. "We still don't know why we're here! Although if this is official orders I'm happy to be here," she added as Shining frowned at her. "Sir."

"You all saw what Maud did to Reps last night?"

"Aw yeah!" Azure cheered, "That was awesome!"

Shining sighed internally at the apparent lack of discipline on display by Azure, but decided to look past it, this time. "I'm glad you liked it so much, because Maud and her sisters are going to teach you to do stuff like that."

"Seriously?" Top Spin gasped. "No offense sir, but I really don't think I can throw a stone that hard."

"It's not about how hard you throw it," said Maud.

"It's how you throw it," Limestone finished. "There's also a lot more to it than just throwing stones."

"A lot, lot, lot more!" said Pinkie. "But it's super fun though. Maybe we should give them a demonstration?" Pinkie looked expectantly at Shining, who nodded his assent. "Awesome! You might want to stand back a bit though. Hey Limestone! Throw that rock the size of my head at me!"

"You sure? I know its been a while since you've done this sort of stuff."

"Nah, I totally got this!" Pinkie excitedly bounced on the spot, "Come on, throw it at me!"

"But you might get hurt!"

"Throw it you wimp!"

"Pinkie, I'm being serious!"

"Fine, but just remember that it's you that made me do this." Pinkie stopped bouncing and walked over to Marble, whispering something in her twin's ear. Marble choked, then blushed. "Go on then, tell her what I said."

"Uh... okay." Marble swallowed, "Limestone, Pinkie says to tell you you're fat."

Limestone scoffed at the insult, "You're going to have to try harder than that."

"And that you have a bad mane."

"Uh-huh."

"And that we all know about your unhealthy obsession with carving, uh... stallion parts, out of rocks when you think nopony's looking."

Limestone ducked her head and blushed furiously, "Fuck you so much Pinkie."

Pinkie grinned mischievously at Limestone, "Uh-oh, I think I might have gone too far. Shining, you might want to put a shield up for this." Pinkie stepped away from the others, still directing a grin at Limestone. "Come on Limestone! Show Pinkie your kung fu!"

"You asked for it!" Limestone reared back and launched the stone directly at Pinkie, who held her grin as it hurtled towards her. She bounced and flipped backwards, using a single hoof to kick the rock straight upwards, then flipped forwards as it came back down, using both her rear hooves to kick it right back towards Limestone.

Limestone punched the rock, shattering it into pieces around her hoof. She picked up some of the pieces, throwing them at Pinkie who easily dodged all but one, which she caught between her hooves mere inches from her face. Then she bit a chunk off it, chewed it up, and spat it out in her hoof. "Here comes a wet one!" she shouted, throwing the chewed up rock mush at Limestone.

"Don't be gross Pinkie!" Limestone shouted back, jumping out of the way before she got any of it on her. She stomped on the edge of a rock, flicking it into the air and catching it with her tail as she turned, whipping the rock towards Pinkie in a curve, narrowly missing Pinkie as she bent over backwards in a limbo move to avoid it.

"Boy, that was a close one!"

"You're not taking this seriously Pinkie!"

"Me? Serious? Perish the thought!" Pinkie scooped a rock up off the ground, and jumped into a pirouette to throw it at Limestone, just as Limestone threw a similar sized rock at Pinkie. The two rocks collided in mid-air with a deafening crash, exploding into dust with enough force to knock them both over.

"Truce!" Pinkie shouted weakly, pawing at her cheek with a hoof. "I think I got a rock splinter off that one. Ow. A little help please Marble?"

"I think I just had a horrifying insight into all your childhoods," Sweet Deal said once the dust had cleared. "Was that how you solved most of your disputes?"

"Nah," Pinkie shrugged as Marble wriggled the stone shard out of her cheek. "Mostly we just screamed at each other. Except for Marble, she was just too adorable to argue with."

"You bit a chunk out of a rock," Top Spin said in a small voice. "How? How is that possible?"

"That's the thing that gets you in all this?" Azure said to Top Spin. "Really?"

"It's not possible!"

"Clearly it is. Anyways, that was freaking awesome!" Azure clapped vigorously, "Woo! Encore!"

Shining joined in with the clapping, as did the others. "I have to say I'm impressed. I didn't even know that was possible, and I've seen some stuff. I do have to admit that I'm worried that you won't really be able to teach that kind of thing though. It looks more instinctive than skill based."

"We had to learn it too," Maud said to Shining, trying to reassure him. "Although our parents never taught us to be so combative with it."

"So it can be learnt?"

"Of course it can," said Pinkie. "It took me ages to learn, but I got there in the end once I found a way of doing it that I liked. The trick is for each pony to find their own way, although I guess there are some that just won't get it."

"Alright then, I'll leave it in your capable hooves." Shining stood and dusted himself off, then saluted them all. "Hopefully you'll have good news for me by the end of the day."

All of them saluted back, then waited for him to leave. "Dibs on teaching Azure!" Pinkie shouted, claiming her before anypony else could.

"I shall teach Top Spin," said Maud.

"Guess you're with me then," Limestone said to Sweet Deal.

"Who will Marble be teaching?" Octavia asked, seeing the youngest Pie sister sigh dejectedly.

"She can teach you Tavi," Pinkie said, dragging Marble over towards Octavia.

"Firstly Pinkie, it's Octavia. Secondly, I'm not a fighter, so have absolutely no need to learn how to punch through rocks."

"But it's totally a useful life skill. Besides, there's a lot more to this than just punching through rocks, and Marble's the best at that stuff. Just give it a go Octy, you might even like it."

"It's Octavia," Octavia growled. She looked at Marble, seeing the young mare smiling hopefully up at her, and completely gave in. "Fine, but I'm not doing any fighting."

"No problemo! Now come on Azure, I have some things I want to teach you."

"Uh, sure." Azure scrambled after Pinkie as the pink mare bounced away from the rest of them, then slowed to a trot as she caught up. "So, is there a reason why you wanted to teach me?"

"Because you're like me. You like having fun, and dancing, and parties, and all that stuff. That means that out of my sisters, I'm probably the best to teach you, because you'll probably learn like me."

"Okay, but surely you could have taught one of the others?"

"Well sure I could, but I think we assigned things pretty well. Maud is all about precision and striking the right spot, which would hopefully work fine with Top Spin since she's a tennis player and all. Limestone though, she's more like a mountain, but a small one mind you, all tough, stubborn, and unbending. She's also quite angry, but that's just her. Sweet Deal's an accountant or something like that, so she should know a thing or two about being stubborn."

"What's Marble then?"

"Heck if I know, but she's really into that crystal healing stuff, and does it better than anypony I know."

"How many ponies do you know that does that?"

Pinkie pointedly ignored the question, and stopped suddenly, liking the feel of the place she'd wandered off to. "Okay! This feels like a good place to begin."

"Alright," Azure said, unsure. "How do we do this?"

"When my parents tried to teach me this, they sat me and Marble down, and started by telling us 'you are the earth.'"

Azure nodded slowly, "Okay, good. What does it mean?"

"I have absolutely no idea. I think it was something to do with the earth being part of earth ponies, hence the name, but I never got it because earth ponies have all kinds of talents totally unconnected to the earth, like you. Your talent's dancing, am I right?"

"That's right, although I don't see how a talent in dancing is going to help."

"It totally will, at least when it comes to fighting because you'll be all fit and agile and stuff. Besides, do you really think my talent at throwing parties helps me do this in the slightest?"

"I guess not." Azure pursed her lips in thought, then nodded. "Alright, alright, I think I'm ready to do some crazy rock voodoo."

"Uh! This isn't rock voodoo! This would technically be closer to geomancy, at least according to Ogres and Oubliettes. Believe me, I looked." Pinkie searched about until she found two small rocks, then placed them on the floor in front of them. "Okay, step one is 'break a rock.'"

"Break a rock..." Azure repeated, failing to hide the sound of her disappointment. "Just... break a rock?"

"I know I said this'll be super fun, and it will be, but first you need to make that super special connection that'll help this all make sense. Trust me, once you can break a rock with your hoof, the rest of this will just sorta click, and then you'll be kicking rocks' butts in no time!"

"Okay, so, I just gotta break a rock. No biggy." Azure bit her lip as she thought about it, then struck a hoof at the rock. She yelped in pain and clutched her hoof to her chest as she completely failed to damage the rock in the slightest. "Ow!"

"Of course you're going to hurt yourself doing it like that."

"Then how am I supposed to do it?" Pinkie, never breaking eye contact with Azure, hit her own rock, reducing it to fragments. "And how was that any different to what I did?"

"Well, I broke the rock for starters."

"Oh come on!"

"You also didn't put any of yourself into it, you just... hit it."

"Of course I just hit it!" Azure yelled. "What else was I supposed to do?"

Pinkie held up her hooves, "Okay, lets stop with the angry shouting, and try to stay calm. Getting frustrated will only make this harder." Pinkie smiled as Azure sucked in a breath and exhaled slowly. "Great! Now how to put all this in a way a dancer might understand... hmm."

"Is that actually going to help?"

"Maybe?" Pinkie shrugged, "I don't know. Now shush, I'm trying to think."

"Uh-huh." Azure idly poked at her rock as Pinkie thought, not seeing as how there was any way she would be able to break it with her hoof. Whatever Pinkie and her sisters were, Azure wasn't like them.

"Ooh! I know! You know when you're in a club, and you're dancing away, throwing some crazy shapes and having a great time, but then the DJ throws down some phat beat you've never heard before, but you just gotta keep on dancing?"

"All the time."

"And in those situations you let your talent for dance take the lead?"

"Yeah."

"Great! Now do you also agree that there's a part of you that's part of the earth, and lets us do earth pony stuff? Just like pegasi can do air stuff, and unicorns magic stuff? Then there's alicorns which are a whole different ballgame again, with all that stuff amped up to eleven! And that's with out blending the different aspects of their inner magic."

"Pinkie, you're rambling."

"Yes I am, but do you agree there's a earthy part of you?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Good, now imagine that you're in that hypothetical club, and a mysterious new tune comes on, but instead of your talent taking over, your earth pony magic kicks in, and instead of busting moves, you bust rocks!"

"Are you saying I just need to focus my earth pony magic into my moves?" Azure deadpanned, adding air quotes around the 'earth pony magic.'

Pinkie nodded dreamily, "Yeah, maybe, but you have to do it in a way that works for you."

"Clear as mud," Azure muttered to herself. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, a beat starting to form in her head that she started to bob her head along to. Slowly but surely she started to feel something familiar as her talent for dance nudged at her, but she ignored it and looked deeper for that part of her that was always tied to the earth, that made them masters of it.

"Remember Azure, the heart of an earth pony is made of diamond. Well, not the literal heart, because we'd really have trouble living if that were true, but the... ahem." Pinkie blushed as Azure stared coldly at her, "Shutting up now."

Azure rolled her eyes and resumed nodding along to a beat only she could hear, building her focus on something she'd never really felt before, at least not in any depth. She had to admit she liked the feeling, and as the song in her head built into a crescendo, she focused that feeling into her hoof, striking the rock, and shattering it.

"Woah," Azure said dumbly as Pinkie clapped excitedly.

"Alright Azure! You did it! Now hold onto that feeling you had just before you broke the rock, because that is basically what made you do it." Pinkie placed another rock in front of Azure, "Now do it again."

The second time was much quicker, although still not quick, but the rock shattered with a satisfying crunch. "Dude! This is freaking awesome!"

"Feel like a proper earth pony now?"

"What?" Azure cocked her head as she thought about what Pinkie had said, and she had to admit she did feel a little more in touch with herself. "Huh... I guess I do."

"It's weird isn't it? Like you never realised there was something missing in the first place. Anyway, while you're doing awesome, I can't help but wonder if the others are having as much luck."


-0-0-0-


"Okay, so even if you can break a rock with your hooves, how does that translate into throwing a pebble hard enough to knock a stallion like Reps out?"

"It's the same process," Maud said to Top Spin's question, "only the end result is different. A precise hit can do a lot more than simply trying to overwhelm your target."

"Like the fractures in the rock," said Top Spin, referring back to Maud's earlier teachings. "Focus your energy on the right spot, and it just falls apart."

"Yes."

"That still doesn't explain how you threw that pebble hard enough to knock Reps out."

Maud picked up a stone and gave it to Top Spin, then turned her towards the canyon wall. "Try to break the cliff by throwing the stone at it."

"That's impossible."

"Try. Focus like you would to break a rock, and try."

Top Spin focussed and threw the rock as hard as she could, and as she expected it bounced off the cliff with no effect. "See? I knew that would happen!"

Maud wordlessly picked the stone back up and pressed it into Top Spin's hoof, "Try again, but this time aim for the best place." Maud pointed at a crack in the cliff, "Follow that fault up and you'll see the best place, then throw the rock at it, but not too hard. Be more accurate than powerful."

Top Spin sighed but nodded, "Alright then." She followed the fault upwards, finding it led to a small spider web of other cracks that all met at a single point that she figured had to be the weak spot. Her target chosen, she wound her hoof back, focused, and threw the stone. It bounced off the weak spot, then back to the ground. 

"It still did nothing!" Top Spin whined, but Maud wasn't listening. She was looking at where Top Spin had thrown the stone at, watching the spider web of cracks grow bigger. Seconds later a small section of the cliff collapsed in a tiny land slide. "What? But I didn't throw it that hard."

"Exactly," Maud said sagely.

"Y'know, that still doesn't explain how you knocked Reps out."


-0-0-0-


"You're not getting this Sweet Deal," Limestone said, bored. And she was bored. Sweet Deal just had no idea how to go about this, and kept looking for an alternative way to break the rock, when there was only really one way.

"Look, maybe if I can find a weakness in the rock, I can break it easier."

"Yes, but it still won't work."

"Sure it will. All I have to do is find the right spot."

"There's one just below that orange spot on it," said Limestone. "It still won't matter though, because if you don't find that focus, you won't do a thing to it."

"Sure I will, just watch." Sweet Deal stuck her tongue out as she lined her hoof up and hit the rock on a small crack, doing absolutely nothing to it except make her hoof hurt, again. "Arrgh! Why won't this stupid rock break?!"

Limestone sighed, "Because you're not doing what I'm saying."

"Well, what if I try to-"

"No! There is no try to do anything! There is only one way to break that rock with your hoof, and you aren't doing it!"

"Maybe I can-"

"No! Gah!"


-0-0-0-


"So what is this exactly?" Octavia asked as Marble dropped a small pile of crystals she'd found in a pile in front of where Octavia lay on her stomach.

"There's a lot more to what we can do than the ability to break rocks," said Marble. "Although I guess that's more useful for fighting. Rocks also have other, better uses as well."

"Is this that crystal healing thing?" Summer asked from her spot sat nearby, watching the proceedings with interest. "Octavia always said that was a load of rubbish."

"Mmhmm, most of the time," Marble said, not denying it. "Rocks are just rocks, and aren't exactly known for their medical knowledge. But there are things rocks can do in the right hooves that are better. Now lie still."

Marble arranged six crystals down Octavia's back in a symmetrical pattern, getting each one in just the right place before doing the next. When she was satisfied, she took a deep, cleansing breath, focused herself, and tapped each crystal in turn with a hoof. "This might feel a little strange."

"What might? What did you... do-oooo..." Octavia fell silent as the muscles in her back lost all their tension and became little more than putty under whatever it was that Marble and her crystals were doing. "Oh my."

"I think she likes it," Summer giggled.

"You can say that again. Mmmm."

"My mother taught me these things," Marble said as she tapped the crystals again. "The way the crystals resonate has some nice effects. She does it to keep my father's arthritis in check."

"Are you alright Marble?" Summer asked, seeing Marble sag a little as she kept tapping the crystals every now and again.

"I know it doesn't look like it, but this takes a lot out of you. A lot more than the whole breaking rocks thing does, but even that's tiring enough after a while."

"Just five more minutes," Octavia mumbled, not wanting what was happening to her to end. It did have to though, as a pained shout echoed through the ravine, followed by crying. "Shit." Octavia tried to stand, but found that her muscles really didn't feel like working right at that moment. "I appear to be unable to get up. Summer, do you mind going?"

"I'm on it." Summer picked up her medical kit and flew towards the source of the screams, finding a panicked Limestone standing over a pained Sweet Deal, who was rolling around on the ground clutching her right foreleg to her chest. "What happened?"

"She punched the rock!"

"You told me to punch the rock!"

"Not like that!"

Summer waved Limestone back with a wing and gently picked up Sweet Deal's injured leg. The hoof didn't appear to be injured, save for some rock fragments stuck to it, and the leg wasn't bend out of shape, so it probably wasn't broken. At worst it was fractured, or sprained, and there wasn't a lot she could really do about it right then. An assessment that Octavia agreed on once she was able to stagger over.

"I guess we better get her back to camp," said Octavia, pulling Sweet Deal up onto three of her hooves, and supporting her. "That also means todays session is over," she said to the rest of them, including Pinkie and Azure who had returned after hearing the screams. "There's no way we can let you continue without us being here."

Pinkie patted Limestone on the back as Octavia and Summer led the injured Sweet Deal away. "I guess she just didn't get it, huh?"

"Not at all. How about you Pinkie? Any luck with Azure?"

"Observe." Pinkie tossed a stone towards Azure, the purple mare swinging a hoof at it and shattering it. "I'm so proud!"

"Great, so I'm the one that can't teach," Limestone sighed. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"You mean Maud got Top Spin to do it was well?" Limestone nodded sullenly. "Awesome! Nice work you guys! Still though, what now? Is Shining Armour expecting us to teach this to all the earth ponies in camp? Because that's a lot of ponies. And I mean, a lot of ponies."

"Yeah yeah, I know." Limestone stretched and shrugged. "I guess we'll have to see what Shining Armour says about it."


-0-0-0-


Shining Armour stood over the edge of the ravine, watching the ponies below depart back to the camp. While he was disappointed that they hadn't been able to teach Sweet Deal, the fact that they were able to train Azure and Top Spin in just the basics over the space of a couple of hours was impressive. Perhaps it was only a fluke that they'd been able to find two ponies out of that small group capable of learning, and the chances of two out of three ponies being able to do it was actually much lower, but it was still possible.

"What do you think?" he asked the other pony he'd invited to observe, a dark blue alicorn with a wavy star filled mane. "Do you believe this is worth pursuing."

"Not on a large scale," said Luna. "There simply isn't enough time. But this may well be worth pursuing as a special unit with small numbers." Luna nodded as the nine ponies below went out of sight, "They are skilled though, and we need every advantage possible. Consider your Hard corps approved, Captain Armour, although a rethink on the name would be appreciated."

Shining grinned playfully, "No chance."
> 20. In the jungle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The jungle was... not nice, to politely describe it at its most basic. Other ponies might have described it as fucking horrible, and they would be exactly as right. A constant, oppressive heat seemed to suck all the energy from you, and that was besides the snakes, bugs, and other things that wanted to either eat you whole, or very slowly, depending on the size of their mouth. Everypony hated it. Of course, not all of them were ponies.

Mayfly was loving it in the jungle. Besides enjoying the heat, she was happy to see an unprecedented amount of green, at least to her, and thanks to her carapace, she had nothing to worry about from the myriad of biting insects, removing a large amount of the jungle's annoyances. But not all of them unfortunately, as one of them was Trixie, and her occasional bouts of singing.

"In de jungle, de mighty jungle, de lion sleeps toniiight! In de jungle, de mighty jungle-"

"For the last time Trixie," Twilight yelled at her unabashed blue friend, "There are no lions in the fucking jungle! Tigers, yes, and panthers, but no fucking lions, so knock it off!"

"I can't help it if whoever made that song didn't know the nuances of lions' lifestyles, just as I can't help it if this jungle brings something out in me that makes me want to-"

"Attract every pony eating predator to us?" Twilight said back before Trixie could start singing again.

"This one thinks Trixie's singing is not totally unpleasant," Mayfly said. "Is it not?" she asked, looking at the others for confirmation.

"Only if you enjoy the sound of cats getting strangled," Moondancer replied in a low grumble.

"Should I assume from your inflection that the sound of cats getting strangled is not actually pleasant?" Moondancer nodded once, making Mayfly sigh. "So many things to learn about ponies."

"You'll get there," Sunset said soothingly.

"At least one of us will get somewhere," Trixie groaned. "How have we seriously not found what we're looking for yet? How hard can it be to find one campsite in the fucking jungle?"

"You mean the jungle that has likely changed quite significantly in the last eight hundred years?" Twilight said sweetly. "Probably nigh impossible."

"Then why are we even trying? It's bad enough that Starswirl said it was to the north east of a temple here in the Tenochtitlan basin, then failed to mention which of the hundred fucking temples here that he was talking about."

"There are eight," Sunset corrected.

"Whatever! My point is that if it's still going to be impossible to find, why even bother trying?"

"This is the last place we're trying Trixie," said Twilight. "If we don't find it here, we'll give up and move on to Saddle Arabia."

"Fiiiiine... where is this last place?"

"The, now, destroyed Fortress of Talacon."

"What?!" Moondancer shrieked. "Are you even serious? That's from a Daring Do book!"

"Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny, I know. It is a real place though."

"Oh? Are you now going to tell me Daring Do is real too?"

Twilight laughed nervously, "Let's not go over the top here. It's perfectly normal for writers to use real world locations in their stories."

"Give me a break," Moondancer mumbled. "That was the weakest story of the lot anyway. That rainbow maned idiot 'helping' her just... ugh, no. That Wonderbolt must have paid a stupid amount to get that massive self-insert into one of A.K. Yearling's books."

Twilight wanted to argue with Moondancer, but felt there was no point, not unless she revealed Daring Do's existence. Even then the chances of Moondancer believing her was slim, so it just wasn't worth the effort, even if it meant protecting Rainbow's image.

"How do you even know where the Fortress of Talacon is?" Moondancer asked, as Twilight secretly fumed.

"I've been there."

"Uh-huh, and were you the one to destroy it?"

"Nope, but I was there when it happened."

"Sure you were."

Twilight shrugged, not wanting to discuss, or argue about it any further until they actually found the Fortress in all its broken glory. If she remembered correctly it wasn't too much further. It was a massive if though, having been a while since coming here, and having done a lot since then. Even then they still had to find the centuries old campsite Starswirl used in the hopes of finding a few broken shards of mirror, since hoping to find a whole mirror here was stupid enough to not even be worth considering.


-0-0-0-


"There we go, one destroyed Fortress of Talacon," Twilight said with a highly misplaced sense of pride as they made it to the small clearing the Fortress had around it. "Entirely real, and entirely destroyed, ending the threat of eight centuries of sweltering heat in the Tenochtitlan basin."

"Because it's not like it's hot enough here already," said Trixie.

"Exactly!" Twilight said happily, before thinking about what Trixie had just said. "You were being facetious weren't you?"

"Me? Noooo. I honestly think that building a giant thing like this with the express purpose of generating eight centuries of sweltering heat, in a mother-fucking jungle of all places, is totally a productive use of anyponies time. Good work ancient ponies, you really outdid yourselves."

Sunset grinned nervously at Twilight, "She does have a point."

"And? I'm not the one that built it, so why are you acting like I'm going to get upset over what you're saying?"

"I... don't know."

"Another thing," Trixie continued, "is why they built it to collapse if you removed the rings of whatever from the shrine thingy? What was the point of that? They wanted a failsafe for their device they built to raise the jungle temperature by a few degrees? Seriously, how do you guys even read Daring Do books if they have this amount of stupid in them. I'm sorry I ever asked what this was about!"

"Actually," said Sunset, "now I think about it, building something like this that's capable of changing the temperature of a large area like the Tenochtitlan basin, is quite impressive. It almost sounds like it was part of some ancient terraforming project, or something."

Twilight pointed a hoof at Sunset, "See Trixie, that is why Sunset would have herself a gold star if I had some to give out. Maybe I'll buy her a cookie when we get back to civilisation. Clearly there was a lot more to this than just some ancient scheme to raise the already too high temperature, even higher. How Auhizotl intended to misuse it was irrelevant to its intended purpose."

"Or so you hope," Trixie said smugly, "because you hate the idea of the ancient ponies building something so utterly pointless. And what do you mean 'how Auhizotl intended to misuse it?' He's fictional!"

Twilight grinned uneasily, "Oops? Guess I'm getting my books and reality mixed up now."

Mayfly squinted at Twilight, "This one suspects that the stupid pony is trying to hide something. Maybe this Daring Do pony being real?" She pouted at Twilight as Moondancer, Sunset, and Trixie laughed at her, while Twilight provided a rather disingenuous laugh herself. "I'm being serious."

"And that just makes it funnier," Trixie chuckled.

"There's no way Daring Do is real," Sunset said, agreeing with Trixie. "To be honest I'm surprised this place is real since it featured in a fictional story."

"Lending credence to this one's theory that the stupid pony is hiding something. Even now she stays quiet because she dislikes having to lie to defend herself."

Twilight giggled nervously, "Yeah... no. Let's just find the place to the northeast where the camp should be, then get out of here."

"Even now she's acting awkward and deflecting the issue. How are you not questioning her assertions?"

Moondancer rolled her eyes, "Look, Mayfly, there is literally no way that Daring Do, or Auhizotl, or any of that is real. The fact that A.K. Yearling used this collapsed temple in her book is her using real world locations in a fictional setting. Believe me, Daring Do isn't real."

Mayfly looked coolly from one pony to the next, and shrugged. "The right to say 'I told you so' has been reserved. I look forwards to making use of it."

"You'll be waiting a long time then," said Trixie. "Anyway, how about we get on and find that campsite, if we can, then get out of here before we all catch deadly tropical diseases." Trixie turned to Twilight, "Want to take a flap-flap up to see where we're going?"

"Flap-flap? Really?" Twilight shook her head ruefully, "Northeast is this way."

"Why does it feel like you're avoiding flying?" Trixie asked Twilight as she led them around the edge of the fortress. "Your feathers grew back days ago."

"Because I haven't needed to? Because my wings feel almost permanently wet?" Twilight said back. "Don't try and make something where there isn't anything Trixie. Now come on, hopefully it isn't too far away."

Feeling Trixie's eyes on the back of her head, Twilight led the way around the edge of the clearing before branching off back into the jungle once they reached the most north-easterly part of it. Twilight doubted they'd find anything, but whether it was out of some sense of obligation that was pushing her to look anyway, or something else again, she was determined to find the campsite.

Unless it was too hard to find, in which case she'd happily give up.

Her efforts were both rewarded and thwarted as they came upon a flat, open stretch of ground amongst the trees, with fresh running water and everything a campsite would need to survive in the jungle, suggesting it was quite likely the best place to serve as Starswirl's campsite. It was also occupied.

"Great," Twilight muttered as they spied on the collection of grass huts that made up the small village in the clearing. Ponies walked amongst the huts, their bodies daubed with colourful paints, and adorned with decorative grasses and feathers, just like their pointy looking spears. "These guys."

"You've met them before?" Sunset asked, overhearing Twilight's mutterings.

"Once. This may not surprise you, but they tried to kill me and my friends."

"And?" said Trixie.

"And at the time I wasn't used to such things, and I didn't even try to kill them back once."

"Oh the naïveté of youth," Trixie snickered. "So you think this is the right spot?"

"It's more or less in the right place, and has everything a campsite needs, which is probably why these ponies settled here."

"Unless they were here first, and Starswirl lived among them?" Trixie said hopefully.

"Unlikely," said Twilight. "Besides the fact that Starswirl wouldn't interfere with a tribe of indigenous ponies in such a way, I have plenty of reason to believe that these ponies aren't friendly enough to allow such a thing."

"Okay, so, now what?"

"I have no idea."

"Couldn't Mayfly disguise herself as one of them and go check it out?" suggested Sunset. "Sounds like the perfect job for her." All of them looked hopefully at Mayfly, who raised a chitinous eyebrow at them.

"Not possible."

"Why not?" Trixie asked.

"Close knit tribe of ponies very hard to infiltrate as they know each others mannerisms well enough to catch even a perfect facsimile, so imitating one is not an option. They are also likely to be hostile to ponies they don't know, which is a problem you are also faced with, so no different for me. Third problem is that I don't know what I'm looking for."

"It's a mirror," said Trixie. "Probably broken."

"Yes, but- Oh nevermind," Mayfly hissed to herself.

"Maybe it's a good time to try that fly-over thing," Trixie suggested to Twilight. "Just an idea."

"I'd rather them not know we're here," Twilight whispered back. "Maybe we could sneak in at night to have a look around. I don't know, let's get somewhere safe to- Ow!" Something stung Twilight's rear, and she whipped her head around to see what had bit her, instead finding a thin needle sticking out of it, coated with something green. "Mother fucker. Run!"

A further spray of needles flew towards them before they could even turn around to start fleeing, and several more needles landed on Twilight, while others landed on Sunset and Moondancer. Trixie, whether through luck or bad aim avoided getting hit, while Mayfly, through neither of those, was fine as the needles bounced  right off her carapace.

"Tickles," she giggled, following after the others as they fled their invisible attackers, using their magic to pluck the needles from their hides.

Moondancer was the first to fall, her legs collapsing under her as they ran. Twilight turned back to help her, her own legs feeling like lead to the point that she could barely walk herself. Sunset also fell as her legs stopped working, and she whimpered in fear as she tried to crawl. Twilight tried to pick her up as well, but her focus on her magic faded from whatever toxins had coated the needles, and she dropped both of them.

"No, no, no!" Twilight moaned as even talking became hard, her jaw not wanting to move. Sunset looked at her, her eyes the only part of her able to move, and Twilight could see the screaming panic behind that Sunset's body was unable to display save for some rapid breathing.

"Twilight!" Trixie stopped to grab her fallen companions herself, but found she didn't quite have the strength to pick all of them up at once, and Mayfly was nowhere to be seen, so there was no help coming.

"Run!" Twilight hissed at Trixie through her near lifeless jaw.

"I'm not leaving you!"

"Run so you can come back and save us later!"

"Oh! Uh..." Trixie nodded, "Okay, good shout. I'll uh-" Trixie jumped back as more needles flew from the treetops, hitting a flimsy shield Twilight managed to put up instead. "Fuck! I'll come back for you!"

"I'm counting on it," Twilight sighed as Trixie ran as fast as she could. She twitched her eyes to the side as a shadow fell over her, cast by a large mare covered head to tail in greenish mud and bits of vegetation. Likely she was the one leading the ponies that attacked them. "Hi."

"Hah! Sinazo! Iningi lawo noma kunjalo."

"Yes I want fries with that," Twilight said back, not really understanding a word the tribal pony was saying as it sounded like babbling to her ears. "Are my friends okay?" she asked, knowing full well the pony probably couldn't understand her either.

"Ukhuluma ngani? Bah, ubani onendaba."

"Unophondo, namaphiko," said another tribal pony, lifting one of Twilight's limp wings with a hoof. "Uyini yena? Futhi kungani ebonakala ejwayele?"

The first tribal pony shrugged at the seconds question, "Angazi. Mhlawumbe Auhizotl uzokwazi."

"Wait, did you just say Auhizotl?" Twilight grinned nervously at the tribesponies, "There's no need to go bothering him. He won't have any interest in us. In fact, if you let us go, we can all forget this ever happened. Sound good?"

"Lona usakhuluma kanjani?" the second pony said to the first as more ponies turned up. "Kumele kube yinto enzima."

The first pony lightly smacked the second one with a hoof, "Yeka ukuba yisiwula! Babophe ukuze sikwazi ukuwabuyisela emzaneni."

"Hey!" Twilight shouted as the ponies started tying her and her friends up. "Get off of them!" Twilight tried to struggle, but it was like her body didn't even exist any more, she felt so little of it. She growled as something was painted onto her horn, then Moondancer's and Sunset's. She didn't need to guess what it was for, and struggled even harder as a stick was slotted between the ropes on her hooves, and she was hoisted into the air by two ponies.

"I hope you're planning something good Trixie."


-0-0-0-


"Think Trixie, Think!" Trixie cursed as she paced back and forth, "Stop thinking about trying to think, and actually think! Gah!" Trixie sat hard, despair overtaking her, "I don't know what to do!"

"You could try sneaking in."

"Yeek!" Trixie leapt to her hooves and turned on the spot to find Mayfly draped along a low, broken off branch, her pale blue, almost luminous eyes regarding Trixie. "You! Where the hell did you go?"

"I was with you the whole time."

"You were?"

"I was."

"Then if you're that stealthy, why didn't you just sneak into the village?!"

"Because I don't know what I'm looking for."

"It's a mirror! Or a broken one, with gems, and... stuff! It's not hard!"

"And if it was like the one in Badlands, it wouldn't even be that, so again, I wouldn't know what I'm looking for. This one doesn't fancy searching through their entire village looking for a scrap of mirror."

"Oh no? Well how does that one feel about rescuing our friends?"

"Indifferent mostly, because they are your friends, not mine."

Trixie stomped a hoof, "Don't give me that crap! You've been feeding off Sunset's affections for the last week, and I'm guessing some of those are probably for you."

"Only because the rest of you aren't exactly nourishing. She's the only one of you worth trying to feed from!"

"And? Were some of her affections for you?"

Mayfly opened her mouth to argue, then looked away. "Yes, but that doesn't mean I have to like her in return."

"Why not? She's aggravatingly likeable!"

"Changelings don't have friends."

Trixie cocked her head and squinted at Mayfly, "Is that so? Or is that simply what Chrysalis told you? The same pon- changeling that told you all you're not allowed to be individuals? I thought you'd decided to not follow her teachings anymore!"

Mayfly shrugged, "You don't befriend your food. Simple rule."

"Bullshit! Stop thinking like you're some kind of parasite, and start acting like you're a free thinking individual! Care for people! Have friends! Help them when they need it, and just enjoy being around them when they don't! And fucking hell, where is all this coming from? Twilight doesn't even talk like this!" Trixie shook her head rapidly, "Bleh, whatever. My point is that there is nothing stopping you from having friends, and being a friend."

Mayfly sniffed at the air, "You really do care for her, don't you."

"Platonically!"

Mayfly blinked at Trixie, "I didn't say it wasn't."

"And long may that continue." Trixie sighed harshly, "Are you with me or not?"

"Perhaps I might learn best about Thorax by doing as he did, so yes, I will attempt to make friends."

"Great! So you'll help me rescue them?"

"I shall."

"Also great!"

"What's the plan?"

Trixie threw her hooves in the air, "I have no idea!"

"You must have some idea of what to do?"

"No! Yes! One!" Trixie chewed anxiously on her bottom lip, "And it's one I'd really rather not have to do. Seriously, if we get captured again next week I'm going to start charging hazard pay.


-0-0-0-


Rickety wooden cages. Check. Nearby stone altar. Check. Skeletal remains of something that had probably died painfully on said altar. Check. So far everything was present and accounted for on the list of things Twilight needed to make this an authentic 'captured in the jungle' type Daring Do experience, save for one thing; a large monkey creature with a hand on his tail, known as Auhizotl. As soon as he turned up, things probably couldn't get worse.

Actually there was a large list of things Twilight could think of that would make this situation worse, and she hated the amount of effort she was putting into thinking of them. They really needed to stop getting captured.

Still, if there was one silver lining to this, the pins and needles she could feel in her trussed up hooves at least meant the paralysis toxin, or whatever it was on those needles, was wearing off. Sunset and Moondancer were also starting to make moaning noises, so them being okay was also pretty neat too. Now if Trixie could pull a rescue off, things would be just peachy.

"T-Twilight?"

"Hey Sunset, you okay?"

"Not really."

"Fair enough. Are you there Moondancer?"

"I've lost my glasses again. I really am starting to think I should put them on one of those necklace things, especially since I seem to have no magic again."

"Yeah, they painted something on our horns," Twilight said to Moondancer. "Smells a little metallic. Hopefully we can just wash it off."

"And when do you think we can do that?"

"As soon as Trixie and Mayfly rescues us."

Moondancer groaned loudly, "We're doomed."

"How are you being so calm about this?" Sunset asked.

"Because I... I just can't. Just kill me now because I'm so flipping tired of this. If we do make it out of this though, I can't wait to see how we get kidnapped next week."

"Not happening," Twilight said confidently. "After this, we're never getting kidnapped again."

"Because we'll be dead?"

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Because- Oh nevermind. Lets just lie here and hope Trixie gets us out of here before Auhizotl turns up."

"Again with the Auhizotl stuff!" Moondancer shouted, "He's not real!"

Twilight shrugged back as best as her bonds allowed, "You'll see." A loud crack echoed from the forest not too far away, and Twilight suspected that it was only Auhizotl that would have made it. "You'll see," she repeated. Twilight rested her head on the floor of her cage, noticing a stallion walking up to them wearing an elaborate headdress that marked him as either the chief, or the village shaman, mystic, or something along those lines. The most intriguing part though, was the bits of mirror and gemstones decorating his outfit. "Huh."

"Auhizotl, he come for you, soon." The pony said in poor Equestrian. "He tell us why you like great sun pony. Only she have wings and horn."

Twilight's expression went deadpan as she wondered just how many cultures Celestia had pervaded over the centuries. More than likely it wasn't intentional on Celestia's part, but it still irked her. There was other things that mattered more though.

"The shiny bits you're wearing, what are they?" Twilight resisted the urge to roll her eyes as the pony stared at her blankly, then pointed at one of the mirror fragments. "Yeah, those. Where did you find them?"

"Found here long ago. Once part of door to another world, but broken."

"So why do you wear them?"

"Much power, even after broken apart. Give bearer great strength and wisdom."

Twilight wasn't going to waste her breath on how wrong that was, since he wouldn't have understood it anyway. "Okay, thanks for telling me." The stallion stared blankly at her again, then shook his head and moved on to the alter, a low chanting coming from him as he prepared whatever he was doing. "Girls, I think I found the mirror."

"Oh good," Moondancer said sarcastically. "I was worried we were going to die here without ever finding out what happened to it. I'm so relieved."

"I have to admit that I'm with Moondancer on this," said Sunset. "The mirror seems a little low on our list of priorities."

"It'll be fine," Twilight insisted. "They're only really interested in me, so hopefully I can bargain for them to let you go."

"Fine by me," Moondancer mumbled.

"Moondancer!" Sunset gasped.

"What? She can't die! There is literally nothing she can't get over!"

"I'm pretty sure there is plenty she can't get over," Sunset said slowly. "I also think you have an unhealthy fixation on self sacrifice Twilight. But, since I'm in no position to refuse it, hopefully they'll buy it."

Another crash echoed through the jungle, much closer this time, and the shaman increased the volume of his chanting. "He comes! He comes! The great Auhizotl comes!"

"This should be good," Moondancer laughed. Her tone quickly changed as Auhizotl, in all his hulking, blue, simian glory, crashed out of the jungle at the far end of the village, then charged up through the middle of it to the alter. "I- I- I don't-"

"Why have you summoned me?!" Auhizotl screamed at the shaman, his words echoing around the jungle for several seconds afterwards.

The shaman dropped to the ground in submission, "I am sorry great one, but we found a special pony, and we thought you should know about her."

"A special pony..." Auhizotl loomed in close to the shaman and snorted, blowing his headdress off. "You brought me here... for a pony!"

"She has both wings and a horn, oh great one! Please, spare me your wrath!"

"Wings and a horn, hmm?" Auhizotl pulled back from the shaman, then spotted Twilight in the cage.

"Hi."

"So you are the alicorn these peasants dared summon me for." Auhizotl leaned in and sniffed Twilight, blowing her mane back and forth with each breath. "Wait, I remember you. You were with that cursed Daring Do as she destroyed the Fortress of Talacon!"

"Wait!" Moondancer gasped, "Daring Do's real as well?"

"Ignore her," Twilight sighed as Auhizotl moved to investigate Moondancer. "She's had a rough day."

"Hmm, they have no worth to me anyway. You though, with you I could gain the strength of a god!"

"And how do you intend that?"

Auhizotl leaned back in close to Twilight, "By devouring your heart, the heart of an alicorn, I will gain all the power I would ever need. Power enough even, to rival that of the Fallen Dark Empress Ketztwctl!"

"I see. Well, since the other two have no worth to you, I don't suppose I could convince you to release them?"

"You dare ask such a thing of me?" Auhizotl snarled.

"You did say that they were useless to you, so there is literally no harm in you releasing them. If you do, I'll come quietly."

"But I already have you at my mercy, so no, there will be no bargaining. These ponies did well to capture you for me, so as a reward they may keep the other two to do with as they wish."

Twilight closed her eyes, silently apologising to Sunset and Moondancer as Auhizotl called for the villagers to begin preparing a ritual. There would be no forgiving herself this time.


-0-0-0-


"You seem curiously unconcerned about your fate," Auhizotl said to Twilight as some of the villagers daubed her body with foul smelling paints. Not that she cared. She was too busy thinking about the fate of Sunset and Moondancer. "Do you not realise you are going to die?"

"Hmm? Oh. Oh no, death, my one weakness. Woe is me, etcetera, etcetera."

"Do you truly not care?"

"I'd care if I thought for one moment that what you were going to would actually kill me, instead of being a temporary inconvenience. Please Auhizotl, I'm begging you. Do what you want to me, but let my friends go."

Auhizotl reached over and grabbed Twilight's chin between a finger and thumb, forcing her to look up at him. "I have already spoken on this, and my word is final. I'm sure those two will make the villagers' celebration of my victory all the better."

Twilight jerked her chin out of his grip, and nodded to herself as she made a decision, "I'm going to kill you."

"Excuse me?"

"I said I'm going to kill you."

"But you will be dead!"

"Yeah, we'll see about that."

"Do you not realise what is happening here?"

"I understand perfectly well what is happening here. It's you, actually, that doesn't understand what it is you're doing, and soon enough, you'll fully understand the mistake you made when I drive my blade through your heart."

"You're deluded."

"Of course," Twilight continued, "it saddens me to have to kill off one of the major villains of the Daring Do series, but at this point I really don't care. However, if you were to release my friends, I might decide to spare you."

The villagers painting Twilight's body backed away as Auhizotl brought himself up to his full height and loomed over Twilight. "You dare threaten me? I could destroy you right now if I so wished! In fact, I'm tempted to kill your friends in front of you as a punishment for your impudence."

"For every hair you harm on their heads, your death becomes slower and more agonising than you could possibly imagine. Let. Them. Go."

Auhizotl picked Twilight up in his tail-hand, and lifted her until they were face to face. "I'm sure they'll make fine broodmares for the tribe, alicorn." He slammed Twilight down onto the altar, dazing and winding her. "Begin the ritual!"

Twilight soon found herself surrounded in a haze of incense and other, less pleasing fumes. Drums sounded semi-rhythmically around them, and the shaman chanted feverishly as the ritual commenced. The significance of it all was lost on Twilight, as she already knew it wouldn't work, but it was hard to argue when you have a wickedly sharp obsidian blade held tightly to your throat.

The ritual got louder and louder, building up into an obvious crescendo that likely heralded the blade being stuck into her ribcage. Painful, but as had been said plenty of times before, not particularly problematic in the long run. Twilight's concerns were still focused on Sunset and Moondancer far more than herself.

The drumming and chanting stopped, leaving only the sound of the many torches and fires burning around them. At least until Auhizotl started saying strange words in yet another language Twilight didn't understand. They were still just words though, and Twilight couldn't feel any build up of magic or anything as they continued to spill from Auhizotl's elongated maw. If there was, Twilight might have been a little more concerned.

The blade lifted from Twilight's neck, and was raised far above her, ready to be plunged down into her chest. Twilight squeezed her eyes shut, anticipating the pain, and the new addition to her nightmares.

"Stop!"

Twilight's eyes snapped back open, and she, along with everyone else in the village, looked towards the source of the word. "Oh fuck me."

Trixie trotted slowly up through the village, her armour shining in the firelight, and her head held high with the confidence of a pony that knew what they were doing was incredibly stupid, but was going to do it anyway.

"I demand you release my friends!"

The village was silent for several seconds, then echoed with the sound of laughter as Auhizotl guffawed gleefully at Trixie. He slowed down and finally stopped, wiping a tear from his eye before turning serious again. "Grab her."

The shaman barked an order in his own language, and a dozen ponies jumped on Trixie, wrestling her to the ground and dragging her before Auhizotl.

"Was this your plan?" Twilight asked as Trixie struggled.

"Not exactly. The fact that this Auhi-whatever-feller is not only real, but standing right here, kinda fucked it up from the beginning."

"Okay, what were you really planning?" Trixie flicked her eyes towards the cage where an almost invisible Mayfly was chewing through the ropes tying Moondancer's legs together. Twilight almost squealed with joy, but held it in to not draw attention to what the changeling was doing. "So you had nothing then."

"Actually, I was going to challenge their leader to one on one combat for your life." Trixie grinned apologetically, "I may have underestimated his size."

"It was a noble effort Trixie, but the major flaw in your plan is that these ponies don't speak equestrian, so you probably couldn't have-"

"Silence!" Auhizotl shouted over them. "Not only have you ruined the ceremony, but you have wasted my time. Your punishment will be death."

"Wait! I challenge you to combat! Winner gets to keep the prisoners!"

Auhizotl coolly regarded Trixie, then grabbed her, lifting her up and slamming her down onto the ground. "I win."

"Best two out of three?" Trixie wheezed.

"You're an idiot Trixie," Twilight muttered. 

"Idiot like a fox! Now!"

Twilight quickly looked around, along with most of the villagers, and Auhizotl, expecting something to happen, but it never did. Then she heard Trixie laughing.

"Oh wow, the looks on all your faces! I got you all good! Hah! Seriously though," Trixie's horn lit up and cut through the ropes holding Twilight down, "now!"

Twilight scrambled to her hooves and leapt off the altar before she could be stopped. A simple feat made much harder by how completely unprepared she was for it. She tried to grab Trixie and teleport away, but failed at both of those as she was reminded of the stuff on her horn. "Fuck-fuck-fuck!"

"Grab her!"

Twilight danced around the ponies that threw themselves at her, desperately trying to not get dragged down by them, wasting Trixie's rescue. Especially since Trixie's life was very much on the line now.

"Fly you idiot! Get out of here!"

"Oh yeah." Twilight spread her wings a flew out of reach of the ponies below, but didn't stop moving in case any of them decided to get clever with those paralysing needles again. Without her magic though, she was powerless to fight back, and helpless to save Trixie from her predicament. "Trixie!"

"Get out of here Twilight!"

"I'm not leaving you!"

"I meant, to draw the ponies away! Will you please stop being dense?"

"Oh that's hardly fair! I don't know what your stupid fucking plan is!" Twilight looped around the village, they flew into the jungle, slowly weaving through the trees.

"After her!" Auhizotl shouted, "Bring me back that alicorn!" The shaman shouted orders again, and the village quickly grew empty as the villagers chased after Twilight. Auhizotl turned back to Trixie, picking her up to bring her to his face. "I will get her back, and when I do, I will take great pleasure in destroying you in front of her. You will have died for nothing!"

"Don't count me out just yet." Point blank, Trixie blasted Auhizotl in the face with her magic as hard as she could, and found herself flying sideways as he roared in pain and tossed her away. She landed roughly on the ground, which was one of the few things her armour couldn't help with, but she still managed to get back on her hooves before Auhizotl could recover.

"I will kill you!" he roared, lumbering after Trixie, his face blackened and bleeding, but otherwise not particularly damaged.

"Yeah, yeah," Trixie grunted, running out of the way between some of the huts in the village. Auhizotl piled straight through them, not even caring that he was destroying his followers homes. Unfortunately this meant that he caught up very quickly.

Trixie tried to blast Auhizotl with her magic again, but running and trying to shoot something behind you was proving difficult, and very few of her attacks actually hit him, while those that did hardly even scratched him without the same power she put into her first attack. She grabbed a stone and lobbed it at him, but he easily batted it aside.

"What does it take to slow you down?!" Trixie ran back between the huts, Auhizotl hot on her heels as he smashed through the village, the shaman desperately pleading with Auhizotl to stop destroying their homes.

Trixie doubled back on herself, hoping to trick Auhizotl into thinking that she'd kept running straight. It didn't work though, and a hand smacked down on her, roughly hoisting her into the air where she was subjected to the full extent of his breath as he roared right in her face. "You will pay for what you've done!"

"How about we call this one a draw, then let the next round be the decider? Yes? No? Ahh!" Trixie squealed and struggled as Auhizotl started squeezing her, clearing planning on crushing her to death. It was working too, and she found herself out of options as her breath failed to come. Whispering an apology to Twilight, Trixie squeezed her eyes shut. When she reopened them, purple smoke poured from them.

A band of dark magic wrapped around the arm Auhizotl was using to hold Trixie, and he screamed as it constricted and easily sliced through flesh and bone, severing his hand in mere seconds. Trixie gasped for breath as she fell to the ground again, still wrapped in his twitching fist. She lifted it off her and tossed it aside, her head spinning from lack of oxygen, and the heady rush of dark magic.

She advanced on Auhizotl, who crawled back from her, his eyes filled with fear at the tiny pony who had managed to cut his hand off without so much as trying. "No! Please!"

"You'll get as much mercy as you were going to show us." Trixie raised her head sharply, her horn bubbling with the sickening mix of blacks, purples, and greens of dark magic. Shards of crystal jutted out of the ground, impaling upwards through Auhizotl's feet, pinning him in place as he howled with agony. She started to pull his good arm towards her, intending to pin that down as well, when another cry, this one of fury, reached her ears. 

The shaman charged towards her, the obsidian dagger that was going to be used to kill Twilight clamped between his teeth. Trixie snorted and batted him aside with her magic, enjoying the power that let her dismiss him so easily. It was almost like it had never left her.

Trixie pulled Auhizotl's hand back out and pinned it down with a sickening crack of bones as he screamed feebly, trying to pull himself free. "Not much fun being on the receiving end, is it? I wonder how many ponies felt what you're feeling now as you carved them open upon that altar? I bet you weren't even merciful enough to make it quick."

"Please..."

"And how many pleas for mercy have you heard in your time? Exactly as many as you've ignored I imagine." Trixie formed a spear of dark crystal, and pointed it down at Auhizotl's head, "I think it's only fitting that the last you hear are your own." Trixie forced the spear down through his skull and into the ground, and stood watching until his twitches finally stopped.

"Trixie! I think I've lost them! Come on, let's get out of... here... Fucking hell." Twilight landed next to Trixie, the blue mare looking away as guilt shot through her. "Damn Trixie, you weren't messing around were you?"

"I'm sorry Twilight," Trixie mumbled. "I- I- He was- I had to-"

Twilight pulled Trixie into a hug and shushed her, "I'm not angry Trixie. I know you only did what you had to." Twilight held the hug as Trixie cried softly. "It's gonna be okay. Although I think we better get out of here."

"Before the villagers get back?"

"Well, that, and before we get burnt to death," Twilight said, gesturing back at the large amount of fire that was consuming the village after Auhizotl's rampage.

"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry I killed him."

"I'm not."

Trixie looked at Twilight with surprise, "But he's a character from those books you like so much! Those previously thought to be fictional books. Why aren't you mad?"

"Because I had every intention of killing him myself after all this." Twilight smiled softly at Trixie until she managed to pull at least half a smile back. "Come on, we better get moving." Twilight started to take off, then remembered something. "Actually, where's that shaman? He has something we need."

"Uh, I threw him over there somewhere." Trixie led Twilight in the vague direction she thought she had thrown the shaman, and eventually found him dead, his head impaled by the dagger he had been carrying. "Oh, whoops, I never meant for that to happen."

"It's fine. Well, maybe less so for him." Twilight started the process of removing the mirror shards with her magic, then looked up and sighed at her horn as nothing happened. "I really hope this stuff washes off. Trixie, could you do me a favour and strip all the mirror pieces and gems off his outfit."

"Ooookay..." Carefully, and with much consideration for the colour of her magic, Trixie quickly tore off all the bits Twilight pointed out. She picked up the pace as the sound of ponies in the jungle grew louder as the tribal ponies started to return to their burning village. As soon as she'd pulled the last bit off, Twilight grabbed her around the chest and took off. Just in time too as the tribal ponies poured in from the dark jungle.

"Y'know," Twilight snickered, "that six months of normality I moaned about is looking pretty good about now. Anyway, I don't suppose you found a safe place to hide out after saving us?"

"Yeah, it's by a waterfall, that way somewhere," Trixie said, pointing in the direction of the nearby river, while trying to not look down. "Hopefully Mayfly has got the others there already."

"Hopefully." Twilight smiled to herself, relieved that things had, sort of, worked out okay. There was one detail that still bothered her though. "Trixie, was that really your plan? Getting the others out sneakily while you fought the tribe's cheiftain for me?"

"Uh, yes? Maybe? I don't know. It all went wrong when that giant monkey showed up anyway."

"And the dark magic? Was that part of the plan?"

"...Yes, but only as a last resort. I really didn't want to do it Twilight, and I feel horrible now. I don't even know why I did what I did to whatshisface, when I could have just killed him." Trixie closed her eyes and sighed, "I hate how amazing it felt too. Nothing like when I first started using it back in Mareitania."

Twilight hugged Trixie a little closer, "While I'm not saying we should ignore it, how about we don't worry about it right now? Right now I think we should be happy that we're all alive and okay thanks to you and Mayfly."

"But Twilight! I fucked up and used dark magic again! I couldn't even go two months without going back to using it!"

"But you didn't want to use it."

"And? It felt amazing Twilight! Right now the only thing stopping me from using it again is how guilty I feel!" Trixie hung limply in Twilight's grip, barely keeping hold of the mirror fragments, "I feel like I failed you."

"Trixie, you saved us all, and only did what you had to to stop Auhizotl from killing you. I hate to say it Trixie, but the only pony feeling like you failed, is you. No I'm not saying that dark magic is something that you should go back to using, but considering the situation, using it is as a one off is perfectly acceptable."

"But what if I can't help but go back to using it more and more? What if I end up totally relying on it again? Do you really want me to go back to being like that?"

"Do you?" Twilight asked back.

"Not really."

"And that is why you won't. Trixie, your regular magic is a lot more powerful than it used to be, and I dare say you rival some of the more powerful magic users in Equestria now. Put simply, if you rely on your normal magic, and only keep the dark magic as a last resort in times of dire need, that's all it will ever be. Even I do that, although reluctantly."

Trixie shook her head sadly, "It's not that simple."

"I know, but this can be something we can work on. As I said, we can talk about this later, when you've had some time to think about it. Right now I just want to make sure the others are safe."


-0-0-0-


"Thank goodness," Sunset gushed as Twilight and Trixie swooped into the cave. "I was so worried."

Twilight placed Trixie on the ground, then grabbed Sunset in a hug, "Believe me, I was a lot more worried about what was going to happen to you and Moondancer if we weren't rescued. Are you okay Moondancer?" she asked the sullen pony sat further into the cave with her summonable glasses perched on her nose. Moondancer glared at her, then looked away again. "I'll take that as a reluctant yes, maybe?" Twilight sighed.

Mayfly walked up them, and spat into a cloth which she held up to Twilight. "Here, to clean your horn with. Apparently changeling saliva removes the paint stuff very easily."

Twilight squirmed internally at the thought of what was on the cloth, then gingerly took it and rubbed it on her horn. As Mayfly had said, it removed the paint easily enough, although it took a minute to get it off completely. "Thanks," she said to Mayfly. "And thanks again," she added, grabbing Mayfly in a tight hug.

Mayfly went cross-eyed, then sighed dreamily before coming back to her senses. "That was unexpected, in many ways. What is extra thank you and hug for?"

"For saving Sunset and Moondancer."

"Oh, well, it was Trixie that talked me into it, although I must say I can see her point on the benefits of friendship."

"Are you doing my job Trixie?" Twilight laughed, only to be met with silence. She released Mayfly to look for Trixie, and found her sitting outside the cave entrance, her head low. "Oh Trixie."

"What's wrong with her?" Sunset asked, following Twilight's gaze.

"She used dark magic to kill Auhizotl, and now she feels bad about it, even though it saved her life."

"What?! Moondancer shrieked. "She killed Auhizotl?"

"Well, yeah, he was going to kill her. He was also going to kill me and eat my heart, and give you and Sunset to the villagers as a reward for capturing us. I'm sure I don't need to tell you what horrible things that might have involved."

"But he's Auhizotl! He's like one of the biggest villains in Daring Do! It won't be the same without him!"

"So you're no longer bothered that he's real?"

"I- Graaaagh!" Moondancer leant forwards and grabbed her head in her hooves, then started rocking back and forth, muttering to herself.

Sunset raised an eyebrow at Moondancer, "Of all the things I thought might break her, that was not one I expected. Although I can understand her position on this. Anyway, I'm guessing that Trixie using dark magic isn't something we want?"

"It isn't something she wants either. I'll talk to her about it tomorrow, but for now I really think we should get some rest, and sleep off any lingering effects of that poison. 

"It's not real! It's not real! It's not real!"

"And maybe you should have a small talk with Moondancer."


-0-0-0-


Sleep eluded Trixie, which bothered her immensely. Back during the civil war in Mareitania, she barely slept as a consequence of her heavy use of dark magic. It had been something that had mostly resolved itself during her time in hospital, but that seems to have counted for nought. One taste of dark magic after all these months, and here she was, staring at the ceiling while everyone around her slept reasonably peacefully, just like old times.

"This is bullshit," she whispered to herself, throwing open her sleeping bag and wobbling to her hooves. She headed towards the exit, taking great care not to wake anypony, and despite almost tripping over Mayfly who was near invisible in the dark, she made it out without incident. 

The air was still warm outside, and the sky was filled with clouds and the low rumble of distant thunder. All Trixie wanted was to stare mysteriously at the moon as she brooded on her issues, but apparently she wasn't even allowed to have that tonight. What she really wanted though, was for Twilight to stop hiding from the issue of her using dark magic. Sure she'd promised to talk about it tomorrow, but Trixie was worried about it now.

Trixie snorted mirthlessly, "Worried's an understatement. Am I just doomed to forever use dark magic?" Trixie was immensely thankful that nothing answered.

Her attempt to stare wistfully at the moon thwarted, Trixie sat and stared over the edge of the where their little cave was hidden, watching the waterfall as it tumbled endlessly into the dark below. She felt like she could understand how that was, to forever fall into darkness without a choice. It was a horrible feeling.

Trixie's ears pricked as she thought she heard something, but when she turned to look there was nothing there. Snorting in irritation she turned back to watching the waterfall, the feeling that she wasn't alone not leaving her, even though there was nothing there. 

"Stop it Trixie, there's nothing there," she said out loud to herself, but it didn't help. The feeling of being watched only grew, and no amount of reassuring herself stopped the feeling from getting stronger and stronger until it almost weighed her down, and the harder she ignored it, the worse it seemed to get.

"Ours..."

Trixie shrieked and span, lashing out with a hoof that passed through thin air because there was nothing there to hit. She was as alone as she was when she first came out here.

Trixie collapsed to her stomach and sobbed into her hooves, suddenly feeling very afraid for herself.
> 21. Nyctophobia
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Twilight. Twilight! Twi-light!"

"Mnnnhh... what?" Twilight cracked her eyes open as Moondancer shouted her name and shook her. Why Moondancer of all ponies was doing it was a matter for a more awake pony to deal with.

"You really need to go talk to Trixie. Now."

"Trixie?" Twilight rubbed her eyes as a few more synapses crept to life, reminding her of who Trixie was, and what had happened the previous night. "Trixie! Is she okay? What happened?"

"Do you really think I'd be waking you and telling you to go talk to Trixie if everything was fine? Really?" Moondancer rolled her eyes at Twilight, "How about you go find out what happened, instead of asking me. She's outside."

Twilight scrambled out of her sleeping bag and stumbled to her hooves before running out to Trixie, leaping over the recumbent form of Mayfly who seemed to have a big dreamy smile on her face as she slept.

Sunset was already outside, hovering near the entrance to the cave, several meters from Trixie, who lay on her stomach staring blankly over the open vista of the jungle. "Thank goodness Twilight. I don't know what's wrong with Trixie, but she won't respond to me. She just keeps staring off into the distance. It also felt kind of weird around her, like... something, I don't know, but it gave me the creeps."

"Yeah, it'll do that," Twilight said noncommittally. She gave Sunset a brave smile, then slowly walked over to Trixie. The air around her felt noticeably colder than it was a mere ten steps away, and the sensation was making Twilight's hair stand on its end. Twilight put it out of her mind to pay attention to Trixie, who was lay with her muzzle buried under her legs. The half dried remains of tears streaked her cheeks, and her eyes were locked forwards, staring at nothing. To top it all off, a faint purple and black miasma swirled around her horn, barely visible to the naked eye.

Twilight swallowed down her concerns, "Trixie?" There was no answer, so she laid a hoof on Trixie's back and shook her, "Come on Trixie, don't do this." Trixie still didn't do anything to even acknowledge Twilight's existence, so feeling that her options were running low, Twilight did the simplest thing she could think of. She smacked Trixie across the back of the head.

"Ungh!" And just like that, Trixie was back. "Ow! What the fuck?" Trixie rubbed the back of her head, and fluttered her eyes rapidly as they were sore from not blinking much. Noticed only by Twilight was that the chill feeling around Trixie was suddenly gone. "What was that for?"

"You mean you don't remember being out here for ages staring blankly into the distance?" Twilight cocked her head questioningly, "Yes? No?"

"Ages? What do you mean ages?" Trixie suddenly realised that it was daylight, and was surprised that so much time had passed. "Oh," she murmured, rubbing her cheeks free of the crusty remains of her tears.

Twilight sat next to Trixie, not bothering to physically comfort Trixie since she knew it wouldn't likely be appreciated. "What's going on Trixie?" she asked. "Why were you out here?"

"I- I don't know. I couldn't sleep, so I came out here for some fresh air, and it kinda felt like something was watching me." Trixie tried to laugh, but it sounded fake even to her, "I guess I just scared myself."

"You scared yourself to tears then lay here for hours in a semi catatonic state while pretty much leaking dark magic out of your horn." Twilight raised an eyebrow at Trixie, "I hate to say it, but that does not sound legit. In fact it sounds incredibly 'not' legit. What really happened Trixie?"

"I just heard something, that's all. Nothing to worry about." Trixie smiled up at Twilight, but she still seemed entirely unconvinced.

"Trixie, stop lying to me. Or at least stop trying to hide things. What did you hear last night?"

"It was nothing, just a bird or something."

"Mm-hmm, and did the bird say?"

"What? It's a bird, it didn't say anything."

"So it wasn't a bird then."

Trixie pushed herself up so she was sitting, and looked irritably at Twilight. "What are you getting at Twilight? I heard a noise, got scared, and-"

"Didn't go back in the cave where it would be safer, instead choosing to sit out here for hours frozen on the spot. Can you see why I'm having issues with this explanation? Come on Trixie, you know you can talk to me. What happened last night?"

Trixie looked down and studied the ground intently for several seconds. She didn't want to say what really happened, and wished Twilight would just drop the issue. That seemed unlikely though, and became less and less likely the longer she went without speaking, so she gave in.

"I did hear something last night. A voice."

Twilight nodded slowly. Hearing a voice in the jungle didn't exactly seem impossible, so Trixie being this wound up seemed odd. "Oookay, what did the voice say?"

"Ours."

"Ours? That's all it said?"

Trixie nodded, "Yep, that's it. Well, not quite. It felt like it came from right behind me, like, right in my ear, and when it spoke I turned round to hit it, but there was nothing there. I- I-" Trixie licked her dry lips, trying to get her thoughts out of her mouth. "It was those things, wasn't it? The things that say they own me. As soon as I used dark magic again, they were there." Trixie looked back up at Twilight, her eyes brimming with tears. "I can't do this again Twilight, I just... can't! Please don't let them take me."

Twilight didn't even think about it this time, and pulled Trixie into a hug as she cried her heart out. Compared to how Trixie normally acted, this was a bit of a shock to Twilight. Last time this issue had come up, Trixie barely made anything of it, but considering how it ended with both of them fighting, and Twilight tearing Trixie's horn off with her teeth, perhaps knowing how high the stakes could be made it a lot worse for her.

Slowly Trixie cried herself out, and just let Twilight hold her as she occasionally sobbed and hiccupped. "I'm scared Twilight. I don't want to be owned by something. Please don't let them take me."

"I won't," said Twilight, and she meant it. She'd failed too many of her friends lately, and she was determined to not fail another. If only she knew how to fix this.

"You promise?"

"I promise. Whatever those things are, they better watch out because they're going to have to deal with me."


-0-0-0-


The jungle seemed a lot scarier today, as far as Trixie was concerned anyway. For the last week she'd confidently blundered her way through the overgrowth, not worrying about anything much. Now though, every shadow hid something sinister, all eyes were watching her, and every sound was a threat whispered in her ear. She knew that, in short, she was losing her mind as she jumped at pretty much everything.

She shrieked as something brushed her side, and built up her magic ready to attack when a purple hoof smacked her on the horn, probably harder than intended since the motion almost slammed Trixie's nose against the floor. 

"Uh, sorry," Twilight laughed nervously. "Don't know my own strength sometimes. I only meant to stop you drawing attention to us."

"'S fine," Trixie said blearily, her vision spinning from the strike, and her horn agonisingly feeling like it was no longer the same shape. "I guess I'm just a bit jumpy today."

"No kidding," said Twilight, pointing behind them to where Sunset, Moondancer, and Mayfly were keeping a safe distance. Although not so far away you couldn't see their nervous expressions. "It's understandable that what happened has you a bit shaken, but what you're doing isn't really... what's the word?"

"Helping?" Trixie suggested flatly.

"Not what I was going for, but I suppose that's one way of putting it. Look, Trixie, I know you don't want to go back to the way you were, and that's fine, great even, but this nervousness is not helping you either. Nothing is going to jump out and get you... or at least nothing related to your fears is going to jump out and get you, and if they did, what would you even do?"

"I'd, uh... I don't know. Attack them I guess."

"With what?"

"My... magic." Trixie sighed to herself as that sounded ludicrous even to her ears. She'd have to use dark magic to attack with any strength, and that was only building up her problems, rather than fixing them. One look at Twilight was enough to see that the alicorn had come to the same conclusion.

"So you're scared that something might attack because you don't want to use your magic to fight back, is that it?"

"Partially, I guess. We are talking about me using dark magic, right? I'm not going to pretend we are only to be wrong later."

"Yeah, we are. You don't want to use it, so you're scared of things that might have to involve you using it. What if I told you that you don't really need it any more? Or at least not unless it's a real emergency, which even I do."

Trixie shrugged as she walked, "I'd tell you that you're a liar."

Twilight snorted a laugh, "I thought as much. I'm not lying though. I'm sure you haven't noticed, mostly because all magic feels weak compared to dark magic which is part of the trap of using it, but your time using dark magic has greatly increased your capacity for all types of magic. Basically it made you a lot stronger that you originally were."

"I get the feeling we've talked about this before. Still, I'm curious. Like, how strong are we talking here?" Trixie grinned excitedly, "Like alicorn strong?"

"Uh, nooo," Twilight said awkwardly. "Not that magic really works in terms of strength, but I'll say that you're somewhere between Moondancer and Sunset in terms of power."

Trixie's expression went flat, "So still less than you when you were still a unicorn?"

"Again, I'm going to reiterate that magic isn't measured in terms of power like that."

"So, I'm not as powerful as unicorn you was."

Twilight sighed irritably, "No."

"You know what? While meeting you was great and all, at least in the long run, it really did burst my bubble. Not only did I learn that I'm not the best, but because of you I've met unicorns that are more powerful than me, meaning that I'm not even second best. I'm actually not even in the top ten, am I?"

Twilight rolled her eyes, "I really doubt there's a top ten, and I keep telling you that it doesn't really work like that. I'm the Element of Magic, which should in theory put me as one of the most powerful magic users in existence, but I can assure you that both Celestia and Luna could probably beat me in a fight without too much difficulty, because it's your skill at casting that makes the difference, and they have a lot more experience than me. Power is a factor, but a skilled caster can overcome a powerful one.

"Okay, fine, you made your point. So I'm somewhere between Moondancer and Sunset, making me, what? Sundancer? Or Moonset?"

"Out of those two, Sundancer sounds better. What it really means though, is that in power terms, that's not too shabby. You're probably more 'powerful' than any Adept we trained in Mareitania."

"Ah yes, them," Trixie hummed. "Don't seem like such a good idea now, do they?"

"Not so much, but what I'm getting at Trixie, if we stop going off on tangents, is that I'm willing to teach you magic if you want so that you don't need to rely on dark magic to do anything."

"Except for emergencies, like you said."

"Exactly. I'm even willing to have a go at teaching you light magic to balance things out a little, although I'm not going to count on that one really working."

"Don't think I can do it?"

Twilight shook her head, "I don't think I can teach it. I'm not even a hundred percent I can do it to any effective level right now if I'm honest, but I'm sure Sunset could have a go at teaching you if I can't. Assuming she's capable of doing it. So how about it Trixie? Do you want to learn some real magic instead of cheaters magic?"

Trixie nodded slowly, like she was really thinking it over. "You do mean I'll be learning how to fight with my magic and stuff."

"Oh yeah," definitely," Twilight laughed. "I think that's kind of a given considering what we're doing. There is plenty of other stuff we can teach you, but we'll have to leave out the really complicated stuff for now because that's not really something you can teach on the move." Twilight grinned slyly at Trixie, "So, are you in or not?"

"I'm in. I'm so definitely in." Trixie held up a hoof as Twilight cheered, "Just don't go calling me your student or anything, because I will... have to invent some cruel and unusual things your alicorn physiology can't overcome if you do."

"Deal. Now, are you ready for todays lesson, my faithful student?" Twilight smiled as Trixie groaned at her. "Come on, let me have that, just once."

Trixie turned her groan into a begrudging sigh, "Fine, once. So what's todays lesson? Let me guess. It's breathing exercises isn't it."

"Uh, no. I'm pretty sure you already know how to breath to an adequate degree, so we can skip that frippery. Todays' lesson, or lesson one, is accepting your limitations."

"What? That sounds like a sucky lesson."

"It's an important one though. If you can't do something, either keep trying, or accept that you can't do it. Don't try to cut corners by using dark magic instead, because that very much goes against why I'm teaching you this stuff in the first place."

"So you're saying I should be okay with not being able to do things. No falling back to dark magic to do it for me."

"Exactly. Unless it's an emerge-"

"Yes unless it's an emergency! I get it!" Trixie nodded as she thought about that. It was at least a reasonable request, accepting your limitations. Perhaps she might even give it a go at some point. "Okay, awesome. What's the next lesson?" 

"There's no rush Trixie, it's a long way to Saddle Arabia."

"I know that, but I want to learn this stuff! Come on Twilight, don't be shy."

Twilight smiled at Trixie, pleased to see her desire to learn. "Alright then, your next lesson is how to blow stuff up... with your mind."

"Now we're talking."


-0-0-0-


"What do you think they're talking about?" Moondancer asked as she, Sunset, and Mayfly kept their distance from Trixie.

"Twilight's offered to teach Trixie magic other than dark magic. She's also said that Sunset can teach light magic to Trixie if she can't." Mayfly blanched at the looks Moondancer and Sunset gave her, "What? Could you not hear them?"

Sunset shrugged that off as changeling weirdness, instead turning her thoughts towards what Mayfly had said. "I don't know if I can teach light magic. Heck, I don't even know if I can even do light magic. In fact, I don't even really know how to do it."

Moondancer adjusted her glasses, "I do believe the general method is to simply think happy thoughts."

"Is that from experience?"

"Hah!" Moondancer moved her glasses again as her laugh made them slip down her muzzle. Then she caught Sunset's confused expression. "Wait, you're being serious?"

"Well, yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Do I really seem like a happy kind of pony to you? Do you even know me?"

"I'd like to," Sunset said earnestly. "I don't know why you're so resistant to the idea of having friends?"

"I had friends, once." Moondancer directed a piercing glare at Twilight, "It didn't work out, and I'm never letting myself get hurt like that again."

"It's hurting you now," said Sunset. "Don't think I haven't seen the way you look at Twilight when she's alone with Trixie, or with any of us really, except you. You're jealous of her being friends with other ponies."

"No I'm not!"

"Yes, you are. Is this how you really want things to be? To always be too scared to reach out to another pony because you're afraid of getting hurt?"

Moondancer stopped and pressed a hoof up against Sunset's chest, pushing her back. "You have no idea what it was like Sunset! You have no idea what Twilight did to me! I'm never feeling like that again!"

Sunset gently pushed Moondancer's hoof away, "Actually I do know what happened. Twilight's already told me what she did, and it's pretty clear how it's affected you. You do realise that she feels terrible for what she did, right?"

"I couldn't care less how she feels."

"Liar," Mayfly said quietly, reading Moondancer's feelings like a book.

"You stay out of this!" Moondancer glared at Mayfly, but the changeling seemed indifferent to Moondancer's rage, so she turned it back to Sunset. "If Twilight feels terrible for what she did, then that is the least she deserves."

"But that spiteful attitude is just adding to your own pain!"

"I'm used to it." Moondancer turned and started walking again, her head low. "Besides, how terrible do you really think she feels if she can blame me for being friends with her."

"She doesn't blame you for being friends with her. She's just bad at expressing the idea that just because she was a terrible friend, you didn't have to abandon your other friends, or the idea of friendship, because she messed things with you up."

Moondancer raised a skeptical eyebrow at Sunset, "Is that so? That doesn't sound remotely like what she said."

"Moondancer, I don't need to be a mind reader to know you're not only unhappy, but angry about it too, just as Twilight knows it's unlikely that you'll ever forgive her. But all she really wants at the end of the day is for you to be happy. Isn't that something you want as well?"

"Of course it is!" Moondancer sighed and grit her teeth, "But I don't know how, and I'm scared because I don't want to get hurt again."

"I think you'll find the first step is trying to make friends with ponies, instead of shutting them out."

"And who would want to be friends with me?"

Sunset smiled at Moondancer. "I would."

"Really?"

"Sure! I bet Mayfly would too, right Mayfly?"

Mayfly nodded affirmatively, "I too have recently learnt that having friends is a good thing, so if Moondancer wants to be friends, that's good for both of us. Also good for understanding traitor Thorax's warped logic. I must admit, he must be well fed if this is how things are with friends." Mayfly coughed awkwardly as both of them looked at her funny. "Extra food fringe benefit. Not the actual point of being friends. Other benefits possible though, like comforts for when Moondancer has another existential crisis."

"You'd really want to be my friend?" Moondancer looked at both of them like they'd gone mad, "Really?"

"Really," Sunset confirmed.

"You're not going to say I have to forgive Twilight are you?"

"It would be nice if you did, but no, I'm not going to suggest anything. I will suggest giving Trixie a chance, as she can be a nice pony when she wants to be."

Moondancer scoffed at the suggestion, "Yeah, that'll be the day. So is there anything we need to? To become friends I mean. Some kind of ritual?"

"Not really. You just sort of become friends."

"So, we're friends now? Just like that?"

Sunset smiled at Moondancer, "Just like that."

"Oh. I guess it's easier because we already know each other."

"We'll worry about meeting new ponies some other time, like when there's actually new ponies to meet."

"And they aren't trying to kill us."

"That too."

Moondancer nodded thoughtfully. Not that she'd say it, because she felt ashamed of how much it affected her, but it felt nice to say she had friends again.


-0-0-0-


Rarity clutched at her stomach, trying to ease the pains it was giving her. Weeks of only two meals a day had taken their toll, and she knew she was coming unattractively skinny, but the thought of one of the others going hungry repulsed her more than the consequences to herself ever could. As much as she tried, her generous streak won out every time, and honestly, she wouldn't have it any other way.

Not that she was required to do much more than the bare minimum, imprisoned as she was, so the impact was lessened to a degree. Once a day she was taken away to have the same daft question asked to her, and every day she turned them down in favour of her friends having the extra food. Perhaps its true attraction was that it was the only way she had to rebel against her captors, however small a way it was. Without that she'd have nothing since maintaining her grace and image was becoming near impossible after so long without a wash.

"R-Rarity?" Fluttershy quavered sadly, her voice almost lost to the quiet around them.

Rarity perked up and shuffled closer to her cell door as soon as she heard Fluttershy say her name, ready to help her friend. "Yes Fluttershy darling?"

"I... I don't know, I just thought I'd been left on my own again."

"Fluttershy, you know Spike's always here if you want to talk."

"Seriously," Spike grumbled. "What I wouldn't give to get out of this cell for even ten minutes. About as much as I'd give to brush my teeth probably."

"I-I-I'm sorry Spike," Fluttershy spluttered, "I didn't mean t-to say that you weren't-"

"You know, if you're feeling lonely I could always ask the guards to let you share my cell for a while."

Rarity shuddered with a mix of disgust and suppressed rage. "Francis, we all know you've already asked that about all of us, and got a hoof in your face from the guards for your trouble. If you don't have anything constructive to add to the conversation, perhaps it would be best if you added nothing at all."

"You'll give in eventually, if only to feel the considerate touch of a pony not wearing armour."

"As if anything you might do could be called considerate. Now do be a dear and shut up." Rarity unconsciously brushed her mane as she composed herself, then dropped her hoof with a sigh as she bumped it against the inhibitor on her horn. "You know there's always somepony here Fluttershy." Rarity sat quietly for several seconds, but there didn't seem to be a reply forthcoming. "Fluttershy?"

"I don't know how much more of this I can take Rarity. I don't know why they're doing what they're doing to us, and I don't know why we're fighting it. I don't want to keep fighting it." Fluttershy sniffled quietly, "I don't know what to do any more."

"I know none of this is right Fluttershy, but we can't give in to it." Rarity wanted to spit after saying those words. She'd been saying the same thing everyday for what felt like months, and they were starting to sound hollow even to herself. It seemed a lot more personal to both Applejack and Fluttershy though, who seemed to be losing focus of why they were fighting this a lot easier than herself. Rarity was ashamed to admit it, but she'd understand Fluttershy giving in, but Applejack was no better, and she was the most stubborn mare Rarity knew, so for her to want to give in worried Rarity considerably.

"I don't know any more," Fluttershy said in a tiny voice, disrupting Rarity from sinking into her own thoughts any further. "I just don't know."

Rarity carefully contemplated what she was going to say to Fluttershy, but was disturbed by the clatter of armour. Rarity swallowed nervously; the sound of armour used to be accompanied by the sounds of defiance, but more and more that was replaced with sullen acceptance.

Applejack was allowed to walk into her cell, rather than be thrown into it, and there were no last words shouted after the departing guards. There was only a small thud as Applejack pressed her head against the cell door and sighed. "I can't do this no more," she said in a tone of voice that usually belonged to Fluttershy.

Rarity didn't say anything, knowing that the worn out platitudes she'd been spouting had truly run their course. Instead she had only one question on her mind, "Why not?"

"Because what's the point? They do the same things to us day in and day out, and all the things they tell us just don't sound like lies to me no more. Celestia, Luna, Twilight, all of them... Faust's right to be angry at them."

"Don't be absurd Applejack! You know those are nothing but lies told to try and break us! To turn us against our friends!"

"Really Rarity? Because every time I hear it I have three little voices in my head. One tells me that of course it's true, how could it not be? Another tells me that despite what I want to think, what I'm hearing is no lie. And the final voice tells me it's not true because none of them would do such a thing, yet it has no arguments in its own favour. I hate to say it Rarity, but I'm getting pretty fed up of hearing that last voice. Maybe the Lady was right about everything all along."

"So what?" Rarity said loudly, making Applejack jump. "Even if what she's saying is true, does it really excuse her going to war with Equestria? Even if Celestia, Luna, and even Twilight have truly wronged her, does the entirety of Equestria really need to pay for their wrongdoings? Come on Applejack! You know what she's doing is wrong! If you can't even think that, then you surely realise she's putting your family in danger for other ponies crimes? Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"What she's doing could put the world right Rarity."

Rarity was aghast, and wasn't alone in it judging by the outburst from Spike's cell. From Fluttershy came nothing, and Rarity didn't need to ask to know that Fluttershy was either too beaten down to disagree, or even worse actually agreed. If Spike wasn't there, Rarity might have thought she was going mad to be the only one not agreeing with this.

Rarity grit her teeth as her stomach rumbled painfully. Everything really had turned to shit if this is how things were becoming, and yet she found herself too tired to argue further, and had only one thing left to say to Applejack.

"What is it you really think that's wrong with the world in the first place?"

Applejack didn't answer.

Feeling there was nothing more to say on the issue, Rarity crawled back onto her rock hard bed and curled up into a ball, clutching her stomach with her hooves in an attempt to make it feel better. It didn't work, but there was literally nothing else for her to do. The discussions she could have with her friends seemed to be a thing of the past now, and her future seemed that much emptier because of it.

She didn't cry though, as all the tears she could have shed simply wouldn't come out. She was simply too worn out by her experiences to cry any more, which was only one of a number of things Faust had taken from her.

Minutes later a guard opened the door of her cell and placed on the floor a bowl of the slop that passed for food where they were. Rarity was surprised at the unexpected intrusion, but the thoughts of food quelled her need to be snippy at the guard bringing it. "Is that really for me?"

"It is," the guard confirmed. "Lady Faust wishes to see you, so I suggest you eat quickly."

That wrecked her excitement at eating, but Rarity wasn't about to turn down the opportunity to fill her belly, grabbing the bowl in her hooves and downing its contents in a most unladylike fashion. Propriety be damned, she was too hungry to care, and she knew it would only be taken off her if she didn't finish it fast enough. It also took her mind off the taste, which lay somewhere between overcooked porridge, and dish water.

As she predicted, it was only minutes until the guard returned with company, so she was glad she'd decided to eat as fast as possible, even if meant her stomach hurt for an entirely different reason now. She was still licking the bowl when the guard snatched it out of her hooves.

"Get up and get moving. You know what'll happen if you give us any trouble."

Rarity nodded, not wanting to experience getting a ring put through her nose to be led around by, as was threatened during her early days here. Stepping out of her cell she fell into place between two guards, following the one in front up out of the dungeons to a room she hadn't been in before.

The air had a faint aroma of ozone to it, strong enough to be noticed over the smell of unwashed pony. A low cage sat in the corner, its contents dark and shadowed. At least that's what Rarity thought until the darkness shifted with a clinking of chains, and turned two catlike turquoise eyes on her. Eyes she recognised as belonging to something that no longer was. The eyes locked onto hers for a few seconds, then turned away again, and that was all the time she had to think about it as the guards threw her onto a bench and began strapping her down.

Rarity squirmed fearfully as her hooves were strapped down, followed by more straps over her back, her neck, and finally her muzzle, adding a cloth in her mouth for her to bite on, leaving her entirely immobile and vulnerable to whatever was about to happen to her.

She clamped her still loose tail between her legs, and discovered that she was in fact still capable of producing tears, even though eyes squeezed tightly shut.

"Thank you kind sir's, that'll be all."

"Are you sure my Lady?"

"I'm quite sure, but thank you for the concern."

Rarity cautiously opened her eyes again, seeing the guard ponies exiting the room. That didn't leave her feeling any more optimistic than before though as she had the kindly smiling visage of Faust turned onto her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see whatever was in the cage was warily watching Faust as well.

"Hello Rarity," Faust said, her tone pleasant. Even if she were able, Rarity wouldn't have returned the greeting. "I'm sorry for the rough treatment here, but I'm afraid it's necessary for what I must do. You see, Twilight Sparkle isn't in Equestria, or Mareitania, and I would very much like to know where she's gone, so I'm hoping that you might help me with that. Ah-ah!" Faust said quickly as Rarity tried to speak. "I know you wouldn't betray her like that, but it's okay, I have ways around that."

Rarity glowered at Faust as she opened the cage in the room and used her magic to tear its occupant out into the open, a black alicorn with a purple cutie mark that looked almost like Princess Luna's. She had a flowing purple-blue mane, and was unmistakably Nightmare Moon, although Rarity did remember Nightmare Moon as being a good bit taller. 

Rarity squealed and tried to break free as Faust dragged the chain bound black alicorn in front of Rarity. She had no idea why, or more importantly, how Nightmare Moon was here, and a prisoner of Faust no less, but she knew for certain from the way the dark pony was looking at her that Rarity, and what she had done along with her friends, had not been forgotten.

"I see you two have at least a passing acquaintance," Faust said, seeing the two ponies reactions to each other. "That'll save some time. Now then Rarity, I'm sure you'd like to know what's going to happen now. I'll keep it simple. This creature is going to break into your mind and search for any clues as to where Twilight Sparkle might have gone. Failing that, you share a connection to your friends, and I'll happily use that to track them down if I have to, but I cannot find that connection myself. This creature however, can." Faust pushed Nightmare forwards, "Begin."

Again Rarity struggled against her bonds as Nightmare Moon moved closer, a silvery thread of magic winding up her horn that sparked erratically before coming loose and floating down towards Rarity's head and touching it. Blinding agony tore through Rarity's head, and she screamed into her gag, her eyes squeezed shut as the walls of her mind were torn asunder. Then as abruptly as the pain started, it stopped.

Rarity cautiously opened her eyes, and gasped as she saw the ever familiar confines of the Carousel Boutique around her. Her hooves were unbound, her horn uninhibited, and her mane and tail perfectly styled. She was having the hardest time telling if this was real of not.

"I thought you'd prefer to see somewhere familiar."

Rarity shrieked and turned to find the same black alicorn that had tore into her mind sitting on the floor in the middle of the room. Rarity started to back away, but the alicorn looked so miserable and forlorn she stopped. "Why are you here? We destroyed you!"

"Not so thoroughly as you think you did, but why I'm here is a long and complicated story that I don't even fully understand myself. Suffice it to say that I'm not Nightmare Moon, at least not entirely, and I mean you no harm."

"A likely story. That pain as you broke into my mind, that was very unlike my definition of not meaning to do harm."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not as skilled at this as Luna is, and trapped in this body my skill at it seems to be even worse than before. Fortunately, the pain will make Faust think that I'm actually doing as she asked, rather than this."

"This? What is 'this?' I have no idea what's going on!"

"And I'm going to tell you, if you'll listen. Firstly, so we're on even terms, my name is Nightmare, and I'm a friend of Twilight Sparkle's."

"I'm pretty sure she would have mentioned something like you if that were true."

"Both myself and Princess Luna asked her to keep my existence a secret. Luna felt it best that Celestia not know I existed because she would only see me as Nightmare Moon and seek to destroy me."

"Princess Luna knows about you? Why hasn't she destroyed you?"

"Because I asked Twilight to stop her. In return I provided some assistance to her during her time in Mareitania-"

"Arrgh!" Rarity stomped her hooves on the ground, but they didn't have the satisfying sound the real floorboards in the real Carousel Boutique made. "Why does everything come back to blasted Mareitania?! On top of what she did, and everything that's happening now, she also managed to resurrect Nightmare Moon as well? I am sick to death of Mareitania!"

Nightmare paused and calmly looked at Rarity. "Be that as it may, I was brought to existence in Mareitania, by accident on Luna's part rather than Twilight's. I was however trapped in the dreamscape until Faust found me and tore me out. Then she made her worst mistake and gave me a body, making me a proper alicorn rather than a figment in the dreamscape. She also destroyed her ability to destroy me by doing so, which is what brings us here."

"And why would she want to destroy you?"

"Because all these things you've been hearing about Faust, they're true, but not entirely. Celestia and Luna didn't imprison Faust. Princess Platinum did, so she could steal Celestia, Faust's daughter, away from her to set up as the ruler of all three pony tribes."

Rarity's mouth hung open at what she'd just been told. "You can't be serious!"

"I wish."

"But wait, what about Luna? Wasn't she Faust's daughter as well if her and Celestia are sisters?"

"She is, and she isn't. Celestia's father was Starswirl the bearded, born out of a loving coupling between himself and Faust before her imprisonment. Luna was conceived not long after Faust's imprisonment, after Celestia had already been taken away, through the vile actions of one King Sombra, who forced Faust to unwillingly bear his offspring, not that he was aware of it either."

Rarity swallowed, her stomach sickened by the thought of that. "You mean Princess Luna is a child of..." Rarity couldn't bring herself to say the word.

"She is," said Nightmare, knowing what Rarity was trying to say. "Suffice to say, Faust despises Luna, and Platinum separating them at Luna's birth was the most merciful thing she could've done. As you are likely aware, Luna became Nightmare Moon, which is all part of where I come from, meaning that I'm essentially Luna as well, which means Faust despises me as much as she does Luna. I'm sure you could tell that much from the way she refuses to say my name."

"Then why would she make you an alicorn if she wants to destroy you?"

Nightmare grinned at Rarity, "Because she's an idiot. She didn't really know what I was when she agonisingly tore me out of the dreamscape, and since I wasn't really anything solid I couldn't communicate with her. She decided to give me a body, but foolishly let me steer its design, and by the time she realised what was happening it was far too late to stop me."

"Then I sincerely hope we don't all come to regret her foolishness," Rarity said coldly.

Nightmare rolled her eyes, "Here we go. Rarity, I'm not what you think I am, and while I do bear a passing resemblance to Nightmare Moon, I am not her. I don't want to hurt anypony, or rule Equestria, or to plunge the world into eternal night. I just want to be free to live my life. I'm also trying to help you, so a little less hostility on your part would be appreciated, especially after I had you fed."

"How could you have done that?"

"I know they haven't been feeding you properly, to try and make you selfish by not giving up your food for the others. I basically told them you need to fed for me to do this, so you're less distracted by your thoughts of hunger. You're welcome by the way."

"But why? Why would they do that?"

"To break your connection to the Elements of Harmony. That way they won't work against Faust's plans even if you do escape here."

Rarity looked away, seeing the sense in what she was hearing, even if she was inclined towards ignoring them due to who was speaking to her. Still, one prisoner to another, perhaps it wouldn't hurt to listen to Nightmare. There was one thing bothering her though, more than the many other things.

"Why call yourself Nightmare if you claim to not be Nightmare Moon?"

Nightmare shrugged, "I carry all Nightmare Moon's memories within me, including a thousand years trapped on the moon. Quite simply it's a name I'm used to having."

"You remember all that? How?"

"Really Rarity, we have more important things to discuss. To put it simply, the Elements of Harmony stripped Nightmare Moon away from Luna, but didn't destroy her, instead locking her remains away in Luna's head, along with most of her memories of being Nightmare Moon. Through a series of improbable events, I ended up being made from those fragments, and also from Luna." Nightmare sighed and rubbed the side of her head irritably, "As I said, it's complicated. Now can we please get onto the important stuff? I hate having to explain all this to ponies."

"I'd say it's rather necessary to explain it if you wish to garner even a modicum of trust, but for what it's worth, I believe you, and if Twilight trusts you, then I shall trust you."

"How generous," Nightmare deadpanned.

"Now how do you intend to help me? You have a way to escape?"

"Hah! I wish. But no, I don't have a way to escape, and neither do you. I know you're not going to like hearing this, but you need to stop pinning your hopes on a rescue, especially from Twilight."

"What?! How could you even say that? There's no way Twilight would just leave us to rot in here!"

"It doesn't matter what Twilight wants. I bet she wants nothing more than to save you and the others, but she knows as well as I, if not better, that rescuing you really isn't possible right now."

"And why might that be?" Rarity fumed. That Nightmare could claim to be Twilight's friend and then say that about her. Sure Twilight had been a little off lately, but she wouldn't just leave them there. Would she? Rarity suddenly found herself very wary of what she thought she could be sure of.

"This is High Rock Keep you're in," Nightmare continued, ignoring how worried Rarity now seemed. "It's a big, magic proof fortress guarded by a well armed and experienced army. Equestria would need an army itself to get in here. And while Equestria does now have an army, it is laughably outmatched, and quite frankly is more concerned with protecting Equestria than saving three ponies and a baby dragon. Then there's the fact that Faust is here."

"And why is that such a big issue?"

Nightmare tapped a hoof to her chin, "How to explain this... Uh, okay, if alicorns were to be considered gods amongst ponies, Faust would be a god amongst alicorns. She is so far beyond Twilight, or Celestia, Luna, or any of us. Maybe even all of us. While Faust is here, Twilight would only be dooming herself trying to save you."

"She couldn't possibly be that powerful," Rarity sniffed, dismissing the idea.

"Rarity, she is at least the equal of Discord in terms of power, and I don't think I need to explain the kind of power he has. Faust is not to be trifled with, which is why you need to put these thoughts of getting rescued away. You might get rescued one day, but don't kid yourself into thinking it'll be any time soon."

Rarity opened her mouth to argue, and she really did want nothing more than to tell Nightmare she was wrong, but her own doubts quickly gnawed at her assertions before she could even say them. Frankly, Nightmare was speaking too much sense, and Twilight wouldn't throw herself away on a hopeless rescue. Once upon a time maybe, but that time had been and gone.

"Why are you telling me this? How is this possibly helping me in the slightest?"

"It doesn't now, but hopefully the lack of a rescue will hurt less as time goes on." Nightmare shrugged sadly, "Perhaps now you won't blame Twilight when that rescue fails to materialize in the slightest. It's not because she doesn't want to, but because she literally can't."

Rarity slumped to the ground, suddenly feeling inexplicably tired. She'd basically been told to throw her hopes and optimism out the window, and if what Nightmare had said was true, it made sense to do so. The problem was that hope and optimism was all Rarity felt she had left. Without those... 

"I'm sorry Rarity, but you needed to hear that before you started to blame Twilight for not coming."

"You don't know that! You don't know she isn't coming!"

"You're right, I don't, but while I'd appreciate the rescue myself, I'd happily call her a fool for taking such a stupid risk."

Rarity fell to her stomach and hid her face behind her legs as tears started falling down her cheeks. Now that Applejack and Fluttershy were... slipping away from her, and there was no rescue coming, all she had left was Spike, and she couldn't even see him.

"Wait, what was that about Applejack and Fluttershy?"

"Excuse me?" Rarity looked up sharply at Nightmare.

Nightmare grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, but I can read your thoughts a bit if I pay attention. Not intentionally I assure you. Whatever. You said, or thought, whichever, that Applejack and Fluttershy are slipping away from you. What do you mean?"

"And why should you care?"

"Because you're all Twilight's friends, and I care about her enough to care about what happens to you. Now please, tell me what you mean."

Rarity almost didn't say anything, mostly out of spite, and also because she knew Nightmare could probably rip it out of her head if she so desired. However, the contrite way Nightmare sat before her pushed her to at least have a go, and she explained what had happened with the others earlier.

Nightmare hummed thoughtfully. "It sounds like they're succumbing to Faust's mind control spell."

"Mind control spell? What do you mean by that?"

"It's how she's got everypony here to side with her so fast. From the outside it looks like a love spell, to force ponies to adore her, but there's more to it than that. It also forces ponies to think she's right, or something, I don't know, I'm not an expert. The point is that it's affecting your friends too. It's not their fault Rarity."

"Oh..." Rarity sighed, then stopped as a thought struck her. "Wait, why aren't I affected, or you?"

"My guess is that inhibitor you're wearing has protected you from the spell. As for me, I have no idea. Maybe being an alicorn has something to do with it." Nightmare shrugged again, "I'm just guessing if I'm honest. Although, I do think I could help your friends if I can get to them, and I think I know just how to do that."

Rarity brightened up slightly, "You could?"

"Perhaps."

"Then yes, please do. I need them if I'm going to get through this."

Nightmare grinned crookedly, "Alright then. I'm going to end this now, and I'm sorry to say that it is going to hurt, a lot. I just felt I should apologise for that."

Rarity whined in the back of her throat, "Very well, I guess there's no avoiding it. Save my friends though, and I will happily forgive any pain."

"I shall certainly do my best."


-0-0-0-


The world turned white as Nightmare broke the connection between them, and Rarity screamed into her gag as a spear of agony lanced through her head, again and again in time with the beating of her heart which was inexplicably loud in her ears. She sucked in a shuddering breath and screamed again, her teeth and jaw aching from how hard she was biting down.

The pain quickly faded though, lessening from blinding agony to mere pain over several seconds. Just in time to hear the conversation between Nightmare and Faust.

"What do you mean she doesn't know anything?"

"She doesn't know anything," Nightmare stated, emphasising each word. "Her last memories of Twilight's whereabouts was when she left to come here. You've seen Twilight more recently than she has. As far as she knows, if Twilight isn't here, or in Equestria, she could be anywhere."

Faust growled with rage and Nightmare flinched as the larger alicorn held up a hoof to strike her. "What of their connection through the Tree of Harmony?"

"There was something there," Nightmare lied, having not even bothered to look, "but it was weak. Too weak to follow. If I could get access to the other two bearers I might be able to find, or build a stronger connection."

"Very well," Faust said slowly as she lowered her hoof and opened the door to the room. "Guards?"

"Yes my Lady?"

"Return Rarity to her cell and bring me Fluttershy."

"At once."

Nightmare sat quietly to the side as Rarity was unstrapped. The poor mare couldn't even stand after her ordeal, so the guards eventually settled for slinging her over the back of one of their number. Nightmare caught Rarity looking at her as she was carried out, and winked at her. In return she got to see a small glimmer of hope that shone in Rarity's eyes.
Nightmare held her grin until Rarity was out of sight, then let her face drop. When Faust found out what Nightmare had done, and was going to do to keep that small glimmer of hope alive between the three bearers... Nightmare knew it was going to cost her dearly.

"Twilight better appreciate this," she whispered to herself.


-0-0-0-


Rarity was, for the closest version she could get to it right now, happy. While she had inititally questioned herself for hoping Nightmare actually intended to help any of them, it seemed the black alicorn had been true to her word. She'd returned Fluttershy and Applejack to her, and that alone gave Rarity hope enough that things could be okay. Yes the illusion they'd shared of being rescued had been shattered, but Rarity had accepted the sense behind Nightmare's words, as had the others. In fact, things seemed to be less pressured knowing that they weren't likely to be rescued any time soon, and they could put their thought's towards simple survival instead.

"Ah'm telling you Rarity, we'll survive on a bit less food for a day or two. You're going to end up really hurting yourself if you don't eat more."

"I know, but every time they ask me, I enjoy the aggravation on their faces when I refuse to give in to them. It's the only thing that helps me sleep at night these days."

Applejack sighed and grinned, "You're hopeless Rarity. I'm telling you to say yes to having the extra food tonight. It won't be you being selfish, but you graciously accepting a gift from me and Fluttershy. Seriously, if you refuse it tonight, I'm going to throw my own food at you just to spite you. Don't. Do. It."

"Fine, fine." Rarity smiled at both Applejack, and what she could see of Fluttershy. "Thank you, both of y-"

A scream echoed through the dungeon, followed by another. Desperate pleas for mercy came afterwards, pleading for something to not be done.

"Good heavens," Rarity whispered, pressing her face to the bars of her cells to try and see where the screams came from. The others did the same, including the former Viscount Francis. "What are they doing to that poor mare?"

"It sounds awful," Fluttershy whimpered. She stopped and squeezed her lips together tightly as Faust walked down the hallway towards them, unheedful of the screams behind her.

"She brought this on herself," Faust said, almost like she could read what they were all thinking. "She could have earned herself some mercy by complying, but instead she had to defy me. Now that creature is paying the price of her defiance. I suppose you think that means you've won, but it matters little in the end, so congratulations I suppose for having her outsmart me."

"You can hardly blame us for her actions," Rarity said to Faust. "We didn't even know she existed until you forced her to invade our minds."

"As I said, it matters little. I'm also not here to gloat over the fate of a pony that deserves all she suffering she earned for herself. She will no longer be a danger to anypony after this, so worry not for her fate. What I am here to do is inform you that you won't be seeing me for a while. Events have progressed enough to begin the ordering of this world, so I shall be occupied for quite some time. Until such a time as I return, I have instructed your guards to keep you well enough. So enjoy your hollow victory over me, for as I said, it matters little. Good day."

"What was that about?" Spike asked as Faust left slowly, the screams of Nightmare falling into a hushed silence.

"It means she's about to attack Equestria," Francis said smugly. "About damn time too."
> 22. It begins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

You never got used to funerals being an immortal, and that suited Celestia just fine. She'd always sworn that if she ever got used to going to them, she would abdicate right there and then, because she was no longer fit to call herself a pony, let alone a ruler. As soon as you got used to funerals, and ponies dying, you could soon find yourself getting used to far worse things.

Still, even she could say there were varying degrees to funerals, and sadly Celestia could ironically call herself a connoisseur if she really felt like it. Some, where the deceased had lived to a jolly old age and had lived a fulfilling life, could be considered nice in their way. The pony had reached the end of their life, and while it was sad they were gone, it was somehow okay because they were old, and that was how the world worked. For the vast majority of ponies at least.

Others were considerably less nice, where the pony in question had their life tragically cut short by the great many dangers that exist in the world. Those funerals were always the hardest to bear, but even so, ponies always tried to make something nice about them, as much for their own sakes than for the deceased. Celestia thought this was because ponies, so often faced with their own mortality, were trying to avoid thinking about it. She also knew that she was in no position to really know, and could be dead wrong, no pun intended.

Still, she'd tried to make a little effort for Raven Quill's funeral, and had forbidden it from raining on the day. Raven had never liked the rain, and Celestia thought it was the least she could do to arrange something so simple. Truthfully though, she'd had to arrange most of it. Raven didn't have much in the way of family, and if only they had turned up, there'd only have been half a dozen ponies present at most. What Raven lacked in family though, she more than made up with in friends, and a large number of the castle staff, with or without Royal permission, had attended to say their goodbyes.

Rites were said, tears were shed, goodbyes whispered through raw voices, and all that was left was to move on with lives that little bit emptier than they were before. Slowly ponies trickled away until only two remained, save for some Royal Guards stood a discrete distance away as Celestia was finally allowed to remove her mask of Royal stoicism, and let her tears fall down the fresh pink skin of her healing cheeks.

Luna wasn't the best at comforting ponies like this, despite all her years of dreamwalking experience. Usually it was children she worked with, so right now, with a mare considerably past her childhood, she felt useless as she held her sobbing sister, which was also made awkward by the size difference.

"She didn't deserve this Luna. None of them did."

"I agree sister, but if only it were truly that simple."

"Please don't Luna, I'm not in the mood."

"Excuse me?"

Celestia managed a weak and tiny smile to give to her sister, "I know you don't like doing this, and every time you do you end up going all philosophical on me."

"Okay, fine," Luna huffed, "but you didn't have to say it like I slapped you and told you to put on your big pony shoes."

"Sorry Luna, I just... I don't know. I've been to the funerals of twenty four of my aides over the centuries, but this is only the second one in a millennia to have died in tragic circumstances. I really don't know how to feel about it."

"Beg pardon my morbid curiosity, but what happened to the first aide to pass on under such dire circumstances?"

"Tripped down the stairs," Celestia said sadly.

"That hardly seems like it should kill somepony."

"The stairs down the east tower, before we put the guard wall in."

"You mean one of the towers with the staircase going down on the outside?"

"That's right."

"Ah." There was a long sullen silence as both of them contemplated such an event. "I've always wondered about that foolish design."

"Luna, please!"

"Sorry, sorry." Luna opted to say nothing more, but kept holding her sister as time moved on. And more time. And more again. Luna was beginning to worry that she was actually heartless in not feeling too much about all this. Raven had been Celestia's assistant, and not her own, so their own relationship had consisted of little more than a friendly greeting in passing. It was only natural that Celestia be more upset, but it did make Luna wonder if she was herself upset enough.

Eventually Celestia stood up straighter and pulled herself out of Luna's grip. "The world doesn't wait for a grieving heart," she said, moving up to the very edge of Raven's grave until the very tips of front hooves were hanging over the edge. "Goodbye Raven. Thank you for everything."

Luna stood back and let Celestia pass her, then turned to follow her as they began the long walk back to the castle, a tradition they had always performed after funerals, where a gentle walk and some introspection was more welcome than getting carted away in some carriage. Admittedly, this was the first time Luna had done it since her return, but even as Nightmare Moon she liked to think she would at least have still have done this.

"I get the feeling that we'll be doing this a lot more soon enough," Celestia said in an almost dangerously conversational tone of voice. Wisely, or unwisely, Luna decided to say nothing. It's not like she could dispute it anyway. "Eventually anyway. If Faust could put off attacking us forever, I wouldn't complain."

"We have reason enough to believe she won't put it off much longer," Luna said, keeping her voice down as to not be overheard. "Now that she's regained her magic, it's only a matter of time."

"Why do it like she is though? She has power enough to sweep into Canterlot and defeat us, so why force ours ponies, and hers, to fight for every inch of a country they cannot keep?"

"Because she doesn't just want to defeat us, she wants to defeat Equestria as well." Luna smiled at a pony that was watching them pass, "Perhaps it would be best to hold off such conversations until we are away from the public's ears."

"Very well."


-0-0-0-


Celestia sat upon her throne and held her crown in hooves, studying each burn, scar, and pockmark the explosion that killed Raven had given it, much like herself. Apart from the lack of hair in some places, she was more or less healed. Her right wing did still feel weak after having been mangled in the attack, and she wasn't about to go flying until that feeling passed, but save from that, and her poor vision in her right eye, she was as right as she ever was. Even the charred patches on her horn had flaked off to be replaced by fresh white keratin. Another week and it would be like she was never injured in the first place.

Celestia lit her horn with a golden hue, and swept her magic across the surface of her crown, removing every mark marring its surface until it, like herself, was physically perfect again. She was sure there was something symbolic in that, but she wasn't in the mood to go searching for it. She wasn't convinced it'd be a positive symbol anyway.

Like her crown, her peytral and shoes were mended, and one by one she donned them, finishing by lowering her crown upon her head. Once again she was Princess Celestia, whatever that truly meant. If anything it meant she was now ready to be thrown back into the bear pit of politics that passed for a good day as one of the rulers of Equestria.

"So you weren't tempted to leave your effects damaged?" Luna asked, sitting nearby as Celestia readied herself.

"I'd only end up with a thousand offers to make a new crown for me. The reasons as to why I left it damaged wouldn't mean anything to anypony really, at least in the long run. Best to simply fix it and get on with things, especially after what happened with the last attack in Mareitania."

Luna winced, and wanted to defend herself, even though she knew what Celestia had said hadn't been an attack on her specifically. "The addition of griffon mercenaries has made things unpredictable to be sure. Ambassador Deetra is yet to provide a reason as to why they were there."

"Isn't that rather irrelevant to the fact that they are there?"

"Not really. Knowing why they are there may give us an unexpected lever to remove them from there. At the very least it might point us at an hitherto unknown enemy."

"The Bloodfeathers have never been known to break a contract Luna. Finding out how and why they are there isn't likely to change anything."

"Then it will at least sate my curiosity!" Luna snapped angrily. "We're not the ones spending resources trying to find this out, so there is absolutely no harm in finding out!"

Celestia mentally took a step back surprised at both herself and Luna. She knew that finding out was beneficial, so why say all that? Celestia rubbed a hoof down her face, lingering for a moment over her right eye, the vision of which was still a little fuzzy. "Sorry Luna."

"It's fine, really. If it helps, you aren't wrong in that our situation isn't likely to be greatly improved by knowing, especially if they won't break a contract. Hopefully the griffons might find a solution even if we can not."

"Perhaps we-" Celestia almost bit her tongue as the doors to the throne room slammed open, giving rapid entry to a Royal Guard who removed his helmet and bowed deeply in their presence.

"My apologies your Highnesses, but I have an urgent message from Vanhoover."

"You may speak," Celestia said evenly, while inside she felt her stomach sink. She shared a quick look with Luna, who appeared to have come to the same conclusion as herself.

"Activity has been spotted at the border to Mareitania, two dozen steam tanks and thousands of troops."

Luna nodded, trying to maintain an air of confidence. "How long ago were they spotted?"

"Around four hours ago your Highness."

"Then at the speed those tanks travel, it'll still be hours until they reach our first line of defence. Thank you for the report. Send a messenger to the Wonderbolts' headquarters informing Captain Spitfire that I want all her available flyers in Vanhoover as soon as possible. You are dismissed."

The guard saluted and ran out to complete Luna's order, giving Luna a chance to sink back into her own seat and groan. "It seems the time has come sister. At least it wasn't too much to think that Faust wouldn't do something unpredictable."

"I wouldn't assume anything yet Luna."

"Indeed." Luna stood and stretched, then removed her crown, placing it upon her throne, followed by the rest of her own regalia. She wouldn't be needing it for a while. "Keep the home fires burning Celestia."

"And you stay safe."


-0-0-0-


If there was any silver lining in this, it was that the land around the north of the Luna bay that connected Equestria with Mareitania wasn't very wide. That made it difficult for the Mareitanians to truly attack the Bulwark en masse. If Luna were to guess, they intended to bombard the defences from a distance, then march over the remains. 

There was one thing annoying her though, and that was the numbers being deployed here. While the number of tanks seemed to fall within the estimates she was provided, the number of troops was lacking, for both ponies and griffons. If their agents in Mareitania were right, there should have been twenty thousand soldiers in the Mareitanian army, and a couple thousand griffons, if not more. So far Luna could only could see maybe five thousand ponies, and barely five hundred griffons. Unless they were coming later, something was definitely up, and needed preparing for.

Luna lowered her binoculars, maintaining a calm demeanour for the ponies around her. As always it was easier said than done. "Send a messenger to General Armour at Camp Freedom asking him to prepare as many as he can of his more experienced ponies, including his Hard Corps, just in case. Hopefully it shouldn't be necessary."

"Of course Your Highness," General Stormguard, the now former Captain of the Royal Guard said, nodding at a pony to carry out the order. "Is there anything else?"

"The countermeasure for their tanks," Luna said bluntly. "Is it ready?"

Stormguard pulled a face behind Luna's back, "As much of it as there is, yes." He narrowly avoided cringing as Luna turned to face him.

"And what, precisely, does that mean?"

"Production of the dragonfire bombs is long and difficult. I'm afraid that the numbers produced have fallen far short of what we need."

"But we took steps to increase their production."

"That doesn't stop the bombs from being hard to produce."

"How many?"

"Your Highness, I-"

"How many?"

Stormguard swallowed the lump in his throat, "Four."

"Four," Luna repeated, totally deadpan.

"Yes, four."

Ignoring the temptation to completely destroy the binoculars in her grip, Luna calmly turned back to where she could see the enemy forces that were slowly inching their way towards them. "While I am disappointed that we have so few, we shall simply have to do what we can. Have the mines been laid?"

"Yes your Highness."

"And the explosives placed to collapse the land into the ocean?"

"That was deemed to be impossible Princess. The ground is simply too hard to collapse. Instead we have placed the explosives at three intermittent locations to detonate as the enemy advances."

"Very well, that shall have to do. At the very least we should make them nervous about getting here." Luna lowered her binoculars again and placed them on the table. By her estimates the tanks would be in range in a couple of hours, but she hoped to make it much longer than that. 

"Wait until most of them are past the first trap before blowing it, then do similar with the others. Between that and the landmines we should hurt them quite a bit."

"And the dragonfire bombs Princess?"

Luna twitched an ear and smiled grimly as a bang echoed along the ridge from where the Mareitanians found their first landmine. "Leave those to me."


-0-0-0-


The griffons were quick to deliver their vengeance after the land forces started finding more and more landmines. As a result they'd slowed their approach as they tried to locate the mines before they could be set off. Unfortunate for the defenders, as that wasn't the intended effect of landmines, but well within predictions, just as the griffon's retaliatory attack was, ineffective as it was with Luna conjuring a shield over the defenders.

"It seems the mines have little effect on their tanks," Stormguard observed as the Mareitanians drew ever closer. "It seems they're simply too tough to take more than a little superficial damage."

"Unsurprising," Luna said back calmly, her horn blazing with power. "Their designer had plenty of time to correct their flaws in the last few months. It seems she thought of more than even I would have to reinforce their underneath to such a degree. I doubt the tanks would survive the entire journey under that much duress though, and it would seem the Mareitanians agree since they're making efforts to dig the mines up first."

"And if they discover the traps?"

"Then we shall simply have to deal with them arriving a bit sooner than anticipated. If we keep them from destroying the wall, and fend off their griffons, we should be able to hold them for weeks."

"And if Faust should turn up?"

Luna didn't answer immediately, as there was no good answer she could give. "Then we should pray for mercy for all our souls," she said in a low mumble, not caring whether the General heard her or not.

The large wooden platform Luna and Stormguard were using to observe events from behind the wall rumbled beneath their hooves as a heavy-set earth pony galloped up the stairs, withdrew his helmet, and saluted both of them. "Captain Greywhisker reports that your Night Guard and the Wonderbolts are in position in high altitude, ready to attack the griffons on your command."

"Very good," Luna purred. "Tell him to hold his position for now, until the griffons are distracted. When the third large explosion goes off, that's when they should attack."

The soldier saluted again and ran off to deliver the instructions, again leaving Luna alone with Stormguard. "Are two thirds of their forces past the first trap yet?"

"Uh..." Stormguard picked up his binoculars in his wings and held them up to his face, "Almost. Good job they were already past it before they started looking for mines."

"Excellent. Prepare to detonate it once we've given enough time for Captain Greywhisker to receive the message."

Luna closed her eyes and breathed deeply as the General relayed the order. She was wondering whether she should be glad things were going as well as they were, but the number of enemy soldiers bothered her. Why commit all your tanks to a single battle, but not all your soldiers? Not that Luna would herself either, but with only one avenue of attack available, it didn't seem worth holding them back. Of course there was the possibility that they had more than one avenue of attack, and not all were suitable for tanks, but Luna couldn't for the life of her think where else they could attack without their fleet. The idea left her more than worried, and she had enough to worry about in front of her as it was.

Quickly making an excuse to Stormguard, Luna dropped off the platform, spreading her wings to glide down to the ground. She maintained the shield as she trotted through the assembled soldiery, nodding and smiling reassuringly at ponies as she made her way to where the munitions were kept, which was where she was hoping to find a little reassurance for herself.

A quick enquiry found her being carefully presented with a well padded case which she opened with the utmost caution. Inside it were four smaller containers, each one individually packed to protect their precious cargo. Luna cracked one of them opened, releasing a dim orange glow that shifted and moved as the contents of the enchanted crystal orb swirled and writhed. She picked it up and held it before her, staring at the mesmerizing dance of light the orb contained. 

"Liquid dragonfire," she breathed, unable to keep the thought in her head. Truthfully the substance had never so much as seen a dragon, but the effect it had was almost the same as how actual dragonfire worked. It was a pity that there was so little of it, especially when Luna intended to keep one of them for a rainy day.

"Has a suitable method been found to fire these?" Luna asked the nervous looking crystal pony mare that ran the munitions store. She already knew the answer, but thought it best to ask so what she did next seemed less suspect.

"No your Highness. Most methods risk breaking the orbs on firing, which is obviously not ideal."

Luna nodded vaguely, "Then perhaps it is best that I keep them with me to use when I see fit." She placed the orb held aloft in her magic back in its protective case, and lifted the case instead. Hopefully now Luna would be prepared in case that rainy day did happen to come.


-0-0-0-


Rainbow twitched her ears irritably as the second in a series of powerful explosions set off, her helmet interfering with her ability to move them. It was only a short distraction though, because as soon as the third large explosion went off, there would be little time to think about such things.

Shielding her eyes, Rainbow squinted into the distance, trying to make out what was happening far below. It didn't take much to guess. Explosions along the ridge had decimated portions of the Mareitanians advance, although they were still coming. The Equestrian forces were still holed up due to the griffons, but they seemed less certain all the time as the explosions went off. The only real problem were the tanks, which didn't seem to be perturbed by anything much.

At least not until the third explosion went off, cutting across the rear of the column of tanks, taking out a few in one go. Rainbow would've cheered, but that was also the signal to attack. Staying in formation, Rainbow followed the Night Guard's lead as they dived down towards the silvery dome of Luna's shield, and the griffons that swarmed it.

As soon as they broke through the cloud cover, all of them drew their weapons. That was the only noise to be heard though, save for the sound of the wind whistling in their ears. The griffons seemed to be none the wiser to the Equestrians approach until they were almost upon them, and by then it was far too late as the leading ponies of the Night Guard cut into them, killing a couple dozen of the mercenaries before they even had a chance to react.

React they did though, and things quickly changed as the griffons bellowed their war cries and flew into the fray. Rainbow rolled out of formation with the rest of her squadron, and picked up the pace, hoping to strike the griffons at speed while their attention was held by the tougher thestrals. It was the only real tactic the Wonderbolts had with their reduced numbers, and hopefully it worked better than their last attempt at fighting griffons.

Rainbow's squadron looped around to the left and split up further into their wings of three as they headed back into the fray. Rainbow kept her blades close to her sides, so as to not accidentally hit any friendlies. There was a distinct possibility of that though, as the fight they were turning back to join was already a total clusterfuck of pegasi, thestrals, and griffons, duking it out in a battle to both kill and survive. Rainbow had no intention of letting the griffons do either.

Rainbow angled down and to the right as a trio of Night Guards chased after a heavily wounded griffon, using the opening they made to slip into the fight. Absolute chaos whirled around them as they dodged and weaved through the mass of struggling bodies. A duo of griffons came towards them, and Rainbow dipped and rolled, striking out with a blade, but only managed to cut a gouge into the foremost griffons chest armour before they'd passed over.

"This isn't going to work," Rainbow growled. The fight was simply too compact to manoeuvre and attack in at the speeds they were using. They were simply going to have to get down and dirty, a prospect that didn't exactly thrill Rainbow.

Rainbow led her wing back to the edge of the fight, skipping around the edge of it to pick their targets rather than simply rush back and forward through the battle without really doing anything besides get in the way. No griffons had decided to make them a target yet, giving them an opportunity to hopefully get some decent kicks in.

A griffon hen armed with a spear was hanging around the edges of the fight, and must have had the same idea as Rainbow as she tried to pick off targets rather than throw herself into the fight. Rainbow tried to lead her wing around in a loop that would bring them in behind the hen, but as the griffon followed a group of passing thestrals she spotted Rainbow as she flew in, and raised her spear to block the attack. Rainbow barrelled straight into the griffon, locking her blades against the shaft of spear, preventing the griffon from using it as Cloud Chaser and Thunderlane came around and attacked from the sides.

Rainbow pushed her enchanted blades against the spear as the griffon fell, cutting the weapon into two before letting it fall after its owner onto the shield below. Her legs ached from the pressure that entire few seconds had put on them, but it was nothing to worry about, not when there were plenty more targets around them.

Their attack must have drawn some attention though as the screech of a griffon drew their eyes up towards another griffon that was coming down towards them, a short sword in each claw. Rainbow was about to shout to scatter when a trio of Wonderbolts shot out of the blue and slammed into the griffon blades first.

"Nice of you to join us Lightning," Rainbow joked, telling who their saviours were more by the marks on their helmets and the colour of their tails than any recognisable features of the ponies themselves.

"Are you trying to get yourselves killed?" Lightning said back. "A pegasus that isn't moving, is a dead pegasus."

"We're not dead yet," Rainbow laughed, following Lightning into a climb that put them above most of the fight. The laugh came out hollow even to her ears though, and she felt a little sick at herself for even being able to laugh in that situation.

"Keep that up and you will be. Griffons at five o' clock." Rainbow looked back and to her right to where Lightning had said, seeing a small group of griffons break loose of the fight. She nodded to Lightning and pushed herself into a flip that carried them almost back the way they'd come, and back towards the griffons that had seen them coming.

Rainbow led her wing-mates to the right as Lightning took hers left, and held her blades out ready to strike. She rolled at the last moment, skipping under the griffon's weapon and landing a blow on its hindquarters that distracted it enough for Cloud Chaser to slash the griffon across the neck with a wound that would kill the griffon soon enough. Thunderlane followed up by viciously impaling another griffon that got distracted by its fellow's shout of pain.

A third griffon fell from Lightning's attack, and the remainder scattered, heading back towards the Mareitanians. A different cry to the usual one sounded amongst the griffons, leading to more and more of them to break away from the fight, fleeing towards the relative safety of their allies as the battle ended after mere minutes. Rainbow started to pursue them when the shouted orders to stand down reached her ears.

"But they're vulnerable!" Rainbow shouted back at whoever was bellowing the order. She still obeyed though, and fell back in besides Lightning, Sky Stinger and Vapour as they regrouped. "I can't believe they told us to not go after them."

Lightning shrugged, "I imagine they'll be back soon enough. We can have another go then."

"I guess. Still though, I think that went better than last time. I guess having the element of surprise really does help."

"Maybe, but I also think these griffons are sloppy as hell. I'm hoping not, but they might start learning a thing or two about teamwork if we keep this up."


-0-0-0-


Luna nodded with satisfaction as the griffons ceased crowding the skies above them and retreated back to their own lines. Clearly the practice in aerial combat their forces had been doing was getting put to good use. Now they were gone she could lower her shield and focus her energy onto other things. Such as catching the bodies that had ended up resting on the shields as they fell.

"Oops," Luna muttered as a griffon plummeted to the ground, not even really trying all that hard to catch it. Other ponies were a little less discerning than Luna was feeling, catching as many as they could since a rain of dead griffons wasn't exactly on the cards for the day. Luna couldn't blame them.

All in all things were going remarkably well, which to Luna meant that it was time for something to go wrong. The Mareitanians advance had been ruined, the griffons had taken serious losses in their arrogance, and the wall hadn't taken so much as a scratch. Things were going almost too well which was making Luna nervous. Either they were missing something, or the Mareitanians really were caught out by the Equestrians preparations.

"What are your orders now Princess?" Stormguard asked, a faint smile on his face, born more out of relief that things had gone as they did than out of any actual happiness.

"Now? Now I give them a reason to consider turning around and going home, where hopefully they can fully think about whether they truly wish to do this or not."

"And how do you intend to do that?"

Luna smiled crookedly and opened the case containing the dragonfire bombs, lifting one up to hold between them. "By seeing if these are truly as effective as advertised." She lifted another two of the glowing orbs up to join it. "Hold the fort while I'm gone, although I suspect I shall not be gone long."

"Are you not taking all the bombs with you?"

"Not this time. I'm saving the last one just in case I need it."

"Just in case of what?" General Stormguard asked slowly.

"Believe me, you'll know her when you see her," Luna replied before teleporting away into the air and flying towards the front of the Mareitanians lines. The three bombs circled around around her, ready to be used, but first she wanted to have a better look at what was happening.

On observation it appeared as though the Mareitanians were retreating, but after the third explosive trap had rendered a fair number of their tanks at the rear of the column inoperable, that retreat was proving difficult. Their solution seemed to be to use some of the working tanks to shove the wreckage of the destroyed ones into the ocean, clearing a way to escape through. If Luna were in charge she'd press the advance, but if Luna was in charge she'd be relieved to not be up against herself.

Beyond the tanks, the infantry seemed to be as numerous as ever, but that was largely down to the eye not being able to really tell the difference between five thousand and four thousand, especially when they stretched back into the distance like they did. If was also ambitious to think that they'd taken a thousand ponies out of the fight, when the actual number was in reality probably less than half of that.

The simple answer was that they still had the numbers to press on, but weren't, and that made Luna nervous. She didn't know for sure who was in charge of the Mareitanians here, but she suspected it was likely General Snowbright, and from what she had learnt of him through the Mareitanian civil war was that he was not one to be overly cautious, not without a good reason. It was probably too much to hope that what had happened so far had scared him.

Luna tried to put it out of her mind, putting her concerns down to pure pessimism. All she could really do was react to the situation, and right now she was in a position to slow the Mareitanians down even further.

Luna swooped down from the sky, heading directly towards the front of the tank column, which consisted of the tanks that had found most of the landmines if the dents and blast marks were any indication. She lined the dragonfire bombs up and released them as she pulled up, letting each one fall towards a different tank.

The effect was drastic, and the small tinkle of shattering crystals was a deceptive start to what felt like the birth of a miniature sun. Even at the speed Luna was moving away from the developing inferno, she could feel her tail and feathers singeing. She turned back towards the wall, but stopped, because despite the danger, she had to see what was happening.

For all the heat being released, the size of the flames were actually very small, albeit bright, and only coated a small part of each tank. It was more than enough though, as the heat produced by the volatile liquid was enough to cut through steel, and more than enough to melt through the tanks' thick shells.

Luna laid her ears flat as screams from the tanks' occupants reached her. They didn't last very long, not as the bodies of the tanks first glowed red, then white, as the dragonfire burned through it. Rivulets of metal ran down from the edges of the inferno, and slowly the tanks drooped and bent out of shape, no longer able to support their own weight as their support structure was made soft by the heat.

Luna now had an appreciation as to why the bombs were so hard to make.

As ferocious as the liquid dragonfire was, it soon burned itself out, and as the flames died down all around could see the gutted and half melted remains of the three tanks as they still glowed with heat. Behind them, Luna could see plenty of tank crews make a hasty exit out of their own vehicles, not wanting the same to happen to them. That, or they'd been close enough to become uncomfortably warm from the dragonfire.

"Bugger me," Luna said slowly, totally stunned by what had happened. "We are going to have to acquire us some more of those," she said as she took to the air and flew back to her viewing platform.

"Did they work as intended?" Stormguard enquired as Luna landed on the platform next to him.

"You mean you couldn't tell from here?"

"Indeed I could your Highness, but I wasn't really sure if that's what they were meant to do."

"They were meant to stop tanks," Luna said, lifting her binoculars up to her eyes to look again at the tanks. They were still glowing. "I daresay they were more than adequate at doing so."

"So now we wait?"

"Indeed. Hopefully the Mareitanians don't have a surprise as good as ours was. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some ponies I wish to talk to while we wait for their next move."


-0-0-0-


Food was never just food. Sometimes it was a comfort, or an experience. Sometimes it was a talking point, or a burden when you're busy. Sometimes, like now, it was a distraction, because Rainbow wanted desperately to not think about how she managed to genuinely laugh at her own mortality in the heat of battle. Some things were just too messed up to want to think about.

"How many griffons do you think there are?" Lightning asked, providing another welcome distraction as they sat around the mess area, quickly shovelling a simple meal into their bodies before A and C squadron had their turn. "I'm only asking because that was less than there were in Stalliongrad."

"Less is good, right?" Sky Stinger said, looking to the others for confirmation. "Right?"

"This time, sure," said Thunderlane. "When you really think about it though, it doesn't add up. Considering you have us, the Night Guard, and the Air Corps when it's finally ready, why would a few thousand griffons sign up to fight against those kinds of odds? That's suicide, unless there are a lot more of them than we think there are."

Lightning almost choked on her mouthful as she thought that one over. "But that would mean there are literally thousands of griffons fighting for Mareitania! No way could there be that many!"

Cloud Chaser shrugged at Lightning, "There are plenty of griffons that don't like Equestria for some reason or another. I imagine there are plenty that would sign up just to fight us."

"But w-what have we done to them?" Vapor asked, her voice still a little shaky after the battle.

"Nothing," said Cloud. "I imagine they just hate us because their parents told them to hate us, and their parents hated us because their parents told them to hate us, and so on and so forth. Racism is learnt, not inherited."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at Cloud Chaser, "Says little miss 'it doesn't bother me to kill griffons because griffons aren't ponies.'"

"Meh," Cloud said with a shrug. "I'd be more upset, but every griffon I meet these days seems to want to kill me for some reason. I don't actually have anything against griffons if that's what you're thinking."

"I'm not thinking anything," said Rainbow. "I just want to get some chow in me and get back in the air in case they come back."

"You seem keen," Sky Stinger said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Do you even get what's happening here Sky?" Rainbow asked brusquely. "Do you realise what this really means?"

"It can't mean that much since we held them off so easily. Why Rainbow, what do you think this all means?"

"That they're trying to invade us you idiot! This isn't some little test of our defences Sky, this is them coming to invade Equestria! Yes I'm 'keen' to stop them from doing that!" Rainbow lifted her bowl to her mouth and drained the remainder of its contents, then got up and placed it on a nearby table. "Really Sky, are you even paying attention to any of this?"

"Of course I am, but all I can see is a bunch of assholes over there that are too scared to keep attacking because we kicked their asses!"

"And how long do you think that'll last? How long before they work out we blew all our traps stopping them from getting this far? It's not like we can send ponies out there to set more, and we can't do anything to slow them down because of all the griffons. Once they clear those burnt out tanks out of the way, there is nothing stopping them from getting to the wall, and if they get through that, well... that's it, they're in Equestria."

"And that's not going to happen," Sky insisted.

"Hopefully not." All of them looked up to see Princess Luna had quietly walked up to them while they were talking. "No need for that," she said as they dropped into bows, "although I suppose you are technically meant to salute. I'm not sure about that." Luna smiled as the Wonderbolts sprang out of their bows and saluted her instead, a salute which she happily returned. "At ease, all of you."

"Is there something we can help you with?" Lightning asked as they retook their seats.

"Actually I came here hoping to speak with Spitfire," said Luna. "I wasn't intending to intrude on your conversation at all. I don't suppose you've seen Spitfire down here?"

"She's still in the air," Rainbow told Luna. "It'll be her squadron's turn to have a break once we get back up there."

Luna nodded, "Very well. If you could inform her that I'd like to see her when she lands, I'd appreciate it."

"Of course."

"Good. Other than that I feel I should say well done for chasing those griffons off. Clearly your practice is paying off."

"If you don't mind my asking Princess," Rainbow said a little nervously, "why aren't there that many griffons here? There were loads more in Stalliongrad."

Luna mulled over whether to answer the question, or just brush it off. It didn't take her long to realise that the two things were actually almost the same thing, because she didn't know why the Mareitanians were fielding all of their tanks, but not much else. "I wish I knew Rainbow. All we can do is prepare for the possibility that not all is as it seems here. Still, we can only deal with what we know about, and react to everything else." Knowing that answer was not what they were looking for, Luna saluted and left.

"Well that was helpful," Thunderlane muttered. "And strangely awkward."

"You can't exactly blame her for not knowing either," said Lightning. "If this was their big push into Equestria, they're not exactly pushing very hard."

"But where else would they attack?" Cloud chaser asked. "We burnt all their boats, and I doubt they've built more."

"Unless those griffons also have boats," said Rainbow. "Or airships. Ugh, that's a scary thought."

"I'm sure the Princess would have planned for that if they did," said Lightning. She pricked her ears as a shrill whistle sounded, and saw it came from Fire Streak, their squadron leader. "Guess that's our cue to get our butts back in the air."

All of them quickly finished what remained of their meals and took off towards where the other Wonderbolts and a large number of the Night Guard were patrolling the skies above the Bulwark. Rainbow lazily flew over towards Spitfire where she was having a quick conversation with Fire Streak. "Sorry to disturb you ma'am, but Princess Luna asked us to tell you she wants to talk to you when you land."

Spitfire sighed and nodded, "No rest for the wicked I guess. Alright, if the griffons come back, get together with the Night Guard and let them do the bulk of the fighting. If the tanks and that start moving towards us again, but no griffons show up, stay back and wait for orders." Spitfire tossed a quick salute at them, then descended to the ground, leaving them to start patrolling the sky.

Thankfully all seemed to be quiet. The Mareitanian forces had huddled up in the distance, and weren't showing any signs of changing that. The three half melted tanks were still smouldering with heat, blocking the way for the Mareitanians to advance further. There was no real way to tell what the Mareitanians were going to do. With any luck they might just give up.

"Well this is unexciting," Thunderlane moaned as they flew another lap over the Equestrian bulwark.

"Actually I'm totally fine with this," Cloud snickered. "Not almost dying in ridiculously fast paced fights, is better than almost dying in ridiculously fast paced fights."

"So we're just going to keep on flying back and forth until something happens? Sure, sure, sounds great. What if this lasts for a week or something though? Us flapping about up here for all that time?" Thunderlane shuddered at the thought, "No thanks."

"The Mareitanians would just be wasting their own time and resources doing that," said Rainbow, adding her own thoughts to the conversation. "They'll do something soon enough, I'm sure of it."

Thunderlane huffed loudly, "Define 'soon.' Is soon today? This week? Next week? When Rainbow? I wanna know!"

Rainbow slowed herself to playfully shove Thunderlane, "Quit being an ass. I'm just saying I doubt that the Mareitanians would take more than a few days to get moving again. In fact, I'm going to bet that they won't even make it to tomor-"

"Guys, shut up!" Cloud interrupting them suddenly. "I just saw something."

"Saw what?" Rainbow asked quickly, the interruption forgotten.

"A griffon just flew in," Cloud told them, only to get laughed at by Thunderlane.

"You saw a griffon. My word, how unusual."

"Shut up Thunderlane! I saw a griffon fly in from the north! Why would it do that, huh? Tell me that genius!"

"Maybe it got drunk and flew the wrong way," Thunderlane said dismissively. 

"Or maybe it's worth mentioning to somepony," said Rainbow. "Good eyes Cloud."

Cloud beamed at Thunderlane, who rolled his eyes and scoffed. He didn't say anything else, and stayed quiet as what was seen was reported to Fire Streak, who moved on to report it to Spitfire, who had the final say on whether to report it further. That done, Rainbow returned to patrol.


-0-0-0-


"From the north?" Luna murmured to herself, pondering Spitfire's report. The only place to the north from there was the rather inhospitable frozen north. Unless of course it wasn't exactly to the north, in which case it was possible to say the griffon came from the direction of the Crystal Empire, but that also seemed unlikely. Unless...

"We have movement!" Stormguard shouted, shattering Luna's thoughts as she snatched up her own binoculars to see what he was looking at. All at once the Mareitanians tanks all started rumbling towards them, heading over the ground they'd already cleared of traps and landmines, totally without fear or hesitation as they slowly raced towards the Equestrian defences, the infantry right behind them, and the griffons flying above them.

"This must have been their plan all along," Luna whimpered as it struck her. Now they were really attacking, and after carefully clearing the mines, and setting off all the traps, the Equestrians suddenly had nothing to stop them with. "Arm the catapults! Prepare to fire!"

There was a crash as the tanks collided with the burnt out remains of the tanks that Luna had destroyed, roughly shoving them out of the way as the tanks continued on their path towards the Bulwark. At a signal from Luna the four catapults fired, their explosive payloads scoring hits on two of the tanks while the others struck the ground causing little damage. Not that it seemed to matter as the tanks that were hit carried on regardless, blackened and dented, but not deterred. Whoever was driving them had some serious guts.

Luna set up a shield as the tanks came into range to fire their own weapons, backed up by every unicorn capable of doing so. Other ponies took their positions, reloading the catapults, or firing their magic and ranged weapons at the Mareitanian soldiers not safely ensconced inside the tanks. The shield flashed as the first volley of explosives from the tanks crashed against it, and ponies were deafened by the explosions. The shield held though, although it was debatable how long it would against that kind of punishment.

The griffons swept ahead of the tanks, swooping down to pick ponies off while Luna was forced to shield against the tanks. The Night Guard and Wonderbolts were quick to grab their attention, viciously attacking the griffons to spare their fellows below, although plenty of them fired back against the griffons as well, some scoring hits, others putting the fliers on their side in as much danger as the griffons. They were soon ordered to stop firing and to let the fliers take care of the griffons.

Things were quickly spiralling out of control. The sudden aggression of the Mareitanians was totally unexpected, and without the traps and mines to slow them down, they were hitting as hard as they could. The catapults fired again, bombarding the tanks and soldiers, but now they were so close it really did seem far too little to try and even slow the Mareitanians, let alone stop them.

Luna growled in pain as the leading tanks pressed up against the shield. Stopping the bombs they were throwing was one thing, but to try and resist that much weight and pressure being placed on the shield was simply not possible. Unicorns around her were dropping to their knees as they tried to give their all to stop the shield from collapsing. It was a pointless effort, and after mere seconds the shield broke, allowing the tanks to reach the wall. It also allowed them to fire over them.
As soon as she had the mental wherewithal to do so, Luna erected another shield above the Bulwark to catch the bombs the tanks threw over the wall. The wall was pointless if the defenders behind it could be obliterated with such ease. To her shame, Luna suddenly found herself short of ideas on how to turn this around.


-0-0-0-


Rainbow couldn't believe what she was seeing. Within minutes the Mareitanians had not only reached the wall, but had put the defenders severely on the back hoof, desperately trying to hold back the attackers. Rainbow had soon found herself thrown back into the fight as the griffons attacked again, and now was fighting for her very life as the griffons took a far more reckless and vicious stance in their fight.

Rainbow dipped and rolled right, avoiding a wing of griffons that were coming right for her and her own wing, and she didn't even have a chance to try and attack them before they were gone. This time Rainbow didn't stop to complain about it, and instead focused on other griffons that were unaware of their presence. Leading with her rear hooves, Rainbow dropped onto the lead griffon, hitting him in the middle of his back and plunging his right blade through his neck and out the other side. The other griffons scattered before Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser could even try to attack.

"Rainbow!" Rainbow looked back as Thunderlane shouted her name, and saw him pointing upwards to where some of the Night Guard were getting swarmed, and were in need of help. Rainbow nodded and quickly led them upwards, dodging around both ponies and griffons to strike the griffons attacking the thestrals from below. Keeping her blades close to herself, Rainbow aimed herself close to the side of a griffon, timing it so she passed him as he raised his wing to flap. Just as she was going to pass him, she held her bladed out, not severing the wing, but removing enough feathers to make flight impossible. With the griffons Thunderlane and Cloud had attacked also taken out of the picture, the thestrals suddenly had an opening to escape the swarm of griffons around them. A gap that was made bigger as Rainbow led her wing back down for another go.

Given the opportunity, the thestrals pushed back against the griffons, and with their reduced numbers they were forced to fall back. Rainbow sighed with relief, and returned to the thestrals to ask if they were okay, and was surprised when she ran into the familiar face of the thestral Shadow Seeker.

"We're okay thanks," Shadow gasped between breaths as she wiped blood from a shallow cut on her neck. 

"What were you doing to get surrounded like that?"

"Protecting her." Shadow pointed back at a pony that was flying in the middle of the thestrals. It was a crystal pegasus in the crystalline armour of the Empire's Imperial Guard. She was wounded, but it didn't seem too bad since she was still flying okay. "She has an important message for Luna, so we need to escort her there."

Rainbow nodded, "Then let's get moving before those griffons come back with friends." Rainbow and her wing joined the group of thestrals surrounding the crystal pegasus, and took a direct line towards Luna, smashing through the griffon forces to get there as soon as possible. They quickly pulled up and changed direction as another volley from the tanks crashed against the shield, filling the air with a short lived inferno that they did not want to get caught in. Instead they headed to the rear of the shield, and slipped under it to safety, allowing a few unicorns to deter the few griffons following them.

Rather than waste time walking, they flew above the heads of the defenders, while most of the thestrals peeled off and headed back into the fight. Rainbow didn't join them, slightly to her shame, but she wanted to know what was so important that this pegasus was willing to fly into a vicious dogfight just to deliver a message.

"Mistress!" Shadow shouted as they got close to Luna. "We've found a messenger coming from the Crystal Empire," she continued once she had Luna's attention. "She says it's important."

"It must be if it's worth risking herself like this. Speak guardsmare."

"The Crystal Empire is under attack!" the mare shouted. Now Rainbow wasn't fighting, she could see the wild and panicked look the mare had in her eye.

"What? How?"

"The came from the north, the Mareitanians I mean. Thousands of them! Princess Cadence has shielded the city, but without any forces to fight them off with, it's only a matter of time until they break through! Faust's with them!"

Luna froze, almost unable to process what she had just been told. The Mareitanians were attacking the Crystal Empire from the north? And had Faust with them no less? It didn't seem possible.

Luna kicked herself as she thought about how it would be possible. The crystal ponies of Caverndown had used a secret way to escape to Mareitania from the Crystal Empire during King Sombra's reign a thousand years ago. Nopony knew where the hidden way was anymore, but there was one pony who might; the alicorn Faust. They hadn't been surveying northern Mareitania for mining opportunities, they'd been searching for the tunnels!

Luna looked back out over the mass of ponies trying to break through the wall, and knew she couldn't leave, but she couldn't do nothing either. "Blast it! Stormguard, send a messenger to General Armour informing him of the Empire's plight. Then send another messenger to Canterlot to inform Celestia of all of this, and ask her to find Windy Rush and send her to the Crystal Empire. Rainbow Dash, get back out there and find Spitfire. The Wonderbolts are the only ponies here we can send right now because it'll take too long to send any others."

All of them saluted her and rushed off to fulfill her orders, leaving Luna to hold the shield alone, apart from the Imperial Guard that had delivered the message. "You, can you still fly?"

The mare nodded confidently, "Yes your Highness."

"Good. Fly to Vanhoover, to the Mayor's office." Princess cast a small spell, creating a small token with her seal on it, so that whoever saw it would know that the message was from her. "Tell him to begin evacuating the city."
> 23. Crystal defence
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Snow plastered itself on Spitfire's goggles, blinding her as she and the other Wonderbolts raced to the Crystal Empire as fast as possible, their wings beating hard against the frigid air and cold winds that surrounded the Crystal Empire.  

The Empire itself was still a dot in the distance consisting of a shining blue dome that was probably the shield now surrounding the city. Apart from that, everything seemed quiet, although that didn't necessarily mean anything. Somewhere out there was an army led being led by Faust herself, and here they were, not even a full fifty Wonderbolts, going to hold them off, without so much as an idea of how to do so.

Things became no clearer as they got closer. To the west of the city, rather than the north as was reported, was a massive army, at least twice the size of the one attacking the bulwark at Vanhoover, although this one had no tanks or siege weaponry to speak of. 

The shield was also smaller than the Empire itself, concentrating itself over the city while ignoring the surrounding area, which was at the very least still being protected from the extreme weather, which came as a relief as the Wonderbolts passed over the threshold, leaving the snows behind. Within moments of that an orange pegasus in Royal Guard armour flew up to meet them from the train station that lay outside the shield boundary.

"Boy are we glad to see you guys," he said. "There's no point going any further because you can't get through the shield, so if you'll follow me down to the station I can give you something that'll let you through."

Spitfire hesitated as the guard flew off towards the station, but it was only for a moment before gesturing for all of them to follow after him to land at the station. A few other stallions in the armour of the Imperial Guard were there as well, along with boxes and boxes of small coin sized crystals.

"What's the situation here...uh, what's your name?"

"Sergeant Flash Sentry ma'am, and I have to say it's an honour to meet you all. As for the situation, it's not great. The Mareitanians showed up about six hours ago, along with their leader Faust. They attacked for a little bit, but it didn't seem like they were trying too hard to get through the shield. Then they backed off and now they're just sitting in the temperate zone, like they're waiting for something. With the Crystal Legions deployed elsewhere, we have nothing to push them back with." Flash leant over to look along the train tracks, "I don't suppose there are any other reinforcements coming?"

"It's just us for now," said Spitfire. "Vanhoover is currently under attack as well-"

"What? How? How could they possibly attack two places at once?"

Spitfire ignored him, "-and we didn't have time to ask what the plan was before flying up here, but I imagine reinforcements will be coming from Camp Freedom once General Armour gets the news." Spitfire gestured at the boxes, "What's up with the crystals?"

"How can they actually attack two places at once? How are they even attacking here?"

Spitfire stomped a hoof, hard. "Hey, focus. What's with the crystals?"

"The-uh... the crystals! Yes! You'll need one of those to get through the shield. Crystal ponies can pass through it without one, but the rest of us aren't so lucky." Flash picked one out of the nearest box and tossed it to Spitfire, "Just keep it on you somewhere and you can pass through the shield. We've been stockpiling them for weeks now, just in case of something like this. We did think the attack would come from a different direction though."

"Stop thinking about it," Spitfire said pocketing the crystal while the rest of the Wonderbolts started picking up crystals of their own. "Where's Princess Cadence now?"

"With the Crystal Heart, maintaining the shield. I'll take you there once you all have a crystal."

A couple of minutes later they were flying again, following Flash through the shield and towards the glittering spire of the crystalline castle at the very centre of the Empire. It glowed from the inside as the energies that normally went into the aurora of positive energies the Crystal Heart produced, were channelled into the shield protecting the city. Thousands of Crystal ponies clustered around the castle, waiting for news, but the area directly beneath the castle remained clear, allowing Princess Cadence and her entourage to work unimpeded.

Cadence looked up and managed a smile as the Wonderbolts came in to land in the empty space. "Finally, some good news."

"Not really ma'am," Spitfire said to Cadence. "The Mareitanians are also attacking at Vanhoover, so until General Armour gets here with help from Camp Freedom, we're all you're getting."

Cadence lost her smile. "I see. Then we'll just have to do what we can with what we have for now. I think the first thing we should do is work out what exactly it is we're up against. What numbers they have, and what weapons."

"We were told Faust was with them."

"She is," Cadence confirmed. "She's not done anything as yet, but if she's as powerful as Celestia, Luna, and Twilight says she is, then I doubt the shield will hold her back for long. To be honest, if the Mareitanians really meant to, they could have taken the Empire by now. I don't know why they haven't, or what they're waiting for."

"Maybe they're looking to make a proper fight of it," Fleetfoot said to Spitfire. "Draw our unexperienced forces up here to defend the Empire, then take out as many of us as possible."

"Possible," Cadence said, sounding like the very idea made her feel sick. "I was hoping to get some advice from a more military minded pony before I acted. Not that there was much I could do anyway. What do you think Captain?"

Spitfire avoided making a face at the question. To her the situation looked pretty hopeless, and without an army of their own there was no way to win this. Perhaps finding out about the enemy forces might help, and would at least mean she could avoid giving an answer for a little bit.

"We'll do a scouting run, then come up with something once we know what's going on a bit better."


-0-0-0-


"There she is," Lightning said of the large white dot standing amongst the Mareitanians army, as her wing and Rainbow's flew above the shield on their scouting run. "Faust herself, the cause of everything wrong that's happening in the world at this moment."

"I thought she'd be taller," said Cloud Chaser. "She doesn't look much bigger than Princess Celestia."

"Size isn't everything," said Lightning. "Isn't that right Sky?"

"Exactlyyy... Wait, why are you asking me?"

"No reason." Lightning turned back to the Mareitanians. "Look at them down there. There must be twice as many as there is attacking Vanhoover."

"No tanks, or anything like that," said Rainbow. "If Luna can hold them off in Vanhoover, they won't have any heavy weapons to fight with."

"Oh no," Thunderlane said sarcastically, "they'll just have their superiors numbers, better experience, griffon mercenaries, and super-powered alicorn to rely on. How terrible for them."

"Why are they even attacking here?" Vapor asked before anypony could rebuke Thunderlane. "The crystal ponies don't have an army here, or anything really."

"They could just be trying to attack us on two fronts, to weaken us," said Cloud. "It's working too."

"Maybe they want the city itself," said Rainbow. "I'm no expert, but there's some seriously powerful magic locked up in the Empire. Perhaps that's what Faust's after."

"Does it even matter?" Sky Stinger scoffed. "I really don't think that Faust has the power to get through the shield, so as long as that stays up, we're fine."

"And we're not going to listen to that," said Rainbow. "What you think, doesn't mean she can't."

"We got griffons incoming," Thunderlane said suddenly, as dozens of griffons broke away from the Mareitanians encampment towards them. Rather than try and fight them off, the six of them dipped back into the safety the shield provided, and waved back at the griffons as they slammed their weapons against the blue dome in frustration.

"How fucked would we be if they decided to go raid the train station?" Cloud asked.

"I think the answer to that, is very," said Lightning. "Maybe we should suggest they move those crystals somewhere else." Lightning led the way into a long downward loop that brought them back outside the shield, but much lower down. "How are we supposed to identify the enemy's composition if we can't get close? There might be ten thousand soldiers there, but that's all we can tell."

Rainbow shrugged, "I don't know. I was expecting to get thrown straight into battle, but then this all happened. Let's just keep doing this until somepony tells us otherwise."


-0-0-0-


Pinkie watched the snow zoom past the window of the train they were in. A train that was going full steam ahead to the Crystal Empire. A train that was ferrying them into direct contact with the enemy in what was probably going to be an actual battle. They were still weeks from completing their basic training, and hadn't even started to train other members of the Hard corps. To say she felt woefully unprepared was an understatement.

Still, despite the news that both Vanhoover and the Crystal Empire was under attack, the atmosphere seemed almost cheery, with declarations that they were going to kick the Mareitanians collective butts. Pinkie liked to think she picked up enough from Twilight to not think like that, and her sisters knew enough that if Pinkie wasn't being cheerful, it had to be bad. That wasn't the only issue though.

"Are we really going to run into battle carrying  bags of rocks?" Azure whined, wriggling uncomfortably in her combat armour and pulling at her collar. Next to her were saddlebags, filled to the brim with hoof sized rocks. "Gah! I thought these uniforms were supposed to be flexible!"

"They are," said Maud, who had requested the uniforms to be just so. Within a few days they'd received uniforms that were very similar to the Wonderbolts' flight suits, except dark grey in colour and slightly more armoured. "Is there something wrong with yours?"

"...Nah," Azure sighed. "I think I'm just freaking out a bit. They're sending us to fight without even finishing our basic training, and I'm going to fight using a skill I developed barely even a week ago? That's fucking insane."

"Aww," Pinkie cooed, "you'll be alright. You and Top Spin just need to stick with us and do what you can without putting yourselves in too much danger."

Top Spin raised an eyebrow at Pinkie's reassurances, "And what makes you immune to danger? Huh? There's no safety on a battlefield guys. I don't even need experience at this to tell you that much."

"It'll be fine," Pinkie insisted. "You'll see- Oh hey! We're almost there!" Moments after Pinkie had pointed it out, the line in the snow demarking the temperate climate of the Crystal Empire rushed past, and just like that, they were being bathed in sunshine. The train station lay just ahead, and the train lurched as it began to slow. "I guess this is it guys."

A minute later the train ground to a halt, and ponies started to disembark, either onto the station, or by jumping to the ground where the platform couldn't reach. Pinkie led the way, jumping down to the ground before heading around to the station to where Shining Armour should be.

"Alright, listen up ponies. The city is being shielded right now, so all of you will need to grab a crystal out of these boxes allowing you to pass through it. Once you have your crystal, head to the city centre as quickly as possible. From there we can assess the situation and protect the Empire. Now get moving ponies; we have another train incoming, and I want this station cleared before it gets here!"

Pinkie and the rest of their small unit pushed forwards to the front of the queue, grabbing their crystals as fast as the guards could give them out. Once they had their crystals they set into a brisk trot and made their way towards the city, passing harmlessly through the shield and into the shining metropolis beyond.

"I've never been here before," Azure said as they made their way towards the city centre, passing between the shining homes of the crystal ponies. "I thought it'd be bigger being called an empire and all. They definitely got the crystal part down though."

"I was told the Empire used to be bigger," Top Spin said to Azure. "The city you see now was the part that was hidden away by King Sombra's curse, while the rest was either destroyed in the battle to free the crystal ponies, or swallowed by the frozen north after the city vanished. Of course that doesn't make sense because they need this land around the city to grow food, and there's other stuff in it, but I'm just repeating what I was told."

"There's some very big caves under the mountains," said Maud. "There's some very old buildings down there under the ice as well. I think this city was built after the Empire was made."

"How do you know that?" Limestone asked her sister.

"I studied the crystal formations in there as part of my rocktorate, although the buildings were interesting too."

"Okay," Azure said, nodding slowly. "Why build this place then?"

"Why build anything anywhere?" Maud asked back. "If I was to guess, I'd say there's a large convergence of ley lines right under the city that powers the magic here."

"And what makes you say that?"

"You can feel the power in the crystals. It's impressive."

"That doesn't explain why it was built though." Azure rubbed a hoof over the smooth crystal, humming to herself. "I guess this place does kind of feel magical now you mention it though. I thought it was just the feeling of walking on crystals."

"Or you're more in tune with it now," said Pinkie. She looked up as they passed between the arch under the castle, then back down, spotting the pink form of Princess Cadence. "Ooh! Hi Cadence!" Pinkie shouted, waving vigorously at the princess, who smiled sadly back.

"I didn't realise you were fighting as well Pinkie," Cadence said as their group got closer.

"Of course I am! How else am I going to save Equestria and get my friends back?"

"How indeed..." Cadence half whispered. "As nice as it is to see you Pinkie, I'm afraid I'm too busy keeping the Crystal Heart running to talk much. Is... Shining with you?"

"Yep! He's getting ponies sorted out right now, but I'm sure he'll be along soon enough."

"Okay. Thank you Pinkie."

"No problemo Cadence. I'll-" Pinkie stopped as somepony tapped her on the back. She turned, and gasped as her eyes caught onto the rainbow mane of the pony trying to get her attention. "Rainbow!"

"Hey Pinki- Ack!" Rainbow gasped as Pinkie leapt onto her, dragging her down into a hug that threatened to crush the life from her.

"Eeeee! I'm so happy to see you Rainbow! I haven't seen you in ages!"

"Take it easy Pinkie!" Rainbow wheezed, her lungs struggling to pull in breath from the weight on top of her. "What have you got in those bags? Lead?"

"Nope! Rocks!" Pinkie released Rainbow and climbed off her, offering a hoof to pull Rainbow up after her.

"Why the hell do you have bags full of rocks Pinkie?"

"It's something our unit's doing." Pinkie pulled her sisters and the other two members of their unit over, "Rainbow, say hello to the Hard corps."

"Hi," Rainbow said blithely, seconds before realising that Maud was there. "Wait, you brought your sister into this as well?"

"Sisters," Pinkie corrected her. "Rainbow, meet Limestone and Marble, my other sisters. The other two are Azure and Top Spin. They aren't related to us, but we still love 'em just as much! Anyway, everypony, meet Rainbow Dash, one of my bestest friends in the world!"

"Hi," Rainbow said again, to all of them, standing there as they returned the greetings. "Pinkie, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Sure! What about?"

"About you," Rainbow replied, pulling Pinkie away from the rest of the to talk in private. "Why the hell did you sign up to fight?"

"What do you mean? Equestria and our friends are in danger, so what else was I supposed to do?"

"Literally anything else! This isn't like that stupid fight between the Appleloosans and the buffalos Pinkie, using pies as weapons. This is real war, with killing, and fighting, and dying! Why would you sign up for that?"

"You think I don't know what I signed up for? Rainbow, have you seen how much blood you have on you? If I wasn't prepared for that I'd probably be a lot more freaked out."

"That's not what I mean Pinkie! I-"

"Oh no, I can see where you're going with this. Poor ole Pinkie Pie's too happy-go-lucky for this. She couldn't possible be able to handle all the stuff that's going to happen in a fight, so she should just go home where it's safe and throw a party for all the ponies off risking their lives to save our country!"

"I just want you to be safe Pinkie! Is that so wrong of me?"

"No," Pinkie said after a moment of consideration. "But I want you to be safe as well, and the rest of our friends, and everypony in Equestria. I'm not going to make that happen by hiding somewhere until the war's over, one way or another."

Rainbow bit her tongue, knowing full well she was being a bit irrational as Pinkie had as much right to fight as she did. That really didn't make her feel better though.

"I'm sorry Pinkie. I just don't want any more of my friends getting hurt."

Pinkie gave Rainbow a gentle smile, "Don't you worry Rainbow. Me and my sisters, and Azure and Top Spin, are all going to take care of each other. Just like your Wonderbolt friends are going to look after you. Speaking of, aren't you going to introduce me to them?"

"Sure, but you already kinda know my wing ponies."


-0-0-0-


"And that's pretty much the situation," Spitfire said to Shining Armour, getting him up to speed on the situation. "Ten thousand Mareitanians and griffons, as well as Faust, against five thousand of us, hiding behind a shield."

"I hate to say that the biggest complication here is Faust," said Shining. "It'd take them some serious effort to bring down or circumvent the shield without her, but I'm betting she could do it in minutes."

"Then why hasn't she already?"

"Who knows?" said Shining. "She can't be unaware we're all here now, so there must be something to her plan. What would you do in this situation if you were her Captain?"

"If I was Faust?" Spitfire hummed and peered at the map of the Empire before them. "Right now, if I was Faust, I'd move my forces south to take the train station, both capturing the trains and cutting off our only means of retreat. Then, since we brought the shield accessing crystals in here with us, I'd either bust down the shield and wipe us out, or simply starve us out. Without Cadence powering the shield through the Crystal Heart, the shield would come down soon enough anyway, and we'd be too weak to mount a decent defence."

"Why take the trains?"

"So I could send my spare soldiers down to attack the bulwark at Vanhoover from the rear, if it hasn't fallen already. Then I'll need the train to ferry supplies up here for my soldiers laying siege to the Empire. Then once the Empire has fallen, I'd gather my strength and march straight on Canterlot, because if you take Canterlot, the rest of Equestria should fall easy enough." Spitfire coughed awkwardly as she saw the way Shining was looking at her. "I guess I'm getting a bit ahead of myself there."

"At bit." Shining shrugged, "Still though, even in that scenario, why take the Crystal Empire at all?"

"No idea," said Spitfire. "I'd say she's doing it to divide our forces from defending the bulwark, but she easily has enough forces to take both."

"From our last intel, we've only seen two thirds of her forces at most." Shining sighed and twisted the map to look at it from another angle, hoping that might help him figure out what Faust was planning. It didn't. "If she's not doing what you said, what is she doing?"

"Does it matter?" said Spitfire. "We don't have the numbers to hold them off, and their army has more experience. I hate to say it General, but if, and when, she decides to attack and get through that shield, this isn't a fight we can win. There's no point throwing all those lives away for nothing if we have no chance of holding the city."

Shining closed his eyes and nodded. He'd suspected as much, but to hear it from one of the few ponies with more actual military experience than him was a definite sign it was true. "What do you suggest then?"

"Evacuate the city. The sick, young, and elderly can take the trains, while everypony else dresses warm and walks. We'll perform a holding action in case Faust tries anything, falling back street by street until the city is empty, then follow the civilians south, acting as a buffer between the Mareitanians and the crystal ponies."

"That's almost forty miles of freezing snow and ice Spitfire! There's no way we can ask all those ponies to walk that far! It'd be suicide!"

Spitfire resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her superior. "The other option is to leave them here with Faust after we all kill ourselves in a battle we can't currently win. Your choice General. If it helps you could ask the crystal pegasi in the Imperial Guard to try and clear the clouds out in front of the civvies."

"Won't work. The weather up here is wild even for wild weather standards. I guess we don't have a lot of choice though, although the choice is ultimately yours Cadence," Shining said to the other pony standing there, who had remained silent until now.

Cadence couldn't even pretend to be happy that the decision was hers as she spoke in a flat, near monotone voice. "I feel that Captain Spitfire might be right in her assessment of the situation. There's no point wasting lives for nothing."

"Only if you're sure honey," Shining said, shifting briefly from military leader mode to husband mode.

Cadence nodded once, "I'm sure."

"Then it's settled. Spitfire, can you handle the defence while I sort out the evacuation?"

Spitfire grinned and saluted, "You can count on me General."

"Good." Shining returned the salute, and held it as Spitfire flew off. Then he turned to the unicorn holding the only thing as precious to him as Cadence. "Sunburst, you are taking Flurry, and you are going on the first train out of here. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal- Uh, I mean, yes sir."

"Good. Thank you Sunburst." Shining lifted the bubbly baby alicorn out of the crystal basket Sunburst was holding, and took her over to Cadence. "Mommy and Daddy are going to have to go away for a little bit, but don't you worry because uncle Sunburst is going to take great care of you until we come back to find you."

Cadence planted a kiss on Flurry Heart's cheek, then another as tears started running down her own cheeks. "Mommy and Daddy love you very much. Always remember that." Cadence nearly choked as Flurry giggled and hugged her nose, totally ignorant of what was happening as only a foal could be.

Shining held them both for a moment, then placed his daughter back into the basket, kissing her gently next to her horn. "Stay safe Flurry." He nodded to Sunburst, who turned and ran towards the station. "We'll see you again soon," he said as Sunburst galloped into the distance.


-0-0-0-


"I'm curious," Thunderlane said as he followed Rainbow Dash through the skies, keeping an eye on both the Mareitanians, and the ponies running about below.

"About what?" Rainbow asked a little unsurely. Knowing Thunderlane it was going to be something either stupid, or puerile.

"About the crystal ponies. I mean... um, okay, you go for a night out and you meet a nice crystal pony mare, and she's amenable to... suggestions."

Cloud Chaser burst out laughing. "Amenable to suggestions? Is that what the cool kids are calling it these days?"

"I'm trying to be serious here!"

"Okay, okay," Cloud snickered. "Right, so you go out and meet a nice crystal pony mare who's 'amenable to suggestions,' so naturally you want to take her home and show her your collection of dolls and mint condition comics."

"They're action figures, and no. What I'm getting at is, if you-uh... follow through on those suggestions-"

"Good grief Thunderlane," Rainbow groaned. "The fact that you're being so careful about how to say this to two mares already suggests this is about sex, so how about you just get on and say it?"

"Alright! Fine! I was wondering, if I were to, totally hypothetically, have sex with a crystal mare, would I be able to see my junk inside her?"

Rainbow snorted harshly at the question, and struggled to speak through her laughter. "Wh-ha-ha-what the hell Thunderlane?" she asked as Cloud elbowed him on the side.

"Always asking the big questions, as usual."

"What? I'm just curious. I think it'd be kinda neat is all."

"Typical stallion in love with their own junk," Rainbow sighed. "Thunderlane, can you see the rest of a crystal pony's insides?"

"Well, no, I guess not."

"There's your answer then."

"But it might be different if a non crystal pony were to have sex with a crystal m-"

"Movement!"

And just like that they were all business again, swinging back around to face the Mareitanian army, that for some reason they couldn't understand were moving north, rather than attacking. They weren't just spreading out either as the entire army moved north, with Faust in the lead.

"What are they doing?" Rainbow wondered out loud. So far none of the Mareitanians actions made sense to her. When they'd left the bulwark the Mareitanians were practically throwing themselves at it, but here they were acting strangely and being beyond cautious. It made Rainbow think they were planning something.

All they could do was react to the situation, and make sure the crystal ponies had time to evacuate. Something Spitfire appeared to be determined to do as the Equestrian forces rapidly repositioned themselves to face where Faust was moving hers.

"I guess it's show time," Lightning said as Rainbow and her wing regrouped with her Squadron. "I guess they didn't want to wait until we could evacuate the city."

"Of course not," Rainbow said sarcastically. "That'd be way too easy. Ah!" Rainbow shielded her eyes as a bright light from the north blinded her for a moment. When she dared to look again, the light was far dimmer, but what she saw instead was no better. If there were any doubts about Faust's power, they'd probably been silenced.

Rather than bring the entire shield around the city down, Faust was instead just tearing an entrance into it, forcing it wider and wider until a dozen ponies and griffons could pass through it at a time. As soon as they were in, the Mareitanians adepts put up a shield, protecting their forces until there was enough inside the shield to be a threat. Then they started moving forwards.

"Ouch time," Rainbow muttered, clipping her muzzleguard into place.


-0-0-0-


Pinkie gulped as Faust tore a hole in the shield, the clash of powerful magic sending flares of raw, chaotic energy tumbling through the air until it settled down. Then the Mareitanians entered, running through on both sides of Faust, who stood in the hole she'd made, holding it open for her soldiers.

A shield went up around the Mareitanians, and suddenly Pinkie felt very silly, standing here, preparing to fight an army led by an alicorn like Faust, with only a bag full of rocks. Thankfully she wasn't alone, and the members of their own Mage Corps put a shield up to protect their fellows, stretching between the gaps in the houses. It would hardly be enough though, as what the Mareitanians had was twice the size of the Equestrians'.

"We're so fucked," Top Spin whimpered, looking like she was more ready to flee than fight. Nopony felt could blame her though, as a lot of them felt the same. 

"Not necessarily," Maud said calmly, pulling a rock out of her bag and testing its weight in her hoof. "Not all of them are stallions."

It was a terrible joke, but right then, while staring death in the face, it felt like the funniest thing they'd ever heard, and there were more than a few chuckles going around. Pinkie did at least feel a little better after hearing the laughter. Then the Mareitanians struck.

The Mareitanians dropped their shield, and a wave of earth ponies sprinted towards them, while in the sky the griffons screamed their battle cries, pumping their wings to meet the Wonderbolts and Air Corps in battle. That wasn't Pinkie's concern though, beyond hoping Rainbow was okay. Her concern lay on the ponies battering their way through the shield protecting them.

"Here they come," Limestone growled, a hoof holding a rock pulled back ready to throw. A crack formed in the shield, and not wasting any time attacking, Limestone threw her stone through the gap as hard as she could, hitting one of the Mareitanians right on the forehead, denting his helmet and dropping him to the ground, either dead or unconscious. 

Seeing Limestone do that spurred the rest of the Equestrian forces into action, and those that could began firing their weapons through the cracks in the shield, or even stabbing their spears through them if that's what they had. The unicorns held the shield as long as they could, but the Mareitanian Adepts, no longer occupied with shielding their own forces, soon brought the Equestrians shield down.

Pinkie yelped and dove out of the way as the Mareitanian earth ponies surged into the now open way. Colourful bolts of magic roared through the air overhead, gouging chunks out of buildings, the streets, and more unfortunately ponies. Pinkie froze as one of the Mage corps unicorns fell, half his head blown away by an errant blast of magic.

Pinkie stared blankly at the unicorn as his blood pooled beneath him, and likely would have stayed there had a shout from Azure not distracted her. She quickly searched around and found Azure pinned on her back, desperately holding the spear of a Mareitanian in her hooves to stop it being used against her. "Azure!"

Without thinking, Pinkie grabbed a rock out of her bag and launched it the head of the pony attacking Azure, clipping her across the top of her head, not hard enough to kill, or even really hurt, but it was enough to knock off the mare's helmet, giving Azure enough of a distraction to kick up at the mare, off-balancing her enough to wriggle away. To make sure Azure did get away, Pinkie threw another rock, punching a neat dent into the mare's forehead, killing her.

Azure scrabbled back from the fallen soldier, her chest heaving as she fixated on the blood dribbling from the mare's nose. "Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck! Pinkie?" Pinkie didn't answer. She was too busy staring at her hoof. "Pinkie!" Azure stood and smacked Pinkie on the side, "Snap out of it!"

"That wasn't funny at all," Pinkie whispered.

"Come on Pinkie! Don't do this! We need to find the others-" A deafening crunch cut Azure off, and they ducked down as fragments of crystal off one of the nearby buildings rained down on them, followed by a dead pegasus. "Aah! What the fuck?!"

"Fall back! Fall back!"

"Oh no! We have to find the others!" Pinkie gasped as the call to fall back went out, her eyes suddenly focused and alert.

"That's what I've been trying to say!" Azure said, her eyes fixed on the pegasus that had almost landed on them. She yelped as Pinkie dragged her into the lee of a building, where some of the unicorns of the Mage corps had taken shelter. Unicorns they knew.

"Come on Pyrelight! We need to fall back!" Lyra pleaded desperately, unaware that Pinkie had slipped in behind them. "Please Pyre, come on!"

Pyrelight curled up tighter, blood running from a cut on her left shoulder. "I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die!"

"And you won't," said Pinkie, alerting them to her presence. "Azure, grab Pyrelight. Lyra and I will protect you."

"We will? I mean, yeah! Just hold on to Azure Pyrelight, and we'll all get out of here!"

Pinkie peeked around the corner as the Equestrian line fell back past the building they were hiding behind. It seemed to make little difference though, as the Equestrians were already pretty scattered. At least those still living.

"I think we need to go if we're going to get out of here." Pinkie grabbed a rock out of her bags and held it in her teeth as Lyra finished pushing Pyrelight onto Azure's back. She nodded, and Pinkie peeked back around the corner. Thankfully the Mareitanians didn't seem to be in a hurry to follow after the Equestrians, so after waving for Azure to start moving, she ran out, hoping to distract them while Azure fell back. She spat the rock into her hoof, and prepared to make use of her small repertoire of profanities when a shower of rocks from across the street pelted the Mareitanians nearest to her.

"Run you idiot!" Limestone shouted, ducking behind the corner of a building to escape the smattering of arrows and bolts of magic that were shot at her.

"I'm not the idiot!" Pinkie tossed the rock into the air and delivered a roundhouse kick to it that sent it hurtling at one of the Mareitanians hard enough to knock him over. "They are! Run for your lives!"

Pinkie turned and ran, Lyra running out behind her, firing a single blast of magic that felled a single Mareitanian soldier before they could try to defend themselves. From across the street the other members of the Hard corps ran as well, hooves pounding on the crystal paving as they retreated back to the safety of the purple shield set up around the castle.

"Twitchy tail!" Pinkie shrieked, her tail almost vibrating. "Twitchy tail!" All of them started weaving as arrows fell upon them, and they picked up the pace again as the ponies firing stopped to reload. Pinkie's tail refused to stop twitching though, and a cursory glance behind them showed that there were a trio of griffons quickly catching up to them, with Maud being their most likely target as she was the furthest behind. "Watch out Maud!"

Maud looked back as Pinkie shouted, seeing the griffons behind her. Very close behind her. She veered to the left, onto the grassy verge that lined the streets and sunk her right hoof into the ground as she ran, grabbing a clump of soil, then jumping and twisting in midair to throw the clump of soil into the eyes of the lead griffon as he dove for her. He squawked loudly in surprise, and failed to pull up out of his dive in time to avoid slamming into the ground. He quickly clawed the dirt out of his eyes, just in time to see Maud's rear hoof flying towards him, and that was the last he ever saw again.

Maud backed up against the side of a building, trying to figure out how to deal with the other two griffons that had gone past, but were coming back for her. She hefted a rock in her hoof, and waited a second before throwing it in a curve that led it to meet the wing joint of the rightmost griffon with a meaty sounding slap that left it to wobble down to the ground. The other griffon was undeterred however, and dove straight for Maud faster than she could get a rock out of her bag. Her luck held though, and a split second later the griffon smacked down onto the crystal road, sliding to a stop right in front of Maud, Spitfire stood on its back with her backs impaling its back.

"I said, fall back!"

Maud saluted hastily, and galloped for the safety of the shield.


-0-0-0-


"It was a simple fucking order," Spitfire growled, pushing herself back into the air. "Was it too much for it to get obeyed?"

"But did you see the way she took out those two griffons?" Fleetfoot said excitedly. "An earth pony? One with a clump of dirt, and the other with a rock? That was awesome!"

"She could have got herself killed!"

"Anypony else having déjà vu?" Soarin asked. "All we need are some diamond dogs and thestrals, and this would feel a lot like the battle at Caverndown. Y'know, falling back as we evacuated the city. Only this time we actually had some time to prepare."

"Great, so those poor bastards from Caverndown get to lose another home to the Mareitanians." Fleetfoot sighed heavily. "This is fucking ridiculous."

"Truth," said Soarin. "Anyway, I think the north of the city looks clear of civvies and friendlies, so I guess we should fall back too."

Spitfire nodded, and led the way back to the purple shield that spread around the base of the Crystal castle, bisecting the city. They passed through it and landed next to the Crystal Heart, where Shining was maintaining the new shield, while Princess Cadence maintained the one over the city, giving the pegasi somewhere to retreat from the griffons if things got too heavy.

"North of the city looks to be clear General," Spitfire reported.

Shining nodded, "We're almost done evacuating the south as well. What about casualties?" he asked.

"Not... great," Spitfire answered hesitantly. "We've barely scratched their forces, while they've taken a significant chunk out of ours. Our ponies just weren't ready."

"I know. We'll load the wounded onto the trains if there's room, but I'm afraid we're going to have to leave the fallen." Shining winced as he heard a whimper from Cadence, "I'm sorry honey."

"I am too," she said, but not to Shining.

"How much longer can you hold that shield?"

"Without the love of the crystal ponies powering it, not long. I'm giving it all I have."

"Just hold on until the last of the crystal ponies are away, then we'll get out of here ourselves." Shining smiled as Cadence nodded, his heart brimming with love for his dear, brave Princess. "Spitfire, I want you and the all the pegasi up there deterring the griffons from flying over the south of the city. We'll hold them on the ground here until the last of the civilians is away, then we are out of here, understood?"

"Yessir!" Spitfire saluted, holding it until Shining returned it. "Just try not to take too long, okay?"


-0-0-0-


Rainbow was pissed. Even with all the extra fliers from Camp Freedom, the griffons still managed to outnumber them at least two to one. Even one on one the fight would still be in the griffons' favour because they were simply more experienced, better equipped, and born to kill. Ponies simply didn't have that same natural instinct. They could learn it, but that took time, and to have that time you needed to live, and to live in this situation, you had to be good at fighting, which brought them back to the beginning of the problem; the Equestrians weren't very good at fighting. Unsurprising for a nation that tended to sometimes use baked goods as weapons.

So far Rainbow felt like she'd spent less time actually fighting the griffons than she did making sure ponies didn't get themselves killed. Admittedly she was doing that by attacking the griffons attacking others, but that little fact had passed her by, swallowed up by her frustration at the situation. They were losing, and Rainbow hated losing, but she was instead having to put her effort into making sure they didn't lose as badly as they could.

Rainbow dove towards a cluster of griffons, putting her frustration to the side for now. Saving the other pegasi from getting killed was still important, and as group of them fled the griffons, Rainbow knew it was up to her to save them. She nodded back to her wingmates, both of them nodding back and drifting further sideways away from her, ready to follow her through as she pierced through the heart of the griffons giving chase.

She held one blade wielding hoof up as she raced towards them, and brought it down as she passed the first griffon, striking it across the back. Whether she did serious damage or not she couldn't tell as she raced past it, lashing out with her other blade towards the rear of a griffon, missing most of it, but cutting it's paw instead, hard enough to sever pieces that fell to the ground as she pulled up, Cloud Chaser and Thunderlane right behind her, along with most of the unwounded griffons. Two others were falling to the ground, so their attack had some success.

Rainbow flared her wings sharply, stopping herself rapidly. The griffons were unprepared for her to do so, and as they chased after them, they were surprised to find their quarry not fleeing, but instead twisting in midair, deflecting the middlemost griffons weapon aside with one blade and plunging the other into the griffon's side, getting dragged back into motion as the griffon fell.

Rainbow braced her hooves against the body of the griffon, and tore her blade free, shaking her hoof as the griffon crashed into the side of one of the many buildings. She'd forgotten to account for the sudden momentum that stabbing the griffon like that would give her, and now her leg hurt. Still, it was a small price to pay, and she grinned as she looked up and saw the griffons confusion over whether to split up and chase her, follow her wingmates, or go elsewhere. The Wonderbolts had quickly learnt that while experience in aerial fighting was good, being totally unpredictable tended to work much better. So when another wing of Wonderbolts swooped in, the griffons really didn't see it coming.

Rainbow tossed the other Wonderbolts a lazy salute, not entirely sure who it was that had helped her. Recognising ponies simply by the colour of their tail was actually harder than you'd think. Still, they'd helped her, so now it was up to her to meet back up with her wing and pass the favour on.

"Are you crazy?" Thunderlane spat as soon as Rainbow joined back up with them. "We're supposed to stick together."

"Divide and conquer," Rainbow said back. "You know being unpredictable works."

"You had literally no idea what was behind you! You could have gotten killed!"

Rainbow ignored him. She knew that following doctrines was only getting their side killed, and yes she knew she was being reckless, but from what she could tell, being reckless in this situation didn't seem to make you any more or less likely to get killed than simply following procedure where you could get killed at any moment by a lucky strike from a less predictable opponent.

"Guys, shut up!" Cloud shouted. "Do you see that?" Cloud pointed a blade south, where through the shield they could just about make out hundreds, if not thousands of colourful blobs flying towards them. It didn't take a genius to work out they were pegasi.

"What the hell?" Rainbow pulled up, flying out through the shield to get a better look. They were indeed pegasi, and they were flying straight for the Crystal Empire. They weren't uniformed by the looks of it, which concerned her. "Are they on our side or what?"

"Should we go find Spitfire?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah, probably. Let's go!" Rainbow dove back downwards, her keen eyes searching for a Wonderbolt with a flame coloured tail, possibly flanked by ponies with a short, dark blue tail, and a white tail. In the massive airspace over the Crystal Empire, filled with ponies and griffons moving at high speed, that was not that easy-

"There she is!" Thunderlane shouted, pointing down towards the shield around the castle.

-Unless you're Thunderlane. Rainbow opened her mouth to ask how he did that, but decided to save her breath for flying through the dogfight to their commanding officer.

Rainbow pushed ahead of her wing, holding her blades forward to strike down the griffon locked blade to blade with Spitfire, then changed her mind to lead in with her back legs instead, bringing her blades in to stab the griffon as she impacted against it, then quickly pushing off again. "Captain!" Rainbow shouted, while Spitfire seemed surprised to see her. "Pegasi flying up from the south!"

"Pegasi fl- What?"

"There are pegasi flying up from the south! Thousands of them!"

Spitfire didn't ask again, instead flying straight up to see outside the shield, Rainbow's wing and her own following closely behind her. As Rainbow had said, there were pegasi flying up from the south, and although they were clearly uniformed, she knew they were friendly as they passed over the fleeing crystal ponies without bothering them.

"Here," Soarin said, throwing a small monocular over to Spitfire. She fumbled it, then held it up to her right eye, bringing the pegasi flying towards them into sharp focus. They were definitely uniformed, and also unarmoured. They were on the other hoof, armed. There was only one bunch of pegasi that she knew was crazy enough to fly into battle without armour, and they were the liberated pegasi from Mareitania, who hopefully were on the side of Equestria now. Or at least things could hardly get worse if they weren't.

"We need to get this shield down," Spitfire said, tossing the monocular back to Soarin. "If those pegasi are who I think they are, we might just all make it out of this. Come on!"

It was a short flight down to where Shining Armour and Cadence were, still holding the central part beneath the castle, which was filled with noise as the Mareitanian forces tested Shining's shield. It would only be a matter of time before they started to push forwards again, and that shield wouldn't stop them for long. If Faust was around, she'd likely have it down in seconds. Until then however, it was as close to a safe haven the Equestrian forces could hope for.

Spitfire dropped down onto the ground in front of Shining and Cadence, giving them a quick salute. "Sir, we have pegasus reinforcements coming up from the south."

"We do?" Shining turned to face south, and squinted at the distant ponies. "We weren't expecting reinforcements. Who are they?"

"The pegasi refugees from Mareitania."

"Really?" Shining turned to face Spitfire, then the incoming pegasi, then back to Spitfire. "And you're definitely sure they're on our side?"

"I am. I'll make sure they kill me first if I'm wrong. Sir. They'll be here in a another minute flying at that speed, so if you want them to help, you need to drop the shield around the city before they get here. Right before they get here if possible, so we can give the griffons a little surprise."

"I can barely hold this shield any more," Cadence whispered, her exhaustion showing through her speech, "so we might as well. They'll only get in anyway."

Shining looked up at the pegasi once more, then nodded. "Okay, the city is nearly evacuated now, so we should start to think about getting ourselves out of here. Spitfire, head up and meet them. Explain the plan, and make sure they know which side to hit." Spitfire saluted again and raced off up through the shield. "Rainbow, you and your wingmates should get back up there for when they arrive. Try and make sure our own forces don't attack them. Tell them that once the griffons are pushed back, you need to retreat before their ground forces can fire on you." Like Spitfire, Rainbow saluted and went off to carry out her orders. "Cadence. As soon as the shield is down, take the Crystal Heart and get out of here."

"Not without you."

"Cadence, I'm being serious-"

"So am I! I'll wait at the station, but I won't be going any further, not without you."

Shining smiled tiredly, "Alright. I'll tell you when to stop. Flash, you keep her safe."

Flash saluted sharply, "You can count on me." 

Shining turned back to face the pegasi, watching as they got closer and closer, Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot flying at their lead. When they were barely a hundred yards from the shield, he shouted to Cadence to stop. The magic on her horn dissipated, and seconds after that, the shield around the city flickered into nothing, giving the pegasi their chance to ambush the griffons. They took it.


-0-0-0-


Pinkie and all those around her gawped up at the sky as the shield fell, and a mass of pegasi swarmed into the city, crashing into the remaining griffons forces. Bodies fell from the skies, landing on roads and buildings with sounds that would forever burn themselves into the minds of anypony that heard it. The difference this time though, was that it was mostly griffon bodies falling now as the colourful mass of ponies overwhelmed the griffon forces. Piercing cries sounded above them, and moments after the pegasi's arrival, the griffons were fleeing.

"Holy shit," Limestone swore quietly. "Now this is more like it!"

"Who are those pegasi?" Lyra asked, watching the spectacle with a horrified fascination.

Azure shrugged, "Who cares if they're helping us? You go you crazy sons-a-bitches! I mean, seriously, they must have some real guts to do that without armour."

"I wouldn't get too excited," said Maud. "This just means they're more likely to send in their ground forces."

"That's bullshit," Limestone scoffed. "Now the skies belong to our pegasi they wouldn't dare atta- Hey! What the hell are they doing?" Limestone's mouth hung open as the pegasi stopped attacking, and fell back to the south. "No!"

"Retreat! Retreat!"

"Guess that means they're done evacuating the city," said Pinkie, offering a hoof to pull Marble to her hooves, her wild-eyed twin having not said a word since their first contact with the enemy. "Come on Marble, let's get the heck out of dodge!"

Pushing Marble in front of her until the slightly younger mare took the hint to get running, Pinkie didn't look back, not wanting to think about all that had happened. She, like so many others, just wanted to get out of there. She slowed as she passed Shining Armour under the castle, taking note that both Cadence and the Crystal Heart had gone, leaving him alone to maintain his shield. "Shining?"

"Get moving Pinkie! We are getting out of here!"

"But what about you?"

"Yes I'm coming too Pinkie! I just have to hold this shield long enough for all of you to get away."

"Then I'm staying too. You're Twilight's brother, and I'd be remiss in my duty to her as a best friend if I left you here on your lonesome."

"That's sweet and all Pinkie, but this is an order! Get movi-angh!" Shining collapsed to his knees as his shield buckled from a single strike, it's supplier striding gracefully towards them, her tall, white, unarmoured body a stark note in the sea of soldiers that now ran towards the castle.

"Okay, time to go." Pinkie pushed herself up under Shining until he was back on his hooves, then dragged him until he started running himself, taking the most direct route towards the train station, even if they didn't take the straightest line running, dodging back and forth to avoid anything that was fired at them. Crystal turned to dirt beneath their hooves as they left the city, bringing up the rear of a massive column of ponies fleeing from the battle. The mass of ponies flowed around the station, running straight for the frozen waste beyond which was ironically the safest place to be. The only ones not running were Cadence, Flash Sentry, and the other members of the Hard corps including Lyra.

"Get moving!" Shining shouted at them, slowing enough only to make sure that they stayed in front of them, with Flash taking to the air, along with a large number of the other pegasi that hung back to cover the retreat of their allies. Nothing followed them though. Not a single pony or griffon left the city limits to chase the retreating Equestrians, instead making room for Faust to walk to the front, her horn glowing brightly with a prepared spell that she fired directly at their small group, although who it was directly intended for would remain a mystery.

With a shout Flash threw himself into the path of the crackling orb of magic, intercepting it before it could reach any of them, and most importantly before it could harm the princess he swore to defend with his life. Hoping he'd made the princesses proud, he caught the magic on his chest.

All of them shielded their eyes from the blinding flare of magic as Faust's attack struck Flash, and when it faded, and they dared look again, there was nothing left save for a faint shadow on the ground marking the point where Flash Sentry had made the ultimate sacrifice for their safety.

"No!" Shining bellowed, skidding to a halt and turning back to attack Faust. A pale blue haze of magic caught him, easily overpowering him and dragging him away from the Crystal Empire and after Cadence, who knew just as well as Shining did how much this hurt him. All of them had lost something today, and without the Crystal Heart to hold the frozen north back, she hoped the Mareitanians also failed to gain anything as the frozen north claimed the Empire.

Swearing to return one day to make things right, Cadence led their group into the snow, and away from harm.


-0-0-0-


Faust sighed, her breath condensing in the air as the temperature continued to drop. Whatever the former inhabitants of the city had done before fleeing, it was having a serious effect on the weather. Besides the plummeting temperature, vicious storm clouds swirled around the city, unleashing heavy falls of snow that had already covered the lands around the city. Twice she had cast back the storms, and twice her efforts had been ignored as the storm kept coming and coming.

A thin dusting of snow whipped around her hooves and covered the snowflake on the ground beneath the crystalline castle that dominated the centre of the city. A city that now felt almost dead beneath her hooves. When she had first set hoof onto the crystal streets, she could feel the magic interwoven into the very fabic of the city, beating like a heart. She could no longer feel it, and she suspected that was related to the sudden change in the weather. Most importantly it had made the Empire useless to her plans to spread her influence over Equestria.

She hoped she could salvage something from the situation though, and let her magic search through the intricate spellwork laced through every inch of the city. Spells designed to spread love and joy to every inch of Equestria. Spells powered by the love and joy of the crystal ponies. Spells designed to rid the land of the influence of negative energy, which fueled far worse things. Spells which felt so very familiar...

Faust gasped and let her magic drop. Even after all the time spent apart from him, she could still recognise the spellwork of her beloved Starswirl. Now she could see it, every inch of the city was covered in his work, like it had been built into the city. And the Equestrians had torn the very heart out of it. Faust felt her rage build, then sighed, letting it go just as fast. Minutes earlier she had been willing to twist the magic of this place to her own ends, defiling Starswirl's work. She was no better than they were. Perhaps it was best that this place had been made dormant for now, so nopony could misuse it.

"My Lady?"

Faust pulled herself out of her thoughts as one of her followers addressed her, and graced him with a smile. "Yes my little pony?"

"We've searched the city and found no sign of any crystal ponies left behind."

Faust smiled and nodded, as that had been the plan. They simply didn't have the means right now to support the population of an entire city, and she was glad the Equestrians were predictable enough to evacuate the city instead, saving them the effort of having to look after the crystal ponies. It also saved them from now having to evacuate the city themselves as the frozen north continued to push in.

"Very good," she said to the soldier who was watching her expectantly. "Any news from General Snowbright?"

"Not as yet my Lady."

"Then let us leave this place before we become trapped here, so we might lend him our assistance." Just because one avenue of attack had been closed, there were still plenty more.
> 24. Vanhoover
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna inspected the hastily made repairs being made to the wall. A wall that was still barely standing after the battering the Mareitanian tanks had given it hours ago.

It had held though, if only just, and after some time the Mareitanians had given up their assault after losing a few more of their tanks. They hadn't left though, and were still waiting just out of reach of the Bulwarks siege weapons, ready to try again.

Luna suspected the defenders couldn't repel another assault. The dead were far too numerous around the Bulwark, and the living were... living in name only at times. Tanks and explosives were a whole different ballgame compared to what they were used to, and they were having to stand against such things using spears, crossbows, and faith that the magic of others would keep them alive. If the number of dead were any indication, that faith would seem a little misplaced, if unfairly so.

"Fie on this entire situation," Luna grumbled. "How are we few supposed to hold this without reinforcements? My horn still aches from the last battle, and I am likely far less taxed than most others here."

"Princess?"

Luna looked up as Stormguard spoke to her. "Excuse me, I am but thinking out loud."

"You don't think we can hold against another attack?"

Luna made a sweeping gesture around them, "You can see as well as I that we could barely fight back a dozen foals armed with candy canes right now General. If the Mareitanians had any idea how close they were to breaking our defences, they may not have withdrawn their forces."

"Should we withdraw then Princess?"

"And give up our most defensible position? Nay General, that would be foolish." Luna turned back to stare out over the mass of water that shared her name. An attack on Equestria coming from over the Luna bay... It was enough to make her blood boil if she let it.

"Is the city evacuated?" Luna asked, pushing her ire aside.

"As far as we are able to tell. No doubt there'll be some that refused to leave, but there is little we can do for them now, other than hope we can hold the Mareitanians off."

"Do you think we can hold them off?" Luna asked pointedly.

Stormguard swallowed as he delayed giving his answer. "No," he said after a few moments.

Luna nodded, "Correct. Unless we have a miracle influx of reinforcements, there is no chance we can hold this position for long. All we can hope for those ponies too stubborn to leave is that they remain safe as we are forced to fall back to the city. Why did you think I ordered the city evacuated if I thought we could hold them here?"

Stormguard didn't answer. He didn't need to.

"I'll take your silence to mean you know why I did it. Consider also then, the recent changes in our crystal pony allies. The loss of their lustrous coats, and the change to their demeanours, becoming rather... apathetic. What do you think that means?"

Again Stormguard was hesitant to answer. "I suspect it means the Crystal Empire has fallen to the enemy."

"I suspect it means more than that General. Either the city has been captured and the Crystal Heart removed from its place, or our forces took the Crystal Heart with them as they fled the city, which is both the better and worst of the two possible outcomes."

"Better and worst?" Stormguard asked, confused.

"Removing the Crystal Heart from the city would remove what holds back the frozen north from consuming the city. If our side took it, it denies the Empire to the enemy, which is good, assuming they also evacuated the city. However, it does also mean that the Mareitanian forces in the Empire are either on their way here, or intent to attack elsewhere."

Stormguard's mouth flapped uselessly for a moment, before settling on a single syllable. "Oh."

"Indeed," Luna sighed. "The war has barely begun, and already we are losing poorly."

"But if they attack us here, they'll trap us!"

"I am aware," Luna said pointedly.

"Then what should we do?"

"What would you do?"

"I'd fall back. There's no point getting us all killed if we stand no chance of succeeding!"

"But then the Mareitanians get through the wall unimpeded," said Luna. "Bringing with them their tanks and full strength, making this war even harder than it already is. Hence my dilemma over leaving this position."

"Can- Can we even win this war?"

This time, it was Luna who remained silent.

"Princess?"

"We can win General, but only when we have right weapon. Currently we do not possess that weapon."

"And when will we have that weapon?"

Luna turned back to face the Luna bay."I'm afraid that depends entirely on Princess Twilight. The key to winning this war isn't through defeating their army General, but through defeating their leader. If we take Faust out, the rest of their offensive will more than likely crumble." Or so we hope, Luna thought quietly to herself.

"So all these ponies might have died for nothing if she fails?"

"There is far more at stake here than you realise General. Nopony here will have died for nothing."

Both Luna and Stormguard stopped as one of Luna's Night Guard landed heavily on the observation platform. "Sorry to disturb you Mistress, but General Shining Armour has arrived with reinforcements. He'll be here shortly."

Luna nodded her appreciation, "Thank you. If you could inform him that I want to see him as soon as possible?"

"Of course Mistress."

Luna smiled tightly as the thestral stepped off the platform to deliver her message. While she was highly pleased to be getting reinforcements, if Shining Armour was here, the Crystal Empire was lost, and bad news was sure to be following him.


-0-0-0-


"So the Crystal Heart is secure then?"

"It is. Cadence and Celestia are working on restoring some of its functionality in Canterlot, to help the crystal ponies, and to aid in Canterlot's defence should it fall under attack."

Luna smiled at the two Generals, "Finally, some good news. What of the evacuees?" she asked Shining Armour.

"A large refugee came is being set up just north of Appleloosa to house the evacuees from both the Empire and Vanhoover, although things aren't great right now, as that's almost half a million ponies they're trying to house. I suspect even more will end up there as the war progresses. I also ordered the movement of Camp Freedom, in case Faust caught wind of its location and decided to attack there."

"Where would it be going?"

"Horseshoe bay, south of Baltimare," Shining told them. "Celestia assures me that locals would happily agree to help us construct a new camp. Hopefully this one will stay safe."

"And what of Faust?"

"She's... something else. Tore a hole in the shield protecting Empire like it was made of paper, and vaporised a pony so that all that was left was a shadow." Shining shook his head, "None of you were lying about her capabilities, were you?"

"Why would we? Our deceitfulness is what got us into this situation, and it certainly won't help us get out of it. I was, however, asking where Faust is now?"

"On her way here, with an army by her side if our scouts are right. I hate to say it Luna, but our forces are severely outmatched by theirs, in both aggression and skill. Not to mention numbers."

Luna knew that perfectly well, but showed no sign of agreeing as that would be tantamount to giving up the fight. She knew they stood a chance as long as they knew how to fight this properly. The key, she felt, was in having few, but significant advantages, such as air superiority. With the formerly Mareitanian pegasi now fighting for Equestria, they might be able to achieve that. Luna had to admit though, it felt like there was still something else missing from their efforts, but she couldn't think of what.

"Princess?"

Luna jerked out of her thoughts as Shining said her name. "Apologies, I was thinking. What would your assessment of our current situation be?"

"Right now?" Shining shrugged as Luna nodded. "Right now I think we have no chance of holding the Bulwark, and would only be putting ourselves into a terrible situation if we tried to hold it. We never designed it to hold off an attack from the rear after all. Truthfully, Faust's attack on the Empire has thrown all our expectations up into the air."

"So what do you think we should do?"

"If Vanhoover's been evacuated, I say we should hold them there. Lay traps, and ambushes, and get our fliers to take out their griffons if we can. If we can take out their griffons, our air forces could do some serious damage with bombs, or even without. It would also make it very hard for them to pin us down and trap us, because there's a lot of ways to escape a city. Stormguard? What do you think?"

The grey pegasus General thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement. "With Faust coming from the rear, holding the bulwark is untenable. Perhaps if some were to hold the bulwark while others distracted the rest of their forces in the city?"

"I do not think we can do both," said Luna. "If Faust were to go straight for the bulwark, our forces there would be massacred. I feel that Shining's idea is the best we currently have."

"I do have one request though," said Shining. "Return our crystal ponies to Canterlot."

"What?! How could you even think of doing that?"

"Right now Luna, those ponies are more likely to be a hindrance than a help, and will probably get themselves and others killed. Until we can find a way to reactivate the Crystal Heart enough to overcome their lethargy, they shouldn't be fighting."

Luna ground her teeth and groaned in the back of her throat, but didn't argue the point. It was probably best that they be kept back until they were capable of fighting again. "Very well, but you are reducing our forces considerably doing this."

"I know, but I doubt getting the Crystal Legion massacred was really the objective here anyway."

Luna conceded the point. "Very well. How long do you think until Faust reaches us?"

"A couple of hours at least."

"Then I suggest moving everypony into the city, and preparing a fireworks display to celebrate her arrival."


-0-0-0-


Rainbow was concerned. For all the things Pinkie did for her parties, she never imagined that could be translated into a passable knowledge of setting up explosives. Rainbow knew a bit because she'd been trained to do so, but Pinkie, she knew more about it on her own, and was entirely self taught. If Rainbow was honest with herself, she was a little scared of Pinkie at that moment.

"And we twist that little dohickey around there, connect it to that, add a little tape to make sure it's totally secure and doesn't fall apart, aaaaaaand... there! One more pillar set to blow! How're you doing Rainbow?"

Rainbow fumbled with the sticks of dynamite in her hooves, before letting Pinkie help her get them around another pillar. "You know Pinkie, when they asked for volunteers to set up traps like this, you were meant to be helping the ponies with training to do this. How do you know all this?"

"Do you know how much powder it takes to fire a party cannon full of confetti without damaging anything, or setting fire to the confetti and everything the confetti lands on?" Pinkie smiled as Rainbow said she didn't. "I do," she said, pressing her face against Rainbow's until their eyes were almost touching. "Down to the last milligram."

"Oooookay," Rainbow said, pushing Pinkie away. "That still doesn't explain how you know to do all this."

Pinkie shrugged as she started connecting wires to the dynamite. "All good party planners must have at least a passing knowledge of pyrokinetics, otherwise how would your parties have any bang to them?"

"That's still not an explanation."

"You're not an explanation!"

"What?"

"What?"

"...What?" Rainbow shut her mouth and decided to drop the issue. Instead she had something else on her mind that she wanted to ask her pink friend about. "How are you feeling after what happened in the Crystal Empire? You know, your first fight?"

Pinkie stopped what she was doing, and let her hooves fall back to the ground. "I don't know," she said, shrugging at Rainbow. "I guess I'm okay."

"Really? I was in pieces after my first fight. You're really me telling you're okay?"

"I'm not saying I enjoyed it, because I really didn't. I killed ponies Rainbow, and that felt really bad. The thing is, if we're going to make everything right again, we're going to have to do it. When I thought about what I was fighting for, it didn't seem so terrible." Pinkie blushed a little, "I must sound silly."

"No!" Rainbow said quickly, not wanting Pinkie to doubt herself. "No, you don't. What you're saying is pretty much the same as why I'm doing it. Not because we want to, but because we have to. Because we need to."

Pinkie nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I guess. I don't think Marble's okay with it though. She's calmed down, but she still hasn't said much since the battle. Maybe she's not cut out for the fighting, and should try something else. Perhaps she should just go home. I don't know." Pinkie sadly twisted a hoof into the ground, then perked up a bit. "Still, we all made it through that, and I guess that's the most important thing, right?"

"Right," Rainbow agreed, glad that Pinkie had managed to perk herself back up. She did worry that Pinkie was totally unprepared for the possibility that she would lose ponies though. Something made worse due to four out of six of her unit being herself and her sisters. Once again Rainbow felt that same uncomfortable feeling that the ponies in charge really didn't care what happened to them.

"Anyway, I sure hope those meanies like the surprise we're cooking up for them. Shame about the building though."

"You can rebuild a building Pinkie."

"I know that! I'm just saying this is a really nice building, and it seems a shame to do what we're doing to it. I sure hope the Mareitanians appreciate it anyway."

"I'm sure they will," Rainbow said as noncommittally as she could, because it was that or sarcasm. "Anyway, I think we're done with our section. Let's get out of here and see what's going on."

"Sure!" Pinkie followed after Rainbow, happy to be around at least one of her friends again, even if the circumstances weren't exactly the best. She knew that soon they'd be back to fighting for their lives, so until then she could at least derive as much happiness from being around Rainbow as she could.

Outside was considerably more frantic than inside the basement of the Royal Canter, the tallest building in Vanhoover. Things were being prepared to draw the Mareitanians down the main street of the city, towards the towering office block. From there things got even more interesting, although there were concerns as to why Luna seemed almost happy to destroy parts of the city if it meant slowing the Mareitanians down. 

That was also why they were taking care to make sure every building along the way was clear of all ponies, but unless they wanted to spend all day doing it, which they couldn't, there was no guarantee. A fact that didn't sit well with many there.

"I guess this is where we split up again Pinkie," Rainbow said as she spotted other members of the Wonderbolts flying by, weaving through the streets far above the ground.

Pinkie pouted playfully at Rainbow, "Aww, and I was just getting used to having you around again. See each other again soon?"

"Definitely." Rainbow held a leg out, inviting Pinkie into a hug that the pink mare happily accepted, hugging Rainbow tightly until she was forced to wriggle her way out of it. "Catch ya later."

Pinkie's reply was lost to Rainbow as she soared into the air, putting some distance between them before she, Pinkie, or the both of them got too emotional. Her destination was the rooftop of one of the many other high-rise buildings in the city, where most of the other Wonderbolts were waiting for the attack to begin.

Lightning grinned and winked at Rainbow as she came in to land. "Have to admit Dash, that pink pony was pretty cute. No wonder you wanted to spend some time alone with her."

"Har-har, up yours Lightning." Rainbow punched the teal mare lightly on the side, then sat heavily beside her. "What's the news?"

"The news?" Lightning tapped her chin theatrically, "Let's see... Oh yes! Imminent doom is heading this way, and should be arriving within the hour, if not sooner, and our glorious leader seems intent to kill both us and them in a city sized fireball that could probably be seen from Canterlot. Also, I must have hit my head on something during our last fight, because there's a dent in my helmet, and it's a little bit uncomfortable."

Rainbow rolled her eyes at Lightning, "Quit being a smartass and tell me what's actually happening."

Lightning shrugged at Rainbow, "How wrong do you think I am? Okay, maybe the fireball won't be seen from Canterlot, and maybe Luna doesn't actually intend to kill her own ponies with it, but this plan is seriously messed up. Who blows up a skyscraper like this?"

Spitfire grunted at Lightning, having heard her complaining. "Your objections to the plan have taken onboard, and summarily thrown back overboard. As for the news Dash, the Mareitanians will be here in roughly twenty minutes, so if you want to grab something to eat, or say a prayer, now's your chance."

"...Shit."


-0-0-0-


"They're heading to the Bulwark," Shining said, watching the Mareitanians coming from the north through a pair of binoculars from the tower rooftop that had been appropriated as their command centre. "It seems you were right Luna."

"What's the state of their forces?" Luna asked, not caring about how right she was.

"Much the same as it was before. I don't see a lot of griffons with them though. Seems our new pegasus friends made short work of them because there's only a couple hundred left that I can see."

"It is possible there may be far more coming from beyond the Bulwark," Luna reminded him. "Let's not get too excited before we know the whole story. Just tell me what happens when she reaches the Bulwark."

It took some time before Shining had to speak again, as the Mareitanians didn't seem to be in any particular rush to get there. The griffons did fly ahead to scout, so it would soon become obvious to them that the Bulwark had been abandoned. A smart pony would only assume a trap. All of them suspected that the Mareitanians had plenty of smart ponies working that out, which is why they didn't bother to set a trap there.

"Okay, she's on the cliff over the Bulwark," Shining reported. "She's... yep, she's tearing the Bulwark apart." Shining's lips pulled back in a nervous grimace, "I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing magic like hers in action."

"Powerful magic or not," said Luna, "she is still but a pony, and capable of making mistakes. Due to the steep terrain both north and south of here, the only feasible way to get her tanks into Equestria is through the city, which is exactly what we want. Let them come Shining Armour. They shall pay for every step they take on Equestrian soil."

Shining glanced at Stormguard, catching the pegasus giving him the same look as he was giving the pegasus. A look that said they both felt Luna was crossing lines. Lines they hadn't known were there in the first place. Silently, Shining returned to watching what the Mareitanians were doing, and swore loudly as he saw a lot more griffons.

"I suspected as much," Luna said, having asked Shining what the problem was. "I know not how large the Bloodfeathers are as an organization, but I suspected we had not yet seen their full strength. Hopefully they don't outnumber our own fliers once again."

"Orders?" Stormguard asked.

"Everypony should be in position and ready to attack. All we have to do now is wait."


-0-0-0-


Pinkie peeked over the edge of the window, seeing the tanks and soldiers passing by below, winding their way through the streets, feeling as equally pensive as they looked. They all knew this was a trap, but only the Equestrians knew when it was to be sprung.

She ducked down as a flight of griffons flew past, then took another look. The soldiers coming through seemed endless, even if she objectively knew they weren't. There were far more than had attacked the Crystal Empire, so she could only assume that most of these had come from across the Luna bay.

Pinkie dropped back down again, sighing as she watched Marble fiddle nervously with her rear hooves. There were maybe eight thousand Equestrian soldiers in Vanhoover, which had seemed like a lot right up until the point she'd seen the amount of soldiers the Mareitanians had brought into the city. If ponies had any sense, they'd all be doing what Marble was doing.

"They're almost to the Royal Canter," Limestone whispered. "That means it's almost time."

Pinkie nodded, and saluted the towering building up the road to her left. "Your sacrifice will be remembered comrade."

"It's just a building Pinkie."

"Why does everypony feel the need to remind me of that? I can see it's a building."

"Keep it down Pinks," Azure whispered harshly. "This is going to be an epic explosion, and I don't want to miss it."

Top Spin raised an eyebrow at Azure, "So I see you have zero ethical conundrums about dropping a building on a couple thousand ponies."

"There's a lot more than a couple thousand down there," Azure pointed out. "I also don't see you arguing against this."

"I realise that there are more than a couple thousand ponies down there, but the building's not going to hit all of them, is it. And no, I'm not arguing, because what would that do to help?"

"Oh hey!" Azure said, having got bored of listening to Top Spin. "Faust's in the lead down there. If we can get her now, we could end this whole war!"

Pinkie decided to not point out that being buried under a hundred tons of rubble was more of an issue to Faust than actually dying. The only thing she could think would happen is the Mareitanians got really pissed off.

"Something feels wrong," said Maud.

Before any of them could ask what she meant, the Mareitanians reached the bottom of the Royal Canter, and the trap was sprung. The world shook with the deafening explosion that spat a flume of smoke and dust down the street, and tore the tower's foundation to shreds on the side facing the Mareitanians. The tower teetered over, almost looking like it was falling in slow motion, an illusion produced by its sheer size as it broke apart and crashed into the street below, producing a massive cloud of dust that obscured everything for the entire length of the street.

"Now!"

Everypony that could fired their weapon or their magic down into the street, aiming blindly through the dust that lit up with a thousand colourful streaks of magic. Under other circumstance it'd be beautiful to see, and even under this one it almost managed it, if you ignored the wave of destruction produced when that magic hit the ground.

Pinkie and her team didn't participate, as throwing rocks into the street felt silly even to them. Instead they just watched, mesmerized by the lightshow the unicorns were producing, right up until Pinkie's eye twitched, her back itched, and her stomach flipped. "Eye twitch, back itch, stomach flip?" Pinkie's eyes went wide, "Get down!"

"What are you on abo-" Azure started to ask before Limestone tackled her to the ground, while Maud did the same to Top Spin. Marble was already hiding, knowing well enough to not question Pinkie's feelings. 

A split second after all of them hit the deck a pulse of magic shattered the windows, showering everypony with glass. Screams started as ponies who had still been firing into the street, unheeding of Pinkie's warning, suddenly found themselves getting cut to shreds by the razor sharp debris.

"What the fuck was that?" Azure shouted as Pinkie stood and shook the glass off her back and out of her mane. She took a cautious peek out of the now glassless window, only to find the street clear of dust, ponies, and everything except for rubble and a single alicorn standing atop the remains of the Royal Canter.

"What? How? It was a trick? She was tricking us?" Pinkie gibbered. "She tricked us! All the ponies we saw weren't real!"

"Then where are they?" Limestone asked as she picked bits of glass out of her collar.

"Down there," said Maud, pointing back down the street to where the Mareitanian tanks and soldiers were sat safely behind a shield, totally undamaged by the collapsing tower. The soldiers were already spreading out into the streets, while the tanks were preparing to fire. All of them dived back for cover as the turrets of some of the tanks rotated towards them. Seconds later the building shook again with explosions, but none too near them.

"Run!" Limestone shouted, and not just to her team. Every pony there was in danger, and all of them needed to get out. Pinkie paused to grab Marble, but was surprised to find that not only was Marble already gone, but was holding the door open for them and everypony else as they piled away from the street facing part of the building, dragging those wounded behind them that couldn't drag themselves.

"How did she know?" Limestone panted as they ran into the nearest stairwell, heading to ground level, aiming to get out of the building before they got trapped inside by the soldiers. "How could she have fucking known what we were going to do?"

"She must've known we planned to do something," Maud replied. "I thought something seemed off about those ponies around her. There were too many with similar colours."

"And that's another thing," said Limestone. "How could she have possibly made that many illusions?"

"Who cares?" Azure yelled at both of them. "We are so fucked right now it's not even funny!"

"It could be," said Pinkie said hopefully. The clatter of hooves on stairs below them made them all stop, and a quick look down showed them that Mareitanian soldiers were running up as they were running down. "Okay, yeah, that's not funny."

"Motherfuckers!" Limestone screamed, grabbing a stone out of her bags and throwing it hard enough to embed itself into the skull of a unicorn. "Stop fucking everything up!"

They all ducked down as the soldiers below returned fire, then ran back the way they came, slamming serval sets of doors shut behind them and barring them with whatever they could find.

"Where do we go now?" a unicorn asked, her face bloodied from the flying glass earlier.

"We're trapped!" another pony screamed. "We're all going to die! We're all going to die!"

"Shut up!" Limestone shouted at the hysterical pony. "We're not dead yet. We just need to get out of here without using the ground floor, or going to the roof where the griffons can get us."

"Jump out a window?" somepony suggested.

"Not at this height," a different pony said back. "If it didn't kill us we'd at least break our legs."

"It's at times like this, I think to myself, what would Princess Celestia do?" a stallion said. He blushed as a large number of ponies stared at him. "What?"

"Princess Celestia has wings you dolt!" the pony next to him said. "She'd fly away!"

"Wait! Wouldn't there be a fire exit somewhere on the outside?" Somebody said excitedly, like they'd just had the best idea ever.

Limestone pointed a hoof at the pony that had spoke last, "Finally, somepony with a sensible idea! Some ponies go find it while the rest of us hold them back!" A crash sounded from the other side of the door as the soldiers broke through one of the others they'd closed. "Try not to take too long."

"Look at you being all take charge," Pinkie said to Limestone as some ponies ran off to find the fire exit.

"Well if nopony else is going to do it, I guess I have to." Limestone shoved Pinkie aside and turned back to the mass of ponies behind her, "I need some mages. Do we have any mages here?" A couple dozen unicorns held their hooves up. "Great! I need the best of you at making shields across the front here." Limestone drew an imaginary line across the hallway, "When they bust through the door, we're all going to open fire on them, then you're going to shield us before they can shoot back. The rest of us are either going to use your shields, or whatever cover we can. You got it?"

The unicorns nodded and picked six out of themselves to form the shields, just as the doors holding the enemy back cracked and bulged from the soldiers on the other side trying to get through. They prepared themselves, their horns glowing in preparation.

"We found the fire exit!" a mare shouted, running back into the hallway. "It's not very big though. It's going to take a while to get everypony out."

"Then start getting ponies out. Wounded first," Limestone told her. "We'll hold them-" Limestone flinched as the door cracked again. "We'll hold them as long as we can! Go!"

"Marble, go with them," Pinkie said to her twin, only to have her rapidly shake her head in refusal. "I mean it Marble! Get of here while you can!"

"I'm not going," Marble said, breaking her silence. "Not without all of you."

"I guess we're all idiots then," Limestone said as the door jumped again. "Get ready."

The door smashed open in a spray of splinters, and at Limestone's instruction they opened fire on the ponies that had kicked it open. Several ponies fell in seconds, pierced by arrows, or blasted by magic, but the Mareitanians had a similar idea to them, having their adepts put shields up to protect their forces. Fire was returned, but the Equestrian unicorns had already raised their shields to protect themselves and their fellows.

"Keep firing!" Limestone bellowed, encouraging everypony around her to keep the Mareitanians from pushing forwards. A stone delivered from her own hoof cracked a shield, which was quickly exploited by an arrow, taking down the unicorn casting it. With the gaping hole in their line, the Mareitanians started to lose more ponies, and were soon forced to withdraw to cover.

"Woo!" Pinkie cheered. "Go team!"

"Shut up Pinkie! Prepare yourself!"

"What? Why me?"

"I meant all of us!" Limestone stepped out of her cover and in behind the mages, keeping an eye on things as they waited for the Mareitanians next move. There were still too many ponies in the building to go by far though, and she growled under her breath as they had barely any space to back up if they needed it, the space already occupied with ponies. "What is taking so long? Pinkie, go see what's happening."

"But-" Pinkie stopped herself as she saw the look on Limestone's face. The one that bridged no arguments. "Yes'm" she said, running out of her cover and weaving her way towards the fire exit.

Through the smoke made by the smouldering carpets, the lights of fresh shields could be seen. Shapes could also be seen moving in front of them, which was all the reason Limestone needed to shout another order to open fire again. A dozen heavily armoured earth ponies charged through the smoke, shrugging off a lot of what was being fired at they, although two fell quick enough, their armour glowing from the magic striking them.

The rest slammed into the Equestrians, foregoing weapons in favour of just using their mass to trample ponies underhoof. The mage's shield collapsed as the juggernauts crashed into it, and the mages dived out of the way, letting others deal with them. Not that they could stop them very easily either as arrows and weapons bounced off their armour, and while magic was effective, the quantity needed would very easily result in friendly fire in such close quarters.

Maud leapt on the back of one as they stopped, and with a stone in each hoof, she slammed one against the sides of his helmet, bending it out of shape, and possibly the skull beneath as the pony collapsed to the ground, throwing her off.
Some of the others were being dragged down as well, while the rest ran back to the safety of their allies, creating an opening for them to open fire again on the disorganised Equestrian forces. Marble screamed as a bolt of magic burned into her left shoulder, and Limestone shouted for shields to get put up, running over to her sister as the unicorns set them up.

"Stupid, stupid idiot!" Limestone yelled at Marble, putting pressure on the wound as blood dribbled out of it. "You could have stayed at home where it was safe, but noooo, you had to go with Pinkie and be a big damned hero!"

"Because staying at home and being forced to do all the things you make me do was a much better choice."

Limestone was speechless for a moment, but only a moment. "Shut up!" she shouted, not knowing what else to say, then dragging Marble back as her mind tried desperately to come up with a plan that would get her sisters, and hopefully everypony else, out of here alive. They'd lost a few ponies in that last attack, but they still had enough left.

"Limestone!" Pinkie shouted, pushing through the crowd back to her sister. "I need some of those mage ponies!"

"What? Why?"

"Because- Oh my gosh! Marble!" Pinkie rushed over to her twin's side, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"She got in the way," Limestone growled, making Marble flinch. "Why do you need some mages?"

"Huh? Oh! Right! Well, the fire escape's not very big, and there are ponies from upstairs using it as well. It also turns out a lot of ponies suck at using ladders. I was thinking, if we had a few mage ponies, we could use their shields to make a big slide and get every pony out of here a lot faster. We're only four storeys up here, so it'll be fine. It could even be fun!"

Limestone nodded as she thought, agreeing with Pinkie's plan, although questioning how fun it could be. "You three," she said to three of the mage unicorns at the rear of the group, "could you use your shields to make a slide? To get ponies out of here faster?"

"Yeah, we guess so," one said after a quick discussion.

"Great. Go with Pinkie, and set up a slide down to the ground. Pinkie, take Marble, get her out of here."

Pinkie saluted Limestone, "Yes ma'am, being all in charge of things for some reason, probably because you're bossy. Come on Marble."

Limestone stopped for a breath as Pinkie dragged Marble and the mages through the press of ponies to the exit. Why the hell was she in charge of this situation? What the hell happened to the pony who was actually in charge here? Limestone supposed he was probably killed when the tanks attacked the building, and now the job fell to the bossiest pony, which so happened to be herself. "Lucky me."

"Is Marble okay?" Maud asked, sidling up to Limestone as she caught her breath.

"She will be. Pinkie's come up with a plan to start getting ponies out of here faster. Naturally it involved making a slide out of magic." Limestone shook her head ruefully. "What about the rest of us? Are they holding?"

"For now," said Maud. "I recommend taking out the pillars on both sides of the door, to collapse the doorway. That should slow them down for a while."

Limestone peeked around her cover to see what Maud was talking about. The pillars around the door were thick, and probably load bearing. Collapsing them could block the doorway, although it could potentially do a lot worse. "Are you sure that's all that will happen?"

Maud nodded once, "I am."

That was all the reassurance Limestone needed from Maud, and she quickly instructed for those mages not maintaining shields to start blasting away at the pillars. Chunks were blown out of them, but they adamantly refused to break. The Mareitanians were also catching on to what they were doing, and attempted to push through the entrance.

"Shit. Maud, we need to buck the pillars." Limestone dropped into a sprinting stance, ready to make a break for the doorway. "On three. One... two... three!" Both of them sprinted out of cover for the doorway, running as fast as they could for a pillar, with Limestone going for the left, while Maud went right.

Both of them turned and bucked at the same time, kicking the now fragile pillars and giving the last push they needed to break. It certainly had the desired effect as the sudden loss of support made a section of the ceiling cave in around the door, ironically dragged down by its attachment to the pillars rather than by the loss of support.

Both of them were forced to run if they didn't want to get crushed by the collapse. When the dust cleared though, they could see the way was blocked, although whether it would hold the Mareitanians back for long was another matter.

"Let's go ponies!" Limestone said to the now redundant defenders. "Let's get the hell out of... here... What?" Limestone said to Maud who was staring at her wide eyed.

Maud pointed a hoof at Limestone's side, just in front of her hip. "You have an arrow in your side."

"Huh?" Limestone's head whipped around to see, and as Maud had said, there was an arrow sticking out of her side, right between two sections of armour. "...Oh shit."

Her legs went wobbly as the pain set in, like the fact that she knew it was there now was enough to break the spell holding the pain back. "Nnngh... fuck!" Her dark grey armour turned darker around the wound as blood seeped into the fabric, and she had to fight the urge to tear the arrow out, knowing it would only make things worse. Maud was there as soon as she was down, hooves pressing against the wound, but Limestone pushed her away and struggled back to her hooves.

"We have to get out of here," Limestone hissed, stumbling on her suddenly useless legs until Maud caught hold of her.

"But moving could make it worse."

"Staying here could make everything worse!"

Maud didn't argue the point. She silently supported Limestone to the fire exit, where the sounds of fighting were still going on, as those on the ground exchanged fire with the Mareitanians on the floor above. Given the lack of choice on getting down, Maud helped Limestone onto the slide, then followed her down, helping her off at the end.

"Where now?" Pinkie asked, eyeing the arrow in Limestone's side, but not saying anything about it.

"Seriously," Azure spoke up, "let's get the heck out of here. The meet up place to get out of here was the Canterlot rail line wasn't it? I say we head there and let other idiots fight this losing battle."

"So long as we help other ponies that need it along the way," Pinkie told her.

"Well, yeah, sure. I guess."

"If there's a medic pony there, I couldn't care less where we go," said Limestone. She stumbled as Maud removed her support, then yelled with surprise and pain as her sister ducked under her and picked her up entirely. "You could've warned me!" Limestone growled under her breath as Maud apologised, "Nevermind. Let's just get the fuck out of here."


-0-0-0-


The Equestrian army had fielded almost three thousand fliers of various depictions, between the Wonderbolts, Air corps, Night Guard, and the Exiles, as the formerly Mareitanian pegasi had taken to calling themselves, largely because it was easier, even if it was inaccurate to their position within Equestria.

Three thousand fliers... and they were completely useless. The griffons had gone to ground as soon as the battle started, and the fliers pretty much lost their purpose then and there. The bulk of the Mareitanian forces in the street had enough protection and firepower to turn them into a collection of well cooked turkey skewers, while the rest had taken the fight indoors where the Equestrian forces were located, which wasn't exactly the pegasi's forté either. Instead they were left to fly laps around the city, doing diddly squat. Air superiority meant nothing if you couldn't do anything with it.

"This is a fucking mess," Lightning said to nopony in particular. "How the hell are we supposed to do anything if we can't even get to the enemy?"

"I'll be surprised if Luna keeps command after this," said Thunderlane. "It was bad enough throwing ponies that hadn't even finished basic under the cart, but this is a fucking joke."

"Cut the chatter," said Fire Streak, their squadron leader. "The griffons could still attack us at any moment, so stay on your guard."

"Or we could attack them," Sky Stinger suggested.

"Absolutely not. Spitfire will get back to us with orders soon enough. Just maintain your position."

"But sir," Cloud protested, "we can't just do nothing!"

"Just hold your damn positions!" Fire Streak sighed and shook his head as he grumbled to himself. "Fucking kids."

Rainbow didn't pay much attention. Of all the things she should probably be doing, she instead found herself wishing Twilight were here, because she'd have known what to do in this situation. Better than Luna certainly, since the amount of time they'd spent flying around doing nothing didn't exactly suggest that she had a plan for if it all went wrong. Which it had. Spectacularly.

Minutes later Spitfire returned, alone. "Listen up ponies! We are pulling out! Our ground forces are doing what they can to get themselves out, and Luna is doing what she can to help those trapped. Our job is to fly cover for our retreating forces, and stop them from being followed. I'm not giving specific orders here, so split up into your squadrons and do what you think you need to. The Air corps, Night Guard, and Exiles are doing the same, so watch you don't all hit each other. Especially the Exiles, as they don't exactly have a whole lot of discipline. Now move out!"

"Finally!" Sky Stinger cheered. "I was going nuts up here."

"Don't get too excited," Fire Streak told him. "As soon as we start hitting the Mareitanians, those griffons are probably going to try and stop us, so keep your eyes and ears open."

Their squadron drifted left as they all spread out, and they could already see groups of pegasi diving down to the streets, trying to take the pressure off their beleaguered allies.

Rainbow spotted a group of a few hundred ponies running below, an almost equal number of Mareitanians hot on their tails as they shot after the fleeing ponies. Amongst those fleeing ponies she saw a spot of vibrant pink. That was enough for her. "Down there!"

Fire Streak looked down and nodded, "Okay, dive!"

Rainbow led the way down, pushing herself faster than the others, because if that was Pinkie down there, and something happened to her... Rainbow really, really hoped that nothing would happen to her.

They aimed for ponies at the rear of the group, for their own safety mostly, as hitting the ponies in front was just asking to get yourself shot. Rainbow struck first, being in the lead as she was, and her blades sank down into the back of a unicorn mare. She pushed off to free her blades, then darted forwards to strike another pony, and another, pushing her luck further and further with each pony she took down.

The Mareitanians had figured out what was happening by the time she'd killed her fourth, and she was finally forced to take back to the air, only for a group of Exiles to dive in from another direction and take the Mareitanians by surprise, taking down a couple dozen more before pushing off again.

A shield went up over the Mareitanians, stopping the pegasi from attacking them. It also stopped them from following the ponies they were chasing after, and since that was the point, nopony felt the need to attack any further. Not when they had other problems.

As Fire Streak had predicted, their attacks had drawn the griffons back into action, and the sky filled with the battle-cries of thousands of griffons, intent on regaining their air superiority. None of the pegasi had any intention of giving it back to them. Postponed as it had been, the battle for the skies over Vanhoover was back on.

"That's a lot of griffons," Cloud said in a low, fearful voice. The rest of them agreed. Maybe they could put the battle back off again, until next time.

"I think we should go down to the streets," Thunderlane said, sounding hopeful that his suggestion would be listened to. "I really, really, think we should."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Fire Streak replied, leading the squadron into a steep dive down to street level. All around them pegasi had the same idea, heading down to the narrow streets where their greater agility should give them a small advantage. Of course that mean they were in range of the Mareitanian ground forces again, but you couldn't have everything.

The griffons thundered down after them, their piercing cries echoing off the buildings, confusing attempts to tell which direction they'd come from, so they had to rely entirely on their eyes instead. A quick glance backwards told Rainbow that a dozen griffons were chasing after their squadron, and gaining, until a quick right turn up a street put some distance between them.

"Split up!" Fire Streak commanded as they came up to a cross roads. Lightning went left, while Fire Streak went straight on with Pizelle's wing. Rainbow banked right into a narrow street, and nearly flew straight into a washing line suspended between two buildings, her wing tips brushing the thin string. Dozens more like it went across the street, and Rainbow found herself having to rapidly weave through them.

The griffons that decided to follow them weren't so quick. The first one caught her wing on the first line Rainbow had dodged, and found herself flying towards a fire escape as the line on her wing knocker her off her trajectory. The clang of metal, and the sickening crunch of bones left no doubt that it was the last mistake that griffon would be making.

All of them stopped in shock as the deceased griffon smacked onto the ground below, and the remaining griffons glared at the three Wonderbolts. Rainbow saluted them mockingly, then kept flying as the griffons began to navigate the vertical maze of washing lines. For a moment Rainbow got frustrated at how slow they were, then remembered that they were trying to kill her. "Come on," she said, flying to the end of the street and banking left around the corner. She then promptly stopped, and gestured for Cloud and Thunderlane to squeeze in close to the wall and stay quiet.

They could hear the complaints of the griffons as they tried to follow the three ponies, and for a second Rainbow thought they'd given up when the two griffons flew around the corner. Rainbow launched herself at one, stabbing her blades deep into its chest, but not without getting clawed across the face for her effort,  the griffons sharp claws cutting gouges into her helmet and muzzleguard, as well as hooking a single claw behind her goggles and dragging it down over her left eye.

"Ah!" Rainbow squawked, pushing herself off the griffon, and almost back into the wall. She dropped to the ground slowly, frantically trying to sheath her blades so she could tear her helmet off. Blood ran into her eye, and she cried with pain as she tried to wipe it away. A few seconds later Cloud was there, holding her hooves back from rubbing it more.

"Let me see," Cloud said calmly. Rainbow tried to pull away, but Cloud held firm. "Open your eye, and let me see Rainbow." Rainbow obeyed, ignoring her pain and opening her eye with a flutter that flicked blood off her eyelashes. More blood ran into her eye, and she quickly squeezed it shut again. "I don't think he got your eye. Can you see out of it?"

Rainbow flickered her eye open again, and although the colour she could mostly see was red, she could see out of it. "Yeah, I can."

"Good. Thunderlane, go back up to those washing lines and find me something to clean this blood up with."

"On it."

Cloud pulled Rainbow's head down a bit as she waited for Thunderlane to come back, seeing that a chunk had been torn out of Rainbow's ear as well.

"What?" Rainbow said as Cloud told her about it. She could feel it stinging now it had been pointed out, whereas before it non-existent compared to the pain of her eye. "Motherfucker. I'd kill him if I hadn't, y'know, already done that."

"Do you want to keep going Rainbow? Or should we head to the fall-back zone?" 

"Nah, I'm good, I'm good. Just get me cleaned up and we'll get back in this."

"If that's what you want," said Cloud, holding her hoof out for whatever Thunderlane gave her as he came back.

"Y'know, that's probably going to leave an awesome scar if you don't get it healed," he said as Cloud gently wiped the blood from Rainbow's face. "It would look pretty badass. The ear's already pretty damn metal."

"Oh yeah? Let's do the same to you and see how you like it."

"Knock it off, the both of you." Cloud picked up Rainbow's helmet and wiped the blood out of it, then gave it back to Rainbow, who gingerly placed it on her head. "Alright, not to give credit to Thunderlane," Cloud said as Rainbow clipped the muzzleguard into place, "but the scratches on your helmet do look pretty cool."

"Sure, whatever." Rainbow blinked her eye rapidly to try and get it to focus properly. It slowly did, but it certainly wasn't rushing, and it was watering a lot as well which didn't help, nor did it stinging like hell. "For fuck sake. This whole thing is bullshit. Come on, let's get out of here and see what we've missed."

It was only a short flight back to where they came from, and they were surprised by what they saw. In the short time they'd been gone the Exiles were dominating the fight, flying with an almost supernatural synchronization, like swallows. Down here in the streets, the pegasi could pick the griffons apart piece by piece, and that was exactly what they were doing.

Not that it was going entirely the pegasi's way, as amongst the scattered griffon bodies were plenty of pegasi. Even though she knew how messed up it was, Rainbow was still cheered up by the success of the pegasi, and thought it was time to add some of their own contributions to the fight again.

Rainbow backed her wing up a bit from the entrance to the street, then put on a burst of speed, rocketing out of the street into the larger one. A group of Air Corps ponies were coming the other way, tailed by several griffons, who were unaware of the coming Wonderbolts. The Air Corps rolled to the side, giving them the room to pass by and strike at the griffons. One fell to each of them, while the others pulled up and broke off. Rainbow suddenly knew how they were winning the fight. They'd all been trained to fly and fight in close quarters. The griffons hadn't.

Tossing a salute back at the other pegasi, Rainbow pushed on, looking for more targets. Instead they found her as the remaining griffons that had been tailing the other pegasi looped around to follow them. 

All of them put on speed to try and lose the griffons, but the four griffons weren't so easily shaken. Trying to outmanoeuvre them only bought seconds that the griffons stole back on the straights. They banked left as the griffons were hot on their heels, and swore as they turned into a dead end.

"Keep going!" Rainbow shouted, pointing to a window halfway up the wall at the end. Holding her blades out in front, Rainbow dived through the window, shattering the glass. She dropped to the ground, letting Cloud and Thunderlane pass over her, then turned back to the window as the first griffon reached it, thrusting with her blade and stabbing the griffon through the mouth before she was even half way through.

Rainbow yelled as the griffon gagged on the blade and bit down hard. Then the hen stopped moving, like her body had only just realised what had happened, and went floppy, sliding back out of the window. Rainbow held her weapons up, daring the three other griffons to follow, but none did. Thunderlane had already wrenched the door opposite open, and was ready to go, along with Cloud. Rainbow held her stance for a moment longer, then turned and flew for the open window. As soon as she did, the griffons tried to follow her. Or one did anyway.

Outside the door was a hallway, with a small window at the end to the left. Thunderlane took the lead, smashing the window and squeezing through, followed by Cloud. The griffon was running out through the door by the time Rainbow was squeezing through, and she pulled upwards as he leapt after her, flipping up and over until her hooves pressed against the wall above the window, holding herself against it like she was standing on it, even if she had to flap her wings awkwardly to keep herself there.

Rainbow started to laugh as the griffon struggled to get out, his larger frame and armour trapping him in the window. "Sucks to be you," she said, stopping her wings to drop onto him blade first.

"Does it ever occur to you that we're getting pretty good at this?" Thunderlane said as Rainbow pulled herself free. 

Cloud gently smacked the back of her hoof across the side of his helmet, "Don't say things like that. Those are like the perfect last words right there. If you get yourself killed now, you got no-one to blame but yourself."

Rainbow flicked the blood off her blades as the other two bickered. While Cloud was just being silly and superstitious, Thunderlane did actually have a point. They did seem to be getting better at this, and not just the three of them. The rest of the Wonderbolts were racking up an impressive amount of kills now, and the Night Guard tended to speak for themselves, although their unique biology did give them one hell of an advantage. The Air Corps had yet to prove itself, but they might not get the chance as the Exiles were dominating the griffons. They were fearless, if them not wearing protection was anything to go by, and they were coordinated to levels that even Rainbow was jealous of. If today went well, for the fliers at least, Equestria might actually establish air superiority for the rest of the war.

"We should probably try to find the rest of our squadron," Rainbow said, cutting off the other two. "Probably before we get shot down," she added as Mareitanian ground forces passed by the end of the street.

Rather than fly over the obvious danger, Rainbow led them up out of range, and up out of the streets to try and get a better view of what was going on, and maybe find the rest of the Wonderbolts, if not their squadron. The battle seemed to be dying down, pulling in tighter to the city centre where the ruins of the Royal Canter building were visible by the smoke it was putting out.

"There!" Cloud shouted, pointing to the right where a cluster of ponies in the blue uniforms of the Wonderbolts were occupying part of a rooftop. The distance between them and the others was clear of griffons, so they flew directly to the rooftop. From the colours of the tails they could see it was mostly A Squadron, and a few dead griffons, but they were also gathered around something Rainbow couldn't see, not until they got closer. It was Fire Streak, and he was injured. Badly.

"No!" Rainbow shouted, slamming down on the rooftop and running the rest of the way over. Fire Streak could barely look up as she pushed her way through the other Wonderbolts, and she fell to her knees in front of him. He was bleeding heavily from a wound on his chest, and a trail of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. Even Rainbow could tell he didn't have long left.

"Nice to see you're okay guys," Fire Streak croaked. "Have you seen the others?"

"No. I guess they're still out there," Rainbow told him, removing her helmet and revealing her own injuries.

"Heh, mine are better," Fire Streak joked.

Rainbow turned to Spitfire, "Why aren't you getting him help?" she asked, her voice cracking.

"Most of our forces are now outside the city," said Spitfire. "To get him help we'd have to carry him, and as soon as we do that..." Spitfire shook her head. She didn't need to finish that sentence.

"But... Fuck! No!" Rainbow slammed her hooves down on the rooftop. "I thought we were winning?"

"We are," said Fleetfoot. "We've pushed what's left of the griffons back to their shields, although I think the exiles did most of the work. But with our ground forces pulling out, we have to as well."

Cloud squeaked as she worked out what Fleetfoot was saying, "You're just going to leave him here?"

"No, of course not, but he's not going to survive the journey if we bring him with us, and we'd rather have his last moments be around his friends, rather than in agony." Fleet sighed and rubbed a hoof back over her mane, her eyes stinging with tears. "Don't think this is easy for any of us Cloud. Fire Streak trained some of us. Heck, he was even my favourite when I was a filly."

"I-" Cloud backed away, until Thunderlane held out a leg to stop her, and she pulled off her helmet as she leant against him. "I'm sorry, I didn't meant to-"

"It's alright, really. It's hard for all of us."

"Who's going to lead us?" Thunderlane asked, feeling guilty for doing so when Fire Streak lay there, dying. He was only asking for the distraction from his own feelings.

"Replacing me already?" Fire Streak laughed. He flopped a hoof as Thunderlane started to stammer apologies, "I'm joking, I'm joking. Mostly," he sniffed, before launching into a coughing fit that looked like it could have killed him if the wound didn't. "I- I wish I could say it was a hard choice, but it's not. You three are fine fliers, and I couldn't have been prouder to lead you, but you're headstrong and reckless. Too reckless. With Spitfire's blessing I'm passing command of B squadron to Lightning Dust. Any arguments?" All of them shook their heads. "Good. She's a good filly Lightning. Keeps her head well in a fight. You'll need that-" Fire Streak trailed off into horrible wet coughs as his breathing became harder. "Altius Volantis Wonderbolts."

"Altius Volantis," they all replied, saluting him and holding it until his breathing stopped and he slipped away moments later. It took a while before somepony gathered up the courage to speak.

Spitfire sighed and rolled her helmet in her hoof to place it on her head. "Fast Clip, Soarin, take care of him. The rest of us, spread out and start telling whatever fliers are left to get the hell out of here. This battle's over; there's no point in losing any more of us."


-0-0-0-


"This way!" Luna stopped to let her soldiers pass between two buildings, intending to protect them as they fled to the distant purple dome where Shining Armour was protecting their extraction point. Ponies should already have been getting loaded onto trains to get out of there, and if Luna had any say in it, a lot more would be joining them. Ever since the battle had gone south, she'd put all her focus into making sure as many of her ponies got out of there as possible, even if it meant getting her hooves dirty, which she honestly didn't mind too much.

Luna stepped back around the corner as the Mareitanians got closer. The first fell to a blast from her horn, while another fell to her glaives. She jumped to the side as an Adept returned fire against her, then teleported to the offending unicorn, bringing her blade Apollo into a downward strike that decapitated the stallion. She pulsed her magic, sending ponies flying into buildings as she let loose, having no fear of harming her allies while she was alone. Her horn glowed as her magic and weapons put down as many soldiers as she could before they recovered, and she found herself even more alone after that as they fled back into the depths of the city.

She let herself sag against the side of a building as exhaustion hit her. She'd been fighting for hours before the attack on the city even began, and had hardly taken a moment of respite since the Mareitanians first attacked the Bulwark the day before. Luna sighed and let her rear slip to the ground, and watched the pegasi fly above her as they too decided to flee the battle. Two days into the war, and all they had done was lose and retreat before the Mareitanians. Before Faust, who had been conspicuously absent since the destruction of the Royal Canter.

The Equestrian forces had put up a noble fight, but they were outnumbered and outmatched, for obvious reasons, and less obvious reasons. She could tell enough that they had taken back control of the skies from the griffons, which was at least one silver lining to this whole debacle, but for the most part that control was useless while the Mareitanians had the power to shoot down any pegasi that got too close to their forces. Then there was the magic issue. Equestria had been practicing magic for centuries, yet even with highly skill unicorns fighting at their side, it seemed to make little difference as the Mareitanian Adepts could protect well enough from most of what they could do.

Moreover, the Equestrians just lacked a certain something. They lacked that push that the rebellion had possessed in their fight against the Grand Army of the Duke back in Mareitania, even if they'd been fighting an army of just earth ponies. Sure the rebels had Twilight fighting with them, which made a significant difference, but not to the level that they were useless without her, as the absence of Faust proved in this battle. There was something missing though, that had made all the difference when the rebels were fighting armies twice their size, and prevailing.

Trixie. Luna sighed as she worked it out. Trixie had been brutal in the civil war, and it often felt like she could sway the outcome of a battle through her actions alone. The Grand Army had been terrified of her, and Twilight as well, albeit for different reasons. Trixie's dark magic had torn through the Grand Army's ranks like she was fighting sock puppets rather than soldiers, and the Equestrian army had nothing like that.

Luna stopped herself before she followed that line of thought too far. Even if you ignored the ethical ramifications, there are a lot of ponies that would oppose the idea, herself and her sister included. Perhaps it best she focus on the here and now.

Luna pulled herself back to her hooves. There might still have been ponies trapped in the city, and she didn't have the time to sit around and daydream. She spread her wings and took off, searching for signs of fighting, of which there seemed to be less and less. The city had almost become unbearably quiet as the Equestrians retreated, and Luna hoped that meant there were no others to save and she could leave herself. Faust was likely looking for her, so, given the lack of much else to do, she turned to leave, and only just spotted the flash of magic out of the corner of her eye towards the outskirts of the city.

Pumping her wings she raced to the source of the magic, finding a large group of her soldiers trapped in a courtyard, hemmed in on all sides by enemy soldiers. They were shielding themselves, but with nowhere to go it was only a matter of time until the Mareitanians broke through.

Luna teleported into the shield, almost getting herself attacked as she appeared amongst the tense ponies. She ignored that though, and the ping of magic bouncing off her armour, and quickly reinforced the shield. Around her was five hundred or more ponies, all crowded into the courtyard. How they'd managed to get themselves stuck like this was beyond her, but the facts were irrelevant.

"Princess Luna!" the familiar voice of Pinkie squeaked. "Thank goodness!" Pinkie ran up to Luna and jumped up, pressing her two forehooves against Luna's chest. "We need to get out of here! My sisters are hurt, and if we don't get Limestone help she- she might-"

Luna pushed Pinkie back to the ground, but kept a hoof on her shoulder. "I understand Pinkie pie, but it is not that easy to get all of you out of here when you're surrounded on all sides. How did you get trapped here anyway?"

"We were leaving, but heard some ponies cornered in a building calling for help. We got them out, but now we're all stuck. At least until you came along."

Luna nodded vaguely at Pinkie's words, her thoughts already turning more towards how to get them all out. They were backed up into the corner of two buildings, and there weren't any doors near them, while the windows were both high up and narrow. Honestly the solution was pretty straight forward for her, but she doubted many other ponies here had the strength or power left to carry it out.

Luna walked to the corner of the building and tapped a hoof on the wall. It didn't seem too thick. "Pinkie, get everypony ready to move," she said, focusing her magic and aiming at the wall. A second later she unleashed the spell, punching a hole in the wall into the room beyond, destroying the furniture of whoever's living room it had been. She cast the spell again, punching a hole on the other side.

"Flee to the extraction! Do not stop for anything!"

Luna held the shield as ponies piled through the hole she'd made, shrinking it slowly as ponies left to concentrate it's strength as the Mareitanians stepped up their efforts to break the shield down. It took a few minutes to get everypony out, and by the time Luna was able to follow the courtyard was filling with soldiers. To stop them following she tore at the building with her magic, filling the hole with enough rubble to put the soldiers off from following the same way as she turned and sprinted.

The space beyond was clear, but the sounds of soldiers running after them was clear. Luna encouraged them all to run faster, while firing her magic back at the Mareitanians to encourage them to run slower. It seemed to be working as they got closer to Shining's shield, and the soldiers stopped chasing. Luna breathed a sigh of relief, pleased that they had escaped.

"Twitchy tail! Twitchy tail!"

"What?" A flash of magic struck the ground, throwing up a wave of rock and soil. Luna stumbled and fell from the force of the impact, and she struggled for breath as the shockwave winded her. Her head also swam as she tried to work out what had just happened.

"Found you."

Luna looked up and around as a shining white alicorn descended gracefully from the sky and landed a dozen meters from Luna. She scrambled to her hooves, her head spinning as she moved well before she was ready to. 

"Faust."

"You," Faust said back, her voice laden with scorn. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see you leading the efforts here. Your poor tactics and lack of organisation speak volumes of you as a leader."

"You try to build an army in so short a time, without brainwashing ponies, and we'll see how well you do," Luna retorted. Luna stood up straighter as her head cleared, and she mentally prepared herself to fight. "Of course, without the brainwashing you probably wouldn't have succeeded at all."

"You'd be surprised actually," Faust said lightly. Luna didn't believe her. "But this is not why I'm here. I would naturally be delighted to say that it's appropriate that you should fall first, but I already have your sad little doppelganger, so you could say I have already defeated you once."

Luna was surprised. She'd just assumed Nightmare was hiding in the dreamscape, and had gotten better at doing so over the last couple of months. She never assumed that she wasn't there at all. "What have you done to Nightmare?"

"After the deceit she laid upon me, I've given her everything she deserves, just as I shall give the same to you." Faust dropped into a fighting stance, which Luna didn't mirror. Instead she chuckled.

"I guess that rainy day has come already." Luna summoned the crystal orb of liquid dragonfire, and tossed it into the air. Faust summoned a shield to intercept it, but Luna hadn't thrown it at her. She'd throw it up, and as it fell back down she fired a single bolt of magic at it, shattering the crystal and spraying its contents over Faust in a wave of brightly burning liquid.

Faust had barely reacted. "And what was that supposed to do?"

"You'll see." Luna grinned at the panic that arrived on Faust's face as the dragonfire burned intensely on her shield, heating its inside to uncomfortable levels within seconds. Luna smiled at her dilemma, as Faust could either hold the shield and cook herself, or drop the shield and have the burning liquid drop directly onto her. Neither option was particularly pleasant.

Faust seemed to make her choice, and dropped her shield, choosing to teleport away, but not before some of the dragonfire could land on her. Luna heard the ghost of a scream as the larger alicorn vanished, and as she failed to reappear where Luna could see her, she could only assume Faust wasn't coming back. At least not soon.

"Arrogant cow," Luna grumbled. "At least now she has an even better reason to hate me." Luna turned and ran for the train, leaping up inside the last carriage where Shining was waiting to greet her.

"Glad you could make it. I thought you were done for when I saw Faust attack you."

"I see you decided to not help me."

Shining shrugged apologetically, "Sorry, but if you couldn't get yourself out of there we wouldn't be able to do much. How'd you get her to run away like that?"

"I think you'll find I'm full of surprises Shining Armour. Now come, we can discuss it once we're safe in Canterlot. I didn't beat her so thoroughly that won't be coming back, and I very much doubt that would work twice."

"Why not?"

"I don't have any more vials of dragonfire for starters."

"That's what you used on her?"

Luna smiled sideways at Shining, "As I said, I'm full of surprises. Or I was at least," she added, her smile fading. "I'll have to find some more for the next time we meet."
> 25. So now what?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna paced back and forth in front of the throne, not speaking, or even really thinking. All she had was a quiet rage simmering beneath the surface, and no outlet for it. The Bulwark had been designed to hold Faust and the Mareitanians back for weeks if possible, but even if it weren't for Faust's surprise attack on the Crystal Empire, she doubted the bulwark would've held for more than a few days. As it is, it lasted two.

Then there was Faust's tactics in the Crystal Empire. Besides turning up rather unexpectedly in the one place they suspected wouldn't be attacked, her tactics in the battle were suspicious. Luna had come to suspect Faust had acted as she did because she wanted the city to be evacuated, which she could understand to a point. The Mareitanians wouldn't have had the supply lines to support the Empire, which would make sense if the Empire couldn't sustain itself, which it could. So why give time and space to evacuate the city? Her tactics almost sounded gentle in the Empire compared to Vanhoover, which was an almost unmitigated disaster, as her sister had reminded her several times now.

"Luna, please stop pacing. You're making me giddy." Celestia sighed as Luna glared at her then resumed pacing, her hooves clacking noisily on the marble floor when there wasn't carpet to muffle her movements. "Luna, please, we need to talk about this."

"What is there to talk about? You said yourself it was an unmitigated disaster. The Empire has been lost utterly, and they now have a hoof in Equestria by taking Vanhoover. We were supposed to hold them back for weeks Celestia, not two days!" Luna grunted and muttered, "She fights like Twilight."

"Faust you mean?"

"Indeed," said Luna, finally stopping her pacing. "I'm not sure Twilight ever really realised it, but she could throw some complete curveballs at times. At least I think that's the saying. That illusion of the army Faust created felt like something Twilight would do if she had the raw power to do such a thing."

"And what would Twilight do now?"

"How should I know?" Luna lowered her head and resumed pacing. "I'm not Twilight."

Celestia fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Then what do you think Faust would do?"

"Faust?" Luna went quiet for a moment as she thought. "If I were her I'd press the attack while we're still reeling from the loss of both the Empire and Vanhoover, but I don't think Faust would do that."

"Why not?"

"Because if what happened at the Empire was any indication, she wants us to see her coming, and have time to prepare."

"Why in the world would she do that?"

"To minimise civilian casualties," said Luna. "We can at least give her credit there for not wanting civilians to get stuck in the middle of this, which is precisely why she's not pressing her attack, even if it costs her own forces more. Frankly she seems capable of doing the extra work herself." Luna shrugged at Celestia, "Of course the other theory is that she's preserving both our ponies and infrastructure to use for her own ends later."

"That would fit in with what we know of Faust's plans," Celestia agreed. "You still haven't suggested what she might be doing now though."

"Now?" Luna shrugged again. "Fortifying her position in Vanhoover probably, while she rebuilds the railway between there and Mareitania, giving her a speedy and reliable supply line. If I'm right about that, it should give us a couple of weeks without incident to prepare. She also needs time to heal, so that may buy us time too."

"Prepare for what?"

Luna almost laughed at the question. "Anything!" she said. "As soon as I have some information on what's happening in Vanhoover, I'll be able to make some plans. If I'm honest, although I realise I pulled a lot of them early from their training, that extra month wouldn't account for how poor some of them performed. Especially the Air Corps."

"Just the Air Corps?"

"The Mage Corps were marvellous, but that's about it. The Earth Corps and the Uni Corps still need some work, while the Hard Corps were I feel ill suited to the sort of battle they were in. The only silver lining here is that with the Exiles' aid we were able to do significant damage to the Mareitanians griffon allies, meaning Equestria does at least own the skies for now."

"I still don't approve of you pulling ponies out of training early just because you found yourself short hooved."

"And I'm sorry for that," Luna said back curtly. "But between the unexpected attack on the Crystal Empire, and the effect that had on the crystal ponies, as well as everything else, we needed the troops. If we do have the time, I would like to have the Wonderbolts give the Air Corps a week or more of intensive training, while I keep my Night Guard and the Exiles available for duties."

Celestia raised an eyebrow at her sister, "And what duties might those be?"

"Once I know more, I'll tell you. Our reconnaissance flight should be returning before too long, and then we can make some plans. Until then, there's nothing more we can do, especially with General Stormguard off overseeing construction of the new Camp Freedom, and General Armour visiting the wounded with Cadence. Although, if you have some news for me concerning the Mareitanians employment of griffons, I'm all ears."

Celestia sat back and shook her head, "There's not much to say. From what I've heard off Deetra, there's no indication that the Emperor was involved, but that doesn't mean much. All it would take is one word from the right person to the Bloodfeathers to get them to offer their services to Faust, rather than have Faust ask them. I'm afraid we might never know the entire truth of the matter Luna."

"Then perhaps I better go visit our own intelligence ponies, to see if they have learnt anything."


-0-0-0-


Pinkie, Maud, and Marble sat quietly to side of Limestone's bed in Canterlot hospital, the only sound being that of the machines keeping her and dozens of other ponies alive until they had their time with one of Twilight's healing devices. None of them knew what to say to the others, which was helpful in some ways, as it stopped them saying the wrong thing.
Pinkie hated the silence though, and if nopony was going to say anything, then she was, even if it was irrelevant to the reason they were sat where they were. 

"How's your shoulder Marble?"

"'s okay I guess. It aches a bit, but that's fine. I won't be able to get it healed until there's a device free, but that might take a while. I guess the queue's quite long if they haven't even gotten around to Limestone yet."

Pinkie nodded vaguely at Marble's words. "Are we going to talk about what happened?"

"What is there to talk about?" said Maud. "We lost, and Marble and Limestone got hurt. There are a lot of ponies who didn't come back at all, so you could consider us lucky."

"I don't feel lucky," Marble sighed.

"I do," Maud said back to Marble. "If Princess Luna hadn't found us, we could all be a lot worse off than we are now."

"What could be worse than this?" Pinkie asked.

"I could be dead for starters," said Limestone.

"Yah! Limestone!" Pinkie felt a smile tremble to life on her lips as Limestone half opened her eyes to look at them. "Thank goodness you're okay!"

Limestone chuckled weakly, "Not sure I call this okay Pinkie, but whatever."

"Should I call a nurse over?" Marble asked.

"Nah, I'm fine." Limestone started to push herself up, but gave up as her legs failed to let her do that, and the pain in her abdomen suggested staying still was a good idea. "Where are we?"

"Canterlot hospital," said Pinkie, her ears drooping. "A lot of ponies came here after what happened in Vanhoover."

"That was a bit of a shit-show," Limestone grunted. "Did we all get out? Where are Azure and Top Spin?"

"They're fine," said Maud. "They're getting something to eat."

Limestone sighed with relief and nodded, then remembered something. "Marble! Are you alright?"

"Mmhmm." Marble rubbed a hoof over the bandages on her shoulder, then stopped as she felt something more was expected of her. "I'm fine."

"Marble, you..." Limestone hesitated, not sure how much she wanted to bring the topic up again. "You said you didn't want to stay on the farm with me."

"I-uh... did, sort of." Marble shrank down, really not wanting to have this conversation, now or ever. The way Pinkie and Maud looked at each other didn't help either.

"Why?"

"Ummm..." Marble cursed internally as her voice tried to hide away. "Could we... maybe talk about this later?"

"No, I want to talk about this now."

"But there's nothing to talk about!"

"Yes there is Marble. Don't you try and pretend like you didn't say it. Tell me what you meant."

Marble almost didn't, but suddenly faced with this situation now, where Limestone for once couldn't do a thing against her. The only one she had to fight to be heard now was herself, as she screwed her face up trying to force the words out.

"Y-You... you-" Marble growled under her breath, and forced herself to say it, even if she had to shout it. "You bully me Limestone! You bully me! You talk to me like I'm dirt, you push me around, and you make me do horrible things! And you never do it when other ponies are around, and threaten to hit me if I tell somepony! Mother suspects you bully me, which is why she does so many things with me, to stop me being around you! Her hoof problems were cured months ago, but she kept up the pretence so I could get some peace. I never even helped her with it in the first place in fact!"

A shocked silence filled the room, and Marble curled up on herself as a lot of other ponies turned to look at her. "Sorry," she whispered, looking instead at the agonised expression on Pinkie's face. Maud appeared sad as well as she turned away.

"She really did that to you?" Pinkie asked squeakily, like she was nervous of the question.

"A week before you came home last she made me eat a worm. Pinned me down, forced my nose into the dirt, and made me eat it."

Maud turned her sad eyes back on Marble, "Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"Because I was scared to. Because I couldn't. I love you Pinkie, but the way you always talk for me left it so that I can barely talk for myself. And then you left, and suddenly I had no voice at all. Then you left as well Maud, and that's when Limestone started doing the things she did."

"Why Limestone?" Pinkie asked tearfully. She hated the idea of her twin getting bullied like that. In fact she hated the idea of it for anypony. "Why'd you do it?"

"Because... Because I'm angry! You and Maud get to go off and leave the farm and have fun lives, but I have to stay at the farm, and slave away, and basically have all my decisions in my life made for me! Nopony asked me if I wanted to inherit the farm! And nopony bothered to find out how I feel about having my life planned out for me! I'm angry, and Marble was the easiest target for me to take my frustrations out on, because I couldn't do anything to the two ponies making me so angry."

"Mum and Dad?"

"Exactly. Even now, I'm the one breaking my back to run the farm, yet Mum and Dad are the ones that get the final say in everything. I can't even count the times I've come up with new ideas, only to have them say 'that's not how it's done.' It's enough to make me scream at times."

"That didn't mean you had to bully Marble," Maud told her.

Limestone stared up at the ceiling and sighed. "I know, and I know it's stupid of me to say this, but I always hated myself for doing what I did to you Marble, but that only made me angrier. I'm sorry Marble, I really am. I swear I will never do anything like that to you again."

"Promise?"

"I promise. I just want us to all go home safe after this is over."

Marble thought about it, and if she were honest with herself, she still didn't want to be around Limestone all that much, but when she'd got hit by that spell in Vanhoover, it was Limestone who was there to drag her to safety. Not Pinkie, or Maud. Limestone. It was also Limestone that got herself hurt trying to save them. Maybe she deserved a little forgiveness.

"I forgive you, but if you ever treat me like that again, I'm gone. I'll move to Ponyville with Pinkie, and you'll be left alone to do all that backbreaking work that I also helped you with, even when you were grinding my face in the dirt."

Limestone nodded, tears in her eyes, even though she still managed to look angry. "I won't. I swear I won't. Thank you Marble." Limestone rubbed her tears away, then barked a laugh. "I haven't done this in a while. Feels pretty good actually."

Pinkie rubbed her hooves anxiously, not sure whether it was over or not. She felt terrible for not realising what had been happening to Marble, and the news that Marble didn't appreciate her doing all the talking left her feeling guilty. "I'm sorry too Marble. You were just so shy back when we were young. I thought I was trying to help you."

"I know Pinkie, I know."

"Ahem." All of them turned to whoever had tried to get their attention, and all that could jumped up to attention as they saw it was Shining Armour. "At ease. This is a hospital, not a parade ground. I'm just here to have a little talk with Limestone."

Pinkie pointed a hoof over her shoulder towards the exit, "Should we go?"

"No, you can stay since this does affect all of you in a way. It's about your unit, and how it fared in the last battle."

"What do you mean?" Limestone asked.

"From what I heard, you really took charge in Vanhoover Limestone. A lot of ponies probably owe their lives to you. Not many could have stepped up like you did right at that moment, which is why I'm placing you in command of your unit."

Limestone felt guilty for a moment, getting put in charge of her sisters after what they'd just been talking about, but she wasn't about to argue with the General. "Thank you sir."

"I'm also changing the Hard Corps," he told her. "I think that perhaps a unit of just earth ponies isn't the way forwards. Not that I'm doubting your abilities of course, but I could tell you not only worked better with a mixed unit, but that fighting in the city wasn't perhaps your thing."

"Sir?" Limestone glanced questioningly at her sisters, then up at the door into the room where Azure and Top Spin were drinking their coffees and listening in. "What do you mean?"

"I've been given permission to shift two unicorns from the Mage Corps into your unit, as their skills would complement your own wonderfully as they did in Vanhoover. I haven't decided who yet, but I'll-"

"Lyra Heartstrings and Crystal Moon," Pinkie said quickly.

"Excuse me?"

"They're two unicorns we shared a tent with in basic training," Limestone explained. "Both of them went on to join the Mage Corps, along with Pyrelight, but she's kind of a..."

"Stuck up bitch?" Azure suggested.

Limestone nodded in agreement, "Not my words sir, but yes."

Shining held back a smile, "I guess that saves me having to work out who would work best with you. I also believe I heard the name Pyrelight going in for psych evaluation after getting injured in the Crystal Empire, so she might not be an option anyway." He turned to Azure, giving her a look. "Even if she wasn't a stuck up bitch."

"She called me tacky sir. Only my mother gets to call me that."

Shining's brain hiccupped for a moment, then decided to ignore it had just heard. "Anyway, since you've decided who should join you, I'll leave you to rest." Shining stood and saluted Limestone, then was about to leave when he remembered something. "Hold on. Pinkie?"

"Uh, yes Shining, sir?"

"Cadence asked me to tell you that Rainbow's here as well. Not for anything serious," he added quickly, seeing Pinkie's horrified expression. "Cadence thought seeing you might cheer her up a bit. She's in the minor injuries unit if you want to see her."

"Uh... um." Pinkie smiled apologetically at Limestone, who rolled her eyes.

"Go on Pinkie."

"Thanks Limestone, uh, sir, ma'am, sir. That's going to take some getting used to to. See ya later." Pinkie rushed out of the door and went left, following the signs down the clean white corridors until she found the minor injuries unit. Cadence was just leaving it, but stopped when Pinkie gave her a cheery greeting.

"Oh good Pinkie, I'm glad to see you're alright. I'm sorry your sisters got hurt."

"And I'm sorry your Empire got taken away by that mean ole Faust."

"We'll get it back one day Pinkie. For now though we still have the Crystal Heart, which is something. Or it will be once Celestia and I work out a way to get it working again, even a little."

"I'm sure you'll work it out. But what about you Cadence? Are you okay?"

"I'm-" Cadence closed her eyes and sighed, "I'm keeping it together Pinkie. Between all this and losing the Empire, it's a lot to handle, and it's only going to get worse." Cadence's eyes went wide as she realised what she'd just said. "Sorry, I just- Sorry. I need to go see Celestia. It was nice to see you Pinkie."

"And you Cadence." Pinkie waved after Cadence as the flustered alicorn stopped just short of actually running away. Then she let her hoof fall back to the ground, sad to see Cadence so upset, even if she was trying to hide it. Knowing she couldn't do anything about it, she pushed the door open to the minor injuries unit and walked in.

There weren't as many ponies in here, with what few there were getting small cuts and scrapes seen to. Rainbow was easy enough to find as she grunted and cursed under her breath, her rainbow tail swishing irritably off the side of a bed as a unicorn stitched her injuries up.

"Aww Rainbow! Not your pretty face!"

Rainbow didn't even need to look to see who had spoke to her. "Thanks Pinkie, that makes me feel soooo much better."

"Oh. Heh-heh, sorry. What happened to you?"

"A griffon happened to me. Hooked a claw behind my goggles and did this. I think I came out slightly better than he did though."

"Oh? What happened to him?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes, then winced as it stung. "I killed him Pinkie. What did you think I meant?"

"I don't know. What I do know is that you need to work on your definition of slightly."

"I'll get riiiight on that. Anyway, what are you doing here Pinkie?"

"Limestone and Marble got hurt in Vanhoover, and they brought them here to get fixed up."

"Oh, well, sorry to hear that." Rainbow went quiet as the unicorn finished with her stitches, then sat up so she could finally see Pinkie. Her face felt uncomfortably tight with the stitches, but there wasn't much she could do about it. The healing devices were being prioritised for ponies with serious injuries, so hers didn't even get a look in.

"Hmm, it's not that bad I guess."

"Still not helping Pinkie."

"Sorry." Pinkie smiled apologetically, "I'm not really sure what to say now. What about the rest of your squadron? Are they okay?"

It took a moment for Rainbow to answer, and when she did her voice was no louder than a mouse's. "We lost Fire Streak."

"Aww no." Pinkie held her legs open, offering a hug, but Rainbow waved her off. "Okay then. I'm sorry for your loss. Who's going to lead you now?"

"Lightning Dust."

"Really? Not you?"

Rainbow cracked a weary grin at Pinkie, "Nope. Apparently I'm too reckless."

"Is that- Is that like a codeword for awesome? It feels like it should be."

"It should be, but while Fire Streak knows I'm a great flier, he wanted somepony else to lead the squadron, which I'm actually fine with. I guess I do have a tendency to go and do my own thing in battle sometimes, and leading the squadron would only mess that up for all of us." Rainbow shrugged at the situation, "So yeah, not bothered."

"Wait, wasn't Lightning Dust way more reckless than you back at Wonderbolts Academy? Isn't that part of why she got kicked out?"

"Yep," Rainbow laughed. "Now it seems like we've gone and switched places. I do the stupid things trying to win, and she's, well, probably more sensible than me."

"As long as you don't go getting yourself really hurt doing something silly."

Rainbow puffed her chest out, ready to brag that nothing like that would ever happen to her, but she soon deflated as she knew it could, and she knew Pinkie knew that too. "I'll try," she said instead. "I wish I could stay and chat more, but I only came to get some stitches. We're going to be heading out to the Wonderbolts' h.q. soon to give those ponies in the Air Corps a week or two of intensive training. Gotta get them ready for what this war's going to throw at us."

"Aww, shoot. And here I was hoping to go on a shopping trip around Canterlot. Oh well."

"Yeah, no, and not just because I hate shopping. Seeing Rarity's shop..." Rainbow sighed and shook her head. "I'm not sure I can handle that."

"I guess. I miss them too." This time it was Rainbow who offered the hug, and far be it from Pinkie to turn it down. "None of this should be happening."

"I know Pinkie. I know."


-0-0-0-


If Rainbow hadn't been flying, her hooves would've dragged the entire way back to where the Wonderbolts were located at the edge of Canterlot park, which itself was at the edge of Canterlot. Bringing up Rarity's boutique had really bothered her, because now she was really thinking about it, and she did miss them a lot. A messed up part of her almost wished she'd been captured as well so she could be with them.

She knew that was stupid though, and tried to pay the thought no mind, because Pinkie was still here, and Twilight was out there somewhere. Rainbow winced as she thought of Twilight. There was a pony she owed some apologies to, although Twilight would probably be the one apologising for getting them into this situation, even if that wasn't really necessary. The fact was, both her and Pinkie had killed now, and even if they hadn't killed in the quantities Twilight, or with anywhere near the same proficiency, they still had no right to judge her.

Rainbow laughed shortly at herself, agonising again over what she was going to do and say the next time she saw Twilight. It was such a silly thing to spend her time thinking over when she had far more pressing issues to deal with.

"About time you got back," Spitfire said as Rainbow slowly flew in over the mass of Wonderbolts and Air Corps ponies. "We were almost ready to set off without you."

"Sorry Captain. I was getting my face stitched back together."

"Uh-huh, I know, but now you're once again as pretty as a picture, you should get yourself ready to move out." Spitfire suddenly took a less serious stance and sighed. "Maybe you should have a talk with Lightning Dust as well. I don't think she's taking to her new role very easily."

Rainbow saluted Spitfire, "Yes Captain." Rainbow held the salute until Spitfire returned it, then searched through the assembled ponies until she found Lightning Dust slowly packing her gear, like she was on autopilot. "Lightning? Hello? Ground control to Squadron leader Dust? Can you hear me?"

"Squadron leader Dust..." Lightning closed her eyes and laughed bitterly. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that."

"Why not? You pretty much got promoted to a Lance Corporal when you were picked to lead your wing, so Squadron Leader isn't that big of a jump."

"Has it never struck you as odd that in the academy you train in pairs, but on active duty you work in threes?" Lightning waited for Rainbow to give an answer, but all she did was shrug. "Lead pony and wing pony. So simple, but now we have squadrons, and wings, and actual ranks, with an unspoken authority over the Air Corps, even when some of them might technically outrank you. I actually need to think about this stuff now, as well as the wellbeing of my squadron."

"Y'know, you could refuse the position if you want. Fast Clip's a senior Wonderbolt, so I'm sure he could take the position."

"He's also too cautious," said Lightning, "and so is Pizzelle's wing. I'm not entirely sure why you weren't considered, but if Fire Streak chose me, then he must think I can do it."

"He thinks I'm too reckless," Rainbow told Lightning with a laugh. "Apparently I've taken your old place in things. Guess he thought I'd push the squadron too hard if I was in charge."

"Maybe. Or maybe he doesn't think we're ready to weaponise sonic rainbooms yet."

Rainbow smiled at the idea, "As awesome as that would be, I don't think it'd really have the effect you want. Even if I could turn it into a destructive force, it'd be pretty... What's the word?"

"Indiscriminate?"

"Yeah, that."

"Then perhaps we could work on something else." Lightning glanced around surreptitiously before whispering to Rainbow. "You know the old stories about how pegasi could throw lightning off their wings?"

"Yeah, of course."

"I've been trying to do it, in my free time, and I think I might be getting close."

"Really? I'm not going to say it's impossible, because I've done plenty of impossible things, but you have to forgive me if I don't totally take you at your word."

"That's fair," said Lightning, "but I'm not joking. You already know how to do a lot of it with those lightning contrails you used in the shows. The secret is to take the energy from that contrail and direct it somehow."

"Somehow," Rainbow deadpanned.

"It's harder than it sounds, and I'm still working on the details yet, but yeah. If we can work this out Rainbow, we'll give ourselves a much better chance. Imagine how effective we'd be if we could attack from range!"

"Alriiiight," Rainbow said slowly, stretching the word out as she thought about it. "I guess that does sound good, in theory. If you think we can do it, then I'm game. Frankly it sounds way too cool to not even try."

"Sweet! I know we'll be busy for a lot of the time, but hopefully we can get some time to work on it. Maybe I can even pull rank to get us some private time to do it."

"So long as you don't call it that. You and me having private time? Ponies are going to talk. You already know the amount of talk that goes around about Spitfire's and Soarin's private time."

"Aww, but I might have the hots for you now you look like such a badass." 

Rainbow placed a hoof on Lightning's chest and pushed her away. "You're a regular Casanova Lightning, but no thanks. Everypony already knows I'm in a polygamous relationship with Cloud and Thunderlane."

"You are?"

"Pfft, no. I wouldn't dream of getting into the middle of whatever those two have going on. Just like you'd never get into the middle of whatever Sky and Vapor have-"

"As soon as Sky works it out."

"Yeah. Do you think we should tell him one day that Vapor really wants nothing more than to ride his gigglestick?"

Lightning made a bemused face at Rainbow. "Gigglestick?"

"That's the kind of thing that happens when you hang around Pinkie too much," Rainbow groaned. "Anyway, what I was going to say before we went flying off course, was that I think we should get our wingponies involved. Six ponies could probably work this out faster than two. That, and watching Sky electrocute himself a few dozen times would probably be funny."

Lightning stroked her chin and smiled deviously, "You make an intriguing case Rainbow, as seeing Sky in self-inflicted pain can be amusing. Alright, let's do it. But try and keep it quiet until we really work it out. No point in getting ponies excited if we can't actually figure out how it's done."

"Awesome. Think of the difference this could make if we pull this off."

"I know, and if it can keep the squadron alive, all the better."

"Let's move it out ponies!" Spitfire shouted, pulling them away from their conversation.

"Guess we better teach these scrubs how to fly properly first though," said Lightning.


-0-0-0-


Fleur massaged her eyelids, trying to ease the strain of looking at, well, anything. Equis had been busy over the last few days, trying to pull off an operation that had resulted in the capture of several Mareitanian Shades, which was great, right up until the invasion began. Now it seemed so insignificant in comparison, and judging by the attitude of some within the organisation, a total surprise.

Fleur had often been left with the feeling that some ponies in Equis had thought they could avert the invasion by ending the short term threat posed by the Shades, as those had been the only active threat within Equestria. Until now at least. Fleur hadn't thought like that once, but that could be down to a better understanding of how Mareitanians operated. You think us sneaking around your country couldn't get worse? Hold my beer.

"And now we're all going to hell in a hoofbasket," Fleur muttered to herself, forcing her eyes open to once again read through the reports she'd been given. The last twenty-four hours since Vanhoover had fallen seemed to accrue a large amount of paperwork, a lot of it saying the same things.

Fleur was about ready to scream quietly into her coffee when somepony knocked at the door to her tiny office. Before she could even pull together the mental wherewithal to tell the pony to enter, the door was pushed open, letting Luna into the room.

"Luna! Uh, hello! Um..." Fleur quickly gathered the mass of papers into some semblance of tidy. "Sorry about the mess."

"That's quite alright Fleur. I'd rather see you being messy and busy at this time than otherwise."

"You're not wrong there. I'd be worried if we didn't have anything to do after all that's happened. I don't suppose you've come to ask about our new prisoners?"

"New prisoners?" Luna pulled up a cushion to sit opposite Fleur. "I've not heard anything of any new prisoners. Who are they?"

"Shades. We found some decent information on some Shades operating within Equestria, so we pulled together an operation a few days ago and captured some. I think you were on your way to the Bulwark at the time, so you may have missed it."

"That is indeed good news, but it's not why I'm here. Did you at least get some useful information out of them?"

"Not as yet," Fleur said tiredly. "They're as tight lipped as the Shades Twilight captured back in Ponyville. Fanatical to the last, every one of them."

"A pity. Still, we have higher priorities now. Have your reconnaissance flights over Vanhoover turned up anything yet?"

Fleur pulled a face. "Yeesss, but I really wish you hadn't stopped us from using the Wonderbolts, because they were so much better at it."

"Forgive me, but the Wonderbolts have other duties to attend to."

"And I appreciate that, but I'm still saying that they were so much better than our own fliers. Our fliers don't seem to want to get that close to things, meaning that we might miss something important."

"You have misgivings about how they operate?"

Fleur hesitated, not wanting to throw anyone under the cart, but she also felt now was as good a time as she would ever have to get some things off her chest. "If I'm honest Luna, I have misgivings about how the entirety of Equis operates."

"Oh?" Luna raised an eyebrow at Fleur, "Do tell."

"Alright, well, for starters... what is it Muckraker and Eclipse actually do?"

"What do you mean? They are the heads of Equis Fleur, their position is very important. The decisions they make could affect a great many things."

"Really? I thought that as the Supreme Commander, or whatever you are, that you would have the final say in those decisions."

"I can't do everything Fleur."

"So if I told you that our agents in Mareitania captured Honeydew, the Mareitanians Chief Engineer, while destroying the remains of the airship you parked in their tank production facilities, you're fine with letting us get on with that?"

"What? I wasn't informed of that?"

"They thought it was beneath your notice."

"I think I'll decide what's benea-" Luna stopped, suddenly catching on to what Fleur was saying. "I see. Perhaps I ought to have a little talk about this with both Muckraker and Eclipse. Since we're here though, why did they capture Honeydew?"

"Actually they found her, and she surrendered for the same reasons she defected during the civil war. She just wants to get away from ponies using her to build weapons for wars she wanted no part of. In exchange, she was willing to let our agents use her knowledge of Mareitania's inner workings."

"And she was unaffected by Faust's mind magic?"

"She did seem to be."

"Then I see no issue with giving her a chance. If she could help slow down the Mareitanians war machine, all the better."

"That's what I thought. Muckraker and Eclipse thought differently."

Luna went quiet, and Fleur swore she could feel the disappointment radiating out from her. "What did they do?" she asked coldly.

"They ordered her death, to stop her falling back into Mareitanian hooves."

Luna closed her eyes and sighed angrily. "I can understand their line of thought in that, but did they not think that a slight modicum of effort from our agents, and maybe a disguise, would prevent that? Do I still have a chance to rescind that order?"

"This was almost two weeks ago now." Fleur kept her face emotionless as she watched Luna's face fall. She knew Honeydew was alive and well, but wasn't about to share that fact until she was sure of Luna's reaction.

"Damn and blast! Honeydew was a victim of circumstance Fleur, and certainly deserved no such fate. I found her company to be quite pleasant in the short time I spent with her during the rebellion."

"Then it's a good job I convinced our agents to spare her."

Luna quickly breathed a sigh of relief, "Confound it Fleur! Couldn't you have told me that in the first place?"

"I wanted to be sure of your reaction. It's not as though I have the authority to countermand Muckraker's and Eclipse's orders."

"Not yet," Luna stated firmly. "I shall be having words with those two once we are done here. They shan't be pleasant. Although I shall keep your defiance of them quiet if you so wish?"

"Yes please. I already feel as if I'm doing half their work as it is without them having an actual reason to dislike me."

"Very well. Have our agents found any use for her knowledge yet?"

"Not as such," Fleur admitted. "Security has been increased considerably since their last mission in Stalliongrad. They want to pick their targets wisely if it's going to be worth the extra risk."

"Is that where the remainder of Faust's forces are?" Luna said thoughtfully, before brushing it off. "No matter. I am giving you full authority to decide our agents' actions in Mareitania, and will leave that all to you. I will still be having that talk with Muckraker and Eclipse though."

Fleur smiled gratefully at Luna, "Appreciated, although we should probably get on and discuss what you actually came here to talk about."

"Don't think I had forgotten Fleur. Now, please tell me there's some good news coming out of Vanhoover."

Fleur flicked through the papers on her desk until she found an aerial photo of Vanhoover that was at this point, eight hours old, but it was still the most recent they had. It was admittedly not much different to a photo of Vanhoover from before the war, save for the now destroyed Royal Canter building, but you could at least see where the Mareitanians were.

"With the Royal Canter blocking the main route through the city, they do seem to be taking a bit of time to clear it out of the way, which will take a while. They're also reconnecting the railway, as I believe you expected. Between those two things, they won't be doing much for a couple of weeks if they want the numbers to do those jobs quickly. In the meantime, they're fortifying their position in the city, and sending their griffons out on scouting flights around the city and down around Tall Tale. They don't seem to be going any further though."

"Probably afraid of being attacked while out on their scouting missions. I take it there hasn't been an increase in the number of griffons as yet?"

"None more than took place in the attack on the city. I couldn't say for certain if that means you've crippled the Bloodfeathers, but until we see more we can only assume this is all they have left."

"Yes..." Luna leant against Fleur's desk and rested her chin on a hoof. "Perhaps the situation isn't as immediately dire as I feared. With Faust possibly wounded, and with them clustered in Vanhoover, rather than both Vanhoover and the Crystal Empire, we do still have a chance to slow them down."

"Only slow them down?"

"We don't have the numbers to push them back from a fortified position, or even contain them if they decided to attack elsewhere, but with their griffons so reduced we have a chance to hurt and slow them."

"Uh..." Fleur glanced down at the photo, then back at Luna. "How? If you don't mind my asking?"

"By bombing the stuffing out of them. Thankfully we had the foresight to place most of our production of war materials on the east coast, far away from any potential fighting. That means there is nothing of much use to them in the city, and nothing we should fear destroying ourselves. Yes, nocturnal bombing strikes upon the Mareitanians should keep them distracted, and stop them from thinking we are so easily defeated."

"I'll leave that to you," said Fleur, and she meant it. The idea of doing that to ponies irked her, but not to the point she'd argue against it. Military stuff was for military ponies, not her. "Is there anything else I can assist you with until we get more information?"

"No Fleur, that'll be all for now, thank you. I will remind you that should you have issues with Muckraker and Eclipse again, you can come to both myself and my sister. Even Cadence has some authority over Equis, although I doubt she would care to exercise it."

"Of course." Fleur grinned cheekily, "What are you going to say to them?"

"Besides the obvious message to keep myself or Celestia in the loop, and that their authority is not absolute, I will take pains to remind them that neither of them are irreplaceable." Luna stood, followed by Fleur, the latter offering a small curtsey. "Good day to you Fleur."

"And you Luna." Fleur kept standing as Luna left, and was about to sit and get back to work when the filly scurried in through the still open door, followed by Octavia and Summer, who seemed disappointed that Luna had brushed past them without so much as a hello. "I wasn't expecting to see you two," she said, raising her eyebrows in surprise. "Are you even allowed in here?"

"Apparently we get off lightly for our previous service to the country. Frankly I consider that to be bullshit seeing as how that service had led to our current problems." Octavia shrugged nonchalantly, "I suspect the truth is they don't care enough to stop us."

"Besides, they let me in," the filly said, jumping on the cushion Luna had vacated seconds earlier. "I'm probably the least trustworthy of all of us."

"That's another thing," said Fleur. "Why aren't you at the hospital for your treatment?"

"Probably because of all the wounded ponies there," the filly replied. "Didn't have any healing thingies spare to use on me, so I have to go back tomorrow, or the day after. I was on my way back here when I ran into these two."

"Oh, yes. I suppose that's rather obvious in hindsight." Fleur rubbed the side of her head, hoping to dislodge the fatigue clouding her mind. A solid eight hours of sleep sounded like a distant dream at this moment though. "Sorry," she mumbled, realising she'd gone quiet. "What brings you two here?"

"I'm sure you've heard that the camp at Rainbow Falls was abandoned," said Octavia. "On hoof as well, to avoid taking the train past the Crystal Empire.

"I guess that makes sense. Doesn't explain why you're here though."

"It's a long walk from Rainbow Falls to Manehatten, and during it, Summer and I decided we'd done enough. We've passed on what knowledge we could, and now we're returning home to Ponyville. We thought we'd head straight home from Manehatten, rather than go all the way to Baltimare, but then we decided to come see you as well."

"Oh. Well, I wish I could be more entertaining for you, but I'm afraid that I'm rather busy."

"We understand," said Summer. "We only wanted to make sure you and the filly were okay."

"As okay as we can be," Fleur sighed. "I wish I could say better, but-"

"I know Fleur," said Octavia. "I know. Not to change the subject too abruptly, but I do have something I wanted to ask you, since I thought you might know."

Fleur offered Octavia a smile, "That depends entirely on the question, but I can at least try to help."

"Right, well, I was wondering, since I still feel bad about not going with them, has anypony heard off Twilight and Trixie?" As soon Octavia finished asking she suspected something was up as Fleur made a face and chewed on her bottom lip. "What's wrong?"

"We've lost contact with them."

"What? When?"

"Weeks ago. Celestia suspects their speaker stone was damaged or destroyed."

"And you didn't tell us? Are they okay?"

"I have no idea. None of us do, because we lost contact with them, hence our dilemma. I only know this much because I heard a bit of conversation between Celestia and Luna talking about it. They seem to think that they're fine, and since this is Twilight we're talking about, I'm inclined to agree."

"But what if they're not? This entire war depends on them succeeding. What if they're... I don't know-"

The filly grinned at Octavia, "You were going to say dead weren't you."

"Yes, and that could still count for three out of four of them," Octavia replied haughtily. "I'm just questioning whether it's right to keep fighting when there may be no chance of winning without Twilight's solution."

"I guess we just need to have faith," said Summer.

Fleur pointed a hoof at Summer, "Exactly. Twilight won't let us down. All we have to do is make sure she has the time she needs to fix this."

Octavia crossed her forelegs and gave Fleur a cool stare. "War is pretty famous for creating problems, not fixing them."

The filly shrugged lazily at Octavia, and spoke before Fleur could. "It worked in Mareitania."

"Yes, and now look at the problem it created."

The filly held a hoof up, but let it drop as her argument died before it could even begin. "Shit."

"Indeed." Octavia stood and smiled tightly at Fleur and the filly. "I really do wish we'd gone with them. I feel so stupid now for refusing at the time."

"I said we should have gone with them!" the filly squeaked irritably.

Fleur ruffled the filly's mane with a hoof, "I know, and we should have listened. Too late now anyway. I guess from the way you're standing that means you're going?" she asked Octavia.

"I don't mean to be rude, but I was hoping for better news. Now I feel even worse about this whole situation than I did before, and there's no point in us interrupting your work any longer just so we can mope. Our train to Ponyville leaves in a bit as well, so it's probably best we get out of your mane."

Fleur smiled gently at both Octavia and Summer. "I'm guessing we won't be seeing you for a while?" she asked.

"Who knows?" Octavia said back. "While I have no intentions of leaving Ponyville for a while, I suspect we'll see each other at some point. Goodbye Fleur. Goodbye filly."

"Bye," both Fleur and the filly said, neither of them feeling particularly enthused as the two ponies turned and left.

"This is super depressing," the filly sighed, flopping onto the cushion opposite Fleur.

"No kidding." Fleur cupped her chin in a hoof and stared blankly at the wall for a few seconds. "Filly, I don't know about you, but I fancy moving to Ponyville once this is all over. Canterlot seems to have lost its charm these days."

"Uh-huh. When this is over, good ending? Or when it's over, bad ending?"

"Good ending preferably."

"Then yeah, count me in. The ability to annoy Trixie full time is way too good to pass up on." The filly rolled over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. "I don't suppose you have some good news somewhere do you?"

Fleur reached into her desk and pulled out the speaker stone she used to keep in contact with Bon Bon and the other agents of Smile in Mareitania. "Let's find out shall we?"

"Am I even supposed to be here to hear all this?"

"Y'know what, I don't even fucking care any more."
> 26. Industrial assassination
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"And just what exactly are we supposed to do that's worth the risk of dealing with all these extra soldiers guarding everything?" Rocky asked as Bon Bon tucked the speaker stone back into her bags. "I really think we would have done more as it is if it were actually that simple."

"We'll find something," Bon Bon retorted. She stood and moved to the small window of the hotel room they currently occupied, and observed as much as she could of the city of Prance, for all it was worth. Even she had to admit that coming to the city was barely worth the effort considering there was no real industry or anything here that supplied the Mareitanian military.

"Like it matters that much," said Crème. "Unless we're going to disrupt the supply runs moving into Equestria, which would be pretty much impossible for us, their army already has pretty much everything it needs, and the rest it can claim from their newly conquered parts of Equestria."

"I know," Bon Bon said quietly. She turned to the newest member of their little group and asked if she had any ideas.

"Not really," said Honeydew. "If you're no longer going after industrial targets, I'm afraid I haven't many ideas to help you with. My only suggestion is that if you're not hitting the industries themselves, you may be better off-" Honeydew swallowed hard as the words fought to not be said, "-killing the ponies that run them."

"Would that really make a lot of difference?" Crème asked. "Who even owns the industries?"

"The noble families mainly," said Honeydew. "After the civil war their agreement with Twilight Sparkle left them in a position to purchase the old industries that had been under the Duke's control, or develop new ones using the ideas coming in from Equestria. Since the current government was in no position to do this themselves at the time, it was seen as a benefit to both sides as making Mareitania functional was the main goal at the time. Of course the government does have its own privately owned industry, such as the tank factory you destroyed, but a lot of the others are owned by the noble families."

"And how many of those did you help build?" Rocky asked Honeydew.

"Too many," she replied.

Bon Bon moved from the window and sat by Honeydew. "And what would happen if we did start assassinating the nobles owning all these companies? Wouldn't ownership just revert to their descendants, and nothing really change?"

"Or it'd fall under the full or temporary control of the government if it was essential to the war effort. But as you said, with the army invading Equestria, a lot of these industries have a lesser importance. Well, apart from arming new recruits into the army."

"I hadn't even considered that," said Crème. "I suppose there are probably a lot of ponies still seeking to join the army and join their comrades in Equestria, wanting to cast down the treacherous princesses that dared harm their precious 'Lady.' How many ponies do you think there are at this Puddingarde place?"

Bon Bon shrugged, "Who knows? With this mind control business, there could be thousands, with more joining up every day."

"I still don't know how you're immune to that," Rocky said to Honeydew. "Seems suspicious."

"You said it affects a pony through their magic, correct?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Then maybe this is why." Honeydew raised the bangs of her mane up, revealing a small scar in the middle of her forehead.

Rocky raised a eyebrow in surprise, "You're a unicorn?"

"I don't know," Honeydew said earnestly. "I've never been told that I'm a unicorn, but I've suspected I am for a while now because of the scar. The thing is, this sort of thing only happens in the noble families, where having a unicorn in the family is considered taboo. My family wasn't noble, and my mother was actually a unicorn, so I don't see why they'd have had my horn removed."

"Haven't you asked them?"

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because they're dead." Honeydew leant back and sighed. "Father died a couple of years ago now. My mother died years before that. She suffered a complication while pregnant, which killed both her and my younger sibling. Now all the ponies I could have asked are gone." Honeydew sighed again and shrugged. "Since it's saving me from Faust's influence, I guess I can't complain too much."

"As sad as that is, can we stick to the point?" Crème said curtly. "Equis is expecting some results off of us, and so far we've not given them a huge amount. No offense Honeydew."

"None taken."

Bon Bon lightly smacked Crème on the back of the head, then turned to Honeydew. "Where are the army's weapons made?"

"Depends which weapons you mean. Crossbows are made in Bitmark, swords, blades, and explosives in Stalliongrad, and their armour and uniforms are made in Neigh Orleans by the same ponies that made them during the civil war, although there are more of them now, and they don't operate out of Puddingarde any longer."

"And there's nothing made in Prance?"

Honeydew hummed for a second as she thought the question over. "Not in a production sense. Being surrounded by farmland, Prance is where the army's food is gathered, sort of. I don't really know the full story behind that one since I didn't have to design anything for it."

"At least now we have some ideas of what to hit," said Rocky. "If we can slow down the amount of Mareitanians heading to the front lines, that'd be something. Since we're in Prance, I guess we're taking out their supply depot first?"

Bon Bon nodded, "Once Tootsie gets back from scouting around the upper city, yes. Do you know where the supply depot is Honeydew?"

"It's in the east of the city, where the wall was broken down in the civil war. They decided to rebuild the gap as a private entrance for military business, so they didn't have to keep carting everything through the city. There should be a warehouse near there, although it's possibly in the industrial quarter near there, which was heavily remodelled since a lot of it was burnt down in the riots before the civil war, and damaged again during it."

Bon Bon patted Honeydew on the shoulder, "That's a good a place to start as any. When Tootsie gets back we can go for a little walk to see what the situation is."


-0-0-0-


"Are you sure?" Bon Bon said to Tootsie as the blue mare delivered her report.

"I'm not lying Bon Bon. The Shades are operating out of a house in the upper city, rather than from the castle. From what I've heard, with the army deployed in Equestria the castle is largely empty, but if they weren't deployed, the castle would be home to a garrison."

"I don't care about that!" Bon Bon half shouted. "I care about the part where the Shades are operating out of Prance and not High Rock Keep!"

"Maybe it's just a safe house for them or something," said Rocky. "Seems odd to have them based here of all places. Are you really sure about this Tootsie?"

"I saw a pony that I recognised from the description of all the known Shades Fleur could remember. Flicker I think her name was. A dark grey unicorn with a purple mane and tail, although her horn did look damaged. Has a cloudy night sky for a cutie mark. I saw her slinking through the streets, which honestly caught my attention more than if she was walking normally, so I followed her to a house in the north west corner of the upper city, which was unnamed."

"That's probably worth investigating then." Bon Bon ran a hoof down her face and sighed under her breath as she found them with two jobs to do. "Great. Tootsie, you head back out with Honeydew to find this supply depot."

"Supply depot?"

"She'll fill you in. The rest of us are going to find out what's going on in the upper city."

"Sneaky or no sneaky?" Rocky asked.

"It's daylight with few places to hide, so no sneaky. We'll meet back up here in three hours at most, although nopony should be surprised if any of us are late." Together they left their room and the hotel, where Bon Bon gave them a friendly nod. "See you two later."

"Good luck boss," Tootsie said back, both of them waving to the others.

"You don't believe her, do you?" Rocky asked Bon Bon as they started walking the opposite direction towards the upper city.

"Do you?" Bon Bon asked back.

"Something does perhaps seem a little bit off, I admit, but it's not like Tootsie to imagine things either."

"Exactly," Bon Bon agreed. "That's why we're going to investigate."

It was only a short journey to the upper city, and compared to the lower city it was almost deserted. Barely a pony could be seen doing anything, and the sheer absence of... life, save for a few soldiers guarding the gates around the castle, put Bon Bon on edge. Still, at least it made it easier to find the place, which was unnamed as Tootsie had said, but only because somepony had taken great effort to tear off the plaque if the scratches around where the name should be were any indication.

"I guess this is the place," Crème said, hopping up the steps to the front door to open it, but stopped as she noticed the wood around the lock, as well as the lock itself were busted, and had been for some time by the looks of it. "Or maybe it isn't."

"It's not like Tootsie to get her places wrong," Bon Bon said firmly. "We're going in."

"Alright then." Crème pushed the door, but stopped when it resisted her efforts. A quick scan with her magic told her it had been bolted from the inside. Shrugging to herself she flicked it open with her magic and tried again, opening the door with ease.

"That lock looks recent," Rocky observed as they entered. "Whoever put it in has no idea how to use a screwdriver though," he added, noticing that a lot of the screws weren't in properly, and had at times been bent and hammered down. "This really doesn't feel like a Shades operation."

"I know," Bon Bon said, fully agreeing with him. "Something is definitely wrong here." She stopped by a picture hanging crookedly on the wall above a sofa covered in a dust sheet, depicting two young mares in fancy clothes. One was a very light brown with blonde hair, and the other a pale blue with almost black hair. Behind them, with his hoof over the back of the brown mare, was a rotund grey stallion. Something in his eyes gave her the creeps.

"Hey guys," Crème whispered as loud as she dared, "I found some hoofprints." She pointed at a trail of hoofprints that went further into the house. "Still pretty fresh too."

Bon Bon gestured for Crème to lead the way, and followed quietly as she led the way deeper into the house. The hoofprints soon ran out, dried up by the thick carpeting, so they had to rely on what they could hear of their target. Eventually, through a process of elimination, they were led to a large double doors, through which gentle snoring could be heard.

Bon Bon put a hoof to her lips, then pushed the door open. Beyond it was a bedroom, with a large king sized bed, in the middle of which was a small dark grey unicorn curled up in a nest of blankets. Bon Bon gestured for Rocky to stay out of sight outside the door, then crept with Crème up to the bed. Not sure what else to do, she tapped the unicorn on the side to wake her.

"Hmm?" Flicker opened her eyes to peek at Bon Bon, then closed them again, mumbling to herself. A second later she slammed her eyes back open and leapt to her hooves. "Aah! What the fuck!"

"Relax," said Bon Bon, gesturing with her hooves for Flicker to calm down. "We're not here to hurt you." Now that she was standing and moving, Bon Bon could see the unicorn was sweating and trembling. "Are you alright? You look a bit ill."

"What?" Flicker shook her head, then winced at the motion. "Never mind. What do you want from me?"

"We just want to ask you a few questions."

"I'm not telling you anything!" Flicker leapt off the bed and over the two of them, stumbling slightly as she landed. She recovered quickly, and shot out through the door, only to meet Rocky who stuck a leg out and hit her hard enough to flip her onto her back. She screamed as she landed, and squirmed in pain as Rocky placed a firm hoof on her chest.

"You ain't going nowhere missy. Now how about you..." Rocky trailed off as pus oozed out of a crack on the unicorn's horn, and went into her mane. "Now that's just nasty." He hauled her back to her hooves and shoved her back into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him and standing guard to stop her running again.

"Who are you guys?" Flicker asked as she backed up into the corner of the room. "Are you Shades?"

"Why should that worry you?" said Bon Bon. "Aren't you a Shade?"

"Not any more. Now answer my question; are you Shades?"

"No, we're not. You seem awfully concerned about that. Are you hiding from them since you claim to no longer be with them?"

"I very much doubt they look kindly on ponies that abandon them." Flicker eyed them all suspiciously, "Who are you if you're not Shades? Nopony knew I was here until you walked in."

Crème smiled kindly at the grey unicorn, "You're name's Flicker isn't it?"

"How do you know that?"

"That doesn't matter. You're horn's damaged, and I'm guessing from the pus that it's badly infected. I can help you clean it up if you want? It could do some serious harm if you don't get it seen to soon."

Flicker shook her head and backed up into the corner even tighter. "No. If you clean it up it'll heal, and I'll end up back under her control."

Bon Bon raised an eyebrow in surprise, "You're aware of the magic Faust is using to control ponies?"

"Magic? Is that what it is? I just know that after my horn was cracked it was like I could think clearly again. I only assumed having a broken horn stopped whatever was twisting my thoughts."

"You're not wrong," said Crème. "But if you put on an inhibitor you'll be protected from the magic as well, which is a lot better for you than having a cracked and infected horn, which could leave you magicless for life at best, or kill you at worst. Now please, let me help you before either of those things happen."

It was several moments before Flicker made a move, like she was weighing up her options. Eventually she seemed to reach a decision and jumped back onto the bed, wrapping herself back in her nest of blankets. "How do you know it's magic she's using to control ponies? Are you working for her?"

"No more than you are," said Bon Bon. "We're..." Bon Bon bit her lip, unsure on whether she should really tell this pony who they were. The problem was that she knew they were unlikely to get much further if Flicker didn't trust them a little, and telling her who they were was the first part of building that trust. In this case it seemed that trust was going to have to be a two way thing. "We're Equestrian intelligence. We know all about the magic Faust is using, which is also why we know your broken horn is saving you from it."

"Equis? Great..." Flicker sagged into her blankets and sighed. "Just my luck to be found by you."

"Sorry, but we recognised you from a dossier on known members of the Shades. We assumed this was a Shades operation until we found out this was an abandoned house. Why are you running from the Shades?"

"Because... I..." Flicker lapsed into silence for a moment. "It's a complicated story."

"We got time," Bon Bon said as reassuringly as she could.

"I'm guessing that since you're with Equis, you know all about what the Shades did in a place called Ponyville?"

"We do. You kidnapped some ponies."

"Right. I was part of the group that went after an earth pony called... Applejack, I think it was?" Flicker smiled wryly, "Put up quite the fight. Gave me this to remember her by," she added looking up at her horn. "After that I slowly started to see how wrong things were. Equestria sent us food and supplies during the rebellion, and it was Equestrian ponies that started and led the rebellion. Yet ponies kept talking like Equestria was some big enemy, and I remember agreeing with them, but I don't know why. And Faust..." Flicker shuddered. "She pretty much took control of everything, and we wanted her to."

"And once you started seeing clearly-"

"I had to get out of there in case ponies started to suspect me. I was still confused about the whole thing then, but things got clearer as time went on."

"You know running away would only have made you more suspect?" Rocky said to Flicker.

"I know, hence why I'm hiding. It doesn't hurt that they're rather distracted with other things either." Flicker went quiet again and shifted her hooves uneasily, "So now I've told you all that, what do you want with me?"

"Since you're not with the Shades, nothing, except perhaps your silence."

"You've got it," Flicker said quickly, making Bon Bon smile. "Since you're here though, I don't suppose you have an inhibitor I could borrow? Perhaps I should get my horn looked at before I die."

"Actually, I have a proposition for you." Bon Bon sat on the edge of the bed and smiled at Flicker. "I'm guessing you're no fan of Faust and what she's doing?"

"I didn't join the rebellion to fight a tyrant, only to wind up with a psychopath leading us instead. I want things to go back to the way they were before Faust turned up."

"So do we," said Bon Bon. "If you're willing to join us, we'll happily take care of your horn, and make sure you never fall under Faust's control again. That way you can help us start changing the country back to the way it was before Faust came along. What do you say?" Bon Bon didn't care that this is probably exactly the opposite of what Equis would likely order if what had happened with Honeydew was any indication. She was trusting her gut with this one.

"You're really trusting me, a former Shade you don't really know, to help you sabotage my own country?" Flicker looked sceptically at Bon Bon, "Really?"

"Really. The problem here is that you're a former member of an intelligence service working for a country currently at war with our own. We should probably kill you to stop you revealing us."

"Even though I have no desire to go back to the Shades in case they kill me," Flicker said flatly.

"The information you could tell them might save your life. Or you could accept our offer, get your horn fixed, and help us protect our country in a way that undermines the problem with your country. How about it?"

Flicker pulled her blankets tighter around herself and shivered. It wasn't hard to tell at this point just how unwell the mare was. "So you're going to kill me if I refuse?"

"No, but if we start getting hunted we'll make sure the Shades get you as well. They're probably less gentle than we are."

Flicker shivered again, "I'm not going to argue with that. Look, if you help me get better, I will help you with whatever you want."

Bon Bon clapped her hooves together gleefully, "Excellent. Rocky, head back to the hotel and grab our stuff along with the others'..." Bon Bon frowned as Rocky stared out of the window behind the bed, ignoring her. Then she noticed Crème was doing the same. Then she looked herself, and saw the large plume of smoke rising from the east of the city. "You've got to be fucking kidding me. I'm going to kill her."

"Kill who?" Flicker asked, sounding a little panicked.

"One of our other members. Rocky, get back to the hotel, grab the others and our stuff, and drag Tootsie back by her ears if you have to. Crème, get started on cleaning Flicker's horn."

"What are you going to be doing?" asked Crème.

"Picking up a few things."


-0-0-0-


Bon Bon quickly rifled through the supply cupboard of the small hospital Prance had, keeping an ear out for anypony that might be approaching. She doubted that anypony would be impressed to see her there stealing things that were as precious as gold dust now that trading with Equestria had stopped. That was also why she wasn't surprised to see that the disinfectant, the antiseptic cream, and the antibiotics had writing on them saying they were made in Baltimare. The bandages didn't, but Celestia help the Mareitanians if they couldn't even make their own bandages.

Quickly bagging the four items, Bon Bon slipped out of the cupboard and back into the corridor, largely unnoticed by all as they were far too occupied with ponies coming in from the fire suffering from burns and smoke inhalation. Like the guard pony, who was far too distracted to pay attention to Bon Bon as she brushed up beside him and slipped an inhibitor off his belt.

Stepping quickly to the side as a nurse rushed past, Bon Bon made her way back to the exit and slipped out of the hospital, like she'd never been there at all. She might've felt guilty for stealing medicine from ponies that needed it, but she was in the wrong country to worry about that. What they were going to do once they ran out of medical supplies was anyponies guess, but it certainly wasn't her problem.


-0-0-0-


Everypony else was there as Bon Bon sauntered into the bedroom of the house and dropped the small bag of supplies off next to Crème, who was gently washing Flicker's horn with a cloth and warm water. "I think I got everything you need."

Crème tipped the contents out on the bed and nodded, "Thanks Chief. Hopefully this shouldn't take too long, although I can't do much for the fever."

"Don't worry about it. We aren't rushing anywhere." Bon Bon turned to Tootsie, who at least had the decency to look embarrassed. "What the hell were you thinking?"

Tootsie tapped her hooves together nervously, while behind her Honeydew did her best to look like she had nothing to do with anything. "Well, y'see Bon Bon, the entire building was made of wood, save for some of the foundations, and there was a big dragon that attacked, burning it all down. Then we came back."

"To escape the heat?"

"Maaaybe?"

"You're a total shit Tootsie, but whatever. I guess that achieves one of our objectives for now."

"Did the fire at least smell good?" Rocky asked them.

Tootsie grinned at Rocky, "Once it got going, yeah. I think we must have found some apples, because there was a really nice baked apple smell for a while."

"Nice."

Bon Bon stamped a hoof to get their attention. "As pleasant as that sounds, could you at least consult us before you go setting things on fire?"

"Okay, sorry. I saw an opportunity and I took it. Besides, it's not like you can say much either, trusting a wounded former Shade to join us even though we know nothing about her or her loyalties."

"Don't you worry about me," Flicker mumbled, wincing and hissing as Crème wiped the disinfectant over her horn. "If you're looking to take Faust down I won't stop you. Assuming this doesn't kill me, I might even help you."

"But why?"

"Because she mind-raped us all into doing her bidding perhaps? Because she's happy to destroy Mareitania fighting a stupid war with Equestria?" Flicker sniffed hard and coughed wetly into her blankets, "Fuck Faust, and fuck whatever it is she wants. Fuck this fever too."

Tootsie stared at Flicker for a moment, then turned back to Bon Bon. "Even so, I still think it's too big a risk after we defied certain orders concerning a certain pony."

"I know, but if Fleur really is in charge of us now, I doubt she'll object to it either."

"That's because Fleur's a soft touch," Tootsie grumbled.

"Do you mean the Fleur that worked with the rebellion in the civil war?" Flicker asked.

"That's right," said Bon Bon. "I take it you remember her?"

"Yeah, she was nice. A lot nicer than that fucking zebra was anyway."

"Why? What did she do to you?"

"Broke three of my legs and accused me of being a spy for the Duke, even though she was the spy all along." Flicker stared flatly at Bon Bon. "I'm really not fond of her."

"Fair enough. Anyway, now we're all here there are some things I want to talk about. You mentioned being part of the team that kidnapped some of the Bearers of Harmony. Where are they, and do you know how to rescue them?"

"They're in High Rock, and no. The only pony that pulled a rescue from there off was Lady Twilight, and I doubt any of us have the skills she has."

"I guess that's out the window then," Bon Bon muttered.

"What about Faust?" Rocky asked Flicker. "Do you even know what she wants? What she's planning to do? Or were you all too wrapped up in her mind-fuckery to question it?"

"I guess it's the latter. I know she wants to take down Equestria and the princesses, but now that I'm free of her control I can see that's only of benefit to her. All of this is only of benefit to her."

"So you have no idea what her plans are beyond conquering Equestria?" Flicker shook her head, and Rocky lightly stomped a hoof. "Well damn it. How about the Shades? Do you know what they're up to?"

"Not for a while now. I've been on the run for a couple of months now, so they've probably done a lot I don't know about. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Bon Bon told her. "Do you at least have any idea what 'the plan' is?"

"The plan? What plan?"

"Faust's grand plan once she finishes conquering the world. It's kind of a concern for us."

Flicker shrugged helplessly, "I have no idea what that is. She tends to keep a lot of things to herself, so there's a lot of stuff we don't know. How do you know she wants to conquer the world?"

"That's as much as we do know. She wants to conquer the world and enact something she calls 'the plan.' What that plan might be is a mystery, although we guess it's nothing we want to happen."

"And she wants to do that to Mareitania as well?" Flicker bit her lip as Bon Bon nodded at her, "Fuck. Okay, you know what? I was going to help you anyway, but now I'm all in if she intends to fuck up my country even more than she already has."

"Good. Now I know this might seem a bit redundant since you've not been in touch with them for a while, but do you know of any Shades operations going on in Mareitania?"

"Actually we aren't operating in Mareitania much. Or at least not in the way you mean. Apart from their base of operations in High Rock, they tend to put all their focus on Equestria."

"Why is everything good in High Rock?" Tootsie groaned out loud. "The damage we could do if we got in there without getting caught."

"What about the griffons?" Crème asked Flicker as she squeezed the antiseptic cream into the crack on her horn. "Do you have any idea how they ended up fighting for Faust?"

"Well, yeah. They just came and offered their services one day. Apparently they were told of the possibility of work by the Emperor's brother, although how he knew is a different matter."

"And what did the griffons want in return?"

"Their pick of the riches in Equestria, and maybe more, but I have no idea what."

"The Emperor's brother?" Bon Bon said thoughtfully, having ignored the conversation after that. "I wonder why he would want the Bloodfeathers to fight for Mareitania?"

"Isn't his nephew in the Bloodfeathers?" said Tootsie. "Maybe he's trying to get his nephew killed to remove his claim to the throne."

"Or maybe he's trying to give the nephew a chance to prove himself to the Emperor," Rocky suggested. "Maybe he wants his nephew to get his claim to the throne back?"

"I'd say Tootsie's closer than Rocky," said Crème.

Bon Bon shrugged at all of them. "Maybe, maybe not. Either way I'm smelling some kind of power play by the Emperor's brother if this is true. I guess we should report this back to Fleur either way."

"Then I guess we're moving on?" Rocky asked.

"Yep, to Neigh Orleans, to pay the Mareitanians' blacksmith a visit."

Flicker's expression turned worried, "What do you want with him?"

"To kill him," Rocky said bluntly, "and destroy his operation."

"Oh," Flicker said quietly before shrugging. "Can't be helped I guess. I don't suppose I could have a shot at a pony named Rusty while we're there?"

"You're too ill to be doing anything too extreme," Crème told her firmly.

"Aww, fine. So what's the plan after killing Iron Prize?"

"That's something you can find out when we're doing it," said Bon Bon, taking note of the relief showing on Tootsie's face. "Anyway, Crème and I have something that we need to go and do, so pack whatever you have and then we're off to sunny Neigh Orleans."


-0-0-0-


"I think there's a flaw in the whole weather thing," Rocky said as they stepped off the train and into Neigh Orleans. "Without Faust here, there's nopony to control the weather. It's just going back to being permanently grey again."

All of them looked up at the blanket of grey clouds that filled the sky and blocked the sun. "It's almost like when the Duke still ruled," Flicker said sadly. "Only with less, y'know, enslaved pegasi." She coughed and pressed a hoof to her head as it throbbed. "Urgh, I hate this. Thanks by the way, for doing this."

"You're welcome," said Bon Bon, still looking up at the sky. Without seeing the sun it was difficult to tell the time without getting her watch out, which was probably a bad idea considering nopony in Mareitania had anything like that. If she was any judge, it should have been around seven in the evening, meaning they still had a couple hours of daylight to go. "Okay, first we need to find somewhere to stay. Any suggestions Flicker?"

"There's a place called the Rising Sun here that might suit your needs. It's not too far from the foundry you're looking for either."

"Lead the way then."

"I'm curious," Rocky said after a couple of minutes of walking. "Why make the armour here when all the metal production's in Stalliongrad? Seems a bit inefficient if you ask me."

Honeydew gestured with a hoof towards where she thought the north was. "There was a small mine to the north west of here, a bit past Puddingarde. It was abandoned, but the rebellion took it over at the beginning to make weapons and armour since they couldn't exactly get them from Stalliongrad. It's still in use now, and quite a bit bigger, so I suppose that's why the armour is still made here."

"Makes sense," said Tootsie. "Do you want to add the mine to our to do list?"

Bon Bon considered it for a second, then shook her head. "Nah, we have enough to do. Frankly we're going to end up as the most wanted ponies in Mareitania as it is, without buying ourselves more notoriety. Let's try to get our main objectives done first."

Ten minutes later they were at the Rising Sun, paying for a room that smelled more than a little used. "You know, we could try for two rooms," said Tootsie.

"We're not made of money," Bon Bon replied with a faint grin. "Anyway, I thought you liked snuggling up with Rocky?"

"I do," Tootsie said primly. "It's the rest of you that bothers me." Tootsie opened her bag and pulled out her black tactical suit, placing it on the bed beside her. "What's the first move Chief?"

Bon Bon turned to Flicker, "Do you know where Iron Prize lives?"

"I know he lives in the city, but that's it. I can tell you he's a bit of a workaholic, and is probably still at the foundry right now. You could either take him out there, or follow him home since the foundry will probably have guards."

"Okay, Flicker and I will follow Iron Prize to his home and deal with him there- Wait, does he have a wife or kids or anything?"

"Not that I know of," said Flicker.

"Okay, good, that'll make things easier. Now as I saying, Flicker and I will follow him home and deal with him there. You guys deal with the foundry once it goes dark."

"What about me?" asked Honeydew.

"You can either go with them, or stay here," said Bon Bon, pointing at Rocky, Tootsie, and Crème. "Unless you have some other ideas you want to share?"

"Neigh Orleans, Neigh Orleans..." Honeydew muttered to herself. A second later she shrugged and smiled helplessly, "Not much I can think of here that I can tell you about. There's Puddingarde not far away, and the old hideout of Pierre under the city, but one's a fortress, and the others a set of dank old tunnels. There's not much to do with either of those."

"Alright then. Make sure you stay here then, otherwise we will take great pains to find you again. Understood?" Honeydew nodded rapidly. "Alright then. Come on Flicker, let's go."


-0-0-0-


"So what's the deal with Bluebell?" Flicker asked as they waited in the shadows near the entrance to the foundry. "It almost sounds like she's your prisoner."

"She's only been with us like a couple of weeks, so I'm not willing to trust her that much, even if Fleur does. Same goes for you by the way." Bon Bon blinked as she remembered something. "By the way, Fleur says welcome back to the good guys."

"Whoopee..." Flicker said tiredly, suppressing another shiver.

"Excuse me? You're not thinking of backing out of this are you?"

"No, not at all. It's just we're going to be killing a pony that was once one of the good guys as well, and still would be if it wasn't for that fucking Faust. You'll have to excuse me if I'm not too excited by this."

Bon Bon nodded, not saying anything. She hadn't really considered Flicker's position on this, so considering the mare was still willing to help said a lot about her. Bon Bon wasn't entirely enthusiastic about it either, as the ponies here weren't exactly working of their own free will. It felt like they were killing innocents if she thought about it too much. Perhaps claiming to be the good guys was also a bit much when your enemy were the good guys, once.

"That's him," Flicker said a few minutes later, pointing at a large brown stallion that was walking out of the gates, a hammer and tongs emblazoned on his flank, visible just behind his bags. He paused for a moment, then turned right, walking away from them.

"An earth pony that big might be an issue if he fights back," said Bon Bon.

"Actually, he's a unicorn."

"But he's got no horn. Oh, wait, you mean he's one of those that had it removed when he was young, don't you? Bluebell's the same."

"Welcome to Mareitania," Flicker said sarcastically. She started trotting after Iron Prize, leaving Bon Bon to catch up as she maintained a reasonable distance behind him. "I guess having no horn would make him immune to the magic Faust is using, but he always was a true believer of the Lady, so I suppose it doesn't matter."

"What was your job in the Shades?" Bon Bon asked, genuinely curious about her new companion. Even with a broken horn and a fever she was still performing admirably.

"Field work mainly. My talent's in stealth, so anything where that was useful really. Of course I'm better when I can use my magic to help me. I feel almost useless without it."

"I think you're doing fine," Bon Bon said to reassure the smaller mare. She stopped as Flicker did, waiting as Iron Prize stopped outside a takeout shop. Ten minutes later he left again, a paper bag of food in his mouth as he trotted towards the waterfront.

Not long after that he stopped outside a modest house in a street not far from the waterfront itself. He fished a key out of his bags, unlocking the door and entering. A few seconds later there was a click as he relocked it. Lights started coming on in the house, but other than that it seemed pretty quiet.

"Now what?" Flicker asked Bon Bon as they walked up the opposite side of the street until they were directly across from the house. "Do we wait for him to go to sleep? Or what?"

"I guess so. At the very least we have to take him out before the others attack the foundry. If he sees something wrong there he'll definitely go back there, and we'll miss our chance."

"Then we should go now."

"I suppose we could. I'm just wondering how we should do this. Should we make it look like a burglary gone wrong?"

"That won't work. Ever since Faust took control, the crime rate's really dropped. Something to do with anything that hurts another pony, hurts the Lady. Or something." Flicker rubbed her head hard, "You seriously have no idea what's it's like to have that kind of stuff going on in your head. Besides, they'd only connect the foundry to Iron being dead, so it hardly seems worth trying to make it look like something else."

"I guess. I'm starting to get the feeling that we're going to start having ponies come after us if we do this."

"All part of the fun, right?"

Bon Bon smirked at Flicker's confident grin, but it was mostly for show as her words had triggered a thought. She started actually wondering if the mare really had been part of a Shades operation to find them. Have her play to their sympathies, then use her to report on their activities. Bon Bon had maintained some healthy suspicion before, but now she suspected herself of being an idiot for letting Flicker tag along. She supposed there was only one way to find out.

"Let's see if there's a back entrance to this place." Taking a second to memorise the position of the building, Bon Bon turned back the way they came until she found a narrow entrance that led to small, damp back alley that squeezed between two rows of houses.

Taking care to be quiet, Bon Bon led the way down it, counting the houses off until she was reasonably sure they behind Iron Prize's house. There was a door there, much to her relief, but it was locked. Taking a moment to cinch the bags she was wearing a little tighter, she pulled out her spring loaded blade and wrapped it around her right hoof. Then she found her lock picks and set to work.

"I could do that in seconds if I had my magic," Flicker whispered as she kept an eye on the alleyway. "Guess I won't be doing any of that for a while."

"Shh." It was only a few seconds until Bon Bon unlocked it herself, and as the door clicked open she paused to try and hear if it had been heard. Ten seconds later there hadn't been any noise from inside, so she placed her lock picks back in her bags and gently opened the door into what appeared to be a kitchen, although a rather underused one by all appearances.

"Okay then Flicker," Bon Bon whispered to her erstwhile companion. "I'm guessing you don't want to see this since you know this pony, so you can either stay here or wait outside. Your choice." Bon Bon raised an eyebrow as Flicker bit her lip and shifted awkwardly on her hooves, but didn't say anything. Eventually Flicker nodded.

"I'll stay here and make sure our exit is good."

"Alright then." Bon Bon nodded at Flicker, hoping to whatever might be listening that she hadn't made a mistake in bringing the mare along. She moved out of the kitchen, moving slowly so to not advertise the fact that she was there, and passed into a living room that doubled as a dining room. The remains of a half eaten meal were on the table, but there was no sign of her target.

Bon Bon sat quietly for a moment, moving her ears about as she tried to work out where he had gone. A muffled thump from upstairs told her where he was, and she crept over to the stairs, cautiously peeking up it to check that he wasn't about to come back down. Things went quiet after a minute, so she started climbing up the stairs, only to be surprised when Iron Prize came around the corner and saw her.

"What in the Lady's light do you think you're doing?"

"Uh... shit." Bon Bon charged up the stairs at Iron Prize, and ducked under the punch he aimed at her, ending up behind him. She ducked again as he bucked at her, then rolled away as he almost brought his hooves down on her. Springing back to her own hooves as he turned to face her, she ran in close, dropping low as he swung a hoof at her, then got in even closer and raised her right hoof to just under his jawbone and flexed, triggering the blade to spring out and stab him, killing him instantly.

She stumbled and fought to keep her balance as all his weight suddenly ended up on her, and as she twisted out of it she pushed the body enough so it fell down the stairs in a series of sickening crunches. Gawping at the battered body as it came to a rest at the bottom of the stairs, Bon Bon very quickly decided that she could have done that better, and quickly decided to leave.

Running back down the stairs and leaping over the body, Bon Bon skidded on the threadbare carpet as she turned to the kitchen, but quickly righted herself and kept running. Much to her surprise Flicker was exactly where she'd left her, although she did look ill for different reasons this time.

"I take it that wasn't exactly what you planned?"

"Not exactly."

"Want to torch the place?"

"What? No, the entire street will go up if we do that. Let's just get out of here." Bon Bon opened the back door and glanced outside, finding the back alley as empty as when they arrived. Both of them slipped out, and Bon Bon spent a moment relocking the door before removing her weapon and walking away, trying to look as innocent as hell as a bright glow lit up the sky from elsewhere in the city.

"I guess the others succeeded then," Flicker said as she noticed the distant conflagration.

"Seems so," Bon Bon replied stiffly.

"Good. Can we head back to our room now? It's like twenty degrees out here and I'm still freezing."

Bon Bon stopped, letting Flicker trot on for a few steps before she stopped as well. "Why the hell are you really helping us Flicker? You're on the run from the Shades apparently, and running a fever, which is more than enough of a reason to refuse to help, yet here you are, letting yourself suffer to sabotage your own country. I wish I could say I honestly believe your intentions here, but the more I think about it, the more I question it. What is it you want Flicker?"

Flicker silently regard Bon Bon for several seconds before speaking. "You're not the only one with a trust issue here. You waltz into my hideout, patch me up, then drag me along on the merest word of me saying I want to help, which I actually do, but I still think you're insane for accepting me like that. Thankfully it seems you're not that dim."

"Believe it or not I wasn't kidding when I said we could kill you to protect ourselves. The thing is though, is that none of us like thinking like that. If we could drag you along where we can watch you, all the better for all of us. But you seem far too eager to help, and that's actually making me more suspicious. So I'm asking again, what do you want?"

Flicker went quiet again, but for much shorter this time. "My father was a noble," she said. "Took one look at me and threw me away for having a horn. I'm not here to cry about it, because it's probably the best thing he ever did for me, rather than try and turn me into a 'proper' earth pony."

"And what? You want us to help you get even?"

"Yes and no. To me the nobles represented the worst excesses of the Duke's rule, living like they were the most important things in the world, and that nothing could touch them, no matter what terrible things some of them did. I despised them, but when the rebellion started, I came to hate some of them even more. A lot of them cozied up to the rebellion for fear of losing their wealth and comfort, and while I could understand the practical reasons for Lady Twilight accepting their allegiance, it pissed me off to no end that she gave those bastards more than the noose they all deserved. I actually have more respect for those that stuck with the Duke, because at least they stuck to their principals."

"Your point?"

"My point is that I want nothing more than the noble houses torn down, and I will help you if you help me, because you helping me also helps you."

"So you want us to help you kill your father, who's a noble, for abandoning you? How does that help us?"

Flicker shook her head slowly, "No, I want to kill all the nobles, which helps you. I wasn't going to bring this up until I was sure I could trust you, but time's an issue, so here we are. Think about it Bon Bon, killing the ponies that run all these industries at once could do so much to help your cause, more than destroying one factory at a time ever could. I have a plan to kill all of them, including Lord Hayfield."

Bon Bon swallowed nervously, even though she tried to hide it.  Earlier they'd dismissed the idea of killing the nobles as impractical, yet Flicker's plan had the merit of being effective, if still horrific. Killing one of the ruling council whom happened to be among those nobles almost made it worth it alone for the chaos that would cause. "I'm not agreeing to anything yet, but I would like to know how you intend to do this?"

"There's a gala coming up for the nobles at Lord Hayfield's country manor. I'm sure I don't need to tell you who he is. My plan was basically to trap them inside somehow, then burn the whole thing down with the nobles still inside. But then I got sick, so I couldn't really do much until I got better, although that apparently wasn't going to happen if Crème was right. I was happy for the Shades to do whatever they wanted to me once I'd done that, but if you help me do this I will help you do whatever you need to do."

"I..." Bon Bon didn't want to say one way or the other to this plan, as it could in theory still be a trap set by the Shades. There was also the fact that it was a horrific plan, and that was winning the fight against the practical effect taking out all those nobles might have had. "Surely not all of them are that bad to warrant this?"

"Maybe not, but if you start picking them off one by one they'll only increase their security to the point it's impossible to take them out. Killing them all at once removes that issue."

Bon Bon nodded, seeing Flicker's point. "I'll need to discuss this with my team first."

"Understandable."

"When is the gala?"

"A couple of weeks from now. If you want to spend that time going after your other targets, whatever they are, I'm more than happy to help, so long as you agree."

"I don't know Flicker. It might take a while to think this one over. You're welcome to stick with us for now, but any help you give is purely voluntary as we might still refuse. As I said, I'll have to talk this over with my team, and probably Fleur before we make a decision. Until then, we have work to do."


-0-0-0-


Celestia stopped outside the door to Ambassador Deetra's quarters in Canterlot castle, trying to decide how best to broach the issue she was about to bring up. It seemed to odd to her that their agents in Mareitania had found a reason for the Bloodfeathers joining Faust, while the griffons themselves, who should have easily found the truth, found nothing. It was more than a little suspect.

Still not sure of how to go about it, Celestia knocked on the door, and listened with interest to the string of curses uttered in the griffish tongue. There was a thud, then a second later she finally got the response she wanted. "Come in."

Celestia pushed the door open, but slowed as she saw the room beyond in chaos, with everything being rapidly packed away into a collection of travel trunks, with a bewildered silver griffon standing in the middle of it, trying to smile for Celestia's sake.

"How can I help you your Highness?"

Celestia studied the scene a little longer before answering with a question of her own. "You're leaving?"

"Unfortunately yes. I received the order to return to the Griffonia this morning."

"And you weren't going to tell us?"

"I was, but I thought I'd start packing while I thought about how to tell you. Apparently the Emperor wishes me to return to the Eyrie now that Faust has actually attacked Equestria."

"I see," Celestia said carefully, picking up a dress and carefully folding it to place in one of the trunks. "And this has nothing at all to do with his brother being the reason the Bloodfeathers are fighting for Faust?" Celestia took note of the way Deetra cringed. "You've known about that for a while, haven't you?"

"Long enough," Deetra admitted. "I was forbidden from telling you, in case you decided that Griffonia was working against you."

"I take that to mean you aren't?"

"Not intentionally. I'd say it matters little now since you've almost wiped most of the Bloodfeathers out, including the Emperor's son."

"Oh. I'm terribly sorry to hear that. Please pass my condolences on to the Emperor."

"I shall, but I doubt he'll care. He washed his claws of his son years ago, so his death at the hooves of ponies would only reaffirm to him how weak his son was." Deetra remembered who she was talking to and winced, "No offense."

"None taken," Celestia lied. "Do you know why the Emperor's brother would suggest for the Bloodfeathers to fight for Faust?"

"That's... hard to tell. The prevailing theory is that if Faust wins, he could win political favour with her by being the one that aided her victory by bringing the Bloodfeathers into her forces. However, he also gains by removing opposition to his claim to the throne should the Emperor's son die fighting. There's also the small possibility that he hoped Faust and the Bloodfeathers would be enough of a distraction to make his move for the throne."

"If he had appeared to have actually done anything?" Celestia asked, Deetra nodding in reply. "I see. How popular is this brother's claim to the throne?"

"Amongst the old families, not very, but he tends to be popular amongst the general population for being a modern, forward thinking griffon. None of that is true, as he's... well, I probably shouldn't say what I want to, but I will say that the griffon he is behind closed doors is very different to the one the public sees. He's just out for power, and is happy to play to the public to get their support."

"But that support doesn't actually win him the throne," said Celestia. "Hence why he's happy to do silly things like deal with Faust."

"So it would seem. Suffice to say that the political situation in the Eyrie is rather taut right now."

Celestia nodded sadly, "I suppose that means we'll no longer have access to information from your intelligence services?"

"I'm afraid so. We'll be keeping an eye on things for security reasons, but until this situation is sorted Griffon Intelligence will be looking mostly inwards." Deetra sat and sighed as she ran a claw back over her head, "I'm sorry about this Princess, I really am. The timing couldn't have been worse if we tried."

"It's really not your fault Deetra, and for what it's worth I thank you for your efforts on our behalf. I'll leave you to your packing." Celestia paused at the door, and looked back at the griffon who had yet to resume packing. "Goodbye Deetra. Hopefully we can meet again under better circumstances."

"Hopefully. Goodbye, your Highness."

Celestia closed the door behind her, and stopped to sigh just as she heard Deetra do the same. "Like rats from a sinking ship," she muttered to herself.
> 27. Helpless to act
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You can't be serious," Fleur said to Bon Bon as the plan was explained to her. "Killing all those ponies just to get back at one? Even if they are all tied up in supporting the war. And Lord Hayfield..." 

"That's why we're putting this plan to you Fleur. I know you knew some of these ponies, so I thought I'd let you decide if you want to go ahead with this."

Fleur frowned to herself, trying to think of whether such a plan could be worth it. The problem was, besides the horrific nature of the plan, was that she didn't think it would have as much of an impact as it could. She suspected that Faust, or whoever's ruling in her stead while she was occupied with invading Equestria, would just near seamlessly take over all those industries essential to the war. They'd have killed all those ponies for almost nothing. The only death of any real effect then would be Lord Hayfield's.

On the other hoof, it could have exactly the outcome they desired. Fleur couldn't tell which would be the most likely to happen, or whether it was worth doing just in case. "I think I might have to put this to Luna. I'll be in touch Bon Bon, but for now, keep doing what you originally planned."

"Understood. Over and out."

Fleur sat there for a moment, idly tapping a hoof next to the speaker stone as she tried to think. "I am so not getting paid enough to do this."

Rising from her cushion, Fleur set off through the castle towards the war room, hoping to find Luna there, and also hoping that she might have a better perspective on what Bon Bon had proposed. At the very least she could take the decision off herself, absolving her of some of the responsibility.

The war room was mostly empty when Fleur got there, save for a few ponies that seemed to be purposefully avoiding the aggravated looking alicorn that was poring over the map on the large central table. Fleur walked quietly over to her, not wanting to disturb her until the last possible moment where she delicately cleared her throat.

"Hmm? Ah, Fleur, I was planning to come and see you in a little bit."

"You were?"

"Indeed. I received a report last night from my Night Guards bombing Vanhoover, telling me that the city was devoid of griffons. I was hoping Equis might have heard something."

"Not that I know of, and I'm pretty sure this is something they'd tell you as soon as they heard of it."

Luna growled a sigh, and stomped a hoof lightly next to the map. "Well if Equis doesn't know where they are, then just where exactly have they gone?"

"Maybe they withdrew their services from the war?" said Fleur. "There can't be that many of them left compared to when this started, so maybe they left to save their own skins."

"Unlikely. Bloodfeathers have never been known to renege on a contract, even if it means their own death. No, I suspect something far more sinister is a-hoof."

"Maybe they're doing what we did with the thestrals in Mareitania. Sending them out to cause as much disruption as possible. It'd also distract our own forces from what's going on in Vanhoover."

"That's what I suspected, but so far there's been no sign of any griffons anywhere, and no attacks." Luna shook her head and finally turned to face Fleur, "Maybe time will have to tell on that one. Anyway, since you've come up here I suspect it might be for a reason, so come, tell me what it is you want."

"Uh, sure. Do you remember Flicker? She was a Shade during the rebellion." Fleur waited for a moment for Luna to say something, but the Princess remained blank. "She's the one Seeker accused of being a spy? Broke three of her legs?"

"Ah yes. I still don't recognise the name, but I know who you mean."

"Right, well, our team in Mareitania found her."

"Then I can assume that there's one less Shade in the world. Excellent news."

"Not... quite. She joined them, and says she has a plan that could wipe out most of the nobles in Mareitania in one go, including Lord Hayfield."

"Then it is clearly a trap."

Fleur frowned at Luna's blunt statement, "How so?"

"Because she's under the influence of Faust, and couldn't possibly be working against her."

"Actually, her horn was damaged by Applejack when the Shades kidnapped her, so she's free from Faust's influence. Or claims to be at least. She did assist Bon Bon with eliminating a target. Anyway, Lord Hayfield is hosting a gala in a couple of weeks, and Flicker wants to either bomb it or burn it down. If we help her we could potentially do some damage to the Mareitanians industry, besides those we've destroyed directly."

"Is that so? How can we be sure the Council wouldn't just take direct control of those industries, thus gaining us very little?"

"It's a possibility, which I why I thought I'd bring it to you. At the very least, even if we don't get the best outcome, we don't lose anything."

"Are you sure about that? Think on this for a moment," Luna said slowly. "You said this is a gala, correct? With all the nobles."

"That's what I've been told, yes."

"Including their families? Children too? Innocents?"

"Ah." Fleur was ashamed that hadn't actually occurred to her.

Luna nodded at the sudden change in Fleur's stance. "I cannot condone the murder of children Fleur, even if the best possible outcome of this were guaranteed. Tell Bon Bon that we do not approve this mission, and that if Flicker is to attempt it alone, she has our permission to stop her, if that is what she wants."

"Understood. I suppose I should have thought of that myself."

"I don't fully suspect Flicker herself has thought of that, or is quite deranged if she has and still wants to go through with it. Does she have something against the nobles to propose such a plan?"

"Something to do with being abandoned at birth by her noble parents for being a unicorn. Typical Mareitania bull-shittery."

"I see. All the same we shall take no part in this, and will seek to prevent it as best we can." Luna smiled gently at Fleur, "This is exactly why I put you in direct control of our agents in Mareitania. Because you have the sense to ask me these things."

"Happy to help. If there's nothing else I can help you with, I should probably get back to work."

"Actually," said Luna," there's one thing, although it doesn't require much work on your part, if any. Do you remember the crystals we implanted into Bon Bon and her team?" 

Fleur nodded unsurely, "Yeah, of course."

"Good, because with Faust now in Equestria, we cannot discount her trying to spread her influence to our ponies. We suspect that might have been why she tried to capture the Crystal Empire, to use its magic for that end."

"Okay, and the crystal implants?"

"We will be implanting them into all the citizens of Equestria, beginning with our military bodies, and including Equis. I thought I better warn you of this."

"Is that even possible? Implanting those into that many ponies?"

Luna shrugged at Fleur. "Doesn't matter. If we don't want Faust to take control of our ponies, it must be done. As it is, given enough time she could turn our own ponies against us, and we'd be at even greater odds of winning this war than we currently are. I rather suspect we should have been doing this from the very beginning."

"I see. In that case, could I request that the filly has one when I do? If it's not a problem, that is."

"I was about to offer you as much," Luna said with a smile. "I would say that's nepotism at its finest, but she'd receive one anyway. The families of those serving would be given priority anyway, so our soldiers have one less thing to worry about."

"Oh, okay. Thank you Luna. Does that mean Fancy Pa-"

Boom!

Fleur shrieked as an explosion shook the room like a foal with a toy, knocking her off her hooves, along with everypony else in the room. A cloud of dust fell from the ceiling, and Fleur covered herself with her legs, holding on for dear life as everything shook, then stopped. The sound of ponies shouting reached her, and she braved opening her eyes to find the room she was in was actually intact, and save from some dust was mostly undamaged. The explosion had been further away.

Luna was the first to her hooves, and galloped out of the door towards where the explosion had originated. Fleur followed her at a more sedate pace, as she suspected exactly where the explosion had been, as it felt like it came from where the offices of Equis were. She ground to a halt as the realisation hit that she'd probably have just been killed if she hadn't gone to see Luna.

"Oh fuck..." Fleur pressed a hoof to her chest as her breathing became rapid. "Oh fuck!"

"Are you alright miss? Are you hurt?" a Royal Guard asked, stopping by her as she sank to the ground.

"I'm fine! Just... go help the others!" Fleur stayed where she was as he kept running, and didn't move as even more guards ran past her. The only time she did move was when she felt the tips of feathers brush up her back, and she looked up into the worried eyes of Celestia. "Princess! I-uh..."

"Are you hurt Fleur?"

"No!" Fleur blurted, annoyed at being asked again when she was obviously uninjured. "No, I'm not," she said a bit calmer. "I just- I could've been in that. I could be dead right now..."

"Don't think of it like that Fleur," Celestia said kindly. "Perhaps you should go somewhere else while others take care of this."

"No," Fleur said firmly. "I can't just be pathetic and sit this out." Fleur pushed herself into a swift stride, forcing herself to confront the carnage through the double doors into the offices of Equis. 

Immediately inside the doors wasn't too bad, save for some smoke and dust, as well as some rather ominous cracks in the walls. The worse part was the noise of the ponies wounded in the attack, even if there were only a couple dozen of them at most.

More ponies of the Royal Guard pushed by, followed by Celestia, who clearly had more on her mind than wanting to follow Fleur as she stumbled around numbly. Fleur shook the feeling off and followed the Princess, stepping over the increasing amount of ruin that lingered around the epicentre of the bomb, which was just outside the doorway of Muckraker's office. Or what was left of it, and the offices around it. Muckraker himself was gone, little more than a pile of gore in the corner, while Eclipse, although badly injured, was still alive if only just. Luna was by her side grasping her hoof as the mare struggled to breath through her ruined muzzle, and choked on her own vital fluids.

Fleur chose to say nothing, but stood there dumbly as Eclipse gave up her struggle for life, her blood pooling around her body. Fleur remained there as Luna stood and uttered a small prayer for the thestral. She supposed that considering the near religious reverence with which the thestrals held Luna, having her by your side as you lay dying was probably the best way a thestral could hope to go.

Her mind still reeling and numb from what had happened, Fleur left them, not wanting to intrude further on what was probably an incredibly private moment, Fleur decided to go investigate her own office a few doors down, not that there was much left intact between where she was and her office. She was unsurprised to find she couldn't get in as the ceiling had collapsed into it, the destruction of the bomb having a different effect here where the walls were for little more than show.

She eventually wedged the door open, and put everything she had into lifting the large chunks of ceiling off of her desk and searching the room, hoping beyond hope that something could be salvaged from this mess, but it seemed she wasn't even allowed to have that as the shattered pieces of the speaker stone she used to keep in touch with Bon Bon and her team tumbled from the wreckage of her desk. She gathered the pieces carefully, hoping that the princesses might have a way to repair it.

"It seems that even here isn't safe."

Fleur started at the voice, and quickly turned to find Luna stood in the doorway, her ears low, and her stance tired. "I'm sorry Luna."

"I don't believe you have anything to apologise for," Luna said back. She looked up at Fleur, and noticed what was held in her magic. "And the bad news continues pouring in," she sighed. "How could this have happened?"

"Can't you fix it?"

"Sadly not. If one stone is broken, you cannot repair it, or the connection between them. Did we not send spares with them?"

"One, but I kept my part of the spare in my desk, and..." Fleur gestured to the ruin of her desk, "Yeah... I guess that means that they're on their own now." She dropped the remains of the stone and sighed wearily.

"Nonsense," said Luna. "We shall simply have to deliver another to them."

"And how should we do that?"

"I'm afraid that is for you to decide."

"Me?"

"Indeed." Luna gestured for Fleur to follow her, leading her slowly out of the destroyed office. It struck Fleur that it seemed quieter now, and there wasn't a single wounded pony, or body, anywhere, leaving her to wonder just how long she'd spent in her office as she let Luna lead the way, ending up in part of the offices that weren't destroyed, or even damaged. "Not all of Equis was destroyed," said Luna, "but with Muckraker and Eclipse both... gone, it is currently leaderless."

"Oh boy, I can see where this is going."

"Can you indeed?" Luna stopped before the doors of the break room and opened them. Inside was a dozen individuals, consisting of ponies, two griffons, and a zebra. "This is all those that were neither killed or wounded in the attack. Our field agents are also still out there." Luna turned and smiled sadly at Fleur, "They are leaderless though, and I consider you the best pony here to lead them."

"I knew it. Seriously Luna? None of the ponies out there are even cold yet, and here we are sticking me in charge?"

"Without Equis, we have lost one of our eyes Fleur, and while I would like to stop and fix this properly, our enemy isn't going to wait for us. We need information, and we need a pony in charge."

Fleur groaned quietly, "Are you giving me a choice here?"

"Certainly."

Fleur snorted bitterly, seeing that choice for what it probably was. Each one of the people before her were just as qualified to lead, but because of her lovely past experience of being in charge of the Shades for a short time, the burden of leadership was being put on her. Once she hated not being at the heart of matters, and now she was getting her just desserts by being thrust into it. She could tell that Luna knew she wouldn't refuse.

"Fine, I accept," she said as begrudgingly as possible.

"Thank you Fleur. I still have much to do, so I shall leave you to it." Luna smiled sadly at Fleur again as she left.

Fleur stood dumbly staring at the floor for a moment, trying to think of what exactly she was meant to do now. The answer wasn't exactly rushing to her, as she now had to fix this before it fell apart further. Fleur had somewhat considered Equis to be a joke before, but now she'd reached the punchline it wasn't funny at all.

"Ma'am?"

Fleur looked up into the eyes of the cerise unicorn mare that had spoken to her, noticing the vivid streaks of colour under her eyes where her tears had washed the dirt on her face away. Fleur then blinked as she realised they were waiting on her. "Sorry."

"It's okay, I know this must be a shock to get put in charge like this. I mean, another shock after all that's happened."

"What? Not even twenty minutes after the bomb went off?" Fleur said sarcastically. "I find it amusing how this was the most important thing they could think to do." Fleur sighed as she noticed the way they were all looking at her. "Sorry. It's been a shit of a day."

"Actually, it's been more than an hour since the bomb went off," the male of the griffons informed her, not saying anything on whether he thought it was a shit day either.

"It has? Huh. Guess I spent more time searching my office than I thought." Fleur shook it off, "Anyway, while I would typically like to give you at least the rest of today off, it seems we don't have that luxury. Who was in charge of getting reports off our field agents?"

"That was Hessian and his team," said the unicorn mare. "They were all killed in the blast," she added quietly.

Fleur nodded and sighed, unsurprised by the news. "Okay, then first we need to salvage as much of their equipment as we can so we can at least maintain receiving information. Were they using speaker stones? Or something else?"

"Something else," said the unicorn. "Only unicorns can use the speaker stones. Our field agents were using a short distance communicator that consists of a gem matrix to generate a short wave-"

"Woah, I don't need to know how it works right now. What I do need is a pony capable of using this stuff. What's your name?"

"Celia, ma'am."

"Okay, Celia, I'm putting you in charge of salvaging our communications." Fleur pointed to a the rest of the ponies, "You help her for now." Fleur waited until they were gone, then pointed at the zebra stallion. "You, what's your job?"

"I'm a translator ma'am, and a code breaker. I speak most of the major languages from around the world." The stallion smiled sardonically at Fleur," I also make a mean cup of coffee, since languages and code breaking don't seem to be in high demand right now."

"Oookay... uh, since you don't have a high demand for any of that, can you start compiling a list of essential equipment we need to have replaced, such as communication devices, and stuff like that?"

The stallion nodded confidently," I can do that."

"Good. Go start with what Celia needs." Fleur pointed at the two griffons as the zebra left, a male and a female. "What's your job?"

"Aerial photography," said the male.

"I'm a field agent," said the hen.

"And what does that mean you do exactly?"

"Whatever you need me to. We're kind of trained to do everything that we might need to do out in the field. Recon, sabotage, you name it, we'll do it."

"Excellent. I have a special job for you then, although you're probably going to hate it. As for you," Fleur said to the male, "do we have up to date images of Vanhoover?"

"Sure, but they haven't been developed yet. You sent the mare that does it with the others."

"Do you know how to do it yourself?" The griffon nodded. "Then go do that, please." Fleur waited until he was gone, then turned her attention back to the hen. "Do you think I'm doing this right?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because a field agent probably knows more about this than I do. Anyway, I have a special job for you, and since you're a griffon you'll fit in nicely where I'm sending you."

The hen saluted Fleur, "Ready for anything ma'am."

"We lost our communications with our agents in Mareitania. Since we can't really leave them to their own devices, we need to re-establish contact with them. Basically, I need you to deliver a new speaker stone to them."

"Okay, no problem-"

"We're not entirely sure where they are though."

"Oh."

Fleur smiled sympathetically at the griffon, "As I said, you're probably going to hate this job. I can give you a list of places they might be over the next couple of weeks, but you're pretty much going to have to find them yourself."

"Understood. When am I leaving?"

"As soon as you're packed and ready to go. Obviously the idea here is to not get caught, but I'm not about to tell you how to go about this. I'll also have to organise one of those crystals that give you immunity to Faust's mind magic before you go as well. As soon as it's delivered, return here, and hopefully we might be a bit more organised by then."


-0-0-0-


Romantically speaking, Fleur wanted the throne room to be quiet, with ponies mourning the loss of those that had died that morning. Fleur also knew she was being stupid, because as she more realistically expected, it was hectic. Ponies scurried around, doing whatever was bidden by Celestia who was sat upon her throne at the far end of the room.

Fleur had actually been expecting Luna to be here as well, but the dark blue alicorn was missing. Who was there though, was Fancy Pants. "Fancy? What are you doing here?"

"Fleur!" The large stallion ran over and swept Fleur up in a hug. "Thank goodness you're alright! I've been so very worried!"

Fleur idly patted Fancy on the back, scared to move more as it felt like her bones were grinding together. "I'm fine Fancy, really. You didn't just come here to check on me did you?"

"While you were my main concern, you aren't my only one. The fact is that this attack was allowed to happen because a large number Canterlot's guard has been deployed elsewhere, leaving the city poorly defended."

"That's ridiculous Fancy."

Fancy looked like he'd been slapped. "Excuse me?"

"The difference between a dozen guards or a single one in this case is zero. We have no idea how this bomb got here, and any pony with the right passes could have waltzed in and planted it. Unless you're planning on restricting travel into the city to those without proper security clearance, the amount of guards won't make a difference. In fact, you'd need more guards, when there simply aren't any."

Fancy was stunned into silence for several seconds, and spluttered incoherently for even longer. "Are you saying that there's no way to prevent such catastrophes from happening again?"

"Not easily, and not without the risk of harming the liberties of Equestria's citizens. I doubt Celestia would ever agree to anything like that. What should have happened though, is that everypony coming into the castle should have been searched, but again, a pony with the right passes to get in the Equis offices would probably have been let off."

"As we are well aware," Celestia said, having walked up while the two ponies were talking. "I've already had my Captain question the ponies that were supposed to be checking those entering that part of the castle, and apparently they've not been searching ponies for a while now."

"What?" said Fleur, surprised. "Why not?"

"Because they came to recognise the ponies moving in and out of there, and got lazy. What we do know is that a stallion they didn't recognise entered the offices this morning, with the right passes, and since he didn't leave, we're assuming that the scant remains of the pony we found at the bomb site was in fact the bomber. Whether he intended to die in his own attack we don't know, but this does mean we have no way of finding out who he is, or why he did it."

"But how would he have the right passes?" Fleur asked, although she didn't expect an answer.

"That's just it," said Celestia. "I've had most of my guards questioned, and apparently this pony has entered and left the castle quite a few times over the last month, but today was the first time he's ever gone to the offices of Equis. I suspect they've been planning this for a while, and used their previous visits to either steal passes, or learn what they look like to forge their own."

"I guess we still haven't got all the Shades operating in Equestria then..." Fleur ran a hoof back through her mane and sighed. "Or we missed one, and this is a revenge attack. I would say Equis is on the case, but we really, really aren't right now."

"Surely Muckraker could spare a pony or two to investigate?" Fancy said, although a little unsurely as he saw the way Fleur was acting.

"Muckraker's dead, and so is Eclipse, and so are a lot of the other ponies that worked there."

Fancy Pants' mouth hung open, having not realised in the slightest just how bad the damage was. "But I've known Muckraker since we were colts..." 

"I'm sorry Fancy," Fleur said softly.

Fancy closed his eyes and bit back a curse, only opening them again when he felt ready to. "So who's leading Equis now that Muckraker is no longer with us?"

"Me," Fleur said simply. "I think the technical term is Director, but I honestly don't care about that. It does give me a unique perspective on how well Equis is performing though, and since we missed this coming in the first place, it's not great news." Fleur patted Fancy on the side in a semi comforting way, then turned to Celestia. "I don't suppose I could request that you search everypony coming into the castle?" Fleur didn't say that she thought that was what was happening anyway. It certainly should have been in her opinion.

"I was planning on doing so, yes."

"Good. Thank you Celestia." Fleur gave the Princess a small curtsey, then turned to leave, thinking that Luna was probably in the war room if she wasn't here.

"Fleur, wait."

Fleur stopped as Fancy jogged up to her, his face creased with concern. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Fancy, I'm still breathing, and I have a job to do. I know you're worried about me, and that's totally fair if I'm honest, but really, I'm fine. I have too much to do to have a breakdown over this anyway. Speaking of too much to do, do you mind picking Swift up from school and taking her to her treatment?"

"But she usually goes on her own."

"I know, but I get the feeling she'll come running here if you aren't there to stop her. Honestly, I'm surprised she hasn't escaped school to come here already. Tell her I'm fine, and that I'll see her later."

Fancy seemed like he was going to argue for a moment, but he eventually relented. Fleur did feel sorry for him, as this was clearly too much for him to handle. "Very well, but I won't be held responsible for anything past her having her treatment. That filly's slipperier than an eel at times."

"I know. It's great isn't it?"

"Hardly the word I would use."

"I know." Fleur pecked Fancy on the cheek and smiled at him, "Thank you Fancy. I'll see you later."

"Fleur, please take care of yourself."

Fleur nodded and smiled again, then left, making sure to keep a small amount of bounce in her step. It was purely for Fancy's benefit though, because as soon as she was out of sight she stopped and leant against the nearest wall to groan in frustration. She must've knocked her head at some point today, because none of this was making sense to her. The bomb, ponies dying, getting make head of Equis... In her head she was still laying on the floor after the explosion.

"Fuck everything," she muttered, pushing herself back upright and making her way to the war room in the hopes of tracking down Luna. Thankfully the alicorn was where she thought this time, although Luna didn't seem to be in any position to be useful, slumped as she was over the centre table, all alone. "Luna?"

"Hmm? Oh, apologies Fleur."

"Guess I'm not the only one a bit put out by today." Fleur sat down next to Luna and crossed her legs on the table. "Do you want a pep talk?"

"No, no thank you. I was only thinking."

"What about?"

"About the fact that we've managed to teach the Mareitanians how to wage war better than even we can ourselves. The Adepts, the Shades, those earth ponies in heavy armour... Did they ever get a name?"

"Actually I don't think those were our idea as such. All our ponies had decent armour, and we didn't exactly have a need to break through unicorn shields. They just took the heavy armour idea and ran with it."

"Ah, my mistake. I would say that it was a good job that the pegasi left there since I wouldn't want to fight them as well, but they hired griffons instead. Although, I dare say the griffons were less effective than they hoped."

"Or we're better than we thought?" Fleur grinned as Luna snorted a single laugh. "Thank goodness we didn't do more to make the Mareitanians stronger. Imagine what would've happened if we let Trixie teach dark magic. Good job Twilight put a stop to that idea."

"Indeed, because that would nullify one of our potential advantages."

Fleur gawped at Luna, "You cannot be serious. Dark magic? Really? You're really considering it?" Fleur frowned as Luna looked at her out of the corner of her eye. "Good grief. Trixie was terrifying enough on her own, but a thousand more like her?" Fleur shuddered. "I guess the only good thing I can say is that the war would've been over in a fraction of the time."

"I had the thought back in Vanhoover," Luna murmured. "I had dismissed it, but today seems to have brought it back to mind. I have no plans to train thousands in its use, but even a few would make a difference." Luna shrugged, "It matters not, as I have no real wish to do such a thing."

"Good. And I mean that. We should at least try to maintain some integrity."

"Quite," Luna said, although she didn't really mean it too much. Integrity meant nothing to dead ponies after all. "Anyway, I doubt this was supposed to be a social visit. Do you have something you need of me?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah. Our griffon field agent here is going to deliver a new speaker stone to Bon Bon, but I need a stone to send with her, and I think she better get one of those implants that protects you from Faust's influence."

"Very well. Have her report to the medical staff in the castle for her implant, and I'll have the stones ready for you by the end of the day."

"Thank you Luna. Now, uh, no offense, but shouldn't there be something you could be doing instead of stewing here like this?"

"I've contacted our new training camp and other military bases, and none of them have been attacked, so that's something I don't need to worry about. Other than that, my ability to plan has been stymied for now until Equis gets back on its hooves a little bit. We don't know what Faust is planning in Vanhoover, and we don't know where the griffons are, or what they're doing."

"We'll have some recent aerial photographs soon, and hopefully some up to date news once our communications are brought back up." Fleur stood back up and waited for Luna to do something, but all she did was trace a hoof over the table in a circle. "Luna, what the hell is going on with you? Get up. Do something."

"And I shall." Luna stood and looked Fleur in the eye. "Not even I am immune to despair Fleur. Faust is coming, and if she is to be believed, she has something unpleasant in mind for myself and every other alicorn. Then there's the fact that she's attacking Equestria, and, well, winning thus far. Then her agents almost destroyed Equis this morning, as you well know. Excuse me for taking a few minutes to gather my thoughts."

"I'm sorry, but I saw that look on Twilight's face enough times during the rebellion to know when a pony just wants to wallow in misery."

"And like her, I apparently have ponies willing to drag me out of it." Luna managed to give Fleur a tiny smile. "Anyway, you are right in that I do have much to do. I shall be with Cadence in the castle's observatory, working on the Crystal Heart if you need me."


-0-0-0-


"Please tell me there's good news," Fleur said to Celia as she made her way back to the ruined offices of Equis, where the ponies she'd sent to scavenge their communications were sifting through the rubble, along with a significant number of Royal Guards. There were also others there, shoring up the building, and if things weren't so dire, Fleur might have suggested leaving until they were done.

"There's some good news," Celia said, flicking her dusty pale violet mane aside with an equally dusty hoof. "We've managed to recover some of the sets, but I'd say we're probably not going to get any more out of this mess."

"How many is some?"

Celia winced, "Less than half. But, we can use one to contact multiple agents, so we can still get in touch with those out in the field. Msemaji has already listed what we need, and we'll have the requisition forms filled out soon."

"Muzzy-who?"

"Msemaji," Celia repeated. "The zebra."

"Ah, okay. Have you heard anything from anypony yet?"

"Not yet. I think the transmitter in the castle must have been damaged, because all I'm getting is a load of garbled nonsense. One of the others is up with it now, so hopefully we can get the sets we do have working."

Fleur regarded the boxy device in front on Celia, with all its switches, and buttons, and... other things she didn't understand. All she could do was take Celia's word for it. "Has our aerial photographer come back with anything yet?" she asked instead.

"Derrek said the developing stuff was ruined by the dust, so he's had to clean the whole thing and replace it all."

"Okay, I'll go check on him now." Fleur left them to it, and headed towards the rear of the offices to where the dark room was located. The damage didn't seem anywhere near as bad back there, with only some cracks in the walls, and a coating of dust hinting at anything having happened at all.

Again this all felt far too surreal to her, and Fleur found herself wondering what would have happened had this been in a public place. Was this all being kept relatively quiet because it was in the castle? Or was the lack of panic more noticeable because that's what you'd expect? All the things that should have happened, happened as they should, but then it all seemed to go back to relative normal instead of being a massive thing, which it was.

Fleur stopped with her magic gripping the door handle of the dark room. Was this bomb expected? Was that why it seemed to have absolutely no fanfare around it? Or was it herself that was missing things, focused as she was on dragging Equis back up out of the dust and ashes? Did it even matter?

Fleur decided it probably didn't, and finally pushed open the door. Beyond was as she expected; a dark room with a red glow, and a griffon developing photos which hung from a short line over the bench. She acknowledged Derrek with a quick nod, then picked up the nearest image on the line. It depicted some ponies hard at work clearing up the remains of the Royal Canter, clearing the way for their tanks and everything else to move through the city. That wasn't exactly new information though.

Fleur replaced the picture, then picked up the next, then the next, trying to find something new in the details, but all they seemed to show was the Mareitanians clearing up, repairing the train line, and otherwise making themselves at home. The only thing majorly different was the city getting increasingly damaged by the bombing the Night Guard were dropping nightly. It didn't seem to be having much impact though, not with the small bombs they were dropping.

"Notice anything missing?" Derrek asked Fleur after a couple of minutes.

"We already know there's no griffons."

"Not jus' them. There's no tanks either. They hid them after the first night, although I don't know why they needed to."

"I'm guessing to protect them," Fleur replied snarkily.

"Not what I mean. What I mean is, why hasn't Faust simply shielded the city? Did her lil bout with Princess Luna hurt her that much that she can't even do that?"

"Maybe," Fleur murmured. "Obviously we'll have to keep an eye on it." There was a short sharp knock at the door, "Come in."

The griffon hen from earlier came in, dressed in the mismatched yet effective armour the Bloodfeathers. "Sorry to disturb you. I've had the implant, and the new speaker stones have been dropped off, along with a spare set for them. Do I have your permission to start tracking Bon Bon and her team down?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess." Fleur was a little bit put out by the idea that these people needed her permission to do something, but she supposed it made sense, and it at least stopped her from wondering if the griffon had left or not. The perks and pitfalls of being the boss. "Hold on, do you even know where you're going?"

"On the map, yes, but actually finding them is the trick here."

"Alright then, but I suppose I better tell you that there's six of them now. The extra ones are a blue earth pony, and a dark grey unicorn."

"Understood ma'am. Hopefully I won't be gone too long."

"Hopefully," Fleur repeated as the griffon saluted and went on her way. "Hopefully you'll find them before they do something terrible."

"Ma'am?"

Fleur jolted as Derrek spoke to her, having completely forgotten he was there. "Sorry, what?"

"Why would Bon Bon and her team do something terrible?"

"I'm hoping they won't. It doesn't matter. When are you next due out to take more photos?"

"T'night, if I can."

"Good. Hopefully we'll have something off our people out in the field before then." Fleur rubbed her face tiredly, "So much to do. So very, very much."

"Equis will rise again, eh?"

"Yeah, like flatbread."


-0-0-0-


"I'm telling you Bon Bon, it's not working. There's only so many times I can keep trying before I come to that conclusion. The stone is dead. The spare is dead. They are both dead."

"Then how are we supposed to ask Fleur what we're meant to do about this whole Hayfield thing?"

Crème shrugged at Bon Bon, "Heck if I know. Maybe it's just a temporary issue or something, and Fleur'll get back to us as soon as she can."

"Or something's happened back at Equis," Rocky suggested. "Maybe she broke the stones."

"There's only one reason I can think of that would make Fleur do that," Tootsie said apprehensively. "Equis has fallen. Maybe all of Canterlot. Maybe even Equestria! What if the war's over, and we lost, and we don't even know it?"

"I'm sure somepony would mention the war being over at some point."

"Not that quick," said Tootsie. "What should we do Bon Bon?"

"We should stop overreacting for starters. I doubt the war ended since this morning, so you can stop that line of thought right now. As for us..." Bon Bon glanced at Flicker, who quietly stared back. "We'll follow our original plan for now. Hopefully Fleur will back to us soon with instructions. If not, we'll have to decide for ourselves."

"You know there's only one decent choice here," said Flicker. "Just think of the benefit this could bring to your side."

Honeydew huffed at Flicker, then looked imploringly at Bon Bon. "It won't make as much of a difference as you think. All you'll be doing is killing a lot of innocent ponies to get maybe a few collaboraters. It's not worth it."

"There are no innocent ponies amongst that lot," Flicker said nastily. "Come on Bon Bon, you know the right thing to do."

"Shut it, both of you." Bon Bon stared both of them down, but reserved most of it for Flicker. "As I said, we'll go through with our original plan, by which time Fleur should have gotten back to us. If not, then I guess we'll have to decide for ourselves, one way or another."


-0-0-0-


Cadence set another small gem in place on the elaborate golden cage she, Celestia, and currently Luna, had constructed around the Crystal Heart. She wired the gem in place using a thin strand of gold, then used her magic to melt it all onto the frame. She stepped back and sighed, yet again questioning what the hell it was they were doing.

"Are you and Celestia really sure this'll work?"

Luna blinked at Cadence a few times, "You're asking me? You're the expert on the Crystal Heart and its workings Cadence, so if you don't know, we certainly don't. I mean, the science is there. Use the gems as a focus much like the tower in the Empire, and reflect the Heart's energy back on itself so the runoff of energy is reduced, allowing you to use it for longer. I mean you'll still have to recharge it once a day, and will have to feed it to maintain a shield, but... yes, this should work. In theory."

"All so my poor crystal ponies can fight and die in this stupid war."

Luna raised an eyebrow at Cadence, "You aren't thinking of back out are you?"

"Of course I am! I never wanted this in the first place." Cadence met Luna's gaze, "I'm not going to though, if that's what you're thinking. My ponies aren't going to want to give up after losing their home, and I don't want them to be forced into another kind of slavery by Faust."

"You're making the right choi-"

"Don't tell me I'm making the right choice Luna!" Cadence yelled. "For all I know I'm making a terrible one that's going to cost my ponies dearly, all because of the foolish choices you and Celestia made, starting with sending Twilight to Mareitania in the first place! You should've gone yourself! Or nopony should have gone!"

"And you would be content to let all those ponies continue to suffer under the rule of the Dukes? You know what they did to the pegasi."

"Is it any worse that the war you've dragged us into?"

"Yes. Cadence, do you have any idea how many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pegasi lived and died in slavery over the last thousand years of the Duchy's rule? Because it was a very large number. Then there's the unicorns that suffered and died under their rule too, and probably a large number of earth ponies."

"Then why didn't Celestia do something about it sooner?"

"Because we didn't really know for the longest time, and we had many of our own issues to deal with as well. Then I fell from grace, and Celestia... she's not a fighter. She tried diplomacy, and diplomacy failed."

"And Twilight paid the price for it."

Luna sighed and took up another gem in her magic, setting it into place. "Cadence I know what you think of us right now isn't great, but we never intended this. In hindsight, yes, it was a mistake to send Twilight, but not even she thinks deposing the Duke was a mistake. Our current troubles have nothing to do with our intentions when we sent her, as we didn't even know Faust existed. Twilight finding her was as much a surprise to us as it was to her."

"And yet, here we are," Cadence said coldly. "You gave her the perfect platform to take over a country still trying to rebuild itself. If you had just let her go, maybe things would have been different."

"Indeed," Luna said sternly. "It might have been even worse."

"And how do you possibly think it could have been worse?"

"I'm sure Faust would have found a way. Cadence, I know you think us monsters for sealing Faust away, but was to be a mere temporary measure. We only wanted to keep her there until we found a way to contain her ourselves, and until Mareitania was stable so did happen, wouldn't happen."

"And what would happen once she was contained?"

"For my part, nothing," Luna admitted. "Faust despises me, so the less time I spend around her the better. The goal though, was to treat her nicely, and slowly get through to her. Befriend her, until she was no longer a threat. Celestia tried that while she was in Mareitania, but she didn't have enough time, and Faust refused to listen, which was why we were going through with that plan."

"Instead she got free, and now here we are."

"We hadn't counted on the Viscount knowing of her. If it weren't for him this war wouldn't be happening."

"Ah, so this is all his fault," Cadence said mockingly. "Of course."

"The pony's whose fault this is, is Platinum's," Luna growled.

"Right, of course. How silly of me to think otherwise..." Cadence trailed off as Luna jerked like she was shocked, and whipped her head around to look out of the window. "What?" Cadence asked as she turned to look at what Luna was watching. All she could see was the sun setting... almost an hour early. "Is the sun supposed to be setting yet?"

"No," Luna replied as she cantered over to the window for a closer look, "it isn't." She kept watching as the sun dipped below the horizon, her concern growing with every passing second. "Something's wrong here."

"Why would Celestia set the sun early?" Cadence asked, her anger from earlier gone, only to be replaced with worry.

"Celestia wouldn't set the su-aah!" Luna collapsed to her knees, a sharp pain shooting up her horn. Cadence started to look like she was panicking, and kept asking what was wrong, but Luna ignored her, forcing herself up to look through the window as the moon slowly rose, totally without her guidance.

Eventually the moon slowed in its path, and the pain subsided, allowing Luna to get back onto her hooves. "I need to find Celestia," she said, turning and galloping out of the observatory, Cadence close behind her. Both of them raced through the castle, dodging around ponies they could avoid, and leaping and gliding over those they couldn't. They hadn't gone too far when Celestia galloped around the corner towards them, and all three of them crashed into a heap in the middle of the corridor. 

"Luna!" Celestia gasped before she even attempted to stand up. "That wasn't you was it?"

"Urgh..." Luna raised her head, then pushed aside one of Cadence's legs that was resting on it. "No sister, that was not I. I'm assuming that since you're asking, it wasn't you either?"

"Of course not! I wouldn't set the sun so early yet!" Celestia disentangled herself from the princess pile-up and brushed herself off. "I guess there's only one explanation then."

"What's that?" Cadence asked, having hauled herself back to her hooves.

"Faust has taken possession of the sun and moon," Luna explained simply. "We no longer have control over them."

Cadence's eyes went wide, and she gibbered for a moment as she tried to comprehend what exactly that meant. "W-what do we do?"

"For now, nothing," said Celestia. "I would at least hope that Faust knows better than to harm the world by altering the orbit of the sun and moon. Hopefully the schedule she keeps for them is not much different to our own."

"But how? How could she do this?"

Luna barked a short bitter laugh, "I'm sure if we were to ask her, she would only say she was reclaiming her property."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Cadence asked.

"The sun and moon rose and set long before unicorns performed the task. Who do you think was responsible for that?"

"Oh." Cadence went quiet, no more sure of what to say to either of them that they were to each other. "What should we tell our ponies?"

"Absolutely nothing," Luna replied quickly. "To tell them we have lost control of the sun and moon would only create unnecessary panic. I feel it best that we pretend everything is fine. At least assuming Faust doesn't do something with them that we cannot defend or explain."

"Oh great," Cadence growled, "more lies."

"I'm afraid Luna is right," Celestia said soothingly. "We should maintain that everything is fine, so as to not cause undue panic."

"Undue panic?" Cadence took a step back from both of them in surprise. "I think some panic is incredibly due by now!" she said, sucking in short sharp breaths as she tried to think around her renewed anger. "Just what exactly have you dragged us all into?" Neither Celestia or Luna provided an answer, or even met her gaze.

"You know why we have to do this Cadence," Luna said eventually. "This is bigger than just Equestria."

Cadence narrowed her eyes at both of them, but said nothing, instead turning on the spot and going back to the observatory, her mind racing as she tried to think of ways to end this peacefully. If she couldn't talk Faust down, maybe she could talk Equestria down instead, even if she had to go behind Celestia's and Luna's backs to do it.
> 28. Sunshine in Saddle Arabia
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset glared at Twilight, annoyed that the purple alicorn could be so nonchalant in this situation. "I'm telling you Twilight, the sun rose early today. Doesn't that mean anything to you in the slightest?"

"Of course it does. It also means something to me that the sun set early last night, as well the moon rising early."

"Then why are you being so calm about it?"

"Because the sun still rose," said Twilight. "If it hadn't, then I would be giving the issue my full attention. As it is, apart from rising a bit early, I don't see it as something we need to worry about."

"How could you possibly say this is something not worth worrying about? Celestia never rises the sun early! Or late! This could be a sign that something's really wrong!"

Twilight sighed through her nose, and stopped to face Sunset, who didn't seem to want to drop the issue. "I'm not saying it isn't something worth worrying about. Not at all. But I am saying it's not something we need to worry about."

Sunset stared at Twilight, her mouth hanging open. "How can you possibly think that?"

"Because the issue is in Equestria, and we-" Twilight gestured at the rocky, arid landscape around them, "-are in Saddle Arabia, with absolutely no way to do anything about it. I'm sorry Sunset, but this is something Celestia and Luna are going to have to fix themselves. We have our own job to do, as they have theirs."

Sunset seemed like she was about to argue, but a quick glance at the others confirmed that they were all waiting for her to admit that this was something they couldn't do anything about. "Okay, okay, fine, I get it." Sunset sighed deeply, "It still feels wrong to do nothing though. What if this is a sign that something's really wrong? What if this means that the war has started?"

"Then we still do what we're supposed to?" Trixie said like it was obvious. "Pretty sure we're supposed to be looking for that happy little deus ex that fixes everything. That's why we're here, in Saddle Arabia, getting baked by the sun and eaten by insects."

"But I'm not even hungry," Mayfly said with a pout.

"You really consider yourself an insect?" Moondancer asked the changeling.

"It was a joke," Mayfly explained flatly. "Too subtle? And no, I don't consider myself an insect. Insectoid yes, obviously, but not an insect."

"Anyway," Twilight said to Sunset, drawing the word out as she scowled at the others, "the point was that we help Equestria by doing what we're doing. The sun issue is something we can't fix, so let's not waste energy agonising over it."

Sunset sighed again. She could feel how wrong it was to have the sun rise too early, like an itch in the back of her mind. But Twilight was right in that there was nothing they could do about it, no matter how much it bothered her. Instead she adjusted her pack to be more comfortable, and smiled weakly at Twilight. "I guess we better get on and save Equestria then."

"Exactly," Twilight said back. "We're not far from the capital Ammare now, so we can restock with what we need, and start looking for that mirror, or however much is left of it. That also means you have to start disguising yourself Mayfly."

Mayfly nodded stiffly, like she was irritated by the suggestion. "Are you sure I must?"

"Positive," Twilight told her. "I hate to say it, but changelings tend to not be welcomed anywhere, so it's probably best you pick a disguise and stick with it."

"Okay then, how about this?" A wave of vivid green magic swept over Mayfly's body, leaving in its place a tall white Saddle Arabian mare, with a long, baby blue mane and tail. "Will this do?"

"Not... exactly," Twilight said, although she didn't want to. Mayfly did look the part, but there were other issues with the disguise she might not have considered.

"Why not?" asked Moondancer. "She looks exactly like a Saddle Arabian. She's going to fit in a lot better than we are."

"The problem is that while she might look the part, she wouldn't act it. She's not wearing the traditional garb of a Saddle Arabian, and I doubt she knows the cultural customs of a Saddle Arabian. Do you even know how to speak Saddlan?"

Mayfly twisted her hoof awkwardly, "I... don't even know what that is."

"It's the language of Saddle Arabia, and if you can't speak it, or act like a proper Saddle Arabian mare, I doubt it's a good idea to go around looking like one. Perhaps you should go with looking like a pony like us instead."

"Okay." Another wave of magic swept over Mayfly as she turned into a unicorn, using the same colour scheme, and with a horseshoe cutie mark. "Will this do?"

"Are we really going to get away with having another unicorn with us?" said Trixie. "I'm pretty sure we're going to look pretty damn tribalist soon. Why don't you go as a pegasus?"

"Because with my wings busted, I wouldn't be able to fly."

"Why not?"

Mayfly changed herself into a pegasus, and held her wings up to show them. Large chunks of feathers were missing, and what feathers were there were damaged. "Art reflects reality," she said sadly.

"Why not go as an earth pony then?" Sunset suggested, only to get laughed at by Trixie.

"Hah, good one."

"I'm not joking, and that was seriously tribalist," Sunset said coldly.

"I know, and I'm sorry, but if ponies could pick what kind of pony they wanted to be, I imagine there'd be a lot less earth ponies in the world. Flying or magic against neither of those? Yeah, tough choice."

Twilight gawped at Trixie, "Are you even kidding right now? There is nothing wrong with being an earth pony!"

"And I'm not saying there is, but given the choice..." Trixie shrugged at all of them, "Why don't we ask the only one of us here that does have a choice? Mayfly?"

Mayfly shuffled awkwardly under the attention she was suddenly under. "Uh... not that I want to agree with Trixie specifically, but since I can't fly," she quickly changed back into a unicorn, "I would like to still be able to us my magic."

Trixie grinned at all of them, "I think I've made my point."

Moondancer narrowed her eyes at Trixie, "A moment ago you were worried about looking tribalist. What happened to that, hmm?"

"Nothing. I'm just saying that given the choice of being a unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony, hardly anypony is going to choose being earth pony. Mayfly just proved that for me."

"One example is not a case study!"

"Twilight, is there a way we can turn Moondancer into an earth pony?"

Moondancer backed off a few steps and protectively held a hoof to her horn. "Don't you even dare!"

"Example number two," Trixie said gleefully.

Twilight groaned into her hoof, "Trixie, there's no such spell capable of turning a unicorn into an earth pony-"

"Because why waste your time developing a spell nopony would ever want to use."

"There isn't a spell that could turn you into a pegasus either! You can't change the type of pony you are."

"Sadly for all those earth ponies."

Twilight kicked a stone at Trixie, hitting her on the chest. "Seriously Trixie? Are you done now?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Good, now come on. The sooner we get to Ammare, the sooner we can start looking for information on the mirror."


-0-0-0-


If there was one way to describe Ammare, it was busy. However, it was also capable of being described as dusty, hot, loud, annoyingly tall, and having an over fondness for onion domed towers. The palace on the small rise looking over the city especially had a thing for them. 

It was also pretty well secured if the pairs of guards walking around in matching uniforms with their scimitars slung at their sides were any indication. She wasn't sure why, but their presence made Twilight nervous, like they were looking for something, and she hoped they weren't it.

Twilight stopped the group under an arch that bridged two buildings as another pair of guards wandered by. "This isn't exactly what I expected. Actually, I don't know what I expected."

"Everything here's making me feel really short," Trixie whined. "I mean, I know Saddle Arabians are tall, but did they have to make everything half as high again? I feel like a foal."

"Out of interest," Moondancer said, pausing as a trio of Saddle Arabians passed by, arguing loudly in their native tongue, "where were you expecting to find information on the mirror? If there's any to find."

"And not in the wrong language," Sunset added.

"Weren't you the one to bring up Saddle Arabia?" Moondancer asked Sunset. "Didn't whatever you were reading say more about where the mirror was?"

"Yes, but Starswirl travelled around here a lot, so I couldn't pin down where he kept the mirror, and this is a civilised country so I very much doubt nopony here has never found it. I was thinking it might be in a museum or something."

"Assuming nopony thought it was a piece of trash and threw it away," said Trixie.

"Also a possibility," Sunset admitted sheepishly. "A couple of days of trying to find out about it won't hurt."

"I suppose not," said Twilight. "So we'll start by looking for a museum then. Even if it isn't there, perhaps they might know something about where it could be."

Trixie snorted a laugh, "Great! That just leaves the issue of where to find the museum, assuming they even have one."

"We could ask somepony?" said Mayfly.

"Be my guest," Trixie replied, stepping aside and gesturing for Mayfly to go do that, adding a small bow for emphasis. "Of course, they might not understand you, and you probably wouldn't understand them, but I'm sure it'll all work out if you just speak slowly and loudly."

"Oh! Okay then." Mayfly nodded eagerly and started to trot towards the only ponies she could see, only to get dragged back by Twilight's magic."

"She was being sarcastic Mayfly, just ignore her. In fact, ignore her, period."

"Hey..."

"Come on," Twilight said, enjoyably ignoring Trixie. "We won't find anything standing around here. Let's have a look around, and if it comes down to it, we can always ask a guard, because hopefully they might speak Equestrian."

Twilight smiled encouragingly at her friends, then led the way deeper into the city. It really did remind her of Canterlot in some ways, with its many towers, bridges, and archways, as well as the bustle of many ponies. That's where the similarities ran out though. Dust blown in from the nearby deserts coated everything, and the roads were nothing more than solidly compacted dirt.

What did get her the most though, was the stares. Especially once they reached the marketplace, where ponies would stop what they were doing just to stare at them. So far she hadn't seen a single other pony from Equestria, so she could only assume that they were a bit of a rarity. None of the stares were hostile though. Most of them were simply curious. They were also mostly directed at Twilight, leading her to think that maybe she should have considered hiding her wings as ponies here were in all likelihood capable of identifying her as a princess. It was probably too late now though.

This went on for a while, wherever they went in the city as they searched fruitlessly for a museum, library, or anything like that. Twilight was starting to think that they could have passed by any number of such things, and not realised due to not knowing the language. She was about to suggest they ask a guard when Sunset gasped and ran over to a small newsstand.

"Guys! Look at this!" Sunset picked a paper up off the stand and held it in front of them with her magic.

"It's in Saddlan," Trixie said flatly.

"I know that, but look at the picture." All of them focused on the picture, which was a map of Equestria with arrows pointing into it from Mareitania, one finishing at Vanhoover, and the other on the Crystal Empire. "This has to mean Equestria's being attacked! If only we could read what it says."

"Perhaps I could be of assistance?" All of them turned to the voice, finding it to have originated from a light grey Saddle Arabian stallion flanked by two of the armed guards that were patrolling the city.

Twilight cleared her throat nervously at the sight, suddenly feeling like they were in trouble. "I'm sorry, can we help you?"

"I believe it was I offering to help you, but no matter. Let me introduce myself." The stallion bowed deeply to Twilight, "I am Hakim, Vizier to the Sultan, and you," he said before Twilight could speak, "are Princess Twilight Sparkle."

"You know who I am?"

"But of course. The small number of alicorns in this world does make you rather easy to recognise. That does lead me to ask why a princess of Equestria is here in Saddle Arabia? We are also curious as to why you are here without informing us."

"Uh... Well, y'see-"

"Ah-ah, hold your answers. You can tell them to the Sultan directly."

"The Sultan wants to see us?"

Hakim nodded, "More you specifically, but the... invitation will be extended to your companions also."

"You hesitated on invitation," Trixie pointed out. "I'm guessing we don't actually have much of a choice here."

"Of course you do, but I very much suggest you accept his offer of hospitality." The stallion waited a beat as he let that sink in. "Please, if you would follow me."

"Wait," Sunset said quickly, then blushed as the Vizier raised an eyebrow at her. "Sorry." She held the paper up in front of him, "Could you tell us what this says? Please?"

"Put basically, the alicorn Faust has attacked Equestria, invading both the city of Van-hoo-ver, if that is how you say it, and the Crystal Empire, but a few days ago."

"She really attacked the Crystal Empire?" Twilight gasped. "Why would she attack there? How would she attack there?"

"I do not know," said Hakim, "and it seems to have gained her little as the city was swallowed by the voracious cold of the frozen north soon after." Hakim softened slightly as he watched Twilight's ears fall, "I guess you have been away from Equestria for a while to not know that."

"It's part of the reason why we're here," Twilight admitted quietly.

"I see. Perhaps these are things better discussed with the Sultan himself. Again, if you would follow me, I will take you to him. Then we shall see if we can perhaps aid you in some way."


-0-0-0-


The area around the palace was considerably different to that in the city, and that was before you even got to the palace itself. They were led through a large gate surrounded by an equally large wall, and immediately found themselves in a different world, or so it felt. A large water garden spread out before them, filled with lush green plants, and numerous fountains that playfully sprayed water into the large angular pools that made up much of the garden. All of it was built with the same white marble the palace appeared to be made of.

As the Vizier led them up the large path through the gardens, Twilight took note of the large number of exotic birds that called the gardens their home. Flamingos, parrots, parakeets, and far more stood around the pools, or flew around them, and there were plenty of other creatures besides.

Hakim smiled at Twilight, "It seems like you are enjoying the palace gardens?"

"They're wonderful," Twilight gushed, while behind her Trixie snorted.

"So this is half of where the country's water went to," she muttered bitterly. The difference between here and the city was reminding her a bit too much of what she and Twilight fought to overthrow in Mareitania. "Heaven forfend royalty not live like royalty for once."

"Trixie!" Twilight shouted, horrified that Trixie would say such a thing, even if she didn't entirely disagree. Her horror was soon replaced with confusion as Hakim chuckled at them.

"I'm afraid you'll have to blame the ostentatious nature of this place on the ponies that built it centuries ago as a rival to your Princess Celestia's palace in Canterlot. As for the water, the palace has its own private supply, and often shares that with the ponies in the city when times are hard. Free of charge I might add."

"That's generous of you," said Sunset.

"As you can imagine, water is quite the commodity in this land. Somepony could be your worst enemy, but you would still share a glass of water with them when times are hard." 

"Clearly you haven't found some proper enemies," Trixie grumbled as they made their way up the marble steps that led inside the palace. Even she had to admit the place was nice as she admired the silk drapes and many mosaics. She didn't have enough interest to admire them in depth though, which was fine as the Vizier seemed determined to get them to their destination.

He stopped them before a thick double door, and turned his rear to it to talk to them. "I feel I should warn you that the Sultan may be a little... distracted. We have been having some issues lately, and they do not seem to be resolving themselves to anyone's satisfaction, or at all really."

"What kind of issues?" Twilight asked.

"That is not for me to say I'm afraid. The Sultan may divulge more if you ask, but perhaps it is best you stick to why you're here rather than worry about our problems." Hakim smiled at them and signalled the guards to open the doors, "Sire!" he shouted happily. "I found our unexpected guests!"

Twilight followed the Vizier as he trotted up to the raised throne that was built on a raised platform much like Celestia's and Luna's, but that was where the similarities ended. The throne itself was more like an open oyster shell, although considerably more ornate, and was filled to the brim with cushions, amongst which sat a stallion with a simple brown coat under his simple royal garb. He couldn't have been any older than herself.

"Introducing Princess Twilight Sparkle," Hakim continued, "and her friends Moondancer, Mayfly, Sunset, and Trixie."

"It's an honour to meet you," said Twilight, dropping into a bow which the other copied with varying degrees of speed and reluctance. "We're sorry for intruding into your country uninvited, but we wished to avoid unnecessary attention."

"Then perhaps you might consider a disguise," said the Sultan. Thankfully he didn't seem offended, and gestured for them to rise. "I will have to admit to being surprised when my guards informed me there was an Equestrian princess walking around my city. Considering the duress Equestria is currently under, I doubt you have come here for a sightseeing trip."

"You've... guessed correctly, your Highness. We seek an artifact, one of many, that can lead us to the location of Starswirl the Bearded." A slight lie, but Twilight was pretty sure the secret retreat of Starswirl should remain a secret.

"Ah yes, the legendary Starswirl the Bearded." The Sultan rose from his throne and descended to stand before them. "It is my understanding that he vanished long ago, yet you hope to find him alive?"

"Not strictly, but wherever he is might have information on how to defeat Faust. As you can imagine, that knowledge would be quite valuable to Equestria."

"Indeed. While I have no interest in involving myself with a war Equestria made for itself, I see no harm in assisting you in this small endeavour if it stops the fighting." The Sultan made his way to the side of the room, where a curtained opening led into another room. "Come," he said, holding the curtain aside, "you must be hungry and weary from your travels."

Twilight led the way into the next room, finding a large dining room furnished with a long, low table that was lined with cushions. The nearest end was prepared, so Twilight took a seat near where she suspected the Sultan himself would sit. She leant back as a tall serving mare poured her a drink, that on closer inspection turned out to be wine. Twilight shrugged and drank a mouthful while Trixie attacked hers with relish. Sunset and Moondancer were a little more measured with their responses, while Mayfly sniffed hers and went cross-eyed.

"Please, help yourselves," the Sultan said as he took his own seat. "There's no need to stand on ceremony here. Eat your fill, then we will talk."

Twilight, or in fact none of them, argued with that, piling food on their plates to eat, even if it was mostly for show in Mayfly's case. What did bother Twilight though, was the fact that the Sultan was being so hospitable. It was making her think that he wanted something.

"So, your Highness," she begun, only to be interrupted.

"Please, call me Batal."

"Okay then, Batal. Your Vizier told me you've been having some troubles of your own lately."

"Indeed, but nothing so troubling as a war. Some of our citizens, a couple dozen at most, have gone missing over the last month."

"Ith that why there'th tho many guardth in the thity?" Trixie asked, her mouth half full. She swallowed quickly as Twilight gave her a look. "Sorry."

"Indeed it is," Batal answered, "although it seems to have made very little difference. Even with them patrolling, ponies still vanish."

"Do you have any idea how?" asked Sunset.

"All the evidence we've found would point at an animal attack," said Hakim. "The problem is though, that there's no blood or remains of any kind. They're taking the bodies away, which is unusual for animal attacks as you can imagine."

"Then what evidence is there that it's an animal attack?" Sunset enquired, her meal forgotten for now.

"All of the attacks happen on the outskirts of town, and always outdoors, and the tracks are nothing a pony would make, or even a griffon or some such creature."

"We were thinking," Batal said quickly, before anyone could speak, "if you're willing to help us with this problem, we could be able to help you with yours. What is it exactly you're looking for?"

"A... mirror," Twilight told him. "Specifically a magic one, made by Starswirl the Bearded." While the Sultan didn't appear to show anything towards what she was saying, Hakim was a different story. He stared straight ahead, his eyes slightly wider than normal. "We believe it's the key to locating Starswirl himself, as I believe I said."

"A magic mirror you say? What would it look like?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but it would be bigger than yourself most likely, and is surrounded by magical gems. The only way I could really be sure it is what I'm looking for would be to study it with my magic." Out of the corner of her eye, Hakim's pupils shrunk slightly, before he seemed to remember himself and relax.

"I'm afraid I know of no such mirrors," Batal continued, seemingly unaware of what his Vizier was doing. "Hakim? Do you know anything?"

"I'm afraid not your Highness," Hakim said smoothly. "Since we have no magic ourselves, I don't see how we Saddle Arabians could have produced such a thing."

"I said Starswirl made it," Twilight pointed out bluntly. A little too bluntly, but the way Mayfly was watching him had caught her attention. He was definitely lying to them, but she couldn't just call him out on it.

"Ah yes, my mistake. Still, I know of no such mirrors. It seems we cannot help you."

"A pity," said Batal. "I suppose this now means you're no longer willing to help us then?"

"I didn't say that..." Twilight trailed off as a guard trotted in swiftly, and up to Hakim, urgently whispering something in his ear.

"What?" Hakim stood quickly, banging his knees on the table. "I seek your permission to leave Sire, there has been a break-in at my family's estate."

"Of course, of course, by all means." Hakim bowed low to his Sultan, then to the rest of them, although not with the same depth. "Anyway, you were saying Princess Twilight?"

"Since you can't help us find the mirror, we'll be spending a few days here searching for it. I don't see why we can't do both." Twilight turned to Sunset, "Would you and Mayfly mind helping the Saddle Arabians while we search for the mirror?"

"Uh... no, I guess not," Sunset said unsurely. She looked at Mayfly, only to find the disguised changeling playing with her food. "In fact, we'd be happy to help."

Batal clapped his hooves once, "Excellent! I'm so glad you could help us! Your magic could make unravelling this mystery so much easier. Now then, I'm sure you must be weary, so once you finish your meal I'll have the servants show you to your rooms."

"Our rooms?" Twilight asked.

"But of course! I'd be a terrible host if I didn't allow you to stay here for the duration of your visit."

"Oh, uh..." Twilight invented quickly, not wanting to be kept in the palace where they'd be under quite a lot of supervision. "I appreciate the offer, but I feel our search for the mirror, and for whatever's taking your ponies, would be far easier to do from out in the city."

"Are... are you certain? The palace would be far more comfortable I think."

"I'm certain. We'll be out and about most of the time, and having to travel back and forth to the palace will only take up time we don't really have to spare since Equestria is under attack now. Sorry."

Batal waved a hoof, "Very well, no need to apologise. Please though, I insist you enjoy what hospitality I can give you before you depart again."


-0-0-0-


"What was that about?" Trixie asked Twilight angrily as soon as they had exited the palace grounds. "We could have stayed in a palace Twilight! An actual, honest to Celestia palace!"

"Yeah, where we'd be watched every moment of the time we spent there, leaving us totally unable to do the things that are going to be needed of us to get the mirror."

"What are you talking about?" Sunset asked Twilight. "We don't even know where the mirror is."

"Yes we do, sort of. I take it none of you except Mayfly noticed the way Hakim was acting when I brought up the mirror?"

"Not really," said Sunset. "What was he doing?"

"He was lying," Mayfly told them. "Or at least he felt like he was lying."

"He was," Twilight confirmed. "I'm not only willing to bet he knows where the mirror is, but that it's also in his possession. Probably in that estate of his that was broken into."

"I hope that means that somepony else isn't after the mirror then," said Sunset. "That's the last thing we need."

Twilight shrugged at the idea, "We still need some kind of proof he has it first. Then we can worry about who else wants it."

"Couldn't we offer to buy it off of him?" suggested Moondancer. 

"He tried to hide that he has it," said Trixie. "Kinda suggests that he isn't looking to sell."

"So what are you suggesting we do?"

Trixie smirked at Moondancer, "Take a wild guess."

"Murder him for it?" The way Moondancer said it did at least suggest she wasn't comfortable with the idea.

"Woah there," Trixie laughed, surprised that's where Moondancer went. "Less wild Moondancer. Considerably less wild. I meant we just steal it off him, somehow."

Moondancer blushed with embarrassment at having been the one to suggest murdering the Vizier, then blushed in frustration at not really knowing why she was blushing at all. "This all sounds like a massive collection of long-shots so far. How are we meant to find out if Hakim even has the mirror?"

"I... don't know," Twilight admitted. "Let's just find a place to stay first, then we'll worry about it."

"But how? We don't have any money we can use here."

"Actually bits are widely accepted here," said Sunset. "Almost preferred actually."

"Oh."

"What I was going to say though," Sunset continued, "was that you should probably hide your wings Twilight. The less attention we draw the better."

"Good thinking." It had been a while since Twilight had used the spell, possibly since leaving Mareitania, but she was nowhere near forgetting it, and with a spark of magic her wings disappeared from sight, so long as you didn't touch them.

Sunset nodded in approval, "There was also something else I was going to ask. Do you really mean for Mayfly and I to help with their missing pony problem?"

"Up to you," said Twilight. "I just agreed so that the more you at least appear to help them, the less attention they'll put on the rest of us. If you actually want to help them, go right ahead. I'd happily help them myself if we had the time."

"Okay, I was just checking. Let's find a place to stay, then we can all get to work."


-0-0-0-


By the time they'd found a place to stay, and Sunset and Mayfly had wandered back to the palace to begin their investigation, it was nearing mid-afternoon. Sunset wasn't sure if daylight hours in Saddle Arabia were the same as those in Equestria, but she didn't really need to know to tell it was going to be light for hours yet.

Two guards were leading them silently and stoically towards the location of the last abduction, although whether they were quiet through instruction, or because they simply didn't speak Equestrian to have a chat, was a mystery to Sunset. She didn't mind though, as she wasn't sure what to say to them. Seeing as how the weather tended to not change for months at a time here, talking about it seemed a bit pointless, but she didn't know what else to talk about. The coarseness of the sand? How hot it was? How about those drinks strong enough to feel like they've burnt holes in your oesophagus?

"Here," one of the guards said, stopping at a part of the narrow street they were in, between two buildings that had been cordoned off. Sunset waited for him to say more, but the stallion remained resolutely silent.

"Okay then, are we supposed to get started?" Again the guard said nothing, so Sunset shrugged and ducked under the barrier into the closed of section, Mayfly following after her. There were some gouges cut into the compacted dirt of the ground, and some knocked over crates which could be indicative of a struggle, but other that that there was nothing much to see. It did feel a little off though.

Sunset stood and studied it for several moments, wondering if this place had already been investigated by the Saddle Arabians, then sighed explosively. "I have no idea what I'm doing. Are you getting anything from this Mayfly?"

"This place smells weird," Mayfly said, raising her nose in the air and sniffing rapidly. "Something was here, but it wasn't an animal."

"A pony then? Or something like that?"

"No. Something... something different. Not mammalian at all."

"Oookay... Keep doing what you're doing then, and I'll try something else."

Not sure what else to do, Sunset decided to focus on the feeling of the place. It was a feeling she was all too familiar with, having performed the cause of such a thing herself, as well as be around others that had. The entire place had the unusual chill of somewhere that had recently seen dark magic. What could have performed dark magic here was a mystery since Saddle Arabians couldn't do magic of any kind, so she was left with more questions and no answers.

Still, it was somewhere to begin. "I hope I can still do this," Sunset said, raising her horn and casting a spell that cast a soft glow over the area. Nothing happened at first, but slowly wisps of a dark mist started to appear, the lingering remnants of dark magic, growing in number until they started to join together. Then they started appearing along a path, showing the direction the caster came and went from, which seemed to be the same direction in this case. The only problem was that it went straight up the side of a three story building.

"That's impossible," Sunset whispered to herself as Mayfly crawled around, her nose to the ground as she followed it to wherever it was leading her. Sunset wasn't so crass as to actively mention the comparison to a dog, but that certainly didn't stop her from thinking it. "Found anything yet?"

Mayfly didn't answer, too wrapped up in what her senses were telling her. Something smelled oddly familiar now she was really smelling for it, and it was leading her over to the crates. She clambered over them, then squeaked with surprise as her face got stuck in something sticky. She tried to pull it off with her hooves, only for them to get them stuck too.

Sunset jumped up on a crate as Mayfly struggled, and pulled the changeling free with her magic, although it cost her disguise some of its facial hair. Sunset pulled some of the thick, white, sticky strands up to inspect them, but couldn't work out what they were. "Do you know what this is?" she asked Mayfly.

"Webbing," Mayfly replied shortly. "I thought something smelled a little familiar."

"So this was changelings?" Mayfly shook her head. "What then?"

"Changelings don't use webs. That's spider web."

Sunset smirked lopsided at Mayfly, "Spider webs aren't this thick."

"Depends how big the spider is."

"And how big do you think this spider was?"

Mayfly looked up the side of the building where the lingering remains of the dark mist were. "Big enough to drag a pony up the side of a building."

"That's..." Sunset released the webbing and stepped back. There was no way what Mayfly had said could be true, or so she hoped. "There has to be some other explanation."

Mayfly shrugged, uncaring of what Sunset thought. "You can think that if you want, but I know a giant spider when I walk into the web of one."

"But there's no such thing as giant spiders!"

"Tell that to the giant spider that did this."

"There's no such thing as giant spiders!"

Mayfly looked sideways at Sunset, "Then explain the giant cobweb."

"I can't!" Sunset growled in the back of her throat, trying to release the frustration she felt from how ridiculous this was. There was no way this could have been a giant spider, because there was no such thing, even if what little evidence they had would suggest so. Apart from one thing that is. "Even if it was a giant spider, what does that have to do with dark magic?"

"What do you think made the spider so big? There's no such thing as actual giant spiders. Even I know that."

Sunset blinked at Mayfly, "Uh... you just said this had to be- What? Now you're saying giant spiders aren't real? Will you make up your mind!"

"I have made up my mind. Giant spiders aren't real, but this was clearly the work of a giant spider, made that way by the dark magic you say is here, and possibly controlled by it since a spider wouldn't really come here with the intention of abducting ponies."

"And the changeling would know all about that," Sunset said, immediately cursing herself as Mayfly's expression turned hurt. "Sorry! Sorry... that was uncalled for. I didn't mean it. I'm just frustrated, and I shouldn't take it out on you. How could this be a giant magical spider? That shouldn't even be possible!"

"I can only tell you what my senses are telling me," Mayfly said sadly. She stiffened as Sunset pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry Mayfly, I didn't mean what I said. And for what it's worth, I'm not saying you're wrong, but a lot of me really, really hopes that giant magical spiders aren't a thing. I don't think this is really something we can take back to the Sultan either. I'm pretty sure he's not going to believe giant spiders did all these kidnappings."

Mayfly smiled as she gorged herself on Sunset's affections, "Perhaps we should see what Twilight has to say on it first?"

"Not yet. Let's see where the trail goes first." Sunset focused her magic, teleporting the both of them up to the top of the building. Then she put her horn to work revealing the remnants of dark magic in the area, and swore as the mist formed a trail that leapt right over the street to the building opposite. "No way..."

"A giant spider could do it," Mayfly said a little smugly.

"And I'm still really hoping for some other explanation." Sunset teleported them over the street to the next building, finding the trail leapt over a wall and out into the open desert. A quick glance at the position of the sun told her it was going in a southerly direction. "Yeah, I'm not following that out there."

"Twilight?" Mayfly asked.

Sunset nodded, "Twilight."


-0-0-0-


"Giant spiders..." Twilight said flatly, the book she had been reading floating in her magic, where it had stayed since Sunset and Mayfly had told her what they'd found.

"Giant dark magic spiders," Mayfly corrected her.

"Oh I'm sorry, I forgot the thing that makes this even more ridiculous. Giant dark magic spiders."

"I know what it sounds like," said Sunset, "and I really wish I could give you some other explanation, but between the lingering dark magic, the giant cobwebs, and climbing up the side of a building and leaping across the street while carrying a full grown pony, I have nothing else I can think of capable of doing that-"

"Except for giant dark magic spiders..."

"You don't believe us do you?"

Twilight snorted with mirth, "Can you really blame me?"

"No, I guess not," Sunset sighed. "I'm telling you though, there's literally nothing else I can think of that could do such a thing."

"How about changelings?" Trixie suggested. "They can climb walls and stuff."

"Not how changelings work," said Mayfly, a little coldly. "I do believe myself capable of telling if this was a changeling attack."

"What if they're a different kind of changeling?"

"Then are they really a changeling in that case?" said Moondancer, who still hadn't looked up from her own reading material.

"Ooh, deep."

"It's not. It's really, really not."

Twilight rolled her eyes at the both of them, then turned her attention back to Sunset. "I'm guessing you've decided to not tell the Sultan?"

"Yeah, there's no way he's ever going to believe that. I don't even really believe it myself if I'm honest. We were kind of hoping you might have some input on it."

"Mmhmm. Hey Trixie?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you ever feel you were capable of turning a spider into a huge, pony-napping freak of nature while you were into the whole 'dark magic' thing?"

"Uh... no, I don't think so. Of course that could be down to Trixie never wanting to do something so utterly horrifying as creating giant spiders."

Twilight shrugged at Sunset, "And there you have it, we know exactly as much as you do."

Sunset pursed her lips at Twilight, "I'm guessing that since you have your sarcasm dialled up to eleven, you haven't found anything about the mirror?"

"Not in the books we've found that were in a language we're capable of reading."

"What books are those? Why are you even looking in books?" Twilight flipped her book around so Sunset could see the cover. "Artefacts of Saddle Arabia," Sunset read aloud, "by B. Spectrum. Broad Spectrum? You're really reading something by that charlatan? According to him half the people of the world are uncultured savages Twilight, so I really don't think he's the best source of information."

"And the fact that I found this in the recent history section suggests he might not be far wrong," said Twilight with a faint smile. "Unfortunately this, and a few other books are all we have to go on."

"And you're hoping they might mention the mirror and what happened to it?"

Twilight grinned at Sunset, "And that's where you'd be surprised by this book. Rather than go looking for artefacts like a proper archaeologist, Broad Spectrum wrote about ones that had already been discovered and were on display in museums and suchlike. He also mentions that several items had fallen into the ownership of private collectors, the most prevalent of which happened to be-"

"The Vizier?"

"Currently yes, although I was going to say his family. According to this, there should be any number of artefacts kept at his estate, and since he went all coy about the mirror when we brought it up, I think that's good enough reason to go and have a look for it."

"I really think we should just bring it up with him," said Moondancer. "Breaking into his estate seems like such a stupid thing to do. If we tell him why we need it, I'm sure he'll be reasonable."

"He already knows why we need it," said Trixie, "and he decided to act like he knew nothing about it. The only way we're going to find it is to go looking for it ourselves, so I'm with Twilight."

"Which automatically wins any arguments," Moondancer grumbled bitterly.

"Actually, I have a different idea for now," Twilight told them. "While you were off investigating your giant spiders, and we were looking for surprisingly helpful yet trashy books, I heard some of the guards shouting, and when I went to have a look they were dragging a pony in robes through the street."

"So?" Sunset asked hesitantly.

"So she was an Equestrian pony, the only other one we've seen, which strikes me as odd seeing as how Equestria should probably have an ambassador here somewhere. Probably sent home after the whole Mareitania thing upset the Sultan so much," Twilight answered herself with a shrug. "Anyway, my point was that I highly suspect that since she's not native, and was clearly a wanted mare, she might be connected to the break-in at the Vizier's estate."

Sunset raised an eyebrow at Twilight, "And you want to go ask her some questions, even though you have no idea who she is, and if she'll even want to help us."

"Ah, well, that's where we say that since she was caught trying to steal a magical artefact, or so we hope as we'll be bluffing, we're wondering if she's involved with the ponies disappearing, and would like to ask her some questions."

"Sounds better than reading this," said Trixie. "I'm in."

"Actually you'll be staying here," Twilight told her. "Sunset and Mayfly are the ones investigating the missing ponies, so they'll be less suspect of them going to ask some questions."

"But I suspect you're going too," Trixie said flatly."

"Of course! Being a princess will probably smooth over any issues we might have. I need to get some perks out of this somewhere."


-0-0-0-


"No," the guard at the desk said plainly. "Nopony is questioning the prisoner until the Vizier has had a chance to talk with her."

"But we suspect that she may be involved with the disappearances taking place in the city. We were asked by the Sultan himself to investigate the disappearances, and you are interfering with that." Twilight smiled inwardly as she let that sink in for a second. "If you want us to go to the Sultan and tell him you're impeding our investigation, I'll just go and do that. Of course, I'm sure his authority supersedes that of the Vizier, so I'm sure we'll see her one way or another. One of those ways involves you not getting in trouble with the Sultan."

Twilight could have sang as she watched the hamster wheels start turning in the pony's head. Very few ponies had the balls to stand up to the fear that disappointing their leaders instilled. Yes the Vizier had some sway, and this did involve his property, but the Sultan was the Sultan, and tended to win arguments of authority.

"Alright, I'll give you ten minutes with the prisoner, but that is it. If she doesn't answer your questions, you'll just have to wait until after the Vizier is done with her. If she's still capable of speaking afterwards that is." The guard laughed to himself as he stood from the behind the desk, missing Twilight's face as she failed to hide her small desire to shove Swordy where the sun didn't shine.

He led them back into the hot and unpleasant cells, where more than a few ponies were being kept in poor conditions, and back to a separate room with a small flap being the only way of seeing in. The guard opened the flap and peered through, nodding to himself before unlocking the door to let them in. "Your ten minutes begins now."

Twilight, Sunset, and Mayfly hurried into the room, the door slamming shut behind them. Inside the room was a single table, with a brown pegasus slumped over it, her forehooves shackled down onto the table. Twilight gasped in surprise, as even though she couldn't see the pony's face behind her tri-toned dark grey mane, she didn't need to, to recognise her.

"Daring Do?"
> 29. Dumb times in the desert
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daring Do raised her head to see who had spoken to her. One eye was swollen shut, accompanying the smudge of blood on her muzzle from a split lip. The other though, widened in recognition. "Princess Twilight? I know I said I wanted my lawyer, but I didn't think they'd go that far."

"Actually, we're here for our own reasons," Twilight told her. "I had no idea that you'd be here, or that you'd be the one to break into the Vizier's private property to steal from him."

"You know about that? Then you have to help me! There's a mask Princess. You have to get the golden mask out of here before she comes for it! It's in the evidence locker!"

"Uh... what mask? Who's she? And why should I do that?"

"Because if she gets her hooves on it she'll unleash an army of giant spiders on the world!"

"Hah!" Mayfly laughed triumphantly. "This one told you it was giant spiders!"

"I know," Sunset said in a low, near sarcastic voice. "I'm not entirely sure being right about that is something we need to be excited about."

Mayfly sucked in a breath to argue, then released it all at once as she figured out the point Sunset was trying to make. "Oh, right. Giant spiders are probably bad."

"Exactly."

"First things first," said Twilight, "I want to know something about the Vizier's private collection."

"What? No!" Daring struggled against her bonds, "We don't have time for this!"

"We have plenty of time, actually. While you were in there, did you see a mirror? Lined with gems?"

"Uh, yes? Maybe? I think I saw a mirror in there, but it was kinda broken. There's a lot of other stuff in there too." Daring tried again to free her hooves, "Look, I will help you do anything to get that mirror if you want it, but only if you help me first!"

Twilight considered it for a moment. Having somepony that had already broken into the Vizier's collection would be useful, and having another adventure alongside Daring Do did make her feel a little giddy, even if Daring was acting horribly out of character by being so worried. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to scratch each others backs. "Alright Daring, you have my full and undivided attention."

"Great! Now you just need to break these bonds and help me get the mask-"

"Woah-woah-woah... Maybe you should explain yourself a little first."

"But there's no time!"

"I assure you there is." Twilight sat opposite Daring and crossed her legs on the table before her, indicating that she wasn't going anywhere until Daring had explained herself.

"Alright, fine. Long ago a dark wizard type pony, I forget his name, used dark magic to create a deadly army of giant spiders. He was stopped, but not before he created a golden mask that controls them, the Mask of Terrors. The ponies that stopped him took the mask and sealed the spiders up in a place out in the desert, as they couldn't easily be destroyed."

"I'm sensing a huge 'but' here," said Sunset.

"A unicorn who calls herself Arachiss broke the seal into the spiders' prison, and has taken control of some of them. But to take control of all of them she needs the mask, and once she has it she'll unleash a wave of horror on the world like you would not believe. We need to get the mask and take it somewhere safe before she can use it."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Daring, "And breaking the mask out of the secure vault it was in helped it be safer did it?"

"I got in there easily," Daring retorted, "so it really wasn't that secure. Arachiss could have broken in there and gotten the mask without even trying."

"Mmhmm. Alright then Daring, apart from the fact I have zero proof of what you're saying, I believe you. The problem is that busting you out of jail and re-stealing the mask is going to upset a lot of ponies."

"I'm pretty sure those ponies will thank us when they're not getting devoured by giant-" A loud thud cut her off as it echoed down the hallway beyond the door, followed soon after by screaming. "She's here! I told you there wasn't any time!"

"That... doesn't mean it's what you think it is." Twilight stood and walked over to the door as the screams continued. She opened it and poked her head through, seeing the large black spider at the other end of it tossing ponies around as they tried to fend it off. She quickly withdrew her head and slammed the door shut. Then she opened it again just to be sure. The spider was still there. "Well fuck. I wasn't actually expecting them to be real." She opened the door a third time just to make sure she definitely wasn't hallucinating.

"Now do you believe me?" Daring cried. "Seriously, get me out of these cuffs so we can go get that mask!"

Twilight tore the cuffs off the table with her magic, freeing Daring. "You and Mayfly can go get the mask. Sunset and I will take care of the spider."

"What?" Sunset protested straight away. "Noooo-no-no-no! I am not fighting a giant spider! Not now, not ever!"

"I'm pretty sure it's something you're going to have to get used to if this Arachiss succeeds," Twilight politely informed her. "I don't exactly want to do this either, just so you know. Now come on."

Twilight pulled open the door and marched out, her head held high as her stomach tried its best to escape through her ass. She didn't show it though, and marched stridently up to the massive arachnid, Sunset by her si-

Twilight turned to look back down the corridor, seeing Sunset still stood at the far end while Daring Do and Mayfly sneaked out to retrieve the mask. "Doing great Twilight! You occupy its attention, and I'll attack it from back here!"

"Luna fucking damn it Sunset!" Twilight grunted irritably and turned back to the spider. "You could have brought Trixie," she muttered to herself, "but noooo... you had to insist she stay behind. Idiot." She was fairly close to the spider now, which was more than twice her height at its highest point, which wasn't actually its head. It was also busy wrapping one of the guards in a cocoon, and hadn't noticed her in the slightest. 

"Hey you! With your multitudinous eyes and extraneous legs!" Twilight shouted at it, only to be ignored. "I bet your mother regretted not eating you straight out of the egg sac you ugly excuse of an Araneus Diadematus! That's right! I called you a common garden spider! What do you think of that, huh?" Evidently it wasn't much as she continued to be ignored. Twilight levelled her horn at the beast and shot at it, gouging a chunk out of its bulbous abdomen, which sent it scurrying into the corner, squealing horribly, similar to the noise Twilight made as she almost ran away.

Even though she had done it intentionally, Twilight now regretted her actions as eight beady eyes set on her, sizing her up. The spider crept back out of its corner, suddenly seeming intent on adding her to its collection of ponies. She jumped back as it lunged at her, then blasted it again, blowing through the underneath of its thorax.

Twilight grinned triumphantly, but soon lost that grin as the spider thrashed one of its limbs at her, smacking her away to crash into the hard stone wall. Twilight rolled onto her belly as she landed, shaking her head as her vision swam from the impact. She got some of her sense back just as a dark limb reached for her, and she grabbed it in her magic as she summoned Swordy, bringing the blade down on the leg and severing it easily in a spray of brownish ichor.

"Now why didn't I do that from the beginning?" Twilight swung Swordy down, severing another leg, then another, until the spider could no longer support itself and collapsed to the ground, snapping its fangs at her until she plunged Swordy down through its face and pinned it to the floor. Then she jumped back and did a little dance, her skin squirming. "Grossgrossgross! I feel like I'm never going to be clean again! And thanks for the help Sunse-" Twilight cocked her head slightly at the sight of Sunset, still down the corridor, getting wrapped up in the web of a different spider. "Oh. Shit."

Twilight tore her sword out of the spiders' body and charged down the corridor towards the spider cocooning Sunset, a near feral cry coming from her throat. She hacked three of its limbs off in one go, and dragged the cocoon containing Sunset out of the way as the spider fell, saving her from getting crushed. Twilight stabbed down, impaling the spider straight through the thorax, and holding it there until it stopped moving.

Then she released Swordy and threw up what felt to her like pure adrenaline, but really wasn't. Twilight wasn't unaccustomed to being covered in blood, which was sad enough as it was, but being covered in the blood of the giant spiders she'd slain was something else entirely. Something she could happily live with never doing again, but she'd said that about ponies once.

"H-help..."

"Hmm? Oh!" Twilight jumped up as Sunset's feeble request for aid reminded her that the amber unicorn was suffering some issues. She sliced through the webbing with her magic, pulling it aside to release the pale and tearful pony within, who clasped onto Twilight as soon as she was able to move her hooves. "Uh, I'm kinda covered in spider goo." Sunset just shook her head and squeezed tighter. "Okay then."

Twilight let Sunset have her time, and perhaps got as much use out of it as she could, because despite the calm exterior she was showing, she would've been fine with her and Sunset swapping places, and she was holding onto Sunset just as much as Sunset was holding onto her.

"I really, really, really hate spiders," Sunset whimpered after a few minutes. "I just didn't realise how much until just now. I'm sorry."

"Uh... for what?"

"That spider came straight for me, and I... I panicked, and I-I-I just... froze! I didn't do anything! I could have blasted it, or shielded myself, or just teleported away! But I didn't. I just sat there like an idiot and let it get me."

Twilight released Sunset and smiled at her, ignoring the bit of vomit she could feel on her chin. "Sunset, this is beyond fucked up. I mean, I could face down a lot of other things, but giant spiders is taking the biscuit. All the biscuits. And the milk, and is sitting in the corner giggling over its hoard. Don't sweat it." Twilight wiped her chin and yanked Swordy free, flicking the gooey blood off of him, "Of course, if you happen to remember a lot of fire spells we could use, that'd be just... that'd be just swell."

"Are we interrupting something?"

Both of them turned to see Daring Do, although Sunset quickly turned her head away as it involved looking at the spider again, which Mayfly was poking with a hoof.

"Oh hey guys!" Twilight said with forced cheerfulness. "I have good news! The spiders aren't invincible, or un-killable, or anything like that."

"And the bad news?" Daring asked hesitantly.

"Well... the fact that they exist is the bad news, mostly. Y'know, that whole unfortunate tid-bit of news. I'm questioning my sanity, and seriously considering peeling my skin off and regrowing an entirely new epidermis after touching these things."

"Uh..." Daring looked at Twilight like she'd gone insane, which, to be fair considering the situation... "Wouldn't that kill you?"

"In the short run, yes, but I think it'd be worth it." Twilight cleared her throat awkwardly as Daring continued to look at her funny, "So... did you get the mask?"

"Yep, we got it." Daring held up a golden mask that was mostly like a curved disk with a U cut out of it, which Twilight suspected was for the muzzle of the pony wearing it to fit through. There were two holes to see through, and two smaller ones up and to the sides of the actual holes. Twilight had no idea what they were for.

"Shiny," she remarked casually. "Can I try it on?"

"Oh no, not a chance." Daring carefully wrapped the mask in a piece of cloth, "If my research is correct, putting on this mask causes a transformation. Into what was a little vague, but I doubt any of us actually want to find out.

"I was kind of joking anyway. The Mask of Terrors doesn't sound like something you want to be messing around with." Twilight glanced about at the carnage around them, "Soooo... what now?"

"I was hoping that taking the mask away and keeping it safe would be enough, but between this and the ponies getting kidnapped, I don't think so. We need to take this and use it to reseal the spiders' prison."

Twilight nodded at Daring, "That sounds like an awesome plan. First though, I suggest we get some more back-up."

"From the Sultan? Are you insane? He'd just arrest me again!"

"I think we have some extenuating circumstances going on here, so you might get off with a warning, but no, I was thinking of somepony else actually." Twilight started leading them to the exit, "Trust me, if we're going to be doing this,  more back-up is better." 

Twilight pushed the large double doors open and walked out into the street, stopping sharply as a spider even bigger than the others stood there, venom dripping off its fangs that clacked together threateningly. Most significantly, although somewhat of an afterthought compared to the spider itself, was the white unicorn mare riding on its back. It didn't take very long for Twilight to notice her curved and discoloured horn, and the smoke wafting from her eyes, hinting at something she recognised all too well.

"I'm guessing you're Arachiss," Twilight said, trying to ignore Sunset as she attempted to hide in Twilight's tail. "I killed some of your pets, just so you know."

"You say that like I should care-"

"You'd be surprised at how much some people do."

"-But I have thousands more waiting to serve me, once you give me that mask."

Twilight sniggered at the pony still riding the huge threatening spider, "You really aren't the best at incentive, are you? 'Give me that mask so I can unleash my army of giant spiders to swarm across the land!'" Twilight tapped the flat of her hoof against her chin, "Hmm, no, I don't think so. That sounds horrible. How about you put that spider back where you found it, and I don't kill you?"

"Kill me? You poor deluded fo-" Arachiss yelped and ducked as a bolt of purple magic whistled past her ear.

"Warning shot," Twilight said cheerfully.

Arachiss leapt off the spider, "Attack!"

Twilight thrust Swordy forwards as the spider lunged at her, stabbing it right in the mouth before twisting the blade upwards and pulling up in a move that neatly bisected the top of the spiders' head. The spider fell to the ground, thrashing its limbs around in its death throes, forcing Twilight to teleport away a few meters before she got hit.

"Well that was easy." Twilight turned to the others, only to find them cornered, with Sunset shielding them from Arachiss' dark magic. The shield couldn't hold though, and broke forcefully, scattering those behind it and making it all too easy for Arachiss to claim the mask.

"At last it is mine!" Arachiss placed the mask on her face and held it there, which was pretty much the only thing stopping Twilight from separating her body from her head, because damaging the mask seemed like a terrible idea. She was also admittedly rather curious as to what the transformation would be like. She wasn't the only one to be disappointed as nothing happened. "Why isn't it doing anything?"

"Maybe you're in the wrong place?" said Twilight. She shrugged and brandished Swordy at the unicorn, "I guess we'll never know."

"Of course! The temple!"

"Yeah, that." Twilight pointedly cleared her throat, and tried to make the blade she was holding more obvious. "You can give that back now."

Arachiss turned to face Twilight, and Twilight suddenly suspected she should have foregone with asking nicely. Her suspicions were proven correct as a dark, vaguely spider-like blob leapt out of Arachiss' body towards her, and by the time she'd hacked at it Arachiss was gone.

"You let her get away!" Daring shouted at Twilight as she struggled to her hooves.

"There's no u in team," Twilight retorted. "I didn't exactly see you jumping in to stop her."

"I was hurt!"

"But you aren't now, which is convenient seeing as how we need to go and stop her. First though, let's go get that back-up I mentioned."

Daring leaned over towards Mayfly, "Are you sure she's not a changeling? She really doesn't seem like the Princess Twilight I met once."

Mayfly carefully considered the question, "I can assure you, she is not."


-0-0-0-


"Okay, so run this by me again," Trixie said, her eyes fixed firmly on a point in the distance as the ground flew beneath her hooves far below.

"I'm not explaining it again," Twilight growled. "I really don't get what's so difficult for you to grasp here."

"Besides the sheer insanity of what you're describing? I'm just wondering how any of this helps us with our own goal."

"Do you want the world to be flooded by giant spiders?"

"Fuck no, Trixie hates spiders. Almost burnt my caravan down once trying to kill one."

"And that's why we're doing this. That and Daring Do said she'd help us get the mirror if we helped her."

"Seems like a poor trade," Trixie muttered. "Not even seeing Moondancer's mind getting blown by meeting Daring is worth this. And when are we telling Daring Do that we killed that Auhizotl character?"

"Shush Trixie! Don't-"

"You did what?" Daring stared wide eyed at the both of them, her mouth also hanging open. "You killed Auhizotl?"

"Well yeah," Trixie said as Twilight dragged her hooves down her face and groaned. "He was trying to kill me, and wanted to eat Twilight's heart to steal her powers-"

"Which was ridiculous," Twilight added quietly.

"-And he wanted to give Sunset and Moondancer to some tribe ponies to use as..." Trixie rocked her head as she tried to think of a tamer term than 'the tribes' cum buckets.' She failed. "Well it wasn't going to be nice for them anyway. So yes, I killed him."

"But- But-" Daring threw her legs up into the air, "He was like one of my biggest nemeses'! How the hell am I supposed to explain why he never shows up in my stories again?"

Trixie theatrically tapped a hoof to her chin, "Hmm, I don't know... maybe you could make something up like any other writer would?"

"But I suck at making stuff up! All the things that happen in the books are one hundred percent real! I don't have to make things up!"

"And that's the biggest tragedy here, us interfering with your carefully written narrative of a life. Heavens forbid that stopping evil from succeeding being the bigger and more important goal."

Daring opened her mouth to retort, but closed it again as she found she had nothing to retort with. Stopping evil was the greater goal here, not pleasing her publisher. "Dammit," she grumbled. "In all the years I've been doing this I've never had to kill once. It's just... annoying to find that somepony else came along and killed one of the creatures your life revolves around."

Trixie shrugged lazily, "You must be one hell of a masochist to do everything the hard way."

"Anyway," Twilight sang, cutting into the conversation before it turned any nastier, "not to make things even harder for you Daring, but I will have to ask you to omit our involvement in this."

Daring grasped her head in her hooves and growled, "Oh sure, some other alicorn came along and helped me get out of prison before slaughtering a bunch of giant spiders! That'll look believable!"

"Actually," Moondancer said hesitantly, like she was afraid of disagreeing, "Twilight, as in a princess, helping you sounds pretty unbelievable as it is. Maybe you could say she's a unicorn, and give us all different names?"

"Or at least just change Twilight's name, and alicorn nature," Sunset suggested, not minding featuring in a Daring Do book.

"I guess?" Daring shook her head in irritation and pointed down to a crescent shaped canyon in the desert. "Down there, that's where we need to go," she said, diving towards where she pointed, leaving Twilight to carry the others down in her own time.

They landed outside a temple of some kind that had been carved into the red rock of the canyon wall. Pillars framed a large entrance, while more pillars framed the rest of it, and frescoes adorned much of the areas between. None of it seemed to involve spiders in the slightest though, prompting Twilight to ask if this was the right place.

"It is," Daring assured her as she started up the steps into the temple. She peered in through the entrance, but could discern nothing in the inky darkness beyond until Twilight lit her horn, revealing a small interior space which led to a rough hewn tunnel beyond. "I guess there's nothing for it but to go in."

"Or..." Trixie said hopefully.

"Or nothing," said Twilight. "Come on, let's just do this."

"Actually," Moondancer said nervously, "I volunteer to stay here and... protect the entrance."

"Mmhmm, and what do you intend to do if one of those giant spiders turn up?" Twilight asked.

"How big could they possibly be?"

"Big," Sunset said, her expression haunted. "Very, very big."

"Like... as big as me?"

"Bigger. A lot bigger."

"Oh." Moondancer trotted awkwardly on the spot. "Argh! Why did you even bring me here?"

"Yeah," Trixie said with a sly grin, "Why did you bring her?"

"Because I thought we should stick together, and... because she'd probably moan at me if I left her behind, again. I don't know."

"Gosh, you know her so well Twilight." Trixie kept grinning as Moondancer fumed at the both of them. "Anyway, let's get on with this, Moondancer or no Moondancer. Mayfly, you should go first."

"Me?" Mayfly asked, pointing at herself. "Why me?"

"Because you and these things are pretty much cousins, so they probably won't eat you."

"We aren't even remotely related!" Mayfly protested. "Why would you even think that?"

"Yeah," Daring asked quietly, "why would you?"

"She's a changeling," said Trixie, not even bothering to hide that fact since she assumed Daring wouldn't care. "A nice one, in case you're wondering."

"Huh, haven't met many changelings before. So, do you normally look like this? Or is that just a disguise."

"Trixie is the worst pony," Mayfly hissed, reverting to her true nature. She stared up at Daring, challenging her to do or say something, but Daring only shrugged.

"Yeah, I don't see the resemblance between her and those spiders. Now seriously, we really need to get on with this." 

Daring trotted up the stairs, Twilight close behind to provide some light, leaving the others to come at their own pace, except for Moondancer, who trotted on the spot again as she decided whether to follow or not. "I didn't agree to any of this!" she shrieked, charging in after them, following the flash of Trixie summoning her armour and assembling it upon herself.

The tunnel leading deeper into the rock was surprisingly dry, but only because most of them were expecting it to be dank and damp, even though the outside world didn't exactly encourage damp conditions, and as Twilight pointed out, spiders don't really like the wet.

For the most part though, beyond the dryness, was how clean it was at first, with just the bare rock of the tunnel around them. Slowly though, as they went deeper and deeper, the growing presence of spider webs all over the walls, containing everything from birds to rodents to even a pony skeleton, confirmed they were in the right place. There were also normal sized spiders scuttling around, but considering what else was in there, they were being largely ignored, until one dropped onto Sunset, who shrieked as loud as she could as she panicked.

"Shut up!" Twilight ordered, picking the spider off Sunset and crushing it before throwing it away. "Do you want everything in here to know where we are?"

"I don't know if I mentioned it Twilight, but I really fucking hate spiders!" Sunset's ears pricked as something made a noise up ahead, and a moment later eight eyes shone in the light from their horns as a large arachnid crawled towards. "Aww fuck," Sunset whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut.

"You really weren't kidding when you said they were big," Trixie said as she sized the bug up. A moment later her horn bubbled with of dark magic, and a spear of dark crystal burst up from the ground beneath the spider, impaling it through the middle, making it screech louder than even Sunset had. It struggled to move, tearing itself apart more and more as it fought to free itself, then suddenly stopped moving save to curl up as if it had suddenly worked out it was dead.

"See? Back-up," Twilight said, nudging Daring with a elbow.

"Did she just use dark magic?"

"Oh boy," Trixie muttered, "here we go."

"Are you really going to complain when she's helping us?" Twilight asked, narrowing her eyes slightly at Daring, who stepped away and help up a hoof in surrender.

"Not at all. I'm just not used to seeing ponies using dark magic so... helpfully."

"That's because it doesn't have to be used for evil," said Twilight. "I mean, traditionally yeah, evil, but not always. Trixie's one of the good guys, aren't you Trixie?"

Trixie held a hoof up so it was next to her head, "Filly scouts' honour!"

"I very much doubt you were a filly scout," Moondancer said flatly.

"And you'd be correct, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the principals behind it."

"I smell ponies," said Mayfly, her tiny voice cutting through the discussion. "Ponies that aren't you," she added as Trixie opened her mouth.

"How can you be sure?" Trixie asked instead.

"Have any of you recently soiled yourselves?"

"No, I don't think so. Sunset?"

Sunset blushed at the question, "Number one or number two?"

"Number two, I guess?"

"Then no."

"Then it is definitely other ponies," said Mayfly. "Some of them smell like they've been here a while. There also being a lot more than just five of them was another clue."

"It must be the kidnapped ponies," Twilight reasoned. "Can you lead us to them Mayfly?"

"Probably."

"Then lead on."

They all squeezed past the deceased spider, and let Mayfly lead the way further into the nest, the changeling occasionally stopping them to sniff the air, and to warn them about incoming threats. More than once did Trixie take inordinate pleasure in killing the spiders before they got too close, and at no point did Twilight, Sunset, or any of them think twice about her using her dark magic in this situation. They wouldn't dare in case she stopped.

Eventually Mayfly led them to a larger cavern, the sounds of groaning ponies coming from within. Twilight patted her on the back and led the way in, brightening her horn to light up most of the empty space, except for the ceiling which was much too high. 

Around the room at various points, either stuck to the walls or hanging from the curvature of the ceiling, were thick cocoons with the head of a pony sticking out of them. Some of the ponies were deceased, the cocoons having burst open, showing the remains inside that had been picked clean. The rest though were very much alive, and there was more than twenty of them.

"Dear Celestia," Sunset whispered. "We have to save them!"

"Do we have to?" Trixie whined. "That sounds like effort." She raised an eyebrow as the others, save Twilight and Mayfly, stared at her with open mouths. "That was sarcasm you heathens. Of course we should save them!"

Twilight walked up to the nearest one, a stallion that was lolling his head about, gurgling in the back of his throat. "Uh, hello? Can you hear me?" The stallion flopped his head towards here, but didn't really see her. She poked his cocoon to get his attention, and jumped back as he started screaming. "What the hell? Why are you screaming?" The stallion didn't answer, his screams becoming more pained and frantic until he started coughing up and choking on his blood. 

Not knowing what else to do, Twilight blasted him point blank in the head, ending his pain. She stepped back again, utterly speechless at what happened, watching as his blood soaked through the cocoon, which started squirming even though he was dead. A second later it burst open, spilling a chittering tide of blood-soaked baby spiders onto the ground around her hooves. "Aaahh!"

Twilight quickly scooped them up in a shield and back into the cocoon, trapping them all there. "Aaahh!" She contracted the shield then incinerated its contents, screaming all the while, just as the tiny spiders within did as they were destroyed, but their cries were answered by another from above that echoed around the cavern. "Aaahh!"

"Guess we found momma spider," Trixie said as some of the darkness above detached itself and crawled down to the ground, its bulbous body the size of a small house. "I call dibs!"

"You can fucking have it!" Twilight screamed as the others crowded around her.

Trixie grinned, confident in the fact that there was nothing she couldn't kill. Dropping into low stance, she let the energy of her dark magic flow through her, creating a single blast that would tear the massive creature in two, or so she hoped. She unleashed it, watching as the roiling bolt of energy soared towards her target.

The spider blocked the attack with a leg, costing her half of the leg in the process, but saving its life, even as its shrill screeches filled the cavern.

"Twilight! I need help!" Trixie screamed as she backed up against the shield the alicorn was using to protect the others, getting let in just in time as the spider slammed one of its remaining legs down where Trixie had been. "I may have overestimated my ability to destroy it."

"Ya think!" Twilight studied the situation, trying to think of a solution, but all she could come up with was the tried and tested method that had worked so well before; take out the legs, and the rest would follow. "Take the shield Sunset."

Twilight waited until the shield changed to the colour of Sunset's magic, then teleported upwards, taking flight and blasting the spider with her magic to get its attention away from the shield and its contents. Unfortunately it worked, and the spider turned to follow her, although it could do very little to catch her.

Twilight summoned Swordy as she flew, and stopped, waiting for the spider to stop turning. It did, and with a snap of her wings she dived towards it Swordy held above her ready as she flew beneath one of the behemoths legs near the body, swinging Swordy down, only to feel him get snatched out of her magic as the blade failed to cut all the way through the leg. It cut through enough though, and as the spider put weight on the leg it snapped off, eliciting another horrific screech from the beast.

Twilight summoned Swordy back to her side, finding the weapon to thankfully be undamaged, which was more than could be said for the spider as it backed up against the side of the room, waving two of its legs threateningly at her. She removed them, the massive limbs tumbling to the ground with bone shaking thuds. Unsure of where to go from here, Twilight tried to think of a solution, only to get beaten as a spear of black crystal was fired at the spiders' face, ending its miserable existence.

"My kill!" Trixie shouted happily.

"I really don't fucking care," Twilight said back as she drifted back to the ground, watching the spider as it curled up. "When I woke up this morning, this was not how I imagined my day would go," she said, before letting her stomach do whatever it wanted to do, which was mostly dry heave since it was still empty from last time. "How are you not terrified? You said you hate spiders!"

Trixie shrugged happily, "I don't know. They just seem silly to me being this big. I mean we just killed the mother of all spiders, so everything else seems laughable in comparison."

"You're insane."

"Also a possibility," Trixie admitted. "I'm just happy to know it's not just Equestria that has to put up with this kind of shit. Anyway, what about all these poor fuckers in those cocoons? What are we going to do about them? Barring the fact that they've been impregnated with spiders."

"No we haven't!" the nearest pony, a light green mare, shouted in heavily accented Equestrian. "That thing only laid the eggs around us! We're just food for the hatchlings!"

"Oh, well, that's less horrific than I imagined," said Trixie. "Still pretty horrific though."

"Get us out of here before they all hatch!"

"Okay, okay." Trixie stood before the cocooned pony, humming to herself as she tried to figure out how to release the mare. A moment later there was a purple flash, and the mare stumbled on her hooves next to Trixie as Twilight teleported her free. "Works for me."

"Go get Sunset and tell her to start doing the same," Twilight said as she made her way over to the next pony. "Then start figuring out how to make lots of fire."

"Can do." Trixie sauntered over to the still erect shield that Sunset had set up over herself, Moondancer, Mayfly, and Daring. She was unsurprised to see it was opaque as she tapped a hoof against it. "Spider's dead, so you can come out now."

"And how can I be sure that's true?" Sunset asked a little rattily. "How can I be sure you're not a ghost?"

"Come on Sunset, everypony knows ghosts aren't real."

"And this morning I would have believed you, but I've seen a lot of things since then!" The shield dropped and Sunset squinted at Trixie with one eye, like she was afraid of seeing something else. "Oh thank goodne-" she began, before spotting the massive body of the spider and nearly losing her own lunch.

"If you're quite done, Twilight wants you to start teleporting these ponies out of the cocoons-"

Moondancer cocked her head, looking slightly green herself. "But aren't they, you know..."

"The eggs were laid around them, not in them," Trixie told her, "although I don't blame you for thinking that, since I thought the exact same thing."

"What should the rest of us do?" asked Mayfly.

Trixie shrugged at her, "Keep an eye out for more visitors I suppose. Come on Sunset, let's get to work."

Sunset nodded and followed after Trixie, who stayed close because she felt like Sunset wanted somepony to protect her as she worked. When Twilight had brought Sunset into this, she'd been expecting somepony with a little more backbone, but given the situation, she supposed she couldn't blame Sunset for being a little put out.

"So, Trixie," Sunset asked as she focused her magic, teleporting a pony free of their cocoon. "I can't help but notice you seem particularly calm about this. Have you done this sort of thing before?"

Trixie snorted a laugh, "Fuck no! This has got to be the single most weirdest thing I have, and will ever do. I mean, really, this whole situation is literally the dumbest shit I have ever come across."

"Oh, okay. I was just, y'know, wondering." Sunset teleported a stallion free, and was about to ask Trixie something else when the stallion screamed and charged at the wall, dashing his brains out on the hard rock. "Aah! What the fuck? Why would he do that? I didn't mean for him to do that!"

"And what does that have to do with him doing it?" Trixie said, completely nonplussed by the stallions actions. "After what he's probably been through, I can't say I blame him."

"How could you possibly say that?"

Trixie shrugged, "I'd probably have killed him myself if he'd asked. For all we know he could have been asking us all along, but we couldn't understand him."

"But- But-" Sunset stared at the crumpled remains of the stallion, her stomach in her throat. "I hate all of this so much."

"And I can appreciate that," said Trixie, giving Sunset a patronising pat on the back. "But there are ponies here waiting for you to save them from getting eaten alive by hundreds of baby spiders. Perhaps it would be best to just focus on that."

Sunset rubbed a hoof back through her mane, "Right, yes. Is this some kind of soldier mentality? Focus on what you're doing rather than the horrible stuff around you?"

"I don't know. Maybe?"

"What do you mean maybe?"

Trixie smirked at Sunset, "I mean maybe in that I was usually the cause of the horrible stuff, so I was fully aware of what was happening at all times, and I turned out fine." Trixie patted Sunset on the shoulder this time, "Keep working on trying to figure me and Twilight out though."


-0-0-0-


Twilight's horn sparked, freeing the last of the ponies from their cocoons as Daring walked over to her. "I think I've discovered something to put at the top of my 'fates worse than death' list. Getting perpetually devoured by spiders, unable to properly die to escape it." Twilight shuddered, "Fucking nasty."

"I'm sure that would only happen if you can't die." Daring raised an eyebrow as Twilight gave her a look, "You're really telling me you can't die?"

"Not permanently. It's an alicorn thing. We die, we heal, we come back to life, with absolutely no choice in the matter."

"Huh, sounds kind of useful actually, apart from the bit where you mention fates worse than death." Daring cleared her throat, "Speaking of, I really think we ought to get on with stopping Arachiss, before she does whatever she does."

"Yeah, I know. Sunset?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Can you, Moondancer, and Mayfly get these ponies out of here? Just take them outside and stay there."

"And if you don't come back?"

"I don't know. Improvise!"

"Helpful. Come on guys, let's go."

Twilight watched for a moment as Sunset, with the help of the Equestrian speaking mare, ushered the ponies out of the chamber, and hopefully to freedom. She had to wait until they were gone before she could do what she planned to do next.

"Trixie?"

"Yes Twilight?" Trixie asked sweetly, having anticipated what Twilight was going to ask next.

"Burn it. All of it." Twilight focused a fire spell on the wall of the cavern that smouldered for a moment before setting fire to the webs all over them, a which quickly spread. A second later a jet of purplish flame joined it as Trixie contributed her own efforts. The fire spread up as webbing on the walls caught fire, as well as the cocoons, which started to pop and sizzle as the eggs burst in the heat.

It wasn't too long before most of the chamber was aflame, and they were forced to back out of it as the heat grew too much, as well as the amount of smoke. Twilight stopped casting the flame spell, letting the fires in the chamber do the rest of the work, and watched the flames for a moment.

"You can stop now Trixie. It's time we went to pay a visit to Arachiss."

"Sweet! I've been looking forward to this!"

Twilight was aghast, "How could you have possibly been looking forward to meeting her?"

"You said she uses dark magic right?" Trixie smirked as Twilight said she did, "Well that got me curious. If she uses dark magic she's possibly gained the attention of those things that claim to own me, and I was wondering if they'd let me kill her, or stop me somehow? It'd be nice to know if Trixie's will is truly her own."

"That's what's driving you here? Not the inherent need to stop all this crap being unleashed on the world?"

Trixie levelled a hoof, "Eh, it's kinda fifty-fifty. Come on Twilight, wouldn't you be curious if you were in my position?"

"Probably, but I wouldn't consider what you're doing a priority, now come on, it can't be that much further until we find her."


-0-0-0-


As Twilight had hoped, it wasn't too much further until they came across a large open chamber, illuminated by the light from a series of crystals. In the middle on the ground was a large pyramid with an altar at its peak, where Arachiss could be seen doing something. That something was being ignored because the rest of the cavern was rippling with the movement of hundreds upon hundreds of oversized arachnids.

"I sure as hell hope you don't expect us to kill all of them," Trixie whispered to Twilight. "We'll be here all day if you are."

"Not if I can help it." Twilight glanced around the cavern, trying to figure out a way to stop Arachiss before she finished what she was doing, and breathed an angry sigh as she couldn't think of anything. "We need to get closer."

"Okay," said Daring, pointing to a ridge of rocks below. "It doesn't look like there's any spiders that way. Come on." Daring kept low as she walked over to the ridge, the others close behind her, then followed the ridge to the pyramid until they were as close as they could get. 

From their new vantage point they could see a set of stairs climbing up the rear of the pyramid, and they crawled towards it, hoping to ascend without being noticed. It wasn't to be though, as before they were even a quarter of the way up their hooves were locked in place by a dark force that spread up around them, even blocking Twilight's and Trixie's magic.

"Tut-tut-tut, all you ponies, ever so predictable." Arachiss stepped into view at the top of the steps and smiled smugly at the three trapped ponies. "I'm guessing you were hoping to sneak up on me, grab the mask, then attempt to use it to reseal the temple?"

"Something like that," Daring muttered as she strained to free her hooves.

"And yet, even with help you failed."

"And now you're going to make us watch as you put on the mask?" Trixie said sceptically. "Force us to pay witness to your moment of triumph?"

Arachiss narrowed her eyes thoughtfully at Trixie, then used her magic to turn Trixie's head to the side as if to inspect her. "You too serve the masters?" Arachiss turned Trixie's head the other way, "No... you serve only yourself, but you have their interest at least. Unfortunate, as I do hate to disappoint them by killing you."

"And my friends?"

"What interest do you think I have in them? They are food for my army, nothing more." Arachiss waved a hoof and two of the large spiders descended from the roof on strings of silk, grabbing both Twilight and Daring and wrapping them in cocoons.

Trixie ignored their screams as best she could to glare at Arachiss, "I'm curious. Who are these so called masters?"

"Ancient creatures that transcended death itself. They are no longer with us in this world, but their influence can be seen in so many things, such as this temple, and my servants."

"Last I heard, this temple and these creatures were here long before you. You're just taking them for your own."

Arachiss smirked at Trixie, "And is that not the way of the world? The living taking the achievements of the dead and using them for their own ends? The pony that built this army is long dead, yes, but his legacy lives on to be used by me, unhindered by the likes of you."

"That depends doesn't it?" Trixie retorted with a smirk of her own. "Your masters already saved me from death once, so we'll have to see which one of us they deem the most useful." Trixie wasn't about to say that she really, really hoped it was her and not Arachiss.

"I guess we will," Arachiss hissed back, her horn coming to life with the dark magic Trixie knew so well. She pointed her horn at Trixie, and... did nothing, her magic fading, refusing to cooperate. "No..."

"Oh yes!" Trixie said gleefully as she easily lifted her hooves free of Arachiss' grip, her own horn coming to life.

"No! Masters?" Arachiss shouted up into the air. "Have I not served you well? Have I not given you every fibre of my being?" She was answered with silence, not that Trixie expected any different, and she screamed up into the air, "Masters!"

"Guess I'm the favourite!" Trixie sang, ignoring the knot of worry building in her stomach over why that might be true.

"No! Maybe this just means they wish for us to be allies instead!"

Trixie conjured a small slither of crystal, and slashed it across Arachiss' chest, creating a shallow cut that sent the mare recoiling. "Nope, I guess not. Not that it would matter anyway since I don't exactly need dark magic to kill you. I guess they know only one of us is walking away from this, and we don't need to know which one they're backing."

"No! This isn't how it ends!" Arachiss turned and sprinted back up the steps to the altar, grabbing the mask and placing it on her face. The mask shone with a dark power that spread from the mask and coiled around Arachiss, changing her body with obvious agony if her screams were to be believed.

Her tail grew in size until it started to form an abdomen, and her back legs spilt into three, lengthways, as they grew and  turned into the legs of a spider. Mandibles forced their way out of the corners of her mouth in a spray of blood, and her teeth became pointy as fangs developed rapidly. The flesh on her forehead split as two new eyes opened behind the mask, and glared balefully at Trixie.

"Now we shall sssssee who their favourite isss," she hissed in a raspy, sibilant voice.

"Nope!" Trixie fired a single crystal at Arachiss, punching through the mask and hitting her square in the forehead, right beneath the horn, splitting her head open in a spray of gore and viscera. A dark form tore itself away from the body, screaming in a voice that was felt more than heard as it faded to nothing, leaving behind the unchanged body of a pony, save for the massive chunk of her head that was missing.

"Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope!" Trixie reiterated. "There'll be no spider-ponies on my watch!"

There was a crack from above, and a spider fell to the ground with a tremendous splat. At first Trixie thought it had just died, but when a large rock followed it, she figured that the place was collapsing. Her theory was further confirmed when the pyramid trembled, almost knocking her off her hooves.

"Okay! Time to go!" Trixie didn't hold back, tearing limbs off the two spiders that had Twilight and Daring until they had no choice but to give up their prey. She didn't even bother to start unwrapping them until she'd left the cavern, which was starting to rain spiders and rocks as she left. Once she was into the tunnels she quickly tore the webbing off them and set them on their hooves without even stopping.

"What the fuck's going on Trixie?" Twilight screamed, still rather freaked out by getting wrapped up by a spider.

"Arachiss put on the mask and turned into a freaking spider-pony, so I killed her a broke the mask doing so. Then everything started to collapse."

"But the mask was indestructible!" Daring panted as they kept sprinting, following the largest tunnel towards the exit, ignoring all the others that branched off.

"Then I guess you were trying to destroy it with the wrong thing!" Trixie stopped talking, saving all her breath for running as the tunnels started to collapse behind them. Daylight showed up ahead, and they exited the temple as the last of the tunnel collapsed behind them, spitting them out in a rush of air and dust that tossed them onto the ground.

All was quiet for several seconds until Trixie started to laugh, "Could we never do this again? Adventuring like this is way too dangerous."

"There's no way in hell I could put any of this in a book," Daring sighed. "My publisher's going to be seriously pissed at me."

"We might have bigger problems," Twilight said as the dust cleared, revealing the semicircle of soldiers surrounding them. Sunset and the others were sat nearby with their forelegs behind their heads as the soldiers kept them under guard.

"No problem," said Trixie. "Do you want the two hundred on the left, or the two hundred on the right?"

"We aren't fighting our way out of this," Twilight told her. She hauled herself to her hooves and cleared her throat, spat out a glob of snot and dust, then tried again. "Sorry. Ahem. Can we help you?"

The semicircle split, allowing the Vizier to walk up to the three ponies. "I'm not sure where to even begin Princess Twilight. You aided in the escape of a criminal from custody, stole already stolen property, and caused considerable damage doing so, but you also saved some of our city guards from a terrible fate, returned even more ponies than we knew were missing to us, and, well, the bodies of those creatures you slew speak for themselves. Since you saved our country from a terrible affliction, you will be given a chance to explain yourselves to the Sultan."

"All of us?" Twilight nudged her head towards Daring Do.

"All of you," the Vizier agreed.
> 30. The distant rumble of thunder
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So you stole the mask to stop the spiders..." the Sultan said flatly, his expression slack with muted disbelief. "You never thought to simply inform us of the masks' purpose, and the connection between it, the spiders, and the disappearances?"

"Of course I thought about it," Daring Do replied, a slither of frustration sneaking into her words, "but who would have believed me? I barely wanted to believe it when I found out! Giant spiders? So few ponies know about their existence that they're not even a myth. This whole thing literally turned up out of the blue! Did you know what was contained behind that temple?"

"That temple has been there for millennia," the Vizier Hakim said. "None of us had any reason to believe an army of giant spiders was lurking behind its benign façade."

Daring pointed an accusing hoof at the Vizier, "So you're basically admitting that you wouldn't believe me!"

"Ahem." Twilight forced Daring's hoof back to the ground and smiled politely at the Vizier and Sultan. "You can't deny that what happened was unusual, but we're focussing on the wrong thing here. Thanks to Daring informing us of the threat, we were able to stop it before it spun out of control and return a large number of your ponies to you. Not all of them unfortunately, but more than you knew was missing. Perhaps in light of this you could afford to be lenient? Her intentions were good after all."

"She is still a thief!" the Vizier protested, looking at his Sultan for support.

"She helped to save your country from a terrible fate," Twilight retorted. "Frankly I'm wondering why you're treating her like a criminal."

The Vizier narrowed his eyes at Twilight, "Let us not forget you and your friends' part in all this. Not only did you assist this criminal in reclaiming stolen property, but you enabled her to by breaking her out of custody!"

"We're also the reason you're not currently getting eaten alive," Trixie pointed out from behind Twilight. "Maybe you should think about that."

"Or maybe we should think on your desire to kill our soldiers to escape your predicament!"

"I was joking!"

"Enough!" the Sultan shouted over all of them. "You Hakim, will remember your place, and you Princess, rein in your companions." Batal waited until all of them had gone quiet before speaking again. "Daring Do, your actions, while beneficial, weren't intended as such. By your own words you intended to take the mask away for safe keeping, leaving us with an army of giant spiders in our lands, and no means to return them to whence they came. You simply intended to steal it."

"She was trying to help!" Twilight started, only to get spoken over by the Sultan.

"However," he continued, "your actions past that prove you acted without malice, and aimed to help us, even if through underhooved means. You have my thanks Daring Do."

"Uh, you're welcome," Daring replied, a bit stunned by the turn of events.

"And Princess Twilight." Twilight looked up as the Sultan said her name. "You and your companions have our thanks as well, for doing what we likely could not have done our self. Unfortunately, that cannot be the end of it." Twilight's stomach sank at that. "The laws of Saddle Arabia are sacred and cannot be ignored, even by me."

"What do you intend then?" Twilight asked evenly, denying herself her desire to curse, or at least sound sarcastic.

"Even with her actions, Daring Do broke many of our laws, and for that she will be deported from our country. Your own transgressions are unfortunate, but can be perhaps overlooked in lieu of your service to Saddle Arabia, and that you never intended to break our laws, while Daring Do did."

"But she saved your country."

"I know," the Sultan said sadly. "You enabled her to. If she hadn't been caught and met you, she'd be on her way to prison."

Trixie rolled her eyes, "And you'd be swarmed with spiders."

"I realise that as well, which is why I will keep her detained in comfort here until you are ready to leave yourself, and she may accompany you on your own journey past here."

"But Sire! She stole my property! Property I won't be getting back because they destroyed it!"

"Silence Hakim." Batal gave Twilight a small smile, "I realise this may seem harsh seeing as how you saved us all, but I'm afraid the law remains the law. In spite of them though, I'm allowing Daring to leave with you and our thanks."

Twilight sighed and nodded, giving Daring a minimal shrug. "We understand, and thank you for your leniency." Twilight stood quietly as a pair of guards led Daring away. "What about us?"


-0-0-0-


All of them blinked in the fresh sun of the morning, freshly risen by whoever had done it, which was still too early by Sunset's reckoning. The rest of them ignored her though as they made their way down the marble stairs of the Sultan's palace, having been giving a token of thanks, and an unspoken desire to have them out of the Sultan's mane.

"What a pair of cunt-monkeys," Trixie remarked as they exited the palace grounds. "We save their Luna damned country for a pat on the back, and we're still no closer to locating the mirror, and are probably further from it now that Daring can't help us."

"We should count ourselves lucky to not be getting deported as well," said Twilight. "If we hadn't saved the day we still broke the law busting Daring out."

"But we did save the day!" Trixie whined. "And it was a lot harder work than the reward of not getting kicked out of Saddle Arabia required. They owe us big time."

"Which is why you should have brought up the mirror," Moondancer grumbled.

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Considering the lengths the Vizier was willing to go to get that mask back, and was furious we destroyed it, I very much doubt he'd even admit to having it, let alone give it to us."

"But he might have!"

"Or he'd deny it and step the security on his estate up even more than he must have after Daring broke in. The existence of whom you took very well by the way."

"At this point I wouldn't even be the slightest bit surprised if the Pony of Shadows turned out to be real," Moondancer said dismissively. "Anyway, that's all irrelevant in the face that we're back to not knowing what to do."

"I know exactly what we're going to do," Twilight said evenly. "We're going to-"

"Steal the mirror," Trixie, Mayfly, and Sunset all said together.

"And how do you intend on doing that without getting caught and causing a huge diplomatic problem?" Moondancer asked.

"We have four capable unicorns and a changeling," said Trixie. "I'm pretty sure we'll be fine."

"You're all insane," Moondancer said quietly. "You'll have to excuse me if I don't immediately think this is going to work out perfectly."

Twilight shrugged at Moondancer, "I'm not saying it will, but we need that mirror, so we have to do this."

"I'm still saying that we could just ask the Vizier again." Moondancer pouted a little at the looks the others gave her, "Or not, because that might actually be sensible, and we don't have time for that. I can't believe you agree with them Sunset."

Sunset smiled apologetically at Moondancer, "I hate to say it, but if we ask and he denies having it, we'll have just made it harder for us to get it. So yeah, I think doing this might actually be the best idea."

"As morally reprehensible as a certain purple princess might have once found that," Trixie said, teasing Twilight.

Twilight glanced back at her wings, then cast the spell to hide them. "That purple princess is currently living in a retirement home with a certain blue showpony, so I don't think we need to worry about what they might think. "Twilight frowned to herself, hunting for a trace of feeling on that, but it just wasn't there.

"And how are we doing this?" Sunset asked, pulling Twilight out of her thoughts.

"First we need to find the Vizier's private estate. Then we need to scout it out and find out what guards are there, what patrols they use, and all that. Then we need to locate the vault, before finally putting all that knowledge to use and breaking in and getting the mirror before running like hell."

Trixie nudged Twilight, "Fleur would be so proud."

"I could take that several ways, but I'll take it as the compliment it was probably intended as." Twilight looked up at the sky, trying to work the time out, but if the sun was rising early it was pretty hard to tell. At the very least she could hope that it was early enough to go scout out the Vizier's estate before ponies started waking up. "Okay, you guys head back to our room, I'm going to go find the estate and have a look around."

"Try not to get caught," said Trixie. "I think having to bust you out of jail will definitely get us into trouble."


-0-0-0-


The estate was to the east of the city, outside it by maybe half a mile. Or at least Twilight hoped it was, as she was looking completely at the wrong place if it wasn't. There weren't any other private estates that she could see, and the security presence at least made it seem like it might be the right place.

Twilight hovered in the air at a distance, hoping she wouldn't be spotted, or would at least be mistaken for a large bird if she was. In a country with no native pegasi she hoped that they would just assume she was a bird and move on. She figured she'd better not spend too much time in the air just in case.

Still, in what time she had she could tell that the Vizier had made himself a small fortress, albeit a fairly luxurious one. A large mansion sat at the rear of a large walled square with a small minaret at each corner that doubled as a guard tower, while the rest of it was made up of a garden, and an interesting one at that. The water gardens at the palace had been almost exclusively native with its flora and fauna, while the Vizier favoured a large number of non-native species. Likely because they were rare here, and therefore collectable. While not particularly important, it did at least mean there were a lot of plants to hide amongst.

Twilight turned her attention to the security detail, trying to figure out how large it might be before committing to working out their patrol routes and finding any exploitable holes. The garden alone sported ten guards, with another half a dozen on the wall and guard towers, and she had no way of working out how many guards there might be inside. Other than that there wasn't much to say, not without spending a lot more time watching, and the longer she did that, the less she liked what she saw.

Whoever had planned the patrol routes was clever enough to have them so that there was always at least two pairs patrolling the garden at all times, and even without those there were plenty more watching from a distance. Yes you could hide in the bushes, but how long you could do that for without getting spotted was debatable. Twilight was starting to think that if she wasn't trying to divert a serious diplomatic incident by being a princess, she'd simply do this the hard way and attack directly.

"Luna fucking damn it," she groaned. She wasn't mentally equipped for this kind of thing, and she knew it. Stealth and subtlety were things ponies better than her did, while she knew full well she could beat most things through sheer power and tenacity. You tended to ignore subtlety when you could do that.

"If only invisibility spells worked when you moved. Okay, so..." Twilight stopped as she saw something flit between bushes in the garden below, something purple. A moment later it moved again as a pair of guards turned and put their backs to whatever it was. "Huh, interesting."

She kept watching, hoping to see what it was, but the distance was too great, so, finding a reasonably empty spot she teleported down, hiding herself amongst some plants and keeping an eye out for whatever, or whoever, was sneaking around.

She got her chance a minute later as the intruder moved again, and Twilight was surprised to see it was an Equestrian pony, dark purple with a mohawk of bright magenta hair. She was also wearing dark coloured armour that seemed a bit on the thin side to Twilight, but was probably practical enough. It was also adorned with a blue Y-shaped symbol where her cutie mark should be, but Twilight didn't recognise it.

"I wonder what she's doing here? Oh shit, is she here to steal something too?" Twilight wasn't sure what to do if she was. Try to follow her in and get what she wanted? It risked issues if she got caught, but there was another issue where security got even tighter after a second theft from here, and Twilight was struggling as it was with how to get in here undetected.
There was the third option of asking the pony if she minded Twilight tagging along, but Twilight thought that would be highly unlikely as no decent thief would want to do that in her opinion. 

Twilight was seriously considering that, when the pony pulled a notepad out of her armour and wrote something down using a pencil in her mouth. Twilight frowned, trying to work out what was happening, and unable to think of anything other than the pony was trying to do the same thing as herself and plan a route in. Twilight thought that if she wasn't breaking in right now, the pony might be more amenable to getting approached.

Twilight quickly scanned around, seeing nopony nearby watching where she was, and where the pony was, giving her a chance to do this without getting spotted. Twilight teleported, appearing right next to the pony, and had a split second to raise a shield as the pony turned to her, firing erratic bolts of lightning from the shattered stump of her horn, that squealed loudly over the surface of her shield.

"Stop!" Twilight shouted. "I'm not here to hurt you!" She blinked at the jagged stump of the horn, "How are you even doing that?"

The pony opened her mouth to shout, her teeth showing in a snarl, when shouts in saddlan started echoing around, their violent meeting having been heard. The pony's face quickly morphed from anger to worry, "You have got to be kidding me..."

"I'm sorry! I wasn't expecting you to attack me! Hold on." Before the other pony could object, Twilight teleported, taking the both of them away from the estate and towards the outskirts of the city where they wouldn't get caught. Before her magic had even properly settled Twilight found herself getting kicked sideways into the dirt and pinned down by the irate pony as her horn crackled and popped with energy.

"Do you have any idea what you've done? Who are you anyway? Why did you approach me in there?"

Twilight teleported herself out of the grapple, and brushed the dust off herself. "My name is Twilight, and I'm sorry that happened, but I wasn't expecting you to attack me. How did you attack me anyway? You shouldn't be able to do that!"

"Really? You're telling me what I can and can't do?"

"Uh..." Twilight cleared her throat with embarrassment, "Sorry. I was actually hoping to ask you if you were planning to break into that place, and if I could possibly come with you?"

The pony straightened up, seeming more confused than angry now. "You did that in the hopes I would help you? And you expected that to work?"

"Yes, I did," Twilight lied. "If we both want to get in there, we stand a better chance working together."

"Because so far you've made it so very clear that working with you would be beneficial..." The pony shook her head, "Look, even if I was tempted to consider it, I want to know what you're after, just so I know it doesn't conflict with my own interests."

"My friends and I are after a mirror that was part of a teleport network Starswirl the Bearded once used. If that's what you're after I would recommend us working together as having us help you with it would benefit you."

"Actually I'm looking for something else altogether, so no, I have no interest in helping you, or letting you hinder me further. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a scouting mission to start over with."

"Wait, look- What's your name? If you don't mind me asking?"

The pony stared down at Twilight, her nose raised imperiously in the air as she considered whether to share her name or not. "My name, is Tempest Shadow," she said after a moment.

Twilight shrugged internally at the name, which seemed a touch too villainous to her to be the pony's original name. Who really names their child like that? "Alright, Tempest, I'm serious about working together. This is a secure vault you're breaking into, and it's not something you can do easily on your own." Or it could be as Twilight was lying through her teeth, making it seem like she knew more than she did. Daring Do got in there without magic, so it couldn't really have been that hard. "This place has state of the art security, and you'll need help to get past all that."

"And what kind of help are you offering in that regard?" Tempest asked, sounding genuinely curious. "Hmm?"

"Myself, and two of my friends, are accomplished spell-casters, which will be useful to get through the security. Security that you can't brute force your way through. If you can get us into the building, we'll get you into the vault."

Tempest looked like she was about to refuse, but she didn't. Instead she just stayed quiet as she thought about it. "I want to meet these... friends of yours."

"You'll mean you'll help us?"

"I'm considering it. Honestly, I have no interest in helping you, but if you're right about the security in that place it might be worth it if you're as good as you claim to be. Of course, the fact that you can teleport so easily is all I have to base that on, so you better not be lying to me."


-0-0-0-


Tempest glared at Twilight's friends with unconcealed disdain as she was informed of their names, not very impressed with what she could see. Two of them were rather bookish, one more obviously than the other, two of them had occasional issues with pronouns, and one of those, the blue unicorn, met her glare for glare. Tempest would have objected to that, violently, but a little voice in the back of her head told her that she might not actually win that fight, so she let it slide.

"So these are your... friends?" she said, like the word was unworthy of being said by her.

"Friends might be a bit strong of a word for all of us," said Moondancer. "Perhaps acquaintances would be more apt."

"And here I thought you'd all be claiming to be 'b-f-f's.' Interesting, but not so much that I actually care." Tempest turned back to Twilight, maintaining her air of disdain, "So whom among these would be your accomplished spell-casters?"

"That'd be Sunset and Trixie," Twilight said, pointing at the ponies those names belonged to. 

"Mmhmm," Tempest hummed, taking note of the way Moondancer narrowed her eyes as Twilight failed to say her. "I'm afraid you're going to have to pick one of them then, as I'm only going to bring two of you with me at most, and that's me taking it on massive faith that these ponies are actually as good as you claim they are."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the little smirk Tempest gave her. Clearly the mare derived amusement from having to make her pick. Too bad for her she was going to be disappointed. "I'll leave it to you guys, depending on who wants to come or not."

"Nah, I'm good," Sunset said quickly. "I won't be as much use as Trixie if you get caught."

"And once again Trixie's talents shine through." Trixie grinned at Twilight, "Almost thought you were rid of me, didn't you?"

"And I was so close I could taste it." Twilight rolled her eyes at Trixie, then looked up at Tempest, "I guess we've decided."

"Good. Meet me just south of the Vizier's estate as soon as the sun sets, and we'll get started. Don't be late because I won't be waiting for you if you are."

Twilight held up a hoof to stop Tempest as she started to leave, "Aren't you going to tell us the plan?" 

"I've had to change the plan a little, but don't worry, you'll know it when you see it. However, I will have to tell those of you not coming with us to stay here, just to be safe." Tempest left, leaving Twilight to grimace as she could feel the others staring at her.

"Who the fuck was that, and where the fuck did you find her?" Trixie asked as soon as she thought Tempest was out of hearing range.

"I found her in the Vizier's estate while I was doing my fly over, and when I tried to talk to her she attacked me and alerted the guards, so I had to teleport us out. Then I offered her our help getting into the Vizier's private collection if she could sneak us in."

"Even though we have no idea what's in there ourselves," Moondancer pointed out.

"So I might have embellished the truth about what's down there a little. I know it can't be that bad if Daring Do could do it on her own. Look, she was sneaking around, and doing it well, so if she can get us in without getting caught and causing a huge diplomatic incident, all the better for us."

"We have a changeling!" Moondancer shouted in exasperation, pointing a hoof sideways at Mayfly. "A literal master of infiltration! Why the hell are we relying on some mare that you found sneaking around the Vizier's back yard?"

"Because..." Twilight waved her hooves around as she tried to formulate an answer. "I don't know, alright? I thought that since we had common goals that maybe we could work together. I'm sorry if that was the wrong thing to do."

"So you ruined her attempt to sneak in, to offer help to sneak in," Trixie said unsurely. "Masterful plan there Twilight. Still, if it gets us the mirror and keeps us out of the papers, maybe this could be a good idea... once you tell me why we're relying on a magicless unicorn to do this?"

"She's not magicless," said Twilight.

"She has a broken horn."

"I know what she has, but when I found her she attacked me with magic, like she pretty much forced the raw magic out of her horn in a crude but powerful bolt of lightning."

"That's impossible," said Sunset, Moondancer nodding in agreement.

"I know it should be, but I also know what I saw. If I hadn't shielded myself I'd be wearing the evidence all over my horribly burned body. She can use magic, but not very well."

Trixie nodded thoughtfully, "So not in any way that actually helps us sneak in then."

Twilight growled under her breath at the interrogation she was getting over enlisting this unicorn for help. "Okay, I don't know what's going on here, but she is probably our best chance to get the mirror, and once we have it we can part ways as unlikely friends and all that. She's not after the mirror herself, doesn't work for Faust, and isn't directly connected to Equestria beyond probably coming from there, so if she gets caught without us, we should be okay. Can you please trust me when I say this is the best plan we have right now?"

"Sure," Trixie said easily, while the others nodded as well after a few seconds. "I will however, be reserving to the right to say I told you so when she suddenly betrays us."

"I don't think she will," Twilight said confidently. "Tempest might seem a little cold, but I have a good feeling about her."

"Yeah, well, let's just see this plan of hers before we decide what kind of pony she is."


-0-0-0-


A long and fairly productive day passed, having been spent preparing for the journey past Saddle Arabia, whether that was to Starswirl's retreat or elsewhere, depending on their luck tonight.

Night soon came though, and Twilight and Trixie made their way out to the Vizier's estate to wait where Tempest had indicated, watching the last vestiges of the sun as it slowly slipped below the horizon.

"So where is this pony we're waiting for?"

"I don't know, let me just check the tracking spell I put on her."

"You actually did that?"

"That was a joke Trixie."

"You didn't make it sound like a joke." Trixie grumbled to herself and looked away, noticing some clouds growing on the horizon. "Late to her own meeting. Quality help you've found us Twilight."

"You know you're just inviting her to sneak up on us when you say things like that?"

"Of course I do! How else would she possibly hear us bad-mouthing her?"

"Us? I'm pretty sure you mean you."

"Pfft, details. I still think you're making a mistake trusting this pony. You don't even know anything about her!"

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Trixie, "Who said anything about trusting her? Our goals are similar, so we're working together-"

"Which requires some trust on some level," Trixie pointed out. "Even if it's just enough to not screw each other over at some point."

Twilight said nothing, not wanting to validate or argue with Trixie's concerns. What she did do though, was grow a small but mischievous grin as she spotted Tempest calmly walking up behind Trixie. "Anything else you want to say?"

"Now you mention it, yes. How does she get her mane to do that? She must have so much product in there that her mane would probably echo if you smacked it."

"Actually, this is all natural," Tempest said, making Trixie squeal in surprise. "I didn't realise my mane was of such interest to you?"

Trixie eyed Tempest, then shrugged. "You were late, and we had to talk about something. Also, thank you Twilight, for letting her sneak up behind me."

"You're welcome, as always." Twilight grinned playfully as Trixie stuck her tongue out, then turned her attention back to Tempest. "I don't suppose you could tell us the plan now?"

"Wait a couple of minutes, and you'll see it for yourself."

"Why can't we ever meet a straight talking pony?" Trixie whined under her breath, but otherwise stayed quiet as they waited. She noticed Tempest was watching the clouds she'd spotted before, and couldn't hold back her derisive snort. "I'm sorry, is the plan to wait for it to rain?"

"Of sorts."

Trixie threw her hooves up, "Argh! Just tell us the fucking plan!"

"Is she normally this impatient?" Tempest asked Twilight.

"You have no idea." 

Tempest shrugged at the answer. "So, I'm curious, what is it you need this mirror for?"

"It leads to a place that we hope will contain the knowledge we need to defeat Faust," said Twilight.

"Faust? Who's Faust?"

"Really?" Trixie snickered. "You have no idea who the ancient goddess of an alicorn who's currently attacking Equestria with an army of mind controlled fanatics is?"

"We don't get a lot of news from Equestria down south, so no, I have no idea who that is." Tempest went quiet from a moment, her expression changing as she thought. "Is Equestria actually fighting back?"

"As well as they can," said Twilight. "It's not a fight we can really win without stopping Faust, which is why getting this mirror is so important."

"How bad is it?"

"We don't know," Twilight admitted. "We only found out the war had begun yesterday after seeing it in the papers."

"I didn't even think Equestria had an army."

"Until a couple of months ago it didn't."

"But now," Trixie interrupted, "now we have a few thousand idiots to send charging at a few thousand of their idiots in a orgy of violence with all the blood, guts, and screaming you could possibly want. It's just a big ole murder party."

Tempest raised an eyebrow at Trixie, "You sound like you have experience with that."

"If only you knew. You're looking at two of the idiots that inadvertently gave Faust a ready made army to attack Equestria with."

Twilight was about to say something to stop Trixie, but shut her mouth with a click as the clouds started racing closer. Moments later a horn blared and a quartet of airships broke out of the clouds, each bearing the same symbol as the one on Tempest's armour. "What's this?"

"This is our distraction," Tempest replied as large bipedal creatures started dropping from the ships, covered in thick armour and carrying weapons.

"Are you insane?" Twilight gasped. "You're really attacking the city just to break into this place? Nopony needed to die for us to do this! Our friends are still in the city!"

"And nopony will die," Tempest stated. "The Storm King doesn't kill unless absolutely necessary. As for your friends, if they stay put they'll be fine. I marked the building so my troops will leave it alone."

"Why doesn't this 'Storm King' kill?" asked Trixie.

"Kill someone, and you can only rob them once. Spare them, and you can rob them again the next year." Tempest turned to look at the estate, where the guards were stood on the wall watching what was happening in the city. "Hmm... they were supposed to attack here as well. Damn it Grubber, you worthless slug."

"So now what?" Trixie asked, giving Twilight a long, cool stare.

"Now we do things the way I was originally going to do them. Come along ladies, let's go sneaking."

As they followed Tempest, Twilight didn't even need to see Trixie to know the way she was looking at her. "I'm so glad we're sticking with this plan. This is a good plan. You should be proud of yourself Twilight, because there's no topping this one."


-0-0-0-


Sunset peeked fearfully out of the window, watching the hulking bipeds down below as they trashed the city, taking whatever they wanted as the city guard failed to do anything meaningful to stop them. The creatures were simply too large and powerful, beating the guards senseless before they could even attempt to fight back.

"Does Twilight even know what she's done?" Moondancer snarled, pacing back and forth behind Sunset as Mayfly sat quietly nearby. "Those... beasts, are wearing the same symbol as that pony she brought here was!"

"There was no way she could have known about this," Sunset said, partly to reassure herself because she wasn't entirely sure whether Twilight knew or not. She really hoped Twilight didn't, because the alternative was far too messed up to want to consider. 

"They're not killing ponies," said Mayfly. "Maybe it's not as bad as it looks."

"Hah!" Moondancer laughed nastily. "Right, and why do you think that is?"

"Why does it matter? Living ponies can rebuild. Dead ponies can't."

"Yep, and those living ponies get more stuff, then these guys come back and steal it all again! It's a beautiful cycle of... something!" Moondancer stopped as a mare started screaming from the street below. "That better not be what I think it is," she muttered, heading over to the window next to Sunset.

"They're capturing ponies," Sunset murmured as a trio of Saddle Arabians, two mares and a stallion, were forced into some kind of muzzle covering bridle and heavy iron collars by the hulking soldiers, before being dragged away, kicking and screaming.

"Oooooh, is that why they're not killing anypony? So they can enslave them instead? My goodness, why didn't I think of that?" Moondancer grabbed Sunset's shoulders, "Come on, we need to do something!"

"Like what?"

"I don't know! Something! Anything!"

While Sunset was surprised at Moondancer's willingness to do something, she knew there was nothing they could really do. "We wouldn't stand a chance against those things, and the two ponies that could, aren't here."

"And what if the Sultan comes begging for our help, what then? 'Sorry, Twilight and Trixie are out right now. Please don't connect that to the Vizier getting robbed again.'" Moondancer slammed her hooves on the windowsill and turned back into the room. "We could've just asked about the mirror. We didn't even need to keep it! This has all been so... so... fucking stupid it hurts!"

"Maybe we should count ourselves lucky they're leaving this place alone," said Mayfly. "I could hide, but you two might not do so well."

"And who's to say that they won't attack here eventually? We should- We should-" Moondancer sighed, finally admitting to how hopeless it would be to try and fight back. They were lucky the place they were staying was being left alone, and they all knew it.

"Oh shit!" Sunset cursed. "They're attacking the palace!"

Moondancer snorted at Sunset, "You mean where all the best stuff is?"

"Moondancer! If they kill or capture the Sultan, do you have any idea what that would do? Saddle Arabia would be in chaos!"

"And? You said it yourself Sunset, there's nothing we can do about this. We're just three litt- two little ponies and a changeling, and we're way out of our depth. All we can do is look after ourselves, and hope the Sultan hides somewhere."


-0-0-0-


Progress had been quick sneaking into the estate with the guards busy watching the events unfolding in the city. It got even quicker as half of them left when they saw the palace get attacked, even though Tempest insisted that wasn't supposed to happen. There were still plenty of guards left though, even if they were distracted.

"Like taking candy off a foal," Tempest remarked as they crept through the shadows to the side entrance of the mansion.

"Last time I checked," Trixie sneered, "taking candy off foals didn't require an army."

"Depends on the size of the foal," Tempest said back. "Now shush." Tempest pressed a hoof against the handle of the door and pushed down, but nothing happened, suggesting it was locked. "Alright accomplished spell-casters, time to show me what you got." A pink glow surrounded the lock for a moment, then it clicked open. "Okay then," Tempest said, trying to not sound very impressed, "not bad."

Trying the door again, it swung open with the barest hint of a creak, letting them into what seemed to be a kitchen. Tempest signalled for the others to stop, then entered on her own. A moment later there was a strangled squawk and a loud thump, before Tempest spoke. "Okay, it's clear."

"Oh my, the cook," Trixie deadpanned as she saw a mare unconscious on the floor. "Such a threat to us."

"You're the ones that don't want anypony to see you in here," Tempest snapped back, getting tired of Trixie's attitude towards her. "Excuse me for actually doing what you want when I could've done all this without you!"

Twilight stopped Trixie, knowing there was a retort coming. She wasn't exactly pleased with Tempest's method of distraction, but since they were all here it wouldn't kill them to actually do what they came to do first. "Lead on Tempest."

Tempest glared at Trixie for a moment, then pushed open the door at the other side of the kitchen, which led into a large dining room that was thankfully empty. "I don't suppose either of you has a spell that will lead us to where we need to go?"

"Only if I know where it is we're going," Twilight said apologetically. "I'd say it's probably downstairs though, if not underground."

"How could you possibly know how good the security is if you've never been here... before..." Tempest's eyes went half lidded as she worked it out, "You lied to me, didn't you?"

"Fortune favours the bold," Trixie said cheerfully as Twilight wilted under Tempest's gaze.

"In my defence, it might have some serious security, so you might still need us."

Tempest rolled her eyes and gestured with her head for them to keep following her. Beyond the dining room was several other doors that lead to various rooms that at the very least looked nice, even if they weren't what they were looking for, not until they came to the end of the hallway to a large staircase. Around it were various items and trinkets in display cases, but nothing like what they were looking for.

"This stuff would all be for the taking if Grubber hadn't messed up," Tempest grumbled, before spotting a door to each side of the stairs. She pushed it open, finding beyond it a small, white, well lit gallery of sorts, filled with empty display cases, heavier than the ones in the previous room. Most telling that they were in the right place was that one of them was broken.

"They're empty," Tempest said blankly. "Why are they empty?"

"This place was broken into a couple of nights ago," Twilight explained. "They probably moved everything here into somewhere a bit more secure.

"But they were meant to be here." Tempest's horn crackled with energy for a moment before settling back down. Twilight looked sideways at Trixie to see her gawping with surprise at Tempest. "They can't be too far away."

"If I were to guess, I'd say they were in some kind of vault," said Twilight. "Maybe through there," she added, pointing to a door at the far end of the room. She teleported over to it and peeked through, finding a set of stairs that went down below ground level. At the bottom it opened out into a small area, with a large steel vault occupying one end of the room. "Bingo. Now we just need to get in."

"And how do you intend to do that?" Tempest asked.

Twilight stared up at the large, circular steel door, with its big strong lock, and gave the only answer she could think of. "With science!"

"This should be good," Trixie snickered.

"There should pins inside the door... three of them judging by the mechanism. Two at the top and bottom, and one at the side. So, all we need to do is bust the lock and turn the wheel, and it should open."

"And how do you intend to do that?" Tempest enquired politely. "Last I checked, metal wasn't the easiest thing to bust with magic."

"As I said, science." Twilight summoned Swordy and inserted his tip into the lock. Using the least utilised of the runes she had engraved him with, she started channelling intense cold down the blade and into the lock.

"We're waiting," Trixie sang.

"And you can keep waiting," Twilight sang back. After a minute frost started forming around the lock, getting thicker and thicker the colder it got. Another minute after that Twilight withdrew Swordy and dismissed him, then planted a tiny crystal inside the lock before gesturing at the others to move back.

"Good job this vault door is pretty primitive," Twilight said, pumping her magic into the crystal, increasing it in size. She struggled as it reached the confines of the lock, but she kept going, and eventually the cold, brittle steel gave in to the pressure coming from within, popping the lock open in a spray of metal and crystal shards.

With the lock mostly gone, it was easy enough to pull the pin locking the wheel, and even easier to spin the wheel to open the door, although pulling it open was a good deal harder than it needed to be, even with alicorn strength. 

"Tada!"

"Well done," Tempest purred, stepping into the vault and breathing deeply. "Now where are you?" she asked, finding everything was in its own protective drawer within the vault.

Trixie immediately ran over to the widest drawers, pulling them open one by one until she found the one she wanted. She pulled the mirror out and held it up for Twilight to see. "Pay dirt!"

"There it is! It's all there!" Twilight gasped. Apart from a large crack stretching from the top right of the mirror to the bottom left, all the mirror was whole. Wooden frame, the gems lining it, all of it was there and perfectly preserved. All they had to do was repair it. "I can't believe it."

"Faust better watch out now, because we've got us a mother-fucking mirror!"

"Hopefully now we can end this war before it gets too much worse." Twilight stroked a hoof down the mirror, a genuine smile creeping onto her face.

"Rrr! Where is it?" Tempest growled, searching through drawer after drawer. "It has to be here! I know it is!"

"What are you looking for?" asked Twilight, ready to offer her help. She was ignored though as an increasingly frantic Tempest kept tearing through the Vizier's collection. "Tempest?"

"Yes!" Tempest suddenly shouted, pulling a large blue coloured staff out of a drawer. It had a two pronged claw at the end, and a large gem set between them. "Finally!"

"What is that?" Twilight asked Tempest, not recognising the staff in the slightest.

Tempest turned to Twilight and grinned, "This... this is the Staff of Sacanas. With it I shall finally get my horn back, and show the world just what I'm really capable of."

"Uh, shouldn't your horn just grow back anyway?" said Trixie. "Without the help of a big magical stick?"

"Not mine," Tempest said darkly.

"Really?" Twilight twisted her head to study the remains of Tempest's horn, ignoring the scar over Tempest's right eye that creased as she narrowed her eyes at Twilight. "Y'know, I've invented a h-" Twilight twitched her ears as she was interrupted by shouts from upstairs, "Shit! Guards! They can't tell anypony we were here!"

"Can't you just amnesia them?" said Trixie.

"Not when they can fight back." Twilight summoned Swordy again, "I guess there's nothing for it."

"No need for that," Tempest said smoothly, pushing Swordy aside with an armoured hoof, missing the nick that was cut into the shoe just by touching the blade. "I don't care if they see me, so I'll take care of it. Hold this," she added passing the staff to Twilight.

Twilight took the staff in her magic, but dropped it into her hooves after a moment because it felt like the staff was trying to suck the magic out of her. "What is this thing?" she asked out loud as she turned it in her hooves. Whatever it really was, she was getting a bad feeling about it. Still, it wasn't her problem, so she decided to not worry about it.

"I wonder what she's doing up there?" Trixie said as she looked up the stairs. There were still shouts coming from the ponies up there, but they seemed rather more frantic and pained compared to the ones from before. "Screw it, I'm going to have a look."

"Wait!" Twilight propped the staff next to the mirror and scurried up the stairs after Trixie, who had stopped to peek around the edge of the door. Twilight did the same, and was amazed by what she saw.

Tempest was surrounded by a dozen guards, although four of them were already down, slumped unconscious on the ground or against the walls. The rest of them seemed reluctant to attack now, even armed with the large scimitars they had. One ran in from behind her, bringing his sword down in a slice that would have come straight down on Tempest's back if she hadn't dodged it. She stepped to the side and twisted, punching him between the eyes, leaving him to drop to the floor as another guard ran at her. Tempest back flipped, kicking the guard on the back of his head as he passed beneath her, then brought her rear hooves down on the head of yet another guard, using him as a springboard to flip forwards and kick the first guard again.

"Holy shit!" Trixie whispered. "Is she like some kind of ninja?" Both of them cringed as Tempest ducked below a swinging blade, losing a few hairs from her mohawk, and bucked the stallion wielding it into the wall. "I wouldn't like my odds in a fight against her."

"Oh please," Twilight scoffed, "she'd be dead before she could even get close to you."

"There's no need to say it like that. I like to think I'd give her a fighting chance." They winced as a guard slammed into the wall nearby. "Yeah, maybe I wouldn't. Give that mare an inch, and she'll take a mile."

"Exact- Ooh!" Twilight squeezed her legs together in sympathy as Tempest potentially ruined one of the stallions chances to procreate. Mercifully she punched him in the head a second later, sparing him from the immediate agony.

"It does make you wonder though," Trixie continued. "We're both thinking that she's the bad guy here, but we would've killed these guards just to hide our identities. Tempest on the other hoof, is sparing every single one of them. Makes you wonder who the real bad guys in the room are."

"Thanks Trixie, I really needed that reminder of the kind of ponies we are now."

"If you were that worried, why didn't you teleport us out of here the moment we got what we wanted?"

"Three of us through an underground vault with two magical artifacts? One of which is a portal, which tends to get upset by being teleported itself? Admittedly it's not active now, so it likely wouldn't have made a difference, but it would still be hard."

"Okay, sheesh, miss magic pants. I can't even begin to fathom teleporting... or shields... or many other things, so excuse me for not knowing."

Twilight patted Trixie on the shoulder, "You'll get there. You just need to stop saying the spell you want to cast, followed by the word go, and you'll start to improve."

"It's my process!" Trixie shoved Twilight aside as Tempest took out the last guard with a shoulder toss and a quick hoof to the back of the head, and trotted up to her as she took a moment to make sure none of the guards woke up too soon. "Nicely done."

"My goodness, a compliment, from you of all ponies." Tempest brushed past Trixie towards the vault, letting Twilight lead the way back down. "I really do suggest we get out of here sooner rather than later. My soldiers will hold their attention for a while, but we want to be out of here before the army comes."

"Then let's get mov- Hey!" Twilight shouted as she saw a blue glow around the mirror that was getting drawn into the Staff of Sacanas. She ran down and snatched the staff away, breaking the connection. "What the hell?" She probed the mirror with her magic, finding that although the portal spell was mostly intact, the gems powering it were completely drained. "No! No-no-no! Without the gems this mirror is useless!" Twilight turned and pointed the staff up under Tempest's nose, "Fix it. Now."

"Do I look like I know how?" Tempest said back, pushing the staff aside. "I'm sorry that happened, but if you don't know to fix it, I certainly don't. Can't you just charge them with your own magic?"

"Not from a completely drained state using different magic than what they're used to. It ruins their stability." Twilight probed the gems again, finding that half of them retained some magic, so they could be recharged, but that was it. "For fuck sake! We were so close!"

"What about the gems we found with the other fragments?" said Trixie. "Could you replace the broken gems with them?"

"I'm not sure we have that many, or the right ones." Twilight squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled a long drawn out sigh, "Forget it. Let's focus on getting out of here first. Maybe I can create new gems if comes down to it."

"That's the spirit!" Trixie cheered. "Now let's go before those goons back upstairs wake up."


-0-0-0-


"Don't drop the mirror Trixie." 

"I'm not going to drop the mirror."

"I'm being serious Trixie!"

"Trixie is too!" There was a brief pause as Trixie felt embarrassed, "I realise that talking in the third person isn't the most stunning endorsement of how serious I'm being, but I can assure you that Trixie is being... Hmm."

"Just take the fucking mirror Trixie!" Twilight let go of the mirror as Trixie's magic took hold of it, then teleported to the other side of the wall before Trixie had even brought it halfway to the ground. A moment later Tempest jumped onto the wall, then down the other side, the Staff of Sacanas grinned firmly in her teeth until she took it in her hooves instead.

"And there we go, we both got what we wanted, so our business is concluded."

"Not until you get us back to out hotel," said Twilight. "Without you with us I don't trust your goons to not consider us fair game."

"Actually, my Storm Guard, or 'goons' as you so eloquently put it, should be falling back to the airships to exit the city. They shouldn't have any interest in you."

"I'm not buying it," said Trixie. "They're here to loot the place, and we have loot."

"Alright, fine," Tempest growled. "I'll get you as far as your hotel, then we are parting ways. Although, if you want you could come with me instead? The Storm King is always interested in talent like yours Twilight."

"No thank you. As interested as he might be in my talents, I'm not interested in what he has to offer me."

Tempest shrugged, "Suit yourself, although the offer will still stand for the next five minutes if you change your mind."

"Again, no thank you." Twilight hefted the mirror in her magic, holding it along her right side with the glass held towards her to protect it. "Let's get moving. I have the feeling that leaving the city sooner rather than later would be beneficial to all of us."

Much to Twilight's surprise, the city was much as Tempest had said, with her Storm Guard now absent in the outskirts of the city. They had definitely left their mark though as anything weaker than concrete seemed to have been smashed, and that was because it wasn't worth stealing.

It also occurred to Twilight that being seen running through the city with a pony wearing the mark of the ones responsible for this wasn't the best idea she'd ever had. Thankfully most of the ponies around were either too distracted, or weren't looking too closely, seeing just three ponies running through the city with a mirror and a fancy stick.

Nearer the city centre, where they were staying, was a different story though. The sounds of fighting were everywhere as the Saddle Arabians attempted to force the invaders from their city. Again they were too distracted to pay attention to three little ponies. It was becoming pretty obvious that they shouldn't be seen around Tempest any longer though.

"I think we need to split u-"

"Look out!" Trixie shouted as a member of the city guard that was fighting the Storm Guards was picked up and flung towards them. Twilight eyes widened with horror as the guard came right towards her, colliding with the mirror before smacking into her, sending them both flying into a wall.

Twilight's vision blacked out for a moment, and when she came to she was slumped next to a wall, covered in blood from a dozen different cuts, half of which still had glass in. Trixie was staring at her with her mouth open, and Tempest was fighting some guards, her shattered horn spitting arcs of lightning. Twilight shifted painfully, and picked the glass out of a cut on her leg. It was reflective.

"No!" Twilight shouted, suddenly feeling a lot more aware as she saw the mirror shattered all around her. "No..."

"Twilight!" Trixie ran up to Twilight, having come back to her senses. "Twilight! Are you alright? Can you get up?"

"The mirror."

"What?"

"The mirror. Get the mirror."

"The mirror's fucked Twilight!"

Twilight forced herself to her hooves, hissing from the pain of doing so. It felt like there was more of the mirror inside her than at that moment than outside. "We still need it," she grunted. "Find as much as you can, and bring it before more guards show up."

"But-"

"Now!" Twilight stared Trixie down until the mare gave in, and stood there concentrating on her breathing until Tempest caught her eye, staring at her a little blankly. "What?"

"That shouldn't have happened."

"Well it did," Twilight growled, the pain focussing her anger wonderfully.

"We have a medic on the ship if you come with me."

"I'll be fine."

"You really don't look like you'll be fine."

Twilight yanked some shards of mirror out of her side and tossed them in a pile, and ignored the blood running down her side. "I said I'll be fine, and I meant it. You have your prize Tempest, so just go."

Tempest appeared as though she was going to argue for a moment, but then her face returned to its usual aloof expression. "As you wish. The Storm King thanks you for your assistance," she said before turning and trotting away.

"I bet he fucking does," Twilight grunted.

"I got as much as I could find," Trixie said as Twilight watched Tempest go out of sight. "It's not the whole mirror though."

"Then we can work out how much we have once we find the others and get out of the city."

"Out of the city? Twilight, you are in no condition to travel anywhere."

"Give me ten minutes and I will be. Besides, I'm not joking about getting out of the city. If the army arrives they'll lock this place down hard, and we might end up trapped here." Twilight sighed as Trixie eyed her, "I'm not joking Trixie."

"Fine, but if you bleed out on us, one of the others can drag your corpse until you come back."


-0-0-0-


"Ooh, hey, you got the thtaff you wanted!"

"No thanks to you," Tempest said as she reached the top of the ramp into her airship. "You were supposed to attack the estate over there Grubber, not the palace!"

The short, grey, chubby hedgehog backed away and chuckled nervously, expecting lightning and pain at any moment. "In my defenth," he lisped, "I am not known for my senthe of directhon. Thtill, you got it tho it all worked out, am I right?"

"Grubber, do me a favour and remind me to punish you later."

Grubber nodded sadly, "Yeth Tempetht. Are we thetting courthe for Equethtria after we take all thefe thlaves back to the Thtorm Isleth?"

Tempest didn't answer immediately, weighing up their options in her head before making a decision. "Not yet. If what I've learnt is true, Equestria is currently at war with another nation, and I very much doubt the Storm King wishes to throw himself into the middle of it. Until the war is over and we know more, Equestria will have to wait. The Storm King will understand."

Grubber nodded slowly, "Okay, tho, what now?"

"Now?" Tempest sighed to herself, "Now we go back to the Storm Isles and hope the Storm King is feeling forgiving." She braced herself as her airship lurched, taking off into the air. Then she turned to regard the pile of riches in the middle of the cargo bay that was pilfered from the palace, and the captured Saddle Arabians chained to the walls. "Perhaps we should find a few more places to raid to find an apology gift or two."


-0-0-0-


"What the hell happened to you?" Sunset asked as a blood soaked Twilight slouched in through the door to their room. "Are you alright?" she asked, having taken in the extent of Twilight's injuries.

"I'll be fine," Twilight said mechanically, more annoyed at getting asked than anything her injuries were doing to her. She wasn't lying though, as the bleeding had stopped on the way to their room, and the wounds were already spitting out fragments of mirror as they healed. "Are you guys alright?" she asked.

"Oh we're fine," Moondancer said, a sarcastic edge to her words. "I can't say the same for all the Saddle Arabians they attacked, stole from, and captured."

"Captured?"

"That's right, captured. Those things chained them up and dragged them into their airships to be carried off to a bright future as slave labourers, or maybe food judging by the look of those things."

"But... what?" Twilight looked to Sunset and Mayfly, seeing the same look in their eyes as she could see in Moondancer's. "You're kidding, right?" she asked hopefully.

"I wish she was," said Sunset. "You really had no idea about this?"

"Of course not! If I'd known that I would have stopped this before it even began! It was bad enough knowing they were attacking the city, but Tempest never said anything about capturing ponies!"

"And how can we be sure you're not lying to us?" Moondancer narrowed her eyes at Twilight, "For all we know you could be putting on an act, while not actually caring in the slightest."

"I did not lead a rebellion and fight a war to liberate a country and its slaves just to suddenly be okay with slavery!" Twilight roared, stunning them all. "If I could fly right now I'd be chasing after those airships and getting those ponies back! And you can be damned sure that once this thing with Faust is all over, assuming we win, I will be doing something about this!"

"She's not lying," said Mayfly. "I can usually tell when a pony is lying."

Moondancer stepped back, her mouth hanging open. "Okay, I believe you."

Twilight nodded and sat hard, her head spinning a little. "Thank you. How much mirror do we have?" She waited as Trixie laid out the mirror pieces she'd picked up in front of her. It was barely a half of the entire mirror. "This is this really all you found?"

"What do you want from me?" Trixie replied defensively. "That mirror went fucking everywhere, and we didn't exactly have time to hunt for it all. I at least got most of the functioning gems."

Twilight canted her head back and groaned, then picked up the bag containing the rest of the fragments they had found, and placed them on the ground with the rest. Altogether it came up to almost an entire mirror. Almost, but not quite. "For fuck sake! We had an entire mirror, and this is all we're left with? Five sixths of a mirror? Argh!"

"I guess this means we're going to the Circen desert then," said Sunset. "At least our odds of doing this are better with only a small amount of fragments to find."

Twilight wanted to concede the logic of that, but she was far too annoyed after the fact that they could have fixed the mirror by now and be where they needed to be, assuming that the Staff of Sacanas hadn't broken it completely.

"Yeah, we're going to the Circen desert," she said instead, a bit flatly. "And we're going now before the army gets here and shuts this place down in case of another attack."

"But the palace was attacked," said Sunset. "Shouldn't we go check if the Sultan is okay?"

"Ideally yes, and I'm going to, but if we get too involved now it might be ages before he lets us leave, and ponies in Equestria are counting on us to get this done. I'm sorry Sunset, but we need to go."

Sunset nodded unenthusiastically, "Yeah alright, I get it." She hefted her bags onto her back as Twilight swept the fragments back into their bag. "What if we don't find enough fragments in the desert?"

Twilight shrugged, "That's always been a possibility since we started this. All we can do is hope."

"Which is a pretty feeble thing to have to count on," said Trixie.

"I know." Twilight sighed and tossed her bags at Trixie, "You guys get on out of here, I'm going to go get Daring."


-0-0-0-


Twilight had expected the palace to be in worse condition than it was, but while the gardens were destroyed, the palace itself didn't seem particularly worse for wear. At least not if you didn't look to closely.

Twilight made her way up the steps unopposed by the guards, who were looking at her with wide-eyed horror upon seeing her injuries. Twilight ignored them, just as she ignored her injuries, and entered the palace to find the interior in ruins. Anything shiny had been stolen, and what hadn't been stolen was destroyed.

Twilight wandered through the middle of it all, taking in what she felt she had allowed to happen. She knew that wasn't really true, as it would have happened anyway, but no matter how much she told herself otherwise, she still felt complicit. She would have done her best to stop it if she wasn't.

The throne room was heavily guarded, and somepony finally challenged Twilight as she made her way through the palace. The guard said something to her in saddlan, which Twilight failed to understand.

"Tell the Sultan, Princess Twilight wants to see him," Twilight said in carefully pronounced Equestrian, falling into the same trap as so many others of talking slowly to foreigners. She was vindicated in a way as the guard grunted and gestured for her to follow.

She was led to the throne where the Sultan was sat, looking every inch a broken stallion. He glanced up as she stopped in front of him, and gasped at the state Twilight was in. "Are you alright Princess? Do you require medical assistance?"

"I'm fine," Twilight assured him. "Alicorns heal quick. I'm more concerned about you."

"My guards protected me, but they could not protect everything."

"It does look like some stuff has gone missing," Twilight agreed.

"Stuff? I'm not concerned about stuff! Stuff can be replaced! Those beasts hurt my people! Took their belongings, and took fit ponies as slaves. They took some of my wives, and they took Hakim."

Twilight's ears perked up, and she instantly felt ashamed for being even slightly pleased that the Vizier had been taken. As big a threat as he might have been to her current and future plans, he didn't deserve to be made a slave. Nopony did.

"I'm sorry," Twilight said, meaning it.

"You have nothing to apologise for," the Sultan sighed. "I though, have everything to apologise for. My name means warrior in my tongue, but I am no such thing. My people were in danger, and I did nothing to protect them. Even an all-powerful alicorn princess like yourself wasn't safe in my country."

"I'm not all... never mind. Look, I am sorry for what happened, and I wish I could have done more to stop it."

"Why is it your concern to stop what happened?"

"Because I don't like to see people suffer, and knowing some of your ponies are being forced into slavery... hurts me more than you know. I wish I could do more to help you."

The Sultan snorted a bitter laugh, "And we could use the help, but the only country I could reliably ask for help was Equestria, and I turned my back on you. Now we both need help, and cannot give it to each other."

"I didn't think the damage to your country was that bad. I thought only the city was attacked?

"Nagdad south of here is being attacked as we speak. Apparently Ammare wasn't enough for them. After that I shall have to use my army to protect from further incursions. Even if I didn't have to protect my lands, I have no means with which to reclaim our taken ponies. As I said, I wish I could have Equestria's help."

"I'm not sure we could help you right now anyway," Twilight said, more bluntly than she meant to. "If anything it's better for your people that your army is here to protect them."

"Even supplies would help your cause, and I didn't even give you that. If even the few things we have left would be enough to gain your aid if rescuing my people, I would gladly give it."

Twilight sighed unhappily, "I wish I could accept that, but I've had no contact with Celestia for some time. If you wish to give us aid, I'm sure we'll appreciate it, but we can't do anything until the war has ended, and even then, Equestria might be in no fit state to help you for a while."

"I... understand."

"However," Twilight continued, "I will do everything I can to get you that help, even if it means me doing it alone. That much is a promise. You will get your ponies back some day."

The Sultan smiled at Twilight, "The promise of a Princess is a certain thing indeed. I only wish I could have a certain time frame in which to work. I worry for those taken." Twilight said nothing, knowing full well that the time frame she was speaking of was in years rather than days, weeks, or months. "Is there anything I could do to aid you now, if I can?"

"I know this seems like bad timing, but with everything that's happened my hunt for the mirror seems... unlikely to get very far. I was coming to tell you that I'm leaving to look elsewhere, and to collect Daring Do." Twilight smiled sympathetically as the Sultan slumped, "Sorry, but the war in Equestria takes precedent for me, even now."

"No, I understand. I only hope that distance doesn't make you forget your promises."

"No," Twilight stated firmly. "I meant that when I said it, and I will keep on meaning it."

"You almost make it sound personal." 

"It is a bit. After what I saw in Mareitania, I despise slavery, which is why I intend to put an end to it where I can." What Twilight didn't say, since it was the lesser point by a long way, was that she felt a bit used and now had a serious score to settle with Tempest Shadow. She intended to settle it.
> 31. Good soldiers follow orders
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow's feathers vibrated, crackling with static energy that streamed off her in a contrail that sparked and buzzed with lightning. Now all she had to do was figure out how to gather all that energy from behind her, and direct it into something coherent in front of her. That was where things usually fell apart.

Rainbow slowed, letting the contrail catch up to her and gathering the energy on her wings. Tiny arcs of lightning jumped from feather to feather, then exploded off in random directions as she failed to direct it anywhere. "Damn it!"

"At least you didn't electrocute yourself this time," Lightning said as she watched from a outcropping of rocks nearby, along with hers and Rainbow's wing mates.

"But we're not getting anywhere! Argh, this is so frustrating! We've been trying this for over a week now, and we're no closer than when we started!"

"We just gotta keep trying," Lightning said soothingly. "One of us is bound to work out the key to this soon."

"Speak for yourself," said Sky Stinger as he brushed a hoof over patch of blackened hair on his leg. "I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty fed up of getting shocked by lightning... uh, Lightning."

"Alright, alright, let's call it there for now," Lightning sighed. "It's probably time we were heading back to HQ anyway."

"Good job we got our squadron leader to give us permission to do this," said Thunderlane. "I hate to think what Spitfire does to ponies that go awol."

"Do you think whips and chains are involved?" Cloud Chaser gasped. "That almost sounds like fun!" She smirked at Thunderlane, her eyes half lidded.

"I'm not sure whether to be terrified or aroused you thought of that," Thunderlane said back.

"Why not both?"

"Okay!" Rainbow said loudly before they could go any further. "What you do in the showers tonight is your business, and yours alone," she emphasized. "I do agree we should be getting back though, before Spitfire starts getting creative with her punishments. And I do not mean fun ones Cloud."

"I can dream."

"As long as I'm in those dreams as well," Thunderlane said, faking being offended.

Cloud pecked Thunderlane on the cheek, "Of course you are sweety, of course you are."

"Maybe we should head to the showers when we get back as well," Vapor said to Sky, a hint of longing in her voice.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, you can help me scrub this soot out of my coat."

"I-uh, I can do more than that."

Sky shrugged, "Alright, but I don't see the excitement you'll get from brushing the knots out of my tail."

Thunderlane laughed at Sky, "At this rate dude, you are dying a virgin."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"What indeed?"

"Alright guys, that's enough." Lightning stretched her wings and took flight, "Let's get back to HQ before we end up in trouble."


-0-0-0-


The Wonderbolts HQ was in chaos when they got back there, with ponies, both Wonderbolts and the Air Corps, flying back and forth carrying crates of gear that were being packed almost as fast as they were getting taken away. The six of them flew through it all, wondering what exactly it was that was happening.

"About time you six got back!" Spitfire yelled at them as soon as she saw them. "Get to the barracks and pack your belongings pronto!"

"What's going on Captain?" Lightning asked, looking around at everything that was happening. "It looks like we're leaving."

"We've received orders to abandon the headquarters," Spitfire explained, looking none too happy about it. "When the Air Corps returns to their usual posting, there'll only be us here, and that makes us a prime target for the griffons still fighting for Mareitania."

"But I thought they'd gone," said Cloud.

"We've had confirmed sightings all along western Equestria, ranging from the Smokey Mountains to Las Pegasus, so they are very much still within Equestria, and if they attack us here we are incredibly screwed. That's why we'll be joining up with the rest of Equestria's forces in Las Pegasus."

"Las Pegasus?" Rainbow said, confused. "Why there?"

"Because that's where Princess Luna believes Faust will be going next, judging by the griffons scouting around the area. We intend to work with that."

"But what about Tall Tale? Shouldn't we be trying to hold them there to stop Faust heading south?"

"The train line doesn't go through Tall Tale Rainbow, and Faust is almost definitely going to be moving her forces by train if she can. Thanks to the griffons in the area we haven't been able to sabotage the lines without making it a major operation, which is why we're heading straight to her destination, to stop her there rather than try and slow her down. I hate to say it Rainbow, but if they take Las Pegasus, the west is hers, including Tall Tale, without having to fight for it. Honestly I'm surprised she hasn't taken it already since it's undefended."

"But why is it undefended?"

"Because of its proximity to Vanhoover," Spitfire said patiently. "It was deemed too costly to defend with the Mareitanians breathing right down their necks. It also has no strategic value-"

"That's bullshit!" Rainbow yelled. "Ponies live there! Our ponies! We can't just leave them to Faust!"

"And we haven't. Refugees have been leaving the city all week. The thing is Rainbow, we can't keep evacuating cities before Faust turns up. It's just not feasible. We need to draw a line in the sand somewhere, and right now that line is in Las Pegasus."

"And what's so special in Los Pegasus that we have to hold them there?"

"Ship yards mainly. If they take the ship yards, they can use ships to attack Manehatten, Baltimare, and Fillydelphia, which are right now fuelling our war effort. They've removed the ships from the harbour there, but as we've seen, the Mareitanians are fully capable of building their own."

"I don't see why they'd bother," said Thunderlane. "From Vanhoover they could go through the Unicorn Range and attack just about anywhere in the heartlands; Canterlot, Cloudsdale, Ponyville... Why waste effort attacking these other places when they could go straight for the throat at Canterlot?"

"Cloudsdale is being relocated to near Manehatten, and Ponyville has nothing the Mareitanians want or need, except to deny us food supplies, but we can get those from at lot of other places. Canterlot is a target, yes, but that place is far too defensible for them to take without serious losses, which is why they need to eliminate our ability to fight first, meaning capturing Manehatten, Baltimare, and Fillydelphia. Thankfully using trains to move around stops them heading straight to the east coast through the north, as most of the trains go through Canterlot, and they ruined their own ability to go up through by the Empire. On hoof wouldn't work for them either as that's a lot of open ground for us to attack them over."

"But-" Rainbow began, only to get cut off by Spitfire.

"No, that's enough. I told you to go pack your gear, so I really suggest you start doing that." Spitfire sighed and softened her stance, "Look, I know you want to think we can stop Faust in her tracks, but it really doesn't work like that. If we can hold Las Pegasus, it forces Faust to either go through the north, which is prime territory for us to ambush her forces, or she has to go through Canterlot, which is our strongest position. If we don't hold it, she can build ships, or move through into Somnambula, Appleloosa, and Dodge Junction, which puts our refugees in danger. Las Pegasus is important."

"And what about Ponyville?" Cloud asked.

"We'll splitting our forces to protect Ponyville if it comes to it, but its closeness to Canterlot should keep it safe for now," said Spitfire, knowing full well that three of them called the town their home. "Now get on. We're moving out in the hour, so you better be ready to go. It's going to be a long time before you can come back here to get anything you forgot."


-0-0-0-


Rainbow sat on her bed, holding her helmet in her hooves as she looked at the scratches the griffon in Vanhoover had given it, then rubbed a hoof over her eye, feeling the scar he'd given her as well. "This is bullshit."

"As you keep reminding us," Thunderlane said as she zipped himself into his flight suit. "You have to admit that a lot of what Spitfire said made sense though."

"I don't care if it makes sense! What I care about is us abandoning a load of Equestria because it doesn't have 'strategic value,'" Rainbow said with air quotes.

"But most of western Equestria is empty," Lightning pointed out. "If Faust wants to waste time discovering the undiscovered west, then all the better for us, right?"

"But it doesn't feel right."

Thunderlane shrugged at Rainbow's words, "I hate to say it, but how we feel about it doesn't mean shit."

Rainbow sighed and dropped her helmet onto her bed, "I know. The thing is, we're trusting these decisions on one of the ponies responsible for getting us into this mess in the first place. That doesn't exactly suggest a good history of decision making." Rainbow picked up her bag and gripped the zipper in her teeth, dragging it closed. "In fact, it kinda says the opposite. What if holding Las Pegasus isn't the best idea?"

"And I suppose you have a better one?" said Thunderlane.

"...No," Rainbow admitted after a long moment. "I just- I don't fucking know, alright? I'm just... annoyed."

Lightning smiled sideways at Rainbow. "I'm afraid that speaking as your squadron leader, I have to tell you to suck it up. If I'm honest though, if I was speaking as a friend I'd probably have said that anyway."

"You're all so nice to me," Rainbow joked. She stood and put on her flight suit, taking time to do it up and strap on her blades. Then she sighed and patted her bed, "Goodbye bed, who managed to be lumpy in all the wrong places. Goodbye barracks, where we often had to overhear naughty stuff between Soarin and Spitfire. And goodbye Wonderbolts HQ, where I learnt that Lightning both is, and isn't, a jerk."

"You old romantic," Lightning snickered. "Anyway, I have five other members of a now incomplete squadron to track down, so I guess we better do that and get out of here if you're all ready to go?"

Rainbow flipped her helmet up into the air with a wing and dropped it onto her head. "Ready to go, Squadron Leader."

"And the rest of you?" Lightning waited until she had confirmations from the rest of them. "Alright, let's find the others and get moving before Spitfire has a fit."

"A sexy fit?" asked Cloud.

"Nah, just the regular kind. Seriously though Cloud, I know you've been denied your alone time with Thunder so you're all frustrated, but get your mind out of the gutter before you destroy Sky's innocence."


-0-0-0-


The rest of the squadron was waiting outside for them. Fast Clip looked forlorn, as the only original member of his wing left, having lost both Fire Streak and Lime Jelly. Lime Jelly had been replaced with a former Royal Guard called High Rise, but Fire Streak's space was still empty.

Pizzelle's wing was still full after the loss of Meadow Flower, having been replaced weeks ago with a pony from E squadron, Roller, who hadn't quite got over the loss of most of his squadron in the ambush at Stalliongrad. All of them were feeling the losses, and Lightning was proud of them that they were all determined to keep going.

"Hey guys," she said to them, saluting them with a wing. Lightning tried to keep it informal, mostly because formal wasn't her style, but also because she was worried about what Fast Clip, who was a Wonderbolt before this all began, thought of her taking the position of Squadron Leader. Having Fire Streak pass straight over him to name Lightning as lead must have annoyed him.

Lightning dropped the salute as they returned it. "I'm guessing you're all ready to go?"

"Yes ma'am," said Fast Clip, who was showing no sign of being miffed at Lightning if he was.

"Good. I would give you orders, but I have no idea what it is that Spitfire's planning."

"We're waiting for an airship," Fast Clip told her. "All our stuff is going on the airship, then we'll be escorting it to Las Pegasus."

"Aww man," Rainbow groaned. "Airships are really fricking slow."

"What about this place?" Thunderlane asked. "Are we really just leaving it here?"

"We can't exactly bring it with us," said Cloud, smacking him with a wing.

"I know that, but what if the griffons come here and take it over? Are we really going to let them do that? What if they destroy it?"

Rainbow stepped between them and pulled them into an embrace with her wings. "So what if they do? It's just a bunch of buildings. We're the Wonderbolts, and we'll still be here even if they do take this place over. Then we get the fun of kicking them back out."

Lightning smiled at Rainbow's show of optimism, "Exactly, the important thing is that the Wonderbolts go on." Lightning looked up as a horn blared, and a airship rose up through the clouds. "And there's our ride. Get your stuff over to the dock, and Rainbow? Ask Spitfire what she wants you to do while I have a chat with Fast Clip."

Rainbow waved a wing in answer and trotted off with the others in tow, leaving Lightning with Fast Clip. "What do you want ma'am?"

"Please, call me Lightning."

"Going for that informal thing again huh?"

"Is that wrong?"

"Ponies respect the chain of command. They also tend to dislike getting ordered around by their friends. It's up to you how you want to lead, Lightning, but even Soarin calls Spitfire Captain, or ma'am, when they're on duty."

Lightning nodded at the idea, but had issues with it because half her squadron was actually her friends, while the rest were still friends to a lesser degree. Having them call her by an honorific felt wrong. "I'll think about it," she said, meaning to at least consider the idea. "I was actually hoping to ask you if you're alright with me being made Squadron Leader?"

Fast Clip snorted loudly, "I'm not sure when it came down to Fire Streak to decide who his replacement was. That should have been the Captain's call, but she's not arguing with it, so neither will I. Why? Afraid I might have issues with it?"

"I was as surprised as anypony that he picked me," said Lightning. "As you said, it should have been Spitfire's call, and I'd bet my bottom bit she'd have picked you as the only other senior Wonderbolt in the squadron. I just want to make sure there's not going to be any issues between us because of how this was done."

Fast Clip paused, then pulled the corner of his mouth up in a smile. "No ma'am. The fact that this worries you tells me enough that you're a decent pony, and I'll be honoured to follow you. Just don't forget to look outside your little bubble you have around yours and Rainbow's wings now and then."

Lightning sighed with relief, "You have no idea how happy I am to hear that. Seriously though, don't be afraid to tell me when I'm screwing things up."

"Never even crossed my mind not to."


-0-0-0-


Las Pegasus was an oddity compared to other cities in Equestria, at least by Equestrian standards. Besides being a both a cloud city, and a land based city, with one floating directly above the other, the entire place seemed to be devoted to entertainment. A fallacy of course, but as they flew towards the brightly lit city, you could almost believe it.

"They must be mad," Thunderlane muttered. "The city's in danger, but it's still lit up like a Hearths Warming tree."

"Clearly you've never been to Las Pegasus before," Pizzelle said from behind him. "The lights never go out in this city."

"You're from here aren't you?" Rainbow asked, drifting aside to make room for Pizzelle and her wing. "Anything you can tell us about this place?"

"Alcohol, gambling, sex, and other... debauchery. This place has it all! The cloud section is mostly just a giant theme park owned by an asshole of a pony called Gladmane, while the ground city is where most of everypony lives. It's not as nice as it looks, believe me. Still, there's also Applewood, as you can tell by the giant sign on the hill." Pizzelle pointed at the large white letters spelling out Applewood on a hill overlooking the city. "If it wasn't for the film industry here, the ground city would probably be forgotten about in favour of Gladmane's big shiny atrocity."

"You don't exactly sound like you're very fond of this place," said Cloud.

"A lot of bad things get swept under the rug here, just to maintain its friendly reputation, instead of making efforts to make that reputation a reality." Pizzelle shrugged, "I can appreciate this place being fun to visit, but living here is a very different story. I was glad to leave when I could."

"Anything strategic you want to add?" 

"Not really. The entire place is dedicated to separating ponies from their bits, not strategic defence. I'm guessing we won't actually be fighting in the city if we can help it."

"I'd say not," said Rainbow. She gestured to a large clump of lights outside the city, sitting across the railway that led there from up north. "I'm guessing that's where we're making our stand."

"I'm lacking the experience of a pony that lives on the ground," said Fast Clip, "but that looks like a terrible place to stage a defence. There's no cover, or anything really. It's just open ground."

"It's probably just our camp," Lightning said before the debate got going. "I imagine we'll actually be fighting elsewhere. We passed over the Canterhorn river a couple miles back, and that seemed like a good place to me."

"And what's stopping Faust from driving a train straight through the middle of the camp?" Rainbow pointed out. "They better have been sabotaging the lines up ahead, or I'm not going to be very happy."

"Actually, that's job number one," Spitfire said, having overheard them as she flew up to them from the camp. "Princess Luna wants us to rig the bridge over the river to blow while the Night Guard fly cover for us. We'll be doing it at night though, so the Mareitanians hopefully won't know about it. They'll also be lifting the rails from the camp to the bridge, but that's ground pounder work."

"What about for now though?" Lightning asked, since it was still a few hours until night fell.

"For now you can unload the airship and get settled in. It won't have the comforts of the HQ, but it beats waking up at night with a griffon halfway through cutting your throat." 


-0-0-0-


"What the heck are those supposed to be?" Lightning asked as she and her squadron looked at a dozen things they had found shortly after making camp. They consisting of large, thick steel tubes bolted into a wooden frame on wheels, and were closed at one end, while the other bore a stylised dragons' head. Nearby sat piles of black iron balls.

"They remind me of Pinkie's party cannon," Rainbow said in a low voice. "Y'know, if she fed it a bunch of steroids and made it look scary as all hell, then made it shoot metal balls instead of confetti. I get the feeling we should be afraid of these."

"But they'll be pointed at the enemy, won't they?"

"I guess?" Rainbow shrugged, "At least, I really hope so."

"Of course they will silly!"

Rainbow immediately brightened up at the voice behind her, but didn't even have the chance to turn around before she was sent sprawling onto the ground with a pink pony latched onto her. "Pinkie!"

"I know, I'm so happy to see you as well!"

Rainbow twisted so she could see Pinkie, and tried to pry the pink pony off her, but with poor results as Pinkie refused to budge even an inch. "Pinkie, get off me."

"Okay!" Pinkie sprang up off Rainbow and waited until she stood and brushed herself off. "Your eye looks better," she observed.

Rainbow felt her scar and sighed, not sharing Pinkie's thoughts on it. "Yeah, sure. So I'm guessing you got deployed here as well Pinkie?"

"Not just me Rainbow, but everypony! The entire Equestrian army is here, except the crystal ponies and Mustangians. They're sabotaging the railway that leads towards Ponyville, along with a bunch of those Exile ponies, in case Faust decides to go that way instead. Then ponies are watching them to make sure they don't try to sneak around anywhere else."

"Oh thank goodness," Rainbow breathed, releasing a sigh of relief she hadn't known she was holding. Ponyville was closer to Vanhoover than Las Pegasus by a long way, so having Ponyville protected was good.

"And now you're here," Pinkie continued, "so we're bound to win! Well, with the cannons and Luna's plan we will."

"Luna's plan didn't work so well last time," Rainbow said flatly. "Vanhoover was a massive screw up."

"This time will be different! Pinkie promise!"

Rainbow wasn't about to hold Pinkie to that, and she really hoped that Pinkie didn't hold herself to it either. Promising positive results out of the bloodbath this could always end up as didn't seem like something to bet on. "I don't suppose you know what Luna's plan is do you? We haven't been briefed yet, apart from orders to rig the bridge here to blow."

"Sure! Luna's setting a trap for the Mareitanians at the bridge. It involves the cannons and everything, so it's going to be awesome!"

"What?" Rainbow's face screwed up as she thought about what Pinkie was alluding to. Did Luna plan to blow the bridge as the Mareitanians were crossing it? Then blow the crap out of them with the cannons? If so that was one violent sounding plan. "Damn... Luna's not messing around here."

"It gets better!" Pinkie sang. "Or worse, y'know, if you really think about it," she finished in a quiet voice. She led them over to a pile covered with a tarpaulin, and pulled the corner of it up to reveal a stack of the bombs pegasi used.

"Fucking hell," Rainbow swore. "There's not going to be enough of the Mareitanians left to fill a jam jar at this rate. Where's Luna getting all this stuff from?"

"Heck if I know," said Pinkie, "but this is a lot of boom. Too bad I'm not going to get to play with any of it."

"Why? Where are you going to be?"

"The Hard Corps have their own little mission to complete the trap, so we won't be anywhere near the explosions." Rainbow found it hard to gauge just how upset by that Pinkie really was. "Anyway, the plan should work out just fine."

Seeing the amount of ordinance that Luna had brought to throw at the enemy, Rainbow was inclined to believe her. She glanced at Lightning, but only got a shrug in return, and none of the others had anything to say to it either. They all just fervently hoped that Luna was on the ball this time.


-0-0-0-


The bridge over the Canterhorn river, named for the mountain it originated from, wasn't an impressive piece of engineering. Sure it was well built, but despite the river being reasonably wide, and fairly deep, it was calm by where they were, and thanks to meticulous management by the weather teams it pretty much never flooded either, so the bridge wasn't exactly awe inspiring as it didn't need to be.

What it was though, was the only bridge for miles around. There was another one was just south of the Everfree, and another in Ponyville, and if they destroyed both of the other bridges, it suddenly became a lot harder for Faust to attack the south. As she wired the explosives underneath the bridge, Rainbow couldn't help but think they were only going to force Faust to go through Ponyville instead, which she really didn't want to happen.

"You almost done Rainbow?"

Rainbow spat the little torch she was holding in her mouth into her hoof to answer Spitfire. "Just another minute."

"Alright, just be sure that the sticks are hidden from view."

"Yes Captain." Rainbow placed the end of the torch back between her teeth and resumed wiring the explosives, finishing by linking it up to the main cable that led back to the plunger on their side of the bridge. That done, she pocketed the torch and rolled off the diagonal beam she was laying on as she worked, and flew back up to the top of the bridge.

"All done Captain."

"We're still waiting on some of the others yet," said Spitfire. "Captain Greywhisker reports no griffon activity in the area, so we're staying put a bit longer while the Earth Corps bring the cannons up into position and hide them."

"Is blowing up the bridge really the best idea Captain?" Rainbow asked, voicing a question that had been brewing for a while in her head. "If we destroy the bridge, and Faust decides to attack somewhere else, we're kinda screwed."

"Not entirely. Most of us can fly, and we aren't using the same heavy machinery as the Mareitanians. That's their biggest problem here, because as effective and deadly as those tanks are, they're slow, which is why they use trains to transport them. We don't have that same burden. It's also why it makes crossing the areas north of Canterlot extra dangerous for them, because of the tanks. They'd have to transport all the fuel they need, and the tanks themselves, across open land at a snails pace. A good night raid or two would do some serious damage to them in that scenario."

"And if they go through Ponyville?"

"Then we stop them at Ponyville," Spitfire said bluntly, like it wasn't obvious. She wasn't unsympathetic to Rainbow's worries, but nowhere got to be immune to the war, and Ponyville less so as it was a direct route through to the east coast of Equestria. She couldn't deny that she'd be just as worried if Cloudsdale was in the firing line, but she couldn't actually say that.

"But that's the problem! I want to stop them before they get to Ponyville!"

"Rainbow, you want to stop them going everywhere. You know that isn't possible though, especially when they outnumber us like this."

"But Ponyville wouldn't stand a chance against the Mareitanians!"

Spitfire sighed and patted Rainbow on the shoulder, "I know Rainbow, but that doesn't change anything. Now get back in the air and keep an eye out for griffons. The last thing we need is our surprise for the Mareitanians getting ruined."

Rainbow raised her hoof to salute, then remembered they weren't really meant to do that out in the field, and dropped her hoof again. "Yes ma'am," she said half-heartedly.

The skies were quiet above the bridge, save for the occasional flapping of wings. Say what you want about thestrals, they were not the best at flying quietly. Gliding yes, but flapping made more noise than a feathered wing. At the very least Rainbow could assume they were doing their job, as not a sound could be heard from the griffons. Not a screech, or cry, or anything. With luck they might actually pull this plan off.

She was joined a few minutes later by the other members of her squadron, with orders from Spitfire. "She wants us to push ahead north of Ponyville," said Lightning. "Griffons have been spotted up there, and she wants us to give the impression that we're operating around Ponyville, instead of down around here. Make them think here's the less defended place."

"On our own?" said Pizzelle? "Is she crazy?"

"Watch it Pizzelle," Fast Clip warned.

"We're joining up with a squadron from the Night Guard," Lightning said before Pizzelle could retort, giving Fast Clip a dirty look as well. "We also have permission to engage any griffons we find, just to make a point. That's where the Night Guard come in, because we'll be pretty fucked in the dark if we're attacked, because griffons can see in the dark. Obviously we can't."

"This sounds like a great idea," Thunderlane muttered.

"Mostly we're just making a show of this," Lightning explained. Spitfire thinks that seeing regular Equestrian forces up around Ponyville will sell the idea that's where we plan to hold them off, and steer them down here instead. Any questions?"

Sky Stinger held up a hoof, getting a nod from Lightning. "Why do farmers raise pigs when we get absolutely nothing from them? Cows, Sheep, and chickens make sense, but why they raise pigs is beyond me."

"Any helpful questions?" Lightning said flatly, although she had no idea what the answer was to Sky's query now he'd asked it. "No? Alright then, let's move out."


-0-0-0-


The entire journey was conducted in silence, each of them carefully listening out for any sounds that might lead to an attack, even at the high altitude they were using to evade detection. There was no sign of any trouble though, which was both a relief and a disappointment, depending on who you asked.

"Where's those Night Guards?" Rainbow asked as they flew past the route to Ponyville. She could see the campfires of the soldiers protecting the town a couple of miles outside it at the entrance to the tunnel through the hills to the village, and she could only guess at how worried the towns' inhabitants were about their apparent need to be protected.

Almost as if in answer to Rainbow's question, a shrill squeak came from the woods below, and a collection of dark figures flew up to them, their eyes shining in the moonlight. Their leader winked at Rainbow, making her roll her eyes. "Hey Shadow. Funny how I keep running into you."

The grey thestral shrugged at Rainbow, "Eh, divine providence. That, and the Captain always picks me for things like this. Anyway, you ready to help us hunt some griffons?"

Lightning looked around, unsure. "Nopony said anything about hunting griffons. We were supposed to do a fly-by up past Ponyville so the Mareitanians think this is where we're operating."

"And we will," Shadow reassured her. "First though we got some griffons to hunt. There's an encampment in the White Tail Woods, which is where they've been performing their recon from. Captain Greywhisker wants us to take them out and destroy their intelligence."

"Wouldn't the griffons be out doing that recon though?" said Rainbow.

"Some of them, yeah. There should be a dozen griffons at the camp right now, while the rest are out and about. Other members of the Night Guard will be taking on the ones out scouting south of the camp, while we're taking out their encampment because we're the only ones in the area that can."

"Isn't wiping them out the complete opposite of what we're supposed to be doing?" Fast Clip said sceptically.

Shadow pulled the skin under her eyes down in frustration, "Good grief, I never knew Wonderbolts were so fussy. We're taking out the ones south from the camp, and we'll make a show of looking for the ones north of it, which we'll count as your fly-by. Is that alright by your highnesses?"

"I'm starting to suspect none of these orders actually came from Luna," Lightning said flatly. "I doubt she likes to contradict herself that much. But yeah, if we can defer all responsibility onto you and Spitfire by claiming to simply be following orders, I guess we're in."

"Great! Come on, the camp's this way." Shadow gestured for them all to follow her, and led them out over the woods. In the distance was a shady clearing in the trees, darker than the rest of the woods. There was no light coming from it, but under the light of the moon they could just about make out some tents set up in the clearing. Apparently the griffons had thought there wouldn't be any ponies coming out this far, and had made no attempt to properly camouflage their encampment.

"There it is," Shadow whispered. "We'll stay up here and make sure no griffons come back. You guys take out the encampment."

"Shouldn't that be the other way around?" Lightning pointed out.

"Can you see the griffons coming in the dark?"

"No, but we can't see down there either."

Shadow sighed quietly, "Fussy and whiny. Fine, we'll split our squadrons fifty-fifty. Misty and Echo, your wings stay up here while I take the rest down."

Lightning nodded, liking this plan slightly better. "Fast Clip, Pizzelle, your wings are staying up here. The rest of you, with me," she said before letting Shadow lead the way down.

They dropped to tree level, then below it a hundred yards from the camp, choosing to cautiously approach on hoof to avoid being spotted. It also gave the Wonderbolts' eyes a chance to adapt to the darker surroundings, allowing them to see much better by the time they reached the edge of the camp.

There was three tents in all, two much larger than the other one, leading them to suspect that the two bigger ones were where the griffons slept, while the other one was where they collected their intelligence. Two griffons were stood inside that tent, chatting quietly to each other as they studied something under the light of a lamp.

The thestrals didn't waste time listening to them. Two of them skirted around the edge of the camp and in through the open tent flaps. A second later there was some muffled cries that quickly ended, and the two thestrals waved to the rest of them.

"Move in," Shadow ordered in a whisper. All of them kept low as they crept into the camp, eyes and ears alert for the sound of any griffons they might have missed. They split up, the thestrals going left to the one tent, leaving the Wonderbolts to go right to the other. "Make sure they don't make a sound," were Shadow's parting words.

Gripping the zipper in her teeth, Rainbow gingerly opened the tent, doing it slowly to minimize the sound made, then slipped inside, the others close behind her. Six sleeping bags were set out in a row, filled with five griffons and a pony, much to her surprise. She hesitated a second, then went to the pony, deciding to spare the others from having to kill him. Rainbow knew it shouldn't be different to killing a griffon, but she also knew that on some level it was. They were a lot more used to fighting griffons at this point.

Rainbow drew her right blade, and pointed it down at the pony's throat. She wasn't even sure if he was a Mareitanian. He could have been an Equestrian that was taken prisoner, even if that seemed unlikely as a prisoner would probably be tied up or something. Either way, that lack of surety was making this harder, because the last thing she wanted to do was kill an innocent.

Rainbow chose to not think about it, and looked sideways at the others. None of them seemed happy about this, killing people in their sleep. This was not what the Wonderbolts were about as far as they were concerned. This wasn't fighting a war. It was cold blooded murder.

"On three," Lightning whispered, barely loud enough to hear. "One, two, three." All of them thrust their blades down and grabbed the beaks of the griffons to keep them quiet as the struggled. Rainbow did the same for her target, wrapping a leg around his muzzle as she stabbed him. He struggled, his eyes wide in fear, pain, and surprise as he gurgled beneath her grip.

Rainbow turned her head away, unable to look in his eyes as the life drained out of him. The most she allowed herself to think, for her own sake, was how much easier that was to do without there being feathers in the way. To think of anything more than that was to think about what she'd just done.

After an incredibly long few seconds the stallion stopped struggling, and when Rainbow released him he was still, his eyes glassy and unseeing. She wiped her blade clean on his bedding and sheathed it, then left the tent before the others, refusing to look back at what she'd just done.

Vapor was the next out, fumbling with her strap on her helmet as she fought to tear it off. She tripped over her hooves, Rainbow catching her and holding her until she calmed down enough to listen. "Hold it in until we're back to camp," Rainbow said quietly, lifting Vapor into a sitting position.

"B-but that was horrible! We... we just killed them. They were asleep, and couldn't even fight back and we just killed them!"

"I know Vapor, but we have a job to do, and we can't let what we think and feel get in the way of that." Rainbow caught her reflection in Vapor's goggles, seeing her own tired eyes reflected back at her. She hated herself a little for making Vapor more like herself. "I'm sorry Vapor."

Vapor sighed and pulled her goggles up to wipe her eyes. "No, you're right. I really don't think I could do that again though."

"Hopefully you'll won't have to," Rainbow said as the others left the tent behind Vapor, all of them appearing to be disgusted as she was about what they'd done. To their left the thestrals left their tent, seemingly no different for having killed a bunch of griffons in a vile and unmerciful way. It made Rainbow wonder just what kind of training they received to be able to do that, and why they'd need that kind of ability in the first place.

"All clear?" Shadow asked, getting a nod back from Lightning. "Good. Now let's see what these birds with cats' asses have been digging up on us."

"Hopefully they haven't caught wind of what we're up to in Las Pegasus," Lightning said, walking beside Shadow to the third tent. "Last thing we need is them anticipating our ambush."

"I think we're in luck," Shadow said with a grin, poring over a map of the local area. There were annotations on it mentioning the build-up of Equestrian forces by the train tunnel leading to Ponyville, and that the Night Guard were patrolling further south, but that was it. The military build-up north of Las Pegasus was unmentioned.

"Perfect," Shadow purred with a toothy grin. "All we need to do now is to make a show of operating around Ponyville, and the trap is as good as set." Shadow stopped and twitched and ear, "Shit, we have incoming griffons from the south. Seems like Greywhisker's getting sloppy in his dotage. Get your ponies back into the woods and we'll ambush them."

Lightning ran back out of the tent, whispering as loud as she dared for her Wonderbolts to get back into the trees. They'd only just made it when a quartet of griffons came in to land.

"What the fuck 'appened 'ere?" One of the griffons shouted, finding the two dead bodies of the griffons in the intelligence tent. "Check the other tents, quick!" Two of the other griffons ran to the other tents, pulling them open to reveal the grizzly scenes within.

"They... they're all dead!" a griffon hen cried, recoiling from the smell of the blood. "Even the Shade!"

"Shit... We need to get this info back to Faust now! If they catch her forces in that ambush, it'll be a massacre. We'll split up, give ourselves a better chance of one of us getting a warning back to 'er." The griffon spread his wings to take off, only to have a thestral drop onto his back from above, killing him with a single thrust of her weapon.

"Now!" Shadow shouted as the other griffons tried to take off in shock. One was quickly cut down by Lightning, being quicker off the mark than even Rainbow. The other two took off, but one was intercepted by the ponies in the air, and quickly fell back to the ground, as lifeless as the rest of them. The last one evaded his attackers though, and took off as fast as he could.

"Rainbow!" Lightning shouted, taking off after him.

"On it!" Rainbow jumped into the air, pumping her wings as fast as she could. She caught up with Lightning after a moment, but the griffon had a head start over them, and was still building up speed. "Damn he's fast for a griffon!"

"We have to catch him or the trap in Pegasus is fucked! I don't care if you have to do a Rainboom! Just catch him!"

"I don't know if I can wearing this armour!" Rainbow shouted back. The helmet alone created enough drag to slow her down, let alone the rest of her gear.

"Just try!"

Rainbow nodded, putting her all into speed. The other disadvantage was that she wasn't using gravity for this either. Sure she didn't need to be flying downwards to do a Sonic Rainboom, but it made it a lot easier, and might even have overcome the drag from her armour.

"Winners never quit Rainbow! Come on!" Rainbow shouted at herself pushing herself harder, the wind whistling off the tips of her blades as a cone of air started to form around them. She pushed even harder, knowing she was going to feel it later, but knowing it was worth it as the air around her flashed as she came close to breaking that unseen barrier. She pushed even harder, and the world exploded with colour around her as she broke that barrier and created a Sonic Rainboom, which she shot out of the other side of like a cork out of a champagne bottle, wind resistance no longer a factor.

The griffon was easily caught up with after that, and she was suddenly presented with a new issue after that, of how to attack the griffon at such a speed. She wasn't given much time to think about it, and she swept her right leg down across his back as she rapidly approached him on his left. The attack was successful, almost tearing the griffon in half, but at the same time she screamed as the bones in her leg shattered from the high speed attack.

She tumbled through the air as the laws of physics reasserted themselves upon her, and she wobbled down to a landing on a tree, howling in agony from her broken leg, distant parts of her mind watching the remnants of her Sonic Rainboom dissipate.

Slowly her leg went numb, burning with distant sensation of being both hot and cold as adrenaline coursed through her. By the time Lightning caught up to her she was no longer howling, but sat quietly as she clutched her leg.

"Holy shit Rainbow! We wanted them to know we were here, and I think that mig-" Lightning cocked her head as Rainbow rocked back and forth, her right leg protectively held in her left, the blade still attached to it. "Rainbow? What's wrong?"

"My leg... it's broken."

"Aw shit. Here, let me have a look." Lightning gently eased Rainbow's left leg away from her right, and immediately pulled a face at the way it bent. "Yeah, that's broken. Here, let me get that blade off." Lightning nudged her hip up against Rainbow's right hoof, using her holster to ease the blade off as Rainbow hissed, catching it before it fell to the ground and sliding it back into its sheath.

"Come on Rainbow, let's go before griffons come looking for us. Hopefully they can get you fixed up back at camp. After all, it might be a busy day tomorrow."
> 32. Not how we imagined it
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What's the news General Stormguard?" Luna asked, finding herself in a strangely good mood despite everything. If what had happened last night worked, the Mareitanians would find themselves falling into a trap, and that ability to take control of the situation, even if for a short while, was worth being cheerful about as far as Luna was concerned.

"Not much news at the moment Princess. There's some concern over Faust splitting her forces and attacking both here and Ponyville, so I've taken the precaution of ordering the tunnel to Ponyville be rigged to collapse should they attack there, which would also, hopefully, further encourage them to attack down here. Hopefully it won't come to that, but I'd rather we be prepared."

"Very good General. Assuming that we can hold them here, we may force them to go north, which is a dangerous route for them indeed." Luna smiled and nodded to herself as things were starting to look up. "Is everything prepared here?"

"The bridge is rigged to collapse, the cannons are set up and hidden, and the Hard Corps assure me that their part of the trap has been prepared, so everything should be ready."

"Excellent. All we have to do now is wait."


-0-0-0- 


"I think you're determined to hurt yourself," Pinkie said decisively as she loomed over Rainbow Dash in the middle of getting her leg healed. "I think you should stop that."

"Thanks Pinkie," Rainbow said with sarcasm heavy enough for Pinkie to pick up on. "I'll be sure to remember that the next time I break my leg."

"And you should. I don't even want to imagine what would go through your head if your squadron was out fighting, and you had to stay here in this cramped little tent unable to do anything. You'd probably go nuts!"

"Do you seriously think I enjoy getting hurt Pinkie? Because let me tell you, I really don't. The only reason I did this was because I really needed to stop that griffon getting away. And... also because I didn't think this would happen." Rainbow moved her leg a little, hissing as pain shot through it.

"Y'know, this is going to take longer if you don't stop moving," the unicorn medic waving the healing device over Rainbow's leg grumbled. "It's not like I have unlimited magic either," she added. "I'm probably going to need some for later."

"Sorry," Rainbow sighed, resolving to stop moving.

"At least it's fixing your ear a bit," Pinkie said, seeing the look on Rainbow's face. "Silver linings and all that."

Rainbow didn't respond straight away, having something on her mind since the night before. "Pinkie, have you had to do something in this war that you really don't agree with? Besides the fighting and killing that is."

"I'm not really sure what else there is to disagree with there then," Pinkie replied seriously, sensing from Rainbow's tone of voice that this wasn't the best time to joke around. 

"Alright, I probably could have said that better. Do you think there's a right way and a wrong way to kill in a war? Y'know, the difference between killing a soldier on the battlefield, and killing one while he's... unable to fight back."

"You mean like a prisoner? Everypony knows killing prisoners is wrong Rainbow. Did somepony make you kill a prisoner? Or did you kill them while they were trying to surrender? Or-"

"No Pinkie, there were no prisoners, so I didn't do either of those."

Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh good."

"I killed a pony... in his sleep." Rainbow cringed as Pinkie gawped at her. Even the medic turned her head away in what Rainbow assumed to be disgust.

"What? Why would you do that?!" Pinkie shrieked.

"I didn't want to!"

"Then why do it?"

"Because we were out with the Night Guard last night, and they altered our mission and made us... do what we did." Rainbow felt a lingering desire to cry, only partly at the way Pinkie was looking at her. That she couldn't bothered her almost as much as what they were talking about. "We weren't supposed to do that, and I shouldn't have to tell you that isn't what the Wonderbolts are about, but we did it anyway..."

"You should've refused."

"But refusing to follow orders is a whole different problem! And those griffons and that pony would've been killed anyway!"

"But it wouldn't have been you doing it!"

"I wasn't given a choice at the time!" Rainbow regretted telling Pinkie now. She wasn't even sure why she brought it up, apart from some self destructive need for somepony to tell her she was a bad pony, rather than hear the rest of her squadron reassuring each other it was the right thing to do. It wasn't, even if it somehow was.

"You always have a choice Rainbow," Pinkie said, lowering her voice a bit. "Would you do it again?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean 'I don't know.' I don't want to do it again, but we don't always get to choose."

"Of course you do! You don't want to- to- to kill ponies like that, and you don't have to! If you can't see that, then I'll just go to Luna to make sure this never has to happen again!"

"Who do you think gave the Night Guard those orders in the first place? They answer directly to Luna, Pinkie. Who do you think had them trained to do those kinds of things without hesitating? Luna understands what we're doing better than any of us, and she knows what it's going to take to win this war!"

"That doesn't mean what she orders us to do is right!"

"Are you seriously taking the high ground here Pinkie? You're helping to trap hundreds, if not thousands of ponies in what is going to be a massacre! On. Luna's. Orders. You can't seriously tell me that's any better than what I did to make sure that trap works!"

"At least they have a chance to surrender! That pony you killed didn't! That makes a whole lot of difference!" Pinkie wiped the moisture out of her eyes, unsure when the tears had built up. "You asked me if there was a right or wrong way to kill in this war Rainbow. I'm not sure there's a right way, but there seems to be an awful lot of wrong ones, and some of those are a lot worse than others." Pinkie stood and walked to the exit, then stopped. "Get well soon Rainbow," she said before leaving without giving Rainbow a chance to say anything else.

"Aww... fuck!" Rainbow cursed once Pinkie was gone, slamming her head down on the pillow in frustration. "Why the fuck did I even say any of that? I'm so fucking stupid!"

"Hey!" the unicorn growled. "Quit moving or this'll heal crooked... or something, I don't know, I have no idea how this thing works. But stop moving anyway."

"Who even cares?"

"I do, funnily enough," the unicorn retorted. "It's kind of my job to."

"Alright then, if you care so much, what's your opinion on what I did?"

"Seriously? You followed orders that you shouldn't have been given. I think that actually makes you the consummate soldier. In my semi professional medical opinion, you either deal with it, or you let it eat you from the inside. Your choice. You friend will have to do the same."

Rainbow gave the unicorn a sceptical look, "How are you just a medic?"

The unicorn shrugged back, "The difference between you and me is that while we both understand orders, only one of us could bring ourselves to follow them, and that pony isn't me. Now stop letting this get to you, because you killed one of the enemy, and they'd probably do the same to you if they had to."


-0-0-0-


"What's up with you?" Limestone asked Pinkie as the pink mare slunk back into their tent and sat down, hugging herself.

"This war's destroying everything I love," Pinkie said weakly, tears running down her cheeks.

"Ooookay..." said Limestone, drawing the word out. "I feel like I should remind everypony that we could have stayed at home, but that'd probably be insensitive of me."

"Our home lies between Las Pegasus and Appleloosa," said Maud, who was watching Pinkie very carefully. "I think I'd rather be here where we have a chance to protect Mother and Father from the Mareitanians, than on the farm with them when the Mareitanians come."

Limestone grunted, neither conceding or denying the point. Instead she sat next to Pinkie and tried her best to be sisterly. "What happened?" she asked, awkwardly patting Pinkie on the back.

"I had an argument with Rainbow. She did something really bad, but she was just following orders. I said she should have refused to, but she said that this trap wouldn't work if she hadn't, then said that what we're doing to help the trap was just as bad. Now I don't know what to think."

"What could she have possibly done that could be that bad?"

"She killed a pony in his sleep."

Limestone shrugged at Pinkie's revelation, having been expecting something that at least sounded worse. "That's not great I suppose. Probably beats bleeding out on the battlefield, screaming for help that isn't coming though. Almost sounds peaceful compared to that."

"What?" Pinkie gasped in disbelief. "Are you kidding me? Killing a pony like that in cold blood is- is... it's horrible!"

"I'd rather them than me," Limestone said back. "I hate to say it Pinkie, but I'm agreeing with Rainbow on this one. Sure it sucks, but if that's what you have to do to win, then what of it?"

Pinkie blinked in disbelief, "Has everypony gone mad? You're with me aren't you Maud?"

Maud looked down and shook her head, "As bad as killing a pony like that is, what you want requires us to give mercy at a time when we can't afford to. I am sorry Pinkie, but I don't think I can agree with either side on this really."

"And this is what I meant when I said this war is destroying everything I love," Pinkie said, hugging herself a little tighter.

"Then you need to stop thinking you're above it," said Limestone. "You wanted to come here, so you don't get to bitch about not liking it. You knew killing would happen, and you knew we'd all have to do these things. Really Pinkie, speaking as both your sister and your commanding officer, you're kinda going to have to suck it up a bit, and not judge ponies for doing what they have to."

"B-but-"

"No. No but's. Now get up and pull yourself together because we have work to do. Marble said that she thinks some parts of the trap might not collapse right, so we better get back there and make sure it all works perfectly. Frankly I refuse to be the ones getting the blame if this fucks up."


-0-0-0-


"Knock knock," Lightning said as cheerfully as she could, entering the medical tent to find Rainbow flexing her formerly broken leg. "Oh hey, you're all fixed up?"

"I guess so," Rainbow said hesitantly. "It aches like you wouldn't believe. Doc says that should pass though, and that I'm fit enough for duty again." That Rainbow suspected the unicorn was maybe lying about it was irrelevant. She knew how much Rainbow wanted to be ready for when the attack came, and in return Rainbow appreciated her discretion.

"Is it good to go though?" Lightning asked, totally unaware of how the Sparkle Healing Devices even worked, let alone how fast. She was honestly expecting Rainbow to be out for a week, so having her ready to go in less than twelve hours was great. "Can you walk on it?"

Rainbow pushed herself off the bed and gingerly brought her leg to the ground, slowly adding more weight to it until she was standing naturally. It still just ached, which was neither good or bad. At the very least it didn't hurt. "I think I'm good."

"Sweet." Lightning nodded her appreciation to the medic then led Rainbow out of the tent, "We've heard from Equis that a large troop train has departed from Vanhoover, and Luna thinks the attack must be coming soon. We need to be ready for when they get here."

"And here I was thinking they'd be here sooner. What if they go to Ponyville?"

"Heck if I know," Lightning replied with a shrug. "I've heard the train tunnel was set to collapse if they try to go up there, so I guess Ponyville's probably safe enough."

"Oh good," Rainbow breathed, feeling relieved that they had a back-up plan to protect Ponyville. There was something else on her mind though, about what had happened the night before. "Is everyone alright after last night?"

"More or less. Vapor was a bit shaken up over it, but she's... managing with it. Honestly, as much as I love Vapor, I really would consider washing her out if we didn't need the ponies. We can't keep running into this problem with her, but if we lose her we probably lose Sky as well." Lightning shook her head, dismissing her worries. "The rest of us are staying on top of it though."

"And what did Spitfire have to say about it?"

"Plenty, but due to the success of the operation, Luna's just brushing it under the carpet. She claims that the Wonderbolts should be prepared for all kinds of missions, completely missing the problem where Captain Greywhisker pretty much hijacked our squadron for his own objectives, while ignoring what we were originally ordered to do."

"Oh good," Rainbow said sarcastically, "that just means it can happen again. Yay."

"Yeah, well, we'll see." Lightning led Rainbow over to the rest of their Squadron as they were preparing for the battle. Cloud and Thunderlane gave her a friendly smile and a nod, while the rest were wrapped up in what they were doing, amongst the thousands of other ponies doing the same. Lessons about overconfidence had been learnt over the last month by all of them, and they all seemed grimly determined to apply those lessons, hard learnt as they were.

"This'd look a lot more impressive if the Crystal Legion, Exiles, and Mustangians were here," Thunderlane said as she looked around the masses. "I hope they can hold the Mareitanians if Faust does go for Ponyville."

"Apparently they're going to blow the train tunnel if she does that," Rainbow said back, giving Cloud a smile as the purple mare passed her flight suit over.

"And do you think that's really going to stop her. What's to stop her pulling the same thing here with the illusions that she did in Vanhoover?"

"The difficulty of creating a convincing illusion of a train," Spitfire said as she wandered over to them. "At least that's what Luna says." Spitfire smiled at Rainbow, "Good to see you back on your hooves Dash."

Rainbow saluted Spitfire, a cheeky grin working its way onto her face as she spread her wings. "You know a busted leg wouldn't slow me down that much ma'am."

"Glad to hear it, but don't go pushing yourself for no reason. Anyway, I came to tell you that the train should be here in the next hour, although we've received reports that a second train has departed Vanhoover. Whether that train's coming here or going to Ponyville is unknown, but the Crystal legion has been informed, and hopefully they can handle it."

Rainbow shared a worried look with her wingmates, but neither of them had anything to say on it. If everypony says the ponies there can handle it, then maybe it might be true.

"What will we be doing?" Lightning asked as Rainbow swallowed and turned back towards Spitfire.

"The Air Corps are taking care of the bombing, so all we'll be doing is attacking the rear of the train to stop ponies getting away and telling whoever sent them about the trap. If we can catch another train in the trap, then all the better. I'm not going lie though, we'll be staying away from the train for a while because with that much iron and shrapnel flying around... yeah, you don't want to be anywhere close to that."

"So we're just going to stop them getting away with a warning?" Lightning asked, wanting to be sure. "What about the actual fight? What if griffons turn up?"

"Then the griffons become our priority, but our intelligence ponies still have no idea where most of the griffons are. It seems unlikely we'll see them in any serious numbers if at all. As it is, we'll be watching the rear, while the rest of them batter the Mareitanians into submission or oblivion. Whichever comes first. If the Mareitanians do put up a fight I'll leave it to you to decide what to do, since your squadron seems to make its own decisions anyway."

"Yes ma'am," Lightning said dutifully, saluting Spitfire. "Are we staying on the ground or in high altitude until the trap is sprung?"

"You know, Fire Streak never asked me these sorts of questions," Spitfire said with a sad smile. "We'll be sticking to the ground until the trap is sprung, but after that you have your orders."

Lightning saluted again, getting one in return. She held it until Spitfire left, then sighed. "Light on the details, as usual."

"Aww c'mon Lightning," Rainbow said playfully. "You know that just means we have flexibility."

"Yep, the flexibility to get ourselves killed, instead of letting those in charge do it."


-0-0-0-


Luna was waiting, trusty binoculars held in her magic as the moment of their attack arrived. The pit they'd dug around the cannon to lower it out of sight was chilling her hooves with its dampness, and the camouflage netting over it kept catching on her horn, but she honestly didn't care. The time had finally come to test the cannons out in a proper battle, and it left her feeling giddy as a schoolfilly.

A faint plume of smoke was visible in the distance, slowly drawing closer. There had been no further news on the second train to leave Vanhoover, so for now they could only deal with what was in front of them, which so happened to be the first step of putting up some serious resistance after the debacles at Vanhoover and the Crystal Empire. Maybe now Faust would treat them as an actual threat. Maybe Faust would treat her as a threat.

"Two miles," Luna said out loud. "One mile," she said a minute later. The train was in full view now, and showed no signs of slowing, which was absolutely perfect. She gripped the plunger in front of her with her magic, keeping a careful eye on the train. Blow the bridge too soon and the train could maybe stop in time. Too late, and the Equestrians had several tons of steel flying towards them at speed, which was less than ideal.

Luna counted it down until the train was ten seconds from the bridge, then pressed the plunger down, igniting the bridge with a fiery inferno that destroyed it utterly, collapsing it into the river with a boom that threatened to deafen all there. It also left the train with nowhere to go, apart from down into the river as it sailed off the tracks, having not had the time to even put the brakes on, let alone actually slow down.

The long, sleek engine crashed down into the river, creating a splash that almost reached the Equestrians on the opposite side as the train's momentum carried it through the river and up the bank on the other side, dragging its carriages with it until its sudden loss of momentum made them start to violently pile up.

The first carriage was crushed beneath the second as the coupling broke, allowing it to ride up over the one in front. The carriage after that pushed to the left, dragging the ones after it until the speed of the carriages behind overtook it, piling carriage after carriage into the one before until the main source of their momentum joined them in the form of a quartet of tanks being transported.

The chains holding the tanks secure broke, allowing the tanks to fly free of the wreckage, but doing nothing to save the tanks themselves as they smashed themselves to pieces on the wreckage, and were similarly crushed by the next carriage, and the next out of the two dozen carriages there were, until there was no more to come, the last few supporting the weight of some that dangled off the end of the shattered bridge.

Luna had watched all of this, wide-eyed with shock, amazement, and horror. In her mind the train would simply crash down into the river and grind to a halt. She had never seen a train wreck before, and never had she envisioned the carnage involved in one. She watched as everything went still and silent, then more explosions started as the Hard Corps completed the trap.


-0-0-0-


"Do it!" Limestone shouted at Azure, prompting the purple mare to slam her hooves down on the plunger, setting off a string of charges through the carefully dug tunnel that went in a semi circle from the river bank above the train tracks, around the rear of the train, and back to the river.

Hours of digging by dozens of ponies besides those of the Hard Corps, had created a large tunnel that was shored up and rigged to collapse, creating a trench around the train that effectively trapped the ponies on a small island, unable to really escape as the waters of the river flooded through the newly created channel.

It was besides the point that the channel they'd created was far larger than required after Luna's misjudgement of how far the train would still travel during the crash.

"Oh yeah..." Azure sighed as the explosions set off, collapsing the ground they'd undermined. "I'm touching myself tonight."

"Shut up and come on!" Limestone shouted at her, dragging her deeper into the woods out of sight. "We need to get back to the other side of the river before they work out we're here."

"Alright, sheesh. Excuse a mare for liking things that go boom." Azure ran after Limestone through the woods, heading towards a small rowboat that had been given to them to make their way to safety after completing their task. The others were already there waiting for them as the two mares piled into the boat, letting Maud and Top Spin start rowing them to the other side.

"Who knew mining was a useful skill in a war?" Limestone remarked as they pushed out into the river. "Anyway, I'd call this a total success. Good job guys."

"Yeah, go us," Pinkie said sadly, watching traces of red in the water passing by.


-0-0-0-


"Should we open fire Princess?"

Luna shut her mouth with a click, her mind still caught on what was happening in front of her as it continued to progress. Even with the new channel, the train was still blocking much of the river, and the water building up behind it was starting to flood through the carriages. Those ponies lucky enough to survive the crash now stood a chance of drowning instead.

"Princess, should we open fire?" General Stormguard asked again.

"Nay, hold your fire until we know whether the survivors intend to attack us." Truthfully Luna wished to aid the survivors before they succumbed to the water, but she knew that was to invite a knife into her back as she had no idea how the brainwashed Mareitanians would react. Would they rather die trying to fight? Or would they recognise their defeat and accept their help? It didn't seem practical to risk her soldiers if the former was true.

Luna hauled herself out of the pit and carefully walked down to the river bank, stopping in front of where the crumpled engine was still hissing steam from the splits in its boiler. A pony was crawling up the bank towards her, his body covered in lacerations that left a trail of red behind him.

He stopped at Luna's armoured hooves, uttering his thanks to Faust for sparing him and having found somepony to help him, unaware of whose hooves it was before him until Luna's silence made him look up into her face and see the waves of pegasi taking to the air behind her. "Oh fuck."

More ponies started to fight their way out of the wreckage and make for dry land as the river washed through the stricken carriages. Luna pulled some of them up to safety, then took to the air to help others as the Wonderbolts and the Air Corps circled around, unsure of what to do.

"Your Highness!" Stormguard shouted up at Luna as she pulled more Mareitanians to safety. "What are your orders?"

"Move forwards and secure the wreckage. Help those you can and take them prisoner. Eliminate those that fight back, should there be any."


-0-0-0-


"You've got to be kidding me," Rainbow said in disbelief. "Now she wants us to rescue them? All this effort to set up this whole thing, and Luna wants us to save as many as we can because she, what, regrets it?"

"I really don't think there's that many survivors," Lightning said back. "I don't see how there could be. That crash was beyond brutal. Anyway, less bitching, more doing."

"Yes ma'am." Rainbow flew down to the roof of a carriage that had settled on top of the others, safely out of the rising waters of the river. She pulled the door open, and recoiled at the blood splatters and dead ponies within. However this carriage had ended up on top, it was not a peaceful journey. There was some survivors though, and Rainbow dove back out of the door as a unicorn shot at her with their magic.

"Hey assholes, I'm not here to fight you, I'm here to help." 

"And how are we to know your help doesn't mean cutting our throats?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes and sighed, "Okay, I can see why you mightn't believe me, but we're really trying to help you. Put simply, if you surrender and come with me, you'll be taken prisoner, and get to live worshipping your Lady's fat ass. Fight back, and we'll be forced to deal with you. Your choice."

"And why should we possibly believe you after doing something like this?"

"Let me put it this way, if I'm lying, you're dead anyway, so what have you got to lose? And you're the ones invading us jackass. If you don't like how we're fighting back, feel free to go home and stay there!"

Rainbow huffed and crossed her legs as the ponies inside deliberated over her offer. Nopony else seemed to be having to talk it over as they pulled ponies from the wreckage and out of the river. She was about to yell at them for wasting her time when a crash to the left of her made her jump as the carriages dangling off the bridge lost their fight against gravity, along with the ponies inside.

"For fuck sake! Will you guys hurry up? Ponies are dying out here while you're wasting time."

"Alright, we surrender."

Rainbow sighed harshly with relief, "Finally. I want you to step out here one at a time and head right towards our forces. And leave your weapons behind, or I will remove them from you forcefully."

To reinforce her point, Rainbow drew her weapons and hovered by the door of the carriage as the ponies inside stepped out one at a time. Rainbow pointed in the direction they should go, and kept an eye on them as they clambered slowly over the wreckage, the injuries they sustained slowing them. For all the bodies Rainbow had seen in the carriage, only a dozen had survived.

Once they'd made it to the river bank, they were gathered up by the Equestrian ground forces and kept under guard on the bank, well in front of the threatening collection of cannons and unicorns that were prepared to attack should they try anything.

Rainbow moved on, sheathing her weapons once those ponies were somepony else's problem. Her ears pricked at a shout for help from the side of the wreckage facing upstream, and when she went to investigate she found a white stallion in a bloodied uniform struggling to free himself from between two carriages as the river rose around his chest.

"Hold on!" Rainbow zipped down to the stallion and grabbed his hooves, bracing herself against the carriage to pull him free. With a grunt from her, and a cry from him, she pulled him free, falling over backwards with him landing on top.

"Thanks," the stallion said with genuine sounding gratitude. Rainbow was about to tell him he was welcome when the earth pony slammed a hoof down on her gut as hard as he could. Rainbow cried out in pain, and didn't even try to stop the stallion as he ran. He didn't get far though as Spitfire landed heavily on the carriage in front of him, her blades held ready to fight.

"Hello Snowbright," Spitfire said with a hard edge to her voice. "Sorry, General Snowbright. How's the 'stabbing us in the back after all we did for you' business going?"

Snowbright scowled at Spitfire, "Don't act like you're better than us. You fight for ponies that betrayed both us and you by forcing you to fight a war you cannot hope to win."

"Sure, sure. Well if you're not too busy, I'll be accepting your surrender now. Let's see how Faust does without you holding her hoof."

"I think you'd be surprised how little she requires me to do that." Snowbright narrowed his eyes, making clear his intent to attack, then cried out in pain and fell as Rainbow dragged a blade across his back legs, cutting deep into the flesh above the knees.

"You have a really shitty way of thanking ponies that save your life, you know that?" Rainbow spat and sheathed her weapon, clutching her leg around her stomach which hurt considerably after the larger pony had hit her there. "Permission to make him a gelding ma'am?"

"Denied," Spitfire said with an odd amount of glee. "We have rules about mistreating prisoners of war, even though the ink that wrote them is barely dry yet." Spitfire grinned at Snowbright as he cursed at her, "That's right, you're a prisoner of war now. Congratulations. Rainbow, go get Luna."

Rainbow saluted and took off slowly, her hoof still held protectively to her gut. She found Luna overseeing the prisoners on the riverbank, and landed beside her. "Princess? We found somepony you might be interested in."

"Oh? And who might th-" Luna stopped as she saw Rainbow's hunched up stance, with her hoof held to her stomach. "Are you alright Rainbow?"

"Yeah, I got punched. I'll be fine."

"If you say so. Now, who is this pony you found?"

"General Snowbright. The Captain's keeping an eye on him.

"Take me to him," Luna said quickly, surprised that such a high profile pony like him were here on a mere troop transport. She flew ahead of Rainbow when she saw both Spitfire and the General, and landed on the carriage roof with a solid, intimidating thud. "Hello Snowbright," she said coldly. It was gratifying to see him like this, but that wasn't enough to override her anger.

"Oh good, Princess Luna. Just the pony I was hoping to see."

"Is that so?"

"It is, although I was hoping our places would be the other way around. It's good to see you're sticking with the destructive, overblown tactics typical of you Equestrians. I'm sure Twilight would be proud, wherever she is."

Luna smiled at that casually tossed out bit of information there. It seemed that the Mareitanians really didn't have any idea where Twilight was, which was a relief. It was just too bad that nopony besides Twilight and her friends really knew where Twilight was.

"A lot of this is your fault Snowbright, more than you know. Your dislike of Equestria is what she based a large amount of her mind control magic on."

"Mind control magic? What mind control magic?"

"The mind control magic that allowed her to take control of you, the Council, and the entirety of Mareitania in the space of a few months and lead you into this foolish war. But of course you wouldn't know about that, as that's how mind control works. Perhaps we should start with a simpler question. How many ponies are on this train?"

"A couple thousand," Snowbright replied easily, not even trying to hide it. "I imagine there's a lot less now."

"And what were you hoping to accomplish by coming here?"

"To set up a vanguard for when the rest of our forces arrive. Come on Luna, you don't need to be a tactical genius to work out what we were going to do here."

Luna scowled at Snowbright, "You say that, but here you are falling into our trap. I take it you had no idea we'd be here?"

"Our griffons reported that you'd driven them from the south, and had attempted to push them further north than the Smokey Mountains. We thought with you so focussed on finding them, we'd be able to get here without too much difficulty. It seems we were wrong."

"Very wrong."

"Princess, we have a problem."

Luna closed her eyes and sighed through her nose, then reopened them to find a pegasus of the Air Corp hovering nearby, looking nervous to be the bearer of bad news. "What is it?"

"A couple hundred of the survivors have organised themselves on the island," the pegasus said, pointing across the river to the land now cut off after the Hard Corps collapsed their tunnels. "The other survivors are heading towards them now. We've also lost some that were swept downriver, so there's a chance they might get a warning back."

"And today was going so well." Luna dragged Snowbright up by his collar until they were face to face, "Tell them to stand down."

"Sure, I'll just walk over there shall I?"

Luna spread her wings and took flight, dragging Snowbright up after her. She held him in front to discourage any of the Mareitanians taking pot-shots at her, and stopped just within shouting range. "Go on then, tell them to stand down."

Snowbright sighed and nodded once, "Stand down soldiers. There's no point in getting yourselves killed when you can't win. Hint-hint," he added, looking back at Luna out of the corner of his eye.

"We'll have to see how good your odds of winning are after today," Luna growled back quietly.

"I'd say they're still considerably in our favour."

"Mm-hmm..." Luna hummed as her fliers moved in on the survivors. "The second train that left Vanhoover after yours. Where is it going?"

"Ponyville."

"I don't believe you."

"Oh, well, it's coming here then." Snowbright grinned cockily back at Luna, "What? Still don't believe me? There's only two places they can possibly go to, so take your pick."

Luna ignored him and tried to think. The problem here, Luna considered, was numbers. Not her own, but that of the Mareitanians. Faust had tens of thousands of soldiers at her disposal, and yet had sent a couple thousand here on a train, and a couple thousand more on another. What about the rest of her soldiers? What were they doing.

"Y'know, I am bleeding quite heavily here," Snowbright said as Luna was thinking. "I'm not above asking to not bleed to death."

Now she was listening, she could hear the pain in Snowbright's voice. "Very well, my questioning of you shall have to wait anyway until I know what will happen next at least." Luna breathed deeply and lit her horn, forming a bridge over the river using her magic. Shortly after her ponies started shooing the prisoners across it. "Captain Spitfire?"

Spitfire saluted crisply, partly to make a show of it for Snowbright. "Yes ma'am?"

"Begin organising your Wonderbolts and the Air Corps to start performing sweeps of the woods to find any Mareitanians hoping to get this news back to Faust. I also want you to send your fastest flier up to Ponyville, because I suspect that they might be in trouble soon. If Ponyville is under attack, they have orders to tell them to collapse the tunnel and start making their way down here. In fact, they have orders to tell them to do that even if they aren't under attack."

"Down here? What about Ponyville?"

"The mountains will protect Ponyville, for now at least, but that won't help us here. You have your orders Captain."

Spitfire saluted again, "Yes ma'am. Rainbow, did you get all that?"

"Off you go then, and try not to take too long."


-0-0-0-


Rainbow had seen the smoke for a while, and it was with considerable relief she saw it was coming from the west side of the mountains, and not Ponyville itself.

Still, the smoke was bad news, and as she got closer she could see an army preparing to attack, three times the size of the one that was going to attack Las Pegasus. Six tanks, and thousands of ponies all set up to attack a peaceful farming village. It was enough to make you sick, especially considering that Ponyville held no particular advantage to either side, other than as a halfway point between Vanhoover and the east coast. It just happened to lie along the train tracks, which seemed to be dictating the direction of the war.

Rainbow angled away from the Mareitanians towards Ponyville, seeing that their side was preparing to put up a fight. Either they hadn't seen what they were up against, or they were determined to follow their orders to the letter. It didn't take a birds-eye view to see that when those tanks rolled in it was going to be a massacre.

Over the mountain was a different story, and where the Exiles were all waiting on the ground for their next move, whatever that was. Rainbow suspected they were planning an ambush, but it would only take one of them in the air to see how fruitless that would be. A hundred adepts could hold off that ambush long enough to get their forces through the tunnel.

There was a small island of calm amongst the pegasi, and it was there that Rainbow found Shining Armour, grimly watching the tunnel like he expected the Mareitanians to come running through at any moment.

"Shining Ar- I mean, General Armour!" Rainbow landed hard besides Shining Armour, panting from the flight up. "What are you doing? There's like six thousand Mareitanians about to attack you!"

"I am aware Rainbow Dash, and I've planned for it."

"You have?"

"Indeed. I was planning to draw them in then detonate the tunnel. You didn't think I was just going to leave my ponies out there to die did you?"

"Uh..." Rainbow cleared her throat awkwardly, "Sorry sir. I guess this means they approached our bait in the wrong way by attacking here where we were supposedly strongest."

"Or they saw right through it," said Shining. "Did your trap fail?"

"Nah, it worked fine. We didn't even need those cannon things because the train crash was enough to take most of them out, and the rest surrendered. We also captured General Snowbright."

Shining hummed thoughtfully, "I see. Faust must be pulling the strings herself and be leading this attack then, unless she's picked up some other ponies to be in charge." Shining shrugged and shook his head, "I suppose that makes little difference. Anyway, was there something you wanted Rainbow?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I have orders from the Princess. She wants you to blow the tunnel and start heading towards Las Pegasus. I think she wants to funnel the Mareitanians down towards us there."

"No."

"No?" Rainbow was speechless for a moment after hearing that, and had to force the words out as she gestured wildly. "What do you mean 'no?'"

"I mean no, or at least not yet. I have a chance to thin our enemy out a little, and I intend to use it. Once that's done I will be sure to start moving to Las Pegasus as soon as I am able. If you have to, tell Luna we were already engaged when you got here."

"But- But-" Rainbow dragged her hooves down her face, only to get frustrated as they met her goggles. "You can't disobey the princess!"

"And I'm not. I'm assuming she gave orders on the premise that we might be under attack?" Rainbow nodded. "Then let's pretend that's what actually happened. Heck, give it a minute and it might be happening anyway."

Rainbow tapped a hoof as she thought, and found her objections to Shining's plan to be based entire on him not jumping to obey, which seemed like a flimsy thing to object on when he was a general, and probably knew what he was doing since his plan was pretty solid. "Alright, what can I do to help?"

"You could join the Exiles if you must, but I would suggest sitting this one out myself."

Rainbow thought about it and shrugged. Maybe she'd spent enough time in the line of fire recently, and it wouldn't kill her to pass up the opportunity to maybe get herself killed again. "Alright then."


-0-0-0-


It was nearly twenty minutes before the first explosion rang around the mountains as the Mareitanian tanks began their advance. That meant for Rainbow that it was nearly twenty minutes of sitting in Ponyville feeling like a guilty piece of shit for being part of the war disrupting Ponyville's peace and quiet. More than a few residents were watching from a distance despite Shining Armour's insistences' that they head to safety.

It was almost a relief when the attack began and she could think about that instead, even if she was only watching, overhearing the cracks of explosives, and the hollow booms of shields from those few Mage Corps unicorns they had to protect themselves with.

From their position they could see right through the tunnel, although the far end was little more than a pinprick of light that gave few clues about what was going on out the other side. If Shining Armour was right, their ponies should be pulling back, drawing the Mareitanians into the tunnel, and what would be a bottleneck on the Ponyville end. An advantage for the Equestrians, but the Mareitanians had to push through if they wanted to win the day. The reality would be much different.

The light in the tunnel changed colour, filtered by the shields protecting their forces as they pulled back through the tunnel. Then the light was cut in half as something large entered, and Shining cursed under his breath.

"What? It's only a tank."

"I know, but that's a problem. The Mareitanians are likely planning to use it as cover at this end, and we'll struggle to stop it if it makes it through. We'll have to blow the tunnel sooner than I planned. Oh well, costing them a tank is probably worth it."

It suddenly occurred to Rainbow that they were about to collapse the tunnel on what could be hundreds of ponies, then further figured out that she was actually rather indifferent to it, which might have been why it took her that long to figure out. Rather than sitting where she was agonising over it, she didn't really feel one way of the other very strongly. It was just something that had to be done.

The last of their ponies ran out of the tunnel, and Shining set his hoof on the detonator as they made their way to their hastily set up defences, waiting for the tank to be most of the way through before triggering the explosives. It was only when the tank was almost to the exit that he pushed his hoof down.

Explosion after explosion set off down the tunnel, tearing it apart from the inside. A hastily made shield around their end saved the Equestrians from the plume of flame and rock that erupted out of the tunnel. The Mareitanians weren't so lucky.

Massive chunks of rock rained from the ceiling, filling the tunnel completely. You could only hope that the explosions killed them before that, but either way it was a quick demise, unlike that of the tank which was crushed under the weight of the collapsing tunnel. Then it exploded further as the pressure triggered its payload, and Shining Armour's shield couldn't hold it back.

Shouts filled the area as the exploding tank sprayed shrapnel in a concentrated blast that tore the nearest defences, and the ponies behind them, to shreds. Those shouts turned to screams as those ponies still living made their agony known.

"Shit!" Shining swore. "That wasn't supposed to happen! Uh..." Shining grabbed his hooves in his head, no longer sure what to do. "Rush! Make your attack! Go!" The white and blue pegasus nodded and took off, the large number of Exiles following after her. Rainbow saw them fly over the mountain, then dive down, giving Rainbow enough of a clue to work out they were striking the Mareitanians in the confusion following what had just happened. "The rest of you, help the wounded!"

Rainbow ran forwards as the others did, skidding to a halt next to a crystal mare that had been shredded by shrapnel. Her face and chest were covered her blood, and her eyes... her eyes were something Rainbow would never forget. Rainbow tore her helmet off, then stood there not knowing what to do in the slightest as the mare screamed and screamed. All she had was a growing appreciation of the guts that medic pony that fixed her leg had to have to be able to do this while under fire, and felt bad for thinking otherwise.

"Move!"

Rainbow jumped aside as a medic ran up to the mare, took a quick look at her, then pulled a small package out of his pack. He tore the end off in his teeth to reveal a needle which he jabbed into the mare's flank. Seconds after that the mare relaxed slightly.

Rainbow looked up as the Exiles returned from their attack, most of them with bloodied blades, and some of them with injuries of their own. How they fought without armour Rainbow had no idea. She was so intent in watching them that she missed the medic shouting at her until he threw a stone at her.

"Hey! You listening?"

"Yeah! Sorry, I-uh... yeah."

"Good. See that stallion there?" The medic pointed at a large crystal stallion. Blood was pouring from a deep wound on his side. "Put pressure on the wound, and keep it there until I tell you to stop."

"Got it."


-0-0-0-


Rainbow experienced a new thing that day, which was to have ponies die when you were desperately trying to save them. Normally she was purposely trying to end the life of ponies, but to have them die when you wanted them to live? That was something else. It was worse than losing Fire Streak had been, because at least he knew it was coming, and had a chance to say his goodbyes. These ponies just expired in a haze of blood and agony.

The stallion had died despite the pressure she'd placed on his injury. The blood had kept coming, if only slightly slower, and from the dozen lesser cuts he'd sustained in the explosion. It had left Rainbow feeling so helpless it hurt as he gave up his fight to live.

The Mare had pulled through, even with all the cuts, and the loss of her eyes, and as Rainbow sat cradling her helmet in the quiet aftermath, she couldn't help but wonder if dying was a mercy the mare had been denied. She'd make a full recovery now, thanks to Twilight's invention, but the words 'full recovery' only really covered half the story.

Rainbow shuddered, and tears spilled down her cheeks, feeling strangely hot. She hugged her helmet to herself and cried, and personal image be damned, she felt a hell of a lot better for doing it. She only stopped when she felt a hoof touch her shoulder. It was Shining Armour.

"Sorry, I didn't want to disturb you particularly, but I'm afraid time is a luxury."

"How many did we lose?"

"More than we should have, but there's nothing we can do about it now. I've requested a train from Canterlot for the wounded and deceased, so once they're on their way we can start the trek down to Las Pegasus. Chances are we're going to need everypony to hold the Mareitanians back after today. I want you to head on back to Luna and tell her to expect us in two days or less, which will hopefully be before Faust gets there."

Rainbow nodded and rubbed her tears away, "Alright. Are the Exiles coming with me, or sticking with you?"

"They'll go with you in case Luna needs them."

Rainbow nodded and brushed a hoof back through her mane before dropping her helmet back onto her head. "Alright, two days. Piece of cake."
> 33. Opportunity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bon Bon didn't know which was worse, the fact that Fleur had failed to get in touch with her, or the dozen scenarios she had invented as to why that was, ranging from Fleur simply misplacing her part of their highly essential method of staying in contact, to the invasion of Canterlot. She knew that the invasion of Equestria had only really just started, so that seemed unlikely, but it was still in her head.

If Bon Bon had clear objectives she'd push on with them, but the time was quickly coming for a decision to be made concerning their attack on the Hayfield estate, and the nobles that would be there. Flicker was pushing for it to happen, while Honeydew was pushing against, and the rest of them were relying on Bon Bon to make a decision based on what Fleur said, and Fleur had said nothing.

Bon Bon groaned and smacked her hoof down on the speaker stone, frustrated at how things had gone. Their attempts at whittling down the Mareitanian war machine seemed to be having mixed results. Denying the enemy their production ability was in her mind a good way to slow them down, but the Mareitanians had invaded Equestria anyway, and seemed to be doing just fine ignoring the problem. They even seemed to be seeking out other means of arming themselves from smaller entities. Even your average blacksmith could hammer out a sword with a bit of know how and the right incentive.

If anything, their efforts were being undermined by increasing recruitment into the Mareitanian army. Ponies seemed more willing to fight Equestria when Equestria was aggressively blowing up their source of employment. It made the whole thing feel kind of pointless, even if those recruits weren't exactly the best equipped. A poorly equipped army can defeat a well equipped one half its size.

What they needed was a solid hit on Mareitania, and if Bon Bon was honest with herself, the attack on the nobles at the Hayfield estate didn't really sound like it. Not entirely. Killing Lord Hayfield himself seemed worth it, but not at the cost of killing what was potentially a large number of ponies that didn't need to die other than to fulfil Flicker's almost insane need to have them dead at her hooves. Was getting Lord Hayfield worth that cost?

Bon Bon didn't think so, and without any word from Fleur saying one way or the other, she was going to play it safe. Hopefully Flicker would understand, although Bon Bon doubted she would. The mare's need for revenge was shifting to a near psychotic degree as the time approached for Bon Bon to make a decision.

Bon Bon stood and brushed herself off, starting the process of walking back to camp. She'd spent quite a bit of time on her own in the woods over the last couple of days they'd spent there, just trying to get her mind back to some middle ground. The week before had been an almost nonstop trip around the country, doing everything they can to stymy Mareitania's production of war materials, so it was nice to have a little peace, even if it was spent fuming at the lack of direction from the pony in charge of her.

Their camp was a humble affair, with one tent shared between all six of them, and they'd scrounged all the marcs they could to buy it. Without management by pegasi or Faust, the weather was becoming increasingly stagnant, and it often rained as the aging clouds broke down and forged their own weather. As a result the tent became necessary. It did leave them wondering if the weather was turning wild without pegasi or Faust to maintain it. The griffons hadn't touched it once in the time Bon Bon knew them to be there, so it could be possible. Frankly none of them knew enough on the subject to be sure.

"Morning Chief," Rocky said cheerfully as he cooked something over a small fire that managed to be smokeless in the way only Rocky knew how to make them. "Any word?"

"Nothing," Bon Bon replied glumly. "I really do think something must have happened back in Equestria."

"And if something has? What then?"

"I... I don't know. We were never given any contingency plans in the event of Equestria falling, or Equis falling at least. I guess we'd have to go into hiding, because without the war to distract them they'd put a lot more focus into hunting us down. There'd be no point in getting ourselves caught, trying to fight a war that'd already been lost."

"Ah." Rocky nodded sagely, "I see you've reached the glum, introspective part of your mental journey.Really, I'm sure it can't be so bad as you're imagining."

"Or maybe it's worse. That's just it, we don't know." Bon Bon groaned and grabbed a tin mug, filling it from a pot of coffee that permanently lived on the edge of the fire. She downed half of it, topped her mug up, then sat by the fire, wishing for something so innocuous as a bagel for breakfast. "Where are the others?"

"Honey and Crème are still sleeping, and Tootsie and Flicker are off scouting the estate, since the gathering is tonight. I think Flicker's going to explode if you don't make your mind up soon."

"Actually I have made my mind up."

"And?"

"And... we're not doing it. That's a lot of ponies dead for the few that would actually make a difference. Although, if we can, I want to take Lord Hayfield out."

"You mean... kill him?"

Bon Bon rolled her eyes, "No, I meant dinner and a show. I have no idea what you're thinking of."

Rocky ignored the sarcastic reply, "And what if there are other Council members there? Are we going to go for them too? Make it a double date?"

"Then yes, although from what we know of the Council, the only other one we can expect to be there is Ivory Spire, and that's a maybe." Bon Bon sipped at her coffee, then shrugged, "Perhaps we should focus on the one pony we definitely know will be there, as I'm pretty sure killing Ivory Spire, and probably Daybreak, wouldn't make us any friends back home."

Rocky snorted a laugh, "At the risk of upsetting our pay masters, who cares what they think? These ponies are heavily involved in starting this war, so who gives a fuck if them and a few of ours were friends once?"

"Yes they might have had a hoof in starting this war, but should we actually stop Faust, they might be the only ones that can end it."

"Perhaps," Rocky admitted with a shrug. "But if that's true, why kill Hayfield?"

"Because he speaks for the ponies that run most of the industries. Those same industries we've been dismantling for the last fortnight. Those nobles are probably in a complete panic by now, so imagine what they'll be like if Hayfield gets killed. It might undermine their support for the war if they feel that threatened."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then they called our bluff. Good on them."

"And if the government takes over those industries?"

"Then the government shows its true colours as being willing to do anything to support Faust's war. At the very least some ponies should take notice of that."

"Considering the brain washing and stuff, I doubt that's going to have the effect you want."

Bon Bon drank more of her coffee, "I know, but we'll have to see. Depending on what Tootsie comes back with, I might call the whole thing off. I'm not putting us into serious danger to do this."

"Oh thank goodness."

Bon Bon rolled her eyes at the voice in the tent that had probably intended to not be heard. "Good morning Honeydew."

"Oh, uh, you heard that?"

"We did."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Don't apologise," Bon Bon sighed. "I know you've been against this whole thing since Flicker brought it up."

The flap of the tent was pushed aside, and Honeydew stepped out, looking dishevelled. The roots of her natural yellow hair was showing under the blue dye, and Bon Bon decided that would have to be fixed before Flicker got suspicious. She sat beside the fire and groped about for a mug, filling it with coffee and downing it. "Right, good morning. What I was going to say was that Rocky is right, this won't have the effect you desire, at all. I'm still not convinced this isn't a trap. You'd probably be safer forgetting about it and moving on."

"So you have no opinion on us targeting only Lord Hayfield?"

"It's an improvement over killing all of them, yes, but still not a good target."

"Then what is?" Rocky asked pointedly. 

"I don't know, just not this! Flicker shouldn't be trusted."

"Any more than you?" Rocky said sweetly. "You're both Mareitanians, need I remind you?"

"I was never under Faust's control," Honeydew spat angrily. "Who knows how messed up that's left her. What if this whole idea was left in her mind to lure you into a trap? What if she isn't actually free from Faust at all? Or is loyal of her own volition?"

"She helped me kill Iron Prize," Bon Bon said with surety, "who was a rather important pony to the war effort, and a friend of one of the Council. I doubt the Council would let him be killed just to have her prove how she's not under Faust's control. Not when he was also one of the founding members behind the rebellion."

Honeydew shook her head at Bon Bon in disbelief, "You have no idea how far these ponies would go now."

"Maybe, maybe not. I like to think they wouldn't betray one of their own like that." Bon Bon waved her hooves frantically at Honeydew before the mare had a chance to answer back. "Look, I'm going to wait until Tootsie and Flicker get back and I have more to base my plans off. If it's too risky, we'll forget it. But if not, it might be worth it. We'll have to see."


-0-0-0-


"There's guards," Tootsie said bluntly. "Like lots and lots of guards. I think we've made them nervous. There's actually a few guests not turned up either, so perhaps they're expecting an attack from us. Or they're late." She levelled a hoof, "Y'know, one or the other."

"They should be nervous," Flicker said with an edge to her voice. "Those arrogant pricks are going to pay."

"Perhaps," Bon Bon said evenly, "but we aren't the ones collecting."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I mean we're not going ahead with the mission. I've heard nothing back from Fleur, and I'm not giving this the go ahead without her. It's too big a risk for something she might not want to happen."

"Fuck what she wants! She's not the one that's been helping you! I have! You owe me!"

"And we saved your life, so that debt has already been cleared." Bon Bon narrowed her eyes slightly, "I warned you from the start that we mightn't go through with this, and we're not."

"But killing those pricks helps you!"

"There are families and children there," Tootsie said quietly, earning herself a glare from Flicker. "I'm not exactly keen on going ahead with this."

"Me either," said Crème. "I know you're angry at them Flicker, but killing children isn't going to help us or you. I really suggest you let it go."

Flicker stood and stomped a hoof, an angry sneer on her face. "No! No I will not let this go! If you aren't going to help me, then I'll just have to do it on my own!"

Bon Bon closed her eyes and sighed, "Rocky?" Rocky nodded once, then swept a hoof out, knocking Flicker to the ground and pinning her down.

"Hey! Get off me!"

"I'm afraid we can't let you do what you're going to," Bon Bon said to Flicker, doing her best to sound sympathetic, but not feeling it as the more the mare struggled in her insistence to murder a large number of ponies, the less Bon Bon actually cared. "I can't in good conscience let you kill innocents."

"There are no innocents there. Those children will grow up to be just like their parents, then create more ponies to grow up in their image!"

"Yeah, this is bordering on a creepy obsession now," Tootsie said as she pulled a rope out of her bags and tossed it to Crème, who in a matter of seconds had Flicker securely hogtied. "Permission to gag her as well Chief?"

"Eh... denied, for now."

"Maybe Faust's magic left its mark more than we realise," Crème said as Flicker struggled to free herself. "That obsession with obeying Faust might have turned itself into an obsession with something else instead, like for example, destroying something she hates."

"They deserve every bit of my hate!"

Bon Bon shrugged at the theory, paying no attention to Flicker. "Maybe? That's something for somepony else to work out. For we should think about our actual mission. Tootsie, what are the odds on us successfully assassinating Lord Hayfield?"

"Hmm, depends on the method really. A direct assassination probably wouldn't work, and trying to get him from range sounds difficult. You'd probably have the most luck with something indirect like poisoning him."

"Surely that would require infiltration?" Crème pointed out.

"Probably," Tootsie agreed, "but what's easier to infiltrate than a party? Just go as a serving pony and nopony would be any the wiser. All these ponies bringing even more ponies in their retinues, who's keeping track of all of them? Probably nopony."

"Do we even have poison?" Rocky asked, feeling it was a pertinent question if this was the plan.

"Of course!" Tootsie went back into her bag and pulled out a few small vials. "We have fast acting, slow acting, delayed reaction, untraceable, and our personal favourites, cyanide capsules in case we're captured. You'll have to forgive me for not bringing those up, since there is no way in hell I'm taking one under any circumstances."

"Forgiven," said Bon Bon. "I guess we'll have to use the delayed reaction one to allay suspicion in this case. Fast acting would be too obvious, and I doubt anypony fancies watching him die slowly."

"Delayed it is," Tootsie said cheerfully, placing the other vials back into her pack, and spinning the remaining one on the tip of a hoof. "That just leaves the question of who the lucky pony to go in will be. Personally I recommend a pony that would be invisible to most of these nobles for all the wrong reasons."

Crème's face went slack, "You're talking about me, aren't you?"

"Nothing more invisible to these nobles than a unicorn, right Flicker?"

"Fuck you."

"Exactly. All you need Crème, is a servants' uniform and you're just another supplier of hor-d'oeuvres' to them. Then you just need to pick your opportunity, and boom, we have one dead Council member. Only, y'know, without the boom. Poison doesn't work like that. Chief?"

"Sounds good to me," said Bon Bon. "Crème?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Sneak in, acquire a uniform or whatever, blend in, and pick my opportunity. Piece of cake."


-0-0-0-


The guard situation was just as Tootsie had described it; extensive. There didn't seem to be a patch of ground around Hayfield manor that didn't have at least one guard scrutinising it at all times. It was almost enough to make Crème concerned as she scaled the wall at the rear and dropped into the manor grounds.

She swept across the grounds, moving from cover to cover while avoiding a pony next to a tree with a serious beetle issue. She rolled into the shade of a log shelter, then jumped atop it, pushing open a window and clambering inside, taking a moment to check for ponies in the room before shutting it again.

As she had hoped and predicted, she'd managed to end up in the servants quarters if the shared bedroom she found herself in was any indication. It also wasn't as nice as she expected the guest rooms to be, which was also another clue, but that wasn't to say it was unpleasant by any means. The furniture was of decent quality, and the bed reasonably soft and comfortable, and the wardrobe contained nothing a female servant would wear.

"Shit," Crème cursed, under her breath. Not finding anything of use she slipped out of the door and into the traffic of the corridor beyond, earning herself a few raised eyebrows, but no actual interference from the other servants as they hurried about. A strong smell of food made Creme's mouth water, suggesting she was near the kitchens, but she remained focussed on her task.

Whether by luck or circumstance, she passed a laundry room just as another mare left it, giving her a good look within. There seemed to be very few ponies within, so she entered and moved through it past the washing area to the drying area, finding piles of freshly ironed clothes. Crème had just started to go through them when a pony behind her pointedly cleared their throat.

"And what exactly do you think you're doing?"

Crème turned and found herself eye to eye with an aging yellow mare with far too many chins beneath her withering scowl. A rotund body perched on stumpy legs completed the image.

"Sorry," Crème said, genuinely concerned about the glare the pony was giving her. "There wasn't enough uniforms to go around, so I was sent here to find one." Crème hoped to hell that was a convincing lie.

"I thought I didn't recognise you. You must be one of the extras that Lord Hayfield got in from the town."

Crème slid into an easy smile, relieved to have gotten away with it. "That right. I'm Crème."

"Mmhmm," the mare grunted, totally disinterested in Crème and her name. "I'm pretty sure I made certain there was plenty of uniforms for the extras when they were hoofed out earlier."

"And there was," Crème reassured her, smoothing over her lie from earlier. "Unfortunately there was none left in my size, so I was sent here to see if there were any more."

The mare rolled her eyes and violently turned Crème to the side, her eyes roving over Crème's body with practiced ease. She then walked over to a pile and pulled out a uniform. "Here, this should fit you, now put it on and get outta my laundry room." The mare departed, grumbling to herself.

Crème quickly pulled the uniform on, her magic playing over the buttons and doing them up in seconds. She smoothed the bit of skirt that went over her tail, and straightened the cuffs on the sleeves, before pulling on the cap, wishing she'd had a chance to clean up her mane a bit. Thankfully it didn't look too bad.

"Okay, surprisingly modest maid uniform... check. Now to just figure out the rest of this crazy plan." Crème pulled the vial of poison out of the pouch hidden in her tail, and placed it in one of her breast pockets for easier access, then made her way out of the laundry room. Before she could do anything, she needed to learn her way around. You couldn't exactly ask for directions when running for your life.


-0-0-0-


Tootsie rested her chin on her hooves, boredly watching the manor from the edge of the woods, next to Bon Bon. Neither of them had seen anything of interest, and couldn't hear screaming, so they could only assume Crème's insertion had worked out.

"Do you think one of us should have gone with her?" Tootsie asked after a few minutes.

"Too suspicious," Bon Bon replied curtly. "Why, are you worried about her?"

"Forgive me if I say this too often, but I have a really bad feeling about this."

"This was your plan."

"And? That doesn't make it a good one! I'm starting to think we should call this off."

Bon Bon shrugged at Tootsie, "Too late now. Crème's already in there, and we can't exactly go get her. All we can do is hope she has everything under control."

"Ah, such blind optimism. It's pretty cute on you."

Bon Bon smacked Tootsie on the side, then resumed watching the manor, burying a sigh. It was going to be hours until the main event actually started.


-0-0-0-


It turned out that they layout of the manor was reasonably simple. The ballroom, drawing room, and smoking room was in the east wing, the dining room in the west above the kitchens which were underground for some reason, and that was pretty much all Crème felt she needed to know. All she figured she needed to do now was work out how to get the poison from her pocket to inside Hayfield.

Since the evening hadn't started yet, she didn't actually have a way to do that. Instead she intended to spend her time catching up on the gossip that passed between the nobles. What she'd learnt so far was quite pleasing, from a personal point of view anyway. 

The nobles were terrified of Crème and her team. Not openly, as that would never be said, but they were spoken about in hushed whispers, and were given cute names like 'those devils,' and 'the fiends.' It had put quite the bounce in her step until she forced herself to tone it down.

There was also an opinion amongst the nobles that the war wasn't going as well as they were told. Crème figured this was largely down to them bearing the brunt of Equestria's reprisals, or at least what reprisals four ponies, one turncoat, and Flicker, who had really been neither help nor hindrance until now, could dole out. 

Ultimately this knowledge was pretty useless, but it still warmed Crème's heart to know that they'd got all these prissy nobles in such a twitter. It was just too bad that the underlining theme was that they would happily risk their wealth and more to aid Faust, as the Lady would surely lead them to victory. That alone was enough to make Crème want to spit, but she was content to take what victories she could.

"You there, serving girl."

Crème jumped as the voice behind her stamped its hooves all over her thoughts, and she spun to face the stallion talking to her. Thankfully she'd already delivered what was on the tray she was carrying to the pony on the balcony, otherwise she'd had made a mess. "Yes m'lord?"

"I don't suppose you've seen Lord Hayfield around, have you girl?"

"I'm afraid not m'lord. I haven't seen Lord Hayfield all day."

"Then perhaps you ought to go and find him. His guests are waiting for him."

"Uh..." Crème made a face, as she hadn't made a point of finding out where her target was, assuming she'd find him later. "I'm afraid I don't know where he is m'lord."

"He's likely in his office, so go find him."

Crème clutched her drinks tray nervously to her chest with her magic, wishing that it was entirely an act. "I'm afraid I'm only temporary staff here m'lord. I don't actually know where that is."

"Oh for the Lady's sake. I suppose I shouldn't have expected more from one of your kind. I'll find him myself."

The stallion stomper away angrily, and as soon as his back was turned Crème was glaring at the him, motioning with her tray like she intended to frisbee it into the back of his head, at least until a playful titter caught her attention.

"Rather unbecoming of a maid, don't you think?" a mare said, smiling playfully at Crème, who had totally forgotten she was there despite having just delivered a drink to her.

"Perhaps, but is it unbecoming of one of my kind?" Crème asked back, making the cream coloured mare laugh, her long blue-grey tresses falling over her back in a way that caught Crème's attention, because it highlighted the bulge of a short blade hidden in her dress.

"I had a feeling you weren't the usual maid material. I could tell from the way your cutesy little 'yes milord' accent seems to have vanished."

"And it wasn't me wanting to throw a tray at the back of his head?"

"Wanting to throw at tray Lord Chiseltine is par for the course. You'd only be the first if you'd actually thrown it."

"Aww, now I actually feel like I've missed out on a unique opportunity." Crème coughed awkwardly into her hoof, realising that she should probably stop being herself. "Apologies m'lady."

The mare snorted with amusement, "And now we're back to you being a demure little mouse again. This'll never do. Tell me, what's your name?"

"Crème."

"A delightful name. In return you can call me Rose."

"Shouldn't that be Lady Rose?" Crème took note of the rose in the mare's mane, but didn't comment on how clichéd that seemed.

Rose laughed again, "No, I am no Lady. Just Rose will do. Tell me Crème, any particular reason you're working here tonight?"

"Just for the extra marcs if I'm honest. I'm told it could be a particularly hard winter this year, and the extra money will help, either to buy food or firewood. Last winter was particularly difficult right after the war ended, and I don't want a repeat of that."

"Indeed not. I take it you live in Hayfield's delightful little town?"

"Nearby, out in the countryside, where it's quiet and I don't have to worry about pegasi attacks." Crème hoped that a little bigotry might help her fit in a bit more. She thought she'd failed as a hint of disappointment flashed through Rose's eyes, but it quickly vanished.

"There haven't been any pegasi around here since the Council sent Equestria's spies back home. There certainly hasn't been any attacks here."

Crème shrugged at Rose, "Better safe than sorry."

"I think you might be taking that to its extreme, but very well."

"Uh, I don't mean to offend, but I am rather busy and do need to get back to work. If there's nothing else you need from me?"

"Hmm? No, not right now, but another drink in say... half an hour would be greatly appreciated, thank you."

"Same again?"

"Please."

"As you wish, my lady." Crème turned on her heel and hurried away without trying to look like she was hurrying away. She wasn't sure what had just happened, but she had the faintest suspicion she should be concerned.


-0-0-0-


Evening rolled around soon enough, and was just the prelude to another round of complaints from Flicker, who had been doing her best to make her displeasure known all day. Some of her complaints were more legitimate than others though.

"I need to pee."

"Then try not to do it in the tent," Rocky said to her, amused by the angry little snort she directed at him, even if it was through the wall of the tent.

"I'm tied up you asshole!"

"Is that so? Tell me more..."

"If you don't take me to pee I'm going to do my best to get it all over everything!"

"Including yourself and Bluebell?"

"If I have to!"

"I'd rather that not happen," Honeydew said after a short silence.

"Alright, fine! Sheesh." Rocky aggressively poked his campfire once more, and stood to poke his head into the tent. Flicker glared up at him, still immobilised by her hogtie, while Honeydew was sketching something in a notepad. "What you drawing?"

"A machine for the automated removal of shells from nuts."

Rocky twisted his head to get a better look at the blocky device, and saw the scale image of a pony next to it. "Why's it the size of a house?"

"I'm... working on streamlining it a bit."

Rocky noticed a smaller sketch in the margins of the notebook. "And the thing that looks like it's supposed to hurl large flaming rocks over a mile?"

"Old habits die hard," Honeydew sighed.

"Hey! Peeing being increasingly imminent here."

"Alright y' impatient pain in the flank." Rocky wriggled a hoof under Flicker and hefted her onto his back, trying to hide his grin from the squeaks she made as he jostled her bladder. He left the tent and walked a dozen meters away before plonking her back to the ground. "Try to make it quick."

"I can't go while you're watching me," Flicker said flatly. "Turn around, or even better, leave."

"Yeah right, I'll just leave you here on your lonesome, because that seems like a really good idea."

"I'm tied up."

"Yeah, I've been playing this game longer than you, so I suggest you get to peeing before I change my mind."

"Can you at least turn around then?" Flicker asked. "Please?"

"The more you ask, the more suspicious I get, but fine. If I don't hear peeing in the next ten seconds..." Rocky said, leaving the threat open. He stomped around, and after a few seconds he nodded as he heard Flicker go about her business, and stood there until the sound stopped. He was even faintly surprised to find Flicker still there when he turned back around, although the biggest surprise was when she punched him, the rope around her ankles now on the floor.

"Fucking asshole!" Flicker screamed. "First you hit me in Prance, then earlier, and you only had to let me pee!"

Rocky swung a hoof at Flicker, but the mare dodged it easy enough, and the next. Apparently attacking Flicker when she was ill and unprepared was nothing like attacking her when she was fit and ready. The smaller mare dodged every one of his strikes with ease, and even returned a few of her own. Rocky was actually glad she didn't have her magic, as that would be a fight he wasn't sure he would win. He could certainly suspect why she was considered Shades material.

"Knock it off Flicker! Why are you so determined to kill all these nobles? I know you're pissed at one or two of them for obvious reasons, but all of them?"

"They were part of the problem when the Duke ruled, and they're part of the problem now!" Flicker jumped away as Rocky tried to kick her legs out. "They're always going to be part of the problem until somepony stops them!"

"I won't deny some nobles deserve a good kicking, and a lesson of what it's like living at the bottom of the pile, but you're going way too far with this! Stop before you get yourself killed!"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Of course I don't! I wouldn't be trying to stop you if I did!"

"Uh, guys? What's going on?"

"Stay in the tent Blueb-" Rocky went cross-eyed as Flicker took advantage of the distraction and ducked beneath him, moved to his rear, and did something very unladylike as hard as she could. Rocky collapsed to the ground, his mouth open in a silent scream until he vomited into his own mouth.

Flicker wasted no time worrying about him. She ran to the tent and shoved Honeydew to the floor before rummaging through the bags to find a short blade she strapped to her foreleg, and a small crossbow complete with a quiver of arrows. She glared at Honeydew to ensure the mare didn't try to stop her, then ran for the woods.

Honeydew waited a moment, then leapt to her hooves and ran to Rocky, whose only movement since Flicker had bucked his somewhere sensitive, was to fall on his side and protectively hold his front legs between his rear.

"Are you alright Rocky?"

"There should be a law against kicking a stallion here," he hissed between his teeth. "Where's Flicker?"

"She grabbed a dagger and crossbow and ran into the woods. Should we go and find her?"

Rocky shook his head, "There's no point with a talent in stealth like hers. She'll be heading to the manor, so we should go find Bon Bon and let her know. Perhaps we can stop Flicker before she tries anything then." Rocky shuffled his hooves to try and stand, but stopped as it hurt. "I really think she's cracked my eggs."

"Do you want me to go and find Bon Bon?"

"No, you're staying here where it's safer." Rocky tried standing again, and rocked onto his hooves, keeping his rear ones apart to lessen the pressure on his tender bits. "She's going to pay for this one."

"Are you sure I should stay here? You look like you need help."

"I'm sure. Stay here until one of us comes for you." Rocky pointed at the tent until Honeydew took the hint and entered it, then set off into a shuffling waddle that spared his tenders from the discomfort that walking now provided, although things had improved by the time he had reached Bon Bon's position.

"Rocky?" Bon Bon said in surprise. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be watching Flicker."

"Yeah, about that."

"What?" Bon Bon worked it out from Rocky's expression, and dropped her head to rest on her fetlock. "For fuck sake. Did you see where she went?"

"She ran off into the woods, but I wasn't exactly in a position to be watching. It's pretty obvious where she'll be going though."

"Yeah." Bon Bon raised her head and tapped her hoof irritably. With the amount of guards around the manor grounds, it seemed unlikely that Flicker would get very far, which she was fine with, but if she succeeded... Crème was in there. There was also the chance that what Flicker did could compromise their attempt to assassinate Hayfield their own way. "We need to stop her."

"Yeah, no kidding," Rocky grunted. "How though?"

"We'll have to wait for now, until she shows up. Tootsie, go keep an eye on Honeydew."

"Me? Rocky's the one that fucked up, so why am I on babysitting duty? I also don't have the same... weaknesses as him."

"If this goes south, I'm trusting you to get Honeydew to safety and scrub away any signs of us being here. Sensibly I should be throwing Crème under the cart here, and hope she makes it, but I refuse to do that. Either way, go keep an eye on Honeydew."

"Ugh, fine."

"And Tootsie, if we're not back in three hours, get out of here."

Tootsie froze, then nodded. "Understood. Good luck Chief. Good luck Rocky. Bring yourself and Crème back safe."

"That's the plan," Bon Bon muttered as Tootsie left. "This whole thing really was a bad idea."


-0-0-0-


It bothered Crème as to how ponies performed maid duties for a living, and it outright horrified her that ponies ended up with this crap as a destiny, and got stuck with a cutie mark displaying their aptitude for servitude. You might as well change your name to Bottom Bitch with a destiny like that. At least as far as she was concerned.

For all the running around she'd done, she was sure she could count the number of times she'd heard the words 'please' and 'thank you' on her hooves, and those few times tended to come from the same ponies. If she'd known that this plan would involve dealing with these ungrateful nobles, she might have told Bon Bon to shove it.

So far the evening had dragged her from serving dinner in the dining room, to hoofing out hor-d'oeuvres in the ball room, and moving on to serving drinks in the smoking room, where she could almost feel her lungs burning from the clouds of cigar smoke choking the air. To think that these ponies found this pleasurable.

She was also no closer to completing her one task, which was to slip a small measure of poison into something Hayfield was going to consume. He'd spent all evening in the company of a group of ponies, and before Crème could ever get a chance to get close, some other servant was always there first, denying her any opportunities.

"Girl? Another brandy if you would?"

"Of course m'lord," Crème said politely through clenched teeth, turning away before any of the stallions' companions could make a request. Chances were they'd all ask for the same thing anyway, but that was besides the point.

"Yet another brandy," she said wearily to the bar pony in the back corner of the room once she'd trudged the full ten meters over to it, irritated that none of these assholes could be bothered to make the journey themselves.

"Coming right up," the bar pony replied. Crème thought that either the mare was a better actor than herself, or was genuinely happy to serve the same drink for hours to ponies that would probably laugh if she died right then.

It irked Crème that a year or so earlier, this house was then centrepiece of a plot to get these very ponies to side with the rebellion. It seemed to be a far cry from what she could see of the place now. She'd romantically imagined Hayfield as a genuinely noble noble, but his ability to indulge himself and his cohorts had tarnished that image considerably. The fight for freedom must have seemed worth it so long as they could maintain their supply of cigars and brandy.

"It's ready."

"Hmm?" Crème rose out of her thoughts to find the bar pony giving her a funny look over the glass of brandy sitting on Crème's tray. "Oh, thank you."

"Are you alright? You seem a bit put out. None of these ponies have tried anything with you, have they?"

"Uh, no actually. Does that happen a lot?"

The bar pony's gaze turned dark for a moment, "Eh... more than it used to. Ever since the Viscount and his parties ended, the debauchery that everypony knew went on at those tends to spill out in other places, even if it's not as obvious. Did you know that it's also considered bad manners to refuse these ponies?"

Crème raised an eyebrow at the mare, "I'm guessing the ponies that say that happen to be the same ponies that benefits?"

"Perhaps. All I'm saying is that you should take care before you end up in trouble... like some unfortunate mares. Anyway, I'm sure the gentlepony would like his drink now."

"Right." Crème took the tray and tried to put what she'd heard out of her mind. The last thing she needed was to feel like she had dozens of eyes roving over her. Hopefully they'd get as far as her horn and stop.

"Your drink sir." Crème placed the glass down and swept the empty up in one smooth movement, moving on before the other stallions could get a word of an order out. As she walked away she thought about what the bar pony had said about the nobles supposed behaviour, and why she hadn't seen any of that so far. She suspected that might be down to the one other mare in the room that wasn't a servant. Rose.

Draped along a chaise longue in the company of Hayfield and his cohorts was Rose, relaxing, drinking, and shifting between raucous laughter and seductive poses. She seemed utterly at ease in her exclusively male company, and it had Crème wondering about the mare. She supposed the bar pony might know more, and maintained a deaf ear to any requests of her as she made her way back to the bar.

"Let me guess," the mare said with a tired smile, "brandy?"

"Actually no, although I would love a martini myself. I was really wondering what you knew about the mare over there? The one with Lord Hayfield?"

The mare looked over the crowd at Rose, and shrugged. "Honestly not much. She's probably the only pony here I don't know much about. Her name's Rose, although I question how real that name is, and she's supposedly related to one of the noble houses through some means, but that's it. I do know she's the reason a large number of these 'fine' stallions are watching their tongues."

"Huh. I thought there'd be more than that."

"Why are you so interested?"

Crème turned back to the bar mare before she was caught staring, finding the earth pony was giving her a funny look instead. "I don't know really. There's just something about her. Some kind of presence."

"And it has nothing to do with the way she looks? Or because she's the only mare in here that isn't a servant?"

"Eh, as beautiful as she might be my barn doors don't swing that way. Mostly I'm just curious." And curiosity was all it was, as Hayfield was really the only pony she should be interested in. Speaking of. "I think Lord Hayfield's drink is dry. Is there anything in particular he drinks?"

"It's called having cigars and brandy for a reason." The bar mare whipped a brandy glass out and poured a generous glug of the amber drink into it. "There you go, don't keep him waiting."

Crème placed the glass on her tray and departed the bar, taking a slightly circuitous route that she hoped would obscure her actions as she removed the vial of poison from her pocket and poured it into the brandy, swirling it around to mix it in. She replaced the vial into her pocket and corrected her route to head directly for Hayfield, picking up his empty glass and replacing it with her poisoned one. She turned away, not waiting to see if he drank any, but stopped when a quiet tink of glass caught her attention, even over the sound of the room.

"That's her."

Crème turned back towards Hayfield, and found Rose looking her directly in the eyes, her outstretched hoof resting on top of the glass.

"That's your assassin."

Crème tried to hide her surprise, but the faint curling of Rose's lip into a smile informed her she hadn't done very well. "I don't know what you mean Miss Rose, I'm not an assassin."

"You're certainly not a maid either." Rose waved her free hoof, and a few of the other ponies serving in the room walked over, including the bar pony much to Crème chagrin. "But I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to make sure either way." Rose removed her hoof from the glass and gestured at Crème, "Drink up."

Crème picked the glass up in her magic and looked into it. She had no idea how quick the poison worked, or if Tootsie had an antidote if she did drink it. Either way she'd failed her mission as the poison would be drank by the wrong pony. The thought of killing herself didn't exactly appeal either. She sighed and poured the drink onto the floor, dropping the glass and sitting to place her hooves behind her head.

"Fine, you got me."
> 34. Black
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bon Bon stopped by the body of a deceased guard, an arrow sticking out of his side. If this wasn't proof that Flicker had come this way, she didn't know what was. Apparently the mare had been busy in the few minutes that had passed since they'd spotted her running for the manor.

"How the hell are we supposed to know where she's gone?" Rocky whispered urgently. "A dark coloured pony with a talent for stealth in the dark? Give me a break!"

"We'll find her," Bon Bon stated. "We have to, because if she gets caught she could compromise us. Never mind the fact that we don't exactly want her to do what she's planning on doing."

"Definitely a few too many bats in her belfry. Especially if she's doing sloppy work like this. We should have brought Tootsie with us."

"She needs to watch Honeydew. I'm also not convinced she could taker Flicker in a fight, and I don't want her getting killed over this."

"But we're expendable?"

"We all are," Bon Bon grunted, acknowledging that they could all die, and Equestria would deny their existence. Even if they didn't die they'd still be left hung out to dry. "Doesn't mean I'm okay with it though."

"In that case we better get on and find Flicker before she wrecks Crème's mission, or gets her killed." Rocky was about to stand up when a thud from up ahead alerted them to a guard falling off a roof. "Y'know, for her lack of magic, she's handling that crossbow pretty well. I hate to think how good she is with magic."

"That wouldn't change anything about what we need to do."

Bon Bon stood and crept forwards out of the gap between a bush and a shed, sticking to the shadows as best she could as they followed the sounds of Flicker being lethal. The manor lay across the gardens to their left, the bright lights of which illuminated patches on the ground that would give them away pretty quick if they stood in them.

It did give them a view inside the manor though, and it was through one of the windows that Bon Bon was able to catch sight of Crème being escorted somewhere by a group of well armed ponies. "Shit, that's not good."

"I dare say that's worse than not good," said Rocky. "What now?"

"We split up." Bon Bon adjusted the strap on her ankle blade, making sure it was firm before testing the blade. "There's no way we're leaving Crème in there. I'll get Crème, you keep going after Flicker."

"After last time? I'm not sure that's such a good idea. I don't have my suit either, with it's wonderful pieces of armour in certain places."

"Which is exactly why I'm going after Crème. Get moving Rocky."

"Ugh, yes ma'am."

Bon Bon waited until Rocky had moved on before moving herself, and took a moment to appreciate the irony that Flicker killing some of the guards was helping them. It certainly made it easier to sneak over to the side of the building without getting spotted, and find a window to climb in through.

Bon Bon raised her head to see in through the window, finding it to be an unoccupied bedroom with two beds in it. Judging by the smell of food emanating from nearby, she could only assume it was part of the servants quarters, and happened to be near the kitchens. That could be a problem as it was likely to be busy around there, which ironically meant her tactical suit was less advantageous as she though, as it made her stick right out.

Bon Bon briefly considered finding a window further along, but decided not to as this one at least put her along the same direction that she saw Crème being taken. 

Pushing the window up, she clambered in and quietly closed it behind her. She knew the room was empty, but drawing attention to herself so soon would only create trouble, and that's the last thing she wanted.

Bon Bon felt her frustration boil over for a moment, irritated that it had come to this, rescuing a teammate from a botched mission. "I should never have agreed to any of this. I should've left Flicker to her own fucking devices. Idiot." She hoped Rocky could get Flicker alive, just so she could make her displeasure known by giving the mare a swift kick in the kidneys.

The hallway outside the room was empty, although there was plenty of commotion coming from her left, leading her to suspect that was where the kitchens were situated, or was where the washing up was done, as events such as the one currently happening at the manor tended to accumulate mountains of dirty dishes.

Thankfully Bon Bon was going the other way, and slipped out into the corridor unnoticed by anypony, which was lucky for them as there was only one reason Bon Bon checked her weapon was functioning properly. Even so, she kept her eyes and ears open, and stayed ready to slip into the nearest room if she had to. Very few of the doors had locks, which helped considerably.

Nothing happened though. Nopony came out of the rooms, nopony saw her, and nopony heard her as she slipped through the lower depths of the manor like a ghost. This served to make her more suspicious than relieved. There should have been ponies around, and there should have been guards. Either she was lucky beyond measure, or this was in fact a trap. Bon Bon would sooner expect the latter, than even consider the former.

That left her with two poor options. Either she had to leave to avoid springing the trap, or fall into it and hope she could get back out of it along with Crème. Neither option thrilled her. Still, she'd come to save Crème, and that was what she intended to do. Somehow.

At the end of the corridor was a stairs leading downwards into what Bon Bon could only assume was the cellars. Perfect trap territory as there tended to be few exits. Too bad they were trapping her down there with them, as she would fight her way out if she had to.

Bon Bon stopped at the bottom of the stairs before it turned left into a large open area. She peeked around the corner, trying to assess the situation before charging in. There were a lot of doors leading off the central area, but again there was no guards to see, although there was plenty to hear as smacking sounds and a pained grunting came from one of the rooms on the right.

Bon Bon's blood boiled as the sounds continued. Wasn't it enough that they'd caught Crème? Did they really need to beat her as well? They weren't even asking her questions.

Throwing caution to the wind, Bon Bon ran over to where she thought the sounds were coming from, stopping at a few doors to listen in before moving to the next. She stopped at a door where the sounds were loudest, and she could tell they were coming from within. There were probably only a couple of ponies inside by the sounds of it, so she thought she'd be better off attacking head on, rather than trying to be clever. Not that there were many ways to be clever about it.

Placing her hoof on the latch, Bon Bon took a breath to prepare herself, then pushed the door open, running into the room after it. She was surprised as a pony stood to the right of the door kicked her legs out as she ran in, and before she could recover a pony pinned her down, then another. She tried to lift her leg to extend her blade, but a hoof stamped down on it, making her squeak in pain.

Bon Bon followed the leg up to its owner, finding a cream coloured earth pony mare with long blue-grey mane smiling down at her. Behind her was Crème, gagged with her forehooves shackled around the wooden support of a large wine rack. She was completely uninjured.

"Hello there," the pony standing on her weapon said in a darkly seductive tone. "I see you have fallen into our little trap." Rose followed Bon Bon's gaze to Crème, and giggled. "No we weren't actually hurting her. Didn't need to." She gestured to two ponies, and mare and a stallion. The stallion punched a sack of grain, and the mare grinned as she faked a grunt of pain.

"Shit." Bon Bon dropped her nose to the ground, purposely pretending that she hadn't seen the eye roll Crème had given her.

"Indeed." Rose reached into her dress and pulled out a knife, using its tip to unlock the clasps on Bon Bon's weapon to remove it and pass it to one of the other ponies in the room. "I don't know how you've managed to elude us for so long if this evening is the best you could manage. I almost feel embarrassed. I will be if we don't find the rest of your merry troupe."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Rose," the mare replied politely.

"Uh-huh, and how did you know we'd be here?" Bon Bon asked, hoping to keep the mare talking while she tried to think of a way out of their predicament.

"Like you wouldn't take interest in this large event where quite the number of influential ponies, including Councillor Hayfield, would be. Judging by the way dear little Crème here tried to poison Lord Hayfield, I think it's obvious what your intentions were."

"You told her your name?" Bon Bon said to Crème, the mare shrugging sheepishly in return. "For crying out loud..."

Rose smiled confidently at Bon Bon, "That's not all you'll be telling us in time. First though we need to track down whoever else might be lurking around here."

"There's nopony else here."

"No? While we might have been a little slow to catch on to your use of trains to travel around, once we did it wasn't hard to learn that there's five, maybe six of you. Yourselves, two blue mares, a big red stallion, and maybe one other. The simple fact is that we know there's more than two of you, so don't try and pull that kind of poorly thought out misdirection with me."

"I didn't say they don't exist. I'm saying that they aren't here."

"Evidently." Rose gestured at the ponies pinning Bon Bon down, and stepped aside as they dragged the mostly helpless mare to an upright opposite Crème, chaining her forehooves around it in much the same way. As that was happening Rose pulled the gag out of Crème's mouth, allowing her to work the stiffness out of her jaw.

"Sorry," Crème said after a moment.

"Yeah, me too," Bon Bon said back as Rose left the wine cellar along with most of the other ponies, save two that were left to keep an eye on the captives. "I don't suppose that maybe we were a bit cocky coming here?"

Crème looked up and down the large piece of wood she was chained to and shook her head, "Nah. We might have underestimated these ponies though. Totally different thing."


-0-0-0-


Rocky sighed bitterly as he tried to follow after Flicker, not even sure what the mare was trying to achieve as all she'd done so far was kill some poor bastards guarding a party for what was probably a low wage. All because of some convoluted idea that she couldn't get out of her head.

He wasn't going to say it to Bon Bon, but he'd thought from the start that bringing Flicker along was a bad idea. Too bad it had taken until now for her to agree with him. They should have left her in Prance after patching her up, because he wasn't totally heartless, to save them from the kind of situation they found themselves in now. At the very least it was confirmed that Flicker wasn't setting up a trap for them. She didn't need to as Crème had gotten caught anyway.

He was also getting frustrated that he hadn't seen head nor tail of Flicker. She could've been dancing circles around him for all he knew, and he'd be none the wiser. There was plenty of evidence of where she'd been, mostly because of the bodies, but that was only going to get her caught, which was why he'd started on the habit of hiding them when he could. Such as the poor bugger he was dragging under a bush right now.

"Rest well ya poor bastard," Rocky said to the departed stallion, shoving him under the bush before moving on, keeping low to the shadows. At the end of the row of bushes he stopped, finally catching sight of his prey as she sat outside a pair of double doors, her head grasped in her hooves as she rocked back and forth.

Rocky raised an eyebrow at Flicker as she brazenly sat in the open, a faint murmuring escaping her lips. He glanced about quickly, seeing nopony around, and crept over to Flicker, being careful not to spook her and her itchy trigger hoof.

"I can't do it, I can't do it, I can't do it!"

"Can't do what?" Rocky asked. He held his hooves up as the crossbow swung round to point at him. "What can't you do Flicker?"

"This! Any of this! Trapping everypony inside and burning the place down? That's impossible! I-I don't... I don't know why I thought I could do this. I..." Flicker dropped the crossbow and resumed holding her head in her hooves, "My head hurts, like it's full of bees buzzing around."

"Hey, it's alright, we all make mistakes." Rocky gently picked the crossbow up and removed the arrow, then slung it over his back. "Come on Flicker, you're in full view here. Let's go somewhere quiet for a little chat."

Flicker nodded vaguely, letting Rocky pull her onto her hooves and lead her away. "I'm sorry I attacked you before. I don't know what came over me. I just felt like I had to do this, but now I'm here I... I feel kinda lost. I sound like such a stupid little filly."

"Look, a couple of weeks ago you were feverish, and might've been suffering some effects from having your horn banged up and infected. It's been known to affect unicorns in funny ways when that happens. You were also cut off from some strong magic controlling you, so delusions of wanting to kill all the nobles might just be part of that."

Flicker hit Rocky on the side, "This isn't a delusion! I want nothing more than to kill every one of those bastards. It's just that now I'm here I have no idea how. Maybe if you were helping me I could, but you all refused!"

Rocky gestured with his hooves to lower the volume. "Hush up will ya? There are ponies around. And frankly, a refusal to kill innocent ponies and children isn't exactly a hard choice."

"Apples don't fall far from the tree," Flicker said darkly, but didn't resist as Rocky led her on. "I get the feeling Bon Bon's not going to let me stay with you guys after this."

"We'll see. Frankly we have bigger problems. Crème got caught, and Bon Bon's trying to rescue her as we speak."

"What? And you still came after me? You should be helping her!"

Rocky ground his teeth as Flicker's voice rose again, "And I would be, except she ordered me to find you and stop you from making a mistake like killing Crème in whatever plan you concocted."

Flicker pulled her hoof free from Rocky's, "That doesn't matter now. We need to help Bon Bon save Crème." Flicker held Rocky's cheeks in her hooves as he looked like he was about to refuse, "Come on Rocky, those are your friends in there."

Rocky eyed Flicker suspiciously, wary of the sudden change to her demeanour. Not a minute earlier she was having a minor breakdown, only to be fully aware and insisting on saving the others. "My orders were to get you somewhere safe."

"Forget orders! Those orders don't mean anything if Bon Bon gets caught as well. We save Crème together, get out of here, I apologise for getting you into this mess, and we all live happily ever after."

"Happy ever after? Are you kidding me? They probably know who Crème is now. After this we have to lay low, or even seriously think about getting out of the country. Until we're safe back in Equestria we don't get a happily ever after."

"Does that include me?" Flicker asked nervously, her eyes dropping to the ground. It finally struck Rocky that for all the bravado and proficiency at killing, Flicker was really not much more than a child, and a vulnerable one at that, even if she was a bit crazy. As a Shade she should've known that orders came first.

"Yes, and you, since I'm guessing you have no real desire to stay in Mareitania now?"

"Not really. I don't know what I want."

"The same as the rest of us I imagine, an end to this war." Rocky shrugged, "That's not easy though, and it starts with ponies following orders." Flicker cringed at Rocky's words, but nodded in agreement. "Alright then, come on."

Rocky led the way again, drifting from cover to cover as they made their way to their exit, a small door in the wall around the manor that opened out into the fields, and beyond that the woods where their camp was. There was a lean-to next to it, used to store various bits and bobs, and lurking in the shadow of it was a pony. Their exit was being watched.

Rocky cursed under his breath as his concern for Crème and Bon Bon grew. If this pony was here right next to their exit, who knew how closely they were actually being observed? Had this really turned out to be a trap, sprung without the help of Flicker?

Rocky jumped as a hoof poked his side, then wiggled the crossbow on his back. Fully understanding Flicker's intent Rocky shook his head. He looked around for a moment, and to his lack of surprise there was a pony across from the gate, hiding in a pool of darkness between two windows, and another on the roof. The exit was being heavily watched. They'd have to find another way out.

They doubled back, aiming to take the long way back around the house and leaving through the front of the gardens. It carried a high risk of being spotted, but none so high as two ponies stood next to and opposite their preferred way out.
They had barely made it halfway around when they saw that there were ponies coming the other way, a line of them that stretched across the gardens. Thankfully Rocky didn't have to tell Flicker how to hide as the mare was better at it than he was. It didn't seem to make any difference though, as the line stopped and prepared their weapons to fire.

"We know you're there," a stallion said. "Come out and sit down with your hooves behind your heads." Rocky did nothing, clinging onto the slim hope that the stallion was bluffing. "Fire a warning shot."

Rocky squeezed himself tighter to the ground as one of the ponies fired their crossbow, a little too low to be a warning shot, but not low enough to hit either of them so long as they ducked. 

"I won't ask again." 

Flicker grabbed at Rocky as he stood, "What are you doing?"

"They have us Flicker, there's no point fighting it." Rocky walked out of their cover, theatrically dropping his crossbow before sitting and placing his hooves behind his head. A few moments later Flicker joined him.

"Good choice." The stallion gestured to his subordinates who gathered around the two ponies, "Take them to the others. The rest of you, keep searching for the remainder of their group."


-0-0-0-


"I spy with my little eye, something beginning with... C."

"If it's cellar I'm going to have to kick you."

Crème smiled smugly at Bon Bon, "You say that, but you can't actually reach me."

"I never said I was going to do it now." Bon Bon rolled her neck and set about finding what Crème was thinking of. "Chains?"

"Nope."

"Uh, ceiling?"

"Not even close."

"Ummm..."

"Will you two shut up?"

Bon Bon smiled up at the mare that had spoken. "Is that a question or a request? You should at least try to sound like you're in charge when you're guarding somepony."

The mare's horn lit up, grabbing Bon Bon's ear and pulling her head down to the ground as her male counterpart grinned at her. "Does this make it clear that I'm in charge?"

"Oh yes, nopony would ever question your ability to intimidate ponies that are tied up ever again," Bon Bon gushed falsely, not sounding the slightest bit intimidated, even if what the mare was doing to her was quite uncomfortable, if not actually painful. 

"You're being a bit too smart mouthed for captives," the stallion said, an earth pony that could easily be mistaken for a mare even in a good light. "I suggest you start showing us some respect."

"You say that," Crème purred seductively, "but I'm questioning whether you realise who's trapped in here with who?"

"Uh, you are, with us."

Crème nodded thoughtfully, "I can see why you might think that." Crème didn't flinch as the stallion stomped over and pulled her up by the collar of the maid uniform she was still wearing, until they were muzzle to muzzle.

"I don't know what you're trying here, but were in charge here. Not you. Us."

Crème kissed him on the nose, making the stallion drop her in surprise as Bon Bon laughed. Even the unicorn guarding them had to suppress a snigger. "Keep telling yourself that big boy."

The laughter stopped when the stallion backhoofed Crème across the face. "You won't be finding this so funny when we cart you off to High Rock for questioning. I'll be sure to visit you as often as I can to remind what's left of your broken husk that I'm in charge."

Crème wrinkled her nose and rubbed it gingerly with a hoof, "Looking forward to it." She then turned to Bon Bon and shrugged, "Seems we're going to High Rock. Guess that means they aren't just going to kill us."

Bon Bon shrugged back, "I don't think I'll be starting any long books though, just in case."

"Oh that is it!" The stallion pulled back a hoof and swung at Bon Bon, only just missing her as the door to the cellar slammed open, rattling the wine bottles in their shelves. More ponies entered, leading Rocky and Flicker in at crossbow point.

"Were you about to hit that prisoner?" One of the stallions asked, eyeing the stallion next to Bon Bon suspiciously.

"No sir."

"I thought not. Just to make sure you don't, you can go find Mistress Rose and tell her we've apprehended more of their party."

"Yes sir!"

"Found her then?" Bon Bon said to Rocky as the pony that was going to hit her scurried away. The fact that Flicker was a prisoner along with Rocky mostly put an end to her thoughts that this trap was set up by her.

"Yeah. Wish I was the only one doing the finding though." Rocky gestured with his head at the ponies behind him, "They were a bit more on the ball tonight."

"I'm really sorry," Flicker said softly. "This is all my fault."

"Sort of," Bon Bon agreed. "But not all of it since it's pretty clear this wasn't a trap made by you."

Flicker grunted as she was pushed over to the wall and her hooves shackled like Bon Bon's through a rusted loop set in the bricks. On the opposite side of the room the same thing was happening to Rocky. "I was so stupid to think any of this would work. I don't know why I ever thought it would."

"Because you were always prone to flights of fancy," a strongly feminine voice said from the doorway as Rose entered the room. "Still, this is a pleasant surprise Flicker. We'd lost track of you after you entered Prance, although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you ended up in the company of these ponies."

Flicker shrank at the sight of Rose, "Aww... shit, this explains so much."

"Explains what?" Bon Bon asked, having no idea what Flicker was talking about.

"Don't you know who this pony is?"

"I know she's called Rose, but that's it."

Flicker's face went flat. "Her name is Black Rose,  and she's the head of the Shades. How could you possibly not know that?"

"Because we went to efforts to not let them know that," Rose told Flicker. "As far as they know the Shades are still led by Head Shade Mouser, who was appointed by Fleur de Lis herself. If you had been more attentive to your job you might have been allowed to know these things."

Flicker fumed at the insult, "I was perfectly attentive!"

"Out in the field, sure. You were actually one of our more capable field agents, but you're weren't cut out for the rest of it. None of us were surprised when you turned traitor."

"You mean when I started seeing the truth? That Faust is controlling all of us with magic to fight this stupid war against the ponies that helped us?"

Rose slapped Flicker across the muzzle, performing the action like it was nothing more thoughtful than brushing some crumbs off her coat. "That's Lady Faust to you, Flicker. And if she wishes to remove the false rulers of Equestria, who are we to stop her?"

Flicker looked at Rose with disgust, "You're so wrapped up in her shit you can't even see how wrong it is."

"Mm-hmm, and I look forward to seeing your treacherous face swinging from the gallows." Rose smiled nastily as Flicker closed her eyes and cowered at the mention of hanging, "As for the rest of you, a pleasant trip to High Rock for questioning is in order before you join the traitor here. We'll be leaving in the morning, once we find your other companions, so I suggest making the most of your time."

Bon Bon stared defiantly up at Rose, "There are few times I relish the thought of killing, but I think I can make an exception for you."

Rose gasped into a hoof, "Oh my, such bravado. Too bad it'll do you no good. I will see you all in the morning. Sleep well." Rose swept out of the cellar, leaving the four ponies in the darkness as the door slammed shut.

"This is a damn fine mess," Rock grumbled, heaving on his shackles. He gave up, quickly working out there was no chance of breaking them. "I'm guessing you have a plan Chief?"

"What? Of course I don't. You actually bought that?"

"Who am I to question you?"

"Well, you should," Bon Bon sighed. "I got us into this mess, and I have no idea how to get us out of it."

"Pretty sure I got you into this mess," Flicker said apologetically. "Guess I'm getting what I deserve for it soon enough."

"Nopony deserves to hang," Crème told Flicker, offering the mare a smile that went unseen in the darkness. "I guess all we can do is hope Tootsie comes up with something."

"Not likely," said Bon Bon. "I told her to leave with Honeydew if we weren't back in three hours. Hopefully the ponies searching for her will encourage her to go sooner."

"So we have nothing then?"

"Nope."

"...Shit."

"Yep."

"Who's this Black Rose?" Rocky asked Flicker as an awkward silence threatened to fill the cellar. "How come we've never heard of her?"

"She got the position not long after Faust came about, although how they kept it from you is anyponies guess. She's related to one of the noble houses in some way, but I really can't tell you more than that."

Bon Bon sat up, her interest peaked, "And what happened to Mouser to let her get the position?"

"He quit. Couldn't handle being the Head of the Shades, and there Rose was ready and willing to take over." Flicker went to tap her chin thoughtfully, but failed as she forgot her legs were attached to the wall. "Now I think about it though, it seems a bit suspicious. I suspect some kind of blackmail might have been involved, or something."

"Oh good," Crème said airily, "a mystery mare. Can't wait to find out what the story behind this is."

Bon Bon shrugged, "Who cares? As long as she dies like the others I don't care where she's from, or what her story is."

Rocky chuckled at Bon Bon and rattled his shackles, "Counting your eggs before they hatch are you?"

"You bet I am. I've got absolutely nothing else to go on here."

"One question?" Flicker said a moment after Bon Bon's declaration. "Did you just say Honeydew a minute ago?"

"Ah... fuck."


-0-0-0-


It was a long and uncomfortable night. Their means of going to the bathroom was a single bucket thrown at Bon Bon after a few hours. She'd been unable to pass it to the others, and hadn't been able to unzip her suit to use it anyway. Suffice to say she was not very happy by the time they were rounded up for transport to High Rock.

"Good morning darlings," Rose said cheerfully as she waltzed into the cellar, devoid of her dress, but still wearing a black choker and her dagger. She stopped and wrinkled her nose at the smell, and showed her first twitch of annoyance as she shouted back out of the door. "I gave you strict instructions to care for the prisoners properly! Did you not think about whose cellar this is?"

Rocky raised an eyebrow at Rose as she turned back to them, all smiles again. "So sleep deprivation counts as proper care does it?"

"Of course not, but it does tend to make ponies a bit more malleable. The former rulers of this country used to rely on torture to get what information they want out of ponies, but we like to think we're not so crass any more."

"Uh-huh, and yet your minions couldn't even be relied on to give us a pot to piss in."

Rose dismissed his query with a wave of a hoof, "That's more out of respect for our host's property than anything else. I'll be sure to have those responsible for letting this happen give the place a thorough cleaning before they go."

"I can tell High Rock's going to be fun already," Rocky muttered darkly.

"Whatever enjoyment you get out of it is between you and yourself," Rose informed him before stepping aside to let other ponies into the room, bearing ropes and sacks that were thrust over the four ponies heads to keep them disorientated as they were hauled up out of the cellar and outside.

They were roughly thrown into a cart where they were re-shackled to loops in the floor, forcing them into a sitting position, the bags left over their heads so they couldn't work out what was happening, not that it took much imagination to figure it out.

Bon Bon wouldn't admit it, but she was worried, besides the obvious reason for being so. Director Mouser was a known figure, and could be reliably counted on to follow the habits the Shades were instilled with from their inception. Rose changed that. She was an unknown quantity, and at this point Bon Bon couldn't tell if her demeanour was an act to hide the intelligent pony beneath, or was actually who she was, and she'd gotten the position as Head of the Shades by other means. Either way it made her unpredictable.

"Tootsie isn't here," Crème said quietly after a minute when she was reasonably sure nopony was listening. "Only four of us got in."

"Unless they have a separate cart," said Rocky.

"Seems unlikely," Bon Bon argued. "Apart from being a waste of effort, knowing Tootsie and Ho- Bluebelle got captured would hurt us, and they'd take great joy in letting us know. What do you think Flicker?"

"Hmm? Oh, uh, yeah, you're probably right. I'm just wondering why they has this cart here to transport us when they didn't really know we'd be here."

"Clearly they were super prepared," said Crème. "Too prepared even. Or we were sold out."

"Not by me if that's what you're thinking," Flicker blurted quickly. "I wouldn't exactly do this to myself."

"And I doubt Bluebelle would do something like this," Bon Bon surmised, shrugging helplessly even though she knew none of them could see it. "I don't know. Maybe they have genuinely outsmarted us."

The cart lurched as they set off, the bags over their heads making the sensation oddly pronounced in the absence of sight. Nothing was said. There was nothing to say. They all knew that for all their joking and false confidence they were well up shit creek without a paddle.


-0-0-0-


It was over an hour until they stopped, but by Bon Bon's reckoning it was hours too early until they should be stopping. Even without her vision being obscured she doubted she could see what was going on, but thankfully she could still hear.

"What are you doing griffon?" the voice that distinctly belonged to Black Rose asked. "All your kind should be fighting in Equestria."

"I'm on my own mission," a different voice said, possessing that certain resonance that only a creature with a beak could create. "What's in the box?"

"It is no concern of yours griffon!" The cart rocked as somepony stood quickly. "Remove yourself before we do it for you!"

"Mmm... nah. I want what's in that box."

"Are you deranged? Be gone, or we will attack."

"Now you're speaking my language!" the griffon said happily. "Six against two sounds like good odds."

"Two? What do you mean two?"

There was a scream from behind the cart, although what caused it was a mystery to the cart's unwilling occupants. They didn't have much time to ponder on it as the cart rocked hard, the griffon leaping onto it and roaring. A moment later something dripped onto the floor in front of Bon Bon. Even through the bag she could tell it was blood. The cart rocked again as the griffon jumped back off it, a pained scream following the action.

"Run!" Rose shouted, meaning that at least more ponies than herself had survived the ambush.

"Yeah you better run!" the griffon shouted after what fleeing ponies there were.

"What the fuck just happened?" Rocky asked as things went quiet. "Did we just get saved by a griffon?"

"You better believe it," came his answer from outside. There was a crack from the rear of the cart as the lock was torn out of the wood, and the cart moved as the griffon climbed inside. "Seriously, you might as well call this meals on wheels."

"You better be kidding," Bon Bon snorted, her worry suddenly increasing tenfold. Her ears twitched at the bag was lifted from her head, and she found herself looking up into the green eyes of a griffon hen.

"Of course I'm kidding," she said, pulling the bags off the other's heads. "Although temptation is a very real thing," she added, making it sound obvious that she was joking. "Agent Sonny, nice to meet you."

"You're with Equis?"

"That's right. Uhh... I suppose it's a bit much to hope they left the keys. Hey Tootsie, you got anything to pick these locks with?"

"Yeah, hold on."

"Tootsie's with you?" Crème asked, relieved that their fellow agent had escaped being apprehended. She looked back at the exit to see Tootsie grinning at her as she patted the pockets of her suit. "Not that I usually aren't, but I'm really glad to see you."

"You didn't really think I was going to leave you here did you?"

"Those were your orders," Bon Bon reminded the blue mare, but she quickly softened into a smile. "Guess orders are overrated anyway."

"Actually I was all set to go." Tootsie found what she was looking for in her pockets and tossed it to Sonny. "You hadn't come back, and I figured you were either captured or dead, so I was going to leave as you ordered when Sonny found us. I figured having her to help would change things a bit, so we came out here to ambush the most likely looking cart."

"And where's Honeydew?" Bon Bon smiled sheepishly as Tootsie's eyes flicked to Flicker. "Yeah, I fucked up a bit."

"Uh-huh... Honeydew's in the woods. Anyway, less chatting more moving. I don't want to be here when more ponies turn up."

Bon Bon felt her ankles come free, and thanked Sonny. She stumbled exiting the cart, her legs not feeling particularly alive after the night they'd had. Tootsie caught her as she started to fall, then scrunched her nose up as she caught the various odours coming off Bon Bon. "Rough night?"

"You have no idea. Which way did those ponies go?"

"The opposite way to where Honeydew is thankfully."

"Good. Too bad you didn't get all of them. Especially that mare with the long hair."

"Why?"

"According to Flicker she's the leader of the Shades. Head Mouser quit months ago, but we never found out."

"Why would the Head be out on a field operation?" Tootsie asked, her expression changing from surprise to confusion in the space of a second. "Does she usually do that?"

"No idea. Maybe she's here because she was invited to the party?" Bon Bon shrugged and made a face, indicating how little she cared about the nuances of Rose's presence. "The point is that she knows what we look like now, so we are super screwed."

"It gets worse than that," Tootsie said sullenly. "I'll give you the full story when we're safe, but there's a good reason we haven't heard off Fleur for so long."

"She's not dead is she?"

"No, but a large amount of the rest of Equis is. There was a bo-"

Bon Bon blinked as blood sprayed out of Tootsie's mouth, an arrow hitting her in the neck so suddenly that it took both of them a moment to register what had even happened. Bon Bon caught Tootsie as she fell, pawing at her neck and struggling for breath as blood gushed from around the wound. 

Out of the corner of her eye Bon Bon saw one of the ponies that had escaped the ambush reloading his crossbow, his magic slotting an arrow into the weapon with a practiced ease that gave her very little time to react. She snatched a knife out of Tootsie's belt and dove to the side as the arrow tore through the space where she had been a second earlier.

Grabbing the knife in her mouth she sprinted for the attacker, leaping at him before he could reload his weapon. She rolled to the side as he tried to slam the butt of the crossbow down on her, and spat the knife into her hoof as she darted back towards him, piercing it deep into his chest where she held it until he stopped struggling. As soon as he was dead she ran straight for Tootsie.

Crème was holding her limp body, the wound having killed Tootsie in seconds. Bon Bon collapsed to her knees, her mind totally blank save for the agonising point that Tootsie was dead. They'd killed her. She'd killed her by distracting her with chatter. Bon Bon closed her eyes, fighting back her tears as Rocky held both of them. Thankfully Flicker and Sonny had enough presence of mind to keep watch.

"Why?" Crème asked out loud, her voice breaking with grief. "Why her? She wasn't dumb enough to get captured, so why her? Fuck!" She choked a sob as Rocky hugged her tighter.

"There's a cart coming," Sonny said after a moment. "I'm sorry to do this guys, but we need to get off the road."

Bon Bon nodded stiffly, lifting Tootsie up onto Rocky's back with Crème's help. She wanted to give the order herself, but words failed her, her voice simply gone, stolen away by pain and shock. Her team were like family to her, and now one of them was gone in the blink of an eye. She wasn't sure she could say anything anyway, not without screaming.


-0-0-0-


They buried her in a clearing in the woods, her grave unmarked. It wasn't what any of them wanted for Tootsie, a sad grave in the woods of a foreign country, but it was all they had to give at that moment, save for a few words if they had been able to say them. None of them had been able to bring themselves to speak yet, either not wanting to disturb those who knew Tootsie the best, or because their voices fought to stay hidden.

"I always thought I'd go first," Rocky said eventually, having to break the long silence. "Something about that just felt right. But Tootsie? She was the brains of the outfit, she... she shouldn't have gone at all."

None of them dared to say that Tootsie knew the risks of being there. They didn't need to. A sudden and untimely death was a risk they always lived with, but that didn't make it any easier to say goodbye when it happened, and it certainly didn't help having to do so and carry on.

"She said something had happened to Equis," Bon Bon said to Sonny, not taking her eyes off Tootsie's grave. "What did she mean?"

"The Shades bombed Equis' headquarters. Killed Muckraker, Eclipse, and dozens of others. Less than twenty at the offices survived, including Fleur, who's in charge now. That's when we lost contact with you. That's why I'm here." Sonny reached into her armour and pulled out the speaker stones, tossing them to Bon Bon. "We thought having a spare might be sensible."

"How did you even find us?"

"I've been looking for you for almost two weeks, but I only found you because Fleur said you'd be in this area at this time. I saw your campfire from the air, and Found Tootsie and Honeydew. You know the rest."

"And the operation?"

"You mean last night?" Bon Bon nodded. "Fleur didn't want you to go ahead with it," Sonny told her, making Flicker wince guiltily.

Bon Bon stared at the grave a little longer, then whispered a goodbye, pulling herself away before she stayed there forever. "Can you carry Honeydew back to Equestria?"

"What?" Honeydew gasped, shocked. "You're sending me away?"

"We're wanted ponies now, and it's going to get even more dangerous for us. You're too important to get killed. Sonny, can you take her?"

Sonny rocked her head side to side as she thought, "Yeah, I think so if I dump my armour and she brings nothing with her. You want me to get her back to Equis?"

"I do. I promised I'd keep her safe and get her back to Equestria, so that's what I'm doing. I'm sorry Honey, but I'm not taking any arguments on this one. You are going, and that is final."

Honeydew nodded sadly, "I understand, and thank you. But I still want to know what you're going to do now?"

"That's up to Fleur. Are you still with us Flicker?"

Flicker nodded once, "I am. I at least owe you that much, even if I didn't get what I wanted."

"Then I think we'll be okay," Bon Bon finished, giving Honeydew a faint smile. "You two better get moving if you want to get back safe, because they're bound to be keeping an eye out for any rogue griffons now."

"We'll go south," said Sonny. "It's riskier going over the ocean, but if I can make it to the coast around the Undiscovered West, I can make it to Equestria."

"Good. Thanks for helping us out of this mess Sonny."

"Anytime, really. I'd stay if I could, but I guess getting Honeydew back is a higher priority now." Sonny started removing her armour, but paused as a thought struck her. "That's assuming there's an Equestria to go back to. Ironically you're probably just as safe here as you are back in Equestria."

"I think I'd take my chances with Equestria," said Bon Bon. She waited quietly as Sonny stripped off and crouched to let Honeydew climb on her back. "Finally getting your wish Honeydew, so try and make the best of it."

"I'll try. Goodbye Bon Bon, Rocky, Crème... Tootsie. You too Flicker. Thanks for everything, and good luck with whatever you do next."

"You too Honeydew," Bon Bon said as Sonny took off, Honeydew gripping on tightly as she raced into the sky and out of sight.

"I can't help but feel you have an ulterior motive here Chief," Rocky said to Bon Bon as they watched them go out of sight.

"I think it's pretty safe to say Flicker didn't betray us, but we can't say the same for Honeydew. On the off-chance she did sell us out, I think it best she no longer be anywhere near us in case it happens again. Crème?"

Crème wiped her eyes and blinked rapidly, turning her red, puffy eyes to Bon Bon. "Yeah?"

"I think it's time we talked to Fleur."


-0-0-0-


Fleur had hoped for good news from Bon Bon, and some of it was, but the loss of Tootsie had been a blow she hadn't expected, and the existence of Black Rose was also surprising. Her own news for Bon Bon hadn't exactly been encouraging either, telling her how far Faust had crept into Equestria while they were gone. At least the safe passage of Honeydew to Equestria was good news.

"I know you're looking to me for orders Bon Bon, but I'm not sure I could give you any that wouldn't cause you issues. You've already done a lot to damage Mareitania, but it seems to make less of a difference than we expected."

"Our ability to travel quickly has also been ruined without the trains," said Bon Bon. "Not unless we get disguises. I honestly don't know how much more use we can be to you if we can't travel quickly. I'm sorry Fleur."

"Don't apologise Bon Bon, you've already done so much. Perhaps it would be best if you laid low for a while. Get those disguises and stay put somewhere safe for a few weeks until I have something for you, and hopefully by then the heat will have died down enough for you to travel again. Fleur sighed guiltily as Bon Bon sighed.

"Understood ma'am."

Fleur pushed the stone aside as it crackled to silence, feeling that they'd lost yet another asset. Equis bombed, Bon Bon hunted, and the building situation around Las Pegasus. 

Fleur stood and walked over to the small map she used to keep track of the Mareitanians movements. Luna's actions had essentially trapped Faust's forces in the west of the country, unless they braved the open ground to the north. If Luna failed to keep them from crossing the Canterhorn river and taking the city, losing Bon Bon as an asset would be trivial in comparison.
> 35. Troubled waters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It occurred to Luna, perhaps slower than it should have, that the trap they'd placed on the bridge had spent its use on a far smaller force than they had anticipated. The Mareitanians now knew they were waiting for them, and after having the way to Ponyville cut off, would probably be interested in looking north. Admittedly the north was still a poor choice of route, but now it had been made clear that going south wasn't exactly a bed of roses either. If Faust did go north, all of Luna's forces were in the south, and only the fliers could get there in time to slow their advance.

Overall, the whole thing made her think she might've fucked up a little. If Faust took the easier choice and went north, she would lose quite a few soldiers from pegasus attacks, but would inevitably make it to Manehatten. If she pushed south, all she had to do was cross the river, and the Equestrians had nothing to push back with.

"Shining, what do you think the best way to cross the river would be if you were Faust?"

"If I was Faust? There's a fantasy shouldn't entertain." Shining Armour ran a hoof through his mane as he studied the river before him. The command tent had been set on a small bluff overlooking the Equestrian defence, and afforded them a good view of the opposite side of the river as well. "Build a bridge with magic?"

"Possible I suppose, but we've considered that. It's too obvious."

"If it works it works." Shining shrugged at the princess, "I hate to say it Luna, but I don't think like Faust, and she doesn't think like us. She wants to fight this war, but does very little herself. If I was her I'd probably be a bit more proactive in ensuring my success."

"Hmm... yes," Luna said, conceding the point. "Perhaps counting on her to do anything would be a large assumption on our part. Perhaps that is why we haven't been attacked yet, because they are looking for a non-magical solution."

"It's what I would do, but that's also assuming they know nothing about our cannons." Shining pointed along the line of hidden cannons set back from the riverbank. Ponies were currently laying mines in front of them. "They're the game changer for us here. If I knew these were waiting for us here, I'd be going north in a heartbeat."

"We don't know who's making those decisions," Luna said to Shining, frowning into the distance towards where the Mareitanians were. "We have General Snowbright now, so we can't assume they'd reach the same decisions as him. He knows going north would be a massacre, but fighting towards Las Pegasus would be less of a supposed massacre if you didn't know about the cannons. Plus Las Pegasus is a viable target for occupation, whereas the north is nothing but open land fit for pegasus ambushes most of the way to Manehatten, where for all they know we have a force waiting for them, which we could, maybe before they get there."

Shining turned to the map of Equestria on the folding table in the tent. "What about this place called 'Our town?"

"Abandoned, and heavily damaged during my fight to subdue the criminal Starlight Glimmer. There is nothing of use to them there. Even if it weren't, there's nowhere near enough buildings to provide protection for the thousands upon thousands of Mareitanians."

"So they'd take a straight shot at Manehatten," Shining said, half expecting Luna to disagree with him.

"More than likely, although Fillydelphia is also an option should they pass through Hollow Shades. That territory wouldn't be friendly to their tanks though."

"So basically we have no real idea what they might do."

Luna nodded once, not wanting to voice her agreement with that fact. "It's very much in our interest that they attack down here."

"And should they decide to do something else entirely? Like literally anything else?"

"If you can tell me what that might be I'll happily provide a reactionary measure to you," Luna said haughtily. She was rather pleased when Shining failed to say anything at all. "So, besides the gloom surrounding this entire situation, is there anything else of note going on?"

"There's one thing, but it isn't exactly important. There's a peace rally going to be happening at the refugee camps in a few days time."

"There? So close to here? Are they insane? Why would there even be a peace rally?"

Shining stared blankly at Luna for a moment, struggling to decide if she was being serious. "You're surprised by the idea that not everypony supports the war?"

"It's- It's... unpatriotic! And insulting to those willing to put their lives on the line to protect Equestria! Who even came up with this peace rally idea?"

"All I know is that it was set up by a mysterious benefactor."

"Hah!" Luna laughed nastily, "Benefactor indeed? Let's see how beneficial they're feeling when Faust rules Equestria."

"They're also hosting some of the biggest names in music," Shining continued. "Sapphire Shores, Songbird Serenade, Coloratura... I get the feeling a lot of support is going into this."

"Then we'll have to stop it. This... rally, could undermine support for the war entirely, and can't be allowed to go ahead."

"Do you even hear yourself? What you're suggesting is a serious breach of civil liberties Luna, the kind of things we're fighting to preserve. You can't stop it, so forget about it."

"Really Shining? You're being naïve. The only way we can effectively have peace is to surrender. Do you honestly think that is a serious, or even viable course of action? These ponies are only deluding themselves by thinking giving up has a happy ending."

"Worse than losing? I doubt that. All your hopes are pinned on Twilight, and we have no idea where she is!"

"Where is this treasonous talk coming from Shining?" Luna asked softly, burying her anger for the moment as she knew it wouldn't be constructive. "If you have concerns about the war, voice them."

"Luna, I hate to be the pony that says this, but throwing ponies at Faust's army to slow them down while we wait for Twilight to find a miracle solution is stupid. How is it any better than surrendering?"

"We're buying time-"

"Yeah, with lives!"

"It's more than that! You know Faust's intentions! Do you want to be the pony that gave up and let the world suffer? We have to do this Shining, you know that."

Shining nodded slowly, but not in agreement. "We've stopped Faust from using our ponies with those implants, so if we sabotaged our country's infrastructure to stop Faust from using that as well, we could buy months of time before she takes her war elsewhere. More if we used guerilla warfare to keep sabotaging things. Far less lives would be lost."

"She'd also hold our entire country hostage," Luna said back. "There are plenty of ways to coerce ponies without magic. If she executes a hundred ponies for every structure your guerrilla warriors destroy, how is that better?"

"Do you really think she'd do that?"

"Do you know that she wouldn't?" Luna smiled as Shining failed to reply, although it felt hollow even to her. "I wouldn't trust her not to."

Shining sighed. There were far too many arguments for doing too many things, and spending lives to save lives always had that odd distinction to it where you were fucked either way, especially if you lost. At least a pony could fight for their survival in a war, but a mass execution to get ponies to obey you was... He didn't even have a word to describe it as beyond being horrible, but the war was horrible too.

"What about the peace rally?" Shining asked after a moment, having almost forgot that's how the discussion began. "You can't seriously expect to stop it. You'd only make those ponies think they're right."

Luna gestured dismissively with a hoof, "Let them have their rally then, for all the good it will do them."

"Movement! We have movement!"

Both of them looked up as the scout flew in to land at the command tent. She removed her helmet and wiped the sweat off her forehead. "We have incoming Princess."

"How many?"

"Thousands at least." 


-0-0-0-


"Fucking hell Pinkie! Those aren't toys!" 

Pinkie stopped twirling the landmine on her hoof and lowered it into the small hole she'd dug on the riverbank. "I'm just trying to make this more fun. Celestia knows there's a severe lack of that going around these days."

"It won't be fun when you've blown your leg off. In fact, it'd be decidedly not fun."

"But I haven't activated it yet!"

"I don't fucking care! Knock that shit off!"

"Alright Captain Grumpy, sheesh."

"That's Sargent Grumpy, thank you very much." Limestone eyed Pinkie as the mare activated the mine and buried it with exaggerated care. "That's better."

"Hey guys!" Both of them looked up, along with the rest of the Hard Corps, to find Lyra running over to them, her eyes wide with panic. "Didn't you hear? We have incoming!"

"Incoming what?" Pinkie asked, earning herself a groan from Limestone.

"Seriously?"

"What? It's a legitimate question."

"Mareitanians Pinkie!"

Pinkie narrowed her eyes and nodded as she stared at the horizon. "I suspected as much." After a moment she stopped and turned back to Limestone, "Sooooo, what are we supposed to be doing exactly?"

"Not standing here for starters." Limestone whistled sharply, alerting the others along the bank. "Incoming! Get back to the line!" Limestone led by example, turning Pinkie in the direction she wanted her to run and passing by Lyra who turned to follow her towards the gap in the line of cannons where the bridge had crossed the river. A minute later the rest of the ponies laying mines joined them, although they were ignored in favour of her Hard Corps as they ran up to her.

"They're actually insane enough to come back here?" Azure panted as she stopped in front of Limestone. "I seriously thought we were wasting our time staying here."

"Don't ask me why they're coming back, but feel free to enquire how much they might go on to regret it."

"Uh, alright, how much will  they-"

"That was rhetorical Azure! Fucking hell." Limestone rolled her eyes, "Anyway, we're sticking here in case they make it this far, so you might as well make yourselves comfortable and enjoy the show. I don't know what these cannons are really meant to do, but I'm betting they fire more than confetti."

"More's the pity," Lyra whispered to Pinkie, trying to at least get a smile out of the mare. She succeeded, barely, but it felt like Pinkie was making the effort for Lyra's sake rather than her own. Pinkie actually seemed oddly focussed, which was different from the mess she was the other day. Lyra wasn't sure which worried her more.

All of them stepped back as ponies ran forwards to start loading the cannons, watching with interest as they shoved a cylindrical packet of gunpowder into the cannons muzzle, pushed it down with a stick, then repeated the process with the cannonball. They then moved the cannon so it was pointed directly at the opposite side of the river, where there was nothing to aim for as yet. A unicorn stood nearby, a pole with a slow burning fuse at the end held ready in their magic.

"Is it just me or do those things seem a bit... primitive?" Crystal Moon asked, the other unicorn to have joined the Hard Corps after Vanhoover. "We've invented steam trains and other stuff, but here we've stuck a ball down a metal tube with a packet of gunpowder. It's rather underwhelming."

"More than running at each other with pointy bits of metal?" said Maud.

"Well, no, I suppose it's a bit better than that."


-0-0-0-


Luna counted six tanks on the opposite side of the river, slowly crawling into position in what she supposed was an intent to bombard them over the river. She wasn't really sure what the range on their catapults were, but she had taken reasonable care to ensure her forces were probably out of their range. On the other side of that she'd taken care to ensure her cannons could reach far enough to strike the enemy ranks, which they could, so she had the advantage on two counts, in theory.

"That's a lot of ponies," Shining Armour murmured as Stormguard nervously looked on. "I'm counting five thousand at least. They could overrun our cannons before we've taken out even a tenth of them."

"That would involve some rather reckless behaviour on their part," said Luna. "I'm guessing since they haven't sent their entire army to attack us, they have no idea what our numbers here are. It's like they're sending those ponies here to die."

"Or to test our defences," suggested General Stormguard. "Why send so few if they were serious about crossing the river here? We haven't heard anything about them crossing the north?"

"Not as such," said Luna. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to find out, although with the griffons out there capable of waylaying our messengers it shall have to wait until the attack has ended one way or the other." 

"The Mareitanians have upwards of thirty thousand soldiers," said Shining. "There's no practical reason they couldn't overwhelm us down here and go through the north while we're distracted. Our own numbers are still too few to fight back if that happens."

"If that happens we've lost," Luna told him. "Once they dig their hooves into the east coast it'll be impossible to get them back out." Unspoken was the fact that it was only the Mareitanians hesitance preventing that. Should Faust decree it, they could swarm across Equestria, and there was little that could be done to stop them. It would be a costly campaign for them though, as Luna would make them pay for every inch.

"I think they're preparing to fire," Stormguard said after a moment. Luna moved to stand beside him to see what he could. As he said, the tanks were in position and seemed to be ready to fire. As they were watching, one of the tanks launched its payload across the river, although it would fall far short of the defences. Instead it landed on the riverbank and exploded. Two more explosions set off, the first one having set off a couple of the landmines they'd laid.

"By my sister's morning breath," Luna cursed as the other tanks turned on the spot to start firing on the riverbank. "They intend to destroy our minefield!" Luna grit her teeth as more explosions rumbled along the riverbank, destroying yet more landmines. "Stormguard, get our pegasi into the air and order the Air Corps to start bombarding the Mareitanians. Shining Armour, order the cannons to focus their fire on the end tanks."

Luna stood still, hissing between her teeth as her generals ran off to direct things from nearer the front. The tanks fired another volley, destroying yet more mines, each one firing a plume of fire and earth into the air as they were denied their purpose. As the last explosion echoed off the hills, the pegasi took wing, flying off over the river to deliver some payback.
Beams of colourful magic shot up into the air as the pegasi flew over the Mareitanians, and the sheer volume of it was enough to take out some of the fliers, rather than any decent accuracy on their part. Seconds later flashes of light went off throughout the enemy ranks as the bombs fell, but it was only for a few seconds as the Maretanian Adepts changed from attacking to shielding, and the flashes were suddenly happening a dozen meters in the air as the bombs struck a shield instead.

While the Adepts were forced to shield their forces they were unable to do anything else, which suited Luna just fine as they'd neglected to cover their tanks with the shield, probably to allow them to continue firing, but leaving them vulnerable to the cannons as they fired, concentrating their fire on the left and rightmost tanks. Not all of the shots hit their targets, but it was enough to send the tanks scurrying away.

Luna smiled to herself. Barely minutes into their attack the Mareitanians were already on the backhoof, their assault having amounted to very little. It took her a few minutes to notice the Adepts' shield had reached the river, and that there was more to their attack than she had anticipated.


-0-0-0-


Pinkie covered her ears as the cannons fired again. They didn't have the fun sound of her party cannon, but instead a bang that rattled your brain inside your skull. She didn't like it one bit, but didn't have the means to stop it, so clamped her hooves over her ears and hoped it would end soon. Even then it wasn't enough to block the sound of Limestone swearing.

"What the fuck are those bastards doing?" she asked out loud as she watched over the defences.

"Which bastards?" Azure asked, gaining herself a funny look from the team. "I stand by what I said."

"The Mareitanians," Limestone emphasised, "are doing something at the river." As she spoke the Mareitanians broke apart letting three large teams of earth ponies through to the river. Between them were long wooden platforms on wheels that they shoved into the river, one above the train wreck, and two below, pushing them further and further until they rose up the other side. "Oh shit! Bridges!"

The Adepts changed their tactic, shifting their shield to protect the bridges as their forces crossed, with Adepts leading the charge so that those crossing the bridge had protection at the other side. They waited until they had a sizable force across the river before advancing towards the Equestrians, trudging over the mostly destroyed minefield. Mostly.

"All cannons fire on those bridges," Shining Armour shouted. It took almost a minute before the first shot was taken at the bridges, and although the Adepts shields couldn't withstand that kind of firepower, the bridges remained intact. The ponies on them were a different matter, as the Equestrian air forces started swooping in during breaks in the cannon fire.

"Damn, that's ballsy," Azure commented on the pegasi as they dived the ponies trying to cross the bridges. The Adepts and archers on the opposite bank responded to the pegasi attacks by firing at them as they dived, the bodies of those hit splashing down into the river.

"Please be okay Rainbow," Pinkie begged as the pegasi broke off their attacks, allowing the Mareitanians to continue crossing. The cannons roared again, striking the bridges with their fury. The middle bridge was hit directly, its frame shattering as a pair on cannonballs sheared through its frame in the middle. It sagged, then broke completely, dumping the ponies crossing it into the river.

A ragged cheer went up from the defenders as the bridge collapsed, but there were plenty of ponies still crossing to cause an issue. With the Adepts shielding them, and the cannons focussed on the bridges, there was nothing stopping the ponies that had already crossed from advancing further.

"Mage Corps, raise shields behind the cannons!" Shining Armour commanded. Seconds after he did a line of shields popped up behind the cannons. "Advance past cannons when I say. Everypony else, get ready to hold off the attackers!"

"What the hell is going on?" Lyra asked, hoping for some kind of detailed plan off Limestone, but all she got was a shrug.

"I'm guessing the cannons can't attack while they're swarming us, so we hold them here while the pegasi deal with the bridges. Or something. More likely something."

"But that's stupid."

"Their plan or ours?"

"Both!"

The cannons fired again, then fell silent as Shining ordered the shields to pass the cannons, their crews falling back away from the fighting. The Mareitanians were barely a dozen meters away, safe behind their shield, just as the Equestrians were safe behind theirs.

The Mareitanians moved, overlapping their shield with the Equestrian one and raising theirs above it to start pounding on it with everything they had to try and break through. The Mage Corps unicorns all braced themselves for the inevitable backlash that the shield collapsing would create.

Pinkie swallowed nervously as cracks formed in the shield, her hooves running over the surface of the rock she held in her hooves to try and keep her mind away from what was about to happen. She glanced at Lyra who was watching the shield with apprehension, but didn't contribute to it as she was no longer part of the Mage Corps. Under her breath she started counting down from ten, but didn't even make it to three before the shield buckled, breaking completely, knocking ponies back with the backlash.

A bright light filled the gap between the two groups as Luna teleported onto the battlefield, her glaives shining at her side for a second before being put to work, carving into the Mareitanians ranks.

"Advance! Earth Corps with me! Mage Corps and Uni Corps maintain ranged fire! Push them back to the river!"

Pinkie hesitated as the rest of the ponies around her ran past the Hard Corps, following Luna's orders to repel the attackers. The rest of the Hard Corps hesitated as well, unsure whether Luna's orders had included them or not.

"Are we meant to be doing something?" Top Spin asked, hoping Limestone hadn't ordered them forwards for a reason.

"I have no idea," Limestone admitted. "We're not ranged or melee! This is so fucking stupid! What the hell are we supposed to be?"

"Unconventional," Maud said bluntly. "Which we are. I think I have a plan to destroy those bridges, but we're going to need two really big rocks."

"And what are we going to do with these really big rocks?" Limestone asked sceptically.

A faint smile tugged at the corners of Maud's mouth. "We're going to teach them to fly."


-0-0-0-


This felt more familiar to Luna, throwing herself into a chaotic mêlée of blades and spells. It was also something she excelled at, compared to other parts of warfare. The bridges had completely thrown Luna off, and not least because they'd placed them so close to the train wreckage. That meant they'd also bridged the trench made during the trap, which had come to her as being unnecessarily hard to do, which could explain why she hadn't anticipated the attack coming from directly in front of them.

She'd cursed herself hard for that. She'd been so convinced some big grand event would happen to get them across the river that she'd overlooked the simplest method. The river was only a few dozen meters wide, so what the Mareitanians had done should have been obvious. The fact that they did it in triplicate was just insulting. Now they had crossed the river, forced the cannons into silence through fear of hitting their own, and were doing far too well in their attack as far as she was concerned. Her soldiers needed an edge to push back with, even if that edge was herself. All they needed was an opening, and she'd give them one.

"Push forwards!" Luna cried, her glaives sweeping round to cut down an earth pony that had thought to attack her from the side. She kept a space clear in front of her to move into, cutting deeper and deeper into the Mareitanian ranks. The fact that it had come to a charge like this was bad enough, but if the Mareitanians made it past the defences, it would've been a nightmare to push them back out again. It may even have cost them the position, as well as the cannons, which Luna would rather not see in the hooves of their enemy.

A large pony in thick armour pushed into the space she kept in front of her, unexpectedly ramming into her to try and push her back. She braced herself, her hooves digging into the ground as she halted the pony's attack. She brought her glaives down on the pony's sides, stabbing them through the chest until the two blades met. She was surprised to hear a feminine cry come from the pony before pulling her blades free and kicking the pony away.

That short loss of momentum did have consequences though, as more of the armoured juggernauts were able to halt the Equestrians push, although not to the point that they had pushed them back, as even they couldn't push back a few thousand ponies. As it was, all they had really done was slow it, as the juggernauts were outnumbered, forced to the ground, and summarily killed. Perhaps their sacrifice was worth it, but Luna doubted it as she raised a shield to fill the gap that the juggernauts had allowed to form between the two sides. Arrows bounced off the shield Luna had erected, the gaps quickly getting filled by the Mage Corps as they caught on to what Luna was doing. Their attack thwarted, the Mareitanians did the same.

Luna looked up in the short respite that had been made. The two sides had turtled up now, shielding themselves from the other. Chances were the Mareitanians wouldn't attempt to try what they did before and batter the shields down to attack the Equestrians. They still had plenty of distance between them and the river, and it seemed unlikely that they were going to retreat, so something had to be done to break the stalemate as Luna wasn't exactly keen to drop her shield either. What that something was she had no idea.


-0-0-0-


If there was ever a more pointless activity Rainbow could think of in this battle, it was escorting the Air Corps fliers as they dropped bombs. If the griffons were here she could see the point, but they weren't, so what she was meant to be protecting them from was a mystery, especially as it put her and all of the other fliers at risk of getting hit by the Mareitanians attempts to stop them with magic and crossbow fire. Rather ineffectively at that. It seemed to her that this war, and the weapons that had come into being because of it, had severely changed the typical balance in pony versus pony combat. With bombs pegasi no longer had to get close to attack ponies, so unicorns lost their ranged advantage. In fact, with bombs pegasi could dominate any force, so long as they didn't hide beneath shields like the Mareitanians currently were.

In fact the entire battle had come to a deadlock as far as she could tell, with the Equestrians so determined to defend themselves that the Mareitanians simply couldn't push forward, and vice versa. The cannons were stuck not being able to fire, so no help was coming from them, and the sheer volume of bombs required to bust through the shield was more than the pegasi could drop at any one time. Contrary to that, the order to cease wasting bombs was going out, allowing Rainbow and her squadron to fly back to the southern side of the river to safety.

"Wonderbolts to me!" Spitfire shouted, separating herself out from the rest of the fliers to address her squadrons. "We have a problem," she said once the four squadrons were assembled. "This battle is going nowhere at the moment, and it's up to us to get it moving again. We need to get the Mareitanians shield down on this side of the river."

"Why us?" Rainbow asked. "Couldn't Luna do it?"

"Both Princess Luna and General Armour are down in that mess somewhere," Spitfire replied. "While they're keeping our forces safe they can't begin to break the shields. Pegasi are the only ones free to get through it."

"Isn't keeping our forces safe a bit stupid?" Sky Stinger snickered. "Last I checked this was supposed to be a battle, so why are they all trying to stay safe?"

"I'm guessing this wasn't what the Mareitanians had in mind when they decided to attack here again," Spitfire told him. "The cannons must have changed things for them, and I bet they never expected Luna to lead a charge against them either. Now they're stuck, unable to advance or retreat because we'll tear them to shreds as soon as they try either of those."

"So what's the plan Captain?" Lightning asked.

"I'm sure you all remember your shield busting training?"

"Well, sure."

"Good, because we're not doing it. The Air Corps are."

All of the Wonderbolts shared glances. "Did you hit your head at some point?" Soarin said, turning Spitfire's head to inspect it.

"Get off me," Spitfire grunted, pushing Soarin away. "The Air Corps are busting the shields, and we're following them in along with the Exiles and Night Guard. It's not complicated."

"Then why bring up our shield busting training?" said Rainbow.

"Because it's relevant. When the big shield goes down, the Adepts are likely to try and put up a bunch of smaller shields. We'll have a few seconds to do as much damage as we can, but then we'll have to go into busting the smaller shields. The Air Corps will probably take a few hits, so they'll pull out after busting the shield, meaning we'll have to do it ourselves from there on."

"What do you mean they'll take a few hits?" Cloud asked once Spitfire was done explaining the plan.

Spitfire groaned and looked away, not meeting their eyes as she explained. "The Mareitanians are likely to open fire as soon as the shield goes down, and the Air Corps will be between us and them..."

"So we're using them for cover?" Rainbow said, shocked that they would do that. "We're seriously making the Air Corps into meat-shields?"

"It would happen anyway," Spitfire snapped. "If it's going to happen anyway, we might as well try to get something out of it. Believe me Rainbow, I'm no happier about it than you, but its simply something that's unavoidable."

"Okay, I get it," Rainbow lied.

"Anyway, We'll be busting the shields with the Night Guard from there on, so we'll be taking plenty of fire after that while the Exiles clean up. Any questions?" Spitfire tightened her jaw as a dozen ponies raised their hooves, "No? Good. Let's move out and make this happen ponies!"

"This is going to blow," Rainbow said as Lightning led them higher into the sky. "Who's keeping the Mareitanians on the other side of the river occupied while we're doing this?"

"I think the idea is to do this quickly," Lightning said back with a shrug. "They can only be a problem if we give them the time to be. Anyway, enough questions and all that, get yourself ready for the attack."

Rainbow nodded and drew her blades, scraping them up and down the other as a means of passing the time until the attack began. They didn't have to wait long as the Air Corps gathered just below them. They waited a few seconds, then dived as one to strike the shield simultaneously. Seconds after they dived the rest of the fliers followed.

The shield vanished, but not because the Air Corps had hit it. The Air Corps overshot their intended distance as the shield dropped ahead of them, flying straight into a hail of magic and arrows that they scrambled to avoid, scattering quickly. 

The Wonderbolts, Exiles, and Night Guards held their course, dodging and weaving between the incoming fire. There were no smaller shields being formed so they flew straight in to attack. Rainbow landed heavily on a stallion that was aiming a crossbow away from her, making him fire the weapon in his shock, the arrow hitting a pony on his side a few meters away. Rainbow took back off to the safety of the sky, a lot of the other pegasi following her up.

"Cloud! Thunderlane! You still with me?" Rainbow looked back to see if her wingmates were still there, and grinned as she found they were. It also gave her the chance to see Princess Luna begin pushing against the Mareitanians. It had only been a single strike, but it was enough to get the ball rolling again.


-0-0-0-


Luna could have cheered. In fact she might have, but hadn't been able to hear it over the renewed sounds of battle. As soon as the shield had dropped, Luna had ended hers to start attacking. A single blast from her horn had blown a gap in the Mareitanians in front of her, allowing her to race into the gap and start pushing it wider.

A sword clipped of the rear of her armour, and she spun to face the pony that had struck her, swinging her blade around to behead the pony. Such an act was almost an afterthought, but it did allow her to see something which she hadn't thought to pay attention to before because she was so occupied with fighting. The Mareitanians were retreating back across the bridges as fast as they could.

Luna hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether to cut off the bridges to halt their escape. Even if they refused to surrender, costing her own side more, taking out such a number of the enemy was almost too good to pass up. Her own forces were becoming rather stretched pushing forward like they had, and there was the risk of a counterattack damaging her forces if she got it wrong. She was stuck deciding what to do, when a shadow passed over her, preceded by a shout of "Timber!"

"Pinkie Pie?"


-0-0-0-


"So we have to hold our shields like this?" Lyra asked, nervously eyeing Crystal just across from her, who was making the exact same face back. "You do realise that neither of us have a chance of holding that kind of weight? Especially when it's moving."

"I know," said Maud. "You won't need to." Maud shielded her eyes as she looked up the steep slope where Pinkie and Limestone were roughly carving two channels into the rock, starting at the plateau above them, and ending them by where Maud was stood with Lyra and Crystal. Two ramps had already been built, so all that remained was for Marble to craft two perfectly round boulders with Azure and Top Spin, and for Maud to get the spin just right using the two unicorns' magic.

Maud placed her hooves on the square shield and tried to shape it a little. She was rather surprised to find that she couldn't. "Could you make the shield soft so I could shape it?" Lyra nodded, and the shield started to shift in her hooves. She twisted it a little, looked down at the nearest bridge, then twisted it a little further, nodding to herself. "Okay, make it hard again."

"Are you really sure you know what you're doing?" Lyra insisted. She'd never come across earth pony magic that didn't involve growing things before now, and had no idea if that was what she was looking at, or if it was all Maud. Either option worried her.

"Yes," Maud said bluntly in answer to Lyra's question. She morphed Crystal's shield, shortening it a bit and adding a flick to the end that would add a nice spin to the boulder as it flew. "I feel I should apologise, to both of you."

"Why?" Crystal asked nervously. Whatever Lyra was thinking about what was happening, it was worse for her. Lyra had at least spent a significant amount of time around earth ponies, long enough to pick up on their eccentricities, but she'd lived in Canterlot her entire life and had limited experience with what earth ponies could do. Now they were practically throwing boulders at her.

"For the headache," Maud said. "I get the feeling giant boulders smashing through your magic won't be pleasant."

"Then why are you doing this?"

"This needs to be perfect, and they'll last long enough to give us what we want." Maud gave the shield one last little tug and nodded. "Okay, don't change these shields. I'm going to make sure everything is ready."

"I should never have agreed to this," Crystal sighed as Maud near sprinted up the near vertical slope.

"And you'd rather be down there?" Lyra said, gesturing with her head towards the battle below them.

"Y'know, I almost feel that would be safer."

"Then clearly you don't know Pinkie. I wouldn't be doing this if she didn't agree with it."

"Oh, and Pinkie's the expert on everything is she? Huh? What is it about her opinion on this should we trust? Her stunning knowledge of geometry and geology? Or her ability to, what? Punch rocks?"

Lyra gave Crystal a funny look, "No. We should trust it because she's Pinkie, and that's all that matters. It's a thing back in Ponyville." Lyra grinned at the incredulous expression Crystal adopted, "Hey Pinkie, where exactly would you say these boulders are going to land?"

"Well the near one is easy," Pinkie shouted back down the slope to Lyra, stopping her work to look at the bridges. "It's going to land right on the nearest edge in the middle of the bridge. The other one though... it's going bounce off the top of the highest carriage in the river, hit the shield and break it, bounce directly upwards, then land on the bridge either breaking it or not breaking it. That's up to the bridge. I'm not exactly an expert at bridges, so I can't tell."

"Cool. Thanks Pinkie." Lyra raised her eyebrows at Crystal, "And that is exactly what will happen," she declared.

"You're all insane," Crystal muttered back.


-0-0-0-


Azure leaned against the boulder that was near three times the height she was, and grinned at Maud as she clambered up over the edge of the slope. "Two big, smooth, hairless, dragon balls sized balls, ready to go," she said, trying to sound like she came across those things all the time, and therefore knew exactly how big they were.

"Dragon testicles are only the size of your head," Maud said dismissively. "Depending on the size of the dragon of course. These are just big rocks."

Azure pouted at Maud, "Right... yeah, whatever. Big rocks. Yep. I'm guessing dragon jizz isn't as hot as lava either?"

"I'd say not."

"Damn. I feel like my entire childhood was a lie now. Anyway, did we make good balls?" Maud inspected  the boulder that Azure was leaning against, chipped a few bits off, then nodded in satisfaction. "Sweet. Worked hard on this."

"Marble did most of this. I recognise her work."

Azure hung her head and nodded once, "Yeah. She's a lot faster than me, and better, and she's so adorable I can't even get mad at her."

"No hitting on Marble!" Limestone shouted from over the edge of the plateau.

Azure rolled her eyes, "Yes mooom!"

"Especially since that would actually make Marble your aunt!"

Azure blinked as she thought about what Limestone had said, "Oh yeah... that is a bit gross."

"Also, it's Sergeant to you, you purple pain in the-"

"This one looks good," Maud said about the other boulder Marble and Top Spin were working on, effectively ending the conversation between Azure and Limestone.

"Thanks Maud," Marble said appreciatively. "I'm trying to get them as round as possible, but it's a bit hard doing it like this."

"It's fine, they don't need to be exact. I think they're both acceptable, and ready to-"

"Roll?" Azure said excitedly. She cheered when Maud nodded. "Finally! I said something and didn't get argued with! Can I push one?"

"Nope," Limestone said happily, climbing up onto the plateau with Pinkie. "Pony in charge gets to push one, and pony that thought of the plan gets to push the other."

"I don't mind-" Maud began to say, getting interrupted by Limestone.

"Don't care. Pony in charge gets to say who does the pushing as well. Frankly, anypony but Azure, who got to blow up the trench the other day."

"Oh yeah," Azure said dreamily. "I'd almost forgotten about that."

"I don't see how," Limestone grumbled. "Anyway, the ramps are ready to go, so all we need to do is get on with it." She walked around the back of the nearest boulder and placed her hooves on it, pushing with all her might, but only moving it a couple of inches. "Damn it. Azure-"

"Yes ma'am!" Azure quickly joined Limestone, along with Marble as Top Spin and Pinkie helped Maud to push the other to the edge. They stopped at the edge, making sure to line the two boulders up with the ramps before shouting down to see if Lyra and Crystal were ready. They were, so with an almighty shove they pushed the two boulders off the edge of the plateau.

"Timber!" Pinkie shouted as the two boulders rumbled down the slope, bouncing a little as they quickly gained speed, creating a massive trail of dust in their wake.

They reached the ramps that would launch them into the air, and shot off the end, Lyra and Crystal crying out in pain as the boulders crashed through their shields, but holding them long enough to alter their trajectory slightly. The right boulder flew directly at the nearest bridge, punching directly through the shield and hitting the edge of the wooden structure, smashing through most of it so that the barest bit of solid structure remained. It couldn't support the weight of the ponies on it, and snapped, throwing them into the river.

The other boulder flew majestically through the air as only a boulder could. It clipped off the top of the highest carriage in the wreckage from the train still in the river, knocking the carriage over as it continued. It smacked into the side of the shield tunnel, bouncing up off it as the shield held long enough to totally alter its direction to upwards. It quickly succumbed to gravity though, and fell directly onto the bridge which half snapped, the weight of the boulder dragging it beneath the water.

"Nailed it!" Pinkie shouted gleefully.

"And that is why we don't question Pinkie," Lyra said to Crystal, her hoof squeezed to the side of her head to stop the feeling that her head was going to split in half.


-0-0-0-


"Good grief," Luna muttered, stunned by the sudden arrival of the boulders, and stunned again by the sudden removal of the bridges. "Excellent work Pinkie, as always."

Luna pulled back a little, ordering her troops to do the same. With the sudden loss of the bridges, the Mareitanians were without their sole means of both gaining reinforcements, and retreating. They were now effectively trapped on the Equestrian side of the river, and were likely to be feeling a bit desperate, meaning they would either face reality and give up, or lash out in an attempt to hurt the Equestrian forces as much as possible. Luna hoped that by denying them the chance to attack, she could force them to surrender instead.

Some of the Mareitanians were already tossing their gear to swim back across the river, and Luna wished them luck as the river would claim at least some of them before they made it. The rest though, she offered them an ultimatum, her voice blasting out over the battlefield.

"You're trapped here now with no hope of succeeding. Stand down and you shall be granted mercy, or face a bloody end if you resist. It's your choice."

Nothing happened for a little bit. Luna thought they were actually going to reject her offer, or die through inactivity as she had no intention of standing here all day waiting for them to decide their future. Across the river their forces were already falling back, their attack thwarted by the destruction of the bridges. Luna was thankful, as their attack had proven far too successful considering how close they had come to overrunning the Equestrians' defence. Her charge against the Mareitanians had been a gambit, if a successful one. It could easily have gone wrong.

"Please surrender," Luna sighed. "Your Lady isn't coming to save you, so give up. I'd rather not have to drag this battle out if I don't need to. Accept your defeat, and surrender."

By Luna's estimation there was maybe a thousand Mareitanians trapped with them. Behind her Luna had thousands of ponies. Not all of them were on the battlefield, but the disparity of numbers had to have been obvious, and it did seem to be as the Mareitanians started throwing their weapons down.

"Excellent! General Armour, are you still with us?"

"I'm here," Shining said, pushing his way to Luna. "What are your orders?"

"Claim their weapons and start rounding them up into small groups. Make sure our numbers remain obvious to them, so that they don't get any funny ideas. We'll transport them to the prisoner of war camp at Dodge City tomorrow."

"Yes ma'am."

Luna sighed as Shining ran off, barking orders. She returned her blades to the nether and pulled her helmet off her head, letting her mane loose. While she was pleased that they had seen off the enemy, she couldn't help but feel that they had come far too close to the edge of disaster against what was less than a quarter of the Mareitanians forces. This defeat would get back to Faust, and whatever she tried next would likely be a lot worse than what they'd seen so far.
> 36. Good news, bad news, and interesting news
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia's hooves over echoed off the cold stone of the dungeon's floor as she made her way into the deepest part of Canterlot Castle, providing an fitting accompaniment to this rather dreary place.

She'd just received the news from Luna that they'd repelled an assault upon the defences north of Las Pegasus, and while that was good, in the back of her mind she was counting an increasing number of lives lost. And now she was going to visit one of the ponies responsible for inflicting Equestria with its current predicament.

"Good morning Princess," Fleur said to the approaching alicorn as she stood outside one of the cells, a clipboard held in her magic. A small box was beside her on the ground.

"Good morning Director," Celestia said back, noting the hint of distaste Fleur's expression grew upon using her title rather than her name. "I suppose it's unnecessary for me to ask if you've heard the news?"

"About Las Pegasus? No, we've heard, and obviously we're pleased about Luna having held off another assault. I will have to get an update on her future plans though, as I doubt the Mareitanians would attack there again. Hopefully 'master strategist' Snowbright in here will agree. I'm still confused about why you want to be here for his interrogation."

"Because I-" Celestia bit her answer off, finding it silly even to herself. The only reason she was here was because she felt she needed to be, to look Snowbright in the eye and ask why he did all this. "I just need to be."

Fleur shrugged at Celestia, "You're the princess, Princess, so far be it from me to stop you. I will warn you that I very much doubt you'll get whatever answers it is you're seeking. He was a stubborn ass during the rebellion, and I really don't think he'll be any less of one now."

"Maybe, maybe not. There's only one way to find out." 

Using her horn, Fleur opened the cell door into the interrogation room. Formerly it had been just another cell, but Fleur had requested a few changes to it since dragging prisoners through the castle each time you wanted to ask them something was beyond stupid. Realistically, all that had changed was the removal of the bed and other items, and a table and chair placed inside, but that was all it took to become a interrogation room.

Fleur nodded to the two Royal Guard ponies on the inside of the door, then met the eyes of the white pony shackled behind the table. Neither of them said anything to the other, but that didn't stop Snowbright from gazing defiantly at Fleur. His expression changed as Celestia entered, but only to convey a hint of anger.

"Hello Snowbright," Fleur said pleasantly, getting a pleasant smile in return.

"Hello Fleur. Nice to see one of the few ponies here worth a damn, even if you had to drag one of the ponies holding your leash in here with you."

"I am holding noponies leash," Celestia snapped. "Besides, how can you talk like that when Faust has such a tight hold on your leash?"

"Ah here we go," Snowbright sighed, rolling his eyes. "Faust is controlling us using magic, and is using us to enact her vengeance on Equestria and the ponies ruling it. Blah, blah, blah... tell me something new."

"How about that she's using you and your belligerence towards Equestria as a template for her mind control?" said Fleur.

"You mean that mind control that doesn't exist?"

"If that mind control doesn't exist, how did she convince your entire country to go to war with us just for her revenge?"

"Because she's the Lady! You wronged her and imprisoned her!"

"I didn't even know she existed until just before you did!" Celestia yelled. "I didn't imprison her! Equestria didn't imprison her! Why are you making us suffer for things we didn't do?"

"You didn't free her," Snowbright said quietly, like he was setting down a trump card. "She told us about your visits with her while you were there. She told us how you mocked her for her suffering when you could have set her free, pretending to care while doing nothing to help her."

"I did no such thing! I would have freed her were it not for her wretched insistence on destroying Equestria, and seeing my sister and I, as well as Twilight, locked up like she was. I don't know if you know, but what she's currently doing to Equestria is something she intends to do to the world!"

"Oh I know," Snowbright said smugly. "It was one of the bigger selling points for me after all."

"Excuse me?" Fleur said, shocked. "You wanted to attack us?"

"Not at the time, but I have no real love for Equestria. I could see it during the rebellion, those little things that would have made Mareitania more and more like Equestria, wearing away our identity bit by bit. So when Faust told us her wish of seeing Equestria and the world led into a new golden age guided by her hoof, how could I resist? Equestria, regarded as one of the greatest countries in the world, conquered by Mareitania, repeatedly described by many as being the worst. It couldn't have been more perfect."

Fleur gawped at Snowbright for several seconds before managing to find her tongue again. "But Equestria helped you! We helped you! If it wasn't for us rescuing you after your stupid attempt at killing the Viscount, you'd be dead, or even worse a guest of Pearl's in her dungeon."

"And the Viscount would have been dead, destroying the line of succession! Mareitania would've been freed from the Duke's grip when he died anyway, but you stopped me and dragged us into a bloody civil war!"

"You know somepony else would've claimed the throne, or even worse a war would've started as different ponies fought for it. Ponies would die anyway, and in the end you'd have a ruler you still didn't want!"

"You don't know that," Snowbright said, leaning back.

"You're right, I don't," said Fleur. "But what we did was put good ponies in charge of Mareitania, and how did you repay us? By letting Faust control you and use you all as a weapon to destroy us."

"She isn't controlling us!"

Fleur picked up the box she had with her and slammed it down on the table. She unlocked the clasps and pulled out a familiar looking item, a wooden depiction of Faust. "Do you know what this is?"

"It's an icon of Faust. Pretty much every household has one."

"At her insistence?"

"One was gifted to every household in celebration of our Lady's return." Snowbright squinted suspiciously at Fleur, "How did you get it?"

"One of our pegasi picked it up a few months ago when we were scouting your country. She became completely obsessed with it, and attacked anypony that tried to take it off her."

"Sounds like my kind of pegasus."

Fleur pulled the icon in two, letting the small enchanted gem spill out onto the table. "This was inside it. A magic gem spreading Faust's magic to everypony who has one of these things."

"You could have made that yourself. Besides, if what you're saying is true, why aren't you affected by it?"

"We've immunised ourselves to it, but I was affected when we went to High Rock keep when this all started. The only ponies totally immune to it are alicorns, and Twilight was able to save us from it."

"Uh-huh. If that's true, why aren't you removing its effects from me?"

"Because we have reason to believe that ending the effects of the spell on a pony that's been exposed to it for months potentially has side effects." What Fleur didn't suggest was that Flicker was actually batshit crazy anyway when her horn was damaged, and there weren't any actual side effects so to speak. She wasn't going to take that risk though. "We're still working on how to safely remove the enchantment from ponies."

Snowbright nodded slowly, "Okay, that's nice and all, but you haven't actually proven there's any mind control magic to speak of. Even if there was, what does convincing me of its existence really do for you?"

"It helps us to show you you're wrong," said Fleur. "But I suppose that wouldn't matter to you anyway since you're kind of an asshole anyway. Instead, let's talk strategy."

Snowbright chuckled at Fleur, "Prepare to be disappointed then, because even if I was willing to tell you, I don't actually know that much. You'll have to ask Faust about the entire story."

"Ah, that'd be why they attacked where we caught you again, because they didn't have you to tell them it was a bad idea. We fought them off by the way."

"What?" Snowbright said with fake surprise. "Without collapsing bridges, buildings, tunnels, or throwing deadly weather at them? I'm almost impressed."

Fleur consulted her notes, "I do believe we threw a couple of five ton boulders at them, but that was to break their makeshift bridges. The rest was done the old fashioned way. We also captured... one thousand three hundred and ninety two of your soldiers, since they at least still have the sense to not get themselves slaughtered."

Snowbright snorted at Fleur, "We'll aren't they lucky you gave them a chance to surrender."

"I imagine you can thank Luna later at some point. The thing is, you can't keep throwing yourself at our strongest points. The attack on the Bulwark must have been costly, and between the train crash and the latest battle, as well as the loss of your griffon mercenaries, Mareitania must be feeling the losses. I wouldn't put it past Faust to keep throwing lives away, but I don't think even you would agree with that. There must be a plan b if you failed to capture Las Pegasus."

"Of course there is," Snowbright laughed. "I just have no idea what it is since you denied us proper access to Ponyville as well. The Lady planned the strategy, I planned the battles."

"Including the attack on the Crystal Empire?" Celestia asked.

"No, that was all our Lady's work. I would've been more direct, but she likes to spare ponies where she can."

"Why? To save ponies to use in her war against the rest of the world?"

"Probably," Snowbright shrugged. "Why do you think she hasn't flown around destroying your war industries? She has the power to do so, and I know you know you couldn't stop her if she decided to do that."

"She hasn't shown herself since Vanhoover," Fleur said, making a show of consulting her clipboard again. "For all we know her little fight with Luna could have left her unable to do so, and you could be bluffing."

Snowbright shrugged again, "You'd only be kidding yourselves in that case."

Celestia slowly and deliberately cleared her throat, "In the times I, and others, spoke with Faust, she often made reference to something she called 'the plan' concerning her intentions for the world. Do you have any idea what that is?"

"Uh, Princess, I was aski-" Fleur shut her mouth as Celestia held up a hoof.

"The plan?" Snowbright repeated back to Celestia. "I've never heard her say anything about any plan like that. She said that she wanted to lead the world into a golden age-"

"Guided by her hoof, yes," Celestia finished. "Then it's clear to me that she really is just using you. Please continue Director."

"Uh..." Fleur glanced at Celestia, seeing the dark expression on her face. She'd also lost track of her thoughts, and silently cursed Celestia for interrupting her like that. "Okay, since you can't go to Ponyville, and you've failed to even reach Las Pegasus twice now, your only options we see are to keep trying to capture Las Pegasus, or go through the north, which since you haven't done, we feel you must agree with our assessment that it's miles of deadly open ground to cross."

"I'll agree that it wasn't plan a or b," said Snowbright, "but it's a plan should we need it. The fact is that the west holds nothing of use to us save as a hoofhold in your country. I suspect you intentionally made it to be that way, placing most of your critical industries in the east."

"And yet you say Faust could destroy them herself, even though she hasn't, meaning she intends to capture them. Or that she's exaggerated her abilities to you." Fleur smiled as Snowbright glared at her. "Thank you for that information at least."

"Yes you've made it difficult for us," Snowbright said evenly. "Luckily for you your very geography makes it easy for you to defend your country from the west, but don't kid yourselves into thinking we're done. As the Crystal Empire taught you, we are capable of surprises, just as you are. Whatever plan our Lady is thinking up, I'm sure I wouldn't even see it coming."

"I see. In that case, should she attack our defences at Las Pegasus again, I'll let you know." Fleur stood and placed the icon securely back in its container, "Good day Snowbright. Guards, return him to his cell." Fleur started to leave, then remembered who else was in the room, and bowed to Celestia. "After you Princess," she said, letting Celestia leave first.

They'd left the dungeons entirely before either of them spoke again. "I'm sorry Fleur. I suspect my presence there was more hindrance than help."

Fleur shrugged easily. She'd not expected much out of the meeting, and ended up with a few bits of information that might be worth something. "I wouldn't worry about it. Snowbright's a highly trained individual, so it's going to take time to get anything useful out of him. I'm not exactly an interrogator either. I'll get our actual interrogators to work on him straight away."

"I know, but... he was always fairly unpleasant to me during my time in Mareitania after the war ended. Having him here, I just wanted to know why he had such an issue with me. I'm still none the wiser really."

Fleur smiled sympathetically, "I really don't think it was you. He was never the nicest of ponies, and even had issues with Twilight towards the end. He almost pitched a fit when he found out who Luna was." Fleur shrugged at Celestia, "As I said, we'll keep working on him, and hopefully get him to let slip some useful information."

"Of course. Thank you, Director."

Fleur bowed to Celestia, "You're welcome, although I'd appreciate it if you called me Fleur."

"As you wish Fleur. Now I imagine we both have plenty to do, so keep me updated on events as best you can."


-0-0-0-


The journey from the dungeons was conducted in silence, and not just because Celestia lacked anypony to talk to as she meandered around the castle, avoiding going to the throne room for a little bit. The meeting with Snowbright had left her in a thoughtful frame of mind, and her thoughts only seemed to be chasing after one another as they sought the elusive answer to the question, why? She understood Faust's reasons for what she was doing, as deranged as they were, but considering none of the Mareitanians knew they were ensorcelled, how were they coerced into agreeing to attack Equestria? They weren't puppets, so why weren't they aware of how their very thoughts had been twisted into making them do something they wouldn't really want to do.

Everything else felt irrelevant to that. Snowbright wasn't going to share Mareitania's strategy with them, not without the kind of coercion Celestia refused to adopt, so she doubted they would get anything useful out of him. Even then, she would constantly question whether what he told them was true or not.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she almost tripped over Flurry Heart as she played outside the door to Cadence's room as she passed. The foal burbled happily at her, raising her legs to try and get Celestia to pick her up, which she did so, rubbing her nose affectionately against Flurry's.

"And what exactly are you doing out here, hmm? I very much doubt mummy would normally leave you laying around like this." Celestia smiled at the string of nonsense Flurry spouted, gesturing wildly with her legs as she flapped her large wings. "Perhaps we should go and find her." Flurry sighed in a way which perfectly conveyed 'that was what I was trying to tell you.'

Celestia banged her hoof against the door to Cadence's room. "Cadence? Are you in there?"

"Uh, yes, yes I am!"

Celestia paused, suspicious at how much guilt Cadence had managed to squeeze into those five syllables. "Are you alright Cadence? You sound a bit off."

"I'm fine! Really! I'm just a bit tired."

"Ah, I see." Celestia waited a beat, "Care to explain why I found Flurry outside your door?"

"But she's right her-ah!" The door flew open in a haze of blue magic, revealing the panicked and dishevelled pink alicorn that had been hiding behind it. "Flurry Heart! What have I told you about teleporting around?"

"Gleerh!" Flurry squeaked, seemingly pleased with her cunning argument.

"I thought her magic spurts had been stopped?" Celestia asked Cadence, confused at how Flurry had done such a thing.

"Well, yes, but that doesn't stop her doing it on purpose." Cadence took Flurry off Celestia and placed the foal on her back. "Thanks for bringing her back to me Celestia."

"Quite alright, although I am curious as to what you're doing to not notice Flurry was gone. Especially since she'd only made it as far as outside the door."

"Uh..." Cadence glanced back into her room, "Just a small personal project. Nothing much."

"Uh-huh... Cadence, I don't need over a thousand years of experience to tell when somepony is lying to me."

"Please Auntie, it's really nothing important." Cadence gave Celestia her most convincing smile, although it ran up against Celestia's most sceptical eyebrow, which met it movement for movement, raising higher as the smile grew wider. "Why are you here anyway? Shouldn't you be in the throne room?"

"I was taking a walk to clear my mind," Celestia replied, her eyebrow returning to its usual position. "I had an interesting meeting with General Snowbright, and I still don't feel any closer to understanding any of this."

"Then all we can hope for is a quick resolution to this entire thing," Cadence said, rather pointedly in Celestia's opinion, although she would certainly like an end to all this as much as anypony.

"Indeed. Would you perhaps join me in the throne room?"

Cadence hesitated, her eyes drifting back to her room. "I'm not exactly presentable at the moment-"

"Please Cadence, I'd appreciate the company. I also think Flurry would like to get out and about," Celestia added, getting a burble of agreement from the young alicorn.

"Uuuuurgh... okay. Give me a minute to clean myself up."

Celestia smiled and nodded, then waited patiently as Cadence got herself ready, which seemed to involve the sound of papers being hidden beneath a mattress for some reason. Obviously that wasn't suspicious in the slightest, so Celestia could only consider her impulse to tear Cadence's room apart until she knew what was going on as a bit of an overreaction.

A minute later Cadence re-emerged, less bedraggled, and adorned by her regalia. With Flurry firmly in tow, the two alicorns made their way to the throne room, the beginnings of an awkward conversation forming between them. "So, Auntie, why exactly did you want me to accompany you?"

"Besides the fact that you've been sequestered away for the last fortnight? I've barely seen you in a week. I'm just concerned that these events are weighing you down."

"And shouldn't they?" Cadence said, a trace of harshness unmistakable in her words.

"Yes, but our duty is to our ponies first, no matter how heavy our heart is."

"Oh? You mean my ponies fighting for Equestria? Or the ones living in a refugee camp?"

"Both," Celestia replied simply. "Cadence, I realise you no longer support this war after losing the Empire, but your subjects still need their leader during this time, if not more so."

"And what makes you think I'm not doing that?"

"The fact that you're staying cooped up in your room to the point that even Flurry wants to get out of there?"

Cadence nodded slowly, but not in a friendly or agreeable manner. "I see no reason to go around pretending everything is fine, Celestia. My ponies are homeless, or are fighting a war they cannot win. That seems a long way from fine to me!"

"And I understand that, but-"

"No, Celestia. No, I'm not discussing this any further. I am trying to help my subjects, I am, but with the focus on the war I have limited options."

This time Celestia nodded, not disagreeing with Cadence's words, but also letting her suspicions out to be voiced. "You're the mysterious benefactor behind the peace rally happening in Appleloosa, aren't you?" Celestia smiled as Cadence blustered at her, "I suspected you were."

Cadence nervously chewed her lip, occasionally glancing sideways at Celestia, expecting her wrath at any moment. "I'm not stopping."

"I wasn't going to ask you to."

"You weren't?"

Celestia smiled serenely at the younger alicorn, "Cadence, I've always tried to be an advocate for peace. I've not always succeeded, but I try. While I'm sure Luna has her own opinions on what you're doing, for me to stop you would be highly hypocritical. Those wishing for the fighting to stop need their own voice, although even I can tell you that for that to happen we'd have to completely surrender, which isn't ideal. I will ask one thing of you though."

"What's that?"

"Be pleasant about it. While some want peace, others want to fight, and you should respect that just as you want your point of view to be respected. Nothing saps a soldier's morale faster than thinking their own people are against them."

"I can only see that as further incentive to stop fighting," said Cadence, "but I'll try." Cadence smiled sadly at Celestia, "I am sorry for undermining you like this, but I don't want Flurry to grow up in a war. I also want her to grow up with a father that's around... and alive."

"I understand completely," Celestia stopped them outside the throne room, holding up a hoof to stop the guards from opening the doors. "If I could see a better way out of this situation, I would gladly take it, but I don't see surrender as that better option."

"Surely surrender is better than throwing away so many lives, only to lose anyway?"

"We haven't lost yet Cadence. I have faith Twilight will find what we need to end this." Celestia gestured for the doors to be opened and entered the throne room, slowing her pace a little as she saw the group of people clustered near the twin thrones, surrounding the tall form of Amira, the Saddle Arabian ambassador. "Excuse me? Is something the matter?"

The group broke up at the sound of Celestia's voice, and Amira was allowed to the front. Celestia could tell something was wrong as her usual immaculate appearance was absent, and her eyes were puffy and red as though she'd been crying. 

"I have received a letter for you from my country, but with it I have also received dire news. An army of creatures under the command of one calling himself the Storm King has ransacked my country, pilfering riches and taking ponies as slaves. He attacked the capital Ammare little more than a week ago, and attacked many places besides as he left with his prizes." Amira swallowed hard, like she had to choke the next words out, "They took my sister."

Celestia was stunned, and it took her a moment to realise that she was just staring at the ambassador. "I'm so sorry to hear that. Is the Sultan unharmed?"

"They attacked the palace and captured Grand Vizier Hakim, but the Sultan eluded capture."

Celestia nodded sadly, "That is something at least. I very sorry this has happened to your people, and to you for losing your sister. I... truly wish I could do something, anything, to help you, but at this time I'm afraid I cannot."

"I know," said the ambassador, absent-mindedly playing with her long blue mane for a moment. "The Sultan sends his regrets at not having lent you his aid when you needed it most, as now when we could desperately use your aid, neither of us can help the other as our army is now being used to secure our borders from further incursion."

"Our help?" Celestia asked, confused at the request. "Not that I would refuse to give aid if I were able, but why would you need our help specifically?"

"The army that attacked us was in possession of vast air ships, against which we have no real hope. Without ponies that can fly, we have no way to follow them to where they have taken our ponies."

"Air ships?"

"A half dozen attacked the capital, containing hundreds of large, bipedal creatures with a strength in battle we could not match with what few city guards we had. They were few in number though, less than a thousand. We fear they may be a vanguard to a greater invasion."

"Possible I suppose. I'd say that using your army to secure your lands is the best thing you could do at this time. Perhaps, once this war is over, we could see to the safe return of your people, and your sister."

Amira choked back a tear and nodded, "Princess Twilight has already promised the Sultan her personal help with saving our people, but any further help you could offer would be appreciated."

"Twilight was there?" Cadence said excitedly, forgetting herself and the situation upon hearing those words. "Is she alright?"

Amira frowned a little, unable to hide her irritation at Cadence's outburst. "She was, along with four other ponies. She saved us from an evil sorceress and her army of giant spiders, but even she could not stand against these creatures." Amira pulled a scroll from her garments, "This letter is from her."

"Giant spiders?" Cadence asked quietly as Celestia gently took the scroll in her magic, forcing herself to not snatch it from the ambassadors hoof.

"Thank you ambassador," Celestia said earnestly, taking the scroll in her hoof and holding it to her chest. "As I said, I'm sorry we cannot do much to help you at this time, but once we can I shall certainly do my best to."

Amira bowed to Celestia, then to Cadence, "We understand. Hopefully fate works in both our favours to bring this war to a swift conclusion." Amira raised from her bow and left, her rigid posture fighting against her feelings as she stiffly walked away. After a few seconds the other ponies dispersed as well, leaving Celestia and Cadence alone with the letter from Twilight.

"It seems the world is unravelling," Celestia said sadly. "First us, then the griffons' troubles, and now an attack on Saddle Arabia by an unknown enemy."

"You do realise that to help the Saddle Arabians we would only have to attack this 'Storm King,'" Cadence said to Celestia. "Meaning yet more war."

"I realise that Cadence, but I had to say something. I have no wish to throw Equestria into another war so soon. It seems Twilight has other plans though."

"What about the letter?" Cadence said, gesturing her head towards the paper still in Celestia's hoof. "And what did the Ambassador mean when there were four other ponies with Twilight? She only left with three."

"It seems Twilight hasn't lost her touch at making friends," Celestia said with a smile. She broke wax seal on the letter, unfurling it and catching a second letter than was inside the first. "Hmm? Two letters, both from Twilight?"

"Maybe she wrote a second one after the attack?" Cadence suggested.

"Perhaps." Checking the date on the letters, Celestia chose the earliest one and began to read.





Dear Princess Celestia

Sorry you haven't heard from me in so long, but we had a bit of a run in with Queen Chrysalis in the Badlands, and she destroyed the speaker stone after capturing us. She did let us go though, after a intervention with Chrysalis from Primus, the original queen of the changelings, who lives in a pool of primordial goo. I'm not exaggerating, and she's just as worried about Faust as we are. I learnt a lot about Chrysalis and changelings during this time, and have received an interesting insight into them in the form of Mayfly, who was cast into exile by Chrysalis, and is now travelling with us.

Anyway, we are making progress. We've deemed it unlikely that we'll locate an operational mirror as part of Starswirl's portal network, and are instead searching for existing fragments from which to create a whole mirror. We found some in the Badlands, and more in the Tenochtitlan basin, although we may have killed the creature Auhizotl, a villain from the Daring Do series, after getting captured. Again. He wanted to eat my heart, and Trixie took offence to that.

Now, after an amusing adventure involving wonderfully musical pirates, we have sailed to Saddle Arabia, and arrived in the Capital Ammare this morning. After meeting with the Sultan we have no reason to think there might be an entire mirror here, but it might be here anyway, so we're doing more research just to be sure, while Sunset and Mayfly assist the authorities with something involving some disappearances.

We've also heard that the war has truly begun in Equestria, and we are doing everything we can to find Starswirl's retreat. Hopefully our research here turns something up, and if we can really find an entire mirror here we might fix this sooner rather than later.

Twilight.





"It was written before the attack," Celestia said slowly, giving the letter to Cadence to read. "I know she's okay because she promised her help to the Sultan, but I'm actually a little scared to read the next one."

"Let me read this, and we'll read the next one together," Cadence offered. "Is that alright?"

"Yes, thank you." Celestia waited quietly as Cadence read the letter, watching the various expressions she wore that had been similar to her own as she read about Twilight getting captured twice. Once again she got the feeling that she'd given Twilight a task she shouldn't have.

"Oh dear," Cadence said quietly, lowering the letter. "I'm glad they're okay, but what they're doing sounds a lot more dangerous than I'd anticipated. Especially after the attack on Ammare."

"I know. Did the second to last paragraph seem odd to you?" Celestia waited as Cadence read that part again. "Doesn't seem like Twilight's usual form of writing, does it? I'm guessing they have found a mirror, but it's somewhere they shouldn't know about."

"I have the worst feeling that Twilight's got herself into trouble," said Cadence. "I'm suddenly a lot more worried about reading the next one."

"Indeed."





Celestia

By now I'm sure you've heard about the attack on Ammare. Rest assured that we're all fine, and that we were far away from the fighting for most of it. Apart from when I was thrown through a window. That did hurt a bit.

Anyway, nothing much of note here, but I will remind you to practice the spells Mercury's Magical Messenger, Vulpin's Visual Vocabulator, and the counterpart to Starswirl's Enigmatic Encryptor, and to try mixing them a little, preferably somewhere private. You may be surprised by the results.

Twilight





"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Cadence asked, having expected something different. "What's with those spells?"

"She's hidden another message in this letter," said Celestia. "A message that only a skilled magic user could read. Clearly she wants us to combine those spells and use them on the letter."

"Seems a bit ridiculous to me, but carry on."

Celestia did so, combining the three spells Twilight had mentioned, except swapping out the Enigmatic Encryptor for its counterpart, which was the decryption spell. A swirling orb of golden magic formed on the tip of her horn, which she lowered to the letter. Nothing happened for a moment, but then the words stretched out into one line which started wrapping around itself until it formed a cartoonish facsimile of Twilight's head and face, which was heavy with sorry.

"Hi Celestia," the image began to say in Twilight's own voice. "Sorry about the way in which this letter was sent, but I had to do it like this in case the Saddle Arabians tried to read it. As I said, I'm sure you've heard about the attack by the Storm King's forces on Saddle Arabia. What you might not know is that I'm unwittingly complicit in it. Please hear me out before you think I've gone mad though."

"We found an entire mirror. It was broken, but nothing I couldn't fix. It was however, in the possession of the Sultan's vizier, who acted like it didn't exist, making it clear he had no wish to part with it. Anyway, after some... thing that happened with Daring Do, a mask, a unicorn called Arachiss, and a forgotten army of giant spiders, which we took care of so you don't need to worry about it, we decided to steal the mirror."

"I started by scouting out the Vizier's estate, during which I found a unicorn with a broken horn by the name of Tempest Shadow, although I fully suspect that isn't her real name. She also sought something in the Vizier's collection, so I offered her our help if she offered us hers. That was a mistake."

"It turns out that this pony was a commander in the army of the Storm King, whoever that is, and her distraction while we stole the mirror was to attack the city with her forces and ransack it. I wasn't very happy about that, but I felt I had no choice as we needed that mirror. She promised nopony would be killed if possible, and to her credit, almost nopony was. Instead... they were taken as slaves. I didn't learn that until after though."

"To make a short story even shorter, we got the mirror, but it was destroyed while getting it somewhere safe. A pony was thrown at me through the mirror while it was next to me, destroying it, and filling me with so much glass I was almost jingling. We found as much of it as we could, but in the chaos most of it was lost." The image of Twilight sighed and ran a hoof back through its mane, "We had an entire mirror Celestia, and... and it's gone. But I'm not here to lament about that."

"I fucked up Celestia, I fucked up bad, and now a lot of innocent ponies are going to suffer for it. I'm not saying I want you to jump up and go save them, but after this is done I'm getting them back one way or another. What I do want you to do is find out about the Storm King and his army, as I get the feeling they might be a threat worth knowing about. Especially the unicorn. She took down a dozen armed soldiers with her bare hooves, and she can cast magic with her broken horn, which I thought was impossible. It's crude mind you, but powerful enough to concern me."

"I also believe she's from Equestria, which means you can trace her. She's a dark purple unicorn with a bright magenta mane and tail, but her most striking feature is her broken horn, which she claims won't heal. Without her real name I know this'll be hard, but a search through Equestria's medical records for her injury could turn something up."

"Then there's what she took from the Vizier's collection, the Staff of Sacanas. I've never heard of it, and while Tempest claims it could fix her horn, I doubt that. The staff appears to absorb power, and even drained some of the magic from the mirror while it was still whole. What she and her Storm King wants it for worries me."

"I'm saying it again, I did not want any of this to happen, and with the mirror shattered I failed to even make the best of a bad situation." The image of Twilight looked back over her shoulder, "I'm not sure how much longer I can keep talking like this, so I'm just going to say that I intend to fix this. Not now, but soon. For now I'm staying focussed on our mission, and we're heading to the Circen desert to try and find some more mirror fragments, because we almost have enough to forge a new mirror now. If there isn't a mirror there... I don't know, but that's always been the risk. Hopefully I can find a way to get in touch soon, preferably with good news. Bye."

The letter returned to normal, and both Celestia and Cadence sat in a stunned silence for several seconds before either of them worked out what to say. Celestia was the first to break the silence.

"Why does she always blame herself?"

"Did she at any point indicate that she thought it was her fault?" Cadence said, wondering why Celestia would say that.

"She doesn't need to say it. You can tell by the way she talks that she blames herself for what happened, even if there's no way that it could actually be her fault. Clearly this 'Tempest Shadow' had her forces nearby, with the intent to attack the city. Twilight just unwittingly asked for help from the wrong pony."

"Yes, well, seeing as how Twilight intends to put this right, I think Tempest offered her 'help' to the wrong pony as well."

"Indeed," Celestia agreed. "Thankfully she's staying committed to stopping Faust, but after that, who knows what she'll do. I'll get this information to Equis at any rate, and see what they can find on Tempest Shadow and the Storm King."


-0-0-0-


"This is the kind of stuff that leads ponies to drink," Fleur said to Celia, her appointed second since coming to lead Equis. "They want us to investigate some pony involved in the attack on Saddle Arabia, as well as some mysterious Storm King. It's not as if we don't have enough on our plates already, what with the hostile nation invading us, our capabilities being crippled by the bomb, and our assets in Mareitania being temporarily unable to operate after getting found out and losing one of the team."

"Actually, tracing the unicorn wasn't too difficult," said Celia. "I had some of our agents search historical records over the last twenty years for ponies with rare and unusual conditions, like unicorns with broken horns that weren't healing, and we found something which led to the pony's actual medical record. Interestingly she's also on the missing ponies list, having gone missing years ago."

Fleur's eyes were wide, "You're pulling my leg right? You really tracked down that about her already? It's only been a couple of hours since Celestia brought it to us."

"Just doing my best ma'am, although it's our agents that did the work."

"Right, of course. Still though, nice work."

Celia smiled at the praise, "Thank you ma'am. Do you want to hear who she is?"

"Certainly."

"Alright, her name is fake as Princess Twilight suspected, and her real name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist."

"Fizzlepop... Berrytwist," Fleur said slowly. "Fizzlepop Berrytwist. Really? That name is pretty usual even for pony standards. I mean, Fizzlepop, okay, but the Berrytwist seems a bit out of place after that."

"Perhaps she has a mark in producing fizzy drinks?"

"Fizzy drinks and leading armies. Yes, those things go hoof in hoof quite well. At the very least I can understand why she may have changed her name, even if 'Tempest Shadow' suggests she's going through a phase. I bet she wears a lot of black."

"Were you to ask her, I'm sure she'd tell you it's not just a phase," Celia said with a smile. "Anyway, she appears to be a native of Ponyville, and lost her horn to an ursa minor after wandering into its cave in the Everfree forest when she was just a filly."

"Just a filly? Yeesh. How old is she then?"

"Twenty-seven."

"A twenty-seven year old unicorn from Ponyville, who lost her horn as a filly to an ursa minor, ran away from home, and ended up becoming a commander in the army of the Storm King after changing her name to Tempest Shadow to appear all edgy." Fleur leant back and sighed, "Ponyville really does produce the strangest ponies. Seriously though, Fizzlepop Berrytwist. I'm going to be laughing about that one for a while. Find anything on the Storm King."

"Not a thing," Celia shrugged. "He's a king, he likes storms, he takes slaves, he ravages countries then leaves, and is probably a bit of a dick."

"That's a given. Oh well, I'm sure more will turn up on him eventually as he isn't exactly a priority. What about the Staff of-" Fleur quickly consulted her notes, "-Sacanas? The Staff of Sacanas. Yes, that."

"I've put a request into the school for gifted unicorns to research the staff, but I've not heard back from them yet. They mightn't find anything if I'm honest. It's not like we have an extensive knowledge of everything after all."

Fleur nodded vaguely, "So, in conclusion, we could tell you all about Tempest Shadow, but the pony, or whatever, leading a rampaging army through the south, and the staff he acquired, is a complete mystery."

"That sums it up quite nicely, yes," Celia agreed with a taut smile. "Should I add this to the pile marked 'shit I don't need to worry about right now?'"

"Please."

Celia shrugged and held onto her notes as there wasn't actually a pile to put them on. As far as they were concerned, it was their job to worry about everything all the time. "So, what happened with Snowbright this morning?"

"Eh, not much. We don't torture, so we have absolutely nothing to scare him with enough to talk. I'd said we'd get our interrogators onto him."

"Uh..." Celia cleared her throat politely, "Who might they be?"

"I don't know!" Fleur shouted, throwing her hooves up. "The job belonged to a fella named-"

"Speakeasy, yes, but he died in the explosion. We haven't been able to replace him yet, but you already know that." Celia nervously chewed on her bottom lip, "I have a few ideas if you're willing?"

"I'm all ears, because I have nothing else."

"There are ways of torturing a pony with actually torturing them," Celia said slowly. "Sleep deprivation, white noise, sensory deprivation, things like that. A few days of no sleep and a barrage of mind-fuckery would have most ponies singing like a bird."

Fleur raised an eyebrow at Celia, "How the hell do you know about that sort of thing?"

"It's how we used to get changelings to talk back when I was an agent in Smile." Celia smiled nervously, "There's a number of reasons Celestia wanted total deniability, and that's one of them. We were not nice ponies."

Fleur stared at Celia with a look rich in scepticism, "If you were an agent in Smile, why are you here shuffling paper in a desk job?"

"I was attacked by a rampaging maulwurf. Shattered pretty much every bone in my lower body. I recovered, but I couldn't be cleared for active duty due to health issues, so I was given a desk job. Six months after that the bugbear incident happened and Smile was disbanded. By the way, you are hearing none of this from me."

Fleur held up her hooves, "My lips are sealed. I'm curious though, did you know all along about Bon Bon and her team? Do they know about you?"

"Smile was heavily compartmentalised, so I doubt they know about me. We all know about them though."

"Why? Were they like legends in Smile?"

"They were some of the best, yes, but the reason we all know them is because they're the ones responsible for the bugbear incident that led to six civilian deaths, and Smile getting exposed. I doubt any of us blame them because it was just sheer bad luck that it happened." Celia shrugged, "It could have happened to any of us. Sometimes a plan just goes wrong."

"I see." Fleur shrugged internally. While what she'd just heard was fascinating, it didn't actually help her. She was about to give Celia the go ahead to start working with Snowbright when there was a knock at the door, and Derreck, the griffon photographer, stuck his head in.

"Sorry to barge in, but Sonny just got back from Mareitania with Honeydew. What do you want me to do with them?"

"Have them both come here," Fleur said to him. "I'll probably have to debrief them and question Honeydew before I can allow Sonny to have even five minutes of a break."

"Yes ma'am."

"Celia, I'm somewhat nervous to order it, but I'm giving you the go ahead to start working on Snowbright. Take whatever ponies you need, and if this causes issues with Celestia and the Royal Guard, have them come to me."

"Yes ma'am."

Fleur sat back as Celia left, hoping to enjoy the few minutes of peace she could get before Sonny got here with Honeydew. She was now sanctioning the mental torture of a pony, and wasn't sure if she didn't feel too strongly about it because it was Snowbright, or if it was because of other reasons. 

Fleur unbuttoned the sleeve of her uniform, sliding it up to expose the scars on her leg. She couldn't help but wonder if she'd been marked for this kind of life the moment she'd received those burns. It was certainly a reminder of the twists her life had taken over the last couple of years.

She was still inspecting it when Sonny walked in, escorting Honeydew, and she quickly forgot about it, neglecting to pull the sleeve back down. "Thank you Sonny. I'll get you debriefed as soon as possible so you can have a break, but first, welcome to Equestria Honeydew."

"Uh, thanks, and thanks again for sparing my life back in Stalliongrad."

Fleur waved it off, "It's nothing really. Seemed silly to throw away the life of a pony like you. But now you're here, so... let's talk."

"What about?"

Fleur shrugged playfully, "About Faust of course. Her release, her coming to power, and her plans. What else?"
> 37. How the end began
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Everything?" Honeydew said, surprised by Fleur's request. "I don't even know where to start."

"How about you start at the beginning, when they found Faust?"

"The beginning?" Honeydew nodded slowly, "Alright. It began... it began with a bargain, desperately made by a pony due to be sentenced to death for his crimes, and the crimes of his predecessors, committed against Mareitania for over a thousand years. As you can imagine, he was not impressed."


-0-0-0-


"This trial is a sham!"

Many of the ponies in the room gasped at the outburst from the Viscount, directed at the four ponies sat in a row before the dais bearing the shattered throne of the Duchy.

"It is important that you and your forebears be brought to justice for the crimes you've committed against Mareitania," Daybreak said calmly, unfazed by the outburst.

"Even with those words you admit that you consider me guilty," the Viscount shouted, pointing an accusing hoof at the members of the Council. "Stop acting like this is a trial when it already has a foregone conclusion. This is little more than a sentencing!"

"It's a trial-" Sour Mash started to say, only to be interrupted by the Viscount.

"What about you, Ivory?" he said to the pony at the left end of the Council. "You're being very quiet there because you know how this ends."

Ivory tried to maintain her composure, but even to the casual observer it wasn't hard to see the slump in her posture. "It's important that justice is done Francis. You and your family committed terrible crimes against Mareitania during their rule."

"And so the child must pay for the sins of the father," the Viscount said gruffly. "Laughable."

"Your own crimes alone are enough to see you hung," Daybreak pointedly told the Viscount.

"Is that so?"

"It is."

Francis was quiet for a moment, then smirked at the Council. "Then that is just yet more proof that this is a sham. Your laws are based upon Equestrian laws, yes?"

"They are," Daybreak confirmed.

"In that case you'd know full well that in Equestrian law you cannot retroactively prosecute ponies for crimes committed before new laws come into effect. You speak of me paying for my crimes, but the problem there is that nothing of what I did was illegal at the time. You are prosecuting me retroactively, which is by your own laws illegal, proving without a doubt that this trial is a sham, on top of you already deciding that I am, without a doubt, guilty."

The throne room went quiet as the Viscount called the Council out on their actions. The Viscount himself stood proudly, smiling smugly at the four ponies before him. "Are we going to start acting like this is what we all know it to be? A sentencing to death of a falsely accused and innocent pony, denied the right to a proper trial?"

"Like there's a single pony in this room that could possibly deny what you have done!" Snowbright shouted from the side of the room, breaking the silence he'd carefully maintained during the proceedings. He grunted as Daybreak waved him down.

"Very well, Viscount, since you hold such contempt for us, perhaps we should proceed with what you think this is."

"Or perhaps you could tell me my supposed crimes? Maybe not though, because then I'd be forced to remind you that nothing I did was illegal at the time." Francis nodded thoughtfully, "You're right, that'd be a waste of all our times since you'd only ignore me anyway."

"Oh for goodness sake." Daybreak sat and gestured at Sour Mash, "I think we should just get on with this. These ponies here all know how guilty he is."

"Need I remind you that all these ponies here are part of your movement," Lord Hayfield said, leaning over to whisper. "This was hardly going to be the most impartial crowd to begin with. I hate to say it, but the Viscount isn't entirely wrong."

"I know," Daybreak admitted. "That's why I say it's best that we just do what we always intended. Carry on Mash."

Sour Mash stood and cleared his throat to read off the scroll in front of him. "Francis, former Viscount to the deposed Duchy of Mareitania. You have been accused and found guilty of numerous crimes against the peoples of Mareitania, including murder, slavery, and other more debauched crimes. For these crimes, you are to be hung from the neck until dead. Is there anything you wish to say?"

"Certainly. Kill me and you will never find your precious Lady."

"Excuse me?" Daybreak said slowly, unsure of what the Viscount was saying. "What are you talking about?"

"The Lady?" said the Viscount. "You know, the mythical figure that led you to overthrowing our nation's true masters? The alicorn that many of you claimed Twilight Sparkle was a messenger of? I'm sure you've heard of her."

"Of course we have heard of her!" Daybreak snapped. "What I was to know is what you're talking about!"

"She's real, and is here in this very keep, hidden away where only I can find her. If you kill me, you will never find her and she will suffer for eternity because of it."

"Just ignore him," Snowbright said to the Council. "He's just desperate to save his slimy hide."

"You're right, I am," Francis said sternly. "What I'm telling you is no lie though. I can give you your Lady, and all I ask for in return is my life and my freedom. If I'm wrong, then you've lost nothing but time, of which you have an ample supply of."

Daybreak groaned under his breath, ready to dismiss the Viscount's words, when a figure in the assembly stood, making him groan again. It was Guiding Light, leader of the church of the Lady. "Yes Guiding Light?"

"I demand that you at least investigate his claims. If our Lady truly is here in this keep, then is it not worth seeking her? I realise your need for justice is great, and I do not deny that the Viscount should pay for his crimes, but the return of the Lady is too great a hope to ignore. What better cure could there be for the ailing spirit of our country than the one being that could truly unite us all? Please councillors, I implore you to at least see if this criminal speaks true before you execute him."

"And now we have ourselves in a bind," Mash whispered to Daybreak. "You know those nutters will never stop seeking her if they think their bloody Lady might be here. Perhaps it would be easier to see if he's right, and have Guiding Light there with us just so she can be sure he was making it up."

"I agree," said Hayfield. From the other side of Hayfield was a nod from Ivory, denying Daybreak the chance of refusing it.

"Very well," Daybreak said solemnly. "We will investigate the Viscount's claims, so until we know for certain he is telling the truth, this court is adjourned."

"You can't possibly let him live!" A mare shouted from the crowd, getting shouts of agreement from others, while most of them stayed quiet. "He needs to pay for what he did!"

"And he shall," Daybreak said evenly, although he wasn't sure how to go about giving everypony what they wanted. "Now please, go in peace until you are summoned again. Except for you Viscount, and you Snowbright."

The Council waited until the room was empty save for themselves, Snowbright, Francis, and a few guards that were waiting to return Francis to his cell. He smiled smugly at the councillors, feeling superior in the knowledge that he was about to save his skin and get revenge in one fell swoop.

"You can't seriously believe him," Snowbright said to Daybreak once it was just the few of them. "Everypony knows the Lady is just a myth. He's just making this up!"

"I can assure you she is quite real," Francis said smoothly. "My father showed me her several years ago, calling her our greatest secret, and the reason why there must always be a Duke on the throne of Mareitania."

"To keep her there?" Ivory asked.

"Perhaps. I don't honestly know. My father acted like she was a threat to him, but all I saw was a starving and broken pony." Francis shrugged, "She doesn't seem like a danger to anypony, except maybe myself, but I have nothing to lose in that case."

"And how could your father have possibly captured and contained somepony like the Lady?" Mash said, his scorn clear in his voice.

"He didn't," Francis replied. "She's been there since before the Duchy was founded. Since before the exodus even. She was put there by none other than Princess Platinum, although I have no idea why. I wouldn't be surprised if nopony knows, including the Lady herself. I can tell you though, that both Twilight Sparkle, and Princess Celestia knew about her, and not only chose to leave her there, but to seal her in even tighter."

"That's bullshit," said Snowbright, only to get a faint smile from Francis.

"You can ask her yourself when we find her. Of course, there's still the matter of my life. If I help you find her, I want a full pardon and enough marcs to start a new life in comfort where I will be no trouble to you at all. You can even monitor me if you feel the need."

"You haven't even begun to prove your claims," Hayfield pointed out. "Perhaps you ought to before making demands."

"Very well." Francis pointed up at the shattered throne, at its highest point where an ornate disc sat at its peak. "The disc at the top of the throne. That's the key to her cell. You can simply pull it out with your magic."

"Uh-huh," Daybreak grunted, grabbing at the disc with his magic, and pulling it. To his shock it slid free, turning out to be a couple of inches wide. It was also rather heavy, and when he brought it to himself he turned it over, revealing a collection of mechanisms on its underside. "Huh."

"Now that's over with, let's move on to my monthly stipend."

Snowbright grabbed the Viscount's mane, pulling his head down until his ear was level with Snowbright's mouth. "You haven't proven anything yet, not until we know where she really is."

"She's in a section below the dungeons, in the part all but the Duke was forbidden to go. You know exactly where it is, or where it should be anyway."

"What do you mean where it should be?" Ivory asked as Snowbright released the Viscount's mane.

"In an attempt to prevent the Lady's release, Princess Celestia sealed over the entrance so you can hardly tell it's there."

Sour Mash snorted a laugh, "Then maybe we should do the same. If Princess Celestia thought this alicorn, who might not even be the Lady, was dangerous enough to seal away forever, perhaps we should pay attention to that."

"I doubt she's dangerous," Francis insisted. "I've seen her, and she is not a threat. Even if she was, what better way to spare yourselves her wrath than to be the ones that rescued her?"

"And set her on Equestria instead?" said Hayfield. "Our only allies in this larger world we find ourselves part of now? Don't be ridiculous."

Francis rolled his eyes, "She'll get out one day anyway, either by being discovered, or simply through time wearing away the mountain. Wouldn't it be better to do it now, so you can be in control of it?"

"What do you think Daybreak?" Ivory asked the yellow unicorn, who had gone quiet as he stared at the key in his magic.

"All my life I've heard about the Lady. I never really believed in her, but holding this key... I don't know. I want to believe, and there's only one way to be sure." Daybreak looked up sharply, locking eyes with the Viscount. "Francis, you won't be getting a monthly stipend or anything like that, but if you are right, you have my guarantee that your life will be spared, and even kept comfortably. Agreed?" he added, looking at the other councillors, getting a nod in answer.

"Refuse," said Snowbright, "and we'll go looking anyway since you already pretty much just told us where she is."

Francis cursed under his breath. He had lost control of negotiations, he knew that, but now they had him by the throat so he couldn't refuse if he wanted to live. "Fine, I accept."

Daybreak nodded once, "Good. Take us to her."


-0-0-0-


"So they just accepted the Viscount's word for all of it?" Fleur raised an eyebrow at Honeydew, "Really?"

"He wasn't important to the Council, other than as a pony to direct the blame onto. All he had to bargain with was his life. If they didn't find the Lady, he knew they'd only proceed with executing him.

"Since I already know they found her, I suppose it's too much to hope that he was wrong, and they executed him anyway?"

"It is unfortunately. Unluckily for all of us, he took them straight to where they needed to go."


-0-0-0-


"Here," said Francis, running his hoof over the small indentation left in the rock after Celestia had sealed the entrance. "This is where the entrance to the Lady's prison is. Or was, at least. I can't begin to guess how thick the rock is."

Daybreak looked over the mostly blank wall that the Viscount had led them to through a long corridor of empty cells. Apparently the entrance had been left uncovered and unprotected for the entire time the Duchy had existed, save for the threat of horrible things if you went down there. Now there was a blank wall with a dent in it, and the slightest hint that the wall had almost flowed like water to become that way.

"And you're sure this is the place?" Mash asked, eyeing the Viscount.

"Positive," said Francis. "Unless Celestia did this to the entire passage, all you have to do is break through this rock."

"I really dislike the way he seems so happy about all this," Snowbright whispered to Daybreak. "I seriously think he's planning something."

"I'd be surprised if he's not," Daybreak whispered back. He glanced at Guiding Light and the collection of other ponies they'd brought with them to prove that this was either real or a hoax. "It's too late to stop now." He gestured at a couple of ponies bearing an iron bar and a large hammer, to start breaking through the rock.

The one holding the bar placed its point on the indentation, and held it there as the one with the hammer repeatedly struck the other end with a painful sound that echoed around the dungeons. It took a couple of minutes to break through, and then they did the iron bar flew through the hole with nothing there to stop it, and it was as much as the hammer pony could do to not smash the hammer against the head of his counterpart.

"See!" Francis shouted triumphantly. "It's hollow behind it! Now you just need to break the rest down so we can find your Lady."

"With all due haste!" Guiding Light added. "I hate to imagine the condition she must be in to after having been sealed away for so long."

"There's no guarantee we're going to find anything," Snowbright reminded her as the two ponies started working to clear the entrance of rock, hammering away at the obstruction.

"She's here," Guiding Light stated firmly, her eyes shining. "I know it."

Daybreak merely rolled his eyes, pinning his ears back to protect them from the sharp ringing of the hammers as they broke down the entrance inch by inch. He briefly paid attention to the Viscount and how keen he seemed about all this. He'd been pretty unrepentant about everything so far, so to think he was helping to free the Lady for her benefit alone seemed unlikely. He gained something from this, but what?

It took a while, but eventually the entrance was cleared, and they put aside their tools as they prepared to venture into the darkness. Daybreak led the way, his horn glowing to provide a light by which to see as they descended down a spiral stairs cut into the stone, each step made treacherous by the rubble covering them that Ivory swept away as she passed.

"Up there, the blue glow," Francis said as they reached the bottom, pointing up the dark hallway to a blue glow at the far end. "That's her cell."

Daybreak only nodded and started heading in the direction indicated. There were other cells down here, but each of them seemed to be empty of even the most basic of amenities. Eventually he stopped looking as something blocked most of the light from the far cell.

"Who's there?" a voice called out, raspy and weak. Daybreak was readying himself to respond when Guiding Light pushed past him and sprinted for the cell.

"My Lady? Is it really you?" Guiding Light placed her hooves on the door to see in through the small window in the door. Blue eyes stared back at her, framed by strands of a thin, burgundy mane attached to the head of a white alicorn. "It is you! It is! You are real! You're-"

"Who are you?" the voice asked again, her eyes flicking to the others in the passage as they came closer.

"We're here to save you," Guiding Light said, sounding a little unsure. "I am Guiding Light, leader of the Church of the Lady, and we're here to release you."

"Release me?" A small smile crept onto the corners of the alicorn's mouth. "You really intend to release me?"

"Of course! Daybreak, give me the key, please?"

Daybreak kept the key out of Guiding Light's grasp as he stepped up to the door. He eyed the alicorn within, seeing her bone-thin and ragged appearance, the black bands around parts of her, whose runes glowed blue as they nullified her magic, and the glimmer of hope in her eyes. If this wasn't the Lady, he had no idea who else she could be. He still felt it prudent to ask though. 

"Who are you?"

"Me?" the alicorn said, like she was surprised to be asked.

"Is it not clear she's the Lady!" Guiding Light growled. "Give me that key so I can let her out!"

"The Lady?" the alicorn said, giving Guiding Light pause.

"Yes, the Lady, or the Lady of the North if that is the name you prefer. The first alicorn, whom protected us from the terrors of the frozen north? The alicorn that made us? The alicorn that helped shape the world?" Guiding Light trailed off, her voice growing weak with a fear that this alicorn wasn't who she hoped it was. "That is you, isn't it?"

Daybreak couldn't help but notice the guilty expression that flashed across the alicorn's face at the mention of the 'terrors of the frozen north.'

"I am whom you speak of, yes, but I was never called the Lady."

"Then who are you?" Daybreak asked.

"My name... is Faust."

"And you know nothing of being the Lady of the North?"

"I've been here for fifteen hundred years, and I was never called such a thing, not even during those scant visits I received off the various dukes that ruled over the centuries I've been here."

"How are you not dead?" Snowbright asked, rather tactlessly.

"Because I have no choice in the matter."

"Just like Twilight," Ivory murmured.

Faust's eyes flashed with anger upon hearing Twilight's name, "I'm guessing you must be Twilight Sparkle's rebels to speak of her in such a way. Would it please you to know that she, Princess... ngh, Luna, and Celestia, all conspired to keep me here?"

"I told you they knew," Francis said smugly.

Daybreak pointed a hoof at the Viscount, "You, shut up. I refuse to believe that Twilight, Celestia, and Luna would have kept Faust here without a good reason."

"I- I don't know," Faust whimpered. "Please, just... please let me out. You're rebels, so you must know what it's like to want to be free? That's all I want right now! To not be trapped in here any longer!"

"Please!" Guiding Light begged, falling to her knees before Daybreak, "Can you not see she is suffering? Please release her."

Daybreak closed his eyes and sighed, unable to escape the feeling that this might have been a mistake. "Alright," he said. "We'll free her."

"Thank you," Faust said wearily as Guiding Light squealed with joy.

Daybreak turned the key in his magic, lining up the notches on it that corresponded with those in the lock, then slid it in. Glowing lines flashed to life on the key, forming a jumbled confusion of picture fragments. Daybreak stared at it dumbly, not even beginning to see what it was supposed to be.

"You have to complete the image," Faust explained.

"I don't know what that's supposed to be though," Daybreak admitted.

"The key was forged by skilled artificers in the service of Princess Platinum as part of her plan to trap me here and secure her legacy, and that of her people," Faust explained. "The image forms the coat of arms for Unicornia."

"That was the profile of a unicorn head, wasn't it?" said Mash. "On a blue background with stars?" He reached out to move one of the sections of the image, only for an arc of magic to strike his hoof, making him rapidly pull it back. "Son of a bitch! Ow!"

"It was forged by unicorns to only be used by unicorns," Faust explained further. "One of the unicorns will have to use their magic to manipulate it."

"Oh good," Daybreak grumbled. "I am famous for my love of puzzles." He sighed and set to work, moving piece by piece into what was hopefully a coherent image.

"Who was that?" Snowbright asked, peering into the cell to the right of Faust's, its sole occupant being a rather elderly skeleton that seemed to have been dismembered at some point.

"That was the pony that led the rebellion some four hundred years ago," Faust told him with a hint of bitterness in her voice. "They forced her to surrender herself, and brought her here."

"So they knew she couldn't have been the Lady as she claimed, because they had the real one here all along," Hayfield said thoughtfully. "Did you not learn of the Lady through her?"

"I wasn't aware it applied to me, and her pained ravings as she was cut to pieces and left to die weren't the most enlightening things I've ever heard. I don't think she really knew who I was before that happened, other than I was just another prisoner here."

"She died the death she deserved for daring to impersonate you," Guiding Light said with conviction, drawing some concerned looks from those around her until she was corrected by Faust.

"She tried her best to help ponies. Nopony deserves to die for that."

"Oh, um... apologies my Lady, I didn't mean to-"

"Got it!" Daybreak shouted gleefully. There was a click, and the blue lines extended from the key to the door, travelling along lines cut into its surface as various noises came from inside it. Just as it seemed to be building to something, the magic faded, and the door swung ever so slightly inwards.

Faust backed up as Daybreak gently pushed the door open and recoiled at the smell, then gingerly walked back to the doorway, setting one hoof outside her cell, then another, then all of them. She suppressed a cry of joy in her throat, but not enough to stop an excited sounded whine escaping.

She started walking, ignoring the stares she got at her gaunt frame and fraying feathers. She had spent a millennium and a half with nothing but rock over her head, and now she felt a pressing need to see the sky. He legs protested against the activity, going both stiff and weak, but she persevered as there was nothing that was going to stop her now.

All of them followed her up the stairs in silence, keeping a watchful eye on the shaky alicorn. She stopped for breath at the top, which allowed Snowbright a chance to catch the amused grin the Viscount was wearing. He held a hoof to the Viscount's chest, slowing him as Faust and the others set off again.

"You might have been right about her, but something tells me this is far more than just an exercise in altruism for you. You're planning something, and I'll be damned if I don't put a stop to it." 

"I have done nothing except that which I promised," Francis blustered. "In fact, since I have done just that, I think I'll be taking both my life and my freedom, thank you very mu- Ah!" Francis shouted as Snowbright grabbed him by the collar and swung him in through the open door of a cell, slamming it shut behind him. "What do you think you're doing?"

"You may have bought your life with this, but there is no way in hell that we would ever let you go free." Snowbright reared up and slammed his hooves against the bars of the cell, "You will rot in here for the rest of your miserable life, until you wish we'd killed you!" His piece said, Snowbright pushed away from the cell and followed after the others.

Francis pressed his face against the bars, but even he had the sense to realise that nothing he could say would matter. All he could do was rest assured that the seeds of his revenge had been sown. 


-0-0-0-


"Of all the things I wish could've been different about our time in Mareitania," Fleur sighed, "killing the Viscount is now number one. All of this could have been avoided so easily."

"It is such a small oversight to cause so much trouble," Honeydew agreed. "Frankly he would have deserved it anyway."

"Quite. Still, spending the rest of his life in a cell is a comeuppance of sorts." Fleur raised an eyebrow at Honeydew as the mare nodded her agreement, "How do you know all this anyway? You weren't there for any of this."

"Actually I was at the trial, but the rest was pretty well known. The return of the Lady wasn't something to not talk about, and there were enough ponies around spreading rumours to be able to create quite a comprehensive story. It was all common knowledge by the end of the week."

"I see. Please continue."


-0-0-0-


It didn't take long for Snowbright to catch back up with the others, running into them on the steps out of the dungeons. All of them were watching Faust as she struggled upwards, but none of them dared to lend a hoof. Even Guiding Light kept her distance, choosing to watch her god labour step by step.

It could easily have been half an hour before Faust conquered the steps out of the dungeons, and she stopped to gasp for breath at the top. Still they were too afraid to offer her help, but not once did Faust ask for it either.

"Are we really humouring this?" Snowbright asked Daybreak as Faust set off again, making her way towards the main entrance to the keep, none of them particularly wondering how she knew the way. "I don't think I need to remind you how dangerous alicorns are, and we know next to nothing about this one."

"Other than she's the Lady," said Daybreak.

"And? Get serious Daybreak. All we know about her are stories. We don't know for certain if any of them are really true, or why this Princess Platitude, or whatever her name was, really put her down there. We need to find out if she's dangerous before we can't stop her."

Daybreak rolled his eyes at Snowbright and his overcautious attitude, "And maybe you need to wake up to what's in front of you. This is the Lady Snowbright, the Lady!"

"You said it yourself Daybreak! If Twilight, Luna, and Celestia kept her in there, it had to be for a reason! Why would three other alicorns be so afraid of this one to want to seal her away? Stop being awed by all this, and think!"

"Does she look dangerous to you? She can barely climb stairs without collapsing! Besides, the cat is well and truly out of the bag now, so there's no way we could possible hide her again."

"Then contact Twilight, Celestia, or any of them, and ask them about Faust. I'm sure the knowledge that she's a genocidal maniac would be useful before we give her too much freedom!"

Daybreak snorted a laugh at Snowbright, "You want to ask Equestria for advice? You? You hate Equestria!"

"So? If they can save us from making a huge mistake, I think it's worth it."

Daybreak patted Snowbright on the side and shook his head, "You're really overreacting here. Let's give her a chance to say her piece, then we'll consider asking the princesses for advice if we need it. For now, let's give her a bit of time out of her cell, yes?"

"Fine," Snowbright grunted, "but if this goes wrong, it's on your heads, not mine."

Daybreak shrugged, considering the matter resolved as Faust made it to the entrance. The two guards standing to either side of the double doors pulled them open, eyeing Faust with amazement. It was raining outside, and Guiding Light dashed in front of Faust to say so, but the alicorn shook her head.

"I don't care. I need to be outside."

Guiding Light frowned but nodded, stepping aside to let Faust out. She walked out into the rain, her skin twitching as the chilly droplets landed on her threadbare coat. She raised her head and smiled, laughing as she let the rain wash the filth of a millennia off her, then sat and opened her mouth, catching raindrops on her tongue.

"Ooo... so dangerous," Daybreak snarked, nudging Snowbright on the side. He walked out into the rain to Faust, clearing his throat to get her attention. "Sorry to disturb you, but as you can imagine, some of us are rather curious as to how you came to end up in that prison. Other than stories, we know very little about you."

"Of course, my apologies. I was just ecstatic at the thought of seeing the outside world again."

Daybreak bowed apologetically, "I don't mean to stop you from enjoying this moment, but... Twilight, Luna, and Celestia sealed you down there for a reason. We need to know why they did that."

"Because they fear who I am," Faust said cryptically. "I will explain all, but while I do, might I trouble you for a little food and water?"


-0-0-0-


"Well?" Fleur asked, hanging on the edge of her seat. "What did she tell them?"

"I don't know," said Honeydew, giving Fleur a helpless shrug. "Nopony except the Council, Snowbright, and Guiding Light knows, but when they left they had removed the bands inhibiting her magic, and said nothing of it except Snowbright. Even then, all he did was claim that he was right about Equestria and the princesses all along."

"So she could have told them anything? Anything at all? She could have told the truth, or a lie, or anything?"

"Anything," said Honeydew. "I wish I knew more just so I could tell you. Just so I could know myself, about why she dragged us into this war. I guess that's between her and the Council though."

"Actually, quite a few of us know the real reason why, but what I want to know is if Faust told them the truth, because I've heard it mentioned that she cannot lie. Even so, if the Council knew her story, they couldn't have agreed to attack Equestria based on that alone? That'd be madness."

"No, but there never was any proper reason. You know she used magic and the faith ponies had in her to compel Mareitania to enact her wishes."

"I know. Anyway, Faust told the Council her story. What then?"

"After that nopony saw Faust for a week save the Council, Snowbright, and Guiding Light. I was surprised when she asked to see me."


-0-0-0-


Honeydew gulped nervously at the alicorn before her. She'd been washed, brushed, and fed, but a week was far from long enough to remove a millennia and a half of neglect, even from an alicorn. Faust was still painfully thin, and the bald patches where the bands had worn away her coat stood out. There was also no warmth in her eyes that Honeydew could see. It felt like the look Faust was giving her was the look of a workpony inspecting their tools.

"I'm told you create wondrous machines," Faust said before the silence became too thick to break. "Powered by fire and steam no less."

"T-t-that's right," Honeydew stammered. "Steam power is the future of our country."

"Of course it is, yes, but what about the weapons? Are those the future too?"

Honeydew shook her head rapidly, "No! I regret ever designing those horrible things! I'd take it back if I could." Honeydew cowered at the hint of disappointment in Faust's eyes.

"But a machine like that is but another tool, and in the right hooves could be used to protect rather than harm."

Honeydew twisted her hooves together, wishing to be anywhere but where she was. "I guess, but it would only protect by causing harm to others. I'm not sure that's much better."

"It seems strange for such a gentle soul to have created such terrible machines, and even stranger for a creator to hate their creations. Still, I cannot fault you for your honesty." Faust smiled kindly at Honeydew, "I have a request to make of you. I wish for you to continue designing and building these tanks."

Faust's horn flashed, and Honeydew looked up at it, unsure of what that meant. "I'm pretty sure only the Council can ask me to do that, and I made it clear that I wouldn't without good reason."

"Is the safety of Mareitania not a good enough reason?" Faust said sharply, a trace of anger creeping into her words.

"Not unless I know what I'm keeping Mareitania safe from?"

"Equestria."

Honeydew almost laughed, but managed to hold it back as she saw how serious Faust was being. "B-b-but Equestria are our allies. They helped to free us from the Duke. Didn't they?"

"Yes, but I'm sure they only seek to use you for their own ends in the future. I'm sure they're more than happy to steal your steam powered machines from you to use."

"But Equestria already has steam power. We actually stole a lot of our knowledge on it from them rather than the other way around."

Faust's expression darkened, "So they already possess steam tanks? Troubling."

"I don't think so. Equestria is a pacifist country, and they don't even possess a standing army, let alone maintain things like steam tanks."

"But we shall have to prepare in case they do, meaning you shall have to build and design more steam tanks." Faust's horn flashed again, and again Honeydew stared at it quizzically.

"You sound like you want to attack Equestria."

Faust opened her mouth to answer, shut it slowly with a click, then tried again. "Celestia and Luna kept me imprisoned here, and I wish to be prepared in case they try to imprison me again."

"Not Twilight Sparkle though?" Honeydew quickly decided to stop talking as Faust grit her teeth.

"Twilight Sparkle is a hero of Mareitania," she said, although it seemed to pain her to do so. "I have no direct quarrel with her, but with her masters."

"You mean Celestia and Luna again? I thought that as a princess she was their equal?"

"It doesn't surprise me you would think that way. Twilight Sparkle is little more than a servant from what I've seen, and I'm sure the Council would like to see her freed from her bonds of servitude. You could help that by designing more tanks."

"I... don't think that's a good idea. Maybe I should talk it over with the Council before I decide." Honeydew wasn't about to say it, but she was convinced that Faust definitely planned on attacking Equestria at some point. She hoped the Council would put a stop to that.

"Very well, but I think you'll find the Council agrees with me in that we should build Mareitania's defenses," Faust said matter of factly, like her say on it was final. "Go discuss it with them if you must, but don't be surprised when they tell you the same as I have."


-0-0-0-


"What did the Council say?"

"They said that if Faust thinks we should build more tanks, we should build more tanks. It's clear to me now that they were quite under her control by that point."

"You mentioned her horn flashing. Do you think she was trying to control you as well?"

"Most definitely," Honeydew said with a firm nod. "I can't think of any other reason she'd want to see me in person. I think it was after that she started creating her widespread form of mind control, after her failure with me told her the magic wasn't fool proof. Maybe she hoped that individuals like me would be so outnumbered by her followers that we'd have no choice but to go along with it all. It worked too."

"Perhaps," Fleur agreed. "Do you know how she cast the spell to get everypony to follow her?"

"I don't know, but she made a request for a pure crystal, I know that. The problem was that the crystals from Mareitania fell far short of the quality she needed, so the Shades were dispatched to acquire one from Equestria with exacting specifications."

"You have got to be kidding me," Fleur grumbled. "They managed to do that, and we had no idea at all?"

"Equis was probably still being unified from the Royal and Night Guard at that time," Sonny pointed out, breaking the silence she'd maintained throughout all of this so far. "It wouldn't surprise me they missed that, and a lot of other things at the time. Especially since we had no idea Mareitania was becoming a threat as well."

"Right, right, of course." Fleur slumped down and pushed her fringe up with a hoof, holding it there for several seconds before letting it fall with a sigh as company. "What happened after that then?"

"Not much really. With your pegasi still in the country, and only those within High Rock under her control, not a lot could happen without you finding out about it. They probably laid the groundwork of the military growth they needed to attack you with. Nopony really even saw Faust that much either, and I spent as much time in Stalliongrad as I could, working on the tanks and other things because I felt so out of place in High Rock, and used to get the worst headaches."

"So the Council convinced you to start working on the tanks and other things?"

"They did, but I was far from happy about it. After I was done designing Mareitania's rail network, I had very little involvement in it. That's when all the other work started, such as designing and building the various machines that would streamline the production of war materials. Other than that, I have no idea what else was really happening. Not until the pegasi were removed from New Pegasopolis, and the city destroyed."

"What about the story that you were under threat from the griffons?" Sonny asked.

"That was the story spread to the populace about why so much military development was going on, but by the time it mattered, Faust had already started to spread her magic outside of High Rock. Nopony really questioned it after that. Just as they didn't really question it when the pegasi left, or when it was revealed that they were going to be attacking Equestria. If the Lady wished it, they were happy to comply."

Fleur steepled her hooves as a thought came to her, "How did they destroy New Pegasopolis? Bombs tend to have a limited effect on clouds unless you enchant them to not go through clouds, or can time the explosions."

"They used the Adepts, like they did against the original Pegasopolis. Sort of anyway. We tried to use the tanks, even though I told them that the city was well out of their range. As you said, they were rather ineffective. The griffons, however, weren't recruited until after the first Equestrian raid on the shipyards by Brayside. I couldn't tell you how they got involved though."

"We're getting ahead of ourselves here," said Fleur. "The plans were laid to build up Mareitania's military, and Faust started spreading her influence outside of High Rock using an enchanted crystal from Equestria. Otherwise, nothing much happened for a while, yes?"

"Mmhmm," Honeydew hummed with a nod. "Time was an issue though, and it was getting closer to the time they'd have to remove the pegasi before they started noticing things."

"Ironic then that Griffon Intelligence spotted far more going on than the pegasi ever did," Sonny pointed out.

"Too true," Fleur agreed. "I don't think it's too hard to imagine that the military build-up began, followed not too long after by the removal of the pegasi."

Honeydew nodded at Fleur, "Yes, but Faust first had to learn about you, Twilight, and everything else. For that she needed a pony from Ponyville to question, and Pegasopolis had four of them for her to choose from."


-0-0-0-


Honeydew watched nervously as General Snowbright marched into High Rock, a metal crate with holes drilled into its sides carried behind him. She couldn't see what was in it, but the frightened whimpering coming from within told her it was most likely a pony, and definitely a female.

"What's going on?" she asked Daybreak who was standing nearby, watching what was happening with a fierce intensity. "Who is that?"

"That is the pegasus our Lady requested to question about Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony. Whatever else she knows about Equestria would be useful too."

"You've abducted her?" Honeydew quickly bit her tongue before she said anything she shouldn't. One of her observations of the ponies under Faust's control was that they spoke quite freely about the Lady and her plans, so long as they believed you were on the same side. Her work ethic had ponies believing Honeydew was happy to work for the Lady, but truthfully it was only to distract herself from the reality of the situation, even if it actively made that situation worse.

"She will be unharmed," Daybreak assured Honeydew. "It's unfortunate that she had to be brought here in such a way, but we had to bring her here without the other pegasi noticing."

"How could they possibly not notice one of their own is missing?" Honeydew asked, seeing that as a major flaw in the plan. "You know what those Equestrians are like," she added, trying to voice a positive thing in a negative way, as the Equestrian pegasi tended to look out for each other in this country that had proven less than welcoming to them.

"They'll be too busy to worry about it soon enough."

Honeydew swallowed back her reply, as it sounded like they intended to attack the pegasi, which was a terrible idea on so many levels. Instead she allowed herself to be distracted by the crate being open, and its contents dragged out by a unicorn. It was indeed a pegasus mare, a dingy purple in colour with a very light sea-green mane and tail. She wore a large pink bow in her mane, suggesting the mare was relatively young.

As soon as she was out of the crate, the mare tried to take flight to escape her captors. The exit had already been shut, so it was unlikely she'd get far, but she tried none the less. She'd barely made it two meters off the ground when the magic of the unicorns around her grabbed her, pulling her back down and slamming her against the ground hard enough to stun her.

"Pluck her wings," Snowbright commanded, only to be immediately countermanded by Daybreak.

"Only pluck enough to stop her flying. This pegasus has done nothing to deserve such treatment, and you know how our Lady feels about such things."

"Fine," Snowbright grumbled, nodding to some of his subordinates who started plucking feathers from the pegasus. Honeydew lowered her ears and looked away as the pegasus screamed and cried, begging for mercy from the horribly detached ponies watching her. A couple of others looked away, but that was it.

Slowly the screams relented, and Honeydew dared to look again, finding the pegasus was weeping silently into the ground, overcome by the pain. She was surrounded by her own discarded feathers that had drawn tiny trails of red onto the floor as they landed, and her wings were covered in tiny dribbles of blood that stemmed from the violently removed feathers.

"Get up," Snowbright ordered the pegasus, who didn't so much as move a muscle to obey him. "I said, get up." Snowbright slammed a hoof onto the stone floor next to the pegasus's face, shocking her into jumping to her hooves with a shriek. "Now follow me, and somepony, clean up this mess."

Honeydew almost cried in sympathy as the weeping mare followed after Snowbright on legs that shook with each step as she followed him to wherever he was taking her, her wings dragging on the floor. "You can't tell me that was necessary," she said to Daybreak.

"Faust requested that the pegasus was unbound when brought to her. I'm not pleased about what just happened, but we have to stop her escaping or attacking. Hopefully that should be the worst the poor thing has to endure."

Honeydew doubted it, but again she felt unable to say so. Trying to take her mind off it, she focussed on other things. "Why exactly was my presence requested here?"

"We have a project for you. Follow me up to the council chambers and I'll tell you all about it."

Honeydew nodded and let Daybreak lead the way. Unfortunately that involved going the same way as Snowbright had taken the pegasus. Honeydew was sickened to see the occasional smudge of red as might be left by a feather brushing blood onto the ground. Further along was a larger collection of smudges that hinted that the pegasus had collapsed.

Anger grew in Honeydew, making itself heard above the usual background terror that had dwelled in her since her meeting with Faust. This pegasus had done nothing but help Mareitania, giving her time and comfortable life up to endure the country continued to have suitable weather as the native pegasi left for Equestria. Such a selfless act, punished by being abducted and brought here at the whim of a rather polite tyrant, her wings stripped of feathers, and probably about to suffer worse, despite what Daybreak had said. Honeydew wished she could do something to help her, but had no idea where to even begin.

Before she'd had a chance to work it out, they arrived at the council chambers, formally known as the throne room, with the shattered throne still sitting as a symbol of what they had defeated to get here. Too bad Faust had made a mockery of that. 

"What's this about Daybreak?"

Daybreak waved Honeydew over to the table the Council used, and rolled out a map. "I know this isn't your area of expertise, but-"

"Area of expertise? Since when has that stopped you before? I'm probably one of the best architects in Mareitania now because of the things you've had me build."

"Right, yes, and that'll come in handy for this. We need you to design an irrigation system."

Honeydew blinked at Daybreak, waiting for more information. "An irrigation system for what?" she asked when that information wasn't forthcoming.

"For Mareitania."

"For Mareitania? I'm afraid I don't understand."

"Basically, we need you to design an irrigation system for the entire country, capable of performing the same function as pegasus made weather, thus, freeing us from the need to employ Equestrian pegasi."

"That's... that's impossible! The sheer scale of such a thing would be absurd! Where are you even getting the water for such a thing if it never rains? You need pegasi for that."

"From the Mareissippi, which is fed by the mountains in the north."

"That's not going to be fit for pony consumption!"

"Then design something that'll make it fit for consumption."

"That's not a solution, but fine, assuming I could even do that, do you really expect me to be able to get water to every inch of land in the country? Including the forests and everywhere?"

Daybreak levelled a hoof, "There may be some 'acceptable' losses in the process."

Honeydew paused, her brain failing to comprehend how stupid this was. "Why are you even asking me to do this? What are you planning to do to the pegasi?"

"Nothing really. Faust feels that it would be better if the pegasi were allowed to return home to Equestria. This irrigation system would allow them to do so."

"But it would take years to design and implement something like this, and that's if it's even possible in the first place. How long do I have?"

"Before the pegasi leave? About a week."

"WHAT?! You can't be serious!"

Daybreak waved his hooves towards Honeydew to get her to calm down, "It's alright, Faust said she'd take over the weather. To be honest, what you're designing is a back-up system, rather than something we need urgently. You'll get the time you need to build it."

Honeydew felt her heart sink. Of course Faust wanted it, and what Faust wanted, she got, logic and reason be damned. "Okay, I'll see what I can come up with."

"Attagirl. You get your head down for a couple of weeks, and we'll have a look at what you can come up with."

Honeydew nodded morosely, unable to hide it this time. Thankfully Daybreak didn't notice, or didn't care. Perhaps he thought she was thinking about the task, when really her thoughts had drifted to a far darker place. Whatever it was, he didn't stop her as she left and made her way back down, stopping at the place where the pegasus had fallen.

A gross curiosity built in her, joining her anger and her desire to help the poor mare, and she found herself wandering towards Faust's chambers, following the faint trail of blood.

Two guards stood outside the door to where Faust was hosting her new guest. Honeydew doubted they would let her into Faust's room, not that she wanted to do such a thing anyway, so she ducked into the next room along, which so happened to be the chambers of the former Duke, where he'd killed himself in the last weeks of the civil war.

The room was still trashed after Trixie had her breakdown, although the crystals that had embedded everything were long gone, leaving scarred walls, splintered floorboards, and broken furniture, along with a faintly musty smell that had come with not being used. Nopony had even touched the room until Faust came along, when they'd drilled a couple of spy holes to keep an eye on her. It was one of these that Honeydew made use of now, placing her eye to it and listening to the occupants of the next room, of which there was three.

"Flitter, please," Faust said from her padded dais. "I have no desire to hurt you, but if you won't tell me what I need to know, you leave me little choice."

"I won't betray the princesses!" Flitter near screamed as she struggled in the grip of Snowbright, her cheeks shining with tears, and her chin dripping with blood. There was a slight whistle to her speech as well, which probably shared an origin with the blood if Honeydew were any judge.

"You're devotion to them is admirable Flitter, but misplaced. They are false rulers sitting on a throne of lies, built by a pony who betrayed you all. You gain nothing by protecting them."

"I-I-I don't care!"

"Pity. Snowbright, remove another one."

Honeydew looked away quickly as Snowbright jammed the end of a pliers into Flitter's mouth, but looking away wasn't enough to save her from the screech of agony that Flitter made as a tooth was wrenched out of her jaw.

"I'll ask you again Flitter, tell me about Twilight Sparkle." Flitter didn't answer, instead crying and shaking until Snowbright almost dropped her. "For goodness sake. Snowbright?"

"Wait!" Flitter screamed as Snowbright brought the pliers back to her mouth. Faust's raised an eyebrow at Flitter, and waited a moment, ready to order Snowbright to continue if Flitter said nothing. "Sh- she lives in Ponyville."

"I'm aware of that. I want to know where in Ponyville."

"In a big crystal castle in a crystal tree, you can't miss it."

"A crystal castle in a crystal tree you say? Was it built that way?"

"I-I guess? It was made when Twilight and her friends defeated Tirek."

"Made? As in built as a reward?"

"I don't know! There was a big rainbow and it just appeared out of the ground! I think it had something to with the Tree of Harmony."

"The Tree of Harmony?" Faust murmured. "Does that mean Twilight is connected to it? Her friends as well?"

"I- Yes, I, um..."

"Tell me about her friends."

"Her friends? But they're just ordinary ponies!"

"Hardly, not if they're connected to the Tree of Harmony. Snowbright, coerce her some more."

Honeydew ran as Flitter started screaming again, and didn't stop until she couldn't hear it any more.


-0-0-0-


"I'm such a coward."

"I can't say I blame you for running," Fleur said soothingly.

"But I could have done something to help her, and I was so scared I did nothing! I... I'm just a stupid coward." Honeydew looked at the floor and shuddered a sigh. "How is Flitter now? After being rescued?"

"Physically, fine. With Twilight's healing device she's recovered fully, including her teeth."

"Oh goo-"

"Mentally, she's a mess. She's still in counselling, suffers frequent nightmares, and tends to act violently to anypony that puts so much as a hoof near her mouth. Really she's about as well as you expect a victim of High Rock's tender mercies to be." Fleur laid her scarred leg on the desk in front of her.

Honeydew stared at the leg for a few seconds, then dropped her gaze. "Right."

"It's also interesting to know that the unicorn hunter in Snowbright isn't entirely dead, but that's unimportant now, although it's tempting to arrange an accident for him and his teeth. And balls. And all of him really." Fleur inhaled and exhaled slowly, "Okay, so I'm guessing that was about a week before the pegasi were forced to leave, and a few days more before we arrived?"

"That's right. I guess you kind of know the story from there."

"Yes, but I would like to know what happened right after we departed in such a hurry."

"Hold on," said Sonny. "Did you ever complete those designs for a country spanning irrigation system?"

"No. I worked on it some more, but with Faust's existence discovered by you, nopony seemed to care any more, so I stopped. Not long after that Bon Bon and her team found me and... killed me, so to speak."

"That's a shame," Sonny sighed. "I imagine those designs would have sold well in dry countries." Sonny shrugged as Fleur eyed her, "What? I've never stopped being a griffon just because I work for ponies. You can take the griffon out of Griffonstone, but you can-" Sonny stopped and grunted as the other two openly stared at her. "Just get on with whatever you're doing," she said, waving a claw at the others.


-0-0-0-


Honeydew jumped into wakefulness as a scream echoed around High Rock, then gasped as the ever-present pressure that settled in her head every time she came to High Rock suddenly disappeared, the relief washing over her like a cold shower.

Coherent thoughts escaped her for a moment, but she scrambled out of bed, catching her hooves in the sheets and falling to the floor. She clambered to her hooves and ran for the door, slamming it open and hurrying towards the source of the scream, which she knew had to have come from where Faust was.

Others were hurrying there as she did, and a crowd was gathered around Faust's chambers. Honeydew carefully pushed through them, taking care of the guards in case they decided to stop her. None did, too preoccupied with everything else to care what she did.

She stumbled into the room, and froze as she saw Faust. She cried in agony, tears running down her cheeks as blood dribbled from the severed stump of her horn. Ponies were trying to help her, but she thrashed her hooves at them, her strength sending the ponies flying.

"W-what happened?" Honeydew asked, only to be ignored. She was about to ask again when she saw Daybreak slumped against the wall, his head clutched in his hooves. "Daybreak!"

"Nggh..." Daybreak hissed as Honeydew pulled him up, keeping one hoof pressed against his forehead under his horn, his head feeling like it wanted to explode. He fluttered his right eye open, looking at the pony that was trying to help him. "Honeydew? What happened? Wait, where's Twilight?"

"Twilight? Twilight's not here." Honeydew followed Daybreak's eyes to the window Twilight and her friends had escaped through. "Wait, you mean Twilight did this?" It was as much as she could do to not sound pleased.

"She... did, yes, and she did something to me." Daybreak rubbed his head and gently removed his hoof, then paused as he remembered something, his eyes going wide. "She tortured the pegasus."

"What? Twilight? Twilight wouldn't do something like that!"

No, not Twilight. Faust tortured the pegasus. She said she wouldn't..." Daybreak blinked a few times as his thoughts gathered back together. "She lied! She lied to me!"

"Daybreak, I really wouldn't-" Daybreak started to get up, until Honeydew shoved him back down. "Think about what you're doing! Do you really want to confront her about this now?"

"But she lied to me! She told us she couldn't lie!"

"And she didn't, not entirely. I'm guessing she told you she wouldn't harm the pegasus?"

"That's right."

"Then she wasn't lying. She never touched the pegasus herself."

"But... who?"

"Snowbright. Snowbright's the one that did it."

"That mealy-mouthed, son of a bitch! I'm going to-"

"Do nothing! Stop for a moment and think clearly!"

"I am thinking clearly! I feel like I'm thinking clearly for the first time in... months..." Daybreak blinked at nothing, then turned his head towards Faust, who had finally calmed enough to let ponies help her. He was surprised to feel nothing but betrayed by her, while he knew that he would have forgotten his own problems to help her not ten minutes earlier. "What has Twilight done to me?"

"What do you mean?"

"I... she did something to me, and now I... I feel like I can see what's really happening." Daybreak pushed himself up onto his hooves, and staggered over towards Faust, who eyed him angrily through her pain. "Are you alright?"

"Alright? Do I look alright you fool? She cut off my horn!"

"And she escaped with the pegasus. The pegasus you said you weren't going to torture! You lied to me!" Behind him, Honeydew facehoofed hard enough to make it echo. "How could you lie to me?"

"Twilight Sparkle attacked me, and that's your concern?"

Daybreak was about to reply when a sharp kick to his hind quarters made him look back to see Honeydew shaking her head at him. Picking up her meaning he turned back to Faust and smiled falsely. "Apologies my Lady, I must have bumped my head harder than I thought. Excuse me."

Daybreak wasn't expecting to be dismissed, nor did he wait to be as he turned and pushed Honeydew towards the exit, hoping to get some answers once they were far enough away. He led them to his private chambers and shoved her inside roughly, locking the door behind him.

"You know something. Tell me."

"Tell you what? That having that pegasus tortured was the worst thing she's done? Do you even realise what's been going on for the last five months?"

"I don't understand what you mean."

"You let Faust take control of you and the Council! She's leading you into a war with Equestria, and you think one tortured pegasus is the biggest problem here?"

"But Equestria... Equestria..." Daybreak closed his mouth, the reasons for attacking Equestria as he understood them, turning to dust. They were attacking Equestria because Faust wanted them to. There were no other reasons. "I don't understand. How could she do this?"

"I don't know, but ever since you freed her this entire place has been acting crazy, bending over backwards to fulfil her every whim, and she's taken control of everything to force us into a war with Equestria. And you all let it happen!"

"But not you?"

"Not that it mattered," Honeydew replied bitterly. "You all forced me into designing and building more tanks because Faust wished it, and there was nothing I could do to stop it because everypony's come down with- with- Faust fever!" Honeydew panted angrily for a moment before speaking again. "If you're only seeing this now, then I guess what Twilight did was free you from this insanity."

"But she's the Lady! She wouldn't make us do all this! You're lying. You have to be."

"You know I'm not."

"But- but- Oh who am I kidding." Daybreak idly rubbed his horn, a vicious itch having spread through it. "We have to stop this."

"We can't," Honeydew sighed. "As soon as everypony here works out you're against Faust, you'll be ostracized and kicked off the council, and you'll be powerless to do anything."

"But I have to do something!"

"You can't. There's no stopping this now Daybreak. The only thing we can do is go along with it and hope things don't end too badly. You can try and stop it if you want, but leave me out of it." Honeydew unlocked the door and opened it, stopping in the entrance. "I know you can't do nothing, so could you at least be careful?"

"I'll try."

Honeydew nodded. "Take care Daybreak," she said, pulling the door shut after her.


-0-0-0-


"That was the last time I really spoke to him. I wished him the best, but if he did something stupid, I didn't want to be associated with it."

"I guess he didn't have much success in stopping the war then," said Fleur.

"He tried a few things, but he soon learnt that Faust and her puppet rulers tended to plough through any opposition to her plans. Honeydew shrugged at Fleur, "I guess he just gave up in the end."

"Or the spell wore off and he ended up back under Faust's control. I suppose it doesn't matter either way." Fleur scribbled down some last notes, then placed her pen down. "I'm not sure any of this really helps us, but I feel better for knowing it."

"So what's going to happen to me now?" Honeydew asked, her voice trembling a little.

"Not much if I'm honest. As you're aware, we're currently being invaded by Mareitania, so if you want to remain a secret, Honeydew has to stay effectively dead. I doubt you want to find out what would happen to you if the Mareitanians win and find you in Equestria. Our own counter-intelligence efforts haven't exactly proven great either, so as Bluebelle you'll stay. As for practical uses for you, we don't really have one."

"You don't want me to help develop your steam tanks?"

"You can't help develop them, because we never started to develop them. All our efforts went into developing a counter to Mareitania's tanks, rather than building our own. I guess you might be useful elsewhere though, but that decision isn't mine to make. We'll keep you here in the castle until Princess Luna returns, and she can decide whether to put you to work somewhere."

"So you want me to find somewhere for her?" Sonny asked.

"Please. If you could also arrange for somepony to touch up her disguise, I'd appreciate it. Then you can have a few, well deserved days off. I'd do it myself but I have important things to do."

"No problem boss. Come on Bluebelle."

Fleur smiled at Honeydew as she hesitantly followed after the griffon, then canted her head back and groaned loudly as soon as the door shut behind them. "That told me nothing useful!" She flicked a hoof under the papers she'd been writing on, scattering them across her desk. "Celia! I need caffeine! Celia!"
> 38. A peaceful distraction
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Nothing in four days. No movement, no construction... nothing." Luna tossed their latest scouting reports away with a flick of her magic. "One might almost suspect them of not knowing what to do."

"And that would be a gross assumption on our part," said Shining Armour. "I'm equally willing to suspect them of having a plan that lulls us into a false sense of security. At the very least I'd suspect them of having a plan."

"Yes, yes," Luna drawled. "I imagine their vaunted Lady is rather disappointed with their progress, and blah-dy blah-dy blah. If they appeared to be preparing to travel through the north, fine, but they don't even appear to be doing that. They're just sitting on their hooves around the tunnel to Ponyville."

"Nopony's seen anything of the griffons either," said Stormguard. "I mean, even less than usual. I don't want to assume anything, but perhaps they've abandoned the Mareitanians?"

"Now that would be assuming things," Luna said, dismissing that notion straight off the bat. "It's been mentioned that the Bloodfeathers don't renege on a contract."

"So all we can do is sit and wait for the Mareitanians next move," Shining sighed. "That sounds like a terrible idea. At the very least the peace rally can hopefully be undisturbed by enemy actions."

"Are they still refusing a number of our forces for protection?"

"'Fraid so. The organisers feel that having soldiers there as protection would promote the wrong image to the attendees."

Luna laughed scornfully, "Basically you are saying they don't want soldiers to be seen as protectors. They want us to be seen as warmongers fighting an unjust war."

"Not at all, as I think even they're aware that it's us under attack, not the other way around. All they want is a peaceful end to the war."

"Yes, well, I believe I've said enough on that already." Luna shrugged at the two generals, "If they wish to be left to their folly, then far be it from me to argue."


-0-0-0-


Static exploded from Rainbow's wings, heading in no particular direction. She wobbled through the air back to the ground, fumbling the landing and tripping over her hooves to land face first in the dry ground of the San Palomino desert, her wingtips gently smoking. "Ow."

"That was worse than last time Rainbow," Cloud Chaser said cheerfully, having watched the proceedings with glee, along with Lightning Dust, Thunderlane, Sky Stinger, and Vapor Trail. "Maybe you should try again, and do the exact same thing."

"Why the fuck would I do the exact same thing?" Rainbow asked, her words muffled by her mouth's proximity to the ground.

"Why indeed?" Cloud asked back, a cheeky grin on her face that Rainbow couldn't see until she finally pulled herself back up.

"Har har Cloud. I do believe it's time for you to have a go."

"Nah, I'm good. I was thinking we should take a break, and I don't just mean from this."

"We can't take a break from being soldiers," Lightning said carefully, wondering where Cloud was going.

"I didn't mean running from the army or anything. I just meant that since we haven't had no contact with the enemy in four days, and that nothing is happening, perhaps we could take a night off and go to that peace rally by Appleloosa?"

"Are you even serious?" Sky Stinger said to Cloud. "A peace rally? Really? Why the hell would we want to go to that?"

"Because there's a concert there, headlined by Countess Coloratura, Songbird Serenade, and Sapphire Shores. Who wants to miss that?"

"I'm guessing the answer is 'not you?'"

"Hell no! Not when it's free! Who'd want to miss them for free?"

"Again, I suspect the answer is 'not you.' I also suspect you haven't realised that going there means going AWOL, and that we'll never get permission from Spitfire if we ask?"

"I've thought of those things, yes, and we're not on roster for patrolling tonight, so we're not missing anything if we go." Cloud turned to address the rest of her squad mates, "Come on guys, who's with me?"

Lightning delicately cleared her throat, "As much as I'm unhappy about agreeing with him, Sky Stinger is right-"

"Thank you!"

"-And going to this concert will count as going AWOL at a time when we could be attacked at any moment. I'm not sure we can do it Cloud."

"But you want to," Cloud insisted, a coy grin on her face.

"Of course I do! I love Sapphire Shores, and the other two aren't so bad either, but we can't risk it."

"Aww come on Lightning," Rainbow said to their leader, "lighten up. We can go for a couple of hours, then head back. We'll be gone for three, maybe four hours, tops. Seeing as how we'd be doing nothing at the time, we won't be missing anything except maybe some sleep."

"And if the rest of our Squadron grasses on us?" Lightning said back, "What then?"

"Then we take our punishment in the knowledge that we saw three of the top singers in Equestria, totally free. By that point, I'd say we've already won."

Lightning closed her eyes and sighed, "I don't know. Thunderlane, Vapor, you're both being quiet. What do you think?"

"I'd love to go," Vapor said quickly. "Come on Sky, it's just one night. What's the worst that could happen?"

"I get the feeling you don't actually want me to answer that." Sky pursed his lips as Vapor gave him puppy eyes, silently begging him to give in. "Please stop that. You know I consider puppy eyes cheating." He started to sweat as the puppy eyes intensified, and he looked away at Thunderlane. "What do you think of this?"

"He used to have the biggest crush on Songbird Serenade," Cloud answered for Thunderlane before he could so much as open his mouth. "At least until he got a piece of this ass. I'd say he's in." Behind Cloud, Thunderlane nodded sheepishly.

Sky Stinger swallowed hard as the three other mares made three more sets of puppy eyes to join Vapor's. "There should be a law against this. You know you could easily go without me. I won't tell on you or anything."

"Or you could come with us?" Cloud suggested.

"This isn't going to end until I give in, is it?" All four mares shook their head simultaneously. Behind them Thunderlane grinned helplessly. "Fiiiiine."

"Woo!" Cloud cheered as Vapor leapt onto Sky to hug him viciously. "Party time!"

"What about the rest of the squadron though?" asked Thunderlane. "They'll probably be suspicious."

"Nah, they're used to us disappearing for hours at a time," said Rainbow. "They'll probably think we're off doing this again, or something. No offense to them, but I don't trust all of them to keep quiet about it if we ask them to come. Especially Fast Clip."

"Sadly true," Lightning agreed, reaching into her pocket to pull out a watch. "Okay, so concert starts at... nine?" She looked at Cloud for confirmation, getting a nod in return. "Yeah, nine, so if we split up and meet here at eight, we should be there in time for the opening act. We stay for a couple of hours, then head back for midnight at the very latest."

Rainbow rubbed her hooves together, "Sounds like a plan."

"Sounds like a terrible idea if you ask me," Sky grumbled.


-0-0-0-


"Psst! What's the password?"

Rainbow looked around, trying to find the pony that had spoke. "We didn't make a password. Why the hell would we even need one?"

"...Oh, yeah."

"Cloud, get the fuck out here and stop messing around."

"Okay, sorry." Cloud fluttered down to the rock Rainbow was sat on, Thunderlane close behind her. "I kinda thought that since we're being all secretive and stuff that we'd have a password."

"For what? And I'm pretty sure you have to arrange that kind of thing before you start."

Thunderlane chuckled under his breath, "She's been like this since we discussed it earlier. I don't think she quite grasps the concept."

"That might have been because I was too busy grasping other thi-"

"Okay," Rainbow interrupted. "No sex talk, please, I've just eaten."

"You're just jealous," Cloud said teasingly.

"Of the things you two get up to? Each to their own, but there's not a lot of things you two get up to that I'm jealous of. I'm in the camp where every hole is not, in fact, a goal."

"We like to express our love in many exciting and exotic ways."

"Like walking funny the next day, I know. So very romantic. Now seriously, knock it off before I puke."

"Prude."

Rainbow rolled her eyes and ignored the others, leaving them to whisper what she hoped were sweet nothings into each others' ears until the other three arrived. "About time."

"I know," Lightning said apologetically. "I had Soarin talking my ear off about something, and I couldn't get away very easily. Since we're all here though, how about we get moving?"

Rainbow nodded, "Sounds good." She took off, leading them into the easterly direction that she believed Appleloosa lay in, enjoying being able to fly somewhere without an expressly military purpose.

"I feel naked without my flight suit," Sky said after a few minutes.

"Uh, Sky, you are naked without it," Lightning pointed out.

"Yeah, but now I really feel it."

"Feels good to me," said Rainbow. "It's nice to feel the wind on my body for once. No, that was not an invitation to fart in my face," she added as a Thunderlane started to overtake her.

"Aww," Thunderlane sighed, making Cloud giggle.

"Seriously you guys, there's something really wrong with you. Anyway, lets get moving."


-0-0-0-


Things were starting to kick off at the concert as the six pegasi arrived. The grounds in front of the stage built near the refugee camp, were flooded with thousands and thousands of ponies. Keeping low, the six of them flew in and inserted themselves into the crowd, landing on a small rise that allowed them to see the stage.

"I guess it hasn't started yet," Vapor said, observing that the stage was empty. "I hope Songbird goes on first."

"Have you seen the banners some of these ponies are waving?" said Lightning. "Make peace, not war. End the fighting. No more death."

"My personal favourite," said Thunderlane, "is 'end the matriarchal establishment forcing our ponies to fight for them.' It's almost enough to make you forget that we actually volunteered to join the Wonderbolts."

"Even though the Wonderbolts weren't really given a choice about whether they wanted to fight or not?" said Rainbow. "Not that I'm complaining, because I knew what I was getting into, but, y'know."

"Peace rally," Lightning whispered harshly. "Ixnay on the Wonderbolt-ay. We're just normal ponies here to see a free concert with some of the biggest names in Equestria. That's it."

"Oh thank goodness, I was worried you were here to be party poopers."

"Pinkie?" Rainbow turned to where the voice came from to see the pink party pony and her team standing within touching distance. "How long have you been here?"

"The entire time. You landed right next to us."

"You could have said something!"

"And I would've, but as I said, I was worried you were here on Luna's orders to ruin the party, or something."

"How'd you get here anyway? Appleloosa's miles from the base camp."

"We hired a pegasus coach from Las Pegasus. A bit pricey, but seeing those three on stage in one night is worth every bit!"

"Just to be clear," said Limestone, "I was against this idea from the start."

"And yet you're still here," Lightning pointed out.

Limestone sighed and nodded, "Don't remind me. I don't even like this kind of music."

"What music are you in to then?" Rainbow asked, only to be surprised at the answer.

"Classical."

"Really?" Rainbow bit her tongue as Limestone glared at her. "So you're not into rock then?"

"Nah, that's Marble's thing. And stop typecasting me you jackass."

"It helps me express the rage I feel every day," Marble said as she eyed the crowd nervously.

"I honestly can't tell if you guys are fucking with me or not." Rainbow cleared her throat and was about to try and dig herself out of the mess she'd made, when the lights on the stage shifted to highlight three figures that were walking up the section that extended into the crowd.

"Hello everypony!" Coloratura said into the microphone held in her hoof, her voice cutting clearly across the crowd. "We'd like to thank you all for coming tonight, to support our efforts to end this war."

"Fighting isn't the answer," Songbird said as Coloratura finished. "I know that it's important to protect our homes, but our homes aren't being protected, as you all know. It's only a matter of time before all of Equestria faces the same heartache as all of you."

"Which is why we want to end the fighting!" Sapphire Shores said next. "What's the point of fighting if we aren't even achieving anything? Instead we should embrace the true Equestrian values of forgiveness and understanding, and make peace with the Mareitanians."

Coloratura smiled and nodded at her counterparts. "I know that if we put our voices together we can and will be heard! The princesses can't ignore us if enough of us demand an end to the fighting! Together, we can end this! But now..." Coloratura smiled at the crowd as music started, "Now... it's time for the spectacle, time for the show, the lights are bright and the colours glow..."

The small military component of the crowd stared blankly at the stage while the thousands around them roared their appreciation. "Do they even know what it is we're fighting for?" said Azure. "Faust isn't here to push us around and call us names. She's here to destroy everything that makes us, well... us!"

"You can't blame ponies for not wanting to fight," said Pinkie.

"Is that what you think? Give me a real challenge Pinkie." Azure raised her head and screwed her face up at the crowd, "All you ponies here suck, like, super hard." Satisfied at the response from the crowd, of which there was none, Azure turned back to Pinkie. "Boom. Nailed it."

"That's not what I meant Azure!"

"Forget about it," Rainbow said to the both of them. "We're here to see a free concert with three of the biggest names in music, not get caught up in an... an..."

"Ideological discussion over whether these ponies are right or wrong in wishing for peace with the ponies attacking us," Maud said as Rainbow failed to think of what to say.

"Exactly! What Maud said. Enjoy yourselves, and don't worry about it."

"And I will," Azure said firmly. "Just as soon as Sapphire Shores comes on stage."


-0-0-0-


"I gotta dance!"

"You gotta dance?"

"Yes, I gotta dance!"

"So, you want to go and dance?"

"Pinkie, if you don't come and dance with me, I will hit you with the nearest pony I can find, which so happens to be Marble."

Pinkie smiled at the others as Azure started to drag her away. "It appears as though I have to go and dance. Laters!"

Rainbow nodded and sucked on the straw in her drink, wishing she had something stronger than lemonade. So far the evening had been pleasant, if not as thrilling as she'd hoped, but that might have been more her own fault than anypony else's as she felt more inclined to relax than anything else. Lightning, Sky, and Vapor were chilling nearby, along with the remainder of the Hard Corps, while her own wingmates had sought somewhere more secluded to do 'coupley things' as Cloud had put it. More than likely they were having sex in some bushes somewhere.

"This is bullshit."

And Rainbow's mood turned a little downward as Limestone spoke. "What makes you say that? Not a fan of Sapphire Shores?"

"Pfft, no, but that's not what I'm talking about. How many of these ponies here really care about making peace with the Mareitanians? How many have just come here to see the three biggest names in pop for completely free, and aren't refugees at all?"

"You mean like us?"

"Yes, but that suggests everypony was a willing participant in coming here. Come on Rainbow, you must see what's missing here."

Rainbow scanned her eyes across what part of the crowds she could see from her spot lounging on the ground. She sipped on her drink again, then shrugged at Limestone. "I don't see anything wrong."

"Where are the crystal ponies?" said Limestone. "A significant portion of the refugee population is missing, and why is that? I'd say it's because they know what's going on concerning the war, and fighting those attacking us after having their home torn away from them. They don't want to fuck around with shit like this. They want their home back. I'd also like to point out that you couldn't fit a quarter of the refugees into this place, so why hold a concert for them here?"

"I... don't know."

"To buy sympathy for ending the war. You get three of the biggest names in music to put on a concert, have lots of ponies come here, and have them see all the refugees so they think 'oh those poor ponies, we should stop fighting so they can all go home.'"

"That depends on if Faust would even let them go home," said Lyra.

"Exactly! The refugees know the score. They've been forced out of their homes by an aggressive invading force, and a lot of them have seen the Mareitanians in action. They know they can't be reasoned with. Whoever organised this is just using the refugees as anti-war propaganda, which is why this entire thing is bullshit."

"Are you just psychologically incapable of enjoying anything?" Top Spin groaned at Limestone. "Seriously, can't you just enjoy the music and try to not ruin it for everypony else?"

"Excuse me for disliking the dishonesty of it all."

"There's also the chance that you're plain wrong."

"Yes," Limestone sighed, holding back her instinctive angry response. "That too."

Sky Stinger stood and stretched languidly, "Okay, as fascinating as all that is, I gotta take a whizz. Back in a minute."

"Wait!" Top Spin shouted before he could take off. "I need to go too."

"Aww, why?"

"Because I need to go?"

"But that means I have to walk there," Sky whined, stopping only when Lightning pointedly raised an eyebrow at him. "Fine, anypony else need to go?" Wordlessly, Marble stood, followed by Lyra. "Alright then, but I'm not holding any hooves."

"And they say chivalry is dead," Lightning joked as the four ponies wound their way into the crowd, earning herself an irritated huff from Vapor that only made her and Rainbow laugh harder.

Rainbow lay back, spreading her wings and closing her eyes to the night sky above, listening to the sound of the crowd as they cheered and sang along. She didn't want to think too deeply on it, but the sound was relaxing, and far different to the sounds of battle she was becoming used to. It had been a while since she'd heard ponies just having fun.

She let her mind drift off, finding the situation surprisingly restful, and it wasn't until Vapor mentioned the others having been gone a while that she brought her attention back to the here and now.

"Maybe there's a queue at the toilets," Lightning said to Vapor. "Or maybe they went to get snacks. It's really not worth getting worried about."

"But it's been almost twenty minutes now. Sky never waits that long for anything!"

"Then go look for him," Limestone said to the pale mare. "At least stop whining about it."

Rainbow was about to suggest the same when something made her stop, although she couldn't put her hoof on what. A change of tone, or a subtle shift of the atmosphere, something made her stop and adopt the feeling that something really was wrong.

She'd barely made it to her hooves when the screams started, caused by the hundreds of griffons dropping from the night sky and landing in a ring around the concert goers. Most she recognised as Bloodfeathers, but there were others in matching, gold trimmed armour that she'd never seen before.

A male griffon swooped over the crowd at speed, flying towards the stage where Sapphire Shores stood frozen, her mouth hanging open with the shock of what was happening. He landed heavily in front of her, grabbing her around the neck and throwing her to the floor and pinning her down. The microphone rolled out of her grip, and he picked it up, cawing quietly into it before speaking.

"Hello little ponies! I'm Commander Theron of the Bloodfeather mercenaries, and I'm so glad you could join us here tonight for this... this... what is this?" he asked the pony beneath him.

"This is a peace rally," Sapphire spat back at him.

"A peace rally?" The griffon laughed for a moment, then turned serious. "Yeah, no. I can safely deliver the message to you from Faust herself that there shall be peace only when Equestria has fallen beneath her rule. I mean the peace rally is a touching gesture, sure, but you are seriously barking up the wrong tree."

The griffon whistled shrilly, and waved at something offstage. A moment later a dozen griffons walked on stage, a pony each under their control. Amongst those ponies were Sky Stinger, Marble, Top Spin, and Lyra. Rainbow tensed, ready to attack as the griffons pinned them down in the same way that the commander was pinning down Sapphire Shores. She knew there was nothing they could do though, even if they'd had their weapons.

"No," Vapor whimpered as Sky struggled under the grip of the larger griffon, his curses inaudible at that distance. "No, no..."

"Maud, go find Pinkie and Azure," Limestone ordered, her eyes not leaving the stage, or more specifically Marble. "Now." Maud nodded once, and headed towards the stage.

Commander Theron turned his gaze back to his captive audience as two more griffons dragged Coloratura and Songbird Serenade onto the stage to join the others. "Right then, now we're all ready, let's play a little game. Somewhere here, fully aware of what's happening, is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. There are fifteen ponies on this stage, and for each minute that passes without her surrendering herself to us, one of these ponies will die, completely at random. Should the fifteen minutes pass without her surrendering, and all these ponies die, we will open fire on the crowd until you are all dead. Clock is ticking Princess. Clock is ticking..."

"No!" Vapor squeaked, trying to not be loud, while at the same time trying to be hear over the now frantic mass of ponies. "We have to do something!"

"Like what?" Lightning asked, an angry edge to her voice that she directed at Vapor. "What do you think we could possibly do?"

"I don't know! Something! Anything! We can't let them kill Sky, or the others!"

"If Cadence really is here, she needs to surrender," said Rainbow. "Otherwise we're all fucked."

"Is she even here though?" Limestone asked as there had been no mention of Princess Cadence being anywhere near the rally. "Even if she is, can we really risk hoping she'll surrender herself?"

"You know what, you're right," Lightning said sarcastically. "All, three, five, eight of us, should take on the hundreds of griffons here. That should end well."

"That's my sister up there you bitch!" Limestone screamed in Lightning's face, curling a hoof to punch the pegasus. Maud returning with Pinkie and Azure was the only thing that stopped her from taking the swing.

"What are we going to do?" Pinkie asked, her eyes frantic. "They've got Marble, Lyra, and Top Spin!"

"And Sky Stinger, we know," Rainbow said to her pink friend. "We're trying to think of a pl-"

"One!" Theron announced over the speakers. Without looking he pointed a claw at the row of captives behind him, stopping at a stallion that cried for help as Theron singled him out. The griffon holding him pulled his head up by his mane, and sliced a knife across his throat, holding the stallion up as he choked on his own blood.

"Fourteen more to go Cadenza!" Theron said as the griffon released the stallion, letting him flop lifelessly to the stage, the sound of the other captives crying out in terror drowning out the thud his corpse made.

"We have to get a message back to camp!" Limestone shouted as the crowd panicked.

"They'll just catch us or shoot us down," Lightning said back. "Even if they don't, there's no way any of us could get to the camp and back with reinforcements in fourteen minutes."

"So we're just going to sit here and let this happen? Fuck that!" Limestone started walking to the stage, determined to save Marble, when the world flipped around her and she ended up on her back, pinned down by Maud. "Get off me!"

Maud shook her head, "I don't want to lose any sisters today. I really don't want to lose two."

"But- But Marble!"

Maud's expression didn't change, but a single tear escaped her right eye, rolling down her cheek until it fell to the ground next to Limestone's head. "I know."

"You can't be serious, Maud," Pinkie whispered. "That's our sister, and our friends."

"Two!"

More screams erupted as a mare was singled out, her throat cut, and her twitching body dropped to the floor as she desperately fought for a breath she couldn't take.

"These lives are on your hooves Cadenza!" 

"Maud, please!" Pinkie begged.

Maud held firm, even as Limestone fought to escape her grip. "There's no sense in all of us getting killed trying to save them. We can't do it. Rainbow, please stop Pinkie if she tries to go."

Rainbow nodded, her mouth too dry to answer. She wanted to save those on the stage as much as the rest of them, but she knew there wasn't anything they could really do, so if she had to stop Pinkie to save her life, she would happily do it. She placed herself between Pinkie and the stage, unable to look her in the face as she stood there, waiting for the next minute to pass.

"Three!"

Another mare was picked out, her cerise eyes going wide was the weapon that was going to kill her was held in front of her eyes. The griffon placed it point first against her neck, slowly and gently applying pressure until it pierced her skin, the mares cries being the loudest yet as the griffon pushed the blade further and further in, until she too lost her life.

"Where are you Princess? Don't you think it's rather selfish to let all these ponies die just to spare your own immortal life? No? I guess we'll find out in the next twelve minutes."

A group of pegasi shot up from the crowd, no longer able to stay where they were as the horrific events on stage continued to unfold. Their flight was short lived though as several griffons intercepted them, cutting them down mercilessly.

"Oh dear, oh dear," the Commander tutted. "Trying to escape? What a silly thing to think was possible. I think there should be a thirty second penalty for that, which means we're now onto number four." Theron's pointed claw swept around the captives until it ended up on the pony in his own grasp. "Whoops, guess it's your turn."

"No! Please no!" Sapphire begged.

"Too bad really, I did like some of your songs." Theron drew his dagger and lifted Sapphire's head up, ignoring her desperate pleas as he dragged the knife across her exposed neck. He held her for a moment, then dropped the convulsing mare, cleaning the blade on her outfit and sheathing it as she pawed at her throat.

"That'll put a crimp in her singing career," Theron joked sadistically. "Come on Cadenza! You're wasting lives here! I'll be upset if I have to kill Songbird and Coloratura too!"

Lightning caught the movement out of the corner of her eye, and quickly grabbed hold of Vapor as the mare darted towards the stage. "No Vapor!"

"Let go of me! I have to save Sky! I have to!"

"You can't! You'll just get yourself killed!"

"I have to try!"

Lightning wrestled Vapor to the ground, "I'm sorry Vapor, I really am, but I can't let you get killed as well." Lightning's heart ached as Vapor sobbed and pleaded with her to let her go. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

"And we're onto five," the Commander announced, his talon sweeping across the remaining captives until he stopped on Top Spin. "Your turn."

Rainbow tackled Pinkie as Crystal grabbed hold of Azure, neither of them wasting the time it would take to slow the two down if they got started. Both of them apologised profusely to the ponies they had grabbed, but neither of them let go, even after Top Spin's body hit the ground.

"Now that one died like a champ," Theron said with something approaching pride. "Didn't beg or anything. Just closed her eyes and accepted her fate. Still, it was totally unnecessary, just as the rest will be if you don't surrender, Princess. Just saying."

None of them dared to say anything as the next minute passed, ending in the death of a stallion that begged his marefriend to look away as the griffon holding him cut his throat open.

"Noble heart that one," Theron chuckled. "I must say, you ponies are really surprising me. I'm curious to see what the next one will do."

Pinkie collapsed to the ground, dragging Rainbow down with her as her chest heaved with sobs. "Why is this happening? Why?" Rainbow had no answer for her.

"Seven! Halfway there now Cadenza!" Theron extended his talon and swept it across the depleting line of captives, ending on Sky Stinger. "Your turn to go big boy."

"Nooo!" Vapor screamed, thrashing against Lightning. "Nooo! Sky!" Lightning tried to hold her back, but an unexpected shock of static stunned her into letting go, and the white mare rocketed away, a massive build-up of lightning forming around her as the griffon holding Sky pulled him up and started to draw her weapon across his neck, his blood spilling down his chest.

Vapor quickly neared the stage, and realised that at her speed she was going to overshoot her target, so she slowed herself, flapping hard to cancel her momentum. It wasn't even something she intended, but as she did, the tips of her wings brushed each other, and a massive bolt of lightning shot between her and the griffon holding Sky.

It only lasted for the barest second, but the effects were still visible after as the blasted body of the griffon was blown into the rear of the stage, smashing into the background where it became wedged in the wood and hung there, smoking and lifeless.

"Woah," Rainbow said in the silence that followed, her jaw regaining enough of its tension to utter the single syllable that went pretty much unheard as the thunder still echoed around the area.

There was a flash on the stage as Lyra leaned her head back to fire a single blast of magic at the griffon holding her, his surprise at what had happened making him let go of Lyra enough to let her bend her head back. She removed the griffon's head in a spray of gore and viscera, and quickly did the same to the griffon holding Marble.

"Go!" Limestone shouted as Lyra started to tackle the griffons holding the other captives. "Now's our chance! Get to the stage!"

Rainbow didn't waste time finding out if Lightning concurred with the order, and sped through the air towards Vapor who hadn't moved since she threw a bolt of lightning. She tackled Vapor out of the air towards the stage as Lyra and Marble fought the griffons, with Lyra doing the vast majority of the fighting with her magic. Lightning flew in, her right rear leg outstretched in a flying kick that cracked the skull of a griffon that was moving to attack the pair.

Moments later rocks and blasts of magic flew out of the crowd as the rest of the Hard Corps caught up, the dry rocky landscape of Appleloosa providing them plenty of ammunition to chase the griffons off, and to buy the time to gather the other captives behind them.

"Still think peace is going to work?" Limestone spat at the two remaining singers. She looked away from them when she saw Vapor crawling over to the body of Sky. She shook him, her cries and pleas for him to not be dead becoming more and more desperate with each passing second until a slow clapping over the speakers pulled Limestone's attention to the one griffon still on the stage, Commander Theron.

"Well, well, well... look at all of you mighty heroes. Too bad you forgot your courage until the pegasus died, so I can only give you a B for that."

"Fuck you," Limestone swore at the griffon.

"So eloquent, but that's what I should expect from rock throwing barbarians."

"Have we got you so beaten you can only pick on unarmed civilians now?" Rainbow shouted at the Commander.

"Ah, the much spoken of Rainbow Dash. Such a pleasure. I think you'll find that I'm very much here with a purpose actually. I'm not here to terrorize these little ponies for the fun of it, although it was kinda fun if I'm honest."

"You'll never get your claws on the princess!"

Theron's eyes twinkled, "I know, and do you know how I know? She's not even here. I've been fucking with you this entire time."

"What? Th- Then why do all this?"

Theron looked up at the sky and grinned, "I had to get your attention somehow." Rainbow wondered what he meant when the shrill calls of griffons started to be heard. She'd spent enough time fighting the griffons to know that particular one meant 'incoming.' "Finally."

Before Rainbow could question him further, the Commander took off, along with the rest of the griffons, freeing the ponies who started to flee in blind panic, leaving those on the stage alone.

"Marble!" All of the Pie sisters clustered together in a group hug, relieved that the youngest of them had escaped death. For a brief moment there was elation, but that was soon forgotten about as they remembered they were surrounded by the bodies of the griffons victims, two of their fellow soldiers included.

Vapor sobbed brokenly as she held onto Sky's body, rocking back and forth as she willed him to come back to life. Nearby Azure sat next to Top Spin, her hooves over her mouth as tears streamed down her cheeks. Rainbow took one took at both of them and fell to her rear, the shock of everything that had happened dragging her down.

Lightning joined Vapor, holding her as she wept. A moment later Rainbow joined them as Pinkie went to hug Azure, both of them crying. Behind them, Limestone pulled Lyra into a bone crushing hug, repeating again and again how thankful she was to Lyra for saving Marble.

"This was supposed to be a peace rally, for peace..." All of them turned towards the voice, finding Coloratura and Songbird standing next to the body of Sapphire Shores, tears choking their words. "How could this have happened?"

"Do you really want to know?" Limestone growled at them, stomping past the other shell-shocked survivors towards the two singers. "There is no peace with Mareitania. Whoever got you here to do all this sold you a massive lie! Or got royally screwed over themselves. We either fight them, or we lose."

Limestone turned her back on the two stars, her eyes wandering over the few other ponies that hadn't fled, like the marefriend of the one stallion, who wailed over the body of her beloved. "Coming here was a stupid idea."

"What now?" Pinkie asked. "Where did all the griffons go?"

"Fighting ours I think," Rainbow said to her. "The griffon calls for incoming were going around, so I guess that means our guys have got here."

"Oh." Pinkie stared blankly for several seconds. "So what are we supposed to do now?"

"We should probably get out of here. The other survivors too, before the griffons come back." As if to emphasise her point, there was a  griffon call from above, and a short clash of steel. "Come on Vapor, we need to get out of here."

"I'm not leaving him," Vapor stated quietly yet firmly.

"But it's not safe here," Lightning said patiently. "I know it hurts, but staying here and getting yourself killed won't help anything."

"I don't care. I only joined because I wanted to be with Sky, but now he's dead! The only reason I had to be here is gone, so you- I-" Vapor's breath shuddered with emotion, "Just leave me alone."

"Please Vapor, I can't lose two wingmates today, I can't." Lightning begged Vapor, but the pale mare steadfastly refused to budge, resorting to giving nothing more than an almost imperceptible shake of the head every time Lightning pleaded with her. "Please!"

"Let her be," Rainbow said soothingly, pulling Lightning into a hug, the mare shaking in her hold. "She'll come around."

"And if she doesn't?" Rainbow dropped her gaze, unable to answer.

"Where's your security and stuff?" Azure asked the two songstresses.

"I guess they're... gone," Songbird sniffled.

"I guess you're stuck with us then. We'll get you out of here, don't you worry. Limestone, permission to get these civilians moving somewhere safe?"

"Permission granted, although I'm surprised you even asked." Limestone gave one long, lingering look at the body of Top Spin, "We can't afford to bring them with us right now."

"You want us to leave them?" Pinkie gasped.

"No I don't want to, but our priority right now is keeping us and these civvies alive." Limestone patted Pinkie on the back, "We'll get them back later, I promise."

"Okay then." Pinkie looked up as five figures flew towards the stage, and her heart leapt into her mouth as she initially thought they were griffons. She soon realised that they were Wonderbolts though, and she cringed as they flew silently towards Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor, two of them loaded with bags.

Spitfire took one look at Sky Stinger and Vapor, then looked back at Lightning, whose eyes were wide even as she stood stiffly to attention.

"Effective immediately, you are relieved of command of B squadron," Spitfire said harshly.

"Understood ma'am."

"Suit up and meet up with the rest of your squadron asap, because there are a lot of griffons out there. Sergeant Limestone, can you take care of these civilians?"

Limestone snapped a salute off at Spitfire, "Yes Captain!"

"Good." Spitfire gave Lightning and Rainbow one last glare, then took off with Soarin and Fleetfoot, leaving the other two Wonderbolts to drop the bags they were carrying.

"I think this one's yours Rainbow," Cloud said, kicking a bag towards Rainbow. "I guess we won't be... needing this one," she added sadly, placing Sky's equipment next to his body as Thunderlane gave Lightning her stuff, and dropped Vapor's next to her.

"I'm so glad you guys are alright," Rainbow gushed, pulling Cloud and Thunderlane into a hug. "Where were you?"

"As soon as we saw the griffons arrive, we took off to warn base camp, but they already knew, and ran into them halfway here."

"They already knew?" Lightning said as she pulled on her flight suit. "How?"

"Equis caught wind of it an hour before the attack, but it's actually worse than you know," Cloud sighed. "There's another company of griffon mercenaries fighting with the Bloodfeathers, called the Golden claws, and these guys are serious professionals that make the Bloodfeathers look like amateurs apparently. We're in for quite a fight."

"Shit." Lightning pulled her suit on and zipped it up, and she was about to start strapping her weapons on when she saw Vapor start putting her own gear on. "Vapor? What are you doing?"

"I've just lost the best thing in my life. I'm sure as hell not going to lose anything else!" Vapor looked at Lightning with watery eyes, "I've got your back."

"And I've got yours," Lightning said in return, truly appreciating what Vapor was doing. She strapped her weapons on and placed her helmet on her head. "Come on guys, let's go hook up with Fast Clip, and kick some griffon ass."


-0-0-0-


Pinkie said nothing as Rainbow flew off with her squad mates. She silently wished the five of them luck, and turned back to her own squad mates to hear the plan off Limestone.

"Alright, so we can't head to the refugee camp because I imagine the griffons are all over that place too," said Limestone. "I think our best bet is to head to Appleloosa and hole up in one of the buildings until the griffons are taken care of."

"Wouldn't it be better to hole up here?" asked Lyra. She gestured around the now empty grounds, "There's no griffons here."

"No, but there might be later, and we can't risk that. No, we'll head into town and try and find somewhere safe." Feeling guilty about it, Limestone emptied the bag containing Sky Stinger's gear, stacking it neatly beside him, then passed the other three empty bags out to her sisters.

"What about me?" Azure asked as they started to fill the bags with whatever rocks and pebbles they could find.

"You'll have to use what you can find for now," Limestone said with a hint of an apology in her voice. "Mostly though, I want you to take care of the civvies. We'll make sure the way is clear, then you bring them along."

Getting an affirmative nod from Azure, Limestone gestured for the rest of her team to follow her. She dropped off the stage and made for the western exit of the concert grounds, in the direction that the town lay in. Stepping outside of the boundary, she gasped in amazement as her vision was no longer obscured by the lights on the stage.

In the light of the moon, hundreds, if not thousands of figures darted about the sky, clashing violently in a vicious dogfight. The battle stretched from over the town, to out over the refugee camp to the south. Suddenly it didn't seem like such a good idea to head to the town, not that staying put seemed safe either.

"What should we do now?" Marble asked Limestone, seeing that she was now questioning whether to change the plan.

"There's a train station in Appleloosa, isn't there Pinkie?" Limestone asked her most colourful sibling.

"Yeah, there is."

"Then that's where reinforcements will probably arrive from if they're coming. When they do we can get these civilians out of here, and maybe ourselves. Until then, we'll hold up in the train station. Sound like a plan?"

"Yes," said Maud. "We should go before the griffons don't have enough to occupy them."

Limestone waved to Azure to start bringing the civilian ponies, then started running towards the town to stay ahead of them. It was a needless rush though, as they were totally ignored by everything in the sky, even as they reached the town.
"The train station's in the north part of town," Pinkie said, noticing a small hesitation in Limestone as they reached the outskirts.

"Okay." Limestone nodded, but didn't make a move. She could hear a lot of ponies shouting, or at least she hoped it was ponies, and quietly wondered what was going on, as she was certain that most of them would want to stay in the safety of their homes. "Stay here. I want to go see what's going on. Lyra, come with me."

Not waiting for anypony to argue with her, not that she thought they would, Limestone trotted forwards, the mint green form of Lyra right behind her. They reached the gap between two buildings, and gawped at the hundreds of ponies there. She concluded that they could only be ponies that had escaped the concert. She saw them being directed by a brown stallion in a vest and stetson, a shining star on his chest.

"Lyra, go get the others, including Azure and the civvies. I'm going to go talk to the Sheriff over there and find out what's going on." Lyra ran off and Limestone trotted out into the mass of ponies, pushing through them to the Sheriff. "Excuse me!" she shouted at him, only to be ignored. "Excuse me!" She frowned as she was ignored again. "Hey!" she shouted, smacking the Sheriff on the chest with the back of her hoof.

"What? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Sergeant Limestone, Equestrian army."

"And I'm just meant to believe that am I?"

"For your benefit, I suggest you do." Limestone gestured back at the mass of semi-panicked ponies, "What are you intending to do with all these ponies?"

"I'm jus' tryin' to keep them calm for now."

"Keep them calm? Really? After what they've just seen? When there's an entire battle taking place above them? Or did you miss that since it's not raining bodies right now?"

"There ain't enough room to protect them all missy, and you better watch that tone of yours before I have you arrested!"

"Yeah, what I did isn't illegal. Anyway, you need to get these ponies out of here! The train line goes to Dodge City doesn't it?"

"Dodge City and Ponyville, yeah."

"Good, although I wouldn't recommend Ponyville just in case the bridge is out. Get your deputies, or ponies you trust, or whatever, and start guiding these ponies along the train tracks to Dodge City. Although, you might want to make sure that they don't walk on the tracks themselves, as there might be some trains coming through at some point."

"Uh-huh, and what about the refugees? I doubt the griffons are going to let them go."

"Just... worry about the ponies you can right now," said Limestone. "You might want to take the townsponies as well. Can you do that?"

The Sheriff stuck a hoof under his stetson and scratched his mane, "I reckon so. Probably a better idea than anything I can think of right now. Alright Sergeant, we'll get these ponies moving. What are you goin' t' do?"

"Me and my team are going to hold up somewhere in town and wait for reinforcements. Hopefully then we can get these griffons out of here, and you can bring your ponies home. Now get moving; time's wasting!"

Limestone started to head back to her team, pausing only when she spotted a satchel hanging off a nail just inside the door to the jailhouse. She tipped its contents out and ran off with the bag, tossing it to Azure once she was close enough.

"Listen up," Limestone said to the ponies they'd escorted from the concert. "They're going to start moving ponies from the town to Dodge City on hoof along the train line. You're going to go with them."

"But-" Songbird started, only to get cut off by Limestone.

"No but's. There's a battle going on, and we have other concerns. The Sheriff and his ponies will take care of you." Or so Limestone hoped at least. She had the feeling that if something happened to the ponies in the Sheriff's care, it'd somehow be her fault because she suggested moving them.

"Are we going with them?" Crystal asked as the group of ponies shuffled off to join the others.

"No," Limestone answered, not missing the slouch that formed in Crystal's posture as she said so. "We're going to do as we said before, and hole up at the station, or maybe the town hall."

Having said that, there wasn't really anything to do but wait as the town slowly emptied. Curiosity slowly drew them to the town hall, where they took shelter after the body of a griffon plummeted to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust that lingered in the moonlight for some time.

"I wish we could help the pegasi," Pinkie said after a while.

"I just wish we weren't here," Limestone muttered, making a point of sitting right next to Marble.

Maud perked an ear up as the others all muttered their various laments, the sound of beating wings catching her attention over the sound of the battle above. The deeper sound of the wingbeats suggested larger wings, so more likely griffons. "Someone's coming. I think they're griffons."

"Shit!" Limestone swore. "Inside, now!"

All seven of them dove inside, slamming the doors shut behind them and moving to the windows to peek out. Scant moments later a dozen griffons landed, all but one of them in the gold trimmed armour of the Golden Claw mercenaries. The one that wasn't was easily recognisable as Commander Theron.

"See? The town's empty now," Theron said, waving a claw at the empty buildings. "Now why did you drag me away from the battle."

A large griffon wearing armour even more resplendent than that of the other griffons stepped forwards, and slashed a claw across Theron's face, making him cry out in pain.

"You might be trying to save face with your employers by hiring us as well, but I am not working at your standards. You said we'd be fighting military targets, and what do we do on our first mission with you? Oh that's right, we killed civilians!"

Theron wiped a claw across his face, wiping the blood away. "Do you have any idea how many of us these ponies have killed? Thousands!"

"You attacked them in a war! You don't get to complain if you lose! It's embarrassing enough that you've had to come to us in the first place, although I'm starting to wish you hadn't. I don't know what game you're playing here boy, but the price had better be worth it for all this."

"Oh it is, trust me."

"I'll trust you when you tell me what it is."

"Griffinstone. I help Faust win her war, she gives me Griffonstone in return."

"Griffonstone..." The other griffon grunted, turning away from Theron and walking away for a moment before turning back to him. "And what exactly are you planning to do with that? Hoping to win your father's approval by giving him and the Empire back Griffonstone?"

"Fuck my father! His days are well and truly numbered. This is about me getting what I deserve."

"You deserve nothing you stupid boy! If you were counting on your uncle to attempt a coup, you'll be waiting a long time. He's is in prison, charged with treason."

"It's all going according to plan then," Theron said smugly. "You can't think we didn't know exactly how my father would react. He got to be emperor by sheer dint of being born, not by being intelligent, or unpredictable."

The gold adorned griffon snorted harshly, "Just like you were then."

"I'm having to work for everything I get!" Theron shouted. "I just wanted to go have a few adventures while I was young and unburdened with ruling anything, and I certainly didn't deserve to be disowned for that!"

"You humiliated your father! The Emperor! You were expecting him to be fine with that? You just said you knew him!"

"I never expected him to make my sister the heir! My father always favoured me, while Calissa was always weak!"

"Clearly you don't know your sister either then, because while she might not have your stature, she is far from weak. I'll help you win this war, boy, but should you attempt anything against your father you will find us on opposite sides. Consider that my only warning! You've had your distraction, so I'm giving the order to fall back before we end up with more innocent blood on our claws. I suggest you follow suit."

"Consider me warned then," Theron said quietly as the other griffons flew away, leaving Theron on his own. "I guess I can't count on your support then, you old fool."

Limestone raised her head to follow the griffon as he flew away. "Did you get all that Pinkie?"

"I sure did!" Pinkie folded the paper she'd wrote down the details of the conversation on, along with a few squiggles and a picture of a angry face, and hid it in her mane. "Good job we came to the one place with plenty of paper."

"Yeah," Limestone said. "Equis is going to have fun with that one."


-0-0-0-


Rainbow had found something worse than griffons. Griffons with shields. The Golden Claws all favoured a small shield on their left leg, and a spear or short sword on their right. They also fought with an experience and efficiency far different to the screaming mass of glory hound hooligans the Bloodfeathers tended to be. These griffons were seasoned veterans, and it showed.

Too bad they didn't have any way of blocking lightning.

A miniature storm rumbled around Rainbow as she zoomed through the battle, Lightning, Vapor, and her wingmates flying alongside her. Vapor had described what she'd done to create a lightning bolt, as best as she could remember considering what was happening, and they could only conclude that having your wingtips touch was the secret they needed to making it work.

And made it work they had, although there were some issues as to how aiming the lightning worked. Vapor had no idea how she did it, and wasn't even sure she hit the griffon she was aiming for, or had been aiming for the lead griffon instead. They'd had a few hits, and thankfully no friendly fire accidents, but the rest hit nothing, save for one unfortunate apple tree that was rendered into a smouldering wreck by the lightning strike.

Of course it was only a drop in ocean, or so it felt. They still outnumbered the griffons, but the advantage was lost against the Golden Claws. Even the hardy thestrals were stumped by them, and the Equestrians casualties were mounting. They weren't losing yet, but they were far from winning.

All five of them slowed and leant back, bringing their wings together around their fronts until they touched, and lightning arced out in front of them, flashing brightly in the night, and rumbling loud enough to hurt their ears. Only Thunderlane hit anything, killing a griffon hen instantly.

Lightning threw her legs up in aggravation, "How the hell are you supposed to aim this?" 

"Maybe you're thinking too much about it," said Rainbow. "Maybe you just gotta think 'hit that one,' and then let it happen."

"Oh sure, sure, I bet it's exactly that easy." 

"Incoming!" Cloud shouted over the sound of Lightning and Rainbow bickering. 

Half a dozen griffons flew at them, and the five Wonderbolts readied themselves. They quickly banked up as the griffons got close, using their superior agility to avoid the griffons weapons, and flipped around to try and attack them. The griffons had already turned back to face them without changing their direction, and hoofblade clashed against shield, with only Rainbow's enchanted blades successfully breaking through the shield, impaling the griffon holding it.

She was about to help her wingmates when Spitfire and her squadron flew in, clashing with the griffons. One of them swung round, his blade stretched out, stabbing Misty Fly in the chest as she stabbed him, and they both went down together.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Rainbow screamed as she watched Misty falling. "We had them!"

"Protecting you!" Spitfire shouted back. "Thanks to your lightning you've made yourself valuable assets, so we can't let you die!"

The night sky flashed again as Lightning flung her namesake at a griffon, smashing them out of the sky. "So you do have to not think about it."

"Where's the rest of your Squadron?" Spitfire asked Rainbow, risking not moving to talk.

"No idea ma'am. We couldn't find them in the battle."

"For fuck sake! We need to get out of here before we all get killed! Rainbow, get back to base camp and tell Luna what's happening here, and that we're falling ba- Wait, what's that?"

Griffon calls sounded in the night, recognisable as the call to fall back. Almost as one the griffons disengaged, fleeing the battle.

"They're going? Why are they going?" Spitfire asked. "Have reinforcements arrived?"

"I don't think so," said Soarin. "I think they're just going."

"Thank fuck for that," Spitfire breathed. She flew down, seeking Misty Fly, but it was clear that even if being stabbed hadn't killed her, the crash would have. "For fuck sake." Spitfire pulled her helmet off and flopped into a sitting position next to Misty. "We can't keep on doing this."

Rainbow swallowed as she looked around the area she could see. Bodies dotted the land, mostly pegasi, although there were a fair few griffons as well. She removed her helmet and dropped it, sitting hard as the adrenaline left her, making her feel horribly weak as tears worked their way out of her eyes.

"Vapor wait!" Lightning shouted as her surviving wingmate darted back towards the stage. "Fuck sake... Captain, permission to go with her?"

"Oh, so we're asking permission for things now are we? How novel."

The four members of B squadron shifted guiltily as Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts glared at them. "I'm sorry ma'am," Lightning said. "It won't happen again."

"You're damn right it won't!" Spitfire said threateningly. "Get out there and find the rest of your squadron, then find the rest of the Wonderbolts for a headcount. If we've lost as many as I think, we'll have to change the squadrons again." Spitfire shook her head ruefully, "Once you're together, secure the town and the refugees until further orders."

"Yes ma'am."

"And don't forget Fast Clip is in charge now."

"He should be," said Lightning not arguing the point.


-0-0-0-


Luna stared blankly at the pony before her in the uniform of an agent of Equis. "Run that by me again."

"The tanks are moving through the north, along with an army of ten thousand Mareitanians. The rest of the Mareitanians are heading here. Nearly fifteen thousand of them."

"There's no way we can hold against that many," Shining Armour said to Luna. "Even if our fliers weren't all in Appleloosa."

"I know," Luna said quietly. After the last battle they have barely twelve thousand soldiers to field, and full third of them had flown to fight the griffons when the news of their attack arrived "It seems Faust has finally remembered her advantage."

"What are your orders?"

Luna looked out across the river, imagining fifteen thousand ponies storming across it. It wasn't a comforting vision.

"Luna, what are your orders?"

"We can't hold against that many. We need to fall back to Appleloosa to regroup. Transport what munitions you can, destroy the rest, and get the cannons ready to move."

"What about Las Pegasus?"

Luna frowned, unsure of what to say. Or rather, how to say it. "Send a messenger to the Mayor of Las Pegasus informing him of what is happening, along with my apologies. Advise him that things should be fine if nopony resists the occupation. Other than that, there is little we can do for them now."

"And what of the Mareitanians going through the north?"

Luna shut her eyes and shook her head, "I don't know. I really don't know."
> 39. a change of plan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

They had expected some ponies to come and assist, but they certainly hadn't expected all the ponies to come. All they could do was stare and watch as Princess Luna marched in at the head of a massive column of ponies. At least not until Limestone shook it off and stopped right in front of Luna, blocking her way.

"You've brought the entire army here? What about Las Pegasus? What about places near it? Did you warn them you were leaving?"

Luna raised an eyebrow at the obstinate little pony in front of her. "It was not a decision made lightly, I assure you, but when fifteen thousand Mareitanians are coming to attack you, and you lack the ability to stop them, there is little else to do."

"But what about our parents?"

"Your parents?"

"Yeah! Did they get a warning?"

Luna wasn't sure what to say next, and was saved as Shining Armour took over the conversation.

"We passed by her parents' rock farm on the way here Princess, and we did give them a warning." Shining gave Limestone and her sisters a weak and apologetic smile, "I'm afraid they refused to leave, and insisted that providence will see them to safety. I'm sorry Sergeant, but we told them that as long as they do nothing to impede the Mareitanians, they should be safe."

Limestone sighed and closed her eyes. She wasn't surprised by her parents reaction, and doubted anything short of the farm dropping into a sink hole would ever make them leave. "Understood. Thank you for trying."

"I am sorry Sergeant," Luna emphasised. "There'll be many more such occurrences before this is over, and I wish I could prevent them all, but I cannot. From what we've seen though, Faust doesn't wish to harm innocents, so they should be quite safe, along with those in Las Pegasus." Limestone nodded and stepped aside, letting the Princess continue while she went to her sisters, pulling them into a group hug.

Luna carried on her path, and swallowed hard as she headed over towards a field of bodies. The pegasi that had fallen in the battle had been lined up next to each other, covering far too large an area. A significant number of other pegasi walked amongst the dead, mourning the dead and comforting each other. Captains Spitfire and Greywhisker were among them, as well as Windy Rush of the Exiles.

"How many lost?" Luna asked General Stormguard, who had trotted over to her as she approached.

"Near eight hundred Princess. Those Golden Claws were a force to be reckoned with, and I doubt any future engagements with them will end too differently. It's safe to say we've lost our air superiority."

"And in the space of a day, we've lost the two advantages we had," Luna sighed. "Our defensive position, and now our ability to strike from the air. Where are the griffons now?"

"Heading north we believe, likely to protect the tank convoy travelling to Manehattan."

"So we are no longer able to stop them." Luna breathed out harshly through her nose. Things had totally come apart now, and she couldn't see many ways in which to stop the Mareitanians. They could possibly try to cut the Mareitanians off at Ghastly Gorge, but they could go south to circumvent the Equestrians defences, or head north to Ponyville, which they might do anyway. They had no feasible way to stop the Mareitanians in the north, and... Luna simply didn't know what to do.

"Shining Armour, Stormguard, gather your captains and bring them to the town hall. We need to discuss strategy, and I'd like to have some more opinions, rather than just our own."

"Yes ma'am," Shining replied as Stormguard saluted. "With your permission, I'd like to bring Sergeant Limestone as well. I'm told she has some new intelligence on the griffons we'd all like to hear."

"By all means then, bring her."


-0-0-0-


There wasn't much chatter in the town hall as the requested ponies were gathered. The ponies making up Equestria's air forces had lost much, and didn't feel like talking, and the rest of them knew enough of the truth to draw the one conclusion they didn't want. In a matter of mere hours, they had gone from holding the Mareitanians off, to losing ground rapidly. If they didn't find a way to stop it, the war was effectively lost.

That was the atmosphere Luna walked into, and she made no effort to correct it, as it was very much the truth. They were losing now, and that was unlikely to change.

"Thank you all for coming," Luna said to the room at large, grabbing their attention. "I'm sure I don't need to explain to you what has happened, or why you're here. Faust has us severely on the back hoof, and we need a way to turn this around. First though, Sergeant Limestone, I'm told you have something important for us."

Limestone stood and moved to Luna, placing the paper Pinkie had wrote the details of the conversation they'd overhead on. "It's all there Princess. What we heard getting discussed between Commander Theron of the Bloodfeathers, and the leader of the Golden Claws."

Luna thanked Limestone and picked up the paper, reading through it quickly. "Commander Theron? But we were told that the Emperor's son was killed. Seems news of his death was greatly exaggerated." Luna grunted in irritation and read a little further. "Griffonstone? That was agreed price for fighting for Faust? What could he possibly hope to achieve by possessing there of all places?"

"We don't know, but it involves his uncle, who's been arrested for treason, or something." Limestone shrugged, "I don't know enough of what's going on in Griffonia to say much more."

"Theron is the disowned son of the Emperor. If he's plotting something with his uncle..." Luna folded the paper back up, "Stormguard, I need you to get this to Canterlot immediately, and into the hooves of Equis. I know it is not our immediate concern, but Griffon Intelligence will need to know of all this. The last thing we need is the Emperor getting replaced with somepony willing to attack Equestria, even if we should survive the war with Mareitania."

"I'll have one of our fastest fliers deliver it immediately."

"Thank you." Luna paused to draw in a deep breath, then released it in one big explosive sigh. "I don't even know where to begin. You've all seen what's happening, how Faust has hired a further, and more effective force of griffons. How she's put us into retreat from our most defensive position through the threat of totally outnumbering us. How she currently moves on our east coast through the north. I hate to say it, but this war can no longer be fought on our terms. If we lose the east coast, our defence becomes almost impossible to sustain, and if we lose Canterlot we've lost the war. I had hoped we could keep the fear of losses as a deterrent to Faust, but instead she has placed that fear in us. Frankly, I'm open to suggestions."

"We should relocate our training facilities to Canterlot," Shining suggested. "It won't be as effective as a true garrison, but it should put Faust off from attacking Canterlot, while keeping our more recent recruits safer."

"Is it even worth recruiting ponies at this point?" said Spitfire. "Begging your pardon, but throwing a load of newbies into the war isn't going to help us do anything."

Luna nodded, "I agree actually. All recruitment shall be suspended for now. For all we know, we could be faced with the loss of all of the east coast in a matter of weeks, so more recruits would be pointless."

"And relocating our current recruits?" Shining questioned. "I feel it would be for the best, in the event we're forced to hold onto our most secure location at least."

"Also approved." Luna growled under her breath. None of these two plans so far suggested a bold attitude to turning their losses around, if that was even possible. "Anything else to suggest? Mayhaps a device to assist us in running around with our tails between our legs?" 

"Mistress?" Greywhisker said unsurely.

Luna waved him off. "Ignore me. I suppose it is foolish to think that perhaps this war might be won by us. The entire point was to slow Faust down until Twilight Sparkle could find a solution to defeat Faust herself." Luna grimaced as several ponies gasped. "Yes, we have deceived you into thinking this war could be won through strength of arms alone, but evidently it cannot. Buying time and defeating Faust directly was always the key, so that is what we shall have to continue doing."

Luna stood patiently as the ponies in the room rapidly whispered to each other. Thankfully her generals weren't partaking in it, nor was Captain Greywhisker. Captain Spitfire sat quietly with a sad yet thoughtful expression on her face, and Sergeant Limestone, the lowest ranking pony in the room, was looking at all the others, seemingly annoyed at their surprise. Luna could only assume that Pinkie had explained the situation to her.

"Do you all have nothing else to say at all?"

"If we continue to fight back, we'll be throwing lives away as we practically burn our country in front of the Mareitanians. There's no shame in defeat, or surrender."

Luna raised an eyebrow at the stallion who spoke. He wore the uniform of a Mage Corps unicorn, and had attained the stripes of a captain, but beyond that Luna knew nothing of him, other than he was apparently a coward. "Perhaps I should explain this fully. Faust despises my sister and I, and would see us imprisoned horribly for the rest of time, along with the other princesses, of which one is only a child. That's only a personal issue though, as the main problem is that she wishes to subjugate the rest of the world. If she only wished to conquer Equestria, so be it, but are we really going to be the ponies that let the world burn to save our own skins?"

"But you said yourself that we can't win!"

"We can win, and Equestria will survive, but only if we can buy enough time for Princess Twilight to find what we need to defeat Faust."

"And what might that be?" another captain asked, an earth pony mare of the Earth Corps.

"She knows that far better than I," Luna lied, suspecting that Twilight had no more of an idea than anypony else seeing as they were yet to find Starswirl's retreat. "Another month, or maybe even less, and she shall have what we need."

"Well we can't keep fighting for that time," said the same earth pony captain. "They outnumber us near three to one, and we have no easily defensive places save Canterlot. I say we hole up there and invite those dang Mareitanians to try and get us out."

"Oh please," said the captain in the Mage Corps. "They'll place us under siege and starve us out. That's not going to get us anywhere."

"I thought the idea was to buy time?" the mare said back. "A couple of months long siege sounds perfect to me. The less ponies we lose before then, the more we have to defend Canterlot with, making it even harder for the enemy to take."

"Until we're all starving!"

"There are large underground caves in the Canterhorn mountain," said Shining. "We could store months worth of food for the entire city. If we sabotage everything useful to Faust and hold up in Canterlot, we could keep Faust occupied for some time."

"And throw the rest of Equestria to the timberwolves?" Greywhisker argued. "What kind of plan is that?"

"We'll need the time to secure the kind of supplies needed to survive a months long siege," Stormguard said to Luna. "I do believe this is our best chance of prolonging the war with the least losses though. When Princess Twilight finds the weapon we need, we'll have won."

"Perhaps we should put it to a vote," said Luna, who wasn't sure herself. The idea sounded attractive, but that didn't mean it was the best idea, as it did mean sacrificing the rest of Equestria. And yet, they faced losing Equestria anyway, so at least those ponies living along the east coast would be spared the ravages of war. 

"All in favour of defending Canterlot, raise your hooves." More than half the ponies in the room raised their hooves. "Those wishing to continue fighting?" A few raised their hooves, including Greywhisker, stirring a modicum of annoyance in Luna, although she couldn't say why. Two had abstained from voting, Spitfire and Limestone, meaning the Canterlot plan had won.

"Very well, we shall have to begin preparations for a siege. Shining Armour, I shall put it to you to begin securing food and munitions to store within Canterlot. Stormguard, move the trainees to Canterlot post-haste, and start laying plans for a prolonged defence of the city. The rest of you are dismissed. Go inform your units of the plan, and prepare for direction from myself or my generals."

"I think you're making a mistake," Limestone said as the others began to file out, although they stopped as the grey pony spoke. "Going to Canterlot like this, we'll all be trapped like rats."

"And what would you have us do?"

"I don't know, but not this."

"Helpful," Luna deadpanned. "Thank you for that stunning insight Sergeant. Return to your unit and inform them of our new plan, then await orders."

"But what about the refugees? And the Appleloosans?"

"I said return to your unit and await further orders."

Limestone grit her teeth. Objectively she knew that there were a lot more than the refugees and Appleloosans getting screwed over in this plan, but it seemed to her that it was more about keeping the princesses and the Canterlot ponies safe. If she was honest with herself, she was fuming about it.

"Yes ma'am," she said anyway.


-0-0-0-


"I can't believe this!" Limestone growled. "We're all just going to go and hide in Canterlot? That's the stupidest plan I've ever heard!"

"Sounds okay to me," said Pinkie. "If we have a big ole Palominan stand off where nopony gets hurt until Twilight gets back, then that has to be a good plan. Doesn't it?"

"No Pinkie, it doesn't. We'll be trapped there, and when Faust comes it'll be like- like... like we're all sat there as easy targets," Limestone finished lamely.

"I can't believe they're just abandoning everywhere else," Lyra said quietly. "We all fought to protect these places, and now we're giving up on them."

"Exactly!" Limestone blurted.

"But we'd lose them anyway," Pinkie whined, getting a nod of agreement from Marble. "Only we'd have a lot of ponies getting killed failing to protect them."

"Really Pinkie? Is that your concern? You do realise that the reason we all signed up, to save your friends, is totally impossible?"

"It won't be once Twilight gets back."

Limestone snarled and reared up, stomping her two front hoofs onto the ground, kicking up small puffs of dirt. "You're just as bad as Luna! We can't seriously be putting all our faith in one pony to win this for us? What if she fails?"

"She won't," Pinkie replied firmly, jumping to her hooves to defend her friend. It seemed to make little difference to Limestone as she walked up to Pinkie and pressed their faces together to growl at her.

"What if she does?"

Azure pushed between them, shoving them apart. "Guys, will you chill out? If Princess Luna thinks it's a good plan, then it's a good plan. If we can keep on getting Pegasi out to strike the Mareitanians, then we can whittle them down to the point that they couldn't possibly conquer Canterlot."

"The Crystal Heart is there too," Maud pointed out.

Azure pointed a hoof at Maud, "That's right! That makes Canterlot even easier to defend! If we can hold on long enough for Princess Twilight to get back and kick Faust's butt, then it'll all have been worth it. Top Spin's death won't have been for nothing."

"You're basing that on if we succeed," Limestone said to Azure. "If Princess Twilight fails, we all fail, and Top Spin's, and so many others' deaths will have been for nothing."

"Somepony's coming," Marble said quietly as a pony none of them recognised walked up to them, a heavy bag on his back. 

"Here's your gear you left behind," he said to the now seven ponies of the Hard Corps. "I also have your deployment orders. You're to head to Fillydelphia with a number of our forces to assist in sabotaging any industrial centres that Faust might want to acquire. You're moving out in an hour, so you might want to get yourself ready."

Limestone nodded at the pony, and pulled her combat suit out of the bag as he left. "Oh yes, this will be ever so useful in those fights we're desperately trying to avoid."

Pinkie frowned at Limestone, "I don't get it. What are you so upset about? This plan's great! Why are you so against it?"

"Because it means we're giving up," Limestone answered in a calmer, more reasonable tone of voice. "We can't really win, so we're giving up in the hopes that your buddy Twilight can ass-pull a magic solution to this whole thing, and win the war in one move, and I find that to be a really stupid idea."


-0-0-0-


"I wish there was something we could do for her," Rainbow said to Lightning as the two sat watching Vapor. She was laying down at the foot of Sky's covered body, her cheeks wet with a near constant stream of tears, and the corners or her mouth pulled back in a rictus of anguish.

"She's not the only one," Lightning said back miserably. "We lost hundreds in that fight."

"Yeah..." Rainbow sighed and looked up. The sky was mostly empty now, save for a few patrols. It was hard to imagine what the fight with the griffons would look like in the daylight. It had looked bad enough at night, where the griffons had the advantage of being able to see in the dark.

"Look alive you two."

Rainbow brought her attention back down, finding that Spitfire was walking up to them. Rainbow would have saluted, but her hoof felt too heavy to even make the effort. Spitfire had lost a few of her friends and teammates last night, and Rainbow couldn't begin to guess at how she kept going.

"How is she doing?" Spitfire asked, nudging her head towards Vapor.

"I don't think you need us to tell you it isn't great," Rainbow answered. "All she does is sit there and cry. If you want to know if she's good to keep fighting, you'll have to ask her yourself."

"Not my biggest priority. As I'm sure you're well aware, we lost Fast Clip last night, along with seven other Wonderbolts, bringing us down to three squadrons. Considering what's happening, I doubt we'll be getting any replacements any time soon. This also means I'm putting you back in charge of B squadron, Lightning." Spitfire jabbed a hoof against Lightning's chest, "Screw up and go AWOL again, and I'll nail your hooves to the ground so I don't have to see you in my airspace ever again, you got that?"

Lightning swallowed nervously and nodded, "Yes ma'am."

"Good. Now let's talk about your newly acquired skills." Spitfire cleared her throat in preparation to speak bluntly, "How the fuck did you figure that one out?"

"It's the contrails we use for shows," said Rainbow. "You do that, then hold it on your wings, and direct it. It was Vapor that figured out how to do that last bit though."

"Huh." Spitfire shrugged, "Can you teach it to the rest of us?"

"Sure, I guess."

"Good. Soarin and Spitfire should be gathering the rest of the Wonderbolts, and you'll have an hour to teach us how to do it before we move out to Manehattan."

"Manehattan? Why're we going there?"

"It's our new strategy. It's been decided that we can't hold off the Mareitanians like this, so we're basically retreating fully to Canterlot to trap ourselves in a months long siege, to buy the time Princess Twilight needs. Before we do that though, we need to destroy anything of use to Faust."

"But that means we're abandoning millions of ponies!"

Spitfire nodded at Rainbow, "In the short term yes, but it's been decided that if we keep fighting like we are, we'll lose, and the Mareitanians will capture those territories anyway, while also making it easier to capture Canterlot. It also means those ponies won't be attacked, and won't be made homeless. The only other place we're keeping is Cloudsdale, which is to be moved over to Canterlot. The Air Corps will be taking care of that."

"I guess that means the Night Guard and Exiles are with us?" Lightning asked.

"The Night Guard are. The Exiles will join our ground units in Fillydelphia, while there'll be no fliers in Baltimare. I did request the Exiles come with us, but with Faust moving on Manehattan, speed is of the essence."

"What about the refugees? And the prisoners we took the other day?"

Spitfire shrugged, "I honestly don't know. This... plan... has some major oversights, but you know as well as anypony that we're going to get destroyed if we try to fight Faust and her army head on. They outnumber us, have plenty of experience at fighting, and-"

"And we should all go to Manehattan and stop them there!" Rainbow shouted. "There's, what, ten thousand ponies up there? We outnumber them!"

Spitfire shook her head and snorted a laugh. "Reckless as always. Even if we won that battle, with the heavy losses that would incur we wouldn't stand a chance against the rest of the Mareitanian army. We need to face them from a position of strength, and Canterlot is the only place providing that. I'm not exactly happy about this either, Rainbow, but I sure as hell can't think of a better plan."

"I can't believe this," Rainbow grumbled. "A week ago we were fucking winning this!"

"No we weren't," said Spitfire. "Winning this would be pushing them back, and there was no chance of us doing that. Especially now."

"Ugh." Rainbow glanced across at Lightning to see what she thought, but she was staring at Vapor as she walked towards them. She was no longer crying, but the hollow look in her eyes seemed so much worse.

"Reporting for duty," Vapor said, crisply saluting Spitfire, who had the decency to not comment on how Vapor was creeping her out a little.

"Good! That's... that's good. I'm sorry about Sky Stinger, and you don't have to push yourself if you're not up to it."

"Begging your pardon ma'am, but being in the Wonderbolts was Sky's dream, and I hate to think how disappointed he'd be if I quit now. I also think you need every pony you can get."

Spitfire didn't reply immediately, instead taking a moment to observe the trembling in Vapor's legs. "Alright, but I'll reiterate that you don't need to push yourself if you don't think you can handle it."

"I can handle it ma'am." 

All of Vapor was shaking now, and Spitfire was ready to refuse her, but it was true that they needed every pony available, and Vapor was a pony who had managed to come this far with a courage that often failed her. Perhaps there was more to her than met the eye.

"Alright. Rainbow, find your wingmates and all of you get ready for an intensive training session, and a long flight north."


-0-0-0-


Shining remained stoic as the ponies around him jumped at the boom of nearby thunder that had somehow come from a clear sky. He knew it was the Wonderbolts learning how to throw lightning, and wasn't too concerned otherwise. His worries lay elsewhere.

Gathering the necessary supplies was easy enough in theory, as was storing them, but what of the civilian population of Canterlot? Was nopony going to consider that they'd just been put in the firing line? Then there was the refugees, and who was going to see to their needs? And what of the prisoners of war? It seemed to Shining that they were likely to wind up back in the hooves of the Mareitanians, bolstering their forces.

At the same time though, he agreed with the plan, if only because there didn't seem to any better. If Canterlot could be kept secure they could keep Faust and the Mareitanians occupied for quite some time. It was a fairly sizeable if though, as who knew what Faust could cook up to defeat them. Her current plan had them on the run in a matter of hours.

At the very least he could be thankful about being back with Cadence and Flurry. It had been weeks, if not months, since he'd seen either of them, and he felt he was owed some quality time.

"General Armour?"

Shining blinked his daydream away, and looked up as Luna stood before him. "Sorry Princess, I was lost in my thoughts. Can I help you?"

"Have the units heading to sabotage our infrastructure have been deployed, and the rest of our forces made ready to move to Canterlot?"

"The Wonderbolts are making some last minute preparations, but they should be away shortly. Why? Is there something you wish to add to their orders?"

"Not at all. I've decided to take General Stormguard's place in preparing Canterlot's defence, while he oversees the relocation of Cloudsdale towards Canterlot. I'm leaving you in charge of moving our troops, if that's not too much bother?"

"I need to head back to Canterlot anyway. I've sent out some requests for a large stockpile of food to be gathered, so I won't be able to do much more until I return to Canterlot anyway. I do have some questions for you before you go though."

Luna gestured with a hoof, "Proceed."

"What's going to happen to the refugees and the p.o.w's? Are we warning anywhere about us retreating to Canterlot? And will we be warning the cities of the impending occupation they face?"

Luna sighed deeply, having been asked some things she hoped would be forgotten. "I honestly don't know the answer to the first two, and yes I intend to have our demolition teams warn the mayor of each city, but there's little more we can do to help them."

"So we're just abandoning the refugees, and letting Faust reclaim her captured soldiers. Wow."

"If there were room in Canterlot, I'd shelter the refugees there, but there isn't. Not to be too blunt about it, but with barely a push, Equestria is on the verge of falling, and we have not the strength to push back. The refugees are simply the biggest victim of that."

Shining nodded, accepting that perhaps his sister might have been onto something when she decided that alicornhood wasn't a qualification to rule. "So that's it then. We hide in Canterlot and pray for the best outcome, leaving the rest of Equestria hung out to dry."

Luna wilted under the accusation in Shining's voice. "It is as much as we can do against a threat of the magnitude Faust and her army presents. Perhaps it was foolish to think we could ever hope to have held them off to begin with."

"At least we tried though."

"Indeed. All our hopes lie with Twilight now."

"And if she fails? Or Faust defeats us?"

"Then we can only hope the rest of the world puts up a better fight than the rest of us."

Shining nodded and ran a hoof back over his head. He could see there was no point in pushing Luna over this, as she seemed determined that they'd practically lost, whereas what they'd really done is give up. Perhaps rightly so.

"Once Cloudsdale is relocated, I'll need the Air Corps to provide protection for the supply convoys we'll have moving to Canterlot. I imagine the griffons will be all over those once they hear about them."

"I'll pass the message on," said Luna. "See you soon Shining Armour."

"Of course, Princess."


-0-0-0-


Celestia laid a hoof on Cadence's back as her fellow princess cried, much as she had since finding out that her peace rally had been attacked by griffons and turned into a warzone. Flurry was there too, trying her best to help in that uniquely unhelpful way of children everywhere. Cadence had settled for hugging Flurry like a teddy bear.

"This was supposed to be a peace rally Celestia, a peace rally! How could they do that?"

"I don't know," Celestia replied, simply and earnestly.

"So many dead..."

Celestia nodded vaguely. Anypony dying there was a terrible event, but she knew the focus would end up on Sapphire Shores as the news got out. Very unfair really, but that seemed to be how the press worked. Celestia couldn't argue that Sapphire Shores had meant a lot to so many through her music, but her death shouldn't overpower the deaths of all the other ponies that had died there.

"Did I do something wrong?"

The question caught Celestia off-guard, and it took her a moment to muster a "what?" in reply.

"Did I do something wrong?" Cadence repeated with emphasis. "All I wanted was to get the idea that fighting wasn't the best thing we could do, but all that happened was that we got attacked by griffons, and used to launch an even bigger invasion of Equestria!" Cadence tried to wipe her eyes on her leg, and accidentally wiped her nose on the back of Flurry's head, not impressing the foal.

"You did nothing wrong Cadence," Celestia said soothingly. "And I really hope that this doesn't lead you to giving up your pursuit of peace, in this conflict or others."

"But what's the point when this sort of thing happens? Why try and make peace with an enemy that has no interest in it?"

"Because peace is a goal worth aspiring to," said Celestia. She smiled at Cadence, but it drifted off her face as Cadence started sobbing again.

"Am I interrupting?"

Celestia jumped at the sound of her sister's voice, and whipped her head around to find the navy blue alicorn standing in the doorway of Cadence's room, the door having been opened quietly enough to be missed over the sound of Cadence crying. "Luna? What are you doing here?"

Luna entered and closed the door behind her. "Looking for you actually. I have bad news, although I'm sure you know much of it already." Luna stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, then sat next to the bed to speak to both Celestia and Cadence. "I'm pulling all our forces back to Canterlot."

"You are? Why?"

"Because we can't stop Faust's new advances. Her forces are simply too numerous for us to effectively engage. Even if our forces took out two of her ponies for every one of ours, the Mareitanians would still have us beaten. Instead we hope to fortify Canterlot in the hopes that we can hold them off long enough for Twilight to return."

"You're bringing the war here?" Cadence shrieked.

"And sparing our forces a hopeless fight, and much of Equestria along with it. Forgive me if I cannot either win this war, or take it elsewhere."

"But what about the rest of Equestria? Are you just going to let Faust have it all?"

"We're sabotaging anything of use to her, but otherwise yes. Having to occupy several cities will distract much of her forces, giving us a better chance of holding out here. We're collecting as much food as we can to last a months long siege, and... yes, that's our plan as of now. If ponies don't resist the occupation of their cities, Faust is unlikely to do much to harm them."

"B-but what about the refugees? What about my people?"

Luna looked away, her face ridden with guilt. "I'm sorry Cadence. If I could bring them here to protect them, I would, but there simply isn't enough room."

"So you're just leaving them?"

Luna nodded once, unable to look Cadence in the eye, which might have been a mistake as a second later a blast of pale blue magic smacked into her chest and threw her through the door, without making the effort of opening it first. She slid across the hallway, stopping when she hit the wall opposite.

She rolled onto her belly, dazed at having been thrown backwards through a rather solid object, and equally stunned that it had been Cadence that had thrown her. She also seriously regretted removing her armour upon arriving at Canterlot.

She was about to experiment with standing, when a vision of pink, incandescent rage stomped through the now shattered door, and Luna quickly shifted from attempting to stand, to running for her immortal life as bolts of magic sizzled through the air towards her. A maid was standing in the hall ahead, staring wide-eyed at what was happening. Luna shoved her against a wall and placed a shield over her to protect her from Cadence's terrible aim as she kept on running.

"Cadence! Stop!" Celestia shouted, but was ignored as her niece lost herself to a wave of anger. She looked to her left at Flurry as the young alicorn kept pace with her on her wings, and briefly wondered for a moment how intelligent Flurry really was, being quicker on the uptake than the average 9 month old. She also said a quick apology to the maid as she passed, releasing her from Luna's shield.

Luna's hooves skidded on the marble floor as she tried to turn a corner, and she quickly corrected herself with a teleport as she slid past the way she wanted to go. She hoped to make it to the throne room, where the presence of guards and others might make Cadence consider stopping.

Unfortunately there was quite a bit of distance between them and the throne room, and Luna's wings were telling her that getting thrown around through doors like she had been was ill conducive to flight. Hopefully a lengthy chase would tire Cadence out instead as she blasted everything except Luna with her magic. Thankfully Celestia wasn't too far behind to put out the fires, although not even she could easily fix the chunks blown out of the floors and walls.

"Open the doors!" Luna shouted at the guards outside the throne room as she sprinted towards it. They quickly jumped into action and pulled the doors open, then jumped aside as a spray of magical beams came from Cadence. Luna was already past them though, and ran into the aggravatingly empty throne room.

"Shit," Luna swore, sliding to a stop and turning back to face Cadence as she flew into the throne room. A shield popped up around her just in time to block another round of magical attacks that were much more accurate now she was no longer moving. "Cadence! Stop this!"

"You've killed my people!" Cadence screamed, punctuating each word with an ever stronger blast of magic.

"What? No I haven't!"

"How are they going to survive without us helping them?"

"I pretty sure that if they can survive Sombra's reign, they can survive having to forage for food! If anything, I'm sparing them from having to suffer through more fighting and loss!"

Cadence spun and bucked Luna's shield as hard as she could, surprising the mare inside as the shield cracked. Another buck cracked it further, and a third destroyed it completely. Cadence then threw herself at Luna, bowling her over and pinning her down as her horn blazed with the power to deliver a deadly strike.

"Why aren't you fighting back?" Cadence asked Luna, as the alicorn stared apprehensively up at her, silently awaiting the next strike.

"I would never harm a mother in front of their child," Luna said softly. "Nor do I actually wish to fight you Cadence. Believe me though, this would be going differently otherwise."

Cadence took her eyes off Luna, and looked back at Celestia, seeing Flurry hiding behind Celestia's mane, what little could be seen of her face awash with fear. The magic on her horn died as the fight was sucked out of her, and she released Luna to sag into a sitting position, her front legs barely keeping her high enough to stop her hitting her chin on the floor.

Luna got up and flexed her neck, her body already setting to work repairing the not unsubstantial damage Cadence had done to it. Luna was tempted to ask Cadence where she learnt to fight as such, but knew the mare was in no mood to field such questions. Instead she walked over to Celestia, and the foal hidden behind her mane, giving her a gentle smile.

"I'm sorry you had to see that little one," she said to Flurry. The little alicorn still seemed unsure, but slowly drifted over to Cadence who grabbed hold of her and cried into her mane, giving Luna the opportunity to grimace and lower herself to the floor as something went pop in her back.

"I think you don't realise something Cadence," Luna said after a minute. "Choosing to make Canterlot our last stand isn't something I chose lightly. Put simply, we do not have the strength to fight the Mareitanians on even terms. They could wipe out our forces, conquer Equestria, and destroy so much doing so, all in a matter of weeks. By that time we wouldn't have the strength to defend Canterlot, whereas right now we could hold the city for quite some time. Or so I hope. Time enough for Twilight to succeed, provided she is not distracted by further catastrophes."

"I thought you intended to make the Mareitanians pay for every inch of Equestria they took," Cadence said to Luna. "Were those not your words?"

"Yes, and foolishly so. Put simply, however we choose to fight now, Equestria has fallen. We cannot hope to hold the Mareitanians back, let alone remove them from our lands. There's little point in destroying our army trying and failing to do so."

"So we just sit here and wait?"

Luna nodded, "We do, but that's not to say we won't put up a fight. With the right strategy, Canterlot will prove difficult for them to capture."

"Unless they starve us out," said Celestia. "What shall we do in such a situation?"

"We surrender, because by then it should be very clear that Twilight isn't coming back."

Celestia closed her eyes and sighed, "This is a terrible idea Luna."

"It's the least terrible idea we have." Luna quirked the corner of her mouth up in a tiny smile, "Perhaps now would be a good time to pull Solaris out of retirement as a central heater?"

Celestia sighed at the idea. She'd sworn to never take her weapon back up, but in a situation so dire as this one, who was she to deny them any advantage? A great many ponies had taken up arms to defend Equestria, so why should she be any different?

"Perhaps it is," Celestia said softly.

"You can't be serious?" said Cadence, surprised that Celestia was willing to do such a thing.

"I am. We need to buy Twilight the time she needs, and I would be remiss if I didn't do my part." Celestia sighed again and turned to leave, Luna following her out. A moment later Cadence followed as well, her curiosity overriding her objections.
Celestia led them into the bowels of Canterlot Castle, to a place just above the dungeons. She stopped at a blank wall and studied it for a moment until she found the brick she wanted and pulled at it with her magic. The wall swung open, revealing a dark hallway beyond that the four alicorns entered into.

Barely a dozen meters into the hallway the temperature started to rise, but never seemed to rise above a certain point, even as they wound their way ever further along the winding path that lay between them and their destination, getting ever closer to the destination Celestia sought.

A final turn brought them into a small circular chamber, in the middle of which was a coil of pipes that occasionally leaked steam. A cylinder of shields lay around the pipes, powered by concentric rings of spell work that reached the outside of the chamber. Celestia lit her horn and dispelled the shields, the temperature jumping a couple of degrees with each one removed, until all but Celestia was sweating as she stood before the coil of pipes.

She lit her horn, lifting a mass of fire and white hot metal out of the coil. Luna grinned at the sight, but Celestia was remarkably, yet unsurprisingly sombre as the line of heat drifted towards her in her own magic. She touched a hoof to it, and the flames died, along with the heat, leaving an ornate golden spear behind, its wavy blade sat above an ornate sun similar to Celestia's cutie mark, appearing to shimmer with a heat that wasn't there.

"Hello Solaris," Celestia said to the spear, her voice quiet like she were attending a funeral. "Equestria needs you once more."


-0-0-0-


"I would not think you so out of practice," Luna said as Celestia waved Solaris like a foal pretending their stick was a sword. She slapped Solaris away as he swung closer, her borrowed sword ringing from the collision.

"It's been over a millennia, Luna," Celestia retorted, a hard edge in her voice. "Forgive me if I've grown a little rusty."

"The same way that you've grown out of your armour? Nay, I think not. Too much cake and complacency has ruined you."

Celestia ignited Solaris and cut through Luna's sword, sending its end tumbling away. Luna sighed softly and discarded the part she still held, picking up another near identical sword from a pile nearby.

"You're letting your anger at having to wield your weapon again get the best of you."

"You have no idea what this weapon means to me!"

"Plenty, seeing as how your Royal Guard still use golden spears in its honour." Luna stepped aside and parried a well advertised strike. "You see reminders of Solaris every day, so why act like you were desperate to forget it?"

"Because it was another way with which to remember you! Of the times we stood side by side against terrible odds, yet won the day by fighting together. I never wanted to forget Solaris, because that was tantamount to forgetting all that we fought for."

Luna didn't move as Celestia swung Solaris towards her, stopping with his point barely grazing her throat, a waft of heat tickling her chin. "Sometimes, I feel you are too hung up on the past Celestia. I know and understand why you put him aside, but I doubt you could ever forget one of the weapons that forged Equestria into what it is today."

"That's all you have to say about that?"

Luna batted Solaris away. "Don't misunderstand sister, I'm flattered, but your need of constant reminders of the past is baffling, especially when you let the biggest reminder of all fall to ruin in the Everfree forest."

Celestia snorted harshly, "Perhaps your memory of that night is different to mine, but I have no wish to remember your banishment."

"And yet you cannot forget it because you cling so needily to the past." Luna frowned as the tip of Solaris clattered to the ground.

"My memories were all I had of you Luna! My memories, and the image of a mare imprinted into the moon. Excuse me if I wanted things to remind me of our time together, even if some of that time was spent doing things I despise!"

Luna growled in irritation as half of another ruined sword clattered to the ground. "You need to watch yourself with that weapon Celestia. Even now I have no idea why you tied your emotions to it."

"No, it wasn't my best idea," Celestia sighed. "It was supposed to be a lesson in not letting your emotions dictate your actions, but all I ever did was hide my feelings behind a mask while setting fire to everything."

"I did used to look at what Solaris was doing to know what you were really thinking," Luna tittered. "You may as well have had a parrot on your shoulder squawking your every thought."

"You were always far harder to read," Celestia murmured.

"Yes, well, perhaps a little less of burying my emotions away might have done me good," Luna said quickly, sensing where that line of thought was going. "Perhaps we should take a break from this. I do still have to survey Canterlot's defences."

Celestia shrugged at Luna, "There's three ways into Canterlot. By road, by train, and by air. Two of those share the same route practically. All you need to do is stop them getting through the front gate, and Canterlot remains largely secure."

"Easier said than done, but don't think I hadn't surveyed Canterlot's defensiveness before now. I'm just wondering more about where to put the cannons."

"And Cloudsdale being here as well? How does that help?"

"You'll see," Luna said cryptically. "You'll see. In the meantime, I'm going to go survey the defences, and make ready for the future, may it be so long and prosperous."


-0-0-0-


"Luna!" 

Luna stopped on her way out of the castle at the sound of her name being shouted, and turned to find a small yellow filly running towards her.

"Ah, greetings filly!" Luna smiled as the filly jogged to a stop in front of her, but her smile soon shifted to amazement as she saw the large yellow wings at the filly's sides. "Goodness filly, your wings are recovered!"

"I know right? Just finished my last treatment today, apart from physio to strengthen them, and actually learning to fly, but yeah! Wings!"

"I'm very happy for you filly."

The filly nodded sadly, "I wish I could say that for everypony. I was about to go tell Fleur, but I doubt she'll care much. She's always too busy."

"Ah." Luna winced guiltily, "I'm afraid that might be more my fault than hers since I did place her in charge. Apologies."

"Nah, I get it. She was the best pony for the job."

Luna wasn't going to correct the filly by saying Fleur was the best pony for the job out of those still living after the bomb. She was pretty good yes, but... Luna had no idea where she was going with this.

"What're you doing anyway? Shouldn't you be off fighting?"

"Uh, things here required my attention," Luna lied, although she didn't feel particularly convincing. "I was about to get back to it, so if you'll excu-"

"Luna!"

Luna sighed as a different pony shouted her name this time, although she knew it was Fleur that had done it. "Yes Fleur?"

"I just got word from- Oh, hey Filly."

"Hey Fleur..."

"Anyway, I just got word from..." Fleur trailed off as Luna raised an eyebrow at her. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"Notice anything about the filly?"

"About Swift?" Fleur screwed her face up as she scrutinised the filly, then unscrewed it as she remembered something. "Wasn't today your last day of treatment?"

"Oh hooray!" the filly cheered mockingly. "She remembered!" The filly's expression went flat as Fleur blushed with embarrassment. "Seriously, she knows what ponies are doing halfway around the world, but can barely remember a thing about the ponies she lives with."

"I know Swift, and I'm sorry, but we have a bit of a  situation going on. Luna, I just spoke to Bon Bon, and she said that another four thousand soldiers have just been dispatched from Puddingarde, and are probably on their way to, well, here."

Luna cursed under her breath, but tried to hide the way her heart had sank a little lower. "I suppose that even with Bon Bon's team sabotaging them it was only a matter of time. Blast it." Luna tried to think of something, but couldn't. As far as she knew, not even Equis was aware of the new plan, so there wasn't much else to say without giving it away in full public. "Keep an eye on them as best you can."

"Of course Luna. Is there anything you need of me right now?"

Luna almost said no, but caught herself as she knew something nice needed to happen for the two ponies by her, before the really bad stuff happened.

"There is something actually. In lieu of recent news, I feel it only appropriate that you take a couple of hours off and go celebrate the good news with the filly."

"I- What?"

"You heard me."

"Yes, but I-" Fleur almost said that she didn't have time for that, and was immensely relieved she'd stopped herself. That didn't make it less true of course, but saying it in front of the filly was almost as bad as rejecting her.

"Consider it an order," Luna added, seeing the doubt Fleur was experiencing.

"As you wish Princess."

"Good. Now I really must away. Have fun you two." Her minor mission accomplished, Luna spread her wings and took flight, leaving Fleur alone with the filly.

"The overlook café?" Fleur suggested.

"You read my mind."


-0-0-0-


"I can't wait to see you up in that sky," Fleur said as she gazed up at the sky, her hooves supporting a well fed belly. "It's going to be amazing."

"And you're telling me this? For fuck sake Fleur, I've been waiting for this my entire life! I thought I'd never be able to fly, but here we are." The filly picked up her spoon and stuck it in her mouth, slowly sucking the ice cream off it as she thought. "I seriously owe Twilight big time for this."

"I don't think she's looking to collect. You know her, always happy to help."

"Not sure you can convincingly say happy, but she'd always willing to help at least. I wonder how she is? And Trixie."

"They're in Saddle Arabia, heading for the Circen Desert," Fleur told her. "Celestia received a letter from her the other day."

"And now you tell me! For fuck sake Fleur!"

"It may have slipped my mind a little," Fleur said sheepishly. "I have far too much stuff to remember these days. Far too much."

"Fine, although I would have enjoyed finding out what they were doing first hoof, if you know what I mean. I mean Saddle Arabia. Wow. I've only ever heard of that place thanks to that doctor from there. Amy, or whatever her name was."

"Amal."

"Right, her. I should probably learn it since she's doing my physio and stuff."

"That might help." Fleur bit her lip, "I guess you haven't heard about the attack on Saddle Arabia by someone called the Storm King?"

The filly sighed bitterly, "Something else I should have heard of from you?"

"Actually it was in the papers, so no, not really. What the papers don't know is that Twilight might have gotten a little involved."

"Hah! I bet she kicked ass!"

Fleur wilted a little, unsure of whether to say which side of events Twilight had been on. In the end she decided to say nothing. She was about to try and change the subject when the ponies around her caught her attention as they ran to the edge of the overlook.

"What's going on?" the filly asked, having noticed it herself.

"No idea, but it's probably something I should know about. Come on!"

Fleur squeezed herself through the throng of ponies, trying to get to the front. Frightened and panicked whispers spread through the crowd, and she tried to pick up on as much as she could, but only made out a few snippets that made little sense to her.

Eventually they reached the edge, and Fleur let the filly jump up onto her back so they could both see. They looked south, where everypony else was looking, towards Ponyville. A grey mass surrounded the south of the town, slowly filtering into it.

Fleur gasped as she worked out what she was looking at. The Mareitanians had reached Ponyville. Ponyville was under attack.
> 40. Where's my support?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Tavi! Tavi! Wake up!"

"I choose to not respond to 'Tavi' Vinyl," Octavia mumbled sleepily through the music book over her face. "You know that." Octavia jumped as a field of purple magic tore the book off her face, "Vinyl! What has gotten into you?"

"The fricking Mareitanians are here!"

"What?" Octavia jumped up and ran to the window, peering outside. She couldn't see anything. "Where?"

"Coming up from the south."

"The south? Does that mean the defences north of Las Pegasus have been overrun?"

"How the heck would I know? You know I don't understand you when you start talking all military." Vinyl stood still for a moment, looking around the room before returning her gaze to Octavia. "That said, any military know-how on getting out of this would be, y'know, great."

"Uh... um..." Octavia bit her lip, unsure of what to say as she'd never been on this end of an invasion, apart from the one time at Puddingarde, which was significantly different seeing as how they had a fortress, and Twilight. The fact that Ponyville was being invaded was already enough to throw her out, as it meant something in Equestria's defence had gone very wrong.

"Equestrian forces should be coming soon to repel the invaders," Octavia said after several seconds of 'umming' and 'ahhing.' "I don't think we really want to get caught in the battle, so we should get somewhere safe."

"Like where?"

"Like anywhere not in Ponyville."

"Sounds good," Vinyl said with a nod. "What about Summer?"

"She's still at the hospital. Damn it! We'll have to go get her. Come on!"

"Are you insane?" Vinyl yelled, holding the door shut with her magic before Octavia could so much as lay a hoof on it. "Going out there's probably the worst idea you could think of! Seriously."

Octavia rounded on Vinyl, walking up to her until they were face to face. "Vinyl Scratch, I am going out there, and I am going to get Summer. You can stay here if you want, but there is no way you're stopping me."

Vinyl let the magic on her horn fade, "You know you're kind of hot when you're being all authorative."

"Vinyl!"

"To Ponyville hospital! Away!"

"Celestia save me..." Octavia opened the door and left their shared house, giving her cello Sebastian a lingering look before leaving and letting Vinyl shut the door behind them. She had the strangest feeling she wouldn't be seeing or playing him again for a while. Just the thought of that was enough to start triggering her talent separation anxiety.

She put it to the back of her mind and peeked around the corner of the house, looking south towards the invading forces of the Mareitanians. They didn't seem to be rushing into the town thankfully, leaving them with a clear path to Ponyville hospital, which was nearly on the opposite of town from their house.

At least she'd hoped it would be a clear path. As was typical of Ponyville, news of the Mareitanians arrival was spreading fast, and ponies were taking what opportunity they could to mill around in uncertainty while they could, leaving the roads rather busy. Octavia and Vinyl raced through it all, dodging and weaving through it to reach the hospital as fast as they could.

The hospital wasn't much better though, as ponies panicked in the much more confined space. Some of the wounded from the battles that had taken place recently had ended up here as other hospitals were made increasingly overcrowded, and there were some ponies rapidly disposing of anything that might tie those ponies to the military, which Octavia thought that was a little silly since stab wounds were pretty telling, but rational thought was hard to come by as fear set in.

Octavia ran up to the reception desk, slamming to a halt with her hooves on the desk. "Where's Summer?" she asked tersely as the nurse behind it tried to maintain an air of serenity, when it was clear she wanted to bolt.

"Summer? She's over in recovery," the receptionist replied quickly, knowing full well who Octavia was, and why she was looking for Summer at this moment. "She's trying t-" she started to say, but Octavia was already gone, leaving Vinyl to grin apologetically before running after her friend.

The recovery ward was as busy as the rest of the hospital, where ponies were sent after operations. It was also where the Sparkle healing devices found the most use as ponies were healed up and released. Today was different, as most of the occupants were wounded soldiers who had no interest in being caught by the Mareitanians in bed. Nopony knew what the Mareitanians did with prisoners, and they were in no mood to find out.

"Summer!" Octavia shouted over the mass of ponies, trying to locate the blue pegasus. She spotted her at the far end of the room, fussing over a soldier that was struggling to get out of bed.

"You can't do this!" Summer whined at the mare in bed as Octavia squeezed her way over to her. "You're too badly hurt!"

"Their forces will be here soon, and I'm not going to say hello to them sitting down. If they're going to kill me, they're going to get a fight out of me first!"

Summer pushed the unicorn back down, and was shocked when a grey hoof joined hers. "Octavia?"

Octavia pointed at the stitched up gash going down the mare's side, "If you tear those stitches, the only thing you'll be fighting is for your life as you start to bleed out. Listen to the nurse."

"But-"

"No buts." Octavia sighed and eased her stance. "I understand that you're worried about the Mareitanians, but I very much doubt they'll kill you in your bed."

"And how would you know?"

"Because we taught them better than that," Octavia replied evenly, keeping the guilt out of her voice even though she doubted the mare would even know what she was talking about. "Believe me, they won't hurt you."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I do," Octavia replied, wishing the conversation to end, which she made happen by pulling Summer away from the mare.

"What are you doing Octavia? I have work to do!"

"Is anypony in danger of dying?"

"What? No-"

"Then it can wait. Summer, the Mareitanians are here in Ponyville, and I very much doubt that either of us are going to be treated very nicely if we're caught. We need to get out of here."

"But my patients need me!" Summer insisted. As far as she was concerned the Mareitanians were less of a danger to them than to the rest of the Ponyvillians, simple because of their past actions to aid Mareitania. Her bigger priority was to help these ponies, although she doubted Octavia would care.

"These are going to be the last patients you'll ever help if you get caught! We need to get out of here Summer." Octavia looked Summer in the eyes, finally making the pegasus stop. "I really don't want to find out what Faust would have in store for us if she gets her hooves on us."

"You really think it'd be that bad?"

Octavia nodded, "I do."

Summer bit her lip, glancing back and forth between Octavia and the patients in the room, fighting with herself over the decision. Slowly she was coming to the conclusion that Octavia might be right, and that the cost of staying might be too high by far for the both of them.

"Alright, but we'll need to find Nightglider first. I'm not leaving her to get captured."

"Absolutely," Octavia said with relief. "She's bound to be flying though, so you'll have to go find her yourself." Octavia glanced back over her shoulder at Vinyl, then gestured at Summer. "Come on, we better get moving.

Octavia accepted no arguments over who was leading the way out of the hospital, as she politely barged her way out of the recovery room, with aims to barge her way out of the hospital. She'd barely made it halfway when a wail of despair brought her to a stop, her ears swivelling towards the source of the noise. She followed it to Nurse Redheart as the white mare tried to reason with a balled up pegasus in the corner of a hallway as she cried her eyes out.

"What's going on?" Octavia asked, recognising the pegasus as Flitter, who she supposed had a genuine reason to be acting like this over the Mareitanians invading Ponyville.

"She won't move!" Redheart said in answer, her frustrations boiling over. "I can't touch her either, because she hates being touched, and I don't know what to do!"

"Allow me," Vinyl said, swaggering up to Flitter's side, flexing her neck.

"Vinyl, I really don't think-" Octavia began to say, but gave up as Vinyl picked Flitter up in her magic and shook her until Flitter gave Vinyl her full attention.

"Flitter, we are getting the hell out of Ponyville. If you want to come with us, just nod." Vinyl grinned as Flitter started to nod after taking a moment to recover from the shaking. "Sweet, good choice. Let's go Tavi!"

Octavia opened her mouth, then shut it and shrugged, unwilling to argue with results. She took the lead again, and had barely made it two steps when Redheart grabbed onto her.

"Take me with you!"

"Uh, really?"

"Yes really! I don't want to be caught by the Mareitanians, not when I'm bound to be recognised by some of them. Celestia knows I had enough unwanted attention off those brutes when we were on the same side, let alone opposite sides!"

"Alright then," said Octavia, not arguing. "Can you lead us out of the back though? I don't want to create a panic here if ponies see you leaving."

"Of course, follow me."


-0-0-0-


As they stepped out into the open, being careful to stay in the shade offered by the hospital, Octavia had to remark that it was quiet. Rather than aggressively taking over Ponyville, the Mareitanians seemed to be segueing into it with no resistance at all. Even now there were no pegasi swooping through the air to drive the invaders off, or the dull boom of shields being struck, or anything to indicate that somepony objected to the Mareitanians being there.

"Are we sure it's even the Mareitanians?" Redheart asked as Octavia made her observations known. She pulled her nurse's cap off and threw it away, hoping it would make her slightly less recognisable. "What if it's ponies from our side again?"

"They're definitely Mareitanians," Octavia said as she peered around the edge of the hospital towards the town centre. "Their uniforms are all grey, while only some of our air forces wear grey."

"Oh. Damn."

"Damn indeed." Octavia's breath caught in her chest, and for a moment her hooves trembled, unnoticed thankfully by all but herself. She took a deep breath, and centred herself until it passed. It didn't, and eventually she gave up. "Summer, you need to go find Nightglider."

"Um, okay, she's probably at Sugar Cube Corner with Sugar Belle at this time of day."

"But that's in the town centre," Vinyl pointed out. "The Mareitanians are probably all over that."

"I don't care, I have to get her!" Summer spread her wings and took off before any of then could stop her, darting towards the town centre. 

"Summer!" Octavia shouted after the pegasus, but she didn't stop or slow down. "Shit! She'll get caught if she goes there." Octavia stomped her hooves in frustration, then turned to the ponies with her. Vinyl was watching the Mareitanians, Redheart was comforting Flitter, and Flitter was... incapacitated, to put it mildly.

Vinyl squinted into the distance, then raised her shades to place them over her horn. "Hey Tavi, who's that big white chick with the Mareitanians?" she asked as Octavia had her back to her.

"What!?" Octavia quickly spun to see what Vinyl saw, peeking around the edge of the building, although what she saw was no comfort. Faust was walking into town, her head held high as she paced sedately between two rows of her soldiers. "Oh this is not good."

"Not good? Who is that?"

"That's Faust, Vinyl." Octavia winced at the squeal of fear that name brought out of Flitter. "As you can imagine, her being here can only be bad news."

"But why here?" Vinyl asked. "Ponyville's got nothing she'd want, surely?" She followed Octavia's hoof as it pointed up at Twilight's crystalline castle in the north west of the town. "Oh... yeah, I suppose that might be something she'd want. Possibly."

"That doesn't help us though," said Redheart. "We need to get out of here! Maybe we should head for Canterlot."

"Not without Summer," Octavia said firmly. She paused as she realised that sounded like she was involving all of them in that. "I mean, I'm not going anywhere without her. The rest of you should probably get out of here while you still can."

Vinyl grinned at Octavia, "Not without you, buddy."

"Summer's my friend too," said Redheart. "I won't leave her to the Mareitanians."

"You're leaving everypony else you know behind in the hospital," Vinyl pointed out.

"Only because the Mareitanians don't know them! They know us, and they definitely know Summer and Octavia. It wouldn't surprise me if Faust wants them specifically."

"You won't... want that to happen," Flitter whimpered between heavy breaths. "We should go get her."

"You as well?" Redheart asked Flitter, getting a small nod from the pegasus. "I guess we're all in then."

"Actually, it'd be easier if I went on my own..."

"Shut up Tavi, we're coming with you, like it or not."

"Apparently I better like it then." Octavia ran around the corner of the hospital, running for the cover of the nearest houses, cursing that Ponyville had to be so spread out. The wide open spaces around the outskirts of the town weren't exactly the best for hiding, and would prove to be deadly if they had to make a break for it.

Closer to the middle of town was better though, although it was safe to think otherwise with the large number of Mareitanians occupying it. Octavia kept to the back streets as best she could, but was given a small advantage in that she knew her way around, while the Mareitanians didn't. It was also an advantage that most of the towns ponies were standing around trying to see what was happening. That kept the soldiers distracted enough from spotting ponies in the back streets.

"Ponies of Ponyville."

Octavia froze as those words filled her ears, like they were being projected directly to them, rather than mess around with silly things like distance and physics.

"I am Faust, leader of Mareitania. I have come before you today to hear you rejoice that you have been liberated from the false rulers of this land."

"Agh, why is my horn so itchy?" Vinyl complained, rubbing her horn viciously with a hoof. Beside her, Flitter's wings were shaking, although it wasn't hard to surmise that might be due to her hearing Faust's voice again, rather than anything else. Her eyes being squeezed tightly shut lent credence to that idea.

"She must be trying to project her magic through her voice," Octavia theorised. "She must be trying to control us."

"Let's hope those crystal implants are as good as advertised then," said Redheart.

"No more will you be required to bow and scrape to the princesses that have done nothing to deserve your adoration. Instead I invite you to live in a world of true Harmony."

"This is bullshit," Vinyl muttered.

"Of course, I do realise that I have been painted as the villain in all this, and that you will no doubt be displeased about this at first. In that case I offer you a deal. Accept the occupation of your town without resisting, and your lives may continue in relative normality. Resist, and you will find things far less to your liking. Now, where is your leader, so that I may speak with her?"

Octavia ushered the ponies with her on as Mayor Mare walked out in front of Faust, nervously adjusting her glasses. "I-I'm the chosen representative of Ponyville. I speak for the ponies here."

"Very well. Do you wholly surrender the entirety of Ponyville to me?"

"T-that's not my decision to make. Only the princesses could authorise the total surrender of territory to a hostile force."

Faust nodded at the Mayor, a sad smile on her face. "I'm sorry to hear that. Could I not convince you to reconsider?"

"I'm sorry, but that's not something I can really do."

Faust sighed, like what she was hearing wearied her with its inconvenience. "In that case we shall have to claim this 'territory' by conquest then. We shall do our best to make this process as painless as possible." Faust took a step back and gestured to her ponies, "Proceed."

The soldiers all dropped their weapons into a more aggressive stance, forcing the Ponyvillians to back off nervously as a pony Octavia didn't recognise raised a bullhorn to his mouth.

"Return to your homes and you shall not be harmed. You have five minutes to comply. After that time you will be forcibly detained and kept secure until such a time we deem you safe for release. Again, you have five minutes to return home, I suggest you do so." The pony lowered the bullhorn, shrugged, then raised it again. "Thank you, and have a nice day."

The crowd quickly dispersed as ponies sought to fulfil his order, not one of them wanting to test if what he'd said was true. Octavia was forced to wait a minute until she could see where Summer might be, spotting the pegasus along with four others standing outside Sugar Cube Corner.

"All of you stay here," Octavia said to the ponies with her. "I'm going to grab Summer, Nightglider, and her friends, then we'll make a break for Canterlot. Of course, feel free to stop being stubborn and get going without me."

"Not a chance," said Vinyl. "Last time I left you alone for too long you helped overthrow a country."

"Oh how I wish I hadn't," Octavia muttered. "Back in a tick."

Using the confusion as cover, Octavia galloped for Sugar Cube Corner as fast as she dared, then skirted around its edges until she could dive in through the front door. There weren't many ponies in there now, most having chosen to wait out what came next in their own homes, making it a lot easier to find Summer and the rest of them.

"Summer, what are you doing? We need to get moving!"

"But you heard the pony Octavia. If we're caught out there we'll be detained until they think we're not a danger. Who knows how long that could be?"

Octavia sighed at Summer. "Really?" she said flatly. "The idea of getting out of here was to not get caught at all. If we're quick, we can all be out of here before that five minutes is up. Do the rest of you want to get out of here?"

"You bet I do," said Nightglider. "We've spent enough time being controlled by crazy ponies to not want to do it again." Behind her, Double Diamond, Party Favour, and Sugar Belle nodded.

"I think the ayes have it," said Octavia. "We better get moving."

The town centre was mostly empty by the time they left, with only soldiers remaining as they prepared to spread out into the town. Octavia led them back to where Vinyl and the others were waiting, finding them in exactly the same place she'd left them.

"Let's go," Octavia curtly said to them, not wasting breath. She started running north, taking note that plenty of the soldiers had spread out into town, forcing them to be cautious in their movements, not that nine ponies moving at speed weren't very noticeable. They stuck to the gaps between buildings as best they could, but as the minutes passed, it became clear they weren't going to make it out before the five minutes were up.

Octavia skidded to a halt as they were about to run out into the clear as they reached the outskirts of town. They'd just missed Faust walking past with a small group of soldiers, walking serenely through the town like she were on a vacation enjoying the sights. That changed when Octavia involuntarily yelped upon seeing her, but scrambled back before being spotted.

"Who's there?" Faust asked, gesturing with a hoof to her guards. Octavia quickly ushered everypony back as the soldiers got closer, hiding them around the corner in the hopes they wouldn't go too far from Faust. There was just the small issue of Flitter, who burst into tears as the soldiers came closer, threatening to give them away.

Not wanting to speak, Octavia tried to put her hoof over Flitter's mouth, but was surprised as Flitter squeaked and smacked her hoof away, only adding to the noise. Octavia glanced back, waving for her companions to squeeze in closer to the buildings. 

Flitter didn't move, not even when coaxed by Redheart. Octavia could see that she'd jammed up, too consumed by her own terror to actively avoid that which she feared. Octavia bit her lip for a second, then grabbed onto Flitter, wrapping a leg around her mouth and dragging her into cover using her superior strength. Flitter fought every second that Octavia held onto her, and bit down hard on Octavia's leg, forcing her to scream silently from the pain, her mouth open even though no sound came out.

"There's nothing here. Come on, let's get back to the Lady."

A collective sigh went up from most of the group as the soldiers stopped searching, and Octavia waited a few seconds before kicking Flitter off her and clutched her leg to her chest, fighting to stay silent from the pain as blood dribbled from the bite. Flitter sat with her eyes squeezed shut, tears running down her cheeks, but she was at least silent.

"Somepony go see where Faust is," Octavia hissed as Redheart checked the wound.

"On it," said Vinyl, keeping low as she crept back towards the road. She returned soon after, her stance less cautious. "She's heading west, towards the castle."

"Then it's now or never." Octavia shooed Redheart away and stood, keeping her now injured leg tucked up against her chest. She wanted to curse at Flitter, but knew well enough it would only serve to make things worse. Instead she stood in front of Flitter, waiting for the pegasus to look at her. "Are you still with us?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to d-"

"Not what I'm after. Are you still with us?" Octavia smiled as Flitter nodded shakily. "Good, let's get out of here."

Octavia took the lead again, poking her head out between the two buildings they were hiding behind, then moving back to the road. Faust had indeed moved on, but that would mean nothing as the soldiers spread through the town. The five minutes they were given had probably passed, leaving them a very narrow window in which to escape.

Octavia limped as fast as she could, the others all keeping pace with her as she led the way to the north east, all too slowly moving through the outskirts to the open hills before where they could hopefully move unnoticed by Faust and her soldiers.

The last few houses passed by and they ran into the open grassland, putting on a burst of speed as they got away, for all of a minute before six griffons landed hard in front of them, blocking their path and forcing them to stop.

"And where exactly do you all think you're going?" one of the griffons said, stepping forwards from the others.

"Nowhere, apparently," Octavia grumbled back. She knew there was no chance of fighting the griffons off, and didn't even try to suggest doing so against opponents that had weapons, and could easily beat them for speed if they tried to run.

"There's a clever pony," the griffon said condescendingly, giving Octavia a nasty grin. "Now you all come quietly, and no one will get hurt. I'm sure Lady Faust will be very interested in finding out you were trying to escape."

Octavia sighed hard, annoyed at having their escape ruined just as they on the cusp of victory. Now they were to be taken to the one pony they had desperately sought to avoid. Octavia could only wish that she felt more surprised as the griffons forced them to start walking towards Twilight's castle.


-0-0-0-


"Found some little runaways for you my Lady."

Octavia cocked her head a little as Faust ignored the griffon, choosing instead to continue glaring up at towering edifice of the crystalline castle before her as it resolutely refused to open up to her.

"My Lady?"

Faust sighed and turned to face the griffon speaking. "Commander Theron, I thought you were escorting our forces through the north? It appears to me that is not what is happening."

"My griffons, and the Golden Claws, are doing as you asked. I thought I'd come to tell you in person that they are almost to Manehattan."

Faust nodded slowly, "Good, good. Of course, now that you're here in person, perhaps you can explain to me your actions at the peace rally? I don't recall asking you to kill any ponies that so happened to be there."

"You wanted a distraction to pull the fliers away from their defences. I gave you one."

"You killed innocent ponies," Faust said harshly. "I didn't realise I had to make it clear to you that such a thing shouldn't happen."

"I had to make it convincing, my Lady. If they didn't believe us to be a genuine threat to the ponies there, they might not have sent all of their pegasi to stop us."

"Because the three thousand griffons there weren't enough of a distraction. No," Faust said as Theron opened his beak to defend himself further. "I don't wish to hear it. In future I will make my instructions far more concise to you concerning not ending innocent lives for no reason! Return to your forces, and get out of my sight!"

"At once, my Lady," Theron replied, but there was an undeniable edge to his voice suggesting that not all was well in the relationship between Faust and the griffons.

"That griffon is becoming more of a liability than I ever thought possible," Faust muttered as Theron flew away, turning her attention to the nine ponies held captive there. "I know you," she said, her eyes landing on Octavia. "And you," she added, moving onto Summer. She also glanced briefly at Flitter as she trembled and stared at the ground, but showed no interest beyond a roll of her eyes. "You're two of the ponies that helped overthrow the Duke. You're two of the ponies that was there when Twilight Sparkle cut off my horn."

Octavia resolutely stared up at Faust, making the alicorn wait for an answer. She was rather pleased at the frustration visibly building on Faust's face.

"Speak!"

"What would you like me to say?"

"Are you, or are you not two of the ponies that helped overthrow the Duke, and are you not Twilight Sparkle's friends?"

"We are."

"Good." Faust turned and gestured at the castle, "Perhaps then you could tell me why this castle refuses me entry?"

"Because it doesn't want to let you in most likely," Octavia answered slowly.

"This is a construct of the Tree of Harmony," Faust growled. "It should answer to me!"

"Clearly the tree doesn't agree. Twilight likely sealed the castle up upon her departure, and is probably the only pony that can open it. You'll have to wait for her to return." 

Faust turned an unpleasant smile onto Octavia, "So you know that she's gone. That means you likely know where. Tell me, now."

Octavia cursed inwardly, but otherwise maintained her disinterested appearance. "I'm afraid I don't actually know where she is now. All I know is that it's not anywhere in Equestria."

Faust squinted at Octavia, then relaxed a little. "You are being honest about that at least. But I get the feeling you know where she's heading. Tell me, or all your companions here shall suffer for your defiance."

Octavia knew she was stuck the moment Faust said that. There was no way she could let these ponies suffer, but she knew that telling Faust wasn't something she should do. All she could hope to do was lie, and hope Faust bought it.

"She was heading north, to the frozen lands beyond the Crystal Emp-"

"You're lying."

"You didn't even let me finish!"

"I don't need to." Faust nodded at Summer, "Break one of her wings."

"Wait!" Octavia shouted before any of the soldiers so much as moved a muscle. "Starswirl the Bearded's secret retreat! That's what they're looking for! I can't tell you where it is because I don't know! Nopony does!"

"Then how does Twilight Sparkle hope to find it?"

"She thinks there's some kind of portal to it, but she doesn't know where. If she can find that, she can find the retreat. That's all I know, I swear!" Octavia flattened her ears and looked away under the intense weight of Faust's gaze, and couldn't help gasping with relief as it was taken off her.

"Very well, I believe you. You must care deeply for the pegasus to betray Twilight Sparkle's trust for her."

"You know what she suffered in Mareitania. She's suffered enough."

"Indeed," Faust muttered darkly. "Soldiers, take the rest of these ponies away. I wish to converse with Octavia and Summer alone."

The three of them waited as the soldiers left with the other ponies, leaving Octavia and Summer alone with Faust. Both of them wondered what she could possibly want with them, and both of them shared a nervous look with each other.

"Do you really think you know what suffering is?" Faust said once they were alone. "I've endured over a dozen lifetimes of suffering, had a child I desired taken from me, and was then forced to bear the diseased offspring of a creature like Sombra. Your understanding of suffering doesn't even compare."

"So Summer's life as a plaything for ponies doesn't even figure in your view of things?" Octavia snorted at Faust, "Some ponies might think their god lacks sympathy to hear such things from you."

"And some would cut your tongue out for your blasphemy," Faust returned. "I'm not saying that Summer hasn't suffered, for which she has my sympathy, but lets say my view of it is... different to yours."

"And yet now you spread suffering around with a shovel, where I should think you would avoid afflicting it on others."

"It is only temporary, and wholly unnecessary. You can thank your beloved princesses for forcing me into the position where I am forced to invade your country."

"You despise Luna, and wish to inflict a worse fate on her than you suffered yourself. I don't even know what you intend for the other princesses. We both know what you want at the end of the day, Faust, so why pretend that what you're doing is righteous? Why pretend that we're wrong to stop you doing that?"

"Because you stand in the way of something better. All of you cling onto your rulers, and your familiar institutions, afraid that the world you know will be torn out from under you. What if I told you I could replace it with something better? A world that is as it should be?"

Octavia could feel the belief Faust had in herself as she spoke. If there was anything worse than a pony with a god complex, it was one with the power to make her vision a reality. "Better than the centuries of peace and prosperity that we enjoyed before you came along? I doubt that. This is all about revenge on Platinum for what she did to you. Nothing more."

"And why can it not be both?"

Octavia didn't have an answer she could give. Not because it couldn't be both, but because she very much doubted that Faust's plans had any real benefit for anypony but herself. Summer didn't seem to have anything she wanted to say either, leaving them both in the position that Faust probably thought they agreed with her.

"I want to show you something," Faust said after a few moments. She bowed her head, magic building up on her horn until it flashed, blinding them for a second. When they could see again, they saw they'd teleported to a cave that glittered with light from a large crystal tree. "Behold the Tree of Harmon- Wait..."

Both of them turned to look at the tree as Faust marched up to it, and continued to watch as she viciously rubbed a hoof over the moon symbol on its crystalline trunk, followed by the sun. Faust was becoming increasingly frustrated as neither symbol moved. She tried to pry the star shaped Element from the middle, but again she was denied.

"Is something wrong?" Octavia asked politely, hiding how pleased she felt about Faust's reaction to what she saw.

"I don't understand..." Faust said quietly. "Why would the Tree do this? This is not how I made it!"

"You made it to support harmony, yes? Perhaps it knows what harmony is better than you do?" Octavia jumped back as Faust spun around and fired her magic, scoring a line in the ground in front of Octavia's hooves. She then turned back to the tree and fired her magic again, but was frustrated as the Elements glowed, forming a rainbow coloured shield around the Tree, protecting it from Faust's fury.

"You dare defy me? I created you! I tell you what you are! ME!"

Octavia shrugged at Summer, twisting a hoof in a circular motion next to her head, indicating that Faust was not only a few apples short of a bushel, but also an apple tree short of filling it. She stopped as Faust started to laugh.

"I suppose every child is allowed their rebellion, just as every child knows they still answer to their parent. You might have stopped me destroying you, but you wouldn't dare make a move to stop me."

"She's talking to a tree," Summer pointed out in a whisper.

"It is a magic tree to be fair." Octavia smiled politely as Faust turned her back on the tree. "So what is it you wished to show us?" she asked Faust.

"What I wanted to show you doesn't matter. What you've seen is more than enough. The Tree of Harmony, the great hope of the ponies of Equestria, can, and will, do nothing to stop me. It knows I'm right."

"Or it's biding its time," said Summer.

"Hah, let it. There's nothing it can do to me."

Octavia couldn't even begin to guess what was going on. Was Faust trying to prove a point by dragging them here? If she was she wasn't making that point very clear. "I don't mean to be rude Faust, but was there a purpose to us coming here? We already know the Tree was here. Twilight showed us once."

"I want you to know that it's hopeless to oppose me, and that you all yourselves a disservice by attempting to do so. I don't know what Twilight Sparkle hopes to find at my beloved's retreat, but I can assure it won't help."

"And why is that?"

"Because why would Starswirl create something capable of destroying the pony he loved? Believe me when I say he wouldn't. The hope you're clinging to is wasted, and you would be far better off accepting the fact that there's nothing that can be done to stop me. Not Twilight Sparkle, not your princesses, and not the Tree."

"All tyrants fall at some point," said Summer.

"Not all tyrants are me."

Octavia couldn't save herself from cracking a smile at Faust's expense. "So you don't actually deny being a tyrant?"

"A tyrant is just a position of rule," Faust said dismissively. "I could declare myself a princess if I so wish, but why waste the effort when all titles shall be irrelevant one day."


-0-0-0-


Faust had returned them to Ponyville, and left them in the care of her soldiers, having said her piece to them. During that time, nothing had changed. There was no way that the invasion of Ponyville had gone unnoticed, so all they could assume was that nopony was coming to save them.

There were plus sides though. Ponyville wasn't getting destroyed, which was always a bonus, and nopony was dying which was again, also a bonus. All they had to put up with was the fact that Ponyville was being rapidly turned into a prison camp as tall wire fences were quickly erected to contain those ponies that had failed to make it back to their homes in time.

Among those was a small, cream coloured pegasus filly that had gotten separated from her parents at some point. Octavia vaguely recognised her as being called Zipporwhill, but beyond that she knew nothing of the filly, other than there was no conceivable way she was a danger to the soldiers.

Vinyl had taken it upon herself to keep Zipporwhill entertained, leaving Octavia to stare forlornly out at the village, making her amongst the first to notice a trio of ponies of varying sizes being led towards the enclosure, one big and red, another elderly and green, and the third small and yellow.

"Why are they bringing the Apple's here?" Redheart asked, having seen what Octavia had. "Is this something to do with Applejack?"

"I guess so," Octavia replied, spotting Sugar Belle rush towards the entrance as Big Mac approached, grabbing hold of him as soon as he was inside the enclosure. "It's not just the Apple's though," she added, nodding towards where Sweetie Belle was being escorted towards them along with her parents.

"Are those the families of the bearers?"

"They are." Octavia looked over towards Flitter, who was watching the proceedings with wary yet tearful eyes, her posture barely keeping her off the ground. "How much did you tell Faust?" Flitter looked away, and sank even lower.

"Did you learn anything useful from Faust at least?" Redheart asked a few minutes later as Scootaloo was escorted to the enclosure with her two aunts.

"Only that being your own sounding board for over a thousand years is a really terrible idea. Not only is she convinced she's right, but she's supremely confident that she can't fail. The worrying part is that I don't know how true that part is."

"You said Princess Twilight's looking for a way to stop her."

"She is, but that doesn't mean she'll succeed."

"She will," Redheart said confidently. "I have faith in her."

"I'm afraid faith doesn't make her able to find something that doesn't exist. I don't want to say we should start preparing for a life under Faust's rule, but that might be the reality we're facing." Octavia winced at her own words, ashamed that she was preparing herself for Twilight failing. When did her faith in Twilight fall so low? Or did Faust's words actually get to her.

"She didn't let us down in Mareitania, and she won't let us down now."

Octavia wanted to question just how much Redheart had seen of Twilight during the civil war in Mareitania, but her words turned to dust in her mouth. She just didn't have the energy to expend on being so negative right then, especially when Redheart wasn't entirely wrong. Twilight had seen them through that war, and she could see them through this one. Of course that still left them with the big question of where the Equestrian army was, and why they weren't doing anything to stop the Mareitanians.

"I don't know," Octavia sighed. "I think for now we should prepare ourselves for a long stay in captivity."


-0-0-0-


Fleur pounded through Canterlot Castle, driven by a red hot rage that demanded she punch Luna in her stupid fat mouth. How the hell was Ponyville being occupied, and why the hell was nothing being done about it? Then there was the fact that the majority of Equestria's forces were pulling back to Canterlot with the goal of fortifying it. What had happened in the last twenty four hours to cause this sudden shift in tactics, and why didn't she know about it until just now?

Fleur slammed her hooves against the throne room doors, trying and failing to push them open before the guards could. She then fumed impatiently as the guards ponderously swung the doors open, and galloped up to the thrones where only Celestia was sat.

"Where's Luna?"

"I'm not sure right now," Celestia said patiently. "Is there something I could help you with instead?"

"Only if you know why Ponyville's been occupied by Mareitanians? And why we're just letting it happen?"

"After the attack on the peace rally, Luna felt a drastic shift in our tactics was necessary. Basically, we can't face Faust's army on three different fronts and hope to even slow her down significantly. We needed a new plan that hopefully spared us the catastrophic loss of life and destruction the previous plan would cause."

"So... what? The new plan is to fortify Canterlot?"

"Luna feels that locking Faust in a stalemate here in Canterlot would keep Faust occupied far longer than throwing ourselves at her forces, trying and failing to hold onto territory we couldn't hope to hold." Celestia smiled morosely at Fleur, "I'm afraid I agree with that assessment."

"So we're just leaving everything else to be taken by Faust?"

"That is correct."

"That's insane!"

"I know how it sounds, but we are only here to buy time for Twilight, remember? It's how long we can keep Faust occupied that matters here, not how we do it."

"But- But... what am I supposed to do in a siege? How am I supposed to help you if I can't even see outside of Canterlot?"

"That is for you to decide Fleur. I wish I could give you more to go on, but I'm afraid I have nothing to give. I'm sorry."

Fleur stood still for a moment, trying to work things out. She still wanted to punch Luna in the face, but she could at least understand what Luna was aiming to do. They'd already lost the intelligence war against the Mareitanians, more or less, and had just lost the war for the skies, so it only stood to reason that they lose everything else as well.

"Twilight better get her fat plot moving if she's going to pull us out of this fire," Fleur grumbled.

"Excuse me?"

"Uh..." Fleur grinned apologetically, "Sorry, that was... sorry. I need to go make some preparations." Fleur offered Celestia a quick curtsey, then turned and ran from the throne room to her office. Celia was already there, waiting with a worried expression on her face. 

"Fleur! Have you heard?"

"I've heard plenty. Have we managed to make contact with the griffons?"

Celia blinked at the question, having not been expecting one like it, but she recovered quickly. "Not yet, but we're still trying. Without Ambassador Deetra, it's not as easy as it used to be."

"I know, that's why we need a new plan. Go find me Sonny and Derreck, and bring them here. I have a job for the both of them that they're rather well qualified for."

"Of course."

Fleur sat down as Celia left, and pulled open the drawer where she kept the speaker stones she used to stay in contact with Bon Bon and her team. She picked it up and placed it on the desk in front of her, trying to think of what to do.
Fleur suspected there was only two ways this would end now. Either Twilight would return with that magical maguffin they needed to end this, or Equestria would fall. The problem was that Fleur thought Luna was being woefully optimistic if she thought they could hold the Mareitanians off for long. The Bulwark had been built to hold the Mareitanians back for as long as possible, but had barely lasted two days before the Mareitanians had made it through, and that was without the surprise attack on the Crystal Empire. Faust could probably crack Canterlot open in a fortnight at most, and a few days at the least.

There was no proper plan for what to do if Equestria lost, because nopony dared to countenance such a possibility. Fleur didn't know what to do either, but she knew that between Saddle Arabia's problems, and those in the Griffon Empire, the world was less ready than it needed to be. Mustangia was likely to fall with Equestria, meaning the only countries in contact with Equestria, and without any interfering issues were Zebrica and Minos, neither of which was really ideal to put any hopes in. Zebrica had no official military other than what warriors were needed at any time, and the minotaurs of Minos were deeply isolationist.

"This is impossible. I don't even know what I'm trying to do right now."

There was a knock at the door, and Fleur said to enter, sighing wearily as the two griffons, Sonny and Derreck, entered her office. 

"You wanted to see us?"

"I do." Fleur searched her desk until she found the piece of paper containing the conversation between Commander Theron and the Golden Claws' leader in Appleloosa. "I need you to get this into the claws of Griffon Intelligence."

"Really? How does doing that help us?"

"It might not, but with Equestria in such dire straits, forging a bit of good will with Griffonia might help considerably in the future. Get this to them, and tell them all we know about Commander Theron, Griffonstone, and what they could possibly be planning."

"Alright, and after we do that?"

"Stay in the Eyrie, if they'll let you, or return to Griffonstone if you can't. I hate to say it, but Luna's new plan has effectively crippled our ability to operate outside of Canterlot, and there's not exactly a lot to learn about this place. You'll be better off staying out of it."

"Oh." Sonny looked over to Derreck, who slowly shrugged back. "As you wish ma'am. We'll be ready when you need us."

Fleur smiled appreciatively at the two griffons, "Glad to hear it. Sonny, Derreck, it's been a pleasure."

"You too ma'am," Derreck said back.

"Good luck." Fleur held her smile until the griffons were gone, then let it drop with a sigh. She swept the stone back into the drawer and groaned as her thoughts went nowhere. "I'm going to have to think about this a little longer."
> 41. Abandonment issues
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manehattan was none the wiser as to what was going to happen to it. A few ponies had been made aware, certainly, and Captain Greywhisker was in the process of briefing the Mayor, but other than that it was life as normal. Truth was that they were only minutes away from a reminder that life was far from normal, and likely wouldn't be for a long time.

Rainbow wasn't sure which part of doing this that pissed her off more. That it had come to this, having to sabotage anything useful that Faust could use against them, or that the ponies of Manehattan had no idea about any of it. So long as the papers and milk turned up the next morning, who really cared?

She pushed the thought away as being unfair. They were being left to the mercy of the Mareitanians, all in the name of some misplaced greater good, and they would soon be aware of their predicament. The first warning would be a press announcement. The second would be the destruction of various production facilities around the city, and the third would probably be a vanguard of griffons. The problem was that any of those events could happen before the others.

"How's it going Rainbow?" Lightning asked, a slight, sullen edge to her words. Considering what happened over the last twenty-four hours, it wasn't hard to imagine why.

"I'll be done in five," Rainbow replied, connecting a wire up to a bundle of other wires. Their squadron, or all nine surviving members of it, had been given the dubious honour of destroying the factory that produced their armour. Considering it had just been rebuilt after the bombing that occurred during Celestia's visit, it felt cruel to destroy it like this.

"Okay. Our scouts report that the Mareitanians are only twenty miles out, so we'll have an hour before the main bulk of their forces get here."

"You're about to say there might be griffons, aren't you?"

"Eehhh..." Lightning levelled a hoof, "There's a distinct possibility that there might be griffons, yes. We're aiming to at least be on the way out of here before they arrive, so five minutes is all you have."

"I'll be done in four."

"Aim for three."

"Got it." Rainbow started working as fast as she dared. In other circumstances she'd insist on doing it all in ten seconds flat, but there was something about working with high explosives that encouraged her towards caution.

The other members of her squadron were working similarly quick, racing around the open spaces the factory offered to complete their task. The factory had been evacuated before they began, so at the very least they didn't have to worry about anypony getting hurt in the blast.

Rainbow stepped back a few steps to inspect her work, and nodded with half baked satisfaction that it all seemed to be in order. It also came as no surprise to her that she was the first to finish, so to speed things up she sought out the pony most behind to help. Much to her everlasting lack of surprise it was Vapor who was the most behind, although she couldn't really blame the mare, even if she was endangering their task.

"Hey," Rainbow said gently, flying over to Vapor. "You want some help?"

Vapor hurriedly rubbed some tears away, "Sorry, what was that? I-um, might have been a bit distracted."

"I asked if you want some help."

"Oh." Vapor stared at the bundle of wires in front of her and sighed at the mess she'd made of them. "Yes please."

Rainbow eased Vapor aside and took a moment to stare in confusion at the mess Vapor had made, then started to untangle it and do it correctly. She wanted to joke about how much of a mess it was, but knew well enough to keep her mouth shut around Vapor right now.

"Aren't you going to ask me if I'm alright?"

"Uh..." Rainbow turned to look Vapor in her watery eyes. "No offense, but I don't need a degree in psychology to tell that you're far from alright."

"It won't stop hurting. I loved him Rainbow, and now he's just... gone." Vapor sniffed and rubbed her eyes again, only to choke into more tears. "I never got to tell him how I felt."

Rainbow wanted to say it was pretty obvious, but Sky was denser than a diamond to not pick up on it. Instead she hummed a little affirmative, most of her thoughts going towards sorting the explosives out.

"Why would those griffons do that? It was supposed to be peaceful! Instead they killed all those ponies, and they killed my Sky!"

"I know."

"Well I'm going to kill as many of them as I can."

"Sounds like a pla-" Rainbow stopped as she figured out what Vapor had just said, really not expecting to hear such a thing from her. "What? You don't mean all griffons do you? Just the ones attacking us, right?"

"Are you telling me you don't hate griffons?" Vapor asked, shocked at Rainbow for not sharing her opinion. "After they've killed so many of us?"

"That's not fair Vapor. There's a lot more griffons that haven't done a thing to hurt us, compared to the amount that have. I'm not saying the griffons are a pleasant bunch, but I don't hate all of them. I'm even friends with a griffon in Griffonstone, although she can be a bit of a jerk at times."

"But-"

"No buts Vapor. The Mareitanians are ponies, but do you find yourself hating all ponies because of them?"

"No, of course not!"

"There you go then."

"Doesn't mean I don't hate all the Mareitanians though!"

Rainbow grunted a sigh at Vapor's reasoning. She understood where Vapor was coming from easily enough, but only a small portion of griffons were attacking them, and the Mareitanians were being controlled by Faust, so it was hard to tell how much you could blame them for their actions. Hating all griffons for the actions of a few though, that was just... well, not silly, but it certainly wasn't reasonable.

"Look, I'm sorry you lost Sky, I really am, but hating the griffons isn't going to make you feel better, and neither is killing them. If you want to hate somepony, hate Faust. She's the reason all of this is happening."

Vapor went quiet, and for a moment Rainbow thought she'd gotten through to her. Her hopes were dashes though as Vapor stomped her hooves angrily. "I thought you would've understood Rainbow."

"And I do, I really do. Seriously, fuck the Bloodfeathers, and fuck the Golden Claws, but I'm not going to start hating all the griffons because of them! Just as I'm not going to start hating the princesses because Faust is an alicorn like them. See where I'm coming from here?"

"So... wait, you'd happily kill all those griffons that fight for Faust?"

"Yeah, in a heartbeat, but not because I hate griffons. I just want them to stop killing my friends."

"Oh." Vapor sat down and wrapped a leg around herself, "I'm sorry Rainbow, I didn't mean to yell at you."

"Don't worry about it. I know what you're coming from, I do, but you can't let yourself get eaten up by hating things and being angry all the time. You'll just end up hurting yourself, and getting yourself killed, and there are quite a few of us that don't want that to happen. You're not alone Vapor, remember that."

"I... I will."

Rainbow grinned at Vapor, but lost it as Vapor stared off into the distance, tears growing in her eyes again. She supposed one little talk was hardly enough to make the pain of losing Sky go away. Still, she could be at least a little happy that Vapor had listened to her, and given up her thoughts of taking her pain out on all griffons.

The next few minutes passed in silence, giving Rainbow the time she needed to sort out Vapor's portion of the demolition. She could feel Lightning watching her impatiently though, as they were running quite significantly over the five minute time limit she'd given them. It didn't help that the rest of the squadron was waiting either.

"You know, you could've helped instead of standing there," Rainbow pointed out to them as she finished up.

"It's a one pony job to do what you did," Lightning said back. "Still, you're done, so let's blow this popsicle stand and get out of here."

"What about the other squadrons?" Rainbow asked.

"Them and the Night Guard should be finishing up soon, then we can all get out of here." Lightning gestured for them all to follow her outside, but stopped just as the sound griffon calls reached her ears. "That was the plan anyway," Lightning groaned.

An explosion echoed around the city, followed by another, and another, the sound bouncing around the skyscrapers for several seconds before dissipating. At the very least some of their targets had been destroyed.

"Thunderlane, get that plunger set up, then let's blow this place and go help the others."

"It's already set up," Thunderlane said, sounding a little insulted that Lightning thought that he hadn't already done it. "All you need to do is push it."

"Oh, uh, good work. All of you spread out to check the radius is clear of ponies."

Rainbow complied, quickly flying around the area to check nopony was close enough to get caught in the blast. Nopony was, so she shouted that it was clear, along with the others, then backed off herself. That's when it felt like the air kicked her, and she found herself getting smacked backwards by the force of the detonation.

By the time she'd recovered, the area was full of dust and smoke, and the building was very much destroyed, just as planned, meaning it was time to get out of there. The rest were already gathering by the time she got there, and with an order from Lightning they started making their way back to regroup with the rest of their forces in the park at the city centre.

They stayed low, weaving through the streets rather than flying above them where they could be more easily spotted by the griffons. There were plenty of other ponies out in the streets, having heard the explosions, with several more having gone off since their flight began, and it also meant they were able to hear the calls of the griffons. It was easy to tell they were frightened, and they had good reason to be, especially if they could see what was happening in the park.

Hundreds of ponies clashed with an even larger number of griffons in the skies over the park, and already bodies of both were dotted around on the grass below. Lightning showed no hesitation in joining the dogfight, drawing her blades and diving right in to try and find the rest of the Wonderbolts. They failed, as the Wonderbolts weren't even there.

Rainbow was about to suggest they get out of the fight when the roar of thunder tore through the air. The rest of the Wonderbolts had arrived, and were putting their newly acquired skills to the test by conjuring lightning and throwing it at the griffons. In the target rich environment they had, most of them succeeded.

All of them put the distraction to use, attacking what griffons they could before the surprise wore off. Moments later the griffons made the call to retreat, and the park emptied of griffons, leaving the temporarily victorious Equestrians to discuss what next. Rainbow made sure to get a spot near captains Spitfire and Greywhisker so she could hear the plan.

"That would've gone a lot differently if all the griffons had shown up," Spitfire said to Greywhisker.

"That's just it, a lot of them flew south towards Fillydelphia. I think they've worked out what we're doing, and gone to try and stop it down there, and in Baltimare."

Spitfire cursed quietly, "I guess that means it's up to us to go stop them? Heh, stopping them from stopping us destroying our own stuff. That's a special kind of fubar right there."

"Isn't it just?" Greywhisker snickered. "Have all your targets been destroyed?"

"Yeah, eventually. Yours?"

Greywhisker nodded, "They have indeed, and I've briefed the mayor on the situation. Suffice to say, he was not impressed with any of this, but there's little we can do about it now. Since we're done here, we should probably get moving. I don't know about you, but I have no wish to see the Mareitanians arriving."

Spitfire shrugged at Greywhisker, "I wouldn't mind giving the Mareitanians a few licks before we go." She shrugged again, "Here's hoping they're at least reasonable about how they take the city. Sooo... first one to Fillydelphia gets to kill all the griffons?"

"You're on," Greywhisker replied with a grin."


-0-0-0-


"How the hell are we supposed to destroy that?" Limestone said, staring up at the imposing towers of the Fillydelphia steelworks. "Couldn't we have been given the munitions factory instead? All you'd have to do is throw a match into that place."

"I'm sure some distance would be required," said Maud.

"Yes, I realise that, thank you." Limestone huffed and took a moment to look around the hundred or so other ponies that had been sent with them to the steelworks. A mix of earth ponies and unicorns, both Mage Corps and not, as well as an escort of those insane pegasus Exiles that fought without armour. How they were meant to work together to destroy this place was a mystery to her, but she supposed it wasn't her place to argue, as much as she wanted to.

"So we collapse the towers onto the buildings?" she said, again to Maud as she was the only other pony next to her. "That's it?"

"Once we cut through the framework of the towers, yes." As she spoke, a dozen ponies were busy cutting through the steel supports of the towers with torches, sending tiny rivulets of steel running down to the ground.

"How do you make the steel to build the steel things that produce the steel?" Limestone asked a moment later. "Isn't that kinda, well, silly?"

"You can make steel without all of this."

"I know that."

"Oh."

"It just seems me like it'd take a really long time to build if you're having to make each piece to build it by hoof." Limestone shrugged, "A lot longer than it's going to take to destroy it."

"Not if those griffons stop us," Maud said, turning her head up to watch the sky as a large number of griffons turned up from the north. The Exiles jumped to engage them, and the fighting soon filled the skies.

"And here I was thinking this'd be a milk run," Limestone grumbled as she and Maud sought cover nearer the towers where their sisters and squadmates were. "Get yourself ready for a fight ladies."

"But what if I don't wanna?" Azure whined, pouting at Limestone.

"I really hope you're kidding."

"Of course I am!" Azure pulled a rock out of her bag and hefted it in her hoof, "We owe them for Top Spin."

Limestone nodded, and prepared herself to protect the ponies cutting through the tower supports, and those setting up the modest amount of dynamite required to finish the job. She didn't have to wait long as griffons began to swoop down towards them, and she wound her hoof back, letting fly a rock as the ponies around them opened fire with crossbow and magic.

Her aim was true as the stone met a griffon between the eyes, dropping it out of the sky, along with a dozen others. The remaining griffons pulled up and scattered, giving them a moment's reprieve.

"There's even more griffons coming from the north," Lyra shouted, heralding the arrival of yet more griffons that dived down towards the towers.

Limestone prepared to attack again, but the griffons stopped, instead firing the crossbows they held in their claws. Limestone swore loudly and dived to the side, tackling Marble into cover, unnecessarily so, but she was still feeling protective of her youngest sister. Several other ponies weren't so lucky.

Shields popped up around the base of the tower, stopping the griffons from shooting those within. Unfortunately this meant that those behind the shields couldn't attack either, and there was nothing they could do to deter the griffons from closing into mêlée range, except hope the shields held.

Heat started to build under the shield from the torches, and all of them were soon showing It with sweat as the griffons taunted them from outside. Limestone was close to asking the shield be dropped so they could attack, which would only be a pretence for escaping the increasingly unbearable temperature.

The griffons soon had other concerns as more pegasi joined the fight, chasing them off and giving the ponies on the ground a chance to lower the shields, although they kept ready just in case. Work proceeded apace after that, and it quickly became time to blow the towers, the griffons having failed to stop them.

Limestone quickly ran some checks on the explosives, not that she was any more of an expert than the ponies setting them up. As far as she could tell, they would destroy the remaining structure on one side of the tower, leaving it, and the other tower, to fall onto the large building between them.

Satisfied, or at least having found nothing to complain about, Limestone followed the ponies with her as they unwound a cable and ran it over to a spot reasonably far away from the detonation. Pinkie was already there, setting up a plunger to detonate it all, and was already connecting the wire from the other tower as they arrived.

"All good Pinkie?" Limestone asked as her pink sister worked feverishly.

"I think so, yes? Maybe? Possibly. Perhaps not." Pinkie pointed towards the towers, and more specifically the griffons flying down towards them. "I think they might be trying to sabotage the saboteurs. Devious really..."

"For shit sake!" Limestone turned and started running back to the towers. It was clear they were going to have to protect the towers now, which would leave them uncomfortably close to them when they should be blowing up, but that was better than the griffons stopping them. "Shout when you're ready Pinkie!" 

"Will do!"

Limestone scooped at stone up and threw it as hard as she could at the back of a griffon's head, cracking her skull open in a spray of blood. The other griffons turned to face them, and a few more fell before they decided to flee, although some took pot-shots back at the ponies before doing so.

Limestone quickly inspected the explosives, and fumed at the sight of some of the wires having been cut. She quickly stripped the ends in her teeth and twisted them back together, hoping the simple jury-rig would work.

Griffons buzzed around the towers, only seeming to increase in number as the pegasi decreased. They could only hope that their winged allies weren't all dead, but either way it was clear that they'd lost the fight. A few were still fighting, but as more griffons turned their attention to the ground forces, it was clear their efforts made little difference.

"It's ready!" Pinkie shouted, barely able to be heard over the sound of the griffons as they celebrated their victory over the pegasi. At the very least they'd allowed the ground forces to complete their mission before fleeing, or worse, whatever had happened to them.

"Move!" Limestone shouted, leading the rush back to the relative safety of distance as the griffons started to make an attack on Pinkie's position, her shout having alerted them that they were close to losing their prize. A barrage of magic and arrows held them off, giving Pinkie the time she needed to push the plunger down once everypony was safely away from the towers.

The detonations weren't very big, but they were enough to take out the final support of the towers, sending the massive edifices teetering over to fall onto the rest of the steelworks, doing more than enough damage to render it totally inoperable. The force of the impacts was enough to knock most of the ponies still running off their hooves, and the world went dark as a wave of dust rolled over them.

Limestone coughed the dust out of her lungs and wiped the dirt out of her eyes. She stood, her ribs aching from the impact of getting thrown to the ground, and tried to regain her bearings through the brown fog around her. She could hear plenty of other ponies, but couldn't see many of them, and there was no sight at all of Pinkie and her sisters.

"Everypony get up, we need to move!" Limestone put her words into action, running around and dragging as many ponies to their hooves as she could. The dust was starting to drift away on a gentle breeze, clearing the area enough to let them see the griffons landing around them.

Limestone turned around, trying to find a way out, but failed. They were completely surrounded, with no way out, as was Pinkie's group, who surrendered without a fight, dropping their weapons. With considerable reluctance, Limestone did the same."

"Shit."


-0-0-0-


They'd been able to see the griffons all the way to Fillydelphia, but hadn't been able to catch them up. They still hadn't caught them up as they reached the city and the griffons split up to re-join their forces already there, aiming to stop the Equestrians from sabotaging what they sought to acquire.

It was already too late though, as the massive cloud of dust coming from the steelworks to the south could attest to. There was also a large amount of smoke coming from elsewhere in the city, and a few other places. The griffons had failed to prevent anything.

"That's a relief," said Spitfire. "Hopefully things went smoothly in Baltimare, so we can get out of here."

"Where are the rest of our forces?" Greywhisker asked in response to what Spitfire had said. He pointed towards the train station as they flew over the city, "The troop transport is still there. Why is it still there? More importantly, why are there griffons crawling all over it?"

"Wasn't your friend Pinkie and her team here?" Lightning asked Rainbow out of the side of her mouth. She got a stiff nod in return. "Captain, if the griffons have control of the city here, should we consider that our forces have been captured?"

"Or wiped out," said Greywhisker. "I don't think it's worth risking ourselves to find out. We should head for Canterlot."

"What?" Rainbow cried. "No! We can't just leave them if they've been taken captive!"

"I hate to say it Dash," Spitfire said, fully aware of why Rainbow would object to leaving them, "but we don't have the numbers to conduct a full rescue operation. We don't really have the numbers to do anything. I'm sorry."

"But- But- But Pinkie's one of the Elements of Harmony! Surely that means she's a priority, or something? That means we have to rescue her!"

"If the Elements of Harmony were such a priority," Greywhisker said, far less sympathetically than Spitfire, "the princesses would never have let them, or you, fight on the front lines. They've been captured, so they're probably safer there anyway."

Rainbow gawped open-mouthed at the thestral captain, "Are you kidding me? You saw what those griffons did in Appleloosa! Why the hell would they worry about not killing our ponies if they have no problem with killing civilians?"

"Rainbow does have a point Captain," Lightning said, backing Rainbow up.

"That doesn't change the fact that we don't have the numbers to stage a rescue," Greywhisker reminded them. "There's no point in us getting ourselves killed in a failed rescue attempt."

Soarin and Fleetfoot flew up, one on each side of Spitfire. "Come on Cap," said Soarin, "we never left anypony behind in Mareitania."

"We were the superior force in Mareitania," Spitfire reminding him. "We never really needed to leave anypony behind."

"Then we go stealthy," said Fleetfoot. "Sneak in and break them out at night. The griffons won't even know what happened."

Greywhisker rolled his eyes, "If you continue with this action, you will do it without us."

Another of the Night Guard flew to the front to join the conversation, giving Spitfire a quick wink. "Come on Captain," Shadow said with a hint of pleading in her voice. "We're the masters of hunting at night. We'll be able to do it easily."

"No, I forbid it, and if you go ahead with this, I will have you all court-martialled."

"Better start warming up your seat in the courtroom then, because I'm totally up for saving those ponies down there." 

Greywhisker narrowed his eyes at Shadow, but stopped as a large number of the other thestrals joined her. "You ponies from Mareitania have been nothing but trouble. It's a pity you're some of the best warriors in the Night Guard as well." With a huff he turned back to Spitfire, "Refuse this idiot notion so we can all get back to Canterlot."

Spitfire looked back and forth between Greywhisker, and those wanting to mount a rescue, wondering why the decision had landed on her to make. She knew that Greywhisker was right, and that there was no point in risking it all for the ponies captured here. She also knew deep down, that leaving them wasn't the right thing to do.

"We're going in."

Greywhisker stared aghast at Spitfire, "Have you all gone mad? Do you even realise how much you're risking here?"

"Altius volantis, Greywhisker," Spitfire replied with a grin. "If we can get the train running, and make a path between where our ponies are captured and the station, we could have them out of here in no time. Are you with us?"

"I guess I have to be," Greywhisker grumbled. "I assure you I will be having words about this with Luna when, or rather if we make it back."


-0-0-0-


Turns out the grass in the hoofball stadium was edible. That came as a great relief as the hunger pangs started to set in. Pinkie rolled over on the grass, a few strands of the short grass between her teeth as she tried to work out how to get out of the situation they were in.

It was clear to her now that the pegasi had abandoned them. That was a rather cheap move, but perhaps they'd known something those without wings hadn't, like, for example, the true number of the griffons. If the griffons had outnumbered them when the griffons already had them beaten anyway, perhaps running away was a prudent decision, and Pinkie wouldn't blame them for making it.

On the other hoof, they'd completely wussed out at the prospect of another fight, and had left those on the ground to desperately complete their mission and accept the consequences. Again, Pinkie couldn't really blame them, as she didn't really want to fight any more either.

The war couldn't be going more wrong right now if they tried, so perhaps it was for the best they were captured and kept out of it all. A prison camp had to be a lot safer than a battlefield after all. Who knows, it could even act as a nice little vacation from everything.

Pinkie smiled a little and shrugged to herself. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Maybe Faust would even let her see her friends if she asked nicely enough. Sure the world would be in trouble, and dangerously short on smiles, but she'd be safe with her friends again, which is all she ever wanted really. Twilight could fix it though, and then everything could go back to the way it was, more or less.

Pinkie lost her smile. Twilight had never gone back to the way she was after her time in Mareitania. Perhaps you could never really go back. Yes things would be peaceful again, but the memories would always be there to remind you of what you had lost to get to that point. The things you'd seen, the ponies you'd lost...

Top Spin had never been the most vocal of ponies, and Pinkie had to admit she knew less about Top Spin than she liked. What had her dreams and ambitions been before she... yeah. Did she dream of becoming a tennis champion? Or of starting a family with a hunky stallion? Was she content to live a quiet life? Pinkie didn't know, and now she never would because Top Spin was gone.

Tension gripped Pinkie's chest, and she tried to stifle her tears, but there was no helping it as a sob escaped her. Top Spin was dead, and Pinkie didn't know whether she had anypony to cry for her and the amazing future she'd had stolen away from her, or any of the ponies that had lost their lives in this terrible war. Maybe not all of them had ponies to cry for them, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she did. Somepony had to think of them if nopony else was.

"Pinkie? Are you crying?"

Pinkie quickly wiped her eyes as Azure sat up, her purple eyes shining in what little light they had to see by. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. I was just thinking about Top Spin."

"I wasn't sleeping. I was thinking about her too."

"You were?" 

"Yeah. I just can't help thinking about what we could've done different, y'know? I should never have suggested going to that stupid concert in the first place."

Pinkie jumped up and grabbed Azure in a hug as tears started running down her cheeks, holding her tightly as Azure shuddered, trying to hold back her sobs. "You can't blame yourself Azure."

"But it's my fault we were there! It's my fault she's dead! If I'd just kept my stupid mouth shut we could've stayed somewhere safe instead!"

"If you want to blame yourself for that, you can blame all of us. We all wanted to go-"

"Not me," Limestone grumbled.

"-Except Limestone," Pinkie continued smoothly. "The only ones to blame are the griffons for attacking there, and bad luck that our friends got caught up in their plan."

"But I almost got your sister killed! And Lyra!"

"I know, but never for a moment would I have blamed you. I like you too much for that." Pinkie smiled at Azure, seeing her self-loathing lessen a little. She still seemed unsure though, and Pinkie ended up extra confused when Azure leaned forwards and kissed her.

"Woah-woah-woah!" Pinkie leant back and held Azure at arms length. "What are you doing Azure?"

Azure's eyes darted around the rest of her team, "Is that not what we were going for there?" Pinkie shook her head slowly and firmly. "Oh, my bad. Totally my bad. I may have misread the situation slightly."

"You owe me twenty bits," Marble whispered to Limestone as the two ponies stared at each other, one shocked, and the other a little disappointed by what had happened.

"I owe everypony twenty bits. I was the only pony that bet for it."

"Everypony?" Lyra questioned.

"Yeah, that was a hundred bits if I'd won." There was a short pause as Limestone sighed. "I think I'll donate Top Spin's to a tennis charity or something. She deserves that much off me."

Azure raised an eyebrow at the ponies around her. "You put bets on us kissing? I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be disgusted by that, or disappointed that only Limestone bet in my favour."

"Actually we all agreed the kissing might happen," said Limestone. "We were actually betting on whether Pinkie would reciprocate it or not. Truthfully I only sided with you because the odds were so good."

"Really? Pinkie, help me out here."

"Aw let them have their fun." Pinkie nudged Azure on the side, making the purple pony smile crookedly.

"I feel like such an idiot now."

"Aww,' Pinkie cooed, "it's alright, I'm not angry at you or anything. I'm actually kind of flattered."

Azure opened her mouth to speak, but the words were lost to a roar of thunder that followed the streak of lightning that knocked a griffon out of the sky. Then a lot more followed.


-0-0-0-


Rainbow wiped the blood off her blades and sheathed them, along with the ponies around her at the train station. So far they'd managed to take out the griffons guarding the train with nothing having gone wrong, which could only be a good sign. Above them the thestrals patrolled the sky, hidden in the darkness.

"Doesn't look like they've tampered with the train," Fleetfoot after checking it for a couple of minutes. "Not that I'd really know if they had. I guess all we can do now is light the fire, get the train ready, and hope it actually works."

"Hopefully without breaking it," Spitfire said before turning to Lightning, "A squadron is going to stay here and hold the station," she added to Lightning. "You, C squadron, and the thestrals go release the captives."

"Yes ma'am."

"And for the love of Celestia, make sure High Rise stays with you. I know he's not Sky Stinger, but I can't let him fly solo."

Lightning glanced over at High Rise, the white stallion staring resolutely at the floor. First he'd lost most of his squadron over Stalliongrad, and then Fire Streak had died, and now he'd lost both of his wingmates in B squadron. Lightning could understand why he refused to look at anypony after that.

"I'll keep an eye on him ma'am."

"I'll hold you to that."

"Does anypony have a match?" Fleetfoot asked, scrabbling with the shutter to the train's firebox. She opened it, and backed off as the heat inside blasted her in the face. "Nevermind, that's still way hot. Soarin, find the shovel and get some coal in there."

"Why am I the shovel pony?"

Fleetfoot rolled her eyes, "Spitfire, make him an offer he can't refuse."

Spitfire whispered something in Soarin's ear, his wings raising a little bit. "All the way in?" he asked, getting a nod from Spitfire. "Hot damn! Out the way ponies, I have coal to shovel!"

"Let's go ponies," Lightning said quickly, knowing that somepony was bound to make a comment if she didn't distract them.

They joined the thestrals in the sky and sought out Greywhisker in the hopes that he could provide them a decent overview of what to expect. When they found him, eventually, his dark coat and armour hiding him well in the cloudy, moonless night sky, he was hovering with his legs crossed in obvious disdain.

"They don't even know we're here," he tutted. "Their patrols are flying low, are too sporadic, and well, they clearly aren't expecting any trouble of any sort. Typical griffon overconfidence."

"And the prisoners?"

"They're holding them in the stadium under moderate guard. Nothing we can't handle, and it's near the train station too, so there won't be a lengthy run out of here while under attack by griffons. Even better, we've located their captured weapons, and I've dispatched ponies to bring them to the stadium so our ponies can put up a fight during their escape."

"Easy as pie then."

"You could say that. Personally, I'm concerned that we haven't located all the griffons yet. If they're expecting us and planning something, this'll be a massacre."

"Then perhaps we should do this quick. Should we distract them and draw the griffons off while you bust our ponies out?"

"Can you see well enough in the dark to do that? The griffons can probably see you better than you can see them."

Rainbow flew up, joining in with the discussion. "What if we led them into a trap? We draw a load of them off towards an ambush by some of your thestrals, then you take out the rest at the stadium out and we all get out of here?"

Greywhisker rubbed his chin with a hoof, humming as he thought. "There's easily a hundred griffons guarding the stadium, so drawing some off might be good. The trouble is you'll probably attract griffons from elsewhere around the city."

"Then we'll lead them on a merry little chase," Rainbow said with a grin. "Maybe give them a few thousand volts worth of reasons to not mess with the Wonderbolts."

Greywhisker thought some more, then shrugged. "An acceptable plan I suppose, although it's your call Squadron leader Dust."

"Let's do it!" Lightning said confidently. "Where will the ambush be?"

"Fly past the tallest building," Greywhisker told her. "They'll be ready for you."

Lightning and Rainbow saluted, then flew off to explain the plan to the rest of the Wonderbolts, who seemed just as pleased about it as they were. All of them were keen to get a little payback against the griffons for the last couple of days.
"We'll attack from above and blast them with lightning," Lightning explained. "Hopefully that'll convince most of them to chase after us. Just remember to aim for the stands where the griffons are, and not the field where our ponies are. Any questions?"

There were none, so they set their plan into action, flying up high above the stadium, then diving as one. They could just about make out their targets in the stands as well as in the sky, and they let the static build up on their wings as they flew ever closer, reaching the point of no return where they either had to break off or go through with it.

Rainbow shot first, flaring her wings then bringing them together as she went into freefall for a few seconds, her bolt of lightning blasting a griffon out of the sky. The rest of the Wonderbolts fired a moment later, their own bolts of lightning striking down into the stands, and each one striking targets that were immobile and much easier to hit than usual.

All of them pulled up out of their dives and hovered there for a moment as the thunder died out. Not sure what else to do, Rainbow waved her hooves at the griffons and shouted, "Come and get us bird-brains!"

The enraged calls of griffons followed the Wonderbolts up as they raced back into the sky. For extra emphasis, Rainbow built up another lightning bolt and flipped around so she was effectively falling upwards as she fired the lightning bolt back down at the griffons that were chasing after them.

Other calls from griffons sounded from around the city, joining those that were chasing the Wonderbolts, and they began to wonder if they'd made a mistake as more and more griffons started chasing after them, undeterred by the intermittent bolts of lightning that were fired back at them.

The massive form of a skyscraper loomed out of the darkness, and the Wonderbolts raced around it, splitting up to fly around both sides, and encouraging the griffons to do the same. Nothing happened at first, but then the griffons started crying out in pain and dismay as a large number of dark shapes pushed up from the side of the building out of their sight, and started cutting into the griffon flight.

The Wonderbolts stopped and turned back, joining the short ambush, mercilessly picking apart the hundred strong flight of griffons that fell apart in seconds, either trying to fight an enemy they couldn't see, or fleeing, only to get struck down before they could get anywhere.

Rainbow flipped up, then flapped her wings hard to push herself downwards onto the back of a griffon that was trying to get out of there, her blades piercing the thin armour that lay between the wings of the griffon. She pushed off with her hooves and freed her blades, letting the hen flop lifelessly to the ground far below, and sought out another target, only to find that the thestrals had already finished the job.

"Sweet!" Rainbow exclaimed. "Guess we showed them!"

"We're not done yet though," said Lightning, turning back towards the stadium. "Come on!"


-0-0-0-


All the members of the Hard Corps, as well as every pony in the stadium, cautiously removed their hooves from their ears as the thunder died. The sounds of the griffons replaced it for a moment as a large number of them took off after the ambushing Wonderbolts, then it all went quiet.

"Luna damn it," Pinkie muttered. "They just couldn't leave us be, could they?"

"What are you talking about Pinkie?" Limestone asked as her pink sister muttered to herself loud enough to be heard by the others.

"Nothing!"

"Uh-huh..." Limestone frowned up at the sky, putting Pinkie out of her mind. "Well? Now what? You can't tell me they just did that for fun?"

"I don't think so," Maud said, pointing a hoof over at the stands. "Look."

Dark shapes flitted up over the stands, viciously cutting down the remaining griffons guarding the prisoners. In less than half a minute the griffons had fallen to a swarm of dark shapes that were recognisable to the ponies there as the Night Guard, doing what they did best in the dark.

"Listen up!" one of the thestrals shouted as more of them broke the lock on the gates to let them out. "We're getting you out of here. Your weapons are in a cart outside, so grab them and start heading to the train station. Try to be as quick as you can."

"Hah, weapons," Limestone said bitterly as ponies started streaming towards the exit. "We should be so lucky. I bet they forgot to bring our rocks."

"And here I am with mine stuck to my head," Lyra joked. "If only we weren't so horribly outnumbered, I might have used it," she added.

"Not anymore," said Maud, leading the way as they ran out of the stadium. As predicted their bags of rocks had been neglected, so they just ran straight for the station, relying on Lyra, Crystal, and everypony else to protect them.

Not that the griffons were being given much of a chance to attack them. Weapons rang in the air above the fleeing ponies as the Night Guard clashed with the griffons, using their natural element of darkness to a far greater effect than the griffons could. To a thestral, the bright, shiny armour some of the griffons wore practically glowed in the dark. They may as well have painted targets on themselves.

The griffons still had numbers though, and were starting to gather together enough to mount an effective resistance, only to have it quickly blown apart as the Wonderbolts re-joined the fight, followed by a large number of yet more thestrals.
Most of this was missed by the ponies running below, as the battle above was hidden in the dark. The occasional falling body was the only real proof that it was happening at all. Their concern was getting to the station and out of there anyway. They'd been given a chance, and they weren't going to waste it.

"I know there's a griffon invasion going on, but they could still have lit the street lights," Crystal complained as she tripped over a kerb, catching herself before she fell over. "Where are all the ponies that live here anyway?"

"Hiding hopefully," said Azure. "Kinda reminds me of when the gangs in Manehattan used to get into fights. Everypony else just stays the hell away."

"Used to?" Limestone said to Azure. "What do you mean used to?"

"Eh, they made peace years ago. Apparently they worked out that they were kinda being idiots, and stopped it all. Now the gangs barely exist any more."

"Let's move it ponies!" a male voice shouted from above, coming from a male Wonderbolt that was perched on the roof of the station. "Get straight on the train, no fucking around! If the train drivers happen to be here as well, that'd be great because we don't really know how this thing works!"

"Yeesh, some rescue this will be if they can't even get the train working," Limestone grumbled as they kept running, heading for one of the carriages as the Wonderbolts kept the area clear. They jumped aboard, and tried to find somewhere they could see from as the carriages filled up with ponies.

A couple of minutes later, once everypony was aboard, the train lurched into motion. Pinkie forced her way to the front, trying to see what was happening, and to see whether the Wonderbolts and thestrals were coming. If Rainbow got herself killed for a rescue Pinkie didn't really want, then it really, really wasn't worth it.


-0-0-0-


"They're falling back! The griffons are falling back!"

Rainbow sighed with relief at the shout from one of the thestrals. If the griffons were giving up to let them escape with the prisoners, then this could be soundly called a win. A win they needed too after the way things had been going. She looped around to start following the train as all the other fliers did the same, save those thestrals that flew higher to serve as over watch against any attacks the griffons might be planning. 

The remainder of her squadron gathered together, having thankfully not lost another during the short-lived fight, although Lightning was flying awkwardly. Rainbow was about to ask what was wrong when Lightning's wings failed her and she dropped. Rainbow raced down, grabbing hold of Lightning before she came even close to hitting the ground, and pulled her back up.

"Are you alright Lightning?"

Lightning removed her left hoof from a spot between her right shoulder and her wing, uncovering a deep cut that was dripping blood down her side. "I don't think it's too bad. Fucking hurts though."

"Uh, alright, um... we need to get to the train. Help me out here guys!"

Thunderlane flew under the two ponies, letting Rainbow lower Lightning onto his back as Cloud flew on to the rear of the train, pulling the door open to allow Thunderlane to land inside and slide Lightning off.

Rainbow quickly pulled Lightning's flightsuit down to uncover the wound, and pressed her hooves down on it to staunch the bleeding. "Medic! We need a medic!"

"You're way overreacting Dash," Lightning said as a pony rushed forwards to start treating her. "I'm not going to die from this."

"Fuck you Lightning. I think we've lost enough ponies lately to not take any fucking risks."

Lightning snorted a laugh and laid her head back, "Alright, I know, I know." She sighed, then winced in pain as the medic worked. "I don't know about you guys, but I could really use a break after today. Canterlot better have somewhere you can get a decent cocktail, or something."


-0-0-0-


Lurin kept his rage to himself, but betrayed it through a rattle in his golden armour as he tried his best to not smack Theron in his stupid face. The fool had taken the 'initiative' to send more griffons down to Baltimare, only to find the ponies had already completed their missions and left, while leaving Fillydelphia under-defended and unprepared for when the Wonderbolts and Night Guard attacked. They'd lost over a hundred griffons, while the Equestrians lost three thestrals and a Wonderbolt, and made off with around six hundred captives. It was a poor trade.

"I'm seriously reconsidering our contract, boy. What foolishness led you to stretch your forces,  my forces, so thin? Do you wish to impress Faust that much?"

"The pegasi were all reported to have left the area, and we have a mission to secure vital assets for Faust. What was I supposed to do?"

The Commander of the Golden Claws raised an eyebrow at Theron, "Do you really think Faust brought a massive invasion force because she expected you to try and secure three entire cities with three thousand griffons? I rather think she was expecting resistance from Equestrian forces!"

"But there wasn't any!"

Lurin rolled his eyes, "I realise that, just as I realise they were here to destroy some of what Faust wanted, and beat you to it all along the east coast. You decided to go running off to capture those so called objectives. You and no one else."

"The mission parameters changed."

"Because you decided they did! Have you put even the slightest bit of thought of why the Equestrians would sabotage themselves like that?"

"Because they knew they couldn't stop us."

Lurin waited a beat, "And..?"

"And what? What you mean 'and?' They've realised they can't beat us and the Mareitanians."

"It means they've changed their tactics. If my scouts are right, the Equestrians are all falling back to Canterlot, to fortify the city."

Theron laughed snidely, "Sounds like they're running scared to me."

"Not to me. They realise they can't win in a pitched against the Mareitanians, so they've decided to secure Canterlot and make it hard to capture. If they were so convinced they're going to lose, why not surrender?"

"Oh please Lurin, it's only a matter of time until Faust cracks that place open."

"I know that, and I suspect the Equestrians know that too. They must be banking on something turning the tide of this war, but what?"
> 42. All coming together
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The balcony outside the throne room of Canterlot castle provided an excellent view of the comings and goings of the city. It was one Luna made use of as the prolonged defence of the city was set up in front of her. The sight of the entire military force of Equestria was an impressive sight, right up until you realised your opponent could field twice the number of ponies, and then some.

"You have a look on your face," Celestia said as she gracefully walked onto the balcony to stand next to Luna. "I'm not sure I care for it. You're second guessing your plan," she stated.

"How could I not?" Luna replied weakly. "We've given up most of our country to spare it from the ravages of a war that would have seen us easily defeated, and now we're here, hoping to survive long enough that Twilight might find what we need to defeat Faust."

Celestia sighed and nodded, "I suspect you feel that we should never have tried to fight back in the first place?"

"No, I would never roll over and submit to any who would seek to conquer Equestria."

"Then what? What is it you're thinking Luna?"

Luna held her stance for a few seconds, then sighed deeply, finally turning to look at her sister. "I honestly don't know. We've never been attacked by an enemy so strong, or while we were so weak. Faust was given the perfect weapon in Mareitania, while we've had to build up our strength from near nothing, only to find our best efforts were never going to be enough."

"Ah, I see, you're miffed because you're losing."

Luna exploded at Celestia. "What?! You really have it in you to joke in such a way when were are facing the destruction of everything we built? Have you lost your mind sister?"

"Not at all, but I know you. You like to win, but you're fighting an army that yours cannot beat, led by a pony you cannot destroy." Celestia smiled at Luna, "I remember the battle of Trottingham fields, where your forces were outnumbered three to one. You snuck out in the night and infiltrated the griffons camp, then challenged their leaders to a duel they were honour bound to accept."

Luna smiled faintly at the memory, "They gave up fighting me one by one after I defeated half of them, then the last two fled."

"You came back covered in blood, half of which was your own."

"I had to abide by the rules of their duels if they were going to agree to it," said Luna. "No magic, no weapons, no armour. Just my hooves against their claws, and I still won."

"And broke their force's capabilities with most of their leadership gone." Celestia lost her smile, then gazed out over the city. "Unfortunately that won't work against Faust."

"No... it won't." Luna shook her head, trying dislodge her doubts over their plans. "How is Cadence?"

"No better I'm afraid. Between her guilt, her desire for the fighting to end, and her budding hatred of the ones who could do what they did, she's rather confused and upset. She also feels like she's failed her ponies after they were left to survive on their own."

"It'd only be worse if ponies had been forced out of the cities elsewhere as well. Hopefully the Mareitanians will leave the running of a city to those more capable of doing so. A major food shortage would be a disaster if the Mareitanians let, or even make it happen."

"We really have lost Equestria, haven't we?" Celestia said sadly.

"It is nothing we haven't faced before with Discord, or Tirek," Luna reminded Celestia. "We overcame those foes, and we shall overcome this one."

"I'm sure Twilight would have something to say if she could hear that." Celestia sucked in a deep breath and released it slowly, "Still, nothing was ever achieved by quitters. Perhaps you should tell me your plans for defending the city?"

"We're fortifying each level of the city," Luna explained. "If we can hold them back at the main gates, all the better, but failing that we're creating fall-back positions, and then fortifying positions into the next level of the city should we lose the level below. We then destroy the bridges between the levels and invite the Mareitanians to do their best to attack with nothing to stand on."

"I see. What about the griffons?"

"All our fliers will be here, as well as the Mage Corps, and us. Hopefully they shan't be too big of a problem, especially if we can convince Cadence to shield the city with the Crystal Heart."

"That didn't stop Faust in the Crystal Empire," Celestia said slowly, like she'd suspected Luna had forgotten.

"No, but it should provide an extra distraction. With the cannons covering the main entrance from up the mountain, we should be able to hold them back quite well."

"You hope."

"I hope, yes. Unfortunately, I suspect this may have been made more difficult by none of our forces returning from Manehattan and Fillydelphia." Luna winced as Celestia gasped at her.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I'm hoping that they might yet still return. It seems unlikely that none would return from either city, so I'm giving them some time."

"But Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are with those groups! And you're doing nothing to make sure they get back?"

"What could I possibly do? Yes I will send ponies out to ascertain what happened to them, but if they are dead or captured there's very little I can do. Not without risking yet more of our ponies on a rescue mission."

Celestia grimaced at the heartlessness Luna was showing, but didn't say anything because Luna might have had a point. They couldn't risk ponies trying to save ponies because in the end they might end up with no ponies at all. She shook her head and was about to walk away when a trail of smoke in the distance caught her eye as it wound its way up along the train tracks. "Is that them?"

"One can only hope so," said Luna. "I shall organise some of your Royal Guard and greet them at the station. Perhaps then I can learn why they're so late."


-0-0-0-


"Come on! Come on! Come on!" Rainbow raged as the train rolled to a slow stop in Canterlot station. She kicked the doors open the moment the train stopped, and leapt out with an aim to get Lightning to the hospital as soon as possible. The line of spears pointed at the train soon had her backing off though. "What's going on? Are we in trouble?"

"Not at all Rainbow Dash," Luna said, stepping forward and waving a hoof at the guards to have them lower their weapons. "Merely a precaution due to you being long overdue."

"Oh. That's good, because we have wounded that need seeing to, like, right now."

"Of course. Guards, assist with moving the wounded to the hospital." Luna stepped aside as the Royal Guards rushed to help the wounded get moved off the train. "Rainbow, since I can't see Captains Greywhisker or Spitfire, perhaps you could assist me in explaining your lateness, or why you are returning with the forces from Fillydelphia."

"Right..." Rainbow looked longingly after Lightning as the mare was stretchered off the train, giving Rainbow a weak grin as she passed. "Well, we made it to Manehattan and did what we were supposed to, but the griffons turned up. We fought them off and destroyed our targets, but a lot more of them were heading south to stop our ponies in Fillydelphia."

"By the time we reached Fillydelphia the city was swarming with griffons, and the Exiles had gone, leaving the rest of our soldiers to get captured, although they did blow up their targets too. We then decided to hide and wait until nightfall to try and rescue them. Which, y'know, we did. And then we came back here."

Luna stood still as she took in Rainbow's hastily given description of what had happened. The Exiles had left the ground forces in Fillydelphia to the griffons, which seemed odd to her. "I assume the Exiles were significantly outnumbered by the griffons?"

"I guess so, yeah. Why are you asking me though? Shouldn't they have told you themselves?"

"The Exiles haven't returned to Canterlot, or Cloudsdale," Luna added, gesturing with her eyes up towards the floating city nearby. "I had assumed they were with you."

"We haven't seen anything of them," Rainbow said back. "We thought they must've come back here. So if they aren't here, or in Fillydelphia, where are they?"

Luna held her answer back from Rainbow. She suspected that the Exiles had abandoned the fight, and didn't blame them. They'd just earned their freedom, and had less of a vested interest in defending Equestria than the natives did. Now that Equestria was losing, the Exiles had likely chosen to preserve their freedom and their lives elsewhere.

"I'm sure they'll turn up," Luna said, hiding her disappointment behind a smile. "Where are the rest of the Wonderbolts, and my Night Guard?"

"There wasn't enough room on the train, so they had to fly here," said Rainbow. "They had to take a break though, after being on their wings that long. They'll probably turn up in a couple of hours."

"I see. Well, thank you Rainbow Dash. You may go with your friend now if you wish."

Rainbow gave Luna a quick and sloppy salute, "Yes ma'am, thank you ma'am." She was halfway through spreading her wings and flying off when she heard Pinkie shout for her to wait. She turned back to see her friend squeezing her way through the ponies around to get to her. "Hey Pinkie."

"Hey Rainbow. Uh... thanks for, y'know, saving us."

Rainbow hesitated, confused by Pinkie's rather subdued behaviour. She thought Pinkie would've been ecstatic about being rescued, but the pink pony was acting like she'd just been told her seriously ill pet hamster had died in the night. 
"Have I missed something? You don't seem very happy about being rescued."

"No!" Pinkie gestured frantically at Rainbow, suddenly realising that she might have offended her friend. "I am! I am happy! It's just... I'm tired of fighting Rainbow, of seeing good ponies getting hurt and killed. For a moment I kinda thought I was free of all that. I don't want to do this any more Dashie, I'm not a soldier."

Rainbow nodded, the words 'I told you so' ready to leap off her tongue. Too bad they'd be leaping off her tongue at the wrong pony.

"You're not mad are you?"

"What?" Rainbow blurted, the question catching her off guard as it hadn't even occurred to her to be angry. "Of course not! I could've told you that from the beginning. You're happy, and smiley, and... not a killer." Rainbow smiled crookedly at Pinkie, "Not like me, or Twilight."

Pinkie dashed forward and tightly grabbed Rainbow around the neck in a hug. "You aren't killers either Rainbow! You're soldiers! Totally different thing!"

"Is it a totally different thing if you're good at it though?"

"It's very a different thing unless you enjoy it, which I really hope you don't."

Rainbow rapidly shook her head, "Of course not. I hate having to do all that."

"There you go then, like I said, not a killer."

"Thanks Pinkie." Rainbow leaned into the hug for a moment, then pulled out of it. "I need to go Pinkie. Lightning got hurt, and I need to get to the hospital to make sure she's okay."

"Oh!" Pinkie released Rainbow and shooed her off. "Don't waste time standing here then. Go on!"

"You're the best Pinkie. I imagine we'll being seeing quite a bit of each other now we're all here in Canterlot."

"You betcha!" Pinkie sighed, feeling a little betrayed by her own cheerfulness. "Guess it's too bad about why we're here though."

"Yeah." Rainbow stared at nothing for a moment, then shook it off. "Come on guys," she said to her wingmates, and Vapor. "See ya later Pinkie."

"See ya Rainbow." Pinkie waved after the pegasi as they raced off into the sky, then turned back to her teammates. "Sooo... what now?"

"Heck if I know," Limestone grumbled.


-0-0-0-


Lightning Dust was pale and shivering as she lay on the hospital bed, a clean dressing already over the wound by the time her friends arrived. "What are you all doing here? Shouldn't you be doing something?"

"Luna knows where we are if she needs us," Rainbow said dismissively. "Making sure you're alright is the most important thing to us right now."

Lightning chuckled weakly, "That's nice, but I'm going to be fine. Look, I know we're all shook up after... after we lost Sky, but I'm fine, really. I just lost a bit more blood than I thought is all."

Cloud Chaser rolled her eyes at Lightning, "You say that like it isn't a serious issue. Generally speaking, losing blood equals bad."

"Yeah, I know. I'm just waiting for one of those healing thingies to get freed up, then I'm good to go. I'm sure Spitfire will be wanting you before then though."

"Pfft, let her. We have bigger issues right now-"

"I said I'll be fine!"

"Not you," Rainbow huffed. "The Exiles haven't come back to Canterlot or Cloudsdale. Luna didn't say it, but I'm pretty sure this means they've abandoned us. I hate to say it, but without them the griffons really, really outnumber us."

"You have no proof of that," Thunderlane said to Rainbow. "They could've got caught up by some griffons or something, and had to fly away to escape them."

"For the last ten hours?"

"Uh..." Thunderlane looked up and bobbed his head side to side as he thought, "Okay, that does make what I said less plausible. But do you really think they'd abandon us?"

"Sure," said Lightning. "If I was in their position, I'd want to get away from the Mareitanians too."

"I guess," Thunderlane drawled. "What does this mean for us though? Other than we're now totally fucked in a fight against the griffons that is."

"I have no idea," Rainbow sighed. "Maybe we should just wish them luck, and hope they get away."

"Maybe we should do the same?" Cloud said quietly, only to cringe as they all looked at her. "I'm not being serious! It's just... we're kinda screwed now. It feels like we're fighting just for the sake of it when we already know that we're going to lose."

"We just need to hold on to Canterlot until Twilight gets back with something that can beat Faust," said Rainbow. "Once that happens, everything'll be fine."

"You keep saying that, but Princess Twilight isn't back, and everything isn't fine! I hate to be the one to say this, but maybe she won't come back at all, and even if she does, who says she'll be able to beat Faust? We're pinning all our hopes, and our survival, on a pretty slim hope here Rainbow. Maybe the Exiles have the right idea, getting out while they can."

Rainbow stared at Cloud, but the mare wouldn't meet her eyes, or the eyes of any of them. Vapor stayed quiet, and Thunderlane just sighed as Lightning watched from the side. None of them were arguing against her. "Are you seriously telling me you think she's right?"

"I don't," said Lightning. "Sure things look bad, but we need to stick together if we're going to make it through this."

"Wonderbolts never give up," Vapor said in agreement.

"No, they just die instead," Cloud said bitterly. She immediately realised what she'd said, and held her hooves to her mouth as she looked wide-eyed at Vapor. "I didn't mean it like that! I didn't!"

Maybe you should just go," Rainbow said to Cloud.

"But-"

"Go." Cloud looked like she was about to refuse, but eventually hung her head and wandered out. Rainbow looked at Thunderlane and gestured with her head in the direction Cloud had gone. "Go talk to her, yeah?"

"Sure."

Rainbow smiled after the stallion, then sagged into the seat next to Lightning. "Well this is just great."

"She'll come around," Lightning said encouragingly.

"I hope so. If she goes, Thunderlane will probably go with her, and then we'll be in trouble." Rainbow rested her head on a hoof, then sighed as she heard a sniffle. "You okay Vapor?"

"I-" Vapor squeaked before her voice broke. Rainbow sighed again, as there was no better way in existence that summed up exactly how she felt.


-0-0-0-


"As if we didn't have enough troubles before!" Luna groaned as she paced around the war room, Celestia sat nearby, along with Fleur, General Stormguard, and a few others. "Without the Exiles, our air forces will be utterly overwhelmed by the griffons."

"Perhaps if you took to the air to assist them Luna?" Celestia said. "You're presence would do much to help against the griffons."

"We shall have to do something to level the field, if only a little. Gah!" Luna stopped and turned one hundred and eighty degrees, then continued pacing. "What is our enemy up to now Fleur?"

"They've moved into Manhattan, while the griffons occupy Fillydelphia and Baltimare. They seem to be leaving Hollow Shades alone for now though, although the fact that there's nothing useful there might be the reason for that. Ponyville seems to be becoming a prisoner of war camp, except with no military prisoners, and yeah, that's all I have right now."

"So they're making no moves towards Canterlot?"

"None that we can see at the moment."

"Good! Good. Any news from Shining Armour concerning our supply situation?"

General Stormguard nodded slowly, "Yes, but it's not entirely good news. At the moment he's managed to secure two months of food, but only if we ration it. Due to the loss of land in the war, and time of year, we can't take more than what is needed by ponies to survive the winter. He hopes to find enough to cover three months, but past that we have nothing."

"If we manage to last that long it'll be a miracle," Luna muttered. Louder she said, "Very well. We shall have to make do with what we can get, even if times do get hard for us. Hopefully we can have this resolved before then."

"I do wish Twilight hadn't lost her speaker stone," Celestia said. "It would be easier to plan this if we had a timescale from her."

"Alternatively, we could also find out that she could take months longer than we thought," Fleur interjected. "This strategy would be pointless in that case."

"That seems unlikely," Luna argued. "She should be well into the Circen desert by now, and should soon have the final pieces she needs to forge a portal to Starswirl's retreat."

"Even then, it would still take time to find what we need," said Celestia. "Our failure to defend Equestria has only compounded the issue."

Luna ceased her pacing as she bridled at Celestia's words. "Beg pardon if our best efforts don't live up to your standards dear sister. I'm sure our fallen would appreciate knowing their Princess considers what they died for a 'failure,' especially considering that you've spent the entire war hiding here in the safety of Canterlot."

Celestia patiently held her gaze against Luna's, "Apologies. What would you call it?"

"Anything that doesn't involve the word failure." Luna huffed at Celestia, then resumed pacing. "You are right though. The attack on the Crystal Empire shattered a plan that was already failing after two days. We were supposed to hold them for weeks at the Bulwark, not mere days."

"If we hadn't assumed they were finding new mining locations we could have avoided that," said Fleur.

"Perhaps. The way between the Crystal Empire and Mareitania wasn't considered when it should have been, although perhaps a suggestion from some of my Night Guard from Caverndown might have been helpful in reminding us of it."

"Who would have thought that keeping the Duke on his throne was holding all this back?" Fleur sighed. "It's almost too stupid to be true."

"Almost as stupid as the thing Platinum did to build Equestria is also the thing that's tearing it down," Celestia agreed.
There was a short knock at the door, and with a prompt from Luna it was opened to let in both Captains Spitfire and Greywhisker.

"Sorry we're late," Spitfire said, saluting her superiors, while Greywhisker bowed to Luna. "We suspected that the Exiles had abandoned the war, and decided to investigate."

"Find anything useful?" asked Luna.

"They've gone south, beyond the Badlands as far as we can tell. I thought there was little more than desert out there, so Celestia knows where they intend to go."

"No I don't," Celestia muttered.

"At any rate, they've gone," Spitfire concluded.

"As suspected," said Luna. "Thank you for your efforts Captain, you may go rest if you wish."

"There's more. While we were flying close to the Badlands, we saw a large concentration of changelings. They appeared to be constructing defences."

"Oh?" Luna raised her eyebrows, genuinely surprised. "Queen Chrysalis has never done such a thing before. Does she feel threatened by Faust perhaps?"

"Defences aren't her usual method," Celestia said, sounding concerned. "I would consider her more likely to hide than fight."

"Is Faust even aware of the changelings?" Fleur enquired. "I was under the impression her imprisonment predated them."

"Twilight's letter did say that Faust worried the changelings, but to the degree that it would cause such a radical change in their behaviour?" Celestia shook her head, "What kind of defences were they building Captain?"

"They'd filled in the canyon entrance to the Badlands, and were constructing a staggered defence quite a long way back. We couldn't investigate much further because something was making it hard to fly there."

Celestia tapped a hoof to her chin, "Intriguing."

"If you're about to suggest an alliance between us and the changelings," Luna said quickly, "I suggest you keep it to yourself. Chrysalis would probably do as much damage as Faust would. Assuming her changelings could even turn the tide, it still wouldn't be worth it."

"I doubt Chrysalis would be doing what she was if she didn't know we were losing." Celestia shrugged, "I have no real desire to ally with the changelings, just as she likely has no wish to ally with us. As you said Luna, they'd be more trouble than it's worth, and the price for Chrysalis' allegiance far too high."

"Speaking of allies," said Luna. "Have we heard anything off King Garland of Mustangia? It seems like we have not heard off our erstwhile allies for some time, despite their forces aiding us here."

Celestia pulled a face, "I imagine that he knows Mustangia will share the same fate as Equestria if we lose. I also imagine it possible that Mustangia would surrender before Faust would have a chance to invade."

"So he voices his regret in allying with us by being silent." Luna laughed bitterly, "I'm sure there are better things he could be doing."

"The fate of Mustangia isn't something we can worry about since their fate is somewhat tied to ours." Celestia stood and lowered her head in a small bow to the others in the room. "Since we have no strategy to discuss right now I will excuse myself. I have something important I wish to discuss with somebody."

The rest of the room save Luna, bowed in return as Celestia left. It was a minute after she left that something occurred to Fleur. "What did she mean by somebody?"


-0-0-0-


"I'm not sure this is the best idea," Cadence worried as she followed after Celestia. "He's always been rather touchy on the subject of his mother."

"And that's unfortunate, but there are things I wish to know that he could give me the answers to."

Cadence slowed as they came up to a rather nondescript doorway in a seldom used part of the castle. "Just try to be gentle then, please?"

"Of course I'll be gentle Cadence. Good grief, I only wish to ask him some questions, not interrogate him."

"Right, sorry, I'm just- Sorry."

Celestia turned to her niece and gave the pink alicorn a smile, shifting it to the smaller alicorn on her back. "You don't need to apologise, just as you don't need to worry about what I'm going to do. You can return to your room once I've found him if you wish."

Cadence shook her head, "No, I need to start being part of things, instead of taking a back seat while others do everything for me. I'll stay." Cadence pushed her magic into the lock of the door and twisted it, unlocking and opening the door into a living room that was in far better condition than the hallway outside it would suggest. A opening in one side led into a small kitchenette, through which a blue pony trotted.

"Ah! Your Highnessesses!" Honeydew exclaimed at seeing who had entered. "I wasn't expecting you, or anypony really. Is there something you need?"

"Don't worry Honeydew, we're here to see our other guest," Celestia said gently. "Could you come out please Thorax?"

There was a flash, and a small potted plant was wreathed in green flame for a second before transforming into the black, chitinous form of a changeling, with the slight distinction that his wings were glittery compared to a normal changelings'.

"Hi," the changeling said nervously, in the kind of voice you expected from a pony, rather than a shapeshifting bug thing.

"Hello Thorax," Celestia said pleasantly. "I trust everything is going fine between you and Honeydew?"

"Marvellously!" Honeydew gushed excitedly. "I don't know why anypony could be afraid of these delightful creatures when they have such utility!"

Celestia leaned back a little, her mind going places at the word 'utility.' "Uh..."

Honeydew cleared her throat, going red with embarrassment. "Sorry, that was your question Thorax."

Thorax smiled at Honeydew, then turned it on Celestia. "Things are fine. It's nice to have company again."

"Good, I'm glad." Celestia cleared her throat awkwardly as Flurry flew up and dived into Thorax's legs, hugging the changeling as he hugged her back. "I know this isn't your favourite subject, but I need to talk to you about your mother."

"Oh. Okay. Is she doing something wrong?"

"Not as far as we can tell. I was wondering if there were any plans put in place if the Badlands were ever invaded?"

"Not really."

"Oh? Not at all?"

Thorax shook his head and shrugged, "Who'd want to attack there?"

"A fair point, but there must be some way of defending the hive, surely?"

"There is the no magic zone. Anything using magic to attack us is going to have a hard time when Chrysalis' throne takes that magic away. Then there's the hive, which changes almost constantly. Only a changeling can navigate it."

"Chrysalis' throne can negate magic?" Celestia asked before the conversation moved on past the point. "All magic?"

"I think so? Ponies can't fly or use magic in a pretty big area around the hive."

"I was aware of the no magic zone, but I hadn't realised its source was a creation of Chrysalis'. Does it negate all kinds of magic?"

"Maybe? I don't know. Pony magic certainly, and maybe others, but I've never seen anyone there to find out. I know it doesn't stop changeling magic though."

"Hmm, interesting. So that's the only defences it has?"

"Yes. Well, that and Chrysalis' tatzlwurms."

Cadence gawped at Thorax, "Those are hers?"

"They are. Why? Have you seen one?"

"Twilight and I did have a bit of a run in with one once. Honestly, it was rather scary."

"They're dangerous too. They can eat a pony in one bite. Anything trying to attack the hive is going to have to be either good, or lucky to get past the tatzlwurms without being able to fly."

"And yet Chrysalis is concerned enough to build defences," Celestia said to herself. "You might think she knows something we don't."

"The Queen's building defences?" Thorax cocked his head at Celestia. "Really? Why would she do that? Is this to do with those Mareitanians?"

Celestia nodded, but she knew it was more to do with Faust than the Mareitanians. Thorax had made it pretty clear that any invading army would have a pretty terrible time of it, so that negated the need for defences, and yet they were being built to stop ponies on hoof, which Faust wasn't, unless Chrysalis' throne could negate her magic too. Chrysalis really wanted to keep the Mareitanians out, or did she? What if she was stopping the refugees from going south instead?

Celestia suddenly really hoped the Exiles had the sense to realise they couldn't fly through the Badlands, and didn't get captured. At the very least Thorax had satisfied her suspicions about Chrysalis' actions for now. "Thank you for your time Thorax."

"Oh, uh, you're welcome."

The three alicorns quickly made their farewells and left, stopping outside the door once it was relocked. Cadence was the first to speak.

"You're plotting something aren't you. You want to talk to Chrysalis."

"I know this isn't what we need or want, but right now, fighting a common enemy could be thing we need to finally end this conflict we have with the changelings. This could be our chance to truly make peace with them."

Cadence sighed at the suggestion. "As much as I don't want to agree with her, Luna is probably right that this is far more trouble than it's worth. Don't do this Celestia."

Celestia held her stance for a while, but eventually relented. "Very well. Heavens knows it's probably far too little, far too late at this point, but if both you and Luna feel so strongly about it, I'll let it go."

"Thank you Celestia. The last thing we need are more problems piled onto the ones we have already. I'm already dreading how this will go without Chrysalis' trickery to contend with."

"Does that mean you don't think that holding Canterlot for a while will work?"

"Celestia, she tore through my shield, which was empowered by the Crystal Heart, like it was paper. Right now the Heart is only operating at a fraction of its power. How long do you really think that'll last against her?"


-0-0-0-


Fleur sagged behind her desk and pushed her mane back, holding it there until she'd had a decent chance to sigh explosively. Once she had she laid her head on the desk and kept it there until she was disturbed by the presence of Celia and caffeine.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. I figured your meeting wouldn't go well."

"And what could possibly make you think that?"

"I've reviewed Luna's new strategy, for fun mostly, and while I don't have any tactical objections to it, Canterlot just isn't a fortress, and sticking some defensive positions up doesn't make it one. It is a city, with ponies uninvolved in the war living here. She should have found somewhere else to use as her last stand."

Fleur pulled herself back upright and drank deeply from her coffee. "The problem there is that Canterlot is a symbol. We lose Canterlot, we pretty much lose the war, and Faust knows that. She'd probably go for Canterlot before going after Luna. Besides, there's nowhere else in Equestria with anywhere near the defensibility of Canterlot."

"No, I suppose not." 

"In lieu of that, I don't suppose you have any good news do you? Got anything out of Snowbright yet?"

Celia shook her head, the pout on her lips showing her frustration. "Nothing. Either he's really good at this, or he really doesn't know anything. I'm not sure I want to believe that though."

"I wouldn't," said Fleur. "I refuse to believe he's done all of this just for the challenge of defeating us. Mind control or not, he must have some greater stake in all this, and must be at least a little aware of Faust's intentions."

"Actually, I have a different theory."

Fleur spread her hooves and gestured at Celia, "I'm all ears."

"Don't you find it odd that as soon as Snowbright gets captured, the war takes a turn for the worse? Without Snowbright, Faust suddenly realises that she significantly outnumbers us to the point that she can overwhelm us on three different fronts? Why wasn't it like that before? Why didn't Snowbright do the exact same thing?"

"So... what? Are you suggesting that Snowbright was stopping the Mareitanians from overrunning us in a matter of days?"

Celia shrugged, "I know it sounds stupid, but it doesn't sound like something that would happen unless it was being done on purpose. The Mareitanians have the numbers, so why wasn't he using them?"

"I'm sure he had his reasons. So far Celia you've only given me an observation and some speculation. Where's the theory part of this?"

"What if he was intentionally trying to sabotage Faust's war by holding his forces back?"

Fleur snorted with mirth, "I had a feeling you'd say that. Unfortunately, the only pony that knows is Snowbright, and he doesn't seem to want to be saying anything. Chances are he'd only say he wanted to make it a fair fight, which would make his victory sweeter for him."

"Even though he would still outnumber us to the point he could beat us through attrition?"

Fleur nodded, "Yup. I hate to say it Celia, but I don't find your theory very convincing. The only reason I could see him doing that was if he was buying time for something as well, but he seems far too firmly under Faust's hoof to want to undermine her."

"I suppose. Maybe you should go talk to him again. Seeing you might make him talkative."

Fleur was about to say she didn't want to, even though she had no reason not to beyond a wonderful desire to buck him squarely between his back legs. "Alright then." Fleur stood sharply, "Let's go do that."


-0-0-0-


The atmosphere in the castle wasn't pleasant as Fleur trotted through it, coffee cup held firmly at the ready. News was spreading quickly about all that had happened, and a fog of nervousness had fallen over everything. The war was coming to Canterlot, and everypony knew it.

It was almost a relief to get to the dungeons after that, and Fleur felt the urge to sigh happily as she and Celia trotted through the grey stone passages.  They headed straight towards Snowbright's cell, but Fleur was waylaid as a purple face pressed against the bars in the door of her cell and spoke to her.

"Hey, can I talk to you? Please?"

Fleur rolled her eyes, and gestured for Celia to continue while Fleur went to go see what this pony wanted.

"Can I help you Miss Glimmer?"

Starlight Glimmer looked up at Fleur through what had once been a straight cut fringe, but was now rather overgrown after her time imprisoned down here. "You're torturing him, aren't you?"

Fleur rolled her eyes and turned to leave, "Nice talking to you Miss Glimmer."

"Wait! That's not what I wanted to talk about. I've heard rumours that you're losing the war, and that Canterlot will be under attack soon."

Fleur waited a moment, then raised an eyebrow at Starlight. "And?"

"And? And you can't keep me here while Canterlot's being invaded!"

"Why not?"

"Wh- What do you mean why not? I don't want to end up in the hooves of the Mareitanians any more than you do! If you let me go, I'll help you get the information you want out of that Snowbright character. What do you say?"

Fleur looked up at the ceiling and laughed tiredly, "Wow."

"Why are you laughing?"

"Starlight Glimmer, while you might think we've forgotten about you down here while the war's been going on, let me assure you we haven't. You're a dangerous criminal responsible for the brainwashing of an entire town of ponies, the theft of their cutie marks, attempted murder, and attempted regicide, which is funny when you think about it because the princesses are immortal. Anyway, when they put you down here, it was for a good reason."

"I was helping those ponies!"

"So you say, but you're offering to help with somepony that can't be helped."

"But I can help you with him! I know how brainwashing works, and-" Starlight winced at her own words, "-and that sounded better in my head. My point is that I can help you with him."

"Or you could kill us all and escape, thinking we'll be too busy with the war to come after you."

"I wouldn't do that!" Starlight insisted, her voice as desperate as her expression.

Fleur could actually feel the honesty in Starlight's words, but that didn't seem like a good enough reason to give in to what she wanted. "I'm sorry Starlight, but only the princesses could pardon you now, and I doubt they'll be doing that no matter what you offer. Besides, if things go to plan, the Mareitanians will never come near you."

"Please! I'm begging you!"

"I'm sorry Starlight." Fleur walked away, ignoring the quiet sobs and pleas coming from Starlight, and wondering why she'd finally said this to her today, when before she'd only ever been silent.

Celia gave Fleur a small smile as she entered Snowbright's cell, the stallion in question stood reared up with his hooves pressed against the wall as he shivered and sweated. An older stallion stood behind him, a lazy grin on his grey face as he used his magic to correct Snowbright's stance.

"Isn't that your dad?"

"It is," Celia confirmed with a faint blush. "I needed to contract outside of Equis to do this since our numbers are low, and my dad was an agent of Smile too. He's the one that taught me to do this."

The stallion bowed to Fleur, "Pleasure to meet you Director. I especially enjoy the way you managed to move from centre spreads in magazines to being the head of Equestrian Intelligence. Not many could pull that off without serious bribery."

"Best part is I didn't even want the job," Fleur muttered back. "So, do you have a lot of practice at this?"

"Enough. I used to train ponies in Smile how to both perform, and resist, this kind of activity. I could have them singing sweet Celestia over the rooftops in less than a day, so you can imagine how impressed I am with young Snowbright here."

"The ponies I knew would have gouged my eyes out by now to try and get me to talk," Snowbright said, still facing the wall.

"He does say the loveliest motivational speeches."

"Uh-huh." Fleur traced her eyes over the muscles in Snowbright's back, taking in every little detail. It was quite a pleasant view. "So, Snowbright, since Faust's not here to stop you, fancy telling us why you only ever attacked us with smaller groups? Or why it took so long to get around to attacking us at all? You could've beaten us easily in the time it took us to build an army."

"Up yours Fleur."

"Not today darling. Now, I asked you a question."

Snowbright giggled disconcertingly, "You can ask Faust herself when she gets here. I know she's coming. How could she not be? You can't stop her."

"I'm pretty sure you're going to need sleep before then Snowbright." Fleur leaned in close to whisper in Snowbright's ear, "How about you just tell me before I go Mareitanian on your testicles?"

"It's a test! Everything's a test eventually."

"Go on..."

"I know you know that I know you know about Faust wanting to conquer the world. It's not going to be easy though. Ponies need to be made ready for war, both physically and mentally. Equestria wasn't ready on either of those things. Now you are."

"So you're saying that this has all been to prepare our ponies for war?"

"The right mindset is important. You were too peaceful before, and had to be introduced to conflict, otherwise Faust's greater war would break you all."

Fleur closed her eyes and nodded slowly, "Snowbright, stop making shit up. If you're going to lie to me, at least try to be convincing."

"Aww, I thought I was doing well too."

"What if I told you Mareitania is dying?"

Snowbright tried to turn to look at Fleur, but Celia's father quickly forced him to keep staring at the wall using his magic. "I'd say you're lying."

"Faust hasn't been back there for the better part of a month, and hasn't performed her weather duties in as long. Your benevolent leader is letting Mareitania rot under constant cloud cover worse than the Duke ever made. She doesn't care about you or Mareitania at all."

"Shut up."

"Eventually your ponies will starve, and Mareitania will fall again through simple negligence from a pony you all fawn over as a god. Doesn't sound like a god worth following to me."

"I said shut up!"

"Why do you insist on protecting Faust when she doesn't care about you at all? Just tell me what I want to know, and you can finally rest, which is more than Faust would offer you."

"I don't know! None of us do!"

"Not good enough!"

"She wants Celestia! She wants Equestria intact, and she wants Celestia!"

Fleur raised an eyebrow at that, "Why?"

"I don't know. What happened to the rest of the alicorns was irrelevant so long as she got Celestia. There were plans to imprison them, especially Luna, but Faust wants Celestia and Equestria more. If she got those two things the rest could wait."

"You're aware that Celestia is her daughter?"

"Yes!"

"Then why does she want Celestia?"

"I don't know! I really don't know! I was cautious with invading Equestria because I had specific instructions that as few ponies be killed as possible, even if it cost our ponies more. Equestria had to be kept mostly intact! And it was all to do with Celestia!"

"And not just for her further conquests?" Fleur stepped back as Snowbright sagged to the ground, and stopped Celia's father as the unicorn moved to force Snowbright back into his position. "This really isn't just about using Equestria, is it? There's more to this, and it relates to Celestia."

"That's what I just said!" Snowbright cried, his composure crumbling.

"Answer me this then. Does Faust want Celestia, or does she want her daughter?"

"Aren't those the same thing?"

"Depends on how you look at it. Does she want Princess Celestia, the centuries long ruler of Equestria? Or her daughter, lovingly conceived and cruelly stolen from her? One is a goal of conquest, the other a mother seeking her lost child. Which is it?"

"How could I possibly know that? It was bad enough that her personal agenda was interfering with the rest of our plans, but she never said why it was beyond wanting Equestria intact, Luna imprisoned forever, and Celestia in her possession."

"And yet you obeyed her wishes anyway."

"Of course." Snowbright squinted up at Fleur, "Why wouldn't I?"

"Right, forget I said that. Instead, tell me what you know of Faust's plans beyond Equestria."

"I've already told you that. She wants to unite the world under her rule and create perfect harmony. Seeing as how you Equestrians are into that, I have no idea why you're all fighting against it so hard."

"Because we think you're wrong about what Faust wants, but I suppose that's not your fault but hers."

"Or yours."

Fleur rolled her eyes at the comment, "Don't test me Snowbright. Seeing as how she has specifically mentioned something to both Twilight and Celestia called 'the plan,' and you know nothing about it, it really makes me think she's not telling you everything."

"You want me to keep working on him?" Celia's father asked.

"No thank you," Fleur said after a few moment's consideration. "He doesn't know anything we don't any more. Let him rest, and thank you for your services Mister..?"

"Tone Turn."

"Right, thank you Mr Tone Turn. We'll let you know if we need you again." Fleur smiled at the stallion as he left, then exited the cell with Celia as Snowbright crawled into his bed. She stopped outside and looked left, where she could see the sad eyes of Starlight watching her.

"Do you think he was telling the truth?" Celia asked.

"Yes, I do actually. Celestia couldn't bring Faust around to her way of thinking, so it wouldn't surprise me if Faust tried to bring Celestia around to hers."

"And if she succeeds?"

Fleur considered the possibilities, and didn't like them. Faust was dangerous enough on her own, but with Celestia on her side, and no Luna, Twilight, or even Cadence to oppose her, she'd be unstoppable. "Let's hope it never comes to that."
> 43. Final details
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sparks of static buzzed around Rainbow's wings as she and the rest of the Wonderbolts bore down on a flight of griffons that was harassing one of the convoys bring food supplies into Canterlot. It also happened to be one of the last ones coming in.

Rather than face a barrage of lightning, the griffons turned tail and fled, leaving the convoy alone to start the winding trail up the mountain to the city. Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief and let the energy dissipate from around her, leaving her wings tingling for a while.

Slowly they drifted back up to around the level of the city where they could keep an eye out for any further threats. The last couple of days had been quiet, even despite the fact that Faust's forces had spread all down the east coast, claiming the cities there as her own. It was only a matter of time before she turned her army towards Canterlot. Until then, all they had to deal with was the griffons harassing the supply convoys carrying the food that would see them through a months long siege.

"Pegasi incoming," Lightning said, pulling Rainbow's attention back to the present. "Looks like Air Corps, four squardrons."

"Aren't they supposed to be protect... ing..." Thunderlane started to ask, then realising the answer to his own question. "Shit."

"Let's go meet them," Lightning said, pulling away from the mountain to intercept the incoming pegasi, many of which appeared bloodied and haggard. "What happened? Why aren't you with your convoy?"

"There is no convoy, not anymore," the stallion in front answered, who wore the stripes of a squadron leader. "Griffons ambushed us around Rumbling Rock Ridge and destroyed the entire thing with fire bombs. We tried to put up a fight, but it pretty clear we weren't going to save it, so we pulled out."

"Right." Lightning cursed quietly to herself. "Head to Canterlot and report to General Armour. He'll give you your orders."

"Yes ma'am." The stallion saluted Lightning and flew down towards Canterlot. It wasn't hard to see the rather hopeless and despondent looks the pegasi wore as they passed by.

"This is getting ridiculous," Lightning said once they were gone. "Those griffons are everywhere."

"Everywhere except Canterlot and Cloudsdale," said Thunderlane. "I know nopony wants to hear it, but we're pretty much surrounded now."

"That was the plan," said Rainbow, "so yeah. Hopefully that little project Spitfire's cooking up in the weather factory can really help with holding the Mareitanians off."

"Did she even mention what it was?" Cloud Chaser asked.

"No, but if Spitfire's behind it, it ought to be good."

"Here's hoping. Anyway... speaking of Cloudsdale, are any of you going to visit your families there, before this all kicks off?"

"Heck no," Rainbow answered quickly. "I haven't even told them I'm a Wonderbolt, let alone a soldier! And they'll totally freak when they see this!" Rainbow traced a hoof over her helmet where her scar would be. "Besides, I have plenty of other stuff to worry about."

"Such as?"

"Such as Ponyville! Come on Cloud, you have family there, and Flitter. Thunderlane's family is there too! Doesn't it bother you that the place is practically a prison camp now?"

"Of course it does, but there's nothing we can do, so there's no point in winding myself up and agonising over it." Cloud sighed heavily, "As much as I want to. But that's why I'm saying this! Don't you think you should go see your families while you still can?"

"Why do you even care so much?" Lightning said suspiciously. "The other day you were talking about running away from the war. Now you want us to go see our families before we get trapped here?"

"Because you have that chance, and maybe you should take it," said Thunderlane, an angry edge to his voice that wasn't there before. "I'd give anything to see my family now, and here you are refusing to see yours."

"My family's in Stratusburg," Vapor said weakly. "I can't see them either. Not that I think I could, not without seeing Sky's family as well. I don't think I could explain to them why... why Sky's gone..."

Rainbow chewed her bottom lip, "Uh... call me ignorant if you have to, but where is Stratusburg?"

"It's a district on the outskirts of Baltimare," Vapor told her. "It's kind of like its own town, but at the edge of a city. It's a bit of a mix of ground and sky buildings."

"Oh. Guess that explains why you can't... yeah." Rainbow withheld a sigh, thinking it might not be appreciated. The fact was that she didn't want to go visit her parents. Not because she hated them or anything, but because she just... didn't really like them. The support they showed surpassed normal levels for parents, and went flying off into creepy-town levels. Still, maybe the others had a point, and that she should see them while she could.

"I'm not sure my parents will appreciate me turning up," Lightning said while Rainbow was thinking. "We didn't exactly part on good terms after I got kicked from the Academy."

And suddenly her overly affectionate parents seemed like such a stupid thing to worry over. Rainbow knew that there were ponies that had it worse than her, and Lightning was apparently one of them.

"I'm sure they'll be happy to see you now you've turned yourself around," Rainbow said to Lightning. "You're so not the pony you were back then."

"I guess? I don't know. Maybe it would be better to just leave it."

"I think it's pretty obvious that you don't actually want to do that." Rainbow smiled at Lightning, "I'll tell you what. If you can stomach coming with me to see my parents, I'll come with you as you visit yours."

"You sure? I don't want to intrude on anything."

"Believe me, if there's something that could make this visit worse for me, it isn't going to be you."


-0-0-0-


Night fell, and with it the thestrals of the Night Guard emerged, taking over the patrolling of Canterlot, giving the Wonderbolts a break, and two of them the time to fly up to Cloudsdale.

Through a unanimous decision, they headed to Rainbow's family home first, Rainbow wanting to get the visit over and done with, and Lightning fine with that because she could put visiting her parents off quite happily.

Cloudsdale seemed quiet compared to usual. It wasn't even that late, so there should have still been plenty of ponies out and about, but whether it was due to the circumstances as to why they were floating over Canterlot, or otherwise, the city was still. The few ponies that were out flying did so quickly and quietly, like they were trying to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

The district where Rainbow's parents lived was equally quiet, but the lights shining through the windows was enough to tell the two Wonderbolts that Rainbow's parents were home. Rainbow headed towards the front door, then pulled up to fly a few laps around the house. "Okay, I need a minute to build up to this."

"Soooo..." Lightning said after the third lap, drawing out the word as long as possible, "what should I expect? I'm guessing something bad since we're just flying laps here."

"Not bad as such. Just expect them freaking out over me being a Wonderbolt, over me being a soldier, and especially over this." Rainbow pointed at the scar hidden behind her helmet. "I'm still freaking out over this at times."

"Okay, but shouldn't they already know you're a Wonderbolt though, and a soldier? That would probably be in the papers. The Wonderbolts being a prominent part at the start of the war certainly was."

"My parents don't read the papers." Rainbow rolled a hoof as she explained. "Something about a biased media peddling false news to an unwitting public," she said with a roll of her eyes. "My parents are kinda... liberal."

"Okay, but surely they know ponies that do read the paper, and one of them would be like, 'hey, congratulations on your daughter becoming a Wonderbolt!' Seems like something somepony would mention." 

Rainbow shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not. Honestly, I moved to Ponyville to escape them, and don't really know what they get up to at the best of times. They might know all about it, but I'd say not."

Lightning froze as a thought occurred to her, "Do they know there's a war on if they never read the paper?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't." Rainbow pulled out of their final lap and flew to the door. She raised a hoof to knock, holding it a inch from the door until Lightning sighed and knocked for her. "What are you doing? I wasn't ready!"

"Yeah, but we don't have all night."

Rainbow froze on the spot as the door opened. A mare coloured like herself, with the same magenta eyes stood behind it, the only real difference between them being Rainbow's lack of freckles, and the other mare's short orange mane and tail. The mare stiffened at the sight of the two uniformed Wonderbolts.

"Can I help you?"

"Huh? Oh, right." Rainbow unclipped her muzzleguard and pushed her goggles up to show her face, complete with nervous smile. "Hi mom."

"Rainbow? Rainbow!" Omigosh-omigosh-omigosh! It's you!"

"Sure is! Heh heh..."

"Bow! Rainbow's here!"

"She is! I thought that knocking sounded too awesome for the average pony!" Rainbow face-hoofed as her dad ran to the door, the shirt he wore with his daughter's cutie mark on in full view. The blue coat and bright rainbow mane and tail was usually enough to confirm them being related, but that wasn't enough for him. "There's my champ!"

"Hi dad, nice to see you still have that shirt..." Beside her, Lightning pointedly cleared her throat, her own goggles and muzzleguard having been removed. "Oh right. Lightning, this is my dad Bow Hothoof, and my mom Windy Whistles. Mum and dad, this is Lightning Dust, my Squadron Leader."

"Squadron leader?" Windy asked. "What squadron? Is this to do with why you're dressed like that?"

"It does, yes. Can we come in? There's some stuff I want to talk about."

"Sure," Windy said, sounding unsure. She stepped back to let the two Wonderbolts in, then shut the door behind them. "Are you thirsty honey? Would you like something to d-" Windy stopped and gawped at Rainbow's uniform, noticing the Wonderbolts patch on her side. "That's a Wonderbolt patch. Dashie, are you a Wonderbolt?"

"Uh, yeah, yes I am-ack!" Rainbow squeaked as her parents crashed into her sides, crushing her between them in a hug. "Can't breath!"

"You did it champ!" Bow cheered. "You became a Wonderbolt! Just like you always said you would!"

"We knew you could do it Dashie!" Windy added.

"Still can't breath!"

Lightning smirked at Rainbow, then turned her attention to the room she was in. It was of some concern to her that the few surfaces in the place that weren't covered in princess memorabilia, instead had some kind of picture of Rainbow on it, either as a foal or a bit older. There seemed to be none particularly recent either, and she suspected she knew why. Her parents had been supportive in their way, but Windy Whistles and Bow Hothoof took it to levels she hadn't known existed.

"Get off of me!" Rainbow shouted, finally pushing her parents off and gasping for much needed air. "Really you guys, calm down."

"But we're just so happy for you," said Windy. "You're finally living your dream!"

"And you're not the slightest bit curious about why I'm wearing an armoured combat suit?"

"I just assumed the Wonderbolts had changed their uniform."

"To include hoof blades?" Rainbow gave her mother an even look. "Really?"

"Are you trying to tell us you're fighting in the war?" Bow said slowly, and very carefully. "You volunteered?"

"The Wonderbolts are a military unit," Rainbow explained. "The moment I joined them I pledged myself to protecting Equestria. Not that I wouldn't anyway, but y'know." Rainbow sat and pulled her helmet off, showing her parents the full extent of the scar on her face.

"What the hell is that?!" Windy screamed, rushing over to Rainbow and grabbing her head in her hooves to inspect the scar closely.

"That's my first war scar," Rainbow said with obviously fake cheer. "Aren't you going to celebrate it?"

"I- What? No! Dashie, your face..."

"I know, it's hideous."

"It is not hideous," Bow said quickly as Rainbow's face turned downwards. "A classic over the eye scar like that, it's actually pretty cool." Bow stepped up to Rainbow and pulled her into a hug gentler than before, "You're still our perfect, beautiful Dashie, and we couldn't be prouder of you for defending Equestria. Right Windy?"

"Absolutely," Windy agreed, joining the hug. "You could lose a leg and a wing and you'd still be our beautiful little Dashie. Although, you should probably try to not let that happen, 'kay?"

"Okay." Rainbow sank into the hug this time, surprising herself with not just enjoying it, but by how much she needed it and hadn't known. "Thanks guys."

After a minute Rainbow pushed them off again, and finally saw the way Lightning was looking at her with a mix of smirk, actual happiness, and possibly a little envy. "Right, yes, uh... did I introduce Lightning Dust, my Squadron Leader?"

Bow nodded at his daughter, "You did yes, and I'm sure you're the best flier in her squadron."

"Oh absolutely!" Lightning said before Rainbow could correct her fathers assumptions, grabbing his wing in her own and shaking it vigorously. "She might just be the best Wonderbolt ever!"

"She might?" Bow squeaked.

"She might, yes. You two should be so proud for raising such an amazing flier, and pony. She's a credit to you, the Wonderbolts, and the entirety of Equestria!"

"We are proud!" Bow squeaked even louder, tears in his eyes. "We always knew our Dashie was destined for greatness."

"If anything you were aiming too low with mere greatness."

"We were?"

"Okay, that's enough," Rainbow said, smacking Lightning on the side. "If I was really that great I'd be the squadron leader, not you, even though I've been a Wonderbolt longer than you."

"Yeah well, you're still a great flier."

"Seriously Lightning, stop."

"So you always knew Rainbow was destined for greatness?"

"Grahh!" Rainbow groaned as Lightning continued egging her parents on.

"Of course we did!" Bow near shouted, before gasping excitedly. "We should show you her trophy room! Come on, follow me!"


-0-0-0-


Lightning left the trophy room slowly, letting the glaring lights and angelic singing that Bow had installed to the doorway fade into the background as she walked away with Rainbow right behind her. "They kept your first diaper. Your first, very likely used diaper."

"Yep," Rainbow sighed. "You can't blame the parents of an only child for being a little bit proud."

"And I thought Vapor had it bad."

"We do have that in common, yes."

"Funny thing is though, you have a lot of trophies from competitions I competed in. Yet I really don't remember seeing you back then, or your overly excitable parents. Guess I was only really interested in my own successes back then."

"Really?" Rainbow looked sideways at Lightning, "Spitfire, Fleetfoot, and Soarin was at some of those. Cloud Chaser too. You seriously don't remember?"

"Not really. Wait, Spitfire and the others were there?"

"Yeah."

"So they're like the same age as us, but became Wonderbolts way before us? Wow. Either we're not as good as we think we are, or they're way better than we ever were."

Rainbow levelled a hoof, "Eh." She walked a few steps then remembered something. "By the way, if you tell anypony about what you've seen here today, I will... do something. I'm not sure what, but it won't be pleasant for either of us."

"My lips are sealed."

"Good." Rainbow sighed and hung her head as they re-entered the living room, "Guess now it's time for the serious talk, once my folks are done polishing my trophies..."

"Don't worry Dashie, we're here," Windy sang as both she and Bow trotted into the room. "Do you want something to eat? Drink? Anything? I mean, we got these rationing book things today, but we still have plenty of stuff in if you want something to eat?"

"No thanks mum. I do need to talk to you though. I don't know if you've thought about why Cloudsdale's been moved towards Canterlot, but I kinda feel like I need to tell you that the war's not going great."

"Not going great?" Bow said to his daughter. "How can it not be going great with you on our side?"

"I'm just one pony dad!" Rainbow sighed and smoothed her mane down. "The fact is that Cloudsdale and Canterlot is all that's left now. The rest of Equestria has been lost, or surrendered. One or the other. The point is, the fighting's going to be here now, and I want you guys to be safe."

"You want us to be safe?" Windy gasped. "What about you?"

"I'll be fine. That said, if something does happen to me..." Rainbow shook the thought away. "Look, when the fighting starts I just want you to stay away from it, either here, or by taking shelter with the ponies from Canterlot in the mountain."

"Dashie..."

"Don't Dashie me dad! I know what's at stake here, and I know the cost of me messing up is pretty high, but I have to do this, I have to keep fighting until Twilight gets back and we can end this."

"Then all we can do is ask you to stay safe and come back to us," Windy said, tears in her eyes. "We love you Rainbow. Don't forget that."

Rainbow sighed, then smiled at her parents, "I won't."

"And we'll totally be rooting for you to kick the bad guys' asses," Bow added, punching the air with a hoof.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and pulled her parents into a hug, "Seriously, you guys better stay safe. Anyway, we need to go because we're going to go visit Lightning's parents as well, and time's pressing on." Rainbow released her parents and grinned at them, "Can't hog all the time to myself, right?"

Both Rainbow and Lightning put their helmets on as Bow and Windy opened the door, standing by it anxiously as the two Wonderbolts left. Both parties lingered a moment before Rainbow raced back, giving her parents one final embrace. "Bye guys."

"See you later Dashie," Bow said as Windy fought back tears.

Rather than wait for her parents to shut the door, which she knew they wouldn't do until she was out of sight, she flew on after Lightning Dust. "That wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be. I guess they're just scared."

"Like any parent would be in their situation. That room was still kinda weird though. Like an occult shrine dedicated to you."

"Ugh, don't remind me. It's kinda why I stopped talking to them. I don't need every little thing celebrated, or cheered, or... whatever! I could have a screaming argument with them, and they'd end up saying that I was the best at arguing or something stupid." Rainbow tried to put it out of her mind, but some of the images kept creeping back in. "Bleh. Anyway, what about your parents?"

"You'll see."

"Cryptic huh? Fine, I can wait."


-0-0-0-


Lightning Dust's family home was far from what Rainbow had imagined. She'd had this vision of a huge house with servants to care for Lightning's rather cold and uptight parents. Instead it was normal. Really normal. Maybe a little smaller than her own parents' place, but otherwise unremarkable. The fence needed a coat of paint, but that was it.

"Looks nice," Rainbow commented, sensing Lightning's reticence through her silence.

"Yeah, it is," Lightning responded flatly.

Rainbow looked at Lightning for a moment, then sighed. "Okay, I think that before we go any further you better explain yourself. You're acting like you hate your parents."

"I don't hate my parents."

"Then... what? Do they hate you?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know? How could you possibly not know? Lightning, you're really going to have to explain yourself here."

"Urgh, fine." Lightning drifted downwards until her hooves took her weight on the clouds of what pegasi would call their equivalent of a street, and sat, staring at her childhood home. "I love my parents Dash. Don't think that I don't. I wasn't very nice to them though."

"I sense a story coming."

Lightning barked a laugh, "I'll try to keep it short. We weren't very well off when I was young. My mum and dad both worked jobs just to get us by, and I was often left alone, or with relatives, or whatever. Not that I'm complaining, if that's what you're thinking.  My point is that my parents worked their flanks off to give us a decent life." 

"The thing is though, I could see it for what it was, and I was determined that I would never live like that, busting my chops on some menial job at the weather factory, or whatever, my whole life, just to pay the mortgage on a small place. I wanted more than that. I wanted to be a Wonderbolt, and have everything I ever wanted."

"I think I can see where this is going."

Lightning nodded, "My parents gave me every opportunity to help me achieve my goal, often going out of their way, and even skipping sleeping some days just to make sure I made it to my training, and competitions, and whatever. And I did well, and with that I grew arrogant, and I started to resent them, thinking they'd held me back by being so... poor."

"They put up with it though, and when I got accepted into the Academy they couldn't have been prouder. Their little Lightning was finally having her work pay off, and her dreams come true... and I blew it, all because of my attitude." Lightning snorted a laugh as Rainbow coughed awkwardly. "And because I was shown up by some rainbow maned fly-mare," she said with a grin. "Rightfully so."

"If it helps, I didn't intend for you to get kicked out," Rainbow said in a meek voice.

"I know, although I didn't think that at the time. Within a week of getting to the Academy I was kicked out, and I had no choice but to come back here. I raged at my parents about you, and how unfair it was, and how it was everyponies fault but my own, including them. I told them that they were never there for me, that they should've raised me better, that they shouldn't have been so poor. Worst of all, I think they believed me."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. I never really found out what they thought though, because I stole all the money in the house and left, determined that they weren't going to drag me down again. I blew that money on a crappy flat, just so I could have a roof over my head and food in my belly while I spent that time being angry over everything, when the problem was really me."

Rainbow laid a wing across Lightning's back, "You sorted yourself out now, and now you're ten times the mare you were back then."

Lightning turned her head away and huffed, "That doesn't take back what I said to them, or how I treated them. It certainly doesn't give back the bits I stole off them. I was awful to them, and all they ever did was their best for me."

"So basically you're drowning in guilt?" Lightning nodded morosely. "Understandable," Rainbow said, "but I really don't think hiding from them for the rest of your life is the answer you think it is."

"I'm afraid they'll hate me. Part of me insists that's stupid, but a lot of me says they should. I want to talk to my parents again Rainbow, but I keep telling myself they hate me, and that it might be easier to not see them and never know whether they really do or not."

Rainbow held her wing a little tighter around Lightning. "Yeah, my issues with my parents are actually pretty lame. Really though Lightning, by refusing to see them you're just hurting yourself, and them. If they gave everything for you so you'd have a good life, I'm pretty sure they can give you forgiveness as well. Especially once they see the pony you are now."

"I don't know Dash..."

"On the other hoof, I could always go in there and tell them you're dead so you never have to see them again."

Lightning jumped up, knocking Rainbow away. "Don't you even dare!"

"Then get in there."

"But I'm scared Rainbow."

"Then it's time to give you some really shitty guilt. There are a lot of ponies around Equestria right now that'll never have loved ones come home. You have the chance to do that, so do it for them if you can't do it for yourself. You almost died the other day, so I think seeing your parents before you do actually happen to die would be nice for them."

"You're right, that was some seriously shitty guilt."

"Sorry," Rainbow said, lowering her head a little. "If I'd thought of the second bit before the first bit, I wouldn't have said the first bit at all."

"You're not wrong though. If anything does happen to me they won't know that I'm sorry, and that I never meant it. I mean, I did mean it at the time, but I don't mean it now, y'know?"

"Okay, but you might want to phrase it better for them." Rainbow pointed a wing at the two ponies stood in the doorway of Lightning's childhood home. "I think they might have heard us."

"Lightning Dust?" the mare of the two said, stepping gingerly towards the two Wonderbolts. "Is that really you?"

"Uh, h-hi mom," Lightning said shakily to the amber coated and blue maned mare. "It's me," she added, pulling her helmet off to show her face, a face that slowly contorted into tears as the dam she maintained broke with little effort. "I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry! I was stupid, and arrogant, and I shouldn't have said what I did! I'm so sorry!"

"Shh, baby girl," the mare said, wrapping her legs around Lightning as the white coated and teal maned stallion that Rainbow could only assume was Lightning's father quickly trotted up to them. "It's okay. It's o-kay, we're just so glad to know you're alright."

"I'm sorry," Lightning cried, sobbing into her parents embrace to the point that Rainbow felt tears of her own welling up.

"Told you they wouldn't hate you."

"Hate you?" the stallion said in surprise. "Oh honey, we could never hate you."

"But I was so horrible to you, and I stole all that money, and- and-" Lightning choked, no longer able to get the words out as her throat closed up.

"Money can be replaced. You can't. We didn't know where you were, and we were so worried about you. We were terrified you were going to do something stupid-"

"What?" Lightning pushed herself up out of the hug. "You thought I was going to kill myself?"

"No! No, of course not, but we were very much in panic mode after you vanished."

"Then why didn't you try to find me?"

"Because we knew you didn't want to be found," said the mare. "We wanted to find you, but we both knew you needed to do whatever it was you were doing. There was no point trying to bring you to a place you didn't want to be, and you're a grown mare now, who can make her own decisions."

Lightning snorted a laugh, "I really don't deserve you guys. I can pay back the money by the way."

"The money was yours anyway," said the stallion. "We'd saved it up so you could sort yourself out once you became a Wonderbolt. That might not have happened, but the money was still yours."

Lightning sighed and leaned her head against her father, "I really, really don't deserve you guys."

Rainbow sat to the side, carefully minding her own business as the three ponies cried it out in the middle of the street. It wasn't until they broke the hug up that she decided to carefully clear her throat to remind them she was still there.

Oh, right." Lightning rubbed her eyes clear. "Rainbow, this is my dad Downdraft, and my mum Fairy Lights. Mum, dad, this is Rainbow Dash."

"Rainbow Dash?" Downdraft said suspiciously. "Isn't that the name of the pony that got you kicked out of the Academy?"

"I didn't mean for that to happen," Rainbow said quickly, moving around to place Lightning between herself and Lightning's parents.

"Mum, dad, stop. I'm the one that got me kicked out of the Academy. Me and my shitty attitude. Don't blame Rainbow for something she didn't do. She's forgiven me, and we're friends now."

"Totally! She's even my superior officer now!"

"Surperior officer?" Fairy Lights looked down at Lightning's uniform, like she'd only just noticed it. "That's a Wonderbolt patch. You're a Wonderbolt?"

"I'm a Wonderbolt," Lightning confirmed with a nervous chuckle. "I was given a chance to volunteer when the war started, and now I'm Squadron Leader Dust."

Downdraft turned his gaze back and forward between the two Wonderbolts, "I think we should go inside so you can tell us what's happened since you left."


-0-0-0-


Rainbow excluded herself from the conversation as Lightning told her parents all about what she'd done since that fateful night where she left them. It wasn't a conversation she felt she needed to be part of. Instead she looked around Lightning's former home, looking at the pictures that had the decency to not be wholly focused on Lightning.

All in all, the house was nice and cosy, and the work Lightning's parents had put into making it a home seemed to have paid off. In many ways it reminded her of- "Shit!" Rainbow cursed, grabbing her head in her hooves as she realised something.

"Excuse me?" Fairy Lights said curtly.

"Fluttershy's parents! I hadn't even thought about going to see them! They must be so worried about Fluttershy. Rrgh, stupid, stupid idiot!"

"We can go see them after if you want?" Lightning offered as Rainbow continued cursing herself. "We have time."

"Do we though? We're kinda burning time just doing this."

"Are you going to be able to let this go until you go and see them?"

Rainbow groaned, knowing that Lightning was right about that. "If you don't mind Lightning?"

"Nah, it's cool. I think Fluttershy's parents deserve to know what's going on with their daughter. Although I'm guessing they do know already, but, y'know, they might want to hear it off you."

"Hear what off me? That Equestria's losing the war and it might be a heck of a long time until they can see Fluttershy again? If ever? I'm not sure I really want to tell them that."

"Then don't."

"And lie to them instead? No chance." Rainbow waved a hoof a Lightning to stop her making suggestions. "You spend time with your parents, and I'll think about this."

"If you say so."

Rainbow turned her back on the three ponies as she tried to think of the best thing to do. There didn't seem to be a nice neutral solution where she could be honest with them without making the situation sound hopeless, and they deserved better than to have her lie to them. "Maybe I could go rescue Fluttershy. That'd probably be easier."

"I'm sure not going to see them would be the easiest solution," said Lightning.

"Huh? Oh, did I say that out loud?"

"Kinda, yeah."

Rainbow rubbed her eyes with a hoof, finally noticing how tired she was. Not going to see them and going to bed instead was a tempting idea, but she knew that she couldn't do that. Not yet. Instead she briefly turned an ear towards Lightning and her parents.

"Are you sure you won't leave and come back here?" Fairy Lights asked, her words desperate yet hopeful sounding. "We've just got you back. We don't want to lose you again."

"Sorry mom, but I can't. If Equestria is going to survive, we need everypony to do their part, no matter how scary it is."

"We're so proud of you honey," said Downdraft, squeezing his daughters shoulder. "For defending Equestria, and for reaching your dream of becoming a Wonderbolt."

"Thanks. I-um... I'm sorry about everything I did to you. It shouldn't have taken me this long to realise everything that you'd done for me."

"It's alright," Fairy Lights said earnestly. "You're our daughter, and we will always love you no matter what."

Lightning nodded, sighing. "I really wish I could stay, but if we're going to see Fluttershy's parents, and get some shuteye, we need to get moving. I promise I'll come see you again as soon as I can."

"We'd like that very much," said Fairy Lights.

Lightning stood and gently smacked Rainbow on the flank, "Come on Rainbow, we need to get moving."

Rainbow nodded, dragging herself to her hooves and stretching out her stiffness. She was about to head to the door when Fairy Lights came up to her.

"I want to thank you Rainbow Dash."

"Me? What did I do?"

"You got our daughter back to us, and for just being a friend to her, and giving her an example of the amazing pony she could be."

"Oh, she told you about that huh?" Rainbow blushed and rubbed the back of her head. "You're welcome, I guess-ah!" Rainbow squeaked as Fairy Lights embraced her, and had to fight certain instincts telling her this was an ambush, and that she should fight back.

"Thank you."

Rainbow smiled uneasily and waited to be let go, glaring at Lightning who was already at the door. She grinned at Rainbow as she walked past, Rainbow's cheeks blazing with embarrassment, then followed Rainbow out into the night.
"I promise I'll come back to visit as soon as I can."

"You'd better," Downdraft laughed. "Frankly, two years is a bit long between visits."

"Bye mum, bye dad," Lightning said as she took off, waving to them as they returned the farewells. She rolled level and flew up to where Rainbow was keeping ahead of her, and sighed happily.

"Feeling better now?"

"You have no idea. I should've done this ages ago."

"Told you they wouldn't hate you."

"Yeah alright, smartass. Save it for a pony that wasn't terrified of being rejected by the parents she took for granted before hurting them."

"Alright, I get it, parents are scary. Except Fluttershy's parents, which are the least intimida-" Rainbow's words were lost as a rumble of thunder echoed around the city, coming from the weather factory. "Sheesh. I don't know what Spitfire's cooking up in there, but I get the feeling we should all be completely terrified."

"Is this one of those 'good job she's on our side' situations?"

"Probably. At the very least we should hope that there's no risk of friendly fire."

"No such thing," said Lightning. "Anyway, back to the point. What were you saying about Fluttershy's parents?"

"That it's pretty obvious where Fluttershy gets her... Fluttershy-ness, from."

"Okay, cool," Lightning said with a firm nod, then shrugged. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't actually know Fluttershy, remember?"

"Believe me, it's all in her name."


-0-0-0-


The weather factory produced a few more rumbles of thunder by the time they had made it to their destination. The house was mostly in darkness, save for a faint glow coming from one of the windows. Rainbow was going to assume that Fluttershy's parents had gone to bed, and that she shouldn't disturb them, when a shadow shaped like a pony passed over the curtains.

"Here goes," Rainbow muttered, knocking on the door. She removed her helmet as she waited, although it wasn't long until the door was opened by a mare that looked a lot like Fluttershy, save for the darker, nearer red mane done up in curls. "Hi Mrs Shy."

Mrs Shy adjusted the glasses on her nose, "Rainbow Dash? Oh my goodness, it's so good to see you! Dearest, Rainbow Dash is here!"

A stallion trotted into view, pale green with a wispy white mane. "My word Rainbow Dash, come in, please, both of you."

Rainbow smiled at the two ponies and entered the house, "Mr and Mrs Shy, I want you to meet Lightning Dust, my squadron leader."

"Of course, it's nice to meet you Lightning Dust," Mr Shy said, shaking Lightning's hoof. "Any friend of Rainbow Dash's is welcome here."

"Uh, thanks, that's... thanks."

"How about you all take a seat while I make some tea?" Mrs Shy said. Rainbow would've refused, but she knew that refusing would bother Mrs Shy more than making the tea ever would. "You should say hello to Zephyr as well. He's been terribly down since... well..." Mrs Shy swallowed her emotions back. "I'm sure seeing you would cheer him up."

Rainbow's stomach turned at the suggestion, but didn't say anything about it. She could shrug off Zephyr's shameless and unwanted flirting in this situation. She also supposed that it wasn't unreasonable for Zephyr to be here for once.

She found the turquoise form of Zephyr laid out on the couch as she entered the living room, staring forlornly up at the source of light in the room. Two candles were burning on either side of a picture of Fluttershy, a picture from much better times.

"Hey Zephyr."

"Hmm?" Zephyr blinked up at Rainbow, as if he'd only just noticed she was even in the room. "Oh, hey Rainbows."

Rainbow had expected more, but that was it. No flirting, no assuming Rainbow's love for him, or anything. Just a hello that made Rainbow suspicious. "I guess you miss Fluttershy too then."

"Yeah."

"I do too."

Zephyr pulled his gaze from the picture, finally focussing it fully on Rainbow. "Is that why you're here? Decided you need a squeeze from the Breeze to make your woes go away?" 

"No Zephyr," Rainbow said flatly. "I'm here-"

"Too bad for you then. I hate to say it Rainbow, but I'm just not sure I'm in the mood for your rampant flirtations. Normally the Breeze would be all yours, but my heart's just too broken right now. I mean I'm flattered, don't get me wrong, but you can't give me the kind of healin' I need."

"Never mind," Rainbow muttered, satisfied in a way that Zephyr wasn't too far gone. She took a seat and looked at the picture of Fluttershy, appreciating Fluttershy's smile in it. Fluttershy had a beautiful smile, when she dared to show it. "I miss her so much. I miss all my friends."

"You'll see them again," Lightning said to Rainbow.

"Yeah, but when?"

Lightning didn't answer, and continued not to as Mr and Mrs Shy returned with a tray of tea and biscuits, and took a minute to pour everypony a cup. Rainbow took hers in her hooves, sipping the beverage as the silence grew longer and thicker.

"So, Rainbow Dash," Mr Shy said after a while. "What brings you to our doorstep at so late an hour?"

"I just felt like I should. It's been months since Fluttershy was... taken, and I really should've been to see you sooner."

"We understand that you've been busy Rainbow," said Mrs Shy. "I know things haven't worked out well with the war, but we knew you'd be working hard to get our Fluttershy back."

Rainbow winced guiltily, "That's not what's happened though. Now we're just struggling to keep the Mareitanians at bay. I hate to say it, but Fluttershy won't be back for a while yet."

"Oh," both of them said sadly.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault Rainbow," Mrs Shy said as Rainbow felt her chest tightening. "We know you trying your best, but you can't blame yourself for what happened to Fluttershy."

"I should've been faster on the day she was taken. I- I-" Rainbow sighed, "I should've been there when she needed me."

"You've always been there when she's needed you. You were the greatest thing to ever happen to our Fluttershy, and you really shouldn't be blaming yourself for something you had no control over." Mrs Shy smiled at Rainbow, "Fluttershy wouldn't blame you either."

That did it for Rainbow. All the hurt she'd been suppressing after Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike had been kidnapped spilled out in a wave of tears, and she was embarrassed at poorly she could stop it. She'd come here to offer comfort to the Shy's, but instead it was them comforting her as they hugged her from both sides.

"It's alright Rainbow Dash," Mr Shy cooed as another rumble of thunder came from the weather factory, loud enough to hear through the walls. "Let it all out."

"I- I- I- Hrrk! I miss her so much! I miss all of them so much!" Still ashamed as she was at bawling like a foal, she did feel better, and it helped considerably that Lightning's eyes were the only ones still dry, and even then they were a little misty.
They remained as they were for a while, releasing the occasional sob that refused to remain silent. Rainbow had to say she didn't mind though, as what was going on was extremely cathartic. She wished they could've remained that way, but a crack of thunder that shook the house hard enough to knock the picture of Fluttershy off the mantelpiece grabbed their attention. Thankfully the quick reflexes of Lightning had her catching the picture before it landed.

"Good heavens!" Mr Shy exclaimed, hurrying over to the window to look through it at the weather factory. "What are they doing over there? It sounds like they're overloading the lightning capacitors."

"I know we're on break Rainbow, but I really think we ought to check this out."

"Yeah, no kidding." Rainbow smiled helplessly at the Shy's, "Sorry, but I guess I need to get going. Thanks for... all that."

"You're welcome Rainbow," Mrs Shy said. "You know you're almost like a second daughter to us, and that you're always welcome here." Mrs Shy flinched as the house shook again. "That said, maybe you should get moving while we still have a house for you to come back to."

"Right." Rainbow stuffed her helmet back on her head and ran for the door, Lightning right behind her. "Bye Mr and Mrs Shy! Bye Zephyr!"

"Bye Rainbow! Take care of yourself."

The air had a hint of ozone to it as they flew up high enough to see the weather factory. Random flashes were coming from inside it, and the entire building seemed to be glowing with an ominous blue aura. Deciding unanimously that a blue glow to a building was probably a bad thing, they both raced to the factory on the other side of the city.

"So..." Lightning said after a minute of flying. "What's the deal with you and the Shy's?"

"Where d'you think I went to get away from my parents? I spent a lot of time there."

"Okay, what about Zephyr?"

Rainbow shuddered at the name. "He thinks I'm denying my feelings for him. He thinks wrong."

"I see. If that's so, why call them Mr and Mrs Shy all the time?"

"Honestly, because I have no idea what their names are, and now I'm too embarrassed to ask. I'm talking over ten years of not knowing now. It's not a question you ask after that long."

Lightning chuckled at Rainbow, "That's just sad."

"Tell me about it."

They reached the weather factory, and dove in through the nearest open entrance, ignoring the looks they got from the other pegasi around. The entire building seemed to glow with an inner light, and their wings tingled with static as they followed the signs to lightning production.

They burst into the room, quickly stopping as they saw the storm of energy raging between two massive pylons that hung from the ceiling at diagonals. At first glance it seemed like it had gone wildly out of control, but if you looked at little longer you could see the energy was being funnelled downwards towards a tiny glass orb that was storing the energy, then being replaced with another as the last was taken away.

"Lightning Dust! Rainbow Dash! What are you doing here?" Both ponies winced at the sound of their commanding officer's voice, and turned towards Spitfire as she flew towards them. "And why are you in uniform?"

"Just being prepared in case something happens," Lightning said smoothly, snapping into a crisp salute.

Spitfire narrowed her eyes in suspicion, "...Alright, that's a good answer. It doesn't tell me what you're doing in Cloudsdale though."

"We were... visiting family, Captain."

"So you were going AWOL then? Again?"

"In our defence, you weren't there to provide permission, and in your absence I'm technically superior or equal in rank to the other Wonderbolts."

Spitfire held Lightning's gaze until the other mare started to sweat, then shrugged. "You're not wrong, but if I don't say you can leave Canterlot, don't leave Canterlot. Since you're actually more prepared for problems than the rest of us right now, I'll let it slide. This time, and this time only."

"Yes ma'am."

"Great! Now what are you doing here?"

"Beg pardon ma'am," said Rainbow, "but this place is creating thunder loud enough to shake the city. And the weather factory is kind of glowing, but the first issue is the biggest." Rainbow glanced around the apparatus in the room, "What are you doing here, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Something that'll help hold back the Mareitanians, while simultaneously sparing Canterlot from wanton destruction. I had the idea after you showed us how to throw lightning. You know how you store lightning in a bottle?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Right, well factory produced lightning is fairly weak, and is mostly for show. The stuff we make ourselves is the real deal, and then I got thinking, could we store that as well?" Spitfire grinned at Rainbow and Lightning, "The answer is yes. Follow me."

Spitfire led them up through a gap into a room above the last. Inside it were two large glass tubes that looked like wind tunnels, and mostly were, but studded with copper contacts that gathered the lightning that arced off the wings of Soarin and Fleetfoot as they flew against the wind pushing through the tubes, keeping them stationary.

"Quicker and easier to produce than bombs, and yet it does little damage to buildings. And guess what? The Mareitanians wear metal armour. Want to know what happens when a pony in metal armour gets hit by lightning?"

"They end up dead?" Rainbow hazarded.

"Maybe, but it isn't pretty if they live either. It definitely takes them out of the fight at any rate." Spitfire picked a glass orb up off a bench nearby, and held the grapefruit sized object up for them to see. Inside a buzzing mass of lightning fought to escape the glass, like it hated being in there. "What do you think?"

Rainbow reached out and touched the orb, marvelling as the lightning connected with the glass where she was touching it, following her hoof as she moved it. Spitfire wanted to know what she thought? She thought the Mareitanians would literally have no idea what had hit them.
> 44. She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"They're coming!"

Those two words held such meaning, even without the added explanation that it was the Mareitanians that were coming. That part was fairly explanatory, and didn't require the sarcasm from Fleur, but still got it anyway.

"Oh gosh, for a moment I thought you meant the ice-cream pony was coming. I could only assume that was why you were so excited."

"Ma'am?"

Fleur waved a hoof in the vague direction of the pegasus scout, "Ignore me. How far away are they?"

"The Mareitanians? Or the ice-cream pony?"

Fleur sighed harshly, "Alright, I deserve that. The Mareitanians, please."

"They're coming by train, so it'll only be a matter of hours. How long it'll take them to get up the mountain now we've destroyed the railway I couldn't say."

"Right, okay, thank you." Fleur turned to her left, towards where Luna was standing not five meters away, looking miffed at why the report had been given to Fleur rather than herself when she was standing right there. "Did you get all that?"

"Yes, thank you Fleur," Luna said stiffly. "I don't suppose we know if they're all coming from the east coast, or if Faust is with them? Or indeed if they are bringing a packed lunch just in case this takes longer than they expect?"

Fleur looked back to the scout who shrugged. "There's been no sightings of Faust, and the griffons are making it difficult to gather any solid information of what the Mareitanians are bringing with them. There has been movement in Ponyville though, so it seems likely that forces from there are being mustered to join the rest attacking here."

"Very good," said Luna. "Well, not good as such. Pretty terrible really. Why aren't they taking the time to secure the east coast? Surely Faust would not be so arrogant to assume that she doesn't need more than the barest amount of time and ponies to do so?"

"Who knows what the hell she thinks?" Fleur said to Luna. "She's not wrong if that is what she's thinking though. We have nothing other than what's here in Canterlot to pose a threat to her."

"I'd rather hoped we'd have a little more time before they turned their full attention on us." Luna sighed and began to pace, "I guess there's nothing for it then, the Mareitanians are coming. General Armour, General Stormguard, prepare our ponies for battle."

Both Generals hurried away, leaving Fleur and Luna alone, save for a few other ponies still in the room. "It shall be interesting to see how our defences fare against their onslaught," Luna said quietly.

"If we can take their tanks out of the picture, the minefield and the cannons should make approaching Canterlot a tricky ordeal. If the Hard Corps are ready with their part of the plan, it should be even trickier. The biggest threat to us until they reach the city is the griffons."

"Not if our fliers are up to the task. We shall have to see. In the meantime I shall go prepare myself and my sister for battle, and order the citizens of the city to make for the shelter of the caves." Luna started to leave, then paused in the doorway. "Let us pray that the city they come out to is still in Equestrian hooves."


-0-0-0-


"That's a lot of Mareitanians," Rainbow murmured to nopony in particular. From the vantage point Cloudsdale provided, she and the rest of Equestria's flying forces could see for miles around. A large force of over ten thousand that already outmatched the Equestrians in numbers had come from the east coast, and another ten thousand were marching up from Ponyville, Appleloosa, and Dodge City. It was a lot of soldiers, and yet it wasn't all of them.

"We only need to focus on the griffons," Lightning said to Rainbow.

"Those same griffons that outnumber us three to one?" Rainbow nodded with false confidence, "Sure, no problem."

"We're supposed to be getting some extra support, but I don't think even Spitfire's been told what it is. Better be good to be worth keeping it that secret."

"I hope so, because I am not liking these odds so far. In fact, I think they're terrible, and I like having long odds to beat. Makes winning that much sweeter."

"Yeah..." Lightning shrugged at Rainbow, then turned away from the edge of the cloud and back to the large open area where the Wonderbolts, Air Corps, and Night Guard were preparing themselves. There wasn't even a thousand of them. "It's going to be pretty sweet for us then."

"Lightning Dust! Rainbow Dash!"

Both of them looked up as Fleetfoot flew towards them, shouting their names. She did not appear to be very happy, so both of them saluted her just to be safe.

"Is there something wrong ma'am?" Lightning asked as Fleetfoot landed in front of them.

"You could say that." Fleetfoot turned so she was facing directly at Rainbow, "Have you seen your wingmates?"

"No, not since last night. Why? Are they dressed funny?"

"That's not what I mean."

Rainbow furrowed her brow as she tried to work out what Fleetfoot meant, and a few seconds later she understood. "Do you mean they're not here?"

"I don't know! Are they? You're their wing's leader, so you should know where they are."

Rainbow's mouth flapped uselessly. She wanted to say that they had to be there somewhere, and that they'd turn up sooner or later, but deep down she knew that Cloud Chaser had run away, and had probably talked Thunderlane into going with her.

"Cloud Chaser was having doubts about fighting, but I'd asked Thunderlane to talk to her. I guess it had the exact opposite effect that I thought it would." Rainbow stood to attention, raising her chin slightly higher than normal. "I accept full responsibility for their actions."

"Do you really think we give a flying fuck about punishing you right now? We've just gone down two more fliers, and- and-" Fleetfoot growled and kicked the cloud floor, destroying part of it. "I can't believe this. Rainbow, you'll have to team up with Lightning and Vapor for now, and High Rise will join us in A squadron as a replacement for Misty Fly." 

"Yes ma'am."

Fleetfoot flew away without saying another word, leaving Rainbow to sink down onto the cloud and use it to smother a shout as Lightning patted her on the back. "I can't believe they'd just abandon us like this! I can't believe they'd abandon me..."

"After what Cloud was like the other night, I can," said Lightning. She sighed heavily and sat down beside Rainbow, "Without Cloud, Thunderlane, and now High Rise, there's six of us. Six. B squadron is looking pretty piss poor these days."

"Why aren't you more bothered?"

"Is that going to bring them back?"

"No."

"Then I'm just going to wish them luck and not think about it. Honestly, they're probably being smarter than us right now."

Rainbow sighed and nodded, "I hate how right you sound about that."


-0-0-0-


There were multiple facets to Maud's wetness. Mostly it was because she was getting dripped on by water filtering down from the river. The other reason was because the interior of the Canterhorn mountain was breathtaking. Dozens of different kinds of crystals sparkled around her, illuminated by the light from her helmet that seemed to be amplified by the rich yet strangely uniform seams of diamonds, rubies, and other precious gems. It was probably the most beautiful place a pony like her could find. And they wanted her to destroy part of it. Tears dripped down her cheeks as she worked.

"Come on Maud, it's only a little bit of the Mountain," Pinkie said soothingly as she chipped away at the rock of the mountain with a pickaxe.

"It's a very nice part of the mountain." 

"It's also the best place for this," Limestone reminded her eldest sister. "I'm not happy about this either, just so you know."

"We're destroying a piece of art millions of years in the making. I think I'm allowed to be upset."

Limestone grunted and glanced across at Marble, who at least had the decency to not get overemotional about this like Maud was. Azure didn't seem to give a fuck in the slightest, which was as refreshing as it was completely unsurprising. Crystal Moon was complaining about the conditions, which were pretty uncomfortable to be fair, but at least she wasn't complaining about the destruction, once she'd pocketed a few of the more valuable gems anyway.

"Guys! The Mareitanians are here! The Mareitanians are here!"

Limestone sighed as Lyra ran down the narrow tunnel as fast as she dared, her voice echoing loudly off the rocks. "So I'm guessing we're out of time?"

"Not yet, but you'll have to work double time if you want to get it done."

"Urgh... Pinkie, Azure, get started on setting up the explosives. Maud, Marble, Crystal, get digging. Lyra, keep us posted."

"Yes ma'am."

Limestone resumed digging, hollowing out around the four pillars of rock they'd left. Time was becoming an issue, and yet she found herself smiling, even though they could all die today. They were mining together as a family of sorts, which is as much as she'd ever asked for. Even Pinkie was humming happily as she worked. 

They'd hit rock bottom, which is where Pie's worked best.


-0-0-0-


Luna pulled the last strap tight, then stepped back to admire her work as the room they were in shone with a golden light, reflected off the armour her sister now wore. "As magnificent as the day it were forged."

"I assure you it took considerably more than a day to forge," Celestia replied dryly to Luna's comment. "A dozen master smiths working over a dozen weeks, and blah-dy blah-dy blah, all to create this ostentatious nightmare."

"At least the Mareitanians will know who to aim for," Luna joked.

"Yes, well, perhaps I had best advise nopony to stand too close to me then." Celestia picked up her helmet and placed it on her head, pulling her mane up through the slot on top so her mane flowed back and along her side so it didn't obscure her vision. "I would also have trimmed my mane and tail down, if I knew but how."

"Will it not cut?"

"Oh it cuts alright, but then it starts bleeding rainbows, and it gets everywhere."

Luna leant her head to the side, eyeing Celestia suspiciously. "I suspect you are pulling my leg. I don't start bleeding a night sky when I trim my hair."

"Then truly you are blessed."

"Celestia..."

"Yes it cuts," Celestia huffed, "and it doesn't bleed rainbows, but what it does do is look terrible. My mane is happy where it is."

Luna shrugged at Celestia, "Okay, I wasn't saying you should or shouldn't cut it. In fact, you're the one that brought it up." Luna shrugged again and started placing her armour on herself when Celestia's golden magic took over. Luna let it happen, only saying anything when Celestia got it wrong.

"Like a warrior princess," Celestia said once she was done. "I had hoped we would never have to do this again."

"What is hope but another word for desire." Luna smiled sadly at her sister, "I too desire for this to be over, if only for the sake of our ponies. My own desires are more complex."

"Not really. You want to crush Faust and the Mareitanians in their entirety for daring to attack our nation."

"It doesn't sound so complex when you say it like that!" Luna snorted at her sister as she composed herself, "Still, as basely as you put it, you're not wrong. Faust will pay for this, one way or another."

"One thing at a time Luna. First we need to hold Canterlot." Celestia lit her horn, summoning Solaris to her, the air around the spear shimmering with heat as it matched itself to her mood. "Nam gloriam Equestria," Celestia said, her voice firm with resolve.

"Nam gloriam Equestria," Luna said back. "Let's go kick an ass."

"It's some ass Luna."

"So it is. Apologies."


-0-0-0-


Ponies were streaming through the city towards the freshly made entrance to the mines in the mountain as Luna led the way onto the balcony outside the throne room. It seemed the news of the Mareitanians arrival had finally spread around, although anypony could look over the edge of the city in the right place and see them coming.

Fleur was also there, watching everything with a distant look in her eyes, like she was watching a film of these events, rather than being part of them.

"What news is there Fleur?" Luna asked, startling the mare out of her reverie.

"Not much. The Mareitanians still have some forces coming from Dodge City that haven't made it yet, but that hardly matters. They've set up camp at the base of the mountain, and will probably start looking to probe our defences soon." Fleur looked over at Celestia, seeing the golden armour she wore for the first time. "Woah."

"Yes, not quite my usual attire, I know."

"No, but your ability to look good in anything is really shining through here." Fleur coughed awkwardly, "No pun intended."

"Thank you Fleu-ah!" Celestia ducked her head as a loud pop sounded in the distance. "What was that?"

"It would see the Mareitanians have discovered one of our mines," Luna said casually, like she were discussing the weather. "Hopefully that'll keep them occupied for a while as they try to find the others."

"We've yet to locate the griffons," Fleur said as Luna smiled to herself. "They'll probably be planning something, so we should be ready for them."

"They'll likely be planning to attack Cloudsdale, to keep our air forces from aiding us down here. They can't be too far away." Luna wasn't concerned about the griffons right then. For all the damage the Mareitanians and griffons could do, they weren't the real threat here. Faust was probably down there somewhere, and she had the honour of being the real danger here, as well as being a bit of a wildcard since there was no way of telling how involved in this she would make herself.

"So we're just going to wait for them to turn up?"

"We've made our move," Luna said to Fleur as the mare watched her with confusion. "What happens next is up to Faust and the Mareitanians."

"So we are really just going to sit here and let this happen." Fleur nodded to herself, "Sounds like a plan."

"I'm not sure if you remember, but that was actually the plan."

"Couldn't we be bombing them or something?"

"They can see us coming and prepare adequately for such a thing. We'd only be wasting our now limited munitions. Much better they come here where we can truly hurt them."

"And how long until that happens?"

Luna looked up at the sky, seeing a large collection of dots in the distance, slowly coming closer. They weren't flying very high, and didn't even reach above the level of Canterlot. Luna suspected they were making it appear as though they were heading for Canterlot, only to pull up and attack Cloudsdale from below. Only an idiot would really fall for such a trick. Unless they actually attacked Canterlot, but that seemed unlikely. Either way they'd find out in ten minutes.

"Sister, I leave the defence of Canterlot in yours and Cadence's hooves." Luna gave Celestia a small but cheeky smile, "Try not to lose before I get back."

"I shall certainly endeavour to not disappoint you Luna," Celestia said with her own smile, holding it until Luna was gone. Then she lost it with a sigh. "I very much doubt it'll work like that though."

"Why not?" asked Fleur.

"The sun hasn't moved for an hour. I suspect that means Faust is keeping it still until the city is taken, and we are defeated."

"Oh. That's bad."

"Yes it is Fleur, yes it is."


-0-0-0-


The cloud bounced beneath Luna as she landed. Before her was the entirety of Equestria's pegasi forces, now severely depleted without the Exiles. That said, there seemed to be even fewer of them than before, which was something she asked Stormguard about once she located the general.

"We've had two Wonderbolts desert, and there's been a couple dozen desertions in the Air Corps as well. The only branch of our forces with no desertions so far is your Night Guard."

"I wish I was surprised, but I'm not. I suspect we'd have more if Canterlot wasn't so tightly guarded. It matters not right now. We have griffons coming from the south west, and they'll be here in five minutes, so we best be ready to face them."

"We're ready," Stormguard said, brimming with confidence. "We can attack when you're ready."

"Very good, although I'd rather the griffons think us unprepared for their arrival. They seek to ambush from below, then we shall ambush them from above. Get our forces into the air above the city ready to ambush. I shall distract the griffons in the meantime."

"At once Princess."

Luna stood back as Stormguard signalled for their forces to take off and head up. There seemed to be little else for her to do until the griffons arrived, so she took the opportunity to watch the Mareitanians over the edge of the clouds as they started to cautiously head up the mountain, keeping an eye out for mines. Apparently Faust intended to waste no time today.

The griffons were rapidly nearing though, so she backed away from the edge and stood still as wave after wave of griffon soared up into view, flying in a formation that would've worked for them to spread out in an ambushing manoeuvre had there been more than one pony there to ambush. The griffons kept spreading out, making themselves ever more of a target for anypony that might happen attack through the cloud cover from above.

Luna smiled as a group of griffons flew down towards her as the remainder spread out to search for the absent pegasi. They landed a reasonable distance away, and seemed to take a moment to decide what to do, so Luna took the initiative.
"Welcome to Cloudsdale," she said, keeping her tone cheerful. "Truly a lovely city isn't it?"

"It can stay that way if you surrender it to us."

Luna frowned at the griffon that had spoke. "You must be Commander Theron. Your father must be so relieved to know you're alive." Luna looked to the other griffon beside him as Theron growled, "And Commander Lurin. A pleasure to face an honourable griffon like you."

Lurin plumped up his feathers with pride, "You know of me?"

"A decorated soldier in the Imperial forces, who then went on to join the Golden Claws once your mandatory service was complete. You are quite the soldier to be leading them now. Too bad you're fighting for a madmare like Faust."

Lurin's feathers deflated at the insult, "Had you offered a price, our allegiance might have been much different."

"We had not the money to spare," Luna said bluntly. "Building an army is an expensive business, and we hadn't considered mercenaries at the time. Anyway, enough talk. As you can tell I didn't come dressed for negotiations."

"And what do you hope to do on your own against all of us?" Theron sneered as Luna limbered up.

"On my own?" Luna cocked her head curiously, "Who said I was on my own? Now!"

Luna's shout echoed around the sky, and was answered in kind by the roar of thunder as over a dozen bolts of lightning reached out of the sky to smite a dozen griffons. Hundreds of pegasi poured down out of the clouds, catching the griffons out, unprepared as they were from an attack from above.

Lurin immediately took to the sky as the ambush happened, leaving Theron to scramble after him as Luna fired a beam of magic at him, only catching the end of his tail. Luna grinned as another dozen bolts of lightning struck down even more griffons, and summoned her glaives to her. It'd been a while since she'd fought griffons in such a way, and she was keen to see if she still had it.

A half dozen griffons later, she suspected she still did.


-0-0-0-


Rainbow's wings smoked from the second bolt of lightning, and she could feel the strain as she tried to muster the energy for the third in such a small amount of time. She knew she risked injuring herself, but when you were flying into battle against a few thousand griffons, you needed every advantage.

By the time she mustered the third bolt she was almost within reach of the griffons, and fired the bolt point blank, smacking the griffon in front of her away like it was a ragdoll. The shockwave buffeted her, and she rolled away as she corrected her flight. She glanced back to see if her wingmates were with her, then very quickly remembered they'd run away, and she was meant to be following Lightning's lead.

"Shit." Rainbow pulled up, keeping her blades ready as she tried find where Lightning and Vapor had got to. Her gaze drifted towards Luna as she raced through the sky, blasting griffons with her magic, and cutting them down with ease with her blades. Wherever she went, griffons fell from the sky. "Guess that's our secret advantage."

Her gut told her to roll left as a griffon came screaming towards her, two hatchets in her claws. Rainbow felt a blade nick the tip of her left wing, and she put on a burst of speed to get away. The griffon followed, her single minded focus on Rainbow stopping her from seeing Lightning diving down from above.

"Thanks!" Rainbow shouted as Lightning kicked the griffon off her blades. "I kinda forgot I was supposed to be following you."

"I figured," Lightning replied dryly as Rainbow drifted into position on her right, opposite Vapor. "You just had to get that third strike off."

"You meant you didn't?"

"I'm pretty sure some of my feathers caught fire trying," said Lightning. The fact that some of her feathers were singed supported that. "I decided to stop trying after that."

"Hah! Guess that means I'm more awesome than you!"

"Vapor got four off."

Rainbow blinked at Vapor, "For real? My wings felt like they wanted to explode on the third." Vapor merely shrugged at Rainbow. "Okay, sure. What's the plan boss?"

"I think 'kill as many griffons as possible' covers it. Otherwise we have to hope Luna can thin them out enough for us to scare them off."

"That seems unlikely."

"Yeah, I know. Still, we have a job to do, so let's go do it."

Rainbow nodded as Lightning took them back into fray, which didn't seem as hopeless as she thought it would. Luna was cutting swathes into the griffons, and the thestrals were following her lead, spurred on as they were by the presence of their princess. The griffons still outnumbered them, but the numerical difference was slowly shrinking.

Of course that seemed a lot less noticeable as they dived into the battle. Rainbow's blades struck something as she flew, and she could only hope it was a griffon as the only proof she had of anything was the blood on her blades that the wind was blowing off due to the enchantments on it. Rainbow brought her blades closer to make sure she didn't hit a friendly.

Pizzelle and her wing flew up beside them, completing B squadron, cut in half as it was, and joined them as they struck. Rainbow deflected a spear with her left blade, thrusting her right forwards into the chest of her target. Claws scrabbled against her armour for a second, then the griffon was gone. So was Sightseer, one of Pizzelle's wingmates. Rainbow hadn't even seen it happen, but she could hear Pizzelle's cry as he fell away. 

"Damn it!" Lightning cursed. She led them up and out of the immediate fray, hoping for a moment for the five remaining members of B squadron to recover. They were denied it as a group of griffons followed them, their shields held ready to charge the pegasi.

Pizzelle fled, her other wingmate Roller following her as she tried to get away. A trio of griffons split off from the main body, and seconds later the two pegasi fell to the ground, Roller dead, and Pizzelle screaming as the griffons had only hacked off half a wing that was still attached by sinews.

Rainbow pulled out of formation the instant she heard the scream, and raced after Pizzelle as the mare tried to fly on her ruined wing, only stopping screaming to suck in another breath for more screaming.

Thankfully her efforts did slow Pizzelle enough for Rainbow to catch her without pushing her herself to an extreme like a sonic rainboom, and Rainbow swung around to grab Pizzelle around the chest from behind, accidentally bringing a blade into contact with Pizzelle's half severed wing, finishing the job.

"Shit! Sorry!" Rainbow shouted over the wind as she flapped her wings hard to reverse their rapid descent. Gradually she shifted their velocity to something more manageable, and set on a path that would lead them towards Canterlot Castle, where she could hopefully get help for Pizzelle.

"Rainbow! Look out!"

Rainbow looked up and to the left at the shout from Lightning, and could do nothing but stare at horror at the griffons coming right for her. She could either drop Pizzelle and live while letting her fall to her death, or keep hold of Pizzelle and let both of them die. Objectively she knew the right answer, but there was no way she could live with herself if she let Pizzelle die like that, even if it meant her own death. Rainbow closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable, and was quite surprised when she heard the shriek of steel shattering, and no pain at all.

When she dared look, the broken stub of the griffons sword was held an inch from her body by a tiny shimmering shield of rainbow magic. Both her and the griffon stared at it in shock, then each other. The griffons eyes then went wide in pain, and it's mouth contorted in a silent scream as Lightning caught up to it.

"Rainbow! Are you okay?!"

"Uh..." Rainbow looked back down at her side, seeing nothing there to show what had just happened. No shield, no wound, nothing, she was completely fine. "I'm... fine. Totally fine."

"How?"

Rainbow shrugged, genuinely not knowing. What she did know was that Pizzelle was heavy, and that she needed help. She resumed her flight towards Canterlot, escorted by Lightning and Vapor, and was relieved to be able to drop the now unconscious Pizzelle outside the castle near some guards.

"Help her!" she shouted, and waited a moment for that help to come before taking off back towards Cloudsdale. The battle was still far from over.


-0-0-0-


Celestia sighed with relief as she watched Rainbow head off back towards Cloudsdale. She'd genuinely thought that griffon had gotten Rainbow, and had to fight back a shriek until it became clear that Rainbow wasn't falling from the sky, and was in fact fine. She had no idea how though.

"They're coming," Fleur said, breaking Celestia out of her thoughts. "Tanks first to absorb the mines."

"Very well, let us see how far they get. Is the countermeasure ready?"

"Uh... what countermeasure?"

Celestia resisted rolling her eyes, and turned back into the castle. On a table next the dais where her and her sister's thrones sat, was a small wooden chest. Celestia flicked it open, revealing three vials of the roiling liquid known as dragonsfire. She picked one up and inspected it.

"Only three huh? That's too bad. Are you going to be dropping those yourself?"

"I suppose I shall have to." Celestia returned the vial to the chest and closed it, picking the entire thing up in her magic. "I suspect there's little more for you to do other than to get to safety Fleur. Go be with Swift Wings."

"I will head to safety once I deem it necessary Princess." Fleur smiled crookedly at Celestia, "Canterlot hasn't fallen yet."

"Let us pray that it never does." Celestia nodded at Fleur, then went back out to the balcony, taking flight out over her beloved city. There were still some ponies heading for the safety of the mines, but the city was otherwise rather empty compared to usual. It was a uncomfortable sight, it being one of the few things Celestia had never seen before. She didn't wish to see it again.

She also didn't like seeing the city so fortified. Defensive emplacements had been set up through the lowest level of the city, ending at the bridge up to the next level that was rigged to collapse should the Mareitanians push them back that far. The fact that they'd planned for that eventuality was depressing in itself.

Similarly the wall separating the city from what lay beyond it was heavily fortified with sandbags and those dreadful cannons Luna had concocted. The colourful gatehouse looked massively out of place surrounded by military hardware, let alone that it had been closed for the first time since the changeling invasion. It had been kept open considerably longer before that. It was also where Shining Armour happened to be.

"Princess," Shining said in greeting as Celestia landed next to him. "If those happen to be orbs of liquid dragonfire, I suggest you put them somewhere they won't melt through our defences."

"They shall be used soon enough I imagine. How far are the Mareitanians from reaching us?"

"At the speed they're creeping along at, they're going to be a while. I guess they're counting on their griffons to win Cloudsdale in the meantime."

"I do believe Luna has already accounted for that." Celestia placed the chest on the ground out of harms way, and took the binoculars Shining offered to her. "They're not far from our trap," she observed.

"No, but they'd had to have planned for that kind of thing. Frankly, our tactics are a little too predictable at times."

"Any sign of Faust?"

Shining shook his head, "Not yet, but I imagine she isn't far away. Only she could drive the Mareitanians into such a reckless attack."

"It would seem as though she is determined to end this today," Celestia agreed. "Unfortunate."

"Maybe she thinks we're planning something, and wants to end this before we can do whatever she thinks we have planned. Her attack reeks of desperation."

"Her attack reeks of overconfidence." Celestia lowered her binoculars as the Mareitanians passed over their trap. "Overconfidence is a terrible thing really."


-0-0-0-


Bits of rock dropped onto the helmets of the Hard Corps as the tanks rumbled over the ground directly above them. None of them dared move out of a fear that it could collapse at any moment as that was what it was designed to do, partially.

"We're too late," Azure whispered, only just being heard over the racket coming from above.

"Not yet we're not," said Pinkie, hurriedly finishing off setting up the explosives they needed to complete the trap. "Get the rest of the team out of here while I finish up."

"We're standing right here Pinkie," said Maud.

"Oh yeah! Okay, you guys get out of here, Azure sets up  the detonator while I finish up here, then we all go back to Canterlot as muddy heroes." Pinkie shooed them off with a hoof, "Go on, get moving!"

"I'm pretty sure I'm in charge," Limestone pointed out in a grumble.

"Guys, we need to blow this now!" Lyra shouted down the tunnel.

"You heard the minty unicorn," Pinkie said to Limestone. "Get outta here!"

Azure ran over to Pinkie, her expression frantic with worry. "I'm not leaving you here on your own Pinkie!"

"Sure you are."

"What? How can you say that?"

"Reasons." Pinkie grabbed Azure's collar and pulled her into a kiss that the other mare happily reciprocated after a second.

"But I thought you didn't like me like that?" Azure said with a pant as soon as they broke apart.

"I never said I didn't, you just caught me by surprise, and while I was upset."

"Sorry."

Pinkie shrugged, "Eh, it's fine. Anyway, the world as we know it might be about to end, so maybe it won't hurt to go into that knowing somepony loves me. Now seriously, get out of here."

"But I have even less of a reason to leave you now!"

Pinkie smiled at Azure, "You're cute when you're concerned, but you need to set up the detonator, or this will all have been reeeeally pointless. Don't worry, I'll catch up to you."

Azure started to leave, then darted back towards Pinkie, kissing her again. "Just wanted to be sure I didn't imagine the last one." Azure grabbed a spool of wire and ran off up the tunnel after the others, the sound of Limestone saying they owed her a lot of bits coming down after her.

Pinkie smacked her lips thoughtfully, "Kissing mares is weird. Trust the one pony I really like to be a mare. Hardly seems fair. Hopefully it's something I can bear, especially when it comes to doing stuff down... there. Teehee! Rhyming is fun... and I'm talking to myself. Again."

Pinkie worked quickly, pushing in all the things that needed things pushed into them, which seemed to be all of it for some reason, then grabbed her gear consisting of one incredibly bemused Pinkie, tinkled pink by what had happened with Azure, and ran up after the others. "It's ready! Blow it!"

"But you're not clear!" Azure shouted back.

"I said blow it!"

A grey hoof belonging to Marble pressed down on the plunger before Azure could stop her, and the ground shook violently as the explosives detonated, knocking Pinkie off her hooves. The tunnel above her cracked, caving in from the direction of the explosion, raining large chunks of rock down towards Pinkie.

"Aaah!" Pinkie curled up, waiting for the cave in, then waited some more, and some more. She peeked an eye open, seeing the tunnel above her had cracked, but not fallen, and shimmered with a faint rainbow like sheen. "Huh."

"Marble! Are you insane?!" Azure screamed. "You could've killed her!"

"I know my sister better than you."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Pinkie stood, relief drowning out the horror she felt from nearly getting crushed. Despite what Marble might think, Pinkie knew getting crushed by giant rocks would hurt a whole bunch, and not even she could bounce back from that. She took a few cautious steps forward, her legs feeling like jelly, and yelped, jumping round on the spot as the tunnel collapsed where she'd just been standing.

"Okay, that's... weird," she said, getting a little freaked out. The feeling grew as those same rocks started to move of their own accord, retreating back down the tunnel. "Okay, that's weirder. Rocks don't normally move on their own."

"They're not now," Crystal said to Pinkie. "Somepony out there us using some really powerful magic to do this. Somepony like Faust. I vote we get out of here."

"Vote carried," Limestone said as rocks at the far end of the tunnel started to glow with heat and flow together into a solid mass. "Let's get the fuck out of here."


-0-0-0-


Celestia gripped the binoculars tightly in her magic, threatening to crush them as Faust landed on the roadway up the mountain, pulled the dead and wounded out of the collapsed section of road, and started to repair the damage. Adding insult to injury, she was using the same magic Celestia used to try and seal the entrance down to Faust's cell back in High Rock keep. Within minutes the Mareitanians were able to resume their march up the mountain.

"Please tell me the drawbridge over the river has been made secure," Celestia said to Shining Armour, referring to the river that rushed past several yards in front of the gatehouse, one of several parts of a larger river that passed through the city.

"The drawbridge is secure, and all of the bridges have been made to collapse, although I don't think this one will make much difference."

"And what makes you say that?"

"Those tanks won't fit through the gatehouse anyway, and the streets are too narrow, so they don't have to worry about getting those in here. It's the infantry that's the main problem here, and getting them across won't be too big of a problem if Faust is here."

Celestia nodded unenthusiastically, "Of course. How long until they're in range of our cannons?"

"Not long. They have orders to fire as soon as the tanks are in range."

"Ignore the tanks."

"Princess?"

"You know they can take the cannon fire. They're nothing more than a distraction. Fire on their infantry instead, and I shall deal with the tanks."

"As... you wish."

Celestia stood quietly after that, waiting for the Mareitanians to draw nearer. It seemed Faust was pushing everything into this attack, especially if she was willing to halt the cycle of day and night for it. She knew it was too late, but she should've put more into advancing their efforts against the Mareitanians, and begged the other nations for help. Especially Griffonia. The Emperor could have had Mareitania if he so wished after all this.

"Enemy in range," Shining said after a few minutes. "Open fire."

The cannons shook the wall as they fired, great plumes of smoke concealing the rapid departure of their payloads towards the Mareitanians at speeds the naked eye couldn't follow. The only way to tell they had landed was by the earth that was thrown into the air, the clang of tank armour being struck, and the shouts of ponies. Celestia felt sick.

"Reload! Fire!"

The cannons roared again, and again the Mareitanians felt their fury. The tanks sped up, hoping to close the gap between the cannons range and their own, and Celestia knew the time had come to take down some of them. She opened the chest and pulled out the three vials of liquid dragonfire, then took flight to deliver them to their targets.

Celestia sped towards the tanks with all due haste, a shield protecting her from the sporadic fire the Mareitanians could muster towards her. She threw the vials, then veered away to loop back, seeing as she did that none of the tanks were aflame, and that the vials were floating in a haze of blue magic conjured by Faust, who hovered menacingly above the tanks.

Celestia fired wildly towards the vials, hoping to break them, but Faust jerked them out of harms way. She had no idea what Faust planned to do with them, and no desire to find out as she summoned Solaris, the spear appearing as a line of fire as she dived towards Faust, who caught the weapon on a shield without flinching.

"I grow tired of these games Celestia." 

Faust flexed her magic, and with unerring accuracy, launched the vials of dragonfire at speed towards the gate house, towards Shining Armour. Celestia screamed hoarsely, teleporting towards the gatehouse before the vials landed, slamming bodily into Shining Armour and knocking him off the wall.

An unbearable heat bloomed up behind them as Celestia grabbed Shining and twisted so she landed on the ground first, smacking hard against the ground and rolling until she stopped with Shining rolling away in a different direction, not unhurt, but definitely alive. Sadly the same could be said of the other ponies on the wall as the heat from the dragonfire cooked ponies alive just from proximity. Even a couple dozen meters away, Celestia could feel the heat from it.

Ponies screamed, jumping from the wall to escape the fire as it melted through the gatehouse, turning the drawbridge into ash and slag that dripped away onto the ground. The nearest cannons succumbed to the heat, their wooden frames catching fire, and the tubes warping from the heat until the gunpowder ignited, finishing them, and a large portion of the wall off. By the time the explosions ended, and the smoke cleared, the gatehouse was no more.

"What have I done?" Celestia gasped, shock filling her as she saw the massive hole her actions had left in Canterlot's defence. Burnt and blistered ponies crawled away from the wreckage of the wall, and through the gap she could see Faust advancing with her forces.

"Shields up! Shields up!" Shining shouted, forming a shield over the gap. The unicorns of the Mage Corps added their strength to it, and after a moment Celestia did too, even as she marvelled at Shining for recovering so quickly. "You!" he shouted at a random pony, "Get to Princess Cadence, and get her to get the Crystal Heart working now! The rest of you, prepare to repel invaders!"


-0-0-0-


The battle for Cloudsdale was quickly turning south for the invaders. Even with the ambush, and Luna fighting with them, the griffons were simply too numerous. Luna was finding herself more and more outnumbered, and her body ached from fighting. Bodies littered the city, and it was quickly becoming time to give in and retreat, exactly as planned.

"Retreat! Retreat to Canterlot!"

All the pegasi and thestrals turned towards Canterlot, disengaging as fast as they could to flee the losing battle, leaving Luna behind. The griffons gave chase, but were deterred by the unicorn and weapons fire that came up from Canterlot to cover the fliers retreat.

Luna drifted down to the clouds, landing as she dismissed her weapons. The griffons circled her nervously, until the two commanders of both forces flew down to meet her again. "Hello again gentlegriffs."

"You will surrender this city, and the battle immediately," Theron screeched, "or the city and its inhabitants will be used against you until you do."

"Are you threatening to harm civilians Commander Theron?" Luna tittered, noting the disgust Lurin displayed for Theron as the younger griffon spoke. "How uncouth."

"If it ends this battle now, yes."

"I see, I see." Luna smirked at Theron, "And what if I told you the city is completely empty, because we're not foolish enough to give you an entire city's worth of ponies to use as leverage. I also very much doubt Faust would condone such an action."

Theron spluttered at Luna, earning himself a smack off Lurin, "I think you've said enough, boy." He offered Luna a cautious smile as he ruffled his feathers, "My apologies Princess. Believe me it was not my intention to cause harm to innocents, here and in Appleloosa. As for Cloudsdale, do you surrender the city to us?"

"Of course I do, but there's one thing I need to do first." Luna pulled a remote detonator out of her armour, and pressed the button on the top. A split second later the weather factory rumbled with a series of explosions, and the city lurched as a fierce gale tore out of the funnel on the side, propelling the cloud city away from Canterlot. "It should stop after thirty miles or so. Farewell."

Luna teleported away below the city, and flew the rest of the way back to Canterlot, a fleeting smile on her lips that lasted up until she could see what was happening at the entrance to the city. "Oh Celestia, what have you done?"

Luna quickly flew for the carnage by the gatehouse, aiming for the golden armour of her sister as she put her focus on aiding the shield along with all the others. It took one look at the molten remains of the gatehouse to see something had gone disastrously wrong.

"What happened?"

"Faust caught the dragonsfire, and used it against us. She was more than ready for me when I tried to use it."

"Curses! She couldn't have asked for a better entrance to the city! What of the cannons?"

"Seven destroyed, one damaged but functional, four undamaged," Shining said to Luna, his brow covered in sweat from the pounding the Mareitanians were giving the shield. "We've also lost the explosives on the bridge. I've got somepony running to Cadence to get her to raise a shield over the city."

"Then that's the best we can do for now." Luna glared through the gap, seeing Faust standing calmly amongst her forces, aggravatingly assured of her own victory. Even more aggravatingly was that she might be right. "I don't know what we were thinking, holding onto this place for months. A day seems like a stretch right now."

"We'll hold," Celestia told her. There was a change in the texture of the air, and a bright flash emanated from the highest point of the castle, forming into a blue shield that descended to protect all parts of the city, ending just outside the shield they'd made to cover the gatehouse. Celestia ceased casting, as did the others, letting their magic fade away, while the Mareitanians maintained their bombardment on the new shield. "We have to."

"General Armour, we have griffons inside the shield!"

"Of course we do," Shining groaned. "I'm afraid that is outside my jurisdiction Princess," he said to Luna. "I'm going to go make sure Cadence is protected until they're taken care of."

"We'll have them dealt with in no time."


-0-0-0-


Lucky Do didn't ask for much in his life. A nice little cottage somewhere, with a pleasant view and maybe a dog for company would do for him. He certainly didn't want to be put in one of Canterlot's many towers, trying to shoot down fast moving griffons while trying to not hit friendly fliers. He certainly didn't want to be there when the griffons took notice of him.

He desperately reloaded his crossbow with his magic, firing it again and again as a large male griffon hurtled towards him, dodging every shot he took. A frantic cry left his mouth, along with a prayer that got answered by a rainbow haired and blue uniformed angel that swept over the back of the griffon, performed a little twist in mid-air and struck out with her blade before flying on, leaving the griffon to crash face first into the tower somewhere below Lucky Do's hooves.

"Thank you!" Lucky Do shouted after the pony that had saved him.

"Now you're just showing off," Lightning said to Rainbow as they zoomed between the towers of upper Canterlot.

"Face it Lightning, we've already lost, so we might as well go for style points now."

"Style points? Are you kidding me? I don't know what that griffon did to you, but it must have involved brain damage, or maybe some kind of drugs. We should be probably be putting more effort into not dying, rather than trying to look good."

"Eh, why not both?"

"Ugh... you agree with me don't you Vapor?"

"I like to think Sky would agree with her, so I will too."

Lightning wanted to say that siding with the choices a dead pony would supposedly make was not a healthy attitude towards life, but that wound was probably too raw to poke it yet. All she could really do was try to keep up with Rainbow as the mare tried to kill griffons with razor edged aerobatics. "I'm going to be killed by style points. I've never been so betrayed."

"Relax, there's only a couple hundred of them." Rainbow sought out her next target, finding it, along with a large number of others, aiming for the highest point of the castle. It didn't take a genius to work out that they were going for the source of the shield. "Come on!"

"I'm in fucking charge here Rainbow!"

"And?"

"And come on!"

The griffons were acting much faster than usual. Probably out of desperation as the remainder of Equestria's fliers closed in on them. They smashed a window and poured into the castle, clashing with the few defenders Cadence had around her. Rainbow followed them in, trying to kill as many as she could before they got to Cadence, who cried in terror even as she maintained the shield over the city.

A flash signalled the arrival of Luna and Celestia, who placed a shield and themselves between the griffons and Cadence. Celestia swung her spear, the weapon glowing with white hot fury, and the griffon it impaled fell to the floor, his flesh turning to ash around the wound, and continuing to do so for several seconds.

The crystal ponies guarding Cadence rallied with the arrival of Celestia and Luna, and between them, the princesses, and those fliers that had followed the griffons in, the griffons were swiftly overtaken. Bodies littered the ground in the observatory, all centred around the pink form of Cadence, who cowered beneath her shield with her eyes tightly shut.

"Do you think that was all of them?" Rainbow asked, sheathing her blades so she could land, then thinking better of it as she saw how much blood there was on the floor.

"Probably," said Lightning. "Guess that means we're safe for now."

"Cool." Rainbow flew over to Celestia, who was trying to coax Cadence into opening her eyes. "Princess, I'd just like to say you're kind of a badass."

Celestia scowled half-heartedly at Rainbow, "Thank you for that generous input, Rainbow Dash."

"You're welcome." Rainbow hovered in place for several seconds, not sure what to do with herself. The feeling grew as Shining Armour charged into the room, froze as he saw the carnage, then ran over to Cadence. "I have no idea what we're supposed to be doing now," she admitted.

"We should probably find Spitfire," said Lightning. "Wherever she is."

"Right here, Lightning."

Lightning followed the voice to its source, finding Spitfire slumped against the wall near where the griffons broke in. A pony was treating a wound on her belly, but it was pretty clear that she wasn't getting up in a hurry. The rest of the Wonderbolts were there too. There was fifteen of them altogether.

Lightning saluted the Captain, getting a bemused smile back from Spitfire. "What are we supposed to do now ma'am?"

"All we can do is wait now," Spitfire replied, taking a moment to suck her breath in through her clenched teeth. "I have no idea how long the princess will be able to maintain that shield, but if it does fall, those griffons are going to be all over the city. Don't engage them unless you have to. Let the ponies on the towers take care of them, and only engage if the griffons get too close." Spitfire coughed, and smacked her head back against the wall as the motion hurt her stomach. "Ugh, son of a bitch. Soarin, I'm done here; you have command."

"What about General Stormguard?" Rainbow asked.

"He fell back in Cloudsdale," Fleetfoot told her. "We're now technically in charge of the Air Corps as well."

"And Greywhisker?"

"He's outside somewhere, but with the loss of General Stormguard we gain command of the Air Corps." Fleetfoot went quiet as Soarin kissed Spitfire and whispered to her. Spitfire kissed him back, then leant back to let the medic work.

"Alright guys," Soarin said, walking over to them. "Spitfire's orders still stand. Gather the Air Corps in the courtyard outside so we can brief them, then all we have to do is wait. Move-"

"Aaah!" Cadence cried suddenly, making all the ponies in the room jump. She collapsed to her stomach and pressed her hooves to her head as she panted rapidly.

Celestia ran back to Cadence's side, "What? What is it?"

"She's trying to break through! She- She- I can't hold this Celestia! I- Annngh!"

"Come on Sweetie," Shining said, trying his best to support his wife. "You can do this."

"I can't! I couldn't hold her back at the Empire, and I can't do it here! We... we need to surrender before they kill us all..."

"Not yet," Luna said firmly. "If we can fall back to the middle level and blow the bridge, her forces will be forced into a bottleneck, and we'll be able to hold a while longer."

"But what's the point?!" Cadence screamed. "Are you really willing to let every pony here die just to keep Faust away from you?"

Luna looked around the room, seeing a lot of the ponies there were now watching her. "No," she said after a few seconds. "But I'm not willing to give up so easily either. We'll fall back, destroy the bridge, and stymie their invasion for now. If they can make it past there, we will consider surrendering. Is that acceptable?"

"They'll make it past," Cadence growled, "but fine, I accept. Shiny, I could use your help."

"Alright." Shiny cast his magic on the Crystal Heart, letting his magic interweave with that of Cadence's, strengthening her shield and easing her burden if the way her expression slackened was any indication. "We'll hold it as long as we can, but until then you'll have to manage without me."

Luna nodded once at Shining, "Understood. Everypony get moving. You all know what you need to do. Celestia, come with me."

"But-" Celestia started to say, her eyes lingering on Cadence.

"But nothing Celestia, Shining will get Cadence to safety once the shield falls, and we will have plenty else to do."


-0-0-0-


The source of Cadence's pain became pretty obvious as Celestia and Luna returned to the city entrance. Faust was there, her horn ablaze as she cast a beam directly at the shield that threatened to burn through it. Luna didn't need to be creating the shield to know that it was rapidly failing. The Heart fed on love, and in its current state, Canterlot wasn't exactly brimming with such emotions, and neither was Cadence herself. Luna wasn't sure whether she should be scared for Cadence, or of her.

Ponies were fighting to get the remaining functional cannons down from the wall, taking care to stay away from the gatehouse as it still shimmered with heat. Luna quickly added her efforts to get the cannons down, and instructed the crews in charge of them to get them set up at the entrance to Canterlot's middle level.

As that went on, ponies crowded the defensive positions through the lower level, armed with their newest weapon and ready to put up a fight. Unicorns occupied the tallest buildings to discourage the griffons, but with their air forces so weak, it seemed doubtful that the griffons wouldn't be a problem.

"I hope you are ready sister," Luna said to Celestia as they stood side by side, watching Faust as she tore her way through the shield. "This is likely to be quite the battle."

"If it spares our ponies, I will gladly be their shield."

Luna rolled her eyes, "You're being dramatic."

"Oh, excuse me," Celestia said back sarcastically. "I meant, bring them on! I'm really not standing here to make up for my massive mistake from earlier, which resulted in Faust getting just what she needed to break through our gates."

"You know she hardly needed the dragonsfire to do that."

"Those gates were enchanted steel Luna! We'd have trouble even bending them with magic, let alone cutting through them!"

Luna was quiet for a moment, then smirked humourlessly. "Was the gatehouse itself enchanted?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Was the gatehouse magically toughened? I suspect the strength of gates would've mattered little if their housing was vulnerable." Luna smirked again as Celestia failed to answer her, "Perhaps we had best prepare Canterlot better for the next time this happens."

"The next time this happens, we're going to weigh our options a little more sensibly first, and not rush headlong into the first plan we come up with."

"Oh, well, sorry if the biggest mistake here was listening to me," Luna said with a pout. "Perhaps we'd all be better off if we listened to Cadence. Oh wait no, she agreed with me as well. At first at least. Heavens forfend that this plan would've worked perfectly if not for dear mother over there!" Luna pointed a hoof at Faust, "How are we supposed to compete with that?"

"We aren't, and we shouldn't have tried to."

"Isn't that the truth," Luna sighed. "Still, here we are in this situation with little choice but to try and hold them off."

A loud, resonant boom came from the shield as cracks started to run up it. Faust intensified her magic, breaking through the shield and letting her magic travel past it in a narrow beam that went between Celestia and Luna, narrowly missing both of them, and impacting against a building, blasting a large chunk out of it. She then tore the gap wider until the shield could no longer support itself, and collapsed.

"I'm glad you're here with me Celestia."

Celestia opened her mouth to reply, but stopped when she saw the smile Luna was giving her, and instead smiled in return. She looked back at the sound of rushing water, seeing Faust pull a large amount of water from the river and direct it to the gatehouse, cooling it enough to allow her ponies to pass safely.

"Here we go," Luna said, summoning her weapons as the heavily armoured figures of Mareitanian juggernauts charged through the steam. "Open fire!"

A collection of glass orbs flew up over the defences towards the juggernauts. The tinkle of glass as they impacted was overcome by the roar of thunder as the lightning within was unleashed. The lightning grounded on the nearest thing it could find, which was the metal armour of the juggernauts in this case, chaining between the imposing metallic figures.
Luna's jaw dropped at the same time as the juggernauts hit the floor. Some had survived, and were attempting to crawl away, but the majority were very much dead, and smoking a little. As a bonus, there was practically no damage to the city.
Luna pulled her mouth shut with a click, as her sister continued to stare wide eyed at the bodies of the juggernauts. "I now wish we had made more of these."

"And sometimes your capacity for destruction astounds me."

"Actually, these are all Captain Spitfire's idea. I wasn't sure they would even work."

They weren't given too much time to think about it as a cry sounded from the other side of the gatehouse, and a large number of nervous yet determined Mareitanians started to race through the gap. Both princess started firing their magic into the mass of soldiers, aided by their ponies, trying to push them back to the gatehouse where they could try and hold them back. Their attacks did nothing except highlight the shield protecting the Mareitanians, the lightning from the orbs crawling over it until it could ground itself in one of the buildings. As soon as the Mareitanians were in mêlée range, the shield dropped.

Celestia blasted the nearest soldier to her, sending him flying backwards, buying herself a moment to attack. Solaris sang through the air, striking pony after pony, killing each one with a single fiery strike, but it was too little as the Mareitanians advanced like a flood. Within seconds both she and Luna were forced back to the first line of defences.

Fire poured down from the nearest buildings onto the Mareitanians, who responded in kind with their Adepts, who shot their magic back rather than form a shield. Luna could only guess that they'd been ordered not to, to drive the attack forwards rather than take a defensive stance and form a stalemate.

More of the lightning orbs were thrown by the Equestrians, and this time weren't interfered with by a shield, the thunderous booms blocking the screams of the Mareitanians. The pressure eased for a moment, allowing Celestia to find a firmer footing. She thrust her spear forwards, then turned it sideways to block a blow, the soldier's weapon deforming from the heat of her weapon. Beside her, Luna crossed her blades and swept the out in a arc that cut deeply into those Mareitanians in front of her.

The moment soon ended though, and another volley of lightning orbs could only deter the Mareitanians for so long as they fell back into their usual tactic of shielding themselves. Celestia pressed the tip of her weapon against the shield, cutting through it enough that she could channel her magic through the spear and behind it. The section of the shield in front of her collapsed as the intense heat she channelled burned the casters, as much as it sickened her to do it.

"Incoming!" All of them looked up at the shout, seeing the trails of smoke racing through the sky as the tanks beyond the river fired on the Equestrian positions. Shields were put up to defend against the explosives, but their aim was too poor to know where they would land with any certainty. Some landed beyond the shields, killing ponies further back that weren't even directly involved in the fighting yet, while other landed on buildings, sending deadly debris falling into the streets below.

Celestia looked to her sister, getting a nod from her. She held her position as Luna called for their ponies to fall back to the next line of defences, where a space could be made for fresh soldiers to attack the Mareitanians. Celestia threw up a shield, then retreated herself, buying enough time to make herself ready as the shield fell.

A barrage of magic, arrows, and lightning bombs fell on the Mareitanians as they tried to close the gap, and their hastily made shield wasn't enough to stop the magic of two alicorns on top of a large number of other unicorns, besides what else was throw at them. The Equestrians maintained the pressure until more fire from the tanks forced them to change tactic.

The Mareitanians were also starting to spread out, while the Equestrians were occupying the main street through the city section that led to the bridge to the next level of the city. It was only a matter of time until they were being attacked on all sides.

"Those cannons better be in position," Luna said over the racket of the battle. She winced at the tanks' fire impacted with their shield. "We shan't hold against an onslaught like this for long."


-0-0-0-


"I don't get it," Rainbow said, gesturing to the empty sky above them. "Where the fuck are the griffons? Why are we here defending against something that isn't even attacking us?"

"But they could be," said Lightning. "You know that the moment we turn our backs they'll be here."

"No, I don't know that, but what I do know is that our forces are taking a pounding down there." Rainbow pointed at the battle taking place in the lower city. "We should be helping them since the griffons aren't here."

Lightning looked towards the battle, and chewed her bottom lip anxiously. "You know we can't just disobey orders Dash."

"That's why we go to Soarin and convince him that the orders we want him to give us are the right orders. Come on Lightning, you know I'm right!"

Lightning turned her gaze back towards the sky, which was still empty, save for clouds that could be hiding the griffons. "I don't know Dash, this is the kind of thing that gets us in trouble. As soon as we go to help, the griffons could be right here."

"Oh for crying out loud! I'm only talking about making a bombing run. If the griffons turn up, we can totally go back and fight them in seconds."

"Alright! Alright... let's give it a shot. I do have to admit that I'm curious what those lightning orb, bomb, thingies, can do to those tanks."

"Woo! Now we're talking!" Rainbow raced ahead, leaving Lightning and Vapor to catch up as she sought out Soarin. She found him in the courtyard, along with a sort of pink pony that she didn't expect to see there. "Uh, Pinkie, why are you covered in dirt?"

"We were digging a trap out under the Mareitanians, although that silly ole meany Faust fixed it in seconds. That was a waste of a day..."

"Not entirely," Azure purred, kissing Pinkie on the cheek.

Rainbow blinked at the pair of them, "Uh, what was that? Did she just kiss you?"

"Huh? Oh right! Okay Rainbow Dash, since the rest of our friends are either in prison or far away, you get to be the first to find out that me and Azure are together now."

"Together... as in marefriends?" Rainbow screwed her face up a little as Pinkie nodded, "Pinkie, I honestly had no idea you were gay."

Pinkie giggle-snorted at Rainbow, "Me either, and I'm still totally into stallions and stuff, and so is Azure, so maybe we're just gay with each other? I don't know, but I like the way it makes me feel tingly inside." Pinkie lost her smile as Rainbow continued to stare blankly at her. "Aren't you going to say anything? Maybe congratulations, or good on you, you crazy pair of lovebirds? Anything?"

Rainbow rubbed a hoof between her eyes, "This is so not a conversation I thought I'd be having right now, not when I was coming to convince Soarin to let us attack the Mareitanians. Besides, me and the others had you pegged to be the second most likely out of us to meet a stallion and have kids."

"Oh? Who's first?"

"Applejack."

"Really? All she ever really does is work. How is she supposed to meet somepony? Wow I sound mean saying that."

"Fluttershy was third."

"But she's even less outgoing than Applejack! How is she third?"

"Because Rarity doesn't really want kids, and neither do I. Pretty sure Twilight isn't looking either thanks to her hang-ups over her immortality."

"Uh! But I'm the most outgoing-est pony there is! How am I second?"

"Because Applejack is all about the family thing, so it made sense. There's also the thing about you now being with a mare that probably puts you behind Fluttershy, but still way ahead of me."

"Why is this even a topic of conversation?" Azure asked the both of them, halting their discussion. "Aren't you, like, happy for us?"

"I suppose, yeah. I hope you're happy together-" Rainbow glanced back towards the battle, "- for however long that might be."

Pinkie huffed at Rainbow, "Thank you for that rather disingenuous sounding approval of our relationship."

"Ugh, I'm sorry, and I am happy that you found somepony you like, but I'm also really confused by it at the same time, because you've never even hinted towards liking mares that way."

Azure smiled cheekily at Rainbow, "Why? You try to find out yourself?"

"I'm not gay!"

"Seriously? Then why the blatantly gay hair colours?"

"It's natural! Not dyed, natural!"

"Oh, my bad, I just kinda thought that-"

"Yeah, you and half of Equestria," Rainbow grumbled, before she reined her anger back in. "Sorry, but I kinda have a bit of a thing about this. Before you think it, I don't hate lesbians, I know not to call you filly-foolers, and I am happy for you both, but right now I'm also confused, and there's a battle going on just over there that I really need to get myself involved in, so if you two crazy love birds will excuse me, I have stuff to do."

"That's fair," Azure said as Rainbow turned away. "I get the feeling that we're going to have to talk about this with her again," she said to Pinkie.

"Actually, I think the battle over there might be a priority. Maybe we should leave her to it."

Rainbow walked up to Soarin and saluted, "Sir, permission to-"

"Permission granted."

"Huh?"

Soarin nudged his head towards Lightning and Vapor, "They already discussed it while you were arguing with the happy couple over there." He pouted at the two earth ponies, "Wish I had time to sit around and whisper sweet nothings into Spitfire's ear during a battle."

"You literally do that all the time," said Fleetfoot.

"Not true. I'm usually doing other stuff at the same time and multitasking like a pro. Anyway, permission granted, just give us time to gather the other Wonderbolts and the Air Corp for a proper strike."

"Uh..."

"Grab an L-bomb and get yourself ready."

"L-bomb?"

"Lightning bomb," Fleetfoot explained. "Very different to the L-bomb those two lovers just dropped on you."

"Right." Rainbow saluted and walked away, muttering to herself. "Of all the things I expected today, being really confused was not one of then."

"Problem?" Lightning asked as Rainbow came and sat next to them.

"Pinkie and Azure are together now."

"Okay, good for them."

"That's all you have to say about it?"

"Since I don't really know either of them that well, yeah. Really don't think it's something worth worrying about right now."

"Yeah, you're right." Rainbow sat and waited as the rest of the fliers assembled, doing the exact opposite of not worrying about it, but right now, if it made Pinkie happy, then maybe things would work out fine.

"Okay," Soarin shouted once the fliers were all assembled, "you all get one L-bomb each, then it's blades after. The princesses need our help, so lets not disappoint them."

Rainbow was the first to fly over and grab one of the bombs, juggling it in her hooves as her flight suit stopped her gripping it properly. Pegasi might be more resistant to lightning than the average pony, but there were limits to what they could survive. "Careful, these things are slippy."

As soon as they all had their own orb, they all took off, with the Wonderbolts taking the lead. "Wanna find out what these will do to tanks?" Rainbow asked her wingmates.

"If cannon fire barely scratches them, probably nothing," Lightning said flatly.

"Mmhmm, but what about the ponies inside them? It'll make things easier if some of the tanks aren't firing."

Lightning shrugged, neither arguing or conceding the point. Frankly the three of them knew that curiosity was going to make them do it, so when they flew over the Mareitanians in the city they kept hold of their bombs, and flew out over the wall towards the three nearest tanks by the river.

The three of them aimed their throws without slowing down, and felt the boom as they whipped past their targets and circled back around. As predicted the visible damage was practically nothing, but they weren't firing, and one of the tanks was pushing against the side of another, its operator having slumped against the driving levers. After several seconds it reached the edge of the river and fell in, the angle it fell at, and the weight of the water rolling it along until it went right over the waterfall.

"Dude, that was awesome!"

"I get the feeling that we should have invented those months ago," said Lightning. "Whatever," she shrugged, drawing her blades, "Let's buy our ponies some time to get out."


-0-0-0-


Luna could have cheered as the pegasi flew over, dropping their lightning bombs. She did cheer as they came back and started to attack, but kept it short as there was plenty to do. They weren't holding the Mareitanians here, so they only had one course of action left.

"Retreat! Retreat back to the second level!"

Luna stood her ground as her forces broke and fled for the bridge to the second level. It wasn't exactly a wide bridge, so time would be needed to make sure everypony got across. Luna and her sister, along with the pegasi, would buy them that time.

Thankfully the Mareitanians had the sense to get to cover after the pegasi had bombed them, and their continued attacks were keeping them there. It did come to Luna to wonder why the pegasi were able to attack like this, but there wasn't a griffon to be seen. Perhaps the battle in Cloudsdale had damaged their numbers to the point they had withdrawn.

Luna staggered as an arrow struck her shoulder, ricocheting off the edge off of her armour into the exposed flesh between two plates. She cursed her lack of focus, and pulled it out, casting it to the floor. The Mareitanians were beginning to realise they were about to lose their prize, and were risking the pegasi and princesses to reach the bridge.

Luna swung a blade at the first to try and run past her, removing two of his legs. Celestia threw herself in front of two others, using her height to rear up and smash her armoured hooves into their faces. They then ducked as a squadron of pegasi swept in from behind the Mareitanians, and Luna found herself having to blink their blood out of her eyes. A distraction she didn't need as an Adept blasted Celestia.

Celestia cried out in pain as the magic burned into the exposed area on her side where the armour was absent to allow free movement of the wings. If Celestia hadn't had her wings spread, the wing would've borne the brunt of the attack instead. Even so, she staggered and barely kept herself upright.

Luna threw one of her glaives at the Adept and ran over to Celestia, catching her and leaning against her as she tried to stay on her hooves. "Damn it Celestia! It's times like this that I wish your generous flank wasn't such a big target!" She grit her teeth as the Mareitanians began to close in on them, "Can you run?"

"I- I-" Celestia gave up on speaking, and nodded instead.

"Good, make for the bridge!" Luna ran with her sister, keeping an eye on both her and what was behind them. The cannons seemed to be ready to fire, so Luna ushered Celestia over the bridge with the last of their forces, then turned back to fire a powerful, yet totally unaimed beam of magic to deter their pursuers for a moment. She then ran over the bridge, destroying it as she ran, leaping to safety as it collapsed into the river.

"Fire the cannons!"

The cannons boomed, and a shield boomed with them as the cannonballs struck a shield that appeared in a flash between the cannons and the Mareitanians. The Equestrians readied themselves as Faust calmly walked up to the broken bridge and stopped. She then raised her head, her horn shining as she finally allowed the sun to sink to the horizon. A moment later she raised the moon. Her point made, Faust turned and walked away, the Mareitanians following after her.

Luna fell to her rear and gasped for a breath she didn't know she'd been denying herself. "It seems we've been granted a reprieve. I never thought I'd be grateful for the day we received mercy off Faust." Luna sighed, then twitched her ears at the lack of a reply off her sister, then jumped back to her hooves as she remembered Celestia was injured.

"Is it bad?" Celestia asked breathlessly as Luna tore her armour away. She didn't want to look herself, but it felt bad.

"The good news is you're not bleeding rainbows. The bad news is you are bleeding blood. Quite a lot of it." Luna cupped her magic over the wound, trying to keep it in Celestia's body. "My diagnosis is that you're an alicorn, so you'll be fine. Cease being such a baby."

"Do you even know the last time I bled?"

"Was it shaving your moustache this morning?"

"Mousta- Luna! Hundreds of our ponies have just died to buy us a day's worth of time. A day! You should not be making jokes!"

"I know, and I'm sorry." Luna looked around as the wounded were seen to on a platform barely meters away from enemy territory. So much had been lost just to buy them a day, but for what? It occurred to her that she didn't really know why they were still fighting. It got them nothing.

Celestia laid her head down, fighting back tears, and not just from the pain. So many lives lost, all for one purpose that was going unfulfilled. They were supposed to be buying time for Twilight, and were failing to, but that didn't override the one problem they had with that plan. Where exactly was Twilight?
> 45. There's sand in my everything
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trixie tipped up her canteen, emptying it over herself. She then closed it, let it refill, and did it again, and was about to go for a third time when the fuschia magic of Twilight snatched the canteen away. "Hey!"

"What have I told you about running up my water bill?"

"But it's sooooo hot! There's sand in places there shouldn't be sand, and I feel like I'm dying out here! Why can't we travel at night?"

"Because the night is only like six hours long out here, and we need to travel for more than six hours a day." Twilight thrust the canteen back towards Trixie, "Just suck it up."

"You mean the water, or..?"

"Besides," Mayfly chirped happily as she buzzed around on her newly recovered wings, "it's really not that bad."

"You would say that, wouldn't you?" Trixie grumbled at Mayfly.

"It reminds me of home, only with less rocks, and changelings, and insects, and tatzlwurms, and other things that try to kill you on an hourly basis, and... with considerably more endless plains of sand."

"So... not at all then."

"It's mostly just the temperature, yes."

"How you doing Moondancer?" Sunset asked, not minding the temperature as much as the others herself.

"Remind me again why I came on this stupid adventure."

"Because of some innate sense of responsibility towards the world, where you could help save it instead of leaving it to other ponies?"

Moondancer pushed her glasses up her nose, "Yeah, the me that thought that was an idiot."

Trixie snickered at Moondancer, "Unlike the actual you that got turned on over the thought of getting credit for finding Starswirl's secret retreat. I know which version of Moondancer I find more believable."

"I find myself struggling to disagree with that," Moondancer said. "Sans the getting turned on though."

"Alright, why am I here then?" Daring do asked, her shirt wrapped around her head to keep the sun off, and her helmet placed over it. "I don't remember agreeing to come here at all."

"Maybe because we saved your ass back in Saddle Arabia?" Trixie said to the pegasus. "Or because we got you out of being deported back to Equestria while it's at war? Or because we got you out of prison, where you would've been stuck for a long time after the attack on the city? Maybe we thought an archaeologist might be useful where we're-"

"Ahahahaha!" Moondancer laughed suddenly, making the rest of the group look at her funny.

"What?" Daring Do and Trixie asked simultaneously.

"Are you serious? Daring Do is to archaeology what a... wrecking ball is to architecture! You use zero scientific procedure, and destroy more than you discover! How much ancient knowledge, and how many long lost temples have been destroyed by you just to get some silly trinket?"

"I'm saving lives by doing that!"

"Yes, so you're a hero, but that doesn't make you an archaeologist in the slightest."

Daring Do flapped her mouth as she tried to think of a way to defend herself. "A lot of the stuff I've destroyed you wouldn't want to discover! I'm talking about really dangerous stuff here."

"Still doesn't make you an archaeologist."

"Oh come on! You guys are with me, right?" Daring asked, looking to the others. "Come on Sunset, you're cool, you know I'm right."

"Actually, I've not read a lot of your stories, but what I have does kind of make it sound like Moondancer may have a point. Besides, aren't you more like an author?"

"As a secondary profession!" Daring stopped as she looked at every individual in the group, "So none of you really think I'm an archaeologist? I wouldn't be able to do half the things I do if I wasn't one!"

Twilight cleared her throat politely, "You are quite knowledgeable about historical subjects, but you do have a tendency to destroy things, which isn't exactly what a true archaeologist is about, even if you are saving the world by doing it. I'm sorry Daring, but Moondancer does have a point."

"Well great! I save the world a couple dozen times, and all the thanks I get is you lot calling me a phoney. Thank you so very much. Time well spent."

"You'll just have to prove yourself when we reach our destination," Sunset said to Daring. "An ancient city should present plenty of opportunities for you to show us the archaeologist you really are."

"Yes! And I will, assuming we ever find it in this hellacious sand pit." Daring let her wings droop, their tips tracing lines in the sand as she walked. "How anything even managed to live here long enough to build a city is beyond me."

"According to Starswirl's writings it wasn't always like this," Sunset told her. "It used to be lush and green once."

"Not any more," Trixie said back. "At the very least, I do find it refreshing that nothing is actively trying to kill us for once."

Twilight groaned loudly at Trixie, "Just go and jinx it why don't you? Anyway, I'm pretty sure this desert's been trying to kill us since we got here."

"And that's why we've got to be smarter than it."

"And how do we do that, Trixie?"

"By only travelling at night, when the desert is sleeping."

"For fuck sake Trixie..."

"I see something!"

All of the started peering around at the shout from Mayfly, but none of them could see what she did from the ground, as pointed out by Trixie when she said she couldn't see anything.

"It's something sticking out of the sand. This way!" All of them followed after Mayfly as she flew ahead towards whatever it was she saw. They crested a sand dune, finding a single pillar jutting out of the sand below them. As they got closer they could see half of a pillar next to it, just peeking out of the sand.

"Wow," Trixie said sarcastically, "good job guys, we found it. Go on Daring, archaeologicify it."

Daring ran a hoof over the vertical ridges running down the pillar, "It seems reminiscent of the early Saddle Arabian architecture from around one thousand b.e, but considerably older. Thing is though, and this could be from exposure over time, but this pillar appears to have been carved by magic, rather than by tools like the Saddle Arabians would've used. Also, judging by the lack of nearby buildings, or any further masonry, I guess this might've been used to demark a boundary, or since there's two, a gateway into something." Daring smirked at the others, "Good enough for ya?"

"There's more further along," said Mayfly.

"Then they might have lined a road. I suggest we follow the pillars."

"Sounds like a plan," Twilight agreed.


-0-0-0-


As Twilight could work it out, it was roughly a mile between pairs of pillars, and it wasn't until they'd past the tenth set that things started to get interesting. The sand had been growing less prolific, and the wind that blew it about weaker and weaker, enough so to not bury everything, including the stone road they now walked upon.

"I think this is even fucking hotter than the sand," Trixie complained.

The ruined outlines of buildings were more easily seen now, and as they came closer to their destination, the buildings became less ruined all the time, save for sections having crumbled down, although Daring had a different theory.

"I think there was a battle here, or a fight, or something." She pointed at several holes in an otherwise solid stone wall, "That sort of damage is more like something magic would do."

"A war over resources perhaps?" Twilight said after Daring shared her idea. "Whoever lived here getting desperate as the desert crept in, fighting over food and water?"

"That sounds more like a free-for-all," said Trixie. "Even if there were sides in that kind of battle, those sides would still fall apart after a while."

"I think ponies lived here," Sunset said, poking her head out of a building she'd wandered into. "Come have a look at this."

The building she led them into appeared to be a bathhouse, if the large, square, pool-like sections were any indicator. Sunset led them past the empty pools to a wall covered with a badly damaged mosaic. Although damaged, it wasn't too hard to make out the pony-like creatures it depicted, as they played and frolicked happily. Some obviously had wings, and some horns, and all of them had a stature more akin to Saddle Arabian ponies, but the damage was too severe to pick up anything more than that.

"This is amazing!" Twilight squealed. "This suggests that not only did the ponies of Saddle Arabia come from here, but they once had unicorns and pegasi in their ancestry!"

"Then why don't they now?" Moondancer said to Twilight, tempering her joy. "Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves in assuming these are early Saddle Arabians we're looking at."

"Right, of course. Perhaps we should head deeper into the city and see if there are any images more intact than these."

"And also if there's a mirror somewhere," Trixie reminded them.

"We'll probably find both those things close together," said Sunset. "I would like to know more about this place though."

"I'm afraid this is all pretty new to me," said Daring. "Which means learning about it like a proper archaeologist," she added meaningfully, "not destroying it."

As they expected, the city was more intact the further they travelled into it, although there was still plenty evidence suggesting that fighting had broke out, although it wasn't until they found an entire building that had been melted into an obsidian-like substance that they realised the ponies that lived here had access to considerable magic, beyond what most ponies could do today.

"This entire places feels wrong," Mayfly whispered nervously. "It's not that it's empty, but it feels... dead. More than dead. Completely lifeless, like a void. The entire desert was the same, but it feels worse here."

"I know what you mean," Twilight said. "There's no birds, or insects, or anything alive at all. The magic here feels strange too. I can feel something powerful up ahead, but here and in the desert there's nothing. There's always magic to some degree everywhere, but not here, like it was destroyed, or taken away."

"So it's a spooky dead city," Trixie scoffed dismissively. "Frankly, I think we've dealt with worse things. Let's just find that mirror and get out of here."

Moondancer frowned at Trixie, "Do you really not care about any of this?"

"I'm not saying I don't care, or that it isn't interesting, but it's been here for thousands of years, and will continue to be here for thousands more. Right now we have bigger priorities than something you can all study later."

Twilight sighed, knowing that Trixie was right, and that academic discoveries took a serious back seat to saving the world. "She has a point. Let's head to the centre and start searching for what's left of the mirror, if there's anything left to find."

It hurt Twilight to not be able to investigate the city's history, especially as the destruction became worse in the centre, but for a very different reason. A massive circular design sat in the centre, and the buildings appeared to have been destroyed to make room for it, and in a hurry too as the rubble from the half destroyed buildings had been piled up everywhere, rather than removed with the rest of the buildings.

More significant was the circle itself. The entire thing thrummed with power, and appeared as new as the day it was made. It was intricately designed with images and runes, and as Twilight started to try and read through them, she kept finding familiar symbols for binding. This wasn't just a design. It was a design with a purpose. It killed her to not be able to study it.

"It's going to be hard to detect the mirror through the magic this thing is putting out," Twilight said to the others, dragging herself away. "Assuming it's still here of course. We should split up and search everything we can while we still have a few hours of daylight."

Moondancer glanced nervously around the destroyed city, "Are you sure splitting up is a good idea? Maybe we should go in pairs?"

Twilight tried to hide her sigh, but felt she made it too obvious that she was trying to hide it. "Alright, you and Sunset can stick together, I'll go with Daring, and Trixie, you're with Mayfly. Meet back here in two hours."


-0-0-0-


"I keep getting the feeling something bad is going to happen," Daring said as she and Twilight searched through one of the buildings near the city centre.

"Nothing more specific than that to say?"

"What do you want from me? We should definitely expect a lion attack? Something that specific?"

"That seems rather unlikely." Twilight poked at a wooden door, the wood collapsing into fragments around her hoof. It might've been thousands of years since the building was used, but to her it still felt like an invasion of privacy. This had been somepony's home once.

"In my experience, you should never discount anything happening, ever."

"Auhizotl's dead, so you never have to expect an attack off his cats again. Although you might, since they were suspiciously absent when we killed him." 

"Still can't believe Trixie killed him," Daring grumbled. She picked up a pot, dropping it as the part she was holding broke away from the rest. "That doesn't count! That was an accident!"

"I don't think anypony is going to penalise you for breaking a pot by accident," Twilight tittered. "Just try not to destroy the city."

"I am not that bad!"

Twilight giggled and smirked at Daring, "Perhaps we should stay away from any temples."

"Ugh, first you destroy my career, and now you're making fun of me. Some friends you are." Daring walked into the next room, sighing when she found nothing. "I think we're going to have to think bigger than searching through these ponies homes."

"Yeah, I know. There was a nice temple-y looking building a bit further on."

"Oh har har, very funny."

"I'm being serious actually."

"Uh-huh. Aren't you afraid I might destroy it?"

"Not really. If you made a point of destroying things like that I might be worried, but generally speaking, it's rare that you intentionally set out to destroy anything, so I think we'll be fine."

Daring said nothing, instead letting Twilight lead the way to the temple, keeping up as the alicorn trotted up the few steps to the entrance. A bit of sand had built up around the pillars lining the entrance, but that seemed the to be the only detractor from what was an otherwise totally intact building. "These buildings must've been built magically to last like this."

"That wouldn't surprise me since there was unicorns living here," Twilight replied, stopping as she passed through the entrance. The temple opened out into a large room, with columns of pillars supporting the still intact room. There were no decorations or images inside, but there was an unusual colour scheme to the chamber where the left side of the room was dark and shadowed, and the right side light and airy, meeting and blending in the middle. All of it was accentuated by an altar at the far end of the chamber, decorated by three decorative, bowl shaped braziers that contained three different flames, although it wasn't fire they were holding.

Twilight cautiously walked towards the altar, mostly because Daring was acting like she expected a booby trap at any moment, but also because she had no idea if what she was looking at was dangerous in the slightest. She headed towards the middle brazier, watching the orb of magic that floated above its surface burn with wispy flames that changed between blue and purple, although all the colours of the rainbow could be seen flickering in its light. 

"What is that?" Daring asked as Twilight stared deeply into the fire.

"It's magic," Twilight replied simply.

"Okay, that's nice, but what is it?"

"Magic, like I said. Raw magic." Twilight reached with her magic, intermingling it with that of the orb, and taking hold of a piece of the flame. She gently teased it out of the brazier and held it close to her, feeling the tiny pulse it gave out. It sputtered, then burst into a ray of light much like the aurora that the Crystal Empire could create with the Crystal Heart, before getting drawn back into the brazier.

"Maybe you should not mess with things like that," Daring suggested calmly, picking herself up and dusting herself off after diving for cover.

"Sorry," Twilight said, finally pulling herself away from the flame. "This really is amazing though, to think these have been burning here for thousands of years."

"I'm pretty sure burning implies a need for fuel." Daring glanced between the three braziers, "These just... are. What are the other two flames?"

Twilight went right towards the light side of the room, towards the brazier that held a shimmering orb of yellow light. She knew it was light magic, and her horn told her it was, but something about the way it was kept here told her the inhabitants of the city had regarded it as something more. The same went for the dark, sputtering flame at the other end of the altar that burned with blacks, greens, and purples, although it seemed less tumultuous and painful to the eye than the dark magic Twilight knew and recognised.

"I'm guessing this is supposed to symbolise some kind of balance between light and dark?" Daring said hopefully as Twilight continued inspecting the three flames. "I don't really know since I can't really do magic. It all tends to be a bit beyond me."

"It seems to be," Twilight said unsurely. There was still something about this that suggested something different.

"And I'm guessing that's supposed to be harmony in the middle?"

Twilight quickly shook her head, "No, harmony is the balance between order and chaos, not light and dark. I'm not sure this represents a balance at all, but rather three different aspects of something. This might be a bit of a stretch, but this entire civilisation might have based themselves upon magic."

"Even the non-unicorns? Life must've been a bitch for them living here."

"Perhaps, but I still feel like I'm missing something." Twilight looked around the chamber, seeing the entrances to two antechambers leading off it. "Maybe there's some clues in these other rooms."

"And maybe a mirror?"

"Uh, right, yes." Twilight grinned sheepishly at Daring, knowing that she'd been sucked into the mystery of the place. "You should definitely look for a mirror as well while you find out whatever else you can." She pointed towards the doorway on the dark side of the temple, "You go that way."

"And why am I going that way?"

"Because dark magic has a tendency to mess with magic users, and I'd rather not take the risk. I'll be over here." Twilight pointed towards the light side antechamber, then started walking towards it as Daring grumbled and headed to its counterpart.

The large antechamber was mostly intact, and pleasantly light as large windows let in the sun from outside that shone against the white marble. There was even furniture in the room, although it wasn't in a very good state. Most curiously was the small holes in the floor, three of them in a row, and big enough to hold two ponies at a squeeze.

There were decorations on the wall, but none seemed to give an hint as to the nature of the room. For all she could tell, it was a room for bathing in, but since there were actual bathhouses in the city, why have one here in the temple?

"Huh, neat. Birthing pools."

"What?" Twilight looked at Daring Do as the pegasus inspected the three holes. "These are birthing pools?"

"Yeah. Was it not obvious?"

"Not to me! How do you know what they are?"

"I've seen similar, although they weren't thousands of years old. In fact, these are the only ones I know of older than a hundred years at most. Whoever these ponies were, they were way ahead of us in some ways."

"Birthing pools," Twilight said, ignoring Daring. "Birthing pools and beds... meaning this must have been some kind of maternity unit. Huh..." Twilight returned her attention to Daring, "What was in the other chamber?"

"Judging by the stone slabs and the holes in the walls, I'm pretty sure it was a morgue."

"A morgue?" Twilight tapped a hoof to her chin, a line of thought starting to form. A morgue could be firmly associated with death, which could loosely be connected with dark magic she supposed, but the maternity chamber was harder to associate with light magic... unless the ponies here thought of it as something else. "Life and death."

"Excuse me?"

"They didn't view it as light and dark magic, but the magic of life and death. The morgue is fairly obvious to figure out, but here, what could be a greater expression of life than birth? They must have worshipped, or embraced at least, the cycle of life and death! Ooh, this is so fascinating! Why in Equestria did Starswirl keep this discovery to himself?" Twilight asked rhetorically as she walked back out to the main chamber. "There's just one small problem with this theory."

Daring rolled her eyes, "And what might that be?"

"Dark magic is more than just death, and light magic is more than just life, so why treat them that way?"

"Just a pegasus, Princess, so I have no idea. Maybe we should get on with finding that mirror, and leave the mysteries to another time."

"I guess so." Twilight kicked a hoof at the floor, "Typical, we find the discovery of a lifetime, and have to ignore it as we search for another."


-0-0-0-


Trixie had made a beeline for the largest building in the city, not far from the circle, suspecting it to be a palace, and therefore a site containing at least a moderate amount of riches. She also made sure it was a beeline, and not a direct route, because Mayfly was with her, and Trixie had to be Trixie.

"What are you expecting to find in the palace?" Mayfly asked, flying just back from Trixie as she trotted swiftly.

"The mirror, obviously. What else could I possibly be looking for?"

"You should stop trying to lie to an empath. I can tell you're looking for more than the mirror. This one suspects you might be trying to find valuables."

"The mirror is valuable."

"I haven't stopped being an empath in the last ten seconds, Trixie."

"Wha-at?" Trixie whined. "It's valuable!"

"Doesn't mean it's all you're looking for."

"Alright! I'm going to attempt to multitask in the finding of things, okay? I also happen to think that the palace would be a good place for Starswirl to use as his camp, on account of how intact it is."

"I cannot fault your logic there at least." Mayfly soared past Trixie, flying up the stairs to the palace as the unicorn clambered up them. "It does seem to be the most hospitable place to live while here. Could use some cocoons to really make it homely though."

"That's disgusting," Trixie said absently, taking in the sight of the palace. Like many of the other buildings here, it featured pillars in abundance, although that was less interesting to Trixie than the large number of blast marks and molten patches that covered them. The massive doors had been torn off their hinges and cast aside as well, making it clear that the palace hadn't escaped the fighting that had seemed to engulfed the rest of the city.

"Why is everything so well preserved here?" Mayfly asked, stomping a hoof on the massive doors. "These should be rotten at least."

"You need water for things to rot," Trixie answered, "and there's not a lot of water in a desert."

"In that case, if nothing rots here, where are all the bodies of the ponies killed in the fighting? Ponies had to have died, otherwise what's the point of fighting if they didn't? Their skeletons should still be here at least."

"That... is a very good point." Trixie turned to look back at the city, catching sight of Twilight and Daring Do as they headed towards one of the larger buildings in the city. From her vantage point she could see a lot of the destruction caused by the fighting, so there had to have been some bodies somewhere. "Wait a minute, I'm getting sucked into this. Let's just look for the mirror, and get on with things."

Trixie continued on her path into the palace, taking in the damage on the walls, but paying no mind to it, or to the large patch of floor that had been obviously melted at some during the battle. The rest of the room was too good to ignore in favour of the damage. Golden chandeliers hung from the roof where they hadn't fallen, gilt furnishings lined the edges of the room they were in, and at the far end, raised above it all, was a large throne made of the same white marble as the rest of the palace. The cushion was non-existent after so long, but Trixie hopped up into it anyway.

"Nice," she said with a nod, surveying the room. "Very nice. These ponies clearly knew how to treat their royalty." A golden bowl was resting on the right arm of the chair, and Trixie tipped it towards her, finding that whatever it had held had long since mouldered away to nothing. Then it occurred to her that it hadn't moved for millennia, and she was the first pony to touch it in as long. She felt oddly ashamed of that, and put it back where it was, then slinked back out of the throne.

"Okay, back to business." Trixie breathed deeply, and set to searching the palace, totally losing Mayfly in the first ten minutes of doing so as the changeling seemed to be in a world of her own as she meandered about.

It disappointed Trixie that there didn't seem to be much to the palace. There were plenty of rooms, but many of them were empty of all but destroyed furniture, and none of that really had any value to Trixie. Whoever had stormed the palace had made a point of destroying as much as they could, except for the throne apparently. Trixie was more than ready to give up, when a shout from Mayfly caught her attention.

"What's up?" Trixie asked Mayfly, having followed the shouts to their source.

"Could you open this door?" Mayfly asked sheepishly, pointing at the heavy stone door behind her. "I can't do it."

Something about the room smelled of treasure to Trixie, so she readily agreed to open it, although there was a small issue as to how. Force seemed to yield little in the way of results, and there didn't seem to be a lock she could find for her to manipulate. All the door had was a purple crystal set in its middle, that refused to acknowledge her attempts at using magic on it.

Trixie was beginning to get frustrated that all Twilight had taught her was getting defeated by a door, and so she resorted back to what she had taught herself. Her horn bubbled with the queasy looking miasma of dark magic, and she grabbed hold of the door, only for the crystal to absorb her magic and turn black. There was a grinding sound, and a moment later the door ponderously swung open.

"That's odd, and a little bit worrying," Trixie said, the magic on her horn dying down. She shrugged and dismissed her concerns as belonging to somepony with less treasure to find.

Trixie strode into the darkened room beyond, her magic lighting the room up to reveal a treasure trove of, well, treasure. Gold and jewels glinted off every surface in the room, leaving both unicorn and changeling staring open mouthed at the display.

"Mayfly, I think we're gonna be rich."

"While I only have a passing acquaintance with the concept of wealth, I think you may be right." 

Trixie walked to the nearest shelf, finding it to be totally intact, and as good as the day it was made since it was made of solid stone, which was handy because there was a lot of stuff on it. She picked up a diamond, inspected it, then crammed it into her bags, along with a few others, and a small statuette of a dragon with tiny rubies for its eyes. She moved on and picked up two tubes of brittle black cloth. It took her a moment to work out they were a pair of black, thigh high socks.

"Seriously? I mean... seriously?" Trixie tossed the socks away, and was about to pick up a few more bits of treasure when a large golden statue at the far end of the room caught her eye. It appeared to be an alicorn, but not one that Trixie recognised.

"That's weird," Trixie murmured as she slowly moved closer, taking in the details of the statue. It was standing on its rear legs, its Celestia sized wings spread out to the sides of its body, which was shorter and more compact than Celestia was. A long leonine tail snaked out behind it, a lengthy tuft of hair on the very end of it. Cloven hooves adorned the ends of its legs, and the legs had a tuft of hair on the back above the hooves. Most significantly, to Trixie at least, was the horn that sat in the middle of its forehead. It was curved.

"No freaking way..." Trixie pulled the statue out, turning it around to inspect it from every angle. "What kind of alicorn is this?" she asked out loud.

"A common kind, for here at least," Mayfly answered her. "Come see this."

Trixie gave one last lingering look at the statue, then headed to where Mayfly was. The changeling was standing in front of a tattered but still whole tapestry, depicting a large number of creatures like the statue. Every single one of them had a horn and wings, along with the cloven hooves. They were also all pale in colour, with only small variances compared to the colours of Equestrian ponies, except for their manes and hooves, which were just as colourful.

At the highest point of the tapestry was an alicorn larger than the others, her long green mane covered in flowers. From the way the other alicorns gathered around her with what could only be reverence, Trixie concluded that she had to be the head honcho of the alicorns.

"An entire nation of alicorns." Trixie tried to think of the implications, but couldn't. Instead she shrugged it off as fascinating, but ultimately useless. "I wonder what happened to them?"

"I guess most of them vanished," Mayfly said.

"What do you mean most of them?"

"There's something else in here." Mayfly gestured with a hoof, leading Trixie deeper into the room, and stopped in front of something scattered across the floor. Trixie stared at it for a moment, then grinned as she had a terrible, terrible idea.

"This is going to be so much fun."


-0-0-0-


"So," Moondancer said.

"So," Sunset said back.

"I don't suppose you have anything of interest to say about all this?"

Sunset shook her head, "Not really."

Moondancer tapped a hoof on the edge of the massive sheet of black, weather worn glass in front of her, watching the ripples of sand as they were blown across it. "Whatever lived here sounds terrifying. The kind of power needed to create something like this is- is... astounding!"

"You got that right. Still, this is good. Starswirl mentioned staying near a sea of obsidian, so I'm guessing that this is it, even though it isn't really obsidian. We must be near his campsite now."

"Any idea what we should be looking for?"

"In the lee of several buildings, near the sea of obsidian," Sunset quoted. "I'd say calling this a sea is hyperbole, but it's the closest equivalent we have. All we need to do now is find a space between several buildings."

"Okay, so that gap over there looks promising." Moondancer pointed to a gap between two buildings. "If we use this spot as a point of reference to search from, we'll find his campsite in no time."

Sunset cracked a grin at Moondancer, "That's oddly optimistic for you."

"Sorry, I meant we're bound to find it eventually."

"Nah, I preferred the optimism." Sunset smirked as Moondancer huffed at her, then started walking towards the gap between the buildings. As soon as she made it through she knew this had to be the spot as three buildings formed a small courtyard with plenty of shade during the day. Unfortunately there was a small issue with sand from the desert blowing in as the edges of the courtyard was piled up with sand that blew around in an eddy that constantly shifted the sand around. "Ah, shit."

"I wouldn't say it's as bad as you think." Moondancer pulled at the edge of something beneath the sand with her magic, dislodging the sand to uncover a tattered sheet of white canvas. "This looks like a tent to me-ah!" Moondancer screamed and jumped away as something screeched beneath the fabric, but it sounded like no animal either of them could name. Both of them jumped further back as something black started to eat through the tent, chewing a large hole through it until something went bang and golden light exploded out of the sand with a sound like the singing of angels. The two forces clashed, creating a shockwave that knocked the two ponies over. By the time they made it back to their hooves, there was no sign of the two magics, save for a scorch mark on the stone of the courtyard.

"What was that?" Moondancer asked, keeping her distance as she adjusted her glasses.

"That... that was a direct conflict between light and dark magic. And Starswirl kept that in his tent," Sunset added with a disbelieving shake of her head. "I can't believe he was experimenting with dark magic. I hope that didn't damage the mirror if it was in there."

"Something tells me we should get the immortal to poke around this," Moondancer suggested. "I certainly don't want to."

"I agree. These clearly aren't forces we want to be messing with if they can do that. Let's head back to that circle thing and see if Twilight's around."

It wasn't too far to get back to the circle at the centre of the city, and life was made easier when they found Twilight there, using her magic to blow the sand off the circle, uncovering it. Daring was nearby, watching the alicorn with suspicion.

"What are you doing Twilight?" Sunset asked as they joined her on the circle. She was surprised to find it was cool to the touch.

"We didn't find the mirror, and time was getting on, so I thought we should come back here and have a look at this while we waited for you. I can't believe how amazing this place is Sunset! Look here." Twilight led them across the circle, pointing at a large number of figures carved into its surface. "They're alicorns! All of them! But they're different from alicorns like me though."

Sunset studied the images, trying to work out what Twilight meant, and it was fairly obvious really, considering they had strange tails, tufts of hair on their legs, and curved horns... "Wait, curved horns? They used dark magic?"

"And light. From what I found in the temple over there, they revered the cycle of life and death, and what we call light and dark magic, they considered life and death magic! Or so I think." Twilight smiled happily, "Isn't this all so fascinating?"

"What are these?" Moondancer asked as she peered at the images on the circle. She pointed at some cloud-like beings, their wispy, ethereal nature not well portrayed by the stone images. "They look like ghosts."

"I thought so too, but then I saw these." Twilight led them towards one of the outer rings of the circle. "There's none of those things here, but there are plenty of the alicorns, and they seem to be using both life and death magic, which suggests a lack of taboo on the death magic. Anyway, if we move in a couple of rings... here. Have a look."

Moondancer twisted her head, trying to make sense of the image. It appeared to be a fusion of an alicorn and one of the cloud creatures, but she couldn't decide if it was meant to depict the alicorn dying and it's spirit coming free, or the alicorn directly turning into it.

"I don't know either," Twilight said as Moondancer asked about it. "I'd say they turned into them though, because if you look here, the ghost creatures are fighting with the alicorns, which has to mean that it wasn't something that was meant to happen. The only question then is if that change was something they did to themselves, or something that was forced on them?"

"So these ghost... things fought the alicorns?" asked Sunset. "Is that why the city is so damaged?"

Twilight shrugged at the question, "I guess so, but that doesn't explain how they had time to create this thing if they were at war. I suspect this might've been created by the survivors as a warning."

"Does that mean the survivors just stayed here and died then? I've never heard of alicorns like this before."

"I don't kn-eep!" Twilight crouched as a booming, gravelly voice echoed around the buildings, sounding like it'd been inhaling the smoke from the fires of Tartarus for a thousand years.

"You... dare disturb our rest?!"

"Oh shit," Twilight cursed quietly. She cursed again as a skeletal form walked into view from the direction of the palace. Cold blue fire burned in its chest, and poured from its eye sockets. Its extended wings crackled with flames that acted like feathers, and its horn burned with that same cold fire.

"You will pay for your trespass!"

All four of them backed away as the skeleton stepped onto the circle, its bony hooves echoing on the stone. Twilight spread her wings protectively as she kept the others behind her. "It was not our intention to disturb anypony. Please, return to your rest, or I will attack."

"All will pay the price for coming here, and the price is death!"

Twilight lashed out with her magic, catching the skeleton on its leg. Rather than remove the leg, or even make the creature stumble, its leg stretched out, pulling the bones apart, and then refused to go back to where it was. Instead it spun about like a skipping rope held vertically, the bones within clattering as it bumped against the other front leg.

Twilight cocked her head sideways in confusion, "What the..?"

"Oh come on! Stupid animation errors."

Trixie trotted into view and over to the skeleton, catching the leg in her hooves and returning it to its proper place, her horn glowing the entire time. It didn't take a genius to work out what was going on.

"Trixie!"

Trixie held up a hoof, "Hold that thought Twilight. Mayfly, can you say something? I don't think I'm syncing the mouth movements to your words."

There was a shimmer in the air next to the skeleton, and Mayfly faded into view. "Okay then, this is a terrible idea made worse by you standing there."

Trixie hung her head, "I know." She turned around and smiled at the four ponies she'd been trying to scare, "'Sup bitches? I found a totally awesome skeleton, and a whole bunch of treasure. You guys find anything?"

Twilight sighed at the blue unicorn, "That's somepony's remains Trixie, show some respect."

"Aww, Bonesy doesn't mind, do ya Bonesy?" Trixie nudged the skeleton, then whined as it said nothing. "Maaayflyyyy..."

Mayfly rolled her eyes and sighed theatrically, "No Trixie, not one b- You know what? I'm done with this silly façade now. I'm not playing along any more."

Trixie pouted at the rest of them, "You're all no fun. Anyway, more on topic, all the ponies that lived here were alicorns, but different to us. Pretty cool huh? I also think they used dark magic for stuff, which is also pretty neat. I'm guessing that's why their horns are curved."

"There's no discolouration, and the twists are still visible," Twilight pointed out as she observed the horn on the skeleton. "That suggests to me that it's natural, although, I have once heard dark magic be referred to as alicorn magic by my zebra friend Zecora. I didn't know why she called it that at the time, but maybe legends exist of this place in Zebrica, and these alicorns were the original practitioners of what we call dark magic, hence alicorn magic. Interesting. Where did you find that skeleton?"

"In a sealed room that was locked by a gem that I unlocked with dark magic," said Trixie. "Also, does that mean I've done alicorn magic?" Twilight nodded at Trixie, "Cool. Still destructively bad, but also cool. So the magic twists its users to look more like its original users?"

"I suppose so," Twilight admitted, not really knowing. "I'm still wondering about something very important."

"What's that?" Trixie asked.

"How you found an alicorn skeleton."

"It was sealed in a room. I don't think many ponies could survive that for long."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Trixie, waiting for the other shoe to drop. She gestured to herself when it didn't seem to be dropping in a hurry.

"Oh shit! Alicorns are immortal! Twilight, how do I have an alicorn skeleton?"

"I think we can only conclude that these alicorns aren't immortal," Twilight said. "But if that's the case, why haven't we found more remains? Why is this the only one?" Twilight looked down at the circle they were stood on and sighed, "I really wish we had the time to figure this out. It's going to bug me for ages now. Did any of you find the mirror?"

"We did find Starswirl's camp," Sunset said, still eyeing up Trixie. "He was experimenting with light and dark magic there, and there was a bit of an explosion when we disturbed the tent. After that we thought it was best to get you Twilight, since not dying permanently is probably a bonus in case of more explosions."

"Good thinking, and good work." Twilight picked up her bags and hoisted them over her back, and gave one last lingering look at the circle, a faint whine of disappointment escaping her throat as she pulled herself away to follow after Sunset. She only made it ten steps when the clattering of bones made her sigh. "Put the skeleton down Trixie."

"But-"

"Now."

"Ugh, fine."


-0-0-0-


Twilight gently sifted through the sand as she searched the courtyard for the mirror. Sunset was sat nearby, flipping through a brittle, dried up journal that Twilight had found in the remains of the tent.

"Oh hey, this is interesting." Sunset cleared her throat, "I know not why my beloved never made mention of this place as she must surely have known of a race of alicorns. Was she disgusted by their dalliances with dark magic, or was there more to her silence? One could assume ignorance on her part, but this civilisation is ancient, having perished long before the founding of even the old kingdom. There could be no way she was unaware of it."

"I'd rather assume Faust was ignorant of it myself," Twilight said as Sunset fell silent. "I'm also sceptical of this place having died out over four thousand years ago."

"He said before the establishment of the old kingdom, rather than the ponies themselves. That's probably less than four thousand years."

Twilight shook her head, "Not really. The old kingdom is currently believed to have existed over two thousand years before the Exodus, and its been one and a half thousand years since that, making a total of three and a half thousand years at least. This place couldn't possibly be older than that."

"Why not?"

"Because- Because I don't want it to be," Twilight grumbled. The idea of this civilisation being as advanced as current civilisation four thousand years ago didn't sit right with her. "Does he at least say anything about what happened to the ponies here?"

"Not that I can find. He says they vanished, and says he found no remains, which means he must still think them to be immortal like yourself and the princesses. To think Trixie discovered more about that by accident than Starswirl did with months of research."

"Sometimes all you need to be is a lucky idiot." Twilight returned the gesture as Trixie stuck her tongue out at her from across the courtyard. "Any mention of the cloud creatures?"

"I'm not sure. He refers to something he calls 'shadow beasts' quite often, but I have no way of telling if he means the cloud creatures, or something else. Honestly, his penmanship is terrible, which doesn't help." Sunset closed the journal with a slap, and tucked it into her bags, "As fun as this is, we're actually meant to be looking for a mirror, so maybe we should get on with that."

"Easier said than done." Twilight wiped the sweat from her brow with a hoof, "I've been through this courtyard twice, and I haven't found even a hint of a mirror being here."

"Okay, but I really think we need to get on with it."

Twilight peered suspiciously at Sunset, "Why are you so concerned with finding the mirror all of a sudden?"

"I've always been concerned, thank you very much, but right now I'm thinking of it a lot as the sun hasn't moved for almost two hours. Something tells me we should be concerned about that."

"What?" Twilight looked up at the sun, although she quickly regretted it. "Ah! Damn it!" Twilight blinked the dots out of her vision, "Why didn't you say anything Sunset?"

"Because last time something like this happened you told me to not worry about it. I figured you'd only say the same again."

"I said that we can't do anything about it. Not to not worry about it."

"Uh-huh, right, well the sun's not moved for a while, so maybe we should get on with finding that mirror?"

"Actually, we've found it," Mayfly reported, flying over to them. "Although Moondancer wishes to convey that you might not like what we found."

Twilight's heart sank, "Oh, okay. Lead on Mayfly."

Mayfly waited for them to grab their stuff, then led them out of the courtyard and around the corner of a building that faced directly out to the desert. Moondancer was waiting there, with an expression that Twilight couldn't decipher. It seemed to be a mix between happiness, and being afraid of getting scolded by teacher.

"Where is it?"

Moondancer pointed to a crumbled alcove, where the sun shone directly down on in. In the alcove was a mirror, whole and undamaged, and seeing as how it wasn't reflecting what it was pointing at, but was instead a dull grey reflection of somewhere else entirely, Twilight could only assume it was fully operational, and had been since Starswirl left it there.

"Motherfucker!" Twilight swore, surprised at herself for how angry she was getting for finding an undamaged key to their salvation. "So all the rest of the shit we did to get here was completely fucking pointless?" Twilight sat and covered her face with her hooves, only to end up screaming into them.

Sunset patted Twilight on the back, mirroring Trixie who did the same. "There, there, Twilight, I know it's a little annoying, but this is exactly what we need right now."

"I know, but-" Twilight tore the sack of mirror shards out of her bags and waved them in front of Sunset "-all the crap we went through just to get these bits has been for nothing!" Twilight threw the sack at the wall, splitting it and spraying bits of glass everywhere. "Urrgh!"

Trixie sniggered at Twilight's tantrum, "Quit spitting your bit and pull yourself together. Seeing as you had no idea if you could really fix a mirror if we had to, maybe we should count ourselves lucky this is here."

Twilight breathed in deeply, released it in one, then tried again. "Okay, you're right. We have a mirror, which is the important part. Now we can move on with our mission." Twilight stood and walked calmly over to the mirror, holding a hoof out to touch its surface, only to have it pass through. Nervous about what was going to happen, Twilight took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and bravely stepped forwards.
> 46. Not as you imagined it
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight gasped from the shock of cold air hitting her when she emerged from the portal. She'd been expecting some fantastical, psychedelic display like the portal to the human world, but it hadn't been much different from walking through a door, which left her unprepared for the chill on the other side. As she thought about it though, it was more the contrast from the sun blasted desert that made it feel colder. In reality it wasn't that bad.

She'd emerged into a stone built, semi circle shaped room, coming out from one of the many mirrors that lined the curved portion of the room. The dozen other mirrors were either deactivated or cracked, as the one they came through seemed to be the only one working. It also had to be the reason why the room was half full of sand, the wind having blown plenty through the mirror over the centuries.

"Ah!"

Twilight turned around at the exclamation to find Sunset shivering on the spot. She grinned at the unicorn, "Bit of a shock, isn't it?"

"You can say that again." Sunset blinked at the sight of all the sand, then followed on to look at the rest of the mirrors. "Huh. Guess it's a good job that mirror was working then, because trying to create a mirror out of all those fragments would never have worked without a mirror to connect it to."

"I know." Twilight pouted at Sunset, "Still annoying though."

"Aah-ah-ah! Damn that's cold!"

"And there's Trixie."

"I never thought I'd say this so soon, or ever, but I miss the desert."

Twilight snorted with mirth, then lit her horn to drag Trixie out of the way as Moondancer came through, followed by Mayfly and Daring Do. All of them gasped at the change in temperature, and all of them looked at the sand as though it had offended them.

Trixie turned on the spot, taking in the chamber, "So this is it then, Starswirl's secret retreat."

"I suspect there's a little more to it than this," said Moondancer.

"Obviously. Still, we're here, soooo... now what?"

"That is an excellent question," Twilight muttered. "I guess we should just look around and see what we find."

Twilight led by example, walking up the singular exit to the chamber. The sand grew less and less as they went, and it was only a short path until they exited into a much larger room containing a rather large library built into two layers. Golden orbs emitting a soft light lit the place with a warm glow, and Twilight, along with Moondancer, lost control of her jaw as they stared at shelf after shelf of ancient knowledge in Starswirl's private library. The others managed to be at least a little impressed. Mostly.

"I wonder how many trees died for this place?" Trixie asked out loud. "I mean, between the shelves and the books..."

"Don't ruin this for me Trixie!" Twilight gasped breathlessly. "Not in front of the books."

Sunset smiled at Twilight's behaviour, then approached the nearest shelf. She picked a book at random and read the cover, "Mistmane's treatise on mass preservation. I'm pretty sure you can pick that up in any library though." She opened the cover, and raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"What is it?" Twilight asked as Sunset continued to stare at the inside cover of the book.

"To my good friend Starswirl," Sunset read out loud, "I figured I'd get you a first edition for your library since you're a stickler for them, signed... Mistmane? She's supposed to be a legend, but here she is giving friendly messages to Starswirl the Bearded. I figured somepony else was just using Mistmane as a pen name."

"It seems not." Twilight let her gaze wander off around where they were, and up the walkways above them. The entire place felt like a library built into a cathedral, with grand pillars, arches, and the massive space required to fit all this within. To the right of them she could see another hallway leading off somewhere, while the left was open like where they were now, except lit up with a cold blue light.

Twilight shrugged and started heading left, hoping for the light to be a window that could show them where they were. Frankly she was more than a little interested in where Starswirl had managed to hide this place.

The library ended and opened out into a big, round open space that had a large armillary sphere hanging from the ceiling, constantly turning as it depicted the dance of the sun and the moon around the world. Work benches covered with stacks of paper and discarded experiments bordered the sides of the room, while at the end was a big, concave window held together with solid lattice of iron-work. This was the source of the cold blue light, and quickly caught Twilight's attention. She ran over to the window and pushed her face up against it, trying to figure out where they were. There wasn't much to see as a blizzard was blowing outside, but she could just about make out nearby mountains. Judging by the way she was looking down at their bottoms, she could only conclude that they were inside another mountain.

"This is the frozen north," Moondancer stated flatly. "We're actually in the frozen north. We were going the wrong way the entire time!"

"I think it's unlikely we would've found this place by searching around the frozen north," Sunset said smoothly before Twilight could snap a reply back at Moondancer. "This really is the frozen north though. Why would Starswirl build his retreat here?"

"To observe the windigoes," a male voice replied. "Of course, that became redundant after they were destroyed in the events concerning the Exodus."

All of them turned from the window, searching for the source of the voice, but seeing nothing. Twilight was about to demand the speaker show themselves, when a mote of blue light zipped through the air towards them. It stopped, then started moving in a pattern, leaving a trail of light behind it that started to form the shape of a stallion. The mote ceased being visible as it moved faster, adding more and more detail to the stallion. It was literally like he was being sketched out of thin air.

It wasn't until the beard was added that they suddenly knew what they were looking at.

"Starswirl?" Twilight gasped. "Starswirl the Bearded?"

"No," the stallion replied primly, "not quite." Twilight swore she could hear a melancholic note to his words then. "I don't know who you are, nor do I particularly care; you need to leave the way you came this instant."

"But- but-" Twilight spluttered, "but we need your help!"

"I said I don't care. Leave the way you came, and take some of that damn sand with you. The changeling too."

Trixie snorted a laugh as the others dithered at the illusion's stern words, "And what if we refuse? What are you going to do about it?"

"I am in possession of deadly weapons and spells I shall have no choice but to use if you refuse to leave. This is your only chan-"

"Perfect! That's exactly the kind of thing we're looking for, so if you want to show us your deadly weapons and spells, that would be great."

This time it was the illusionary Starswirl's turn to be taken aback. "I beg your pardon? You wish to have my arsenal used upon you?"

"Yep."

"...Oh darn. I never thought that would happen. Uh..."

"You don't actually have anything, do you?" Trixie smiled as the illusion sighed and shook his head, "That's a shame for all of us then, now if you don't mind, we have a lot of stuff to do."

"But you can't! This is the Master's private library! Not just anypony can go poking around in here to their heart's content!"

Trixie started taking exaggerated steps back towards the library, "Just you watch me."

"Trixie, wait." Twilight smiled apologetically at the illusion, "I'm sorry to impose ourselves upon you, but the world is in danger, and the knowledge you have here could help us. I'm not sure who you really are, but-"

"I am the curator of this library, and it is my duty to keep it clean and organised for the Master, as well as to act as a helper when he requires me to be so."

"So, we can call you Curator then?"

"The Master called me Starsy."

Twilight went blank for a moment, as she tried to put the cute nickname together with the image of Starswirl she kept in her head. "Yeah... I'm not doing that. Look, Curator, I know we're intruding, but we are on an important mission to protect not just Equestria, but the world from a serious threat. You know Starswirl wouldn't refuse to help in such a situation."

"No, but I do know that he and the other Pillars would never let such a threat exist before their passing, so I think you must be lying to me."

"The Pillars?" Sunset asked. "What are those?"

"What are- How could you possibly not know who the Pillars are? We are a team of the greatest heroes Equestria has to offer, champions of the tenets of Harmony. You cannot possibly be ignorant of them as well?"

Sunset cocked her head to the side, "You just said we."

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did. 'We are a team of the greatest heroes Equestria has to offer.' You're the real Starswirl, you have to be."

"No I am not. What I am is a construct built from Starswirl's very being. I just get confused sometimes."

Twilight jumped on the opening the Curator gave her, "You have Starswirl's memories? Does that mean you know what happened to him?"

The Curator sighed sadly, "I'm afraid not. I haven't seen the Master, or any of the other Pillars, for seven hundred and sixty eight years, four months, twenty three days, and fifteen hours. I can only say that they have likely passed away in that time."

"Where were they going when you last saw them?"

"One of their fellows that assisted the Pillars by the name of Stygian had gone rogue. They departed to put a stop to his nefarious schemes, and never returned."

Twilight cursed, a line of thought she had coming to an abrupt stop with the news that not even Starswirl's own curator knew where he was. She had no idea who these Pillars were, but they might have come in useful against Faust. Although... "Who were the Pillars?"

"Starswirl was one, and their leader. He represented the Element of Sorcery. The others were Flash Magnusson, representing Courage, Somnambula representing Hope, Mage Meadowbrook representing Healing, Mistmane representing Beauty, and Rockhoof representing Strength. There was also Stygian, but he represents only betrayal if the Master's last words to me are to be believed."

"Are those supposed to be the Elements of Harmony?" said Sunset. "That's not exactly how I remember them."

"And how would you remember them?" the Curator asked, raising his muzzle to look down on Sunset, which wasn't hard because he was already taller than her.

"Magic, Laughter, Loyalty, Honesty, Kindness, and Generosity. And whatever I am, but I'm kind of an outlier." Sunset nudged her head towards Twilight, "The alicorn here is the Element of Magic."

"Those do at least align with the Pillars as I know them," the Curator said haughtily. "I'm not aware of any other alicorns though. Does Celestia no longer rule alone?"

"No, Luna's returned," Twilight told him, "and then there's Cadence and me who ascended, and Flurry Heart who was recently born an alicorn." Twilight shrugged at the Curator as his mouth hung open. "We have no idea how either. Anyway, the point is that there's a few of us, including one which we need your help with."

"I suppose this is the threat to the world you were speaking of?" The Curator rolled his eyes, "Let's hear it. I suspect that the actual Starswirl would've at least listened to your problem."

"Faust," Twilight said, dropping the name like a stone into a still pond. The reaction from the Curator was enough to warrant the comparison as his composure broke into a mess of confusion.

"Excuse me? How could Faust be a danger to the world? She's been missing for centuries, and my attempts to locate her have never even found a hint of her whereabouts! You best explain yourself quickly, young lady."

Twilight did so, starting at the point where she found Faust, and explaining how she came to be imprisoned. She trailed off halfway through the story as the Curator started act strangely, staring at the floor and at least appearing to cry. It was then she worked out that he may have inherited more than Starswirl's memories. He may have had Starswirl's feelings too, including his love for Faust.

"All that time spent faithfully serving Platinum... and she could do that to me? Imprison the most loving and caring pony I had ever met? She's fortunate to be beyond my retribution for this act. My poor Faust..."

His outburst ended, and Twilight cautiously continued her tail, but stopped again as the Curator's anguish grew with her describing of what Faust wanted, and what she was doing.

"That sounds nothing like my Faust. She would never harm others, let alone start a war for the express purpose of wiping out everything Platinum built. You have to be lying to me! You have to!"

"It's more than wiping out Platinum's memory," Twilight said, "she wants to enact something called 'the plan.'" Twilight recoiled as the Curator started to laugh. "What? Why is that funny?"

"The plan? The plan is a long distant dream at this point. There's no way she could make it happen."

"And what exactly is the plan?"

The Curator ceased his laughter, then started to try and explain, but never made it past the first syllable before stopping. "It's complicated," he said after a few false starts. "The simplest way to explain the plan is to say that it's the natural order, like how the animal kingdom works with plants feeding prey, feeding larger beasts, and so on."

Trixie pulled a face at what the curator said, "So everypony would just be dumb animals?"

"More or less. The point was that it was meant to be the blueprint of a world living in perpetual harmony. There was no hatred, anger, or anything that sapient creatures like us might feel. There was life, death, survival, and procreation, leading to new life adapted to the changing demands of the world. It was supposed to be a perfect vision of a world in balance."

"But that didn't happen," said Sunset. "Why?"

"Discord," the Curator said simply, "although he was known only as Chaos back then. He changed the plan early in its conception, just as life was budding on our world. He changed many of the creatures of this world to what they are now. Ponies, and so many others, exist only because of his meddling, although ponies were his favoured creation."

"But he told me he only changed ponies colours!" Twilight shouted, surprising herself. "He lied to me?"

"I'd say he only neglected to tell you the entire truth, although I'm more surprised to learn that you've spoken with him. Last I checked he was a rather fetching statue in the grounds of Canterlot Castle."

"He's free now, and we're sort of friends." Twilight shrugged at the Curator, "The point is that he not a danger to anypony now, and can be quite helpful when it suits him. I wish he was feeling more helpful about Faust."

"He wouldn't dare," the Curator said with a chuckle.

"Why not?"

"Because of what Faust is. I know she models herself as the pinnacle of Harmony, but that isn't the truth, not entirely. Where Discord is the spirit of Chaos, Faust is the spirit of Order. He and Faust are natural enemies, or so they think. Even after Faust realised that they could create harmony by working together, they were still massively at odds, which is why the Golden Tree failed. Faust tried to create it from the singular standpoint of order, but order alone is not harmony. She introduced chaos to the Tree of Harmony, striking a true balance, which is why it succeeded."

Twilight's brow creased in thought, wondering where 'the plan' really stood in the harmony stakes. "And that's why Faust champions harmony? Because she knows order alone doesn't work?"

The Curator nodded, "To create true harmony though, she and Discord would need to work together, although I doubt that would ever happen. The simple fact is that Faust hates Discord for destroying the plan and forcing her to adapt to the demands of the new world he made, and Discord despises her, because no matter what he did he could never overcome Faust. No matter what he tried, order was always there to beat him. I rather suspect that was why he did what he did a thousand years ago. Without Faust to counter him, he was able to do as he wished for the first time ever. It may have gone to his head a little."

"You talk about Faust and Discord like they're gods," Moondancer said with a hint of disgust. "They don't seem like gods to me."

"They're not gods, not in the traditional sense, but they're more like primal forces made manifest. They helped shape this world, but after Chaos changed the design, Order grew desperate. That's when she created the physical form you know now, so she could interact directly with the world to try and contain Chaos' changes. She modelled herself after the ponies of this world, since they had access to flight and magic, which she needed to use to enact her will." Starsy smirked to himself, "She never could see the irony of basing herself on the ideal version of something Discord created."

"So she limited herself?"

"Very much so, and so did Chaos when it became Discord, although he used a very different body, one more suited to his nature. There was one major flaw with creating physical avatars for themselves though. They developed personality. With the bodies they became people, and capable of everything people can do."

"They learnt to hate each other," said Sunset.

"Yes, yet also no. Faust hated Discord for breaking the plan, and always would, but she quickly came to love his creations, even with their inherently chaotic natures. Then on the other hoof, Discord became frustrated with Faust for always trying to control everything, and for the most part succeeding. He also became jealous as Faust gained the world's love for seeming to help them, while he became a monster to everyone for changing what they were familiar with, when he was only trying to bring change to the world, as was his nature. Change we should all be thankful for, as we wouldn't be here without him."

"Wow," Twilight said, shocked at what she was hearing. The entire revelation about Discord's true nature was enough, but to learn that you owed your very existence to him was something else. It made you wonder who the bad guy was in this story, because it really didn't sound like Discord was. As for 'the plan,' it sounded terrible. An entire world trapped in perpetual stagnation, relying on chance mutations to increase survivability.

"How would Faust enact the plan now?" Moondancer asked, her own thoughts similar to Twilight's, except without the familiarity that made Twilight look at Discord in a new light.

The Curator shrugged, "She can't, plain and simple. The nearest she could hope to get would be to destroy civilisation and return us all to the stone age. Even then, she couldn't possibly hope to stop us being intelligent and sociable creatures. Minotaurs won't stop existing, or griffons, nor any of the creatures of this world that Discord had a claw in creating."

"Destroy civilisation, and stop anypony being a threat to her..." Twilight murmured. "That couldn't possibly be her plan, could it?"

"Does it matter?" Trixie said to Twilight. "She's still mad as a box of frogs, and we need to stop her." Trixie gave the Curator her most charming smile, "I don't suppose you happen to know of a way to stop, and-or destroy her?"

"Destroy her? Even if that were possible, what in the world makes you think I would want to do such a thing?"

"You mean you agree with what she's doing?"

"Of course not!" the Curator snapped back.

"Then help us so we can stop her."

"But- but-"

"Please and thank you."

Twilight smacked Trixie on the side, and pushed her away. "I'm sorry to ask you to do this. I know you love her, but Faust has become dangerous, and she needs to be stopped before she does irreparable damage to the world. The war she's planning against the world would result in the deaths of millions on its own, let alone what she planned to do after. Please, we need your help."

"You know he can't actually stop us if he refuses," Trixie pointed out.

"Not helping!"

"Actually I am, but whatever."

The Curator stammered, his face etched with indecision and anguish. You could see his desire to protect Equestria was fighting with his love for Faust, and it seemed his love was winning as he shook his head more and more.

"No, I can't. She- We're- I can't do it, I can't hurt the pony I love. Leave this place, and never come back!" Upon his last words, the Curator reverted back to a mote of light and raced away into the upper levels of the library.

"Shit," Twilight swore. "Nice going, asshole," she said to Trixie.

"Me? What did I do?"

"Asking him for a way to destroy the pony he loves? Yeah, that's going to go over well."

"Pfft, whatever. It's not like he can stop us, or that we actually need his help."

"No, but this would go a lot faster with his help, not to mention that he has Starswirl's mind! You know, that genius sorcerer of old? Sounds useful doesn't it?" Twilight growled as Trixie huffed at her, "I'm going to go find him and convince him to help us." She didn't even make it three steps before Sunset stopped her.

"You aren't going to do anything," Sunset said, pushing Twilight back with a hoof. "I think this requires a more delicate touch than yours, so I'll go talk to him and see if I can get him to see things our way."

"Alright then," Twilight said with a shrug, not arguing the point. "What's the matter with you," she asked Mayfly a moment later, once Sunset was gone.

"I get the feeling he doesn't like me because I'm a changeling."

"Maybe you should try calling him daddy?" Trixie jokingly suggested.

Twilight groaned at Trixie, "Again with the not helping."

"Oh you are just no fun today."


-0-0-0-


Sunset teleported up to the higher level of the library, having given up on finding the stairs after a few minutes. Even though she was searching for the Curator, her eyes skimmed over the shelves she was passing. There were books here she'd never even known existed, and that was just in one small section of the library. The sheer knowledge this place had to contain was astounding.

Sunset refused to let herself get distracted though, and kept searching, finding herself coming to a central section of the library with a cosy nook for reading in. A soft blue glow emanated from the enclosed space, but she couldn't find the Curator. She could only assume he was there somewhere.

"I'm sorry about all of this," Sunset said, searching around the nook as she spoke. "We invade your library, then ask you to do something you don't want to. You're right to be angry at us."

"I thought I told you to leave."

Sunset followed the voice, and finally found the small mote of light nestled between two books on one of the higher shelves. She smiled apologetically at him, "I wish we could, but it's not that simple."

"It never is," the Curator sighed. "I suppose you've come to make a sad attempt at getting me to side with you?"

"Not at all," Sunset lied, as that was exactly what she was hoping to do. "You told us what Faust is, but you never told us how you see her. I don't want to know about the force that helped to shape the world, but rather the pony she was."

Sunset smiled nervously as the Curator floated down off his shelf towards her. Again he started the process of forming a body, growing more solid as he stood before her, a faint frown marring his features. "You really want to know about her?"

"Please? I can see she means a lot to you, so if we can find a way to end this without anypony getting hurt then all the better. But to do that, we need to know about her."

The Curator said nothing for a while, then sighed out through his nose. "You have no idea what this is like for me, and I don't just mean this situation you've thrust me into. Logically I know I'm just a magical construct, but in my heart I'm Starswirl. It hurts to think that Faust loves me, but not... me."

"I'm sure she would love you just as equally as she loved the... uh..."

"Real me?" The Curator released a bitter laugh, "See? That there is entirely my problem. I'm just a shadow of the real Starswirl, cursed to forever roam this blasted library."

"I hate to say it, but you do seem to be rather... alive, for a construct."

"Another case of Starswirl acting without thinking. He wished me to be more creative in my work, but only the living are gifted with talents like creativity. Are you aware of the Gift of Life?"

"It's magic Faust gave to youuu... Starswirl, whatever. You used it to create the changelings."

The Curator winced, "And wasn't that yet another mistake. Seeing one of my own misbegotten creations here before me is a reminder I didn't want. Anyway, as I was about to say, Starswirl used the Gift of Life upon me, granting me thought, creativity, and feelings." He pouted at the wall, "I can honestly say I wish he hadn't."

"I can imagine." Sunset took a moment to climb onto one of the plush seats in the nook, her rear sinking into the first real comfort she'd found since leaving Saddle Arabia. "Speaking of changelings though, why did you create them? And the windigoes, and all of those things?"

"To manage the negativity in this world. Of all the greatest and worst things Discord gave to this world, the ability to harness magic was chief among them. Thoughts became actions, feelings became power, and divides became... deadly. Faust and Discord learned to hate, but they were not the creators of the concept."

"You mean ponies came to hate each other?"

"The three tribes were different, and the fear of the other is strong. Faust sought to create unity between the three tribes with the Golden tree, but when that failed the divides between ponies grew wider than ever, leading to wars between ponies that you couldn't believe the destructive scale of. It wasn't until they realised that no one tribe could win that a truce was called, leading to the rather chilly situation that preceded the Exodus. Negative energy was rife, and threatened to push ponies over the edge into another war if not managed."

"So Faust tried to find a way to fix that."

"Not at all," the Curator said, surprising Sunset. "She didn't know what to do, having put the death of the tree, and the wars that followed down to the chaos of Discord, not realising he had nothing to do with starting the conflicts. Not intentionally anyway. Actually, it was a much younger and more foolish me that sought Faust out, to beg her help in taming the negativity driving ponies apart."

"So it's true then, you did create the windigoes."

"We did," the Curator said sullenly. "Our first, but not last failure. The principal was simple, create something that could remove the negativity from the world, making it harmless, which we did. Unfortunately we kept the windigoes in a rather bestial state, and all they knew was hunger. They were ravenous, and proved to be more of a danger than a benefit, so were banished to the frozen north and kept there by Faust's power. It's somewhat ironic that in the end it was the windigoes that brought ponies together."

"And friendship."

Starsy nodded slowly, "Indeed. Something so simple, yet a common bond was all it took. Too bad we didn't know that yet, so we continued our search for a solution, although the task fell on me as Faust had to keep the windigoes contained. She gave me the Gift of Life, and off I went to find a solution."

"I'm guessing the changelings came next."

The Curator nodded and rubbed a hoof against his forehead, sighing. "They were supposed to feed on negativity and spread love, nothing more. They certainly weren't supposed to feed on love."

"Primus blames you, you know."

"You've spoken with her?"

Sunset nodded, "Sort of. It was a puddle of goo containing her memories, or something? I don't know, but she told us you left the changelings broken and unfinished."

"She's not wrong. I had not yet finished shaping them when I learnt of Faust's disappearance, and I abandoned them for years while I searched for her, during which the Exodus occurred. By the time I had returned to the changelings they had already become what they are, and there was nothing I could do to help them. I've always regretted that."

Sunset sat quietly while the Curator appeared to become lost in thought. She thought of Mayfly, and what she could've been if Starswirl had finished his work. Spreading love felt like much more noble a goal than feeding on it. At this point Sunset wasn't entirely convinced that Mayfly really needed to do that. Still, that was one thought out of many, and Sunset had questions aplenty.

"What about the Sirens?"

The Curator winced again, "You're aware of them?"

"I've been on the world you banished them too for a while, and had a bit of a run-in with them."

"But that world was supposed to make them harmless!"

"And it did, until I introduced Equestrian magic to that world by accident by taking one of the Elements of Harmony there. We did stop them though, and they really are harmless now."

"Oh good. If those three made their way back to Equestria, there'd be no end to the havoc they could cause. I should never have given those three the gems."

"I guess they worked on the same principal as the others? Feed on negativity?"

"Yes, but there was an unforeseen complication with the magic I gave them. The more negativity they consumed, the more powerful they became, and so they started spreading more and more negativity, and feeding more and more. If the Pillars and I hadn't stopped them, who knows what would've happened? Clearly I gave those gems to the wrong sirens."

"You could say that, although is it possible that feeding on all that negative energy changed them?"

The Curator hummed thoughtfully, "I suppose. I hadn't considered the effect that feeding on such energy might have upon them. It is possible that it changed them, made them cruel and uncaring." He shrugged disarmingly, "Yet another reason it was a failure I suppose. Good job they weren't very quick to work it out."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that I gifted them the gems centuries before I was forced to banish them. They'd rather forgotten about the enigmatic unicorn that had granted them their gifts by that time."

"What about the crystal ponies then? Apparently you had a hoof in their creation too."

"Actually they existed before I came across them. Remarkable ponies every one of them. Their innate magic could be harnessed to spread love across the land with the right tools, rendering the negative energy null and void, although the three tribes were starting on the first steps of unity by that point, meaning there was less anyway, but if I'm anything, I am cautious."

"You wanted to be sure there would be no going backwards."

The Curator nodded, "There would always be ponies that hate each other somewhere, but with the tribes working together it was negligible. That didn't mean it wasn't impossible that things could go wrong again, so I wanted a little insurance against that possibility, just in case. I was also going to be smarter about it this time, and leave the Gift of Life well out of it, as it had only caused trouble in my hooves. I designed the Crystal Empire, and created the Crystal Heart, then approached the crystal ponies with an offer of giving them a safe place to live from the frozen north in exchange for a small favour."

"I thought they'd always lived in the frozen north?"

"Yes, but it wasn't always frozen. I'm afraid that the windigoes had a rather unfortunate effect on the icy north, making it expand as Faust's absence allowed their influence to spread. The events of Hearths-warming may have eradicated the windigoes, but the frozen north never recovered, and the crystal ponies suffered for it. The Crystal Empire benefitted everypony in that regard."

"Wow," Sunset said, and meant it, although not in a way that was very flattering to anypony. To her it felt like the world was little more than a playground to the mad gods and sorcerers that inhabited it.

"Indeed," the Curator said, totally unaware of Sunsets thoughts. "It was my greatest work, although nopony save you and a few others know about it."

Sunset nodded, not disagreeing that the Crystal Empire was a masterful piece of work, even if it was the end result of near constant meddling, but there was something she still hadn't heard off the Curator. "You still haven't told me about Faust."

The Curator opened his mouth, then paused for a second for a single laugh to escape. "No, I suppose I haven't. I'm not sure what to say that isn't already clichéd at this point anyway."

"Even if they are clichéd, I still want to hear it."

The Curator quietly considered it for a moment, then smiled faintly. "She was kind, often to a fault. She refused the notion of taking a life, and even spared the windigoes destruction, even though they were barely self aware. That wasn't to say she was weak though, and would beat you to within an inch of your life if you deserved it, but she would spare that life all the same. She's half the reason Tartarus exists, because she needed somewhere to put the more dangerous beings of this world, having been unwilling to destroy them."

"Then there was her wisdom. I learnt so much about our world from her that I could never have discovered elsewhere. More than that though, was her ability to see all ends of things. Strength is nothing without the wisdom to apply it properly."

"And she was loving too?" Sunset said, egging him on.

"She was. Even though she gave her love to everything, she still had more than enough left for me." The Curator chuckled, "She was organised too. Boy could she organise. I'm not saying she was perfect, as she was often quick to anger, and lacked a sense of humour at times, but her flaws only made her more... like a pony."

Sunset hummed and nodded, but again found herself thinking rather negatively of what she was hearing. Being kind and loving were certainly admirable traits in a pony, but they weren't necessarily traits of the Spirit of Order. Sometimes love was chaotic, and sometimes order was cold hard logic. She knew she was being unfair though, as she was also basing her thoughts on what she knew Faust was doing right now. She was probably a lot different before her lengthy captivity.

"She sounds like a wonderful pony."

"She is. Or at least she was." The Curator sighed sadly, "I know you want to convince me to help your cause, but I'm not sure I can bring myself to harm the pony I love, not after she's suffered so much."

"I know," said Sunset, who bit her lip as she prepared to lay down what was hopefully a trump card. Twilight hadn't brought it up, perhaps with a reason, but Sunset felt the Curator had a right to know. "If you won't help us to help Equestria, then perhaps you might help us to protect your daughter?"

"My daughter? I don't have a daughter."

"Yes, you do. Faust was with foal when she was imprisoned, and according to her, you're the father."

"I-I am? Who? Who's my daughter?"

Sunset breathed in, knowing she was about to drop a bomb on what the Curator, and also Starswirl, thought he knew. "Celestia. Celestia is your daughter."

"Celestia? But Celestia was Platinum's daughter!"

"Adopted daughter, stolen from Faust to raise as her own. That's why she wanted Faust, to get her child to raise as the ruler of a unified nation of ponies. Celestia was never Platinum's."

The Curator was silent as he stared straight forwards, his eyes unblinking and glassy. Sunset gave him the time to process the information, but grew concerned as the Curator continued to stare blankly. She was a little shocked when he spoke at last.

"I had no idea. The entire time I was around Celestia, and I had no idea. But what about Luna?"

"Luna... wasn't yours. She was Sombra's."

The Curator leapt to his hooves, "She was the child of that fiend? How? How is that possible?"

Sunset swallowed nervously before the Curator's sudden rage, "He forced himself upon Faust early in her captivity, likely after Celestia's birth. Luna is the result of that. Platinum took Luna as well as a mercy to Faust."

"Faust did not want her?"

"Faust despises Luna with a passion."

"But she was just a child, she's blameless."

"I know." Sunset got up and moved to sit next to the Curator, "Look, Curat- no, Starsy, I know this is hard for you, but Faust isn't the pony you knew. She seeks to end Equestria, and she wishes to harm your daughter, her own child. I can't even begin to imagine what she plans to do to Luna. Please Starsy," Sunset begged, "help us to stop her."

"How much hurt must it take to turn you against your own child?" Starsy asked, not expecting an answer. "I didn't even know Faust had the capacity to hate a child, let alone turn against one she wanted. And poor Luna... how will she take this news?"

"She knows, and seems remarkably not bothered by it if Twilight is to be believed. After the way Platinum treated her, she was rather relieved to find that Platinum wasn't her actual mother."

"I can believe that," said Starsy. "Platinum always did treat Luna as an inconvenience. I couldn't have been prouder of Celestia when she declared Luna would rule by her side. She knew they were sisters, she knew they should rule together." Starsy sighed and nodded, "If Faust can do this to her own children, then clearly the mare I loved is no more. I'll help you, but I'm only helping you my way. Faust has suffered enough, and I shan't be responsible for having her suffer more."


-0-0-0-


"So that's Faust?" Daring Do asked as she intently studied the statue of the alicorn they'd found in the observation area. The statue was standing in the reared up position familiar to them, leaving Twilight wondering if there existed an image of Faust where she wasn't doing that.

"That is indeed Faust," Twilight confirmed as she scowled up at the figure. "I would say that doesn't quite do her justice though."

"And you say she's as big as Celestia, if not bigger?"

"That's right."

Daring Do nodded once, "Okay, good luck with that as I am out."

"Excuse me?"

"Fighting deadly beings with phenomenal powers is princess business, not mine. Good luck, have fun, see you when it's over."

"Just like a pegasus to be chicken," said Trixie, standing on her hind legs to flap her front ones. "Buk-buk-bucawk!"

"Okay, I'm no chicken, but I'm not exactly equipped to fight alicorns either-"

"Hence why we're here," Trixie reminded Daring. "And do any of us look like a princess except Twilight? No, we don't, and yet here we are, so quit being such a chicken."

"Will you all shush?" Moondancer hissed at them, her nose not rising from the book she was reading.

"I'm pretty sure reading things is only going to antagonise the Curator if he catches you," Twilight said to Moondancer.

"Maybe, maybe not, but if he's going to make us leave, I want to read as much as I can. Of course that'd be a lot easier without you talking all the time!"

"Actually you'll have plenty of time," Sunset said, sauntering out of the library towards them. "Starsy's agreed to help us."

Twilight beamed at Sunset, "He has! Wait, he has? How did you convince him?"

"I talked to him, and may have told him that Celestia was his daughter."

"Sunset! I wasn't telling him that in case it freaked him out!"

"And I thought he had a right to know. Since it got him to help us, clearly I was right. End of argument."

Twilight rolled her eyes but nodded, aware that there really wasn't any point of arguing over it. "Okay, so where's the Cura-"

"His name is Starsy."

"Oh come on! I can't call him that!"

"Too bad, because his name is Starsy."

"Fine," Twilight groaned. "Where's Starsy now?"

"Is he finding us a sweet weapon we can use?" Trixie asked excitedly.

"Absolutely not," Starsy said as she floated into the area they were standing in. "Even if there was such a weapon that existed to permanently destroy an alicorn such as Twilight, the chances of it working against Faust are slim." Starsy changed into his pony form, and pressed a hoof against Trixie's chest, although she felt nothing as it passed through her. "I'm also informing you now that we won't be destroying Faust, even if the opportunity arises."

"So... what then? Are we going to try and imprison her again?"

"No, we won't be imprisoning her either. Faust has suffered enough, and we will not be killing her, or putting her back in a cage!"

Trixie raised an eyebrow at Starsy, "Okay, so how do you intend that we stop Faust? Give her hugs until she feels better?"

"If that were truly an option I'd say yes." Starsy scowled at Trixie, then turned to the rest of them, "I'm not sure how we're going to stop Faust without killing or re-imprisoning her, but not treating her like such is the one condition of me helping you."

Twilight stared coolly at Starsy. As far as she was concerned there was probably no way they could stop Faust without hurting her, killing her, or containing her. If there was then she'd happily acquiesce to it, but until then she intended to research actual methods of stopping Faust. Unfortunately that meant lying, which wasn't her strong point, but in this case it only took a few words to make it believable.

"Alright, if we can find a way to stop her that you find acceptable, that's what we'll do." Twilight felt dirty for lying to her childhood hero, even if he was only a knockoff, but needs must.

"Thank you," Starsy said, appearing to have bought the lie. "I shall get to work immediately if you want to get settled in, although I would appreciate your aid as soon as you are able."

Twilight smiled at Starsy, and held it as he reverted to his smaller form and zipped away. She continued to hold it when she felt both Sunset's and Mayfly's eyes on her. "What?"

"Why did you lie to him?" Sunset asked. "I saw the way Mayfly winced when you did," she explained without being asked.

"Look, if we can find a way to stop Faust that, ugh, Starsy is comfortable with, then I'm all for it. The problem is that we don't have months to research a way to do that, so if he doesn't find anything we might have to find a different way to stop her that's quicker, even if we imprison her until we do have a proper solution. I'm just being practical Sunset."

"So you're going to be researching ways to fight her?"

"As a back-up plan, yes."

Sunset held her gaze, then sighed and nodded. "I don't like it, but you're right. Fine, find ways to fight her, and I'll try and keep Starsy from working out what you're doing. I'm telling you now though, if he does think of something, that's the plan we're using. He's not wrong that Faust has suffered more than enough, and doesn't need to suffer more."

"I know, and I do agree, but I can't- we can't, place Faust's wellbeing over that of the world. Equestria could well be running out of time, and we might not even have weeks, let alone months to find what we need." Twilight sat and grunted, "If only we had a way to contact Celestia, to ask how much time we had."

"That shouldn't be a problem," the voice of Starsy said again, making Twilight shriek, and not just from the shock. She was suddenly very aware that the Curator might have heard everything she just said. "The portal mirrors, although deactivated, should for the most part be operational. There's one that goes straight to the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree forest."

Twilight carefully worked her jaw to utter the single syllable that occupied her thoughts. "What?"

"I said that there's one that goes to the-"

"I know what you said!" Twilight felt anger bubbling up inside her, tempered with frustration. They'd travelled halfway across the world to find a way to this place when there'd been a way from Equestria under their very noses the entire time. It was enough to make her want to scream, and judging by the looks on at least Trixie's and Moondancer's faces, she wasn't alone.

The small light that was Starsy floated into view, "I don't see what I could possibly done to have upset you."

"You- Nothing, just... nothing. Take us to the portal please."

Starsy bobbed in the air and zoomed off, leaving a blue trail for them to follow. A couple short minutes of internal swearing later they found him fussing about the piles of sand in the portal chamber.

"I really wish Starswirl had given me the ability to move more than books. Look at all this sand! It's everywhere!"

"Starsy, the portal?" Sunset said to the fretting hologram.

"Hmm? Oh yes." He pointed to the middle mirror in the crescent, onlt half of which was left above the sand, "It's there, behind all this awful stuff. I'm afraid you'll have to dig... your... huh." Starsy went quiet as a purple glow surrounded most of the sand in the room and threw it out of the Circen desert portal. "That'll do it," he murmured as he started to inspect the previously buried mirror.

"Where do all these go?" Daring asked as she looked at the other mirrors.

"Oh, various places. The Dragonlands, Griffonia, Zebrica, Equestria, obviously, the Circen desert unfortunately, and a few others I forgotten as I don't exactly need to use them since I can't leave this place. The broken ones here mean their counterpart is broken, as is the case with the Badlands, Tenochtitlan basin, Mareitania, and Saddle Arabia portals as you can see. The others should still be operable though, with a spark of magic at least."

Above each mirror, nestled in the frame was a large gem that Twilight figured had to act as a power source. Even more proof that their original plan would never have worked since without that power source, and a connecting mirror, all they would've made was a dud. The mirror in the Everfree forest was just the icing on a very frustrated cake.

"If you would charge the gem, the portal will open."

Twilight obeyed, and started feeding magic into the gem which started to glow brighter with the more magic she put into it. It seemed a little flawed that if these mirrors stopped working Starswirl would've trapped himself out of this place, but considering how long the Circen desert mirror had been working, they had to be quite robust.

When the gem reached its maximum charge it flashed and started emitting faint wisps of magic that fed down into the other gems. Nothing else happened for a moment, then the mirror lost its reflection, instead appearing to look like liquid mercury before solidifying to show an image of what was opposite the connected mirror. It showed a rather dark stone passage.

"There we go. So long as that gem remains active you should be able to return to Equestria at your leisure. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must return to my work."

Twilight glared at the mirror like it had offended her, then stepped through to the stone passage beyond it. It felt strange to say it, but she somehow knew she was back in Equestria. It just felt right.

"So this is the Castle of the Two Sisters huh?" Sunset said as she passed through the mirror, which Twilight had to note as being entire unremarkable. No wonder Celestia had never suspected its true purpose. "Guess I can knock coming here off the bucket list."

"That's all you have to say about it?"

Sunset shrugged at Twilight, "It's cold and creepy, and I don't really want to be here. I wouldn't mind seeing the throne room though. Y'know, since we're here." She smiled hopefully as the others piled out of the mirror behind her.

"Nice place," Trixie said as she observed the decor. "Hey, I don't suppose we could see the throne room where Celestia banished Nightmare Moon while we're here?" she added, inadvertently mirroring some of what Sunset had said.

"Oh my goodness, fine. It'll only take a minute anyway." Twilight swiftly led them up to the throne room, not bothering to give the tour that the others might have wanted, even as they walked on the mouldering carpets of the throne room. In a strange way it was a relief to see it unchanged, with its ragged tapestries, and missing bits of room, and the twin thrones in the rear.

"Alright," Trixie said, nodding approvingly, "not bad. Trixie could throw one hell of a Nightmare night party in here. The right lighting, a few illusions to scare some ponies, it'd be great!"

Sunset looked up at the two thrones, and the hole in the wall above them. "So this is where it all happened, where Luna became Nightmare Moon... and broke Celestia's heart. No wonder she abandoned this place after that."

Moondancer adjusted her glasses, then turned to Twilight, "Is there a library here? I've heard there was."

Twilight laughed and pointed through a doorway, "Third door on the left. Watch out for the booby traps," she added as Moondancer started trotting.

"You are joking, right?"

"I wish I was. The young Celestia and Luna had funny ideas about fun when they lived here."

"Come on," Daring said, gesturing for Moondancer to follow her. "Booby traps happen to be a specialty of mine."

"Poor Luna," Sunset said once Daring and Moondancer was gone. "All she wanted was to be loved."

"All she ended up being was feared," Twilight said back to Sunset, making the amber mare frown. "I get the feeling you're comparing yourself to her."

"Tough upbringing, overbearing authority figures, a desire to prove ourselves, and a foolish fall to darkness..." Sunset laughed once, but it was far from happy. "No, nothing relatable there. We even both got magic rainbows to smack the evil out of us."

"What about the realisation that you were wrong, and the redemption you've both given yourselves? I hope those are at least good comparisons?"

"I guess." Sunset smiled at Twilight, "Thanks."

"You're welcome... eh?" Twilight perked her ears at a distant sounding pop. Seconds later another one followed it. "What in Equestria?"

"You may want to see this," Mayfly said as she buzzed around up near the ceiling, looking through one of the holes. Twilight flew up and joined her, and gasped as she saw Canterlot surrounded by smoke from the various flashes taking place in the city.

"What is it?" Sunset asked.

"Canterlot's under attack," Twilight said weakly. "How though? They couldn't possibly have reached Canterlot already, could they?" Twilight shook it off, "I'm going to go find Celestia and Luna. You guys stay here!"

"Twilight, wait!" Sunset shouted as Twilight flew up through the hole in the roof. "Damn it Twilight!"

Trixie pulled a face as she trotted over to Sunset, "So, the fuck we supposed to do now?"

Sunset shook her head and frowned as she watched Twilight shrink into the distance. "We wait. It's the only thing we can do."

"Great, so Caterlot's under attack, and I'm stuck here as an observer." Trixie kicked a piece of fallen masonry, and threw herself into Luna's throne. "Just my luck."
> 47. Whatever happens
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You need to face it! Your plan has failed!"

Luna nodded as Cadence glared balefully at her. She didn't argue the point because she had nothing to argue with. Cadence couldn't have been more right if she tried.

"And you," Cadence move her gaze onto Celestia, "you finally decide to fight, and you only make things worse!"

Celestia sighed, not meeting Cadence's eyes, "I know."

"And yet I still get the feeling the fighting will go on when we should be sparing lives and surrendering."

"Faust has us cornered," said Luna. "She has no reason to accept our surrender, even if it were unconditional."

"Then offer her a totally unconditional surrender. It's not hard! We probably have until sunrise until she attacks again, so we even have time to work out a few simple requests that she might grant us. She has no reason to fight if we won't."

"Faust isn't going to grant us anything," Luna growled. "All she wants to give us is an eternity of suffering."

"And the cost of avoiding a few extra days of that is every soldier under your command? Do their lives mean that little to you?"

"Of course they do!"

"Then work with me here! Maybe if we can get Faust around the negotiating table we can work something out with her? Maybe offer her a trade if it stops her doing what you're so afraid she's going to do to you?"

"Except we have nothing to negotiate with, and nothing to trade! Faust wants Equestria, Celestia, and myself, and she is on the verge of getting those three things anyway! Why would she negotiate herself out of getting what she wants now?"

Cadence hesitated for the first time, seeing Luna's point. "Maybe we can trade that General Snowbright then?"

"When she can get him back anyway? Besides, he was pretty much holding the invasion back, so I see no reason why she'd want him over any of us."

Cadence sighed and made a face, "So we have nothing then, and no choice but to fight and lose, or surrender and spare lives."

"Cadence is right," Celestia said softly. "We have nothing to gain now by fighting on."

Luna nodded slowly, looking around the throne room with the distinct feeling this would be the last time she'd see it, and the ponies in it, for quite some time. "What if she doesn't accept our surrender?" Nopony answered.

"Might I give a third option," one of the room's other occupants said.

"Your ideas are always welcome Fleur," Luna said to the white unicorn.

Fleur smiled tightly as she took a few steps forwards. "Perhaps you should flee? Get out of Canterlot, and indeed Equestria, and go where Faust cannot find you. Maybe you could even find Twilight and help her with finding a way to stop Faust. I, or General Armour, can handle the surrender if you wish?"

"I am not leaving my Shining here!" Cadence half shrieked. "Where he goes, I go."

"Cadence no," Shining said to Cadence's words. "You need to protect Flurry. I'm all for this plan if I know you and Flurry are safely away from here."

"No! I won't leave here without you, and that's final!"

"Then Shining goes with you, and I'll handle the surrender," said Fleur. "Then Faust can run herself ragged looking for you, meaning she'll be too distracted to do much else."

"Or she holds you all hostage until we give ourselves up," Luna said to Fleur. "We have no idea what she'll do to make us give ourselves up either. If anything, that could end up worse than fighting on here today." Luna smiled at Fleur, "Tis a fine idea, but we cannot account for what Faust might do."

"So surrender is still our best option," said Cadence. "Haven't you got anything more to say about this Celestia?"

"I've already said that I agree with you Cadence. I have little more to say on the matter, save that I don't think that Faust will accept our surrender."

"Why not?"

"Because she wants to defeat us, to see us beaten. To see Platinum's work undone. Us surrendering denies her that."

"That's ridiculous."

Celestia shrugged, "This reasons behind entire war have always been ridiculous, but I truly believe that Faust will refuse our surrender, or will give us a condition that we cannot hope to meet, forcing us to continue fighting."

"So you're saying that if we were to all lay down our arms, she'd slaughter each and every one of us?"

"Uh... no, I suppose not." Celestia rubbed the side of her head, "Forgive me, I'm not thinking straight. However, if we were to try and discuss it with her, I do feel as though I would be right."

Luna sighed a laugh, and picked up her helmet, holding in her hooves as she inspected it. "So we're in agreement that the least terrible idea we have is to surrender. Marvellous. Fleur?"

"Yes Luna?"

"Equis is disbanded. Go to the filly and enjoy what time you have with her, as I imagine you'll be detained by the Mareitanians as soon as they take the city. Shining, spend time with Flurry and Cadence, as I imagine your situation will be similar. Then we shall wait until the Mareitanians are ready to attack again, only to surrender and face our fates."

"You can't be serious," Fleur said flatly. "You're just cutting me out of all of this?"

"I shall not tell you to leave, but I do recommend that you spend time with the filly. If you wish for something else to do, contact our team in Mareitania to tell them the news, and to give them my apologies."

"But-"

"Thank you for everything Fleur, but you are dismissed."

Fleur grit her teeth, ready to rebuke Luna, but she could see there was no point. "Yes ma'am," she said, saluting. "I'd say give them hell, but that's the complete opposite of what we're doing. Farewell princesses, it's been an honour."

Luna returned the salute as Fleur left. "Likewise," she said quietly. "Shining, inform our forces of our plan, and let them spend some time together before we surrender, then spend what time you can with your wife and child."

"Of course Luna. Thank you."

Luna waited until the others had all gone, and it was just herself and her sister. "So it has come to this sister. Instead of losing slowly to buy time, we've actually lost, for nothing."

"There is still a chance Twilight will come through in the future. While she is still free, there is hope."

"Perhaps. I imagine it would be foolish of me to doubt Twilight." Luna looked towards the rear of the throne room, towards the balcony beyond. "Would you like to watch the sun rise? It may the last chance we have to do so together for quite some time."

Celestia smiled sadly at her sister as she rose to her hooves, "I'd be delighted to, sister."


-0-0-0-


"This is fucking bullshit!" Rainbow swore as the orders were passed down in their direction. "We're really just going to give up?"

"What is there left to fight for?" Lightning said back. "A mile square worth of Canterlot? Really doesn't seem worth it."

Rainbow bared her teeth, then turned to the balcony where she could see Celestia and Luna sat side by side, leaning on each other. Rainbow wanted to fly up there and kick them, and it took quite a bit of willpower not to. "There has to be something we can do! I'm not giving up!"

"What could we possibly do, Rainbow?" Lightning counted around the Wonderbolts with her hooves, "There's like eleven of us left, and three of those are injured. What are eight ponies going to do to stop the Mareitanians?"

"I don't know, but something! Something like... blowing up their explosives stockpile? No, that's probably inside somewhere. Maybe we could go after Faust?"

"That's suicidal," Lightning deadpanned. "Why does giving up bother you so much? I thought you didn't even know why we were still fighting the other day?"

"That was different!"

"How? How is that possibly different?"

"Because it was!" Rainbow sat and folded her legs over her chest, then let them slide down to the ground with a sigh as she hung her head. "Everypony's given up and lost hope, and that bothers me. What if this is just more of Faust's mind magic to try and get us to give up?"

Lightning laughed at Rainbow's idea, "It's hardly necessary when giving up is probably the best idea we could have right now. Besides, those implant thingies would stop that from happening. Vapor, tell Rainbow she's being crazy."

"Me? Why should I have to tell her? I don't want to surrender."

"Then the only option you have is to disobey orders, and try to find some way to stop us from surrendering." Lightning laid back and crossed her legs behind her head, "Good luck with that working out for you."

"So you're not going to help?"

"Are you even serious? How could you even possibly think that this is a good idea? Seriously Rainbow, stop being an idiot, please? Some of us want to live past today since we now have that option."

Rainbow sighed explosively. She knew she couldn't talk ponies into helping her, and had no idea of what to do anyway. Perhaps she should just accept this, and get used to life under Faust's rule. Or not, as every instinct she had was screaming at her to do something. Perhaps she needed the perspective of a pony fine with the fighting ending. "I'm going to go find Pinkie," she said, taking off rapidly.

She found Pinkie nearby, sitting with her team at the edge of the castle grounds. All of them were sat with their uniforms around their waist, watching the horizon as daylight crept closer. Pinkie was also holding hooves with Azure, and Rainbow still found that weird.

"Hey guys."

"Hmm? Rainbow!" Pinkie leapt up and grabbed Rainbow in a hug, "Have you heard the good news? The fighting's going to end soon!"

"I'm not sure I'd call it good news," Rainbow said slowly. "You know Faust's going to want to capture us because of the Elements of Harmony thingummy. I don't know about you, but prison doesn't exactly sound good to me."

Pinkie released Rainbow, but kept her hooves on the pegasus' shoulders. "But the war will be over, and we won't be a threat to Faust. Maybe she'll release the others!"

"I doubt it Pinkie. With Twilight still out there, we could still be a threat to... her..." Rainbow grinned suddenly, "That's it! We need to find Twilight! That way we can still try and stop Faust!"

"Uh..."

"Why didn't I think of it sooner?"

"Rainbow..." 

"Come on Pinkie, we need to get out of the city while we still can! I'll get Lightning and Vapor, and you get your sisters and that ready, and then we can-"

"Rainbow!"

Rainbow blinked as Pinkie shouted her name in her face, "Uh, what?"

Pinkie smiled sympathetically, "I'm not going anywhere. I want to stay here and surrender, and try to get my life back. I'm done fighting, Rainbow. I'm done seeing ponies die, and I'm done trying for no reason because that Faust is too tough to beat." Pinkie shrugged, "I'm done."

"But-"

"But nothing Rainbow. I'm not going to stop you if you want to go find Twilight, and if you find a way to stop Faust then great, but I won't be coming with you."

"Oh come on Pinkie!"

"I'm sorry Rainbow."

Rainbow sighed, but nodded. She understood Pinkie's reasons, and in some ways she respected them, and her conviction if she was willing to go against a friend. "Alright, I get it, you're tired of fighting. That doesn't mean I'm giving up though."

"I'm not asking you to."

"I'm going to find Twilight, and we're going to fix everything."

Pinkie smiled sadly at Rainbow, "I think you know there's a lot of stuff that can't be fixed now, and never will be."

Rainbow smiled sadly, knowing that what Pinkie said was far too true. "Good luck Pinkie, and I guess I'll see you around."

"You too Rainbow," Pinkie said in return, hugging her friend again before going back to her team and sitting with her head resting against Azure's. Rainbow watched for a moment, feeling strangely alone for the first time since Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Spike were kidnapped. She shook the feeling off, then headed back to her wingmates to make plans.


-0-0-0-


Flurry looked perfect as she slept in her crib, although to Shining the foal looked perfect doing everything. It was simply her misfortune to be born into an imperfect world. He wanted to pick her up and hold her, to tell her everything would be fine, even if he had to push the lie through his teeth, but she was asleep, and far be it from him to wake her.

"What have we done?"

Shining turned from his daughter at the four words spoken by his wife, and sat next to her on the couch, wrapping a leg around her back to kiss her on the cheek. "What do you mean?"

"We've ruined everything."

"We've ruined nothing. I'm afraid the only pony we have to point a hoof of blame at is Princess Platinum, and she died hundreds upon hundreds of years ago. We're just the ones paying for her crimes."

"But we shouldn't be. How could we have revered a pony like Platinum, who was cruel enough to steal foals from their mothers?" Cadence swallowed, tears spilling from her cheeks, "What if Faust takes Flurry from us?"

"I don't think she'd be cruel enough to do to us what Platinum did to her."

"How can you be sure? Surely you've noticed how much Flurry must've looked like Celestia at that age? What if- What if Faust... what if she takes our Flurry and raises her to be a monster?"

Shining shushed Cadence as she sobbed. "I really don't think that'd happen."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because I am." Shining held Cadence a little tighter, the unspoken fact that with their fates now in Faust's hooves, Flurry might well be safer with Faust. "Our Flurry could never be a monster."

"This is all wrong..."

"Can't argue with that. Look, even if Faust spares us, life won't ever be the same. At the very least we can hope that Faust agrees to let us restore the Crystal Heart to the Empire, so our ponies have a place to live again, and where we can have a chance to raise Flurry in peace."

"But what if she ends up using the Crystal Heart against everypony? That had to be why she wanted the Empire in the first place, you know that."

"We already lack the capacity to stop her, so perhaps it is best to just go with her wishes if it lets us stay together."

Cadence sighed softly, "That sounds like a terrible idea."


-0-0-0-


"Something tells me I won't be learning to fly any time soon."

Fleur found herself smiling at the filly and her priorities. "I wouldn't say that," she said, barely making herself heard over the nervous chatter of the thousands of other ponies hiding in the crystal mines beneath Canterlot. "Knowing you, you'd probably try and teach yourself to fly first."

"Sure, I'll just throw myself off the side of the city shall I? That sounds like a good idea."

"I mean you're a pegasus, so the instinct must be in that thick skull of yours somewhere."

"My skull is not that thick!"

"Actually it is. Pegasi have thicker skulls to help them survive any unexpected impacts."

"...Oh." The filly folded her legs with a huff as Fleur shifted against the hard wall she was leaning against. "Alright then, if it's instinct, why are there flight schools?"

"Heck if I know. I have a pointy poker, not flippy-flappers."

"And a poor grasp of scientific terminology."

Fleur chuckled, "That too." Fleur lost her smile as the filly's expression turned serious, "What are you thinking?"

"Do you think Twilight can still do it? Do you think she can still stop Faust?"

"I don't know. I think with three other ponies helping her it might be a bit tricky to get to Faust when she's protected by an army."

"Then do you think we should be helping her then? Y'know, setting things up so she has an easier time when she's ready?"

Fleur screwed her face up in confusion, "And how exactly do you propose we do that?"

"I don't know. Maybe there's something your ponies in Mareitania could do, like break Twilight's friends out of prison or something?"

Fleur considered the idea, but she couldn't really say that breaking those ponies out was remotely possible. On the other hoof though, those ponies could be of use to Twilight, so perhaps there was something that could be done to help them.

"You might be onto something. I'll- Shit! I left the stone in the castle! Wait here while I go get it."

The filly shook her head, "Nah."

"Nah?"

"Nah. You know that ain't going to happen."

Fleur held the filly's gaze for a moment, then rolled her eyes and gestured for the filly to follow her. A stern look at the guards had them stepping aside to let the two mares through, and from the entrance to the shelter it was only a few hundred yards to the castle, although it may as well have been a few miles, because the Royal Guard refused to let them in.

"Princesses orders," a guard explained as Fleur demanded to know why. "Nopony is allowed into the castle, save the princesses themselves. We also have explicit orders from Princess Luna to not let you in. Something about you needing to spend time with the filly, whoever that is, now that Equis is disbanded."

"Yo," the filly said to the guard, who missed her point.

"But this is important! I need to get to my office to get my speaker stone, so I can contact our team in Maretania!"

"I'm sorry ma'am, but I can't do that. Please return to the shelter for your safety."

"They're literally on the balcony above me! Luna! Tell this asshole to let me in! Luna!" Fleur waited a beat, hoping to hear a reply from Luna, but there was nothing. "For fuck sake."

"As I said, please return to the shelter for your safety."

"Eat a dick," Fleur sniffed, turning away from the guard. "You can share it with Luna."

"So now what?" the filly asked Fleur as they slowly walked away from the castle.

"Now we go to the house and get one of the spare stones."

"That house where we live on the middle tier, that could be under attack at any moment?"

Fleur nodded once, "Yeah, that house."

The filly nodded sagely, "I see no way in how this could be a terrible idea."


-0-0-0-


Fleur rummaged through her dressing table, knowing that she'd hidden one of the spare speaker stones in there, and brandished it triumphantly once she'd found it tangled in a loose piece of taffeta. She also found the necklace of her cutie mark that she'd gotten from Mareitania, created by the pony that had tortured her and scarred her for life. She'd neglected to wear it for a while because of the uniform she wore for work, but since Equis was no more, there was no reason to not doll herself up a little.

Five minutes, and a modest application of jewellery and make-up later, she left the house she shared with Fancy Pants and the filly, turned back to get the stone, then left again while feeling like a bit of an idiot. The feeling was forgotten as she found the filly with her ear pressed to a drain cover in the middle of the street.

"What are you doing?" Fleur asked, wishing she could muster the energy to sound more put out by what the filly was doing. Frankly she wasn't surprised enough by the filly's actions to get into it though.

"I can hea- Seriously?"

"Seriously what?"

"You took so long because you were slutting yourself up?"

"I do not look slutty!"

"Any mare wearing that much eye shadow is clearly looking for one thing. Maybe two if she's feeling adventurous." The filly returned her ear to the drain cover as Fleur checked her reflection in the nearest mirror.

"I do not look slutty," she reiterated.

"Whatever. I can hear voices coming from below us."

"What?" Forgetting her make-up, Fleur lowered her ear to the drain, and had to hide her gasp as she too heard voices from below having a pointless discussion.

"Frankly, I'm rather suspicious of how clean it is down here."

"So you'd rather be trudging through knee deep shit would you?"

"Oh, fuck no. I'm just saying is all. It's enough to make you think these Equestrians are too posh to poop."

"Poop? What are you? Six? Do you also giggle at fart noises and push mares over in the park because you secretly like them?"

"Shut up y' asshole."

"Both of you shut up! This is supposed to be stealthy!"

"Sorry Sir."

Fleur lifted her ear from the drain, and blinked blankly at the filly for a moment before turning tail and running back to the castle as fast as she could, the filly right behind her. Celestia and Luna were still on the balcony where she last saw them as the first rays of dawn crept over the horizon.

"They're coming through the sewers!" Fleur shouted up at the two princesses. "They're going to attack through the sewers!"

Both princesses teleported down in a flash of magic, shocked Fleur into jumping back at least a meter. "Explain yourself," Luna said quickly.

"I went home to get a speaker stone, since some pain in the ass princess forbid me from entering the castle, and the filly could hear ponies talking below her. It's the Mareitanians Luna! They're going to attack us through the sewers!"

"I was under the impression that Canterlot's sewage was dealt with using magic."

"Not always," said Celestia. "It used to run off into the river using underground tunnels, but that was obviously bad for the river, so we created a system using magic to deal with it all. The old tunnels were all sealed up, save for the sections that allowed workers to maintain the city structure. Oh dear."

"What?"

"They must be getting teleported to where the river passes under the city, because the city platforms aren't connected. But that could only mean somepony told them about it."

"Uh," Fleur held up a hoof and waved to get their attention, "I think we're about to be under attack, so maybe you should worry about that instead?"

"I do believe it's too late for that," Luna said as explosions went off on the midsection of the city. 

Celestia gasped with horror, "But we were supposed to be surrendering!" 

"I know! We need to get down there and help our ponies get out of there. Fleur, go find Shining Armour and tell him what's happened. Guards, let her in the castle."

"Finally."

"Come on Celestia!" Luna ran into a take off, swiftly soaring out over the city with a birds eye view of what was happening below. Ponies were crawling up out of the drain covers around the city, and like the fools they were, the princesses had let their guard down with their intention to surrender. The Equestrian forces were unprepared to deal with the attack, and were dealing with it in the matter they were trained to. They were fighting back.

Luna fired a blast of magic down at the entrance of a drain near the main street through the city, only to have it caught at the last moment by some observational Adepts who shielded the exit. Luna dove towards them, her glaives materialising beside her, and cut down one of the Adepts, weakening the shield enough to batter through it. She stabbed down at the pony trying to climb out of the drain, sending his body tumbling back along with the ponies below him.

Luna ignored a blast of magic to her side as she located the drain cover and slammed it back down into it's place. She then fused it into its surround, preventing anypony from moving it, although she only did half a job as a less ignorable pony charged into her and sent her flying.

Luna rolled with the attack, kicking upwards at the pony, and stabbing down with a glaive as she rolled back onto her hooves. Rather than fight the ponies now aiming to take her out, she fled to the safety of the skies, and sought out her sister, finding her to the north as she attempted what Luna had done, but in a different way. Several meters around the drain hole glowed with heat. It would be a while until anypony would dare set hoof on it again.

"They're going for the cannons," Celestia informed Luna as they met in the air. "They're going to slaughter our ponies there!"

"Not if I can help it," Luna said as reinforcements from the upper city started to pour down into the middle layer to back them up. "Keep the way to the upper city clear, and I'll get our ponies out of there."

Luna could see Faust watching from the lower city as she flew towards the cannons, which were already being attacked from the rear by the Mareitanians. She wasn't participating, thankfully, but Luna knew well enough that she was waiting to bridge the gap once the cannons were taken care of.

Luna decided to deal with the immediate problem instead, and crashed into the fight between the Mareitanians and those defending the cannons, making herself the focus of their attacks as she tried to cut a path through them for her forces. A task that was made easier with Celestia's arrival.

"Move! Fall back to the castle!" Luna shouted, relentlessly cutting down the Mareitanians as the cannoneers and the soldiers guarding them ran through the gap she'd made, and towards the safety of friendly forces. Faust must also have heard her shout though, and a shield appeared to bridge the gap where the bridge had previously been.

Luna placed a shield of her own over the entrance to the middle layer of the city, holding back the soldiers running up the magical ramp long enough to get everypony away, then ran herself, dropping the shield and firing a blast at the stockpile of gunpowder around the cannons. The explosion set off another after another that tore through the ponies running up the shield, and the shield itself. Luna could hear the screams of ponies as they fell. More importantly, the blast had sent the cannons flying off the edge of the city, denying them to the enemy.

Faust recovered quickly, and a new bridge was quickly made for the Mareitanian soldiers to cross, faster than the Equestrians could retreat as they were forced to defend themselves from the Mareitanians already there as they made their retreat. Luna placed herself in the rear as Celestia tried to get their ponies to safety, picking off the oncoming Mareitanians as they ran towards her. She changed to her blades as they got closer, and blood spilled as she held the Mareitanians back.

"Luna!" Celestia cried as she saw her sister make a stand to save their ponies. Solaris glowed incandescently beside her as she hurried ponies across the bridge, and she had to fight herself to make sure they were safe, rather than go help Luna. "Come on, move!"

Luna tasted copper as a sword clashed off her helmet, not cutting through it, but hitting hard enough to daze her at a time when focus was paramount. She fired wildly with her magic, scattering the ponies attacking her with sheer force, and buying her a few valuable seconds to retreat.

The Equestrians were making their way over the bridge as fast as they could, but there were still far too many left to consider retreating herself, so with a grunt of determination she steeled herself for another round. The Mareitanians did not disappoint, and she soon found herself back in a fierce mêlée as they fought for the honour of bringing her down, as whoever did so would likely please Faust greatly.

Exhaustion was starting to creep into Luna, so it was a considerable relief when a blast of golden magic caught two of her assailants by surprise, followed by more that lessened her burden further. She started to fall back, keeping her guard up as the Mareitanians kept coming, although the ranged support from Celestia made it easier. It was still a huge relief as her rear hooves ventured up the incline of the bridge.

Luna turned and bolted as the Mareitanians surged towards the bridge, placing a shield over the end that they crashed up against. "Blow the bridge!" she yelled as Celestia lent her magic to the barrier.

"There's nothing happening!" a pony shouted back, his hooves pumping a detonator up and down in the frantic hope that the bridge would explode at any moment.

Luna swore loudly. With the Mareitanians on the bridge there was no chance of getting a spell off without dropping the shield, and without the ponies on the bridge absorbing the impact of the spell, as gruesome as that would end up being. If she had the chance to charge up a spell she could do something, but again, the shield prevented her.

"We were going to surrender," Celestia whispered. "This wasn't meant to happen."

"And yet it happened, and we got sucked right back into fighting." Luna sighed as the shield started to crack, the Mareitanians starting to break through it. "Perhaps if we-"

Luna's suggestion never got to be heard as a bolt of fuschia from the blue impacted onto the bridge, shattering it utterly with a sound not dissimilar to an explosion, catching everypony by surprise, and again as its caster landed hard on the paving right behind the two princesses, her wings flared, and her magic ready.

"What happened?" Twilight asked, a slight edge to her voice.

"Twilight!" Celestia began to say with obvious relief. "You have no idea-"

"You were supposed to hold Equestria until I got back. The war's been going on for little more than a month, and this is what I come back to? Canterlot being invaded! What. Happened?"

"We lost," Luna said simply. "Mareitania's forces are too numerous, experienced, and well trained, and as soon as Faust took the reins after we captured Snowbright, we were done for. Since you're back though..."

"No I don't have a way to defeat Faust. Not yet anyway." Twilight sighed at the carnage she could see through the rest of the city, and the Mareitanians not too far away. "We need to talk."


-0-0-0-


"What do you mean there's nothing?"

"I mean exactly that, Luna, there's nothing. It's a freaking library in an outpost built to observe the windigoes in the frozen north. There are no weapons, stupidly powerful spells, or anything that can help us to defeat Faust right at this moment."

Luna threw her hooves up in the air, "Great! So this really has all been for naught!"

"What were you expecting?" Twilight snapped back at Luna. "The perfect weapon against Faust to just be sat around waiting for us? Are you serious?"

"That would've been ideal, yes!"

"Well it didn't happen, so instead we're researching a way to defeat her as we speak. Since we only found the place today, that might take a while."

"Today?" Celestia said in surprise. "How did you get back so quick if you only found it today?"

"There's a portal mirror in the ruins of your old castle, but it wasn't working until we activated it from the other end. Frankly we were lucky enough to find a working portal in the Circen desert, because our plan of making a new portal wouldn't have worked." Twilight shrugged at Celestia, "Or you might have come out of four different portals in chunks. I haven't decided yet."

Celestia slowly lowered her head to a hoof, "There was a portal here the entire time?"

"Mmhmm."

Celestia sighed.

"This is kinda beside the point though," Twilight continued. "Equestria's pretty much fucked at this point, so clearly waiting for us to find a way to stop Faust isn't going to work."

"We were about to surrender," Cadence said, Flurry held between her legs. "We should've done so ages ago."

"Yes, alright!" Luna snarled. "I was wrong to believe we could hold them off! Forgive me for not rolling over and showing my belly at the first sign of danger!"

"That's not what I mean, and you know it! Have I blamed you once for fighting against their surprise attack just now?"

"...No?"

"Exactly."

Luna sighed and nodded, "Forgive me Cadence. Fighting is all I really know how to do in these situations. It's not often that it doesn't work."

"Then perhaps we need a new plan. Since we have no way to stop Faust, we need to surrender and try to foster good will with Faust. Perhaps if we can become friends with her, she might consider banishing you rather than something worse."

"Even I find that woefully optimistic," said Twilight. "Besides, it's worse than you think. I know what Faust's 'plan' is now, and it's not great. The plan was the original blueprint for our world, until Discord changed it. Basically sapience was never meant to happen, and neither was the existence of most of the creatures of this world. Ponies would've been dumb animals, and prey for anything fast enough to catch us, or hungry enough to try."

"Then there's no way she could hope to make this plan of hers work," said Luna. "At most we're looking at the complete and total destruction of-"

"All civilisation," Twilight finished. "We'd basically be worse than living in the stone age, except we'll also be prey for any griffon, dragon, or whatever, that takes its fancy of us. As you can imagine, there's no room for nigh immortal alicorns in this picture, so I have no idea what she plans for us."

"You can exclude Celestia from that," said Fleur from behind them, having quietly entered the room. "Faust wants Celestia something fierce."

"Fleur!" Twilight ran over and grabbed her friend in a hug, then spotted the filly and dragged her in. "Oh my gosh, you're wings have grown back!"

"You're damn right they have, although those flying lessons are going to have to wait a bit, y'know, until after Equestria isn't under attack."

"Right, well, um..."

"I can wait a lil bit."

"I don't think a little bit is going to cut it." Twilight grinned weakly, then turned back to Fleur, "What was that about Celestia?"

"According to Snowbright, he was to try and keep Equestria mostly intact because of something to do with Celestia. Faust wants Celestia, although what she intends to do with Celestia is a mystery to us."

"I'd rather not find out," Celestia said with a shudder.

"Okay," Twilight said slowly, unsure of what to make of that piece of news. "What's with the uniform?" she asked instead.

"It's from work," Fleur replied. "I'm the Director of Equis, after the previous were killed by a bomb. Since Equis doesn't really exist anymore," Fleur glared at Luna, "I'm just here as a loose end."

"I feel like I've missed a lot." Twilight shook her head to clear it, "Anyway, we need to think of a plan. We're going to find a way to defeat Faust, since she might have the power to make the plan a reality. She's like the opposite to Discord," she added as a quick explanation. "The Spirit of Order, or something along those lines."

"Good grief," Luna muttered. "Is that why we cannot contend with her power?"

"It's also why we've not seen Discord through this, as he can't really defeat her either. I think he decided to stay away in case he became a liability. Now stop distracting me when I'm trying to think of a plan."

"What plan could we possibly think of that doesn't end up with all of you imprisoned?" asked Shining Armour. "That's the last thing we need to happen."

"No kidding. I think the best thing to do is-" Twilight pricked her ears at the sound of shouting. "Do you hear that?" she asked, only to be thrown to the ground a second later as the entire castle shook. She made it back to her hooves just as the large stained-glass window above the two thrones exploded, letting in a blinding ray of bright, white light. It also let in Faust.

None of them had the time to react as Faust fired a spell directly at Celestia, who didn't even have a chance to scream. She was simply gone, leaving her armour to scatter across the floor. There was no mark, or ash, or residue of any kind. It was as if she simply... wasn't, anymore.

Luna howled with rage as Cadence placed a shield over herself and Flurry. Twilight jumped in front of Fleur and the filly, leaving Luna alone to attack as she fired a beam of magic at Faust, the larger alicorn deflecting it easily back at Luna, who dove to the side to evade it.

"Do you have any idea how long I've waited to have you all together again?" Faust said as Luna skidded back to her hooves. "I knew that if I came after you all individually I'd never get you all. I defeat one of you, the rest would go onto hiding, so I've been patient. And how my patience has been rewarded." Faust directed a glare at Twilight, "Good to see you back in Equestria."

"Good to be back," Twilight replied as her horn started the process of a spell to escape. Luna had other ideas though, and drew her blades to charge at Faust once again. Twilight wanted to tell her to stop, or kick Faust's ass, but the distraction was rather useful.

"I'll kill you!" Luna cried through her rage at losing her sister. She swung her blades low, going for Faust's legs while her horn was kept high to attack while Faust was distracted. Faust reared up to escape the blades, but denied Luna the chance to use her magic by teleporting to the side and bucking Luna hard, right towards Twilight, interrupting her spell casting as she leapt out of Luna's path.

Twilight fired her magic at Faust, keeping her occupied as Luna fought to regain her footing to attack again. Trying a different tactic, Luna joined in Twilight's attack, hoping to blind Faust with a dazzling array of attacks so she could get in close.

Luna kept firing as she ran in, and teleported behind Faust to attack her, keeping her blades in front of her to perform a rapid strike that would at least severely harm Faust's ability to stand if nothing else. Faust however, had other ideas.
The buck came at Luna faster than she could hope to avoid, and all she had were her blades to try and block the attack. She never expected Faust's hooves to dent her glaives, let alone shatter them like they did.

A shockwave of magic sent both alicorns flying away as the magic within Apollo and Artemis was released, their fragments flying everywhere and leaving a trail of patches of frost as they landed. The frost melted rapidly as the residual magic faded, leaving nothing but shards of ordinary metal behind.

Twilight stared dumbfounded at what had happened. She'd felt the magic Faust had been feeding into the strike, using far more than just her strength to strike at Luna. She'd never suspected an attack of even that magnitude could hope to shatter enchanted weapons like Luna's glaives. Now she knew entirely how wrong she was.

"No," Luna whispered as she stared at the patch of melting frost and broken metal that was all that remained of Artemis and Apollo, the two weapons she'd had for centuries, broken in seconds by Faust. It was like losing a limb. "No!"

"Luna! Don't!" Twilight cried. Luna ignored the warning and attacked again, her horn blazing with magic that she never got to use as Faust fired her own magic, shattering Luna's front right leg. Luna fell with a cry, sliding across the smooth marble floor until she was in front of Faust. She tried to attack again, but Faust kicked her head aside, sending the blast towards the roof.

Twilight attacked again, but her spells were batted aside with a wing that at least had the decency to smoulder a little from the attack. It wasn't enough to distract Faust from grabbing Luna's head in an iron grip and twisting, breaking her neck with a crack that echoed around the throne room.

"No less than you deserve," Faust said quietly as Cadence screamed loud enough to be heard over the cries of Flurry. Shining reinforced the shield over them as Faust dropped Luna's broken body and turned her attention to the remaining princesses.

"You won't get away with this," Twilight growled as Faust took a few steps towards her and Cadence. For a moment she thought that her words had actually meant something as Faust stopped, but saw that the large alicorn's sight was locked onto the screaming form of Flurry Heart. She took a few more false steps, then just stared as Cadence pulled Flurry tighter into her grip.

"You won't take her from us!" Cadence shouted at Faust, holding tightly onto the still crying foal.

"I won't," Faust said weakly, staring a few seconds more before she seemed to come back to herself. Her expression turned hard, and she glared at the two princesses. "I don't want to deny you what Platinum denied me. Fly out of here right now, and never return. This is the only chance you're getting, so don't waste it."

"Go," Shining said at Cadence, seeing this as the only real hope he had of getting them to safety.

"I won't go without you Shining!"

"Yes you will. Go."

"But-"

"Go!"

Cadence took to the air with a cry, wrapping her legs tightly around Flurry to stop the foal from fighting to get to her father. She swiftly exited through the broken window Faust had come in through, and was joined a moment later by Twilight, although she stopped at the sight of Equestria's soldiers being forced to surrender, their weapons and armour  getting forcibly stripped from them.

"We need to go Cadence, now!" Twilight said urgently, spurring the pink alicorn into remembering to fly. "I doubt we'll get another chance like this."

"But what about-"

"Cadence, I love how concerned you are, but we need to go, because I'm about to piss Faust off a lot."

Cadence was about to ask what Twilight meant, but had her query answered by Twilight's horn as it glowed, then flashed, summoning the dead body of Luna to her. Flurry immediately started to scream, and Cadence was too close to doing the same herself to stop her.

"Hopefully we can get far enough away before Faust realises."

"Why are you bringing her body with us?"

"Because we're going to need her."

"But she's dead!"

"Only at the mo- Wait, did they not tell you how we're immortal?"

"What?"

Twilight rolled her eyes as she set their course for the Everfree forest, "Nevermind, you can find out when Luna wakes up."

"...What?"

"Twilight!"

Twilight looked towards the shout, spotting three pegasi flying towards her, decked out in combat gear. She grinned as she noticed the rainbow coloured tail of one of them. "Rainbow Dash!"

Rainbow darted in, planning to catch Twilight in a hug, but the sight of Luna's body quickly stopped her. "Whoa, what? Luna's dead?"

"Only at the moment," said Twilight. "The fact is that we need to get out of here, so if you want to come with, that'd be great."

"But what about-" Rainbow threw her legs up, "What the fuck is going on Twilight?"

"Luna's dead, Celestia is... gone, and Equestria..." Twilight shook her head. "Our forces are surrendering, so unless you want to join them, we need to get out of here, especially before Faust works out that I've stolen Luna's body."

"But Pinkie's down there. We have to go get her!"

"Rainbow, we don't have time right now. If we go back we're done for." Twilight tried to smile kindly at Rainbow, but her heart wasn't really in it. "I promise we'll get her back, and the rest of our friends, okay?"

Rainbow nodded feebly, "Okay."

"Good. Now seriously, let's get the hell out of here."


-0-0-0-


Fleur looked Faust in the eye, keeping her attention even as Luna's body vanished in a flash of purple. She wanted to smile and call Twilight a clever girl, but kept it all hidden.

"The princesses are gone now," Faust said, moving her sight to Shining Armour. "I do believe that puts the two of you as the highest ranking members of the Equestrian military. Since your army is currently in the process of surrendering, I won't be so crass as to actually ask for your surrender, but I will ask that you accept it has happened."

"It would seem you've given us little choice," Shining said back, "so yes, we surrender."

"Excellent." Faust started to turn away from them, so Fleur quickly tried to get her attention back by asking a question. 

"How'd you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Launch that sneak attack? We were going to surrender, but then you attacked us from below, forcing us to fight on, so I want to know how you knew about that?"

Faust hummed thoughtfully, "And here I thought the Director of Equestrian Intelligence would be more aware of what was going on inside her own jurisdiction. Apparently not. Oh well, you can ask my new major-domo when you see him, because he can tell you all about his betrayal."

Fleur rolled her eyes and laughed, "It's Blueblood, isn't it?"

"Oh? So you're aware of his actions?"

"Not at all, but he's the one pony left with a higher governmental position than us, and yet it's not him that you're asking for our surrender, meaning you mustn't have been sure we didn't know he was a traitor. He's also the one pony I haven't seen lately that I should be keeping an eye on. I suppose it wouldn't be beyond him to know about the old sewers."

"He also sabotaged the explosives on the bridge to this level of the city, not that it really helped. Still, well done for working it out so quickly." Faust looked up and smiled as her soldiers ran into the throne room, "A shame you couldn't be convinced to help us."

"I'm sure it is." Fleur grunted as a soldier grabbed her and roughly pulled her uniform off, declaring her clean.

"Still, both of you have information I require." Faust gestured at another pony walking into the room. She was a very light brown, with long, curly, blue-grey tresses, and a rose tucked behind her ear. "Meet Black Rose, the head of the Shades."

Fleur nodded stiffly at the newcomer, "I guess you're the pony I should thank for making my life such a pain?"

"And you're the pony I should thank for making my life so interesting. You were so much more... competent than your predecessors. I actually had to try at times."

"Silence, both of you." Faust looked sternly at both of them, then apologetically at Fleur. "I assure you we'll be a lot more accommodating than the last time you found yourself in this position, but rest assured, Black Rose is very patient, and will get out of both of you everything I need to know. Right now though Black Rose, I could use your assistance."

Faust released Fleur from her gaze, and turned back to the thrones. She sneered at the one on the left, and with a single spell obliterated it into fragments. She then sat on Celestia's throne, "Soldiers, take those two away," she said, still failing to notice the lack of Luna's remains.

"Wait, what about-" Fleur started to say, but stopped as a quick search told her somepony was missing. Wherever the filly was, she was long gone from there. "Nevermind," Fleur amended quickly, letting the soldiers lead her on without a fuss.
They led both herself and Shining down to the dungeons, where they were led into different cells, and had an inhibitor placed on their horns before getting locked in. A minute later there was a small chuckle, and Snowbright's face appeared in the window.

"Well, we'll, well, look-ee what we have here."

"I already know Faust has some stringent rules about the treatment of prisoners, so unless you're about to disobey her, you can stop with the macho intimidation act."

Snowbright lost some of his smile, "You're lucky I won't be the one asking you questions. Besides, think about what we did to Flitter before you get too comfortable thinking this will be a pleasant stay."

Snowbright gave Fleur a wink, and left her alone to fight back her fear. She'd rather forgotten about Flitter, and what had happened to her. Still, she had one last job to do, then they were free to do whatever they wa-"

"I hope you know this is justice."

Fleur sighed through her nose, "I won't deny that there's some irony in this, Starlight Glimmer, but I'm really not in the mood to call it justice." Fleur reached back, searching through the strands of her tail for something.

"That doesn't change anything. You could've let me out, but now we all get to be stuck in here together."

Fleur grunted as she found what she was looking for, and yanked at the tool for removing inhibitors she kept in her tail, pulling a few hairs out with it. She then popped her inhibitor off, and begun the process of retrieving the speaker stone, which was hidden somewhere much more sensitive.

"What are you doing?" Shining asked, wondering what all the squeaks coming from Fleur's cell were about.

Fleur held the speaker stone up for him to see, then quickly retracted it as she reconsidered letting him see it. "I'm kindling a little hope for Twilight. Hopefully Bon Bon is up for an interesting mission."


-0-0-0-


"What happened?" Sunset asked as Twilight came into land at the castle, accompanied by three pegasi, one other princess, a foal, and a dead body. "Whoa."

"We lost," Twilight said, not wanting to make it any more complicated than that.

"What do you mean we lost?" Sunset asked back, feeling as though the answer needed to be a heck of a lot more complicated.

"I mean we lost. Canterlot has been conquered, Celestia is gone, and Equestria has fallen. We're all that's left now."

"What do you mean Celestia's gone? Do you mean she's dead?"

"No, I think I'd know if she was dead. Besides, it wouldn't be a problem if she was. Faust did something to her, and now I have no idea where she is."

"I see." Sunset's eyes widened as Rainbow removed her helmet, but said nothing as she knew that this was the pony version, and was technically a pony she'd never really met, let alone knew with any depth. The one pony she did know was Cadence, and that wasn't too happy a story. Fortunately for her, Cadence seemed too torn up to want to go into it right now.

Trixie walked up and poked Luna's body, "There's something you don't see every day."

"Don't do that!" Rainbow shouted, swatting Trixie's hoof away with a wing.

"Oh relax, she'll be up and laughing about it in a few hours." Trixie rolled her eyes and ignored Rainbow as the mare growled, turning to Twilight instead. "So what now?"

"Now? Now it's all up to us. With Equestria gone, we're the only ones capable of finding a way to stop Faust before the rest of the world follows."

Trixie nodded thoughtfully, "Okay, so you're saying it's up to a plucky team of misfits to find a way to defeat country of fanatical ponies?" Trixie grinned at Twilight, "That sounds familiar. I like our odds."

"I don't, which is why we'll be doing this sensibly-"

"Hah! Right, yeah, because we're so very good at that. Be honest Twilight, we have no idea what we're doing, but we're going to try anyway."

As much as she wanted to disagree, Twilight knew she'd only be lying to herself. "We'll think of something. Right now we need to get out of here, and get Luna's body somewhere warm for when she wakes up. Then we can think of a plan."
> Epilogue - We happy few
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna snorted, then coughed as her nostrils filled with sand. Just what she needed on her sixteenth, or was it seventeenth resurrection? She didn't know any more, although she did know that she really needed to stop dying. It was bad for her health.

She opened her eyes, then squeezed them shut again as a bright light assaulted her senses. Instead she lay there, eyes shut, trying to not breathe in sand as she quietly baked in an overwhelming heat. It really wasn't the wake up she was expecting, so didn't complain.

"I thought it'd be better for you if I kept your body warm."

Luna took a moment to reply to Twilight, spending it trying to get her mouth moist enough to speak without croaking too much. "That didn't mean you had to put me in the oven."

"Heh, not quite. Welcome to the Circen desert, Luna, home of ancient, and long absent alicorns."

Luna stiffly raised a hoof over her eyes, then opened them a crack. It was still painfully bright, but she quickly became adjusted to it enough to see she was facing out towards the desert. She couldn't see Twilight, so raised her head until she could, her neck cracking with the movement reminding her of her last moments.

"I suppose I should also let you know you're an idiot, attacking Faust like that."

Luna finally found Twilight sat behind her in the shade, hunched over with her back leaning against a wall that had been worn smooth by the wind and sand. She struggled backwards on leaden limbs until she was in the shade as well. "I agree. If I had known Celestia wasn't dead, I might have acted differently, but my anger got the best of me."

"She wasn't in the Astral realm?"

"No sign of her. Whatever Faust inflicted on my sister, it was not death."

"I guess we'll find out eventually then. I'm sorry about your blades."

Luna slowly sighed through her nose, and nodded. "I never thought such was possible. It shouldn't have been possible. I suppose that is further proof of how out of our depth we were."

Twilight prodded Luna and held out a hoof to help her into a sitting position. "We always knew we were out of our depth."

"And yet we escaped."

"No we didn't. She freaked out when she saw Flurry, then let us go."

"Oh? I suppose Flurry does look rather similar to how Celestia did at that age, so I can imagine Faust was rather reminded of her. Still, I'm surprised she let you go, and allowed her to take my remains with you."

"Oh, I suspect that wasn't quite her plan."

Luna chuckled at that, but the laughter soon died. Celestia was gone, her weapons were destroyed, and Equestria was firmly under the control of Faust. That was nothing much to laugh about really.

"How long was I out?"

"About half a day."

"Sounds about right." Luna forced herself to stand, her stiff body protesting at the treatment it had received, and was continuing to receive. There was far too much to be done to waste time sitting around feeling sorry for herself. Her dry mouth at least requested some water, which she begrudgingly admitted wouldn't hurt.

"I imagine you're wondering what we're supposed to be doing now?" Twilight asked, rising to her own hooves as Luna tried to stretch the stiffness away.

"It has crossed my mind. Also, I'd like to thank you for bringing me here. This is the least unpleasant return to life I've ever had. Keeping the body warm, I'll have to remember that."

"Good. You can tell Cadence when you explain to her the entire immortality thing I thought you'd told her. Maybe she'll drag you back out here when she murders you."

Luna winced, "I do imagine she's not best pleased with me."

"There's an understatement. I'd also like to give you a kicking for traumatising my niece after you died horribly in front of her."

"I'm afraid you shall all have to form an orderly queue then, because I'm not sure there's enough of me for you all to kick at once."

"Then I'll have to do it for them." Twilight kicked Luna's legs out, sending the blue alicorn tumbling into the sand. Before Luna could so much as try to stand back up, Twilight was stood over her, jabbing a hoof down on her chest, "I can't even begin to describe how angry I am Luna. We were supposed to have months to work this out, but instead I come back to find Equestria had fallen after as little as a month. You were supposed to keep it safe!"

"What was I supposed to do, Twilight? We did everything we could to keep Mareitania from being ready to attack! We burned their ships, destroyed their factories, and sabotaged whatever we could! But they came and attacked us all the same. Our best defence fell in two days, and after that it was only a matter of time. You can be angry at me all you want Twilight, perhaps rightfully so, but I'm not solely responsible for this."

"And who else could you possibly blame?"

"You, Celestia, Trixie, Fleur, Octavia, Spitfire, Soarin, Fleetfoot, Daybreak, Snowbright, Ivory, Hayfield, Sour Mash, the Viscount, the Duke, Platinum, and most importantly, Faust! There are plenty of others I could name if you wish me to keep going?"

"Are you even being serious? You're blaming me? And my friends? We were there by yours and Celestia's orders, remember, so don't you dare say that we're to blame for this!"

"The army you created is the only reason Faust got as far as she did in so little time. Your Adepts are without compare, your decision to leave Honeydew with them was, frankly, terrible, and their weapons and armour significantly superior to what we could make. Their intelligence agency put ours to shame, and their battlefield medics are some of the best in the world because they don't shy from danger to save ponies."

Twilight punched Luna across the face. It was only a short, quick smack that barely made the larger princess flinch, but it helped Twilight immeasurably. "It still wasn't my choice to be there, and yes I may have given them the best tools to fight with, but I was in no position to tell them what to do with those tools afterwards, so you can fuck right off with blaming me."

Twilight stepped off of Luna, allowing her to stand again and roll her neck to work the kinks out. "I only wish to express that while I should receive my share of the blame, there are plenty of others that should accept their shares as well."

"I don't care, Luna. I don't care because as much as I hate to say it, Trixie was right. Here we are with a small group of ponies having to fight against impossible odds to liberate a country again. The thing is, if it wasn't for the large amount of ponies I love and care about in that country that risk getting hurt, I can't say I really feel like it. I don't want to be in this position again, where so many depend on us! If you'd held onto Equestria, all I'd have to do is research a way to stop Faust, create it, use it, and boom! We're all done! Then I could think about my promise to Batal to get his ponies back, worry about the Storm King a bit, try to work out what happened to all the alicorns that lived here, and that's all I would have to do!"

"Do you feel better now?" Luna asked after a moment.

Twilight narrowed her eyes at Luna, "Say anything like that again, and I will throw sand in your fucking eyes."

"Oh, well I'm sorry to hurt your feelings, but I've watched the country I built and defended crumble away around me in a month after a millennia of prosperity, My beloved sister is missing, I've died again, and the one pony I need to help us get through this has yelled at me and punched me in the face! So you know what? I've had a pretty shit day too!"

The two alicorns glared at each other for several seconds, right up until Twilight snickered gently, and kicked sand over Luna's hooves. "Pretend that went in your eyes."

"Come on Twilight, we have a duty-"

"Oh don't even go there. I still don't see why becoming an alicorn automatically makes you responsible for the millions of ponies living in Equestria. It literally doesn't make sense to me."

"We do it because we can."

"Okay, the next sand I throw will actually go in your eyes if you don't stop. I'm doing this, but I'm not doing it for you, Celestia, Cadence, and especially not myself. I've been filled in on what's happened by Rainbow, and frankly I'm disappointed by what's gone on in my absence. The reason I'm stopping Faust is for the ponies, and the country that I'm going to save will also be for the ponies."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, no more princesses. Clearly we're too incompetent to rule, so we shouldn't, simple as. The decisions that have been made to get us to this point have been made by ponies that have nopony to disagree with them save each other, and nopony to stop them, and it's stupid. The new Equestria would be ruled by ponies, for ponies, and us? We'll be made redundant. Permanently."

Luna was shocked. She knew Twilight was disillusioned with their rule, but to hear this was near blasphemy to her ears. "You can't be serious!"

"Oh I am-"

"Then who are you to decide this but another princess? The rule of a princess to end the rule of princesses? How is that not hypocrisy? What if the ponies wish for the rule of alicorns? What then? Are we to deny them because that is what you wish?"

Twilight tried to argue, but found she couldn't as Luna was right. Princesses had ruled Equestria for almost as long as it had existed, and had few complaints about it over the centuries. There was bound to be resistance to the end of alicorns ruling, and especially since it was a princess asking for it. Perhaps there was another way.

"Fine, then we'll let the ponies decide. We save Equestria, then in the near future we can hold a referendum on whether or not princesses should rule Equestria, and let the ponies of Equestria decide."

"I could just do this without you," Luna said coldly.

"You're welcome to try, but you'll probably be doing it alone. Besides, this is what I'm talking about! You're deciding that there shouldn't be a referendum, and the only ones with a voice capable of stopping you are other princesses! This has to stop!"

Luna sighed, seeing that she'd backed herself into a corner with that one. She knew she needed Twilight's help to do this, and had little choice but to give in. What she thought Twilight was going to do if she refused was an amusing thought, since that was pretty much letting Faust do what she wanted, but this wasn't the time to point it out.

"Very well, once we have freed Equestria we shall hold a vote on whether to allow the reign of alicorns to continue. Assuming we even get that far."

"Well, yes, alright," Twilight said, some of the wind being taken out of her sails. "Point made."

"Should I assume that there is a plan at this point?"

"Not as such," Twilight admitted quietly, "but we have one of the world's top minds on it. You should come meet him."


-0-0-0-


Luna paced in a circle around Starsy as he paced around her in the small confines of the portal chamber, studying and eyeing each other up with an intensity that neared contempt.

"So this isn't the actual Starswirl?" Luna said after a few moments. "How disappointing."

"Enjoy your sabbatical on the moon dear Luna?" Starsy said back. "I imagine the views must be... breathtaking, from up there."

"They got boring after a few days," Luna replied, her face suddenly developing a grin. "Even if you aren't the genuine article, it's still good to see you, you old goat."

"Likewise, Princess, although I must say I'm a little disappointed that you managed to lose Equestria."

"Seeing as how you know exactly what we're up against, can you honestly tell me you're surprised?"

Starsy shrugged at the question, "Hmm, perhaps not, but that is precisely why I was sought out, was it not?" Starsy raised his nose into the air, "Clearly Equestria cannot survive without my brilliance."

"Uh-huh. That said, do you have any ideas on how to solve this mess?"

"Not a one," Starsy said shamelessly. "Not even outside the conditions I laid down."

"Conditions?" Luna asked. "What conditions."

"Basically he will only help us if we agree to stopping Faust in as kind a way as possible," Twilight explained. "He doesn't want us to make Faust suffer anything like another lengthy imprisonment."

Luna wanted to roll her eyes, and it was a fight to keep them pointing forwards. "I see. And what if there is no such other way but to imprison her?" Luna waited for an answer, a frown growing on her face the longer she went without one. "Uh-huh. Helpful."

"There is a way to do this, I know it" Starsy insisted. "We just need to find it first. Perhaps with your 'help' we can find it even faster. Follow me."

Starsy led them out of the portal chamber, and towards the observation area. The library was interesting to see, but Luna ignored it in favour of the voices up ahead, talking in hushed tones. There were quite a few ponies there, and she was about to say a hello when a high pitched scream filled the air. The kind of high pitched scream that had previously shattered the Crystal Heart.

"And a fine hello to you Flurry Heart," Luna muttered instead. "It's alright little one," she said louder, "I'm fine, I'm totally fine. There's nothing to worry about."

"I think there's plenty to worry about!" Cadence shouted as she tried to stop Flurry from flying away in terror, grabbing the foal in her legs. "How in Celestia's name are you not dead?"

"Go on," Twilight said in a tone rich with sarcasm, "tell her that thing you should have told her ages ago."

Luna grimaced, then tried to turn it into a smile for Cadence as she continued to fight with Flurry. "Alicorns are immortal is the simple answer. We can be killed, but we return to life shortly after, totally unwounded."

Cadence blinked, glancing away for a moment as Rainbow Dash tried to get Twilight's attention. "I think you're going to have to explain it a bit better than that. Are you like a zombie now? And Flurry, will you please stop screaming? Please?"

Luna hid her sigh and nodded at Cadence. "I thought you might want more of an answer than that. Very well, I shall try to explain it as best I can."

Twilight couldn't contain the smug smile she had over Luna having to explain this to Cadence, even though she was sure Cadence wouldn't appreciate how the story ended. Celestia had said there might be issues with Cadence having to watch the ones she loved died, and it was perhaps a massive mercy to her that Flurry was born an alicorn. All the same, it made Twilight want to smirk, and she let it sit in plain view on her face until Rainbow came and tapped her on the side.

"Twilight, can we talk?"

"Uh, sure. What about?"

Rainbow led Twilight away where others couldn't hear them, then sat and played with her hooves as she tried to work out how to say what she wanted. "I'm sorry," she blurted after several long seconds.

"Uh, okay. What for?"

"For... for not being there for you after you came back from Mareitania."

"Ah." Twilight nodded, starting to understand the situation. "Is this to do with you all thinking I was some kind of monster for doing what I had to? And for pretty much ostracising me after that? After the things you've had to do to defend Equestria, do you suddenly realise how easy it is to end up with unwanted blood on your hooves? And do you feel ashamed for how accepting you came to be of it all?"

Rainbow winced more and more as Twilight went on, "I get the feeling you were expecting this."

"Expecting, and ready for it." Twilight gestured with a hoof towards Rainbow, "Come on then, let's hear it," she said with barely veiled irritation.

"How do you live with it?"

Twilight froze as Rainbow looked up at her with tears in her eyes. She couldn't help but watch as those tears took the path of least resistance down the hairless scar on Rainbow's cheek.

"The fact that you had to go through dealing with what you'd done, while we were treating you like... like a murderer. I am so sorry Twilight, for treating you that way, and- and-"

Twilight's demeanor crumbled with Rainbow's as the pegasus burst into tears that Twilight knew weren't all for her. She pulled Rainbow into a tight hug, keeping her within her legs as the pegasus bawled into her shoulder, saying nothing until Rainbow was good and ready. 

"I'm so sorry!"

"Shh, Rainbow, it's alright."

"No it's not! We were so horrible to you! And when you needed us most, we- we-"

"I know," Twilight sighed, "and I'm not going to say it didn't hurt, or that I wasn't angry about it. The thing is, I know that if our places were swapped I'd probably have been exactly the same. I never really blamed you for not understanding, and I'm sorry that you've been put into a position where now you do. Nopony should have to experience the things we have."

"Ain't that the truth," Rainbow said as she tried rub her tears away. "How did you cope with it all?"

Twilight smiled in the direction Trixie was sitting, although she couldn't see her. "It helped to have ponies around me that understood. I had Trixie, Fleur, and the others, and you have me, Lightning, and Vapor if you need them. You guys might have... not been as supportive as I would've liked, to put it mildly, but I wasn't totally alone with it."

"So you can forgive me then."

"Of course I can. That doesn't mean I do of course." Twilight smirked sideways as Rainbow's mouth dropped open, "Gotcha. Of course I forgive you Rainbow, because that's what friends do."

"Thanks Twilight. Speaking of friends though, where did you find Daring Do and a changeling? I mean, can we really trust Mayfly?"

"To answer those in order, in Saddle Arabia, the Badlands, and yes we can. She was cast out by Chrysalis, and... there's kind of a whole story to it. I'll tell you some other time, when we don't have a whole 'save the world' thing going on. Or, y'know, later, if we're not busy."

"Cool. You can also tell me how the hell Trixie killed Auhizotl while you're at it."

This time it was Twilight's turn to wince, "Daring told you didn't she?"

"Yeah she did. Daring Do's never going to be the same without Auhizotl! And how is she supposed to explain why he was never seen again, huh?"

"Okay, he was about to eat my heart, so excuse me if that wasn't a major concern at the time."

"That's no excuse!" Rainbow bit her lip at the way Twilight started looking at her, "I mean, it could be?"

"He was about to kill Trixie as well, so excuse her too if she decided to kill him first."

"Is Caballeron still alive at least?"

"Yeah, we never saw him, so he's fine. Besides, it's not like we actually set out to kill anyone. That situation forced Trixie into using dark magic again, and freaked her the fuck out. Not something we really wanted to happen."

"Okay... okay, good. Maybe Daring can write around Auhizotl never being seen again."

Twilight rolled her eyes and started to walk away, "I can't believe this is your primary concern right now."

"It's not my primary concern, but it is a concern."

"And what are the others? Besides Equestria having fallen, that is."

"Our friends."

Twilight stopped cold at the utterance of those two words. She knew she shouldn't really be surprised at hearing them, but with everything else that had been going on, she might have forced them towards the back of her mind.

"We were going to get them back after we won the war... but we lost. We can't just leave them there, Twilight."

"I know, but I don't have any idea how to get them out right now."

"Oh, okay." Rainbow's disappointment was obvious.

"I'm not disagreeing with you Rainbow," Twilight said quickly. "I want them back too, but we can't just waltz into High Rock and take them. Give me a bit of time to think about it while we find a way to stop Faust, and I promise I'll find a way to get them out."

"Can't you and Trixie do the two magic thing you told us about, to get us into the castle?"

"In theory, but that's just one small facet of the problem." Twilight smiled at Rainbow, "I promise you I'll think of a way to get them back, but we need to be ready, okay?"

Rainbow nodded, confident that Twilight would find a way. "Okay, but if you take too long I'm going to start working out my own way to get them out. You know that won't end well."

"And now I have a time limit. Marvellous." Twilight smiled sardonically at Rainbow, then gestured with her head for Rainbow to follow her back out to the observation area. Luna and Cadence were back, with Flurry giving Luna suspicious squints, which was at least better than screaming, and far superior than the hollow look in Cadence's eyes.

Twilight looked around the room, at the ponies within it. Trixie, Sunset, Moondancer, Mayfly, Daring Do, Rainbow, Lightning, Vapor, Cadence, Luna, Starsy, and herself, against the most powerful being in the world, save perhaps Discord. Twilight would've included Flurry as well, but she suspected her contributions would be somewhat limited by her being less than a year old. She wanted to say Faust didn't stand a chance, but that would be blatantly stupid considering she'd made Celestia vanish, and killed Luna in less than a minute. Still, they had to try.

"Come on guys, let's get to work. The sooner we find a way to stop Faust, the better."

"We're reading books again, aren't we?" Trixie said with a groan. "Seriously, why are all our solutions in books? Hasn't anypony had an original idea for the last one thousand years?"

"Shut up and get reading, Trixie."


-0-0-0-


Faust breathed deeply, enjoying the crisp, clear, mountain air that Canterlot enjoyed now that the fires had been put out. Of course there was the small issue of rebuilding what had been destroyed, but apart from the bridges there was no rush. It would all be made pointless in the end anyway.

Until such a time though, there was plenty to be done. The surrendered Equestrian forces had to be dealt with, and gaining the support of the rest of Equestria as she continued her goal of eradicating all that had been made wrong with the world. All would know peace eventually, but not yet.

"Are you listening, your Ladyship?"

Faust blinked a few times as she returned to the here and now, and moved her gaze to the griffon before her. "Apologies Commander, but my mind was wandering. What was it you just said?"

Theron gave a little caw of irritation, and repeated what he'd just said to the alicorn sat in the golden throne of Celestia. "I said that with five thousand of your soldiers, Griffonstone should fall into line without a fuss. Those griffons won't put up much of a fight unless you pay them to."

"Are you so certain they won't fight back? I have learnt much of the obstinacy of Griffons over the last few weeks."

Theron bristled at the thinly veiled, if not blatant insult, "If I were so confident, I would not be requesting five thousand of your soldiers to help me. Faced with such numbers, they will not put up a fight."

"Very well, but if the griffons do resist, I will be plucking a feather for every one of the soldiers you cost me. Do not waste their lives on your business, Commander Theron."

"Understood." Theron bowed deeply and left, leaving Faust with the three ponies currently attending her, Snowbright, Black Rose, and her newest acquisition, Prince Blueblood, although she refused to call him Prince.

"What of the Director and the General?" Faust asked Black Rose. "Have they revealed anything of use yet?"

"They haven't said a word as yet. Even with Snowbright's suggested methods that he learnt of first hoof during his time here, they remain silent. Perhaps if you were to let us use more persuasive methods?"

Faust thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. "No, I will not condone torture just yet. Honestly I'm not convinced they truly know anything of worth to require such extreme methods."

"Surely the whereabouts of Equis' assets would be of great use to us?" Black Rose said, almost pleadingly. "We can't afford the kind of surprises they could have in store for us if left unchecked."

Faust pursed her lips, wanting to say those surprises would be as gnats biting an elephant, but she couldn't undermine her ponies like that. "If they haven't spoken in a week, we can consider other methods, but I have confidence that Snowbright's method will bear fruit."

Black Rose bowed stiffly, "As you wish. I shall go check on their progress."

Faust nodded at Black Rose, and the mare left, leaving Blueblood and Snowbright to deal with. "Any thought's Blueblood?" she said, catching him by surprise as he watched Black Rose leave, or more specifically, her flank.

Blueblood quickly composed himself, and gave Faust a winning smile. "I'm afraid progress might be slow. Trying to convince the ponies of Equestria that you're here to help them is a little tricky after conquering their country, and even more so after centuries of... indoctrination by the princesses."

"You don't sound convinced by your own words Blueblood."

"Apologies, my Lady, but it'll be an uphill battle to convince ponies you are here to help them, let alone to convince them to aid you. You are rather viewed as a-uh, tyrant, by most."

"Watch that honest tongue before you trip over it Blueblood," Faust warned. "I know well enough what I might be seen as, but if you can see the truth of my cause, others can too. Your efforts to convince Celestia's soldiers to surrender was proof enough that you can do it."

"I'm afraid that was rather easy in comparison, but I shan't give up until everypony has seen your cause is just. If you'll excuse me, my Lady?"

"Of course, Blueblood."

Snowbright followed Blueblood with his eyes as the unicorn left. "You can't trust a weasel like him," he said once Blueblood was gone. "Anypony willing to betray their country is willing to betray anything."

"Perhaps, but for now his loyalty is mine. As for you Snowbright, I forgive you for letting your tongue slip whilst in captivity. What I don't forgive you for is your feeble capture. How did it happen?"

"The Equestrians were relying on brutality to cover the shortfall in their numbers. It didn't serve them very well for long since we now sit in a free Equestria."

"Even so, I am still disappointed in you. Perhaps if you were to prove your loyalty I will return you to your position, and allow you to aid that fool Theron in capturing Griffonstone."

Snowbright bowed deeply to hide his embarrassed scowl, "I am at your service."

"There are a number of ponies in Equestria whom I know for certain that Blueblood's word will never sway. Ponies like your former allies during the civil war, and others. For now they are being kept in a camp in Ponyville, but their numbers are too many to trust a mere camp with keeping them in order. I'm considering expanding the operation to cover the entire village, rather than waste time and resources building shelters for them all, but some extra security would be good. Do you have any ideas?"

"You mean you seek a way to control these ponies?"

"Mostly I seek to keep them contained and out of the way, but in a manner suitably equine."

"I see." Snowbright broke into a grin, "I may have met just the pony you're looking for. She's currently in the dungeons for various crimes, but mostly she stole ponies marks to remove their special talents, and brain washed them into obeying her. Or at least something along those lines. I may have lost interest when she started going into her philosophy behind it all."

Faust hummed thoughtfully, "Intriguing. And you believe that she can be used to eliminate these ponies as threats? Are you sure she can be controlled herself?"

"I believe so. All you have to do is put the fear of the Lady into her, and she'll fall into line."

"Yes... she sounds like she might be just what I'm looking for. Bring her to me, Snowbright, so I might decide for myself."

Like the others, Snowbright bowed and left, only this time Faust was able to be left alone for a brief moment. A moment she could use to calm the aching of her heart. She knew what she was doing was right, but the path to it was fraught with pain and bloodshed. It would be worth it in the end, but the journey was enough to keep her questioning it.

Faust tried to put it out of her mind as there was a great number of other things to think about, such as why she had let the two princesses escape? She had finally got them all together, drawn Twilight out of hiding, and had successfully retrieved Celestia and defeated Luna, so why had seeing that foal made her hesitate? Was it simply because she looked like Celestia that it had cut so deep into her? Whatever the reason, she was foolish enough to let the alicorns escape, and with Luna's body no less. The cursed mare was bound to be up and walking again by now. They would all have to pay for that.

"My, you have been a naughty filly, haven't you?"

Faust leapt out of her throne with a shout as the words were whispered into her ear, followed by a chuckle that she easily recognised, even after so long. She turned on the spot, frantically searching the throne room as she tried to find him.

"Show yourself, Chaos!"

"Actually, Order, I go by the name Discord now. So much more playful sounding than boring old Chaos."

Faust stopped turning as Discord's voice seemed to come from everywhere, yet also nowhere. "If you expect me to call you that, you shall do me the courtesy of calling me by my name."

"Ah yes, Faust. A tasteless play on first, what with your obsession with being the first alicorn. Hardly something to be proud of since there are only six of you in the first place. And yes, I counted Luna's little doppelganger that you accidentally created, and I'm actually disgusted by what you did to her, which is saying something as I have some very broad tastes, as you know."

"Do not mention that creature around me!"

"Nightmare."

"Stop!"

"Nightmare."

"I said stop!"

"Nightmare."

"Aargh! Cease your childish antics and come out here and face me you coward!"

"So you can try and blast me into oblivion once more?" Discord chuckled again, "No thank you. I also think the ponies of Equestria would appreciate keeping their city in one piece on the side of the mountain."

"It shall go one day, as shall all of them!"

"Ah yes, the plan. Honestly Faust, what are you thinking?" Discord sang. "You know the plan is impossible now. I made sure of it, even though it benefitted you more in the end than it did me, since you made sure I was a monster to them all.  Thanks for that by the way."

"You are a monster!"

"And perhaps if you'd slung less names like that around, I might've been more willing to work with you on your little Harmony project, but alas, you created yourself as a giant bitch. So sad."

Faust glared up at the stained glass window depicting Discord, feeling it mocking her. At the very least it gave her something to direct her words at. "I will find you Discord, once I am done making this world perfect, and I will end you once and for all!"

"Oh you, you always knew how to make me feel special. Too bad that'll never happen, because a: I can't be destroyed, as you well know, b: this world will never be perfect, and c: you messed with the friends of Twilight Sparkle, and made an enemy of her. Twilight Sparkle, the pony that defeated me with ease in the space of an afternoon. I suppose my arrogance helped, but the point still stands."

Faust flared her nostrils at the mention of Twilight's name, but kept her anger back while Discord was still feeling talkative. Who knew what he might let slip? "And what's your stake in all this?"

The was a faint growl in the air, "You hurt Fluttershy... and it galls me that I can't do anything about it. We both know that as soon as I get involved, whatever plans Twilight Sparkle has concocted will likely unravel. I never understood how you could always beat me, temporarily at least, so I will be staying far away from what any of that merry troupe is doing."

"So you came here to taunt me? Is that it?"

"Oh pshah, like you expected anything less from me, but I've also come to say I'm sorry for what happened to you, and had I known, even I would've let you go. After spending a millennium as a rather handsome statue, I know it isn't much fun being trapped like that."

Faust bared her teeth up at the window, "I don't want your sympathy!"

"And yet you have it all the same, although it is somewhat diminished by your imminent attempt to unravel the world, just so you can feel safe at night knowing nopony can ever hurt you again. A foolish dream of yours as civilisation can't help but exist now, but that's your problem to deal with."

"I have my ways."

"Brainwashing the entire world? Hah! Good luck with that. You don't even realise it yet, but the seeds of your downfall have already been planted in that regard."

"You say that with such confidence while you're hiding, trickster, but I shall prevail."

"They did it as a mere precaution too," Discord continued. "That's probably the best part, seeing your plans undone by a precaution."

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh nothing, nothing. By the way, I'm rather amused by what you're trying to do to Celestia. I'm not saying she deserves it, but I find it funny all the same. Goodbye Faust, we shan't be seeing each other again."

"I promise you we will, and it shall be the last time we ever meet!"

"Such promises, especially when the end of your plans have already begun. Ta-ta!"

"Discord!" Faust waited a beat for him to say something, but a chilly emptiness is all she could feel around her. "Discord?" He was truly gone, leaving nothing but a worm of worry of gnaw on her gut. It was nothing new to see him acting with such brazen confidence, but to hear him so proudly say that he was going to do nothing to stop her was... unsettling, and very unlike him.

"My Lady!"

Faust had to stop herself from shrieking as the doors to the throne room slammed open to let Black Rose and Snowbright gallop in. She wheeled on them, and had to stop herself from snarling at them for their intrusion on her moment of vulnerability.

"What is it?"

Black Rose stopped and swallowed nervously, "Fleur de Lis and Shining Armour have escaped."

"What? How?"

"I'm not sure. All we found were the bodies of the prison guards, and these." Black Rose held up her hoof, which was holding two unicorn inhibitors, and a small picture of a smiley face. "I think they must've had help to get the keys, as losing these wouldn't have been enough to open the cell doors. It gets worse too."

"Oh? How could it possibly get worse?"

Black Rose flinched at the harshness in Faust's voice, "The Crystal Heart is missing. We can only assume they've taken it with them."

Faust stared blankly at the head of the Shades as Discord's parting words rattled around her head. The end of her plans had already begun. No, she wouldn't allow it.

"They can't have gotten far, and the city is locked down. General, I want every soldier you have spare searching for them now! I want them found!"

"At once!"

Faust breathed deeply and rapidly as the two ponies ran off. It couldn't end like this, not before she had even really started. She wouldn't allow it.


-0-0-0-


"Oh boy. Now I really wish I could fly."

"Too risky. You'd be spotted," said Fleur.

"I think that's better than this!" The filly pointed at the barrel bobbing in the water that she was expected to climb into. "This is insane, despite what she says!" 

"Oh come on, it'll be fine. It might even be fun!" said the unicorn the filly was referring to.

The filly glared at the white unicorn with the purple streaks in her mane and tail, "Y'know what? I can really see the family resemblance. Twilight was insane too! Twilight junior, I mean. Why the fuck do you have the same name?"

Shining Armour grunted at the filly, "Could you not talk about my mother and sister that way?"

"Theoretically..."

Shining rolled his eyes, then smiled at his mother, and the dark blue stallion next to her. "Thanks for helping us get out of here mum, dad. We owe you."

"Except it's not just you that's getting out of here," said Twilight. "Nightlight and I are coming with you."

"What? You can't do that, it's too-"

"Dangerous?" said Nightlight. "Have you forgotten what happened here a couple of days ago already?"

"I was wondering why there was seven barrels," the filly whispered to Fleur.

"We'll be safer out of Canterlot," Nightlight finished. "There's loads of places to hide in Manehattan."

"And you are not denying me the one chance I have to go over the Canterlot falls, young colt," Twilight Velvet scolded, wagging her hoof at Shining. "Health and safety laws be damned today."

"Yes mum." Shining smiled helplessly at Fleur, "Are you ready to go?"

Fleur grimaced at the barrels, "This is the singular worst idea I think I've ever seen. Or at least the worst this week, but, whatever, let's get out of here." Fleur accepted Shining's proffered hoof into her barrel as the filly, Twilight Velvet, and Nightlight got into theirs, and took the Crystal Heart in her hooves as Shining passed it to her. He then helped their two other guests into their barrels, Bluebelle, also known as Honeydew, and a rather gangly crystal pony called Crystal Hoof, although he was better known to some of them there as the changeling Thorax.

"Keep your heads down, legs tucked, and try not to throw up! Most importantly though, have fun!" Twilight said with manic cheer. "Ooh, I've never felt so alive!"

"Does anypony have any nails?" Shining joked as he climbed into his barrel and pushed them all away from the small jetty.

"Bon voyage!" Twilight said, pulling the lid of her barrel down tight as they moved out into the current, and towards the waterfall over the edge of the city.

"I can't believe ponies do this for fun," Fleur muttered as her breath was taken away by a scream as she plummeted over the edge, away from Canterlot, and away from Faust. One day she might admit it was worth it.
> Sequel
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next story, A new order, can be found here.