The rapid mobilization of the troops, changing the way that their barricades were set up and informing them all quietly of the tactics they may be faced with, took surprisingly little time.
But this left Vivid with little to do besides listen in and watch the guard post, waiting for anything remarkable to happen, while safely sealed off from any sound leaking through.
“Anything new?” General Pie asked as he ducked back in.
“No, not yet,” Vivid said for the fourth time that hour. “Sir, can I ask a question?”
“Go ahead.”
“What if I could go there? I can transpose myself to the other side, behind their lines, and sabotage their fuel.”
The general paused to think it over, expression grim.
"It may be a route we would take," he finally agreed. "Though I know that it is a greater risk than you know. Any pony caught behind their lines will be captured and tortured, possibly killed. But with only three unicorns capable of such a thing in this army, yourself and the princess included, you may be the best candidate to go. Could you teach another your viewing spell?"
Vivid nodded, noting numbly that her mouth had gone dry. "Yes, it shouldn't take long. An hour or so."
“Then we will have to have it done, and Vivid?”
She paused, hoof shaking a little. “Yes, sir?”
He stepped over to her, and put a hoof on her back. “Prepare yourself to kill, if you must, to get out alive.”
Vivid nodded, and he walked away. She could only think of Luna, and finding her quickly. This new idea had seized fertile ground and would not be forgotten now, with such an urgent weapon being mobilized against them.
She found Luna sitting alone in the newly erected royal tent, and looking over papers. But she looked up the moment that Vivid entered.
“Finally, a blessed sight,” Luna sighed.
“Please, hold me,” Vivid whispered, and Luna’s expression went quickly to sorrow as she hopped over the desk and wrapped Vivid up in an embrace.
“Vivid… Vivid, what’s wrong?” she asked softly.
“I’m going to teleport behind the lines and sabotage their fuel,” she whispered. “And you can’t get involved.”
Luna gaped, but didn’t let go. But finally she shook her head.
“No. No, you can’t. Vivid. We can attack now, all our forces, and take the front before they get their explosives.”
“Then why didn’t you do that weeks ago?” Vivid asks weakly. “I know why. Because the death toll would be enormous. Half of all the troops, maybe. I… I’m willing to trade myself, for them. For all those soldiers.”
"I won't let you," Luna whispered. "I will intervene myself, damn the laws and their bond upon me, I am the princess of Equestria, and I can have one pony to love, if I desire."
Vivid turned and took Luna's cheeks in her hooves.
"Love… are you saying that you would put me above Equestria?" Vivid asked, voice cracking as a tear wet her cheek.
"I would," Luna nodded, sounding ashamed.
Vivid lit her horn, and cast a spell across Luna. Slowly, she blinked, and then she stumbled to the side.
"What… what did you do, Vivid?" She whispered as she struggled to stay awake.
Vivid cast the spell again, and Luna fell to lay on the ground, panting for breath as she struggled, fighting her drooping eyelids.
"Vivid…"
"I love you," Vivid whimpered, before casting the spell a third time, and watching Luna drop into a deep sleep.
For a moment she stood there in silence, crying, until finally she turned and left the tent.
"She's sleeping," Vivid told the guards.
They were close friends, and accepted it immediately. Vivid then proceeded to the general.
"I've put Luna to sleep to prevent her from breaking international law to stop this," Vivid said quickly, interrupting a meeting. "We only have an hour or so to teach someone the viewing spell, then I need to go do this."
"Their first shipment of fuel arrived," the General sighed as he stood. "They could be readying to fire now. We don't have time."
Vivid cursed softly and shook her head. "A unicorn. Any unicorn, bring them."
A soldier was shoved in front of her, and she put her horn against his.
"Clear your mind," she instructed. "Stay as calm as you can, I'm going to teach you a spell. One which can view things far away."
"Ok," he whispered, clearly scared.
"Charge."
He hesitated.
"Charge your horn."
He complied, and Vivid forced him to see the spell, to understand it. He screamed in fear and a moment of pain, and then it was over. The soldier shaking but wide eyed.
"Did it work?" The general asked sharply, getting a nod from the soldier, who went to the mirror, and reproduced the spell.
They could all see as dragons loaded cylindrical packages into the cannons, and prepared to insert the cannonballs, with careful precision.
"We really are out of time," Vivid sighed. "I need a Pegasus feather, and many daggers or knives."
The objects were supplied, and Vivid embraced the General quickly.
“Tell Luna I am sorry, but this is the only way I knew to fix this, without her breaking the treaties.”
“I understand,” he nodded.
Then, she charged her horn, her heart racing, and transloacted herself to that spot where the stone had been.
Immediately, she could perceive a shocked dragon stumbling away from her, wide eyed. She flung a dagger at him with enough force that he fell to the ground, though she noted that it had just smacked him. She had to work on her aim.
She picked up the white cloth bundle the dragon had been carrying, which was surprisingly heavy, before running down the trenches and into a fortification, to the surprise of a griffin and two more dragons.
After filling their faces and necks with daggers, and waiting for them to stop thrashing, she found the cannons.
They were loaded, and Vivid turned them to face across the trench lines, before poking a hole in the satchel of powder, filling the hole through which the cannons were lit, before making a trail of powder out the door and to the next battlement, where she repeated the cycle. Kill those inside and turn the cannons away from her side of the battlefield.
But her true target was the bulk of the enemy powder, the shipments and storage of so much must be well protected, but it would allow her to remove almost all of their advantages at once.
Extending her range out, far beyond the two fortifications she’d already invaded.
In her mind's eye, it was as though she was floating through trenches, a ghost unseen but swiftly passing by soldier after soldier until she found it. A well protected lowered area, from which dragons emerged with more satchels of powder.
She’d found her target, finally. But she had only one feather charged with Pegasus magic, and only a short time before her two sabotaged fortifications were discovered. She would have to move quickly, which meant being discovered, most likely.
With a run and a jump, she cleared the edge of the trench and landed on the grassy arrow-strewn space that separates the front line of the enemy army from the bulk of their camp, and began galloping towards her goal. There were a few shouts but she paid them no mind as she trailed a thick line from the sack of powder she carried, hoping beyond hope that it was enough to carry the magical flame back to the fortifications.
But as she slid to a stop looking down at the entrance of the powder storage, she perceived three raised spears about to take flight, and a dragon already ascending towards her, claws at the ready.
She tossed the bag of powder into the dragon’s face, creating a white cloud of the stuff across her four adversaries, and a small amount drifted into the storage house’s doorway. It would have to be enough.
She stumbled backwards away from the dragon as it landed. Just barely, Vivid drew the Pegasus feather from her bag as a claw sunk into her haunches and bore her to the ground.
The feather touched the line and a brilliant green flash of magic obscured Vivid’s magical sight.
There were three loud thuds as all but one of the sabotage cannons went off. There was screaming, so close, as heat enveloped Vivid and the claws in her flesh drew back.
The dragon must be burning, she thought, as she kicked blindly and on the second attempt struck scaly hide, and sent something tumbling.
Before she could stand, a second even more brilliant magical light knocked Vivid’s world out of focus. This one was paired with an explosion so strong that her ears did not even ring as much as they hurt horribly, pinned against her head.
The heat was incredible, like standing inside of a flame as it swirled around her, scorching her fur.
Even the earth she was laying on lifted and crumbled, tossing her to roll several times along the ground before her awareness finally faded to nothing, and she slept.