//------------------------------//
// The Sword's Peace 
// Story: Marks of Harmony 
// by Lapis-Lazuli and Stitch 
//------------------------------//

Gdocs Version
Marks of Harmony
Part 15

Sweet and savory scents wafted from the kitchen throughout the whole of the Ponyville Library. They were the wonderful smells of good food prepared by even better friends: friends that had prevailed through what would be marked in history as a trying test of pony resolve and negotiating ingenuity. Perhaps it would even be marked as the beginning of proper relations between Equestria and the Changeling Hordes. All of these positive thoughts and more settled snuggly into Twilight Sparkle’s thoughts as she went about the lobby of the library, levitating tables together in a large, make-shift banquet-style arrangement. With the night of Aurora’s experiment behind them and the future looking as bright as the morning sun at its rising, Twilight found negativity hard to come by, not that she was complaining in the slightest. 

The moving of the tables was in preparation for a brunch of Rarity’s suggesting: a celebration not just of their survival through the ordeal of Aurora’s coming, but of their success in averting what could have erupted into utter disaster. While Twilight and her friends were more than inclined to agree with Rarity (enjoying friendly picnic brunches on a regular basis anyhow), both Princess Luna and Chrysalis thought the idea an excellent one for putting them in high spirits before the arduous task of Aurora’s reintegration.

So, as things stood, Spike, Fluttershy, and Applejack were in the kitchen, their touch responsible for the delectable food being prepared therein. Pinkie Pie and Rarity were preparing some light decorations for the occasion, though their personality differences and consequent tastes were conflicting amusingly every few minutes. As was to be expected, Pinkie usually won out. In an out-of-the way alcove, Luna and Chrysalis were conversing over several pieces of paper, debating with each other in legal terms Twilight remembered disjointedly from a law book she had read only once. From the intensity of their words, Twilight could only guess the papers to be Aurora’s drafts. Spearhead was currently unaccounted for, having left early that morning—before anypony in the library had even thought of rubbing their eyes, to be exact—for something nopony was quite sure of. Twilight could only vaguely remember him promising to be back in time for the brunch.

Distracted for a moment thinking of the hardened Night Guard captain and watching the two monarchs, Twilight let out a strangled, “Yaahhh!” and nearly lost her grip on the levitated table as a madly giggling Princess Lacewing raced just beneath her chin.

“Ah, come on! Really?!” Rainbow Dash’s frustrated growl shortly followed the princess. “How Pinkie Pie is able to keep cool...” she trailed off, before weaving behind Twilight only to have Lacewing peak out from beneath an already set table and run laughing harder than ever up the stairs. “There had better be plenty of food Twi,” Rainbow said, watching as Lacewing’s small white tail scurried out of sight.

“Are you more hungry than usual?” Twilight asked, grinning despite herself from Lacewing’s antics. The little Changeling filly brought back so many memories of herself and Shining Armor’s—usually vain—attempts to catch her.

“Not right now,” Rainbow grumbled, “but I will be after chasing that little runt all over the place.”

“You were probably just like her when you were that age,” Twilight reprimanded Rainbow mildly. “Celestia knows I was.”

“I had tons of energy, duh,” Rainbow replied, “but I spent all my time racing and learning flight tricks.”

“Just be glad she isn’t crying or something else like that,” Twilight said.

“Point taken,” Rainbow answered, though she was still less than thrilled as she winged her way up to the second story and shrieks of filly delight echoed down from above. No sooner had Twilight returned to her task of finishing the table arrangement did the door of the library click and swing open. A start went up from everypony, quieting the room uncomfortably until Spearhead stepped through the entryway. 

“Did I miss something?” he asked, bemused by the silence. Only Pinkie replied, and in her typical fashion: laughter. Everypony else soon joined in, some only chuckling, others rolling with Pinkie Pie. “If I didn’t know better,” Spearhead said to Twilight when they had come ‘round again, “I’d say you’re all suffering from soldier’s paranoia.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we are,” Twilight replied with ironic frankness.

“Well, I’ll give you this much,” Spearhead said. “There aren’t many even in the Guard who have ever had to deal with situations this delicate. Your brother’s one of the ones I respect, but he’s the exception. Most of ‘em think it’s all magic and hoof-fighting.”

“How is my brother, by the way?” Twilight asked as she set out silverware. “I didn’t ask before because you both are part of different Guards, but you did mention him just now...”

“He’s coping,” Spearhead replied without further elaboration. At Twilight’s worried expression, though, he added, “Look filly, he knows you can handle yourself, but that doesn’t stop him from being worried for his little sister.”

“Well, he always did worry about me,” Twilight mused, her thoughts straying to imagined images of her brother among well-organized troops outside the sphere. Spearhead said nothing more, and with his silence, Twilight shook the images away to concentrate properly on their meal. It was supposed to be a celebration after all, and sad wishes really had no place at such events. 

When the preparations were finally finished, with Princess Luna eventually acting as mediator between Rarity and Pinkie Pie, and the food set, everypony took their seats at the table, the Night Princess at the head. Rainbow gratefully handed off Lacewing to Chrysalis, who sat her in a booster seat Twilight still had from Spike’s younger days. The Changeling filly had eventually tired of the game she had been playing with Dash, instead becoming fascinated with different colored hairs in her mane and tail. Much to Rainbow’s continued chagrin (which Twilight was beginning to think was only a facade to hide her fondness for the filly), Lacewing insisted she sit next to her; and under the stares of Pinkie and Chrysalis, she obliged. Lacewing, giggling happily that she had gotten her wish, delighted more in playing with Rainbow’s mane than eating her food.

Conversation flowed freely and easily, stories were exchanged, and nominal amounts of hard cider were passed around the table. “A toast!” Princess Luna declared, raising her hoof for emphasis. “A toast to a bright future between all ponies that harmony may endure!”

“Hear, hear!” Spearhead said first, followed by everypony else saying, “To the future and harmony!” Each of them raised their shots and downed them, Rainbow and Applejack smacking their lips satisfactorily. 

“Now that’s a proper reason for getting a hangover,” Rainbow said.

“I can’t wait to see my animals again,” Fluttershy said, quite out of the blue. “What is everypony else looking forward to?”

“I think my anticipation hardly needs explaining,” Chrysalis said icily, simultaneously busying herself with encouraging Lacewing to try a variety of pony dishes. 

“Just to be able to fly normally again is going to be great,” Rainbow sighed. “ ‘Course, I’m going to have to up my exercise routine now that I’ve gotten used to the extra work of flying around her ship. Don’t wanna lose any muscle.”

“Business is sure to boom shortly after everything returns to normal,” Rarity said. “As uncouth it will be of them, there will be ponies from all over who will come to see a formerly occupied town.”

“Never mind tha tourists,” Applejack said matter-of-factly. “Ponyville’s been without basic tradin’ for near’bouts half a month. Everypony’s gonna be needin’ to buy an’ sell tons o’ goods. I don’ wanna think how many apple bushels’ve gone bad without the farm bein’ able ta sell here.”

“I would not worry about your fellow Equestrians where business is concerned,” Chrysalis inserted. “Once my Children are returned to me, it will still be some time before we are able to make our way back to our home. Even though most of my subjects with me now are soldiers and grunt workers, they will be eager to buy to bring back gifts and souvenirs. Many will also like to taste pony food with their own tongues.”

“You mean food tastes different when you change?” Twilight asked. 

“It’s not all that surprising,” Chrysalis said shrugging. “To blend in properly, we need to have the tastes of an average pony. Others would take notice if, say, a new pony in their town had a particular aversion to chocolate.”

“What!?” Pinkie exploded. “Changelings don’t like chocolate!? The HORROR! Even dragons like chocolate!”

“They are dragons, we are Changelings,” Chrysalis replied simply. “In our natural forms, most Changelings prefer honey as a sweet treat.” 

“Oh no! Hold on a sec guys!” Pinkie jittered, speeding back into the kitchen.

“She made a chocolate cake,” Applejack elaborated when everypony stared blankly at one another, trying and failing rather spectacularly to rationalize Pinkie’s behavior. 

“That filly has more energy than even the most naive recruits on the first day of boot camp,” Spearhead said, shaking his head, eyes wide. “How do you all deal with it?”

“You learn,” Twilight said flatly and with half-lidded eyes. 

“Or you just let it happen,” Rarity added. “Pinkie Pie will be Pinkie Pie no matter what you do, so it is best for everypony to not try to understand her.”

“Yeah, seriously, I tried,” Spike said. “That confused me more than trying to follow Twilight filling out a star chart.”

“At least—” Chrysalis began, only to be interrupted by an insistent and repetitious rapping against the library door.

“The sign outside says the library’s closed,” Twilight mused, sliding away from the table. “And everypony should be heading home for lunch right about now...”

“It’s prob’ly jus’ some silly pony hay-bent on causin’ problems,” Applejack said. “I wouldn’ worry ‘bout it Twi.” The knocks came again, but this time they were more unevenly spaced, as if the pony behind the door was unsure of knocking for a second time.

“We recommend thou go to the door, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said serenely. “Even shouldst they be spiteful in their intent, we canst not afford ourselves to be callous.” Her decision made, Twilight awkwardly circumvented the impromptu dining table, her magic gripping the library entrance. Being conscious of not wanting to reveal either Chrysalis and Lacewing or Princess Luna to just anypony, Twilight cautiously edged the door open.

“Evening Twilight Sparkle. For a moment I was under the impression you had chosen to deliberately ignore your duties as town librarian,” said the gravelly voice of Inky Jay.

“What do you want?” she asked, possibly more aggressively than she had meant.

“I heard around the town you were celebrating with your friends,” he said calmly. “What is the occasion?”

“We are having a nice brunch—”

“AND DESERT!” Pinkie shouted from inside.

“—to celebrate our success negotiating with Aurora and her fact that we’ll all soon be able to see the rest of Equestria again.”

“Mm, I thought something of the kind would be the case,” Inky replied. “Would you mind if I were to join you? This success of yours is not just for you and yours after all.”

“What!?” Twilight reacted instinctively. “I mean... Yes, I would mind,” she amended in a more controlled tone.

“Do you doubt my ability to be the type of pony that celebrates,” he asked, clearly amused.

“Yes,” Twilight said, brisk. “And you would only cause problems. We want to relax.”

“I see...” Inky trailed off, staring at her and she at him for a long moment. “Well, I suppose you have some cider for you celebration at any rate.”

“The best, and no, you can’t have any,” Twilight preempted the question she knew would have been sure to follow.

“Lady Aurora has made you sharper, there can be no denying it,” Inky replied, though he did seem genuinely disappointed in being denied the cider. 

“I’m no different now than the day we first met each other,” Twilight rebutted. “I just know the two of your better now.”

“That is a lie that was not even well told,” Inky said in his typical manner. “After this, you will never be so naive as to—”

“Let me just stop you now,” Twilight cut in, becoming more irritated the longer she stood and spoke with him. “I’m not letting you join us because I want to enjoy celebrating with my friends and the Princess. If I keep standing here, talking to you, I might as well let you in. Good afternoon Inky Jay.”

“Sharper,” was his pointed final word. Twilight retreated back inside the library, exercising conscious self-control not to slam the door shut. Before turning to face her friends, she drew in a deep breath and let it flow out slowly, forcing a calm on her stormy emotions.

“The nerve of him! Coming and asking to join us!” Rarity exclaimed, more offended by Inky’s gesture than Twilight’s anger.

“Not the mention the fact he blew up a business,” Rainbow seethed. 

“It is audacious, we wilt admit,” Luna said. “But when hath Aurora and Inky Jay not been audacious. It is a part of her that has been instilled in him. Think upon it no longer our little ponies. We art together this day, and it should be a day of rejoicing!”

“Aye aye to that!” Spearhead agreed, tilting back another shot of cider and Pinkie taking this as a cue to begin bringing in the deserts (which curiously rivaled the main dishes in number). The room immediately became its more lighthearted self in the presence of sugar and Pinkie’s joyous expression. Their conversations spilled over once again with stories (embarrassing foalhood stories about Celestia that Luna told with the stifled guffawing of her audience) and games of chess and other modern board games were to be had. Chrysalis proved to be the greatest among them at the plethora of card games in Twilight’s possession, her ability to bluff unrivaled. So welcome and inundating was the atmosphere, that everypony quickly passed Inky’s intrusion from thought. 
______________________________________________________________________________

The dull red door composed of slats perfectly even in width was promptly closed in his face. Well, that was not exactly the right wording. Twilight Sparkle had not slammed the door in anger. He actually admired her self-control, having seen in the lines of her face that doing just that would have been more agreeable to her. Twilight Sparkle had instead shut her door in the most normal manner of anypony. That, however, did not change the abruptness of the act. That was the right word. Abrupt. Not that he was offended by said abruptness. Aurora had a tendency to carry the characteristic whenever she answered questions, and even when she asked them. Twilight Sparkle had surprised him was all. She was normally quite a deliberate pony from his experience, and to see her acting and speaking on intuition alone was not a little beguiling. 

Still, as interesting a facet of her deeper self it was, he could not stand on her doorstep forever. He had not been merely attempting to needle Twilight Sparkle and her fellows, but genuinely wished to celebrate success. After the previous night of recording all of the details Aurora pressed upon him, her near giddy excitement over the triumphant completion of her most ambitious project had coated the entire ship. Even the Changelings she controlled appeared more cheerful: mirrors of Aurora’s own emotional state. 

Inky had thus felt it only appropriate that he celebrate his master’s success, which in a way, was his success as well. Talk among the Ponyvillian food vendors had revealed the small party Twilight and her friends were holding amongst themselves, and considering they were the only ponies in Equestria with which he was on speaking terms, it seemed natural to seek them out first. But now that they had rejected his self-invitation, Inky found his hooves directed to the one other place he knew without any doubt would be appropriate in any village for celebration of any kind: the local tavern. Of course, he would not be participating in the carousings of the ignorant and it was certain the cider he would receive would be of lesser quality than that bought by Twilight Sparkle or her friends, but the tender of the place would not blather at him about his particular choice of currency. No doubt he would be glad of a pony with enough decency to pay for his drink before consuming it and who left his care before becoming stupidly and uncooperatively drunk. Inky had no intentions of engaging in drunkenness anyhow—he had heard of and seen whole villages from his former home destroyed by a single drunk—but acquiring the cider would be far simpler this way that haggling with a street vendor. 

Being close to midday, the bar was not yet full, but nor was it completely devoid of customers. There were just enough ponies present for the silence that greeted his approach to be ominous, only the tender continuing to move: either oblivious in his work or purposefully keeping himself out of what might become a dangerous fight. Inky’s eyes swept the faces turned so intently in his direction, and with that quick glance, he saw all of the silent hatred, limited ideas, and love of Celestia that dominated their words and actions. Ignoring each of them with an amused chuckle under his breath, Inky stepped lightly up to the bar. 

“Good day to you, Mr. Jay,” the tender said with a fair amount of tact.. “I’ll say you’re the last pony I ever thought to see in my bar, except maybe the princesses themselves.”

“It is indeed a good day for me,” Inky replied, “which I suppose is rather odd for ponies who come to such a place.”

“Not really,” the tender said, glancing over at his other customers. “We have parties here for every hoofball game during the season.”

“And even more cider in a team’s loss,” Inky added dryly.

“Yeah, it happens,” the tender said with a shrug. “You meet all types in my line of work.”

“I suppose there is a grain of truth to be had in that statement, especially considering my own presence,” Inky said, more to himself than the tender.

“Speaking of which,” the bar’s owner stepped in as Inky appeared to muse over a thought, “what can I get ya?”

“A bottle of your best cider is all I require,” Inky said, sliding his Granes across the counter. “And I will not hear any argument on my mode of payment.”

“On no no,” the stallion replied, scrutinizing the Granes for a brief second before ducking beneath the bar. “As long as I can make money out of it, I’ll take just about anything. You learn to take what you get if ya know what I mean.” There was a pause, punctuated by a chiming clink of glass bottles knocking gently against one another. “You sure you want the whole thing?” the tender asked curiously as he brought the rather large bottle of cider onto the counter. “That’s quite a draught for one pony, and a pegasus no less.”

“You err in implying first that I would drink here in the presence of those that would be too pleased to see my head in Celestia’s statue garden, and second in suggesting that I will drink until I collapse, unconscious,” Inky berated the tender. “So yes, I am sure of buying the entire bottle.”

“No offense meant,” the pony replied, waving a hoof in the air. “But ya know, I’ve gotta watch out for my customers, and pegasi just get drunk faster than other ponies.”

“No offense my flank!” one of the customers in a corner muttered with every intent of being heard. 

“Don’t let him push you around Bottle Cap,” another said, encouraged now by the first. 

“Guys, look,” Bottle Cap said seriously to his regulars. “Just because you don’t like Mr. Jay doesn’t mean I should refuse to serve him. I’ll hold up Princess Celestia’s values and let that speak for itself. Here you are Mr. Jay.” Bottle swept the Granes from the counter into a pouch he procured from somewhere behind the bar and slid the cider to within Inky’s grasp. Tucking the bottle under one of his wings, Inky said to Cap as he turned to leave, “If nothing else, at least you understand the concept of honor.”

“It’s not so hard if you stay grounded Mr. Jay,” Bottle Cap replied to Inky’s back. 

“Mayhaps we can meet later,” Inky paused at the door. “The stubborn are always enjoyable to debate with.” Willing to let the bartender and his customers argue and shout at one another after his departure, Inky took no more time at the entrance to the place. His hooves he directed purposefully to a site he had taken great length to avoid during any of his other wanderings in the town prior. It was ironically fitting, it seemed to him, to drink to Aurora’s victory at the site where it all nearly came undone. 

Roped off from the rest of the businesses and road, the blackened and half-collapsed bagel shop looked no better now after weeks of repair work than it had the day after its destruction. So close that confrontation had been, so nearly derailing of each every one of Aurora’s plans. Chrysalis had been a risky ally from the moment he and Aurora had met with her, of that he had always been certain. But he had never accounted for the mass of trouble she would cause. Her apparent death (for she was too clever for him to be certain of her doom) was a welcome surprise, but even that itself had caused an excessive amount of trouble for Aurora’s intentions. The shop was a site of drastic change in his and Aurora’s dealings with Bearers of the Elements, and had acted as a knowledge catalyst that had, in no small way, refocused the terms of Aurora’s reintegration. 

So, to drink in celebration of victory here was both ironic, yet simultaneously sincere. It was a quiet place as well, the repair crew having left for lunch and most other ponies avoiding the area for fear of a second ‘gas’ explosion, whatever that was. That the investigators had not caught the residual traces of magic that the grenades would have left astounded him. But, if anything, that was a greater reason for him to drink at this spot. Aurora and he had overcome the obstacles, both foreseen and unforeseen. Yes, in the final accounting, Aurora’s plans had come to fruition. The betterment of Equestrian society would soon begin.

Inky took the bottle’s cork in his teeth, popping it off to the satisfying, fizzling sounds of fresh carbonation escaping. “Cheers, Equestria. May you eventually find true harmony,” he said and, taking the bottle’s neck in a wing, tilted it back into his waiting throat. He took a considerable draught, shaking his head when he finished to clear it of the power of the alcohol. He set the cider aside for the moment, his artist’s mind beginning to work out a few lines in a poem. As a quirk, he was not overly fond of poetry, but did the beauty of a true master’s quill. All the same, he had dabbled his hoof in creating some here and there, never composing anything short of a stanza. Now was one of those times, or he so perceived, that the sound of verse and meter best captured his feelings of the moment. Idly, with no quill or paper to permanently record his work, Inky began to scratch out the words in the dirt of the path. As he had thought, his attempt stalled after only four lines. Sighing with only mild regret, he drank again from the cider bottle, allowing his eyes to wander to the sky whose true color and expanse were blocked by Aurora’s field. 

It was in that moment he saw it, and before he had fully registered what it meant, more and more of them began to appear, accompanied by a dread noise.

A crack, as if in glass, was crawling its way over the magic to the dome’s apex. Spidering branches surged from the main stress line, galloping out for a brief second before slowing to a crawling pace. And through all of this, the fractured scream of magic attempting to hold itself together began to build, soon joined by deep booms, as if great floes of ice were breaking away from a glacier. Even as Inky watched, his mind struggling both to observe the coming catastrophe and calmly comprehend the reason and source for the shield’s failing, great arcs of golden magic lanced through the growing cracks in the field, releasing a screech of power with deadly purpose.

The next moments were utter deafness. The air itself ceased to move, birds silenced their song. And just as the silence had become a shock for anypony within the field, it was replaced by a cataclysmic roar. The golden magic within the cracks flared, completely blasting the field to disintegrating fragments and throwing Inky several feet with rush of wind that ripped through Ponyville. He careened backward, head over heels, until an alley wall knocked mercilessly against his head. Senses reeling, eyes blurring and duplicating everything in front of him, Inky’s mind screamed at him to stand up, to run. With a growl, he forced such thoughts away, struggling against his adrenaline shaking legs. He stumbled once, but his equilibrium was returning to him along with his other senses. 

Already there were screams of ponies scared beyond reason. Before he could escape the alley and look to Aurora’s ship, Inky’s mane was whipped lightly as a full squadron of armored pegasi streaked overhead. And they were not alone, for once out and able to see the skies of Ponyville properly, Inky’s eyes beheld legions of Equestria’s Air Corps. They formed tight ranks, all speeding toward Aurora’s vessel from all sides. 

Inky knew their fate before the ship had even stirred, and refused to turn his head back in his gallop when the ground began to shake, and the roar of magic fire announced the House of a Thousand Fangs’ wakening. Nopony tried to stop him in his fierce, purposed run, especially the fleeing citizens of Ponyville. Nevertheless, he ducked down a side street as the raw Armies of the Sun and Moon began to pour into the town. The even clopping of their armor shod hooves and unanimous shaking of their heavy armor was an overwhelming sound, enough to drown out the building power in the engines of Aurora’s vessel. Such menacing precision of both sides surrounded Inky until the first blow was struck. 

He whirled in place to see a combined blast of magic arc above the buildings of Ponyville and smash with a resounding clang on the nose of the House of a Thousand Fangs. Any damage done was not visible from his position, but its retaliation was undeniable. From an opened port Inky could not see, a brilliant pulse of red magic let out its scream of a battle cry. It vanished beneath the roofs of Ponyville, and its impact was felt in a deep reverberation through the earth and seen in earth and blood exploding into the air. As though that first blast were a mere prelude, the House of a Thousand Fangs became the battleship Inky knew it could be. Twenty port side and twenty starboard Device cannons slid from the alcoves of wood and brass that had concealed them. As the shouts of commanders in the sky and upon the earth ordered ponies to seek cover, Inky watched from his side-street in undisguised horror as Aurora ordered her attack. A withering volley of Device magic barrelled into the ranks of the Armies, silencing half-finished cries of pain and spraying the living with the blood of the dead. Nothing escaped, not even the town itself. Wood roofs were blasted into splinters, mortar crumbling into gravel and showering Inky like rain. 

And yet, through all the chaos, death, and destruction, Celestia’s forces wavered not. The squad leaders belted out orders, many along the lines to keep the soldiers from succumbing to fear. In short order, the Armies of the Sun and Moon had not only taken cover behind buildings, but returned fire on Aurora’s vessel. Pegasi teams whirled in tight groups through extreme evading maneuvers, drawing the attention of many of the guns. In the interim, Earth ponies provided range directions to unicorn counterparts, who unleashed a formidable round of magic bolts that visibly punched through wood and released smoke screens at the port holes. 

And with their first statements made, the forces of Celestia clashed fully with the armament of Aurora Streak. Ponies ran about wildly, dodging concussive Device fire which left craters in the road and destroyed the walls of houses. 

The Earth ponies soon were forced to not only provide support to the unicorns, but function as combatants directly. For Aurora let loose her stolen Changeling forces onto the ground directly beneath the House of a Thousand Fangs to defend the ship’s vulnerable underside. The Changelings, being tied to her smaller collection fields now that the dome had been countered, formed a protective ring beneath the vessel, never allowed to venture far from under its shadow. Against those ponies who were brave and skillful enough to have evaded the wanton destruction of the Devices, the Changelings clashed black horn against glinting steel.  But on the deck of the ship, the hisses of Changelings and bellows of pegasi could be heard, the bravest of the Air Corps daring to board the enemy craft and face the worst their old foe could offer. 

Through this mayhem of motion and unbearable sound, Inky pushed toward the Ponyville Library. He found himself constantly jumping up slightly to avoid  crazed and crying groups of Ponyvillians, or rolling to the side to avoid being incinerated by Device weapon blasts as they attempted to hammer Celestia’s forces. The madness that had engulfed Ponyville had to be stopped, could be stopped; and the one pony that could help him most the one who had done everything she could to avert even the smallest conflict in the first place: Princess Luna. 

He barreled around a corner, and the unique library came into sight, miraculously undamaged. Ponies of all ages and kinds were galloping toward it, Twilight Sparkle herding them inside. Her face had been set into commanding iron, her horn aglow, likely prepared at any instant to provide a barrier should  a cannon blast come hurtling in the library’s direction. Inky at first questioned why she was gathering the ponies all into a building that was even more susceptible to destructive magic than a normal house, until he remembered the passages. A great store of old and unused books and reference guides were kept in underground tunnels formed and supported by the roots of the very tree that was the library. Inky had been unable to visit them himself, they having been locked with a plaque on their entrances describing the contents, but judging by the size of the tree, they were surely deep and long: the perfect protection from the hellfire that was the Device weapon blasts. 

“Where is the Princess of the Night?” Inky demanded of Twilight without so much as a formal greeting. 

He must have frightened her, for she jumped in her own skin before turning and snapping at him, “Where did you come from? Shouldn’t you be with Aurora pointing at where she should aim those guns!?” The last words she screamed at him.

“This is as much a horror and shock for me as it is for me: perhaps more so as I know Lady Aurora better than you,” Inky replied coldly, ducking with Twilight and the ponies still entering the library as Device magic slammed mercilessly into the roof of a house just a block away. “But I need to see Princess Luna immediately. If I am to stop Aurora with any kind of expedience, I will need her help.”

“Wait, what?!” Twilight said, shaking her head. “Did you say you want to stop Aurora? That’s really rich Inky Jay. If you think for one—Spearhead!” Inky Jay only just registered the alarm in Twilight Sparkle’s voice before he was lifted off his hooves in a levitation field and rammed against the library’s bark. He winced, the bark scraping his wings and back harshly.

“Start talking!” Luna’s assistant roared, his face mere inches from Inky’s own. “And if I hear one fancy diversion or half-truth out of that bucking mouth of yours, by Celestia I’ll give you a taste of the old griffon torture! You like your wings with feathers on ‘em!? Then talk!” 

“You are wasting time and lives interrogating me!” Inky shouted back, the scratch in his voice becoming more pronounced and sounding rather painful. “I know nothing and want only to stop this!”

“Oh, that’s a likely story!” Spearhead bellowed, his magic grinding Inky’s back even more forcefully against the tree. 

“Spearhead!” Twilight inserted herself, desperate. “Inky came to me wanting to see Princess Luna about stopping the battle. In-fighting is the last thing we need right now!” She had likely intended to say more, but instead gasped urgently before throwing her body around and igniting her horn with more layers of power than any unicorn Inky had ever seen. In response to her call,  a dense, undulating magic barrier erupted before them all. Only seconds later, a cannon blast disintegrated in warbling tones against the shield.  The moment it had served its purpose,Twilight allowed the arcane protection to fall: a sharp intake of breath accompanying her exertion. 

“Inside colt,” Spearhead seethed, levitating Inky off the bark and toward the door. “Twilight Sparkle! Get inside! The rest of the ponies from around here are already in the tunnels! We stay out here any longer we’ll be incinerated!” 

“Fine! Go! I’m right behind you!” she said, facing the street defensively as she backed into the library after Spearhead. She bolted shut the door to the library subconsciously and would have gone about other trivial habits she had developed over the years (not to mention attempting to save countless books from their shelves), were it not for Spearhead’s rough insistence that they go below the earth. Upon finally reaching a junction to three of the storage tunnels, Twilight procured keys for two cleverly hidden behind a nearby shelf. Passing one into a second field of Spearhead’s, Twilight said, “Take Inky to the Princess and the others. She’ll know how to tell if he’s lying or not.”

“He will probably try to murder her,” Spearhead replied gruesomely, “especially if his first request was to see her Majesty immediately.”

“As a pegasus, my assassination skills are rather lacking,” Inky added to their conversation flatly.

Ignoring him, Twilight continued to Spearhead, “Even if that is what he wants to do, you are Princess Luna’s chief guard. I know you won’t let that happen, and really, statistically speaking, between all of us, Inky’s chances of actually landing a blow to anypony are almost non-existent.”

“Numbers never impress me,” Spearhead said, “but you are right in saying that magical prowess is on our side. Where are you headed first?”

“I want to check on the ponies taking refuge in the tunnels,” Twilight said. “Plus, Applejack and Fluttershy are with them down there, and there’s no point trying to figure this insanity out without all of us there.”

“Bring them back as soon as possible then,” Spearhead replied, inserting his key and wrenching the door open, Inky still captive the old stallion’s magic. The room into which Inky was forced held a sense of mysticism that could not be subdued even by the deep, shaking blasts impacting the ground outside. It was an ovoid cavern whose walls were constructed of layers of tangled roots interspersed with the earth which would have been sought by the stems when they were still young. The entire place was lit with only minimal shadow by five lanterns each burning a single candle, one hanging from the ceiling while the remaining four had been hung on roots capable of supporting the weight. But while Inky was drawn to the natural beauty and inspiration the place held, this pull vanished into harsh resentment upon taking note of the ponies in the room with him. Princess Luna was present, as were those of the Bearers not occupied with the refugees, but so too stood Queen Chrysalis in their midst. Inky saw her before she him, and in that brief moment, he saw in her face a convoluting mix of absolute fury and compassionate fear. To whom exactly this fear was given Inky had not time to tell, for she turned her head at Spearhead’s entrance and immediately her eyes became even more narrow than the slits they normally were.

“So, you did not die,” Inky said first as he was rather forcefully deposited before the lot of them. “And you sought refuge in the hooves of those who you knew would share your desire to see Aurora gone. I cannot say I am disappointed. It is very like you.” His last few words were punctuated by the swinging of the candles and shaking of small particles of dirt from the ceiling. 

“You know nothing of who I am,” Chrysalis seethed. “Be glad I still see you as being of some use in getting us all out of this mess; else I would have killed you the moment Luna’s guard brought you into this room!”

“Be reasonable Chrysalis,” Inky said, impatient. “Look at the ponies around you. Do you really think they would let you kill me? And besides, I am not here to be interrogated. I am here to make everypony in this room useful in stopping the bloodshed outside rather than allowing them to continue to cower under the earth.”

“Thou speakest boldly, but falsely!” Luna very nearly bellowed. “How dare thou come before us, lying with the first words from thy mouth! We know how thee see Equestria and our subjects! So long as Aurora’s ideals art instituted, thou wilt not care in the slightest the death that cometh before it!”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash agreed. “You didn’t seem to mind trying to kill Chrysalis and Thunderlane! Why should we think you care about anyone except yourself and Aurora?”

“Some wars are necessary, others not,” Inky growled low. “Do not pretend to understand where my loyalties lie. They are far more complex than the blind faith all of you hold in Celestia. This fight was not instigated by Aurora, but by that very monarch you so continuously defend! Lady Aurora is reacting as any reasonable pony ought, but by so doing, she is destroying any chance she might have with a valid stance in the world! To save her, I must fight against her. As paradoxical as it sounds, it is true.”

“And you want us to help you? How laughable!” Rarity scorned him.

“Are you blind colt?” Spearhead asked, disbelieving. “I’ve seen retaliation! I’ve seen others protecting themselves! Weapons of that kind of power go far beyond defense! And really! She could run if survival mattered so much to her! She has a flying ship for Celestia’s sake!”

“I’ve seen this kind of ‘retaliation’ as well,” Chrysalis said, still glaring at Inky. “It might start with intentions only to protect yourself, but if you begin to feel the reality of your power, and you push harder and harder until you are on the offensive. Don’t tell me you would be unhappy if Aurora destroyed Celestia and her armies and established herself as ruler of Equestria!”

“You are simplifying me to fit your narrow thinking and wasting valuable time in the process!” Inky was shouting now, the scratch in his voice becoming more prominent again. “Lady Aurora and myself do not agree with Celestia on many fronts, true, but she is the ruler of Equestria nonetheless, and it is to her whom ponies are loyal! If Lady Aurora is to enlighten all of Equestria, ponies cannot hate her utterly! If you believe such would not happen if she forcibly took the throne, you are worse than fools!”

“DO NOT PRESUME TO CALL ME A FOOL!” Luna exploded, marching furiously at Inky Jay, grasping him in her magic and shaking him like a rag doll. “I GAVE EVERYTHING I COULD TO AURORA TO HELP HER! I BELIEVED SHE COULD HELP EVERYPONY! THAT YOU AND SHE COULD KEEP US FROM BECOMING STAGNANT. AND NOW YOU DARE TO CALL ME A FOOL AS AURORA DESTROYS EVERYTHING I HOPED TO SAVE!”

“Princess! You’re going to kill him!” Twilight Sparkle’s voice managed to penetrate through Luna’s rage. She gasped, startled at her own temper, dropping Inky with no warning. He hit the floor in a collapsed heap, his eyes tightly sealed from the pain in his head. He tried to stand after a few moments, but was still far too disoriented and collapsed again shortly thereafter. Yet nopony had any attention for the pegasus; their eyes all trained in confused anxiety on Princess Luna. They had all seen her angry before; all seen her use the Royal Canterlot Voice. But physical violence to another pony was something foreign in her bearing; something nopony was quite sure how to approach.

“We are so sorry!” Luna breathed heavily. “He just—We gave—She —”

“It’s alright Princess,” Twilight said. “You didn’t kill him, so no harm has been done.”

“But we wouldst have, Twilight Sparkle, had thou not stopped us,” Luna lamented. “There wast no excuse for such an outburst.”

“In my opin’on Princess,” Applejack said, coming out from around Twilight, “ya’ve got yerself a perfectly good reason outside.”

“Violence doth not excuse violence, dear Applejack,” Luna replied.

“I would disagree, and not on the principle of the statement,” Inky said, finally having managed to stand for longer than a few seconds. “Every one of you wants to see the battle stopped, as do I. Question my motives and my truth if you like, but without me the task of ending this fight with any more of expedience is impossible.”

“You sound like you’re stalling to me colt,” Spearhead said dangerously. “Hurry it up or I’ll finish what Her Majesty started.”

“We can stop this only if we can make it inside the House of a Thousand Fangs,” Inky continued. “And as there are none of us inside to activate the teleportation system or lower the lift, you will need my personal mode of entry. When Aurora built the system, she added to one of the mapping Devices that detects ponies beneath the ship an identification spell, that, when triggered activates a teleporter. The natural magic in every pony is unique, and the magic in me and her serves as the key to the lock.”

“That’ll involve getting past the Changelings on the ground, not to mention getting that close before being blown to pieces in the first place,” Rainbow Dash replied skeptically. 

“But our natural magic becomes impossible to use when we go that close,” Twilight objected. “How does that work?” 

“Just because you cannot use it does not mean you cannot try,” Inky replied. “If I only attempt to fly, it will activate.”

“But what about once we are inside everypony?” Pinkie asked, worry coloring every syllable. “We don’t know what it’s like inside. We’d be totally lost.”

“I know my way around most of the ship,” Chrysalis reassured her. “I am sure he knows even more than I do.”

“Indeed,” Inky answered. 

“What about targets?” Rainbow asked. “Even if we do know our way through, how do we know what to go after?”

“Whatever keeps pegasi from flying and unicorns from using magic, first and foremost,” Spearhead answered immediately. “I’d suggest going after the things holding the Changelings against their will next.”

“If I can organize my Changelings once again,” Chrysalis added, “there is nothing Aurora will be able to do against us.”

“What about the engines?” Fluttershy suggested hesitantly. She had, up until that point, been hiding beneath Rainbow Dash, letting out subdued squeaks when the blasts impacted the ground anywhere nearby. 

“That’s a good idea filly,” Spearhead said gruffly. “It’ll prevent her from escaping once she realizes what we’re tryin’ to do.”

“And she shall, make no mistake,” Luna said. “Her science is akin to her children if she had any, and that craft is the greatest application of it we have ever seen.”

“You are all focused upon the effects, not the source,” Inky said disparagingly. “Even if all of the parts of the craft and the army currently employed in its defense are neutralized, do you truly believe you can stop another from rising in its place once Lady Aurora flees.” Nodding to Spearhead he continued, “True, she would be forced to leave behind all that she has created: forced to begin again from nothing. But she did it once, and now would make fewer errors again. You must also consider that in her exile, she was hindered by the need to fool Celestia’s guards there. With the freedom to fly where she would, do you honestly believe she would seek solitude? I am sure the Griffons would have no qualms about supplying her with all the necessary materials to build a dedicated battleship. What could Equestria do against a vessel so purposefully constructed? You must take her if you wish to secure Equestria’s safety, and I must see her restrained to preserve her ways.”

“Aurora Streak hath certainly imparted in thee the ability of great speech, even if she did not believe she held the skill herself,” Luna said. “But Aurora wilt be heavily defended. Reaching her wilt not be practical with so few of us and we canst not bring large numbers with us. The Devices wouldst be unable to bear the strain of so many.”

“Then I’ll go alone,” Inky replied, stalwart and stubborn. “It will at any rate spare any of your lives. She will not suspect me as ally in your cause.”

“And what exactly will you do once you get to her?” Twilight asked realistically. “You of all ponies won’t be able to talk her out of this insanity. You’re her servant!”

“I stand a far better chance of it than any of you,” Inky said. “I agree that your pursuits must be followed, but so must mine.”

“Then I’ll go with you,” Twilight declared, to the collective frowning of everypony else and an astounded ‘What!’ from Rarity (who flung a hoof to her mouth upon realizing how uncouth she had sounded). 

“That would be pointless and a poor decision on behalf of the rest of these” Inky reprimanded her.

“He’s right,” Chrysalis and Spearhead said at once. “You have great skill in magic Twilight,” Chrysalis continued. “Once we are able to bring that power back to you, we will need every bit we can get.”

“I’d listen to the queen, much as I’d rather not,” Spearhead added. “We’re going to facing down a Changeling army, and this time, they won’t all be focused on taking a city. We’re gonna be the only things they care about.”

“If we split up into four groups, that still leaves enough ponies who have magic for at least one group apiece,” Twilight insisted.

“Twilight! Think about what you’re saying!” Rainbow said accusingly. “Let that pain-in-the-flank get himself killed if he wants! It’s no more than he deserves after all the trouble he’s caused.”

“Rainbow Dash, that was an awful thing to say!” Fluttershy said forcefully (or as forcefully as she was capable). “I happen to agree with Twilight. I’ll go with you too.”

“Fluttershy, that’s not necessary,” Twilight said, uncomfortable. “I mean, you’re not exactly... that is... you’re not a fighter.”

“Somepony has to keep you from being too hurt to go on,” she answered, determined.

“We’re not going to be able to change your mind are we Flutters?” Rainbow asked her close friend, exasperated. When Fluttershy shook her head, Rainbow turned to Princess Luna, saying, “Well, if she’s going with us, the safest place for her to be is with Twilight. Let ‘em go.” 

“Though we wouldst wish it otherwise, we consent to thy wishes,” Luna acquiesced. “Now, onto the rest of us. General Spearhead, how wouldst thou divide us?”

“I think the queen and Miss Dash could handle themselves if they were on their own,” he replied, scanning both of them. “Chasing down whatever it is holding the Changelings to Aurora would be good for them both as well. Your Majesty, I’d suggest taking Miss Pie and Miss Rarity. They’re the least capable in combat and will need more protection that I could offer. Miss Jack and I are hardened I would imagine, so we can move alone as well. We can take the engines and you the Device generators.”

“Doth this arrangement grieve anypony?” Luna asked the room at large. It seemed everypony was in agreement, for nothing save the pervasive booming of the concussive strikes echoed outside. 

That was, until a voice smaller and squeakier than Fluttershy’s crept through the silence asking, “Momma, do I get to go with you and Rainbow Dash?”

“Should I even ask who that is?” Inky asked, repulsed.

“It’s Princess Lacewing you,” Rainbow leapt to the filly’s defense as Chrysalis crouched down from where her daughter had come out from beneath her legs. “I wouldn’t expect you to get it.”

“Dear, do you remember The Iz?” Chrysalis asked Lacewing, soft and gentle.

“Yes,” the filly shuddered. “Did he come back? Is that him out there?”

“No, no,” Chrysalis replied reassuringly. “But do you remember when Momma left to slay him?”

“You told me to stay in my room and not leave until you had come back,” Lacewing said, curious as to why her mother was asking the question.

“I did, and I want you to do the same in this room,” Chrysalis said, now more firm. “This is probably worse than The Iz, so that’s why all of us have to go.”

“Don’t worry kid,” Rainbow said cheerfully, putting on an air of confidence for the filly’s sake. “We’ll all be back before you know it.”

“You promise?” Lacewing pleaded with them both, eyes darting between mother and rainbow maned pegasus. 

“We do,” Chrysalis replied, smiling. Lacewing let escape a small whimper before throwing her riddled hooves around her mother’s neck, holding her tight. Chrysalis returned the gesture, and Twilight saw a small, glistening tear drop from one of the queen’s eyes. Lacewing disengaged from the hug, and before she could stop her, did the same to Rainbow Dash. She began to sniffle, and Dash, still recovering from the surprise, gently patted Lacewing on the back. 

“We’ll be fine, ‘kay,” she said to Lacewing when the filly let go. “Your mom’s got a lot in her.”

Nopony said anything for a moment, the reality of their imminent assault crashing in waves upon them all. Jolting them into action, Princess Luna said somberly, “Come. We cannot lose our nerve now, not with all of Equestria balanced upon our success or failure.”
______________________________________________________________________________

Spearhead prided himself on having seen everything the difficult task of Captain of the Lunar Guard had presented him. Brutality, especially in failed assassination attempts, was not foreign to him. But upon taking a scout’s survey of the ground and sky immediately outside Twilight Sparkle’s library/home, he felt his stomach lurch in revulsion of the sight before him. Aurora’s cursed vessel had moved off to the western edge of Ponyville for the time being, taking the manic battle and ensuing destruction with it; the but the devastation left in its wake was like nothing seen since perhaps the War of the Sun and Moon. Great craters dotted every street, both on and off the road, filled with wood burning in stark red flames of magic. To Spearhead’s trained soldier’s eye though, the harsh red glow of the fires could not hide the carnage of the living. Strewn amongst the shattered wood that was all that remained of homes and half buried under dislodged gravel were bodies. In his sight alone they numbered easily over fifty and not one was whole. Many had been charred black, skin and hair burned away with only bones and blood roiling over it from the heat of the blasts they had taken. But more still were the mangled, those unfortunate enough to have died slowly as their life leaked away from mortal wounds. The blood of these stained everything and those severed parts of their bodies that had so doomed them lay with the rubble as if they belonged with the wood and mortar.

The sheer amount of death—horrid, unrestrained, unspeakable death—took all of Spearhead’s considerable willpower to push aside as currently unimportant. For the others though, he knew such force of personality would not come so easily. “Keep your eyes to the sky fillies and colt,” he ordered the Bearers and their unlikely companion. “This world is not for the uninitiated. Your Majesties, I can’t know whether you will dare look.”

“We hast seen the carnage of battle, and though it pains us at every turn, we art accustomed to it,” Luna replied, fanning out a wing in front of the seven other ponies to shield their eyes from happenstance.

“I’ve seen my fair share of battles in my time… but this, this… I have never seen corpses like this…” Chrysalis said, distant as she was forced to take in the entirety of the marred Ponyville.

“Take your wing away Princess,” Inky said roughly defiant, ducking out of the way of the extended appendage. “I will not shirk away from reality, no matter—“ His words were caught in his own mouth as he beheld just what had been wrought. He appeared paralyzed to Spearhead, who only offered a sigh of a knowing elder. “C’mon kid, now you know why I didn’t want you lookin’.”

“How bad is it really Princess?” Twilight asked, voicing the rising apprehension in all of the Bearers.

“We find it too horrible for words Twilight Sparkle,” Luna answered, continuing to lead them on. “It would be best for you all to see only when there is time to properly mourn.” Her statement was punctuated by spluttered coughing and retching from Inky somewhere behind them, whose hooves soon rejoined them with the addition of more ragged breathing.

“You won’t have to throw up again will you Inky?” Fluttershy asked him.

“I cannot be sure,” he replied. “This, this is beyond even what even the most convoluted imagination could invent,” he added, his voice shifting in tone as he likely turned his head from side to side.

“Just keep walking and don’t talk,” Chrysalis advised.” Singular, simple tasks will keep you from dwelling on what your eyes are seeing.”

“Sound suggestion that,” Spearhead said from the front of their group. Silence reigned then for a time, Twilight and the rest doing their utmost to avoid thinking about what the blue sky and Princess Luna’s wing prevented them from laying eyes upon. Whimpers went up from Rarity and Fluttershy as everypony began to notice their hooves becoming moist. Nopony dared voice the reason, for the only logical solution to present itself given the circumstances was too morbid to say aloud. Twilight took to muttering nonsense under her breath to take away the thoughts while the others, especially Rainbow, put on forced steely faces.

“Hold up!” Spearhead hissed without warning, his explanation soon thereafter explained by tremors in the ground and the more audible war cries and explosions. Only, to Twilight’s ears, something did not seem to quite match the original tone. The skies just ahead of them were marred now by not only the pulsing blast of the Device weapons, but the harsh grind and slide of metal against metal. This grating noise reverberated over the battlefield, followed swiftly by a slower, more prominent ring of one of the weapons. The shot was released, but no quake came beneath anypony’s hooves, nor were the screams of the struck renewed. Instead, an ominous flash of deep green seemed for a moment to drown out the light of the sun with its intensity before winking out of existence and the battle cries coming in fresh waves.

“What was that?” Fluttershy asked for everypony, each of their heads turning to Inky Jay.

“Answer colt,” Spearhead demanded. “This is already risky enough without knowing exactly what sort of weapons we’re going up against.”

“Your guess in this instance is as good as mine, perhaps better,” Inky said, genuinely perplexed. “I know of no weapon used by Aurora that generates such a light.”

Whatever the aged general would have answered was cut off, Rainbow Dash screaming at all of them, “DOWN!” They all tore for the nearest crater, leaping in amongst loose dirt as it was vibrated over their entire bodies. The House of a Thousand Fangs followed its effects, roaring mightily over the town as it took up a new position in the sky. The Changelings beneath it galloped within its shadow, and to a gasp from Pinkie muffled hastily by Applejack, a random collection of Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi from both Armies took up positions alongside the enslaved Changelings.

“Traitors!” Spearhead swore under his breath. “Why in the name of Celestia would they choose to serve an alicorn they don’t even know?! I helped train some of those ponies! I recognize some!”

“Keep your head down,” Chrysalis hissed, grabbing Spearhead with a hoof and forcibly dragging him further into the hole. “They aren’t traitors. It looks as though they have suffered the same fate as my children.”

“I am sure Twilight Sparkle will confirm me in this,” Inky said. “What you are suggesting is not possible. Physically, literally impossible.”

“Both of thee art constraining thy minds to normal magic,” Luna whispered. “The loyalty of Equestrian citizens is legendary, and it wouldst take power manipulating that characteristic to cause what we see before us. Canst thou not think of any such power?”

“She wouldn’t dare!” Rainbow said, eyes narrowing. “And my Element gives loyalty anyway!”

“But it is a machine,” Inky said gravely, eyes locked with the princess. “And if a machine works in one way, it can also work equally well in reverse to achieve the opposite effect.”

“She’s rangin’ ‘em,” Applejack growled.

“But those are Elements of Harmony!” Twilight insisted. “Even a surrogate wouldn’t be able to be turned on its head like that.”

“We see no other explanation,” Luna said. “Be grateful she wouldst choose to use this as opposed the weapons that slaughter.”

“But they’re no better than the Changelings now,” Rarity said.

“Quiet!” Applejack ordered, and in the following relative silence, the crunching two sets of hooves could be heard at the edge of their hiding place. The hooves stopped. Spearhead nodded to Rainbow Dash, drawing a hoof across his horn then jerking it upward. Dash nodded in return and Spearhead’s eyes drifted shut in a warrior’s meditation. Only a few seconds passed, but they felt like hours as everypony hoped the hooves would begin crunching the gravel again as they carried their masters away. In that tremulous moment, Spearhead’s eyes snapped open again, a fire with unparalleled intensity burning therein. He leapt to his hooves, belting out a veteran’s war cry, and burst from the crater. Swinging one hoof out, he caught the neck of one of the unsuspecting foes, an Earth pony, in the crook of his leg. He flowed with his momentum, flipping his opponent onto his back, legs kicking furiously. He gave the pony no time to recover, rearing up and smashing his hooves down onto the soldier’s head. The guttural crack of bone was all he needed to hear before sprinting headlong into the second pony, this time a pegasus. Swatting away the spear leveled at his charging form with his horn, Spearhead rammed his whole weight into the pegasus’s chest. The soldier wheezed, and with practiced speed, Spearhead shoved his opponent’s head into a wall, knocking him unconscious like his fellow.

Drawing in a breath, Spearhead turned his head to see Rainbow Dash staring wide-eyed at the sprawled bodies of the ponies. “There will be more coming, and all the better for us if it draws them away from Aurora’s ship,” he said plainly to her, not bothering with the awe she displayed. Indeed, far better for her to be shocked by his speed and skill than to dwell too long on the carnal wreckage about them. Stalking to the edge of the crater, he said to the rest, “Come on. We have an opening and there’s no reason not to take it.”

Chrysalis was the first to clamber out of the hole, her eyes shifting immediately to the position Aurora had chosen for her craft. In a subtle flash of green, they changed from turquoise and green to yellow and blue: the eyes of a dragon. “I think Celestia’s forces have given Aurora more than she anticipated,” she said, smirking. “It would appear she is taking time to reorganize my Changelings and her new, stolen ponies.”

“Princess Celestia and Shining Armor will do the same,” Spearhead added as he ushered up Princess Luna. “We cannot afford not to take advantage of this lull in the fight, especially since Aurora has no idea we’re here.” The Bearers followed the princess, but no longer were they shielded from the carnage littering their once whole town. Pinkie Pie merely sat, stunned, silent tears dripping down her cheeks. Rarity breathed a barely audible “Oh!” and shut her lids tight. Fluttershy chose to try comforting Pinkie, the simple act keeping her distracted from the horrid images laid bare before them all. Applejack lowered her Stetson over her eyes, both to conceal her leaking tears and hide the brutality. 

Only Twilight seemed completely unfazed; or rather, she did not feel the emotions she thought she ought to. Slowly, methodically, reverently her gaze took in every blood-sprayed wall and stone, every mangled corpse, and every severed limb. All of this cast an odd sense of calm over her, as if there was a superior peace in death even of the most violent kind. She felt emotionless, like a blackboard wiped clean of all its complex symbols. “Thou remind us of ourself when we first bore witness to the aftermath of battle,” Luna said soothingly to her. “Do not believe thou art cold of spirit, as we first did. For ponies like thyself and us, it is not nothing that we feel, but a great, oppressing weight on our spirit. It is a weight that beareth down upon our soul until we feel as though in a stupor: a stupor brought upon us as we acknowledge devastation with solemnity.”

“I just feel like I should cry,” Twilight said, unable to take her eyes off the bloody street.

“Do not force thyself to do that which is not in thy heart,” Luna replied. “Our silence is as much grief as the tears of others.” Privately, Luna added, And thou once again show us thy worthiness, and the appropriateness of our sister’s newest choice. Verdence wilt be glad at least.

“Rainbow Dash is taking it better than all of us,” Twilight managed a chuckle. “But she’s always been the toughest.”

“Miss Dash is handling it better than you all because she’s seen a small portion of this before,” Spearhead corrected her brusquely. Addressing Luna, he said, “Your Majesty, the Changeling Queen is suggesting a roundabout approach on Aurora’s ship. She’s changed her vision with her magic and says the prow is heavily damaged and that a good number of her warriors have been directed to a forward defense.”

“And what doth thou suggest General?” Luna asked.

“I’m inclined to agree with her,” Spearhead fired back without hesitation. “It’s more practical to risk coming into the line of fire of those guns than risk being flanked and cornered.

“You are forgetting something,” Inky chided them, coming back from where he had been watching the House of a Thousand Fangs hang like a sentinel in the sky. “Once we come close to the ship, magic and flight become useless. If we want any chance of safely making it aboard, we will need to eliminate any Changelings near the first teleportation Device. Success in that will depend on our ability to fight them at range.”

“Since when did you become a tactician colt?” Spearhead spat. “And besides, ponies of the guard like myself fight better without our magic. You don’t need to go ruffling your feathers about being hurt.”

“It has nothing to do with my physical well-being,” Inky retorted, “but the expediency of getting aboard. If we are forced to linger outside in a fight, Lady Aurora will have ample time to prepare the interior defenses which will then be exponentially more difficult to overcome.”

“We’re going around, and that’s final, unless her Majesty says otherwise,” Spearhead growled.

“We agree with our general,” Luna said simply. “Overconfidence in her Devices is Aurora’s weakness, and by overcoming them, we shalt send Aurora’s mind into disarray.”

“Get the rest of them together Miss Sparkle,” Spearhead said to Twilight, gruff but understanding. “If we don’t stop this now, they’ll have worse to mourn over.” A wordless nod was all Twilight offered in reply, her emotions still feeling heavily compacted into a crushing void. She placed a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder first, and their meeting eyes was all that was needed to convey Twilight’s message. Applejack rested her own hoof on Twilight’s shoulder for a brief moment before straightening her Stetson and moving to bring the others back on their hooves. Rainbow joined them, and their united friendship helped dispel the feelings of sadness and despair consuming Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy. It was in grave silence that they rejoined Inky, Chrysalis, Spearhead, and Princess Luna; the general leading them down narrow alleys and urging them to quickly dart across roads one a time.

It was a relief for everypony, for even with the threat of being discovered by Aurora’s anti-Element ponies, the number of whole buildings meant there was little blood and no mutilated dead. Through all of their covert sneaking, Spearhead showed his skill as a soldier. No odd sound went unnoticed to him, no rush of wind was a coincidence of the world, every corner was a potential ambush, and all abandoned homes were potential hideouts. On two occasions his ingrained caution proved itself, he single-hoofedly subduing patrols sent out by Aurora. In one of these instances, even his age seemed to be have achieved insignificance. A light breeze had wafted over the group as they squeezed between two businesses, and without warning, Spearhead had leapt up and rebounded from wall to wall until he had disappeared with much shouting and commotion onto one of the roofs. Only a few moments later, a limp pegasi had tumbled down to land before Inky with a gruesome crack. He had been, amazingly, still conscious, before Rainbow bucked him in the back of the head. When Spearhead had rejoined them, startling everypony coming out a side door at the ground level, he appeared no worse for wear, his grim set jaw having not changed in the slightest.

They were closer than ever to Aurora’s vessel, coming out onto a street which curved rather than opening out into the small courtyard the ship hovered above, when Spearhead ground to a complete halt. His ears swiveled around several times, eyes narrowed for the intensity of his listening. Upon his ears returning to their normal pose, he shouted around the curve, “Name, company, and rank!”

“Is he a fool?!” Inky hissed for everypony.

As if in reply, a voice nearly as rough as Spearhead’s own but with a touch more refinement belted out, “Glint! Canter Company! Captain! Respond!”

“Spearhead! Lunar Company! General!” Spearhead answered with equal stiffness. “Bring your company around here Captain!”

“No can do sir!” was the reply. “We are under orders to detain you on sight.”

“Whose orders?!” Spearhead exploded, furious.

“From the Princess herself sir!” the pony called Glint said. “Now come quietly with whatever others that freak has handed to your command!”

“They are going to draw every anti-Element pony to us shouting like that,” Inky said angrily to Princess Luna. “Those fools need a sure sign. I would dare say their princess would be adequate.”

“Thy point hath been duly noted,” Luna murmured as she stepped around Spearhead and thusly around the corner. “Lay down thy guard!” she commanded. “We art not thy enemy. Now obey both of thy superiors and come to us.” As a tight group, four ponies came into view, each wielding a spear which they laid at Princess Luna’s hooves. They were all armored with a less cumbersome version of the silver and navy plate that marked the soldiers under Princess Luna’s forces, and rather than turn their coats all gray, the magic of the armor seemed to morph their coats to blend with the dominant color of their surroundings. As they stood presently, each was a light brown tinted with splotches of black. Upon presenting their spears, the ponies bowed before the Princess.

“Get your sorry flanks over here right now!” Spearhead fumed the moment they had risen and retrieved their weapons. “I expect more common sense out of special forces, especially you Glint!”

“Apologies sir! Just following orders sir!” the captain saluted. He was an Earth pony and his three subordinates were two mares and stallion. The mares were unicorn and thestral while the stallion was a pegasus.

“I don’t have to ask why the Princess thought it’d be a good idea to order my capture,” Spearhead said, “but I do want to confirm what we’ve been thinking. You have any intelligence out of Engineering?”

“Sir yes sir!” Glint answered.

“Stand down and explain,” Spearhead said.

“The weapon fire the armies encountered at first was just that, weapon fire,” Glint elaborated. “Engineering thinks it’s some kind of condensed concussion blast. The heat it’s giving off is just a by-product from the magic volume. But that other stuff… Engineering is doing its best to figure it all out. The effects just seem so random. The color of the blasts is never consistent, and we have cases of outright betrayal to simple loss of coordination in companies. They don’t cause any physical damage, but the effects open us up to anything else that dang ship has up its sleeve.”

“It’s clever really,” Chrysalis said, choosing that moment to reveal herself from behind a house. “Using the anti-Elements as weapons allows you to achieve complete domination without the desolation that war normally brings.”

“Sir!” Glint nearly screamed, his voice higher even than a mare’s. “Sir! Changeling Queen!”

“Don’t make me knock you upside the head Glint,” Spearhead scolded the captain. “Composure! The lot of you! She’s on our side. Miss Sparkle, you understand the mechanics of the weapons best. Give the basics to Glint.”

“Aurora created surrogate Elements of Harmony to remove the ambiguity of their users,” Twilight launched into the details. “Well, what we think is that she can reverse the magic flow the machines use to ignite the power of the Elements to create an opposite force. That’s what she’s using to turn ponies to her side. If a pony is loyal to Princess Celestia in a fight against Aurora, attacking them with loyalty’s reciprocal would turn them against the Princess.”

“How do you know that for sure?” Glint questioned her skeptically. “Sounds like a bit of stretch to me.”

“Of course it does,” Inky’s distinctive voice cut in. “You have a simple soldier’s mind, so of course it would seem ridiculously impossible to you. Any well-learned pony would, however, see the reality of her explanation.”

“We know because we helped make them dear,” Rarity said more kindly to Glint, who was eyeing Inky with extreme dislike.

“We’ve been on the inside Captain,” Spearhead added. “Your training tells you that we know more than you, no matter the absurdity of the situation.”

“Permission to speak freely sir?” the thestral mare asked. Spearhead nodded, and she continued with a slight northern accent, “What are you all doing so close to it then if you know what it can do?”

“We’re gonna go in there and stop Aurora from hurting any more ponies,” Pinkie answered for the general.

“That’s a simple way of saying it,” Chrysalis huffed. “Our mission is to capture Aurora, disable her ship, and free my fellow Changelings.”

“That’s quite the undertaking Ma’am,” the thestral answered with a chuckle. “You’ll need more than just passionate civilians if you want to even come close to breaking the Changeling line alone.” Chrysalis allowed herself a small grin, proud of her subjects despite the circumstances.

“I could ask you guys the same thing,” Rainbow said, pointing a hoof at the military contingent. 

“Spearhead’s said the princess would hold the army back for a while.”

“I trust you can count,” Inky said deridingly to Rainbow. “Four is no army. But by the look of them, neither are they soldiers of the common kind.”

“I know they’re not the army,” Rainbow said under her breath, gritting her teeth.

“They’re part of a special forces company, Jay. Weren't you listening?” Chrysalis answered Inky, equally cynical. “Is four the typical formation?” she posed the question to Glint.

“Yes Ma’am,” the captain answered.

“Hm, Changeling special forces are grouped as sets of five,” she mused aloud.

“What didst our sister send thy team to do?” Luan asked. “Simple reconnaissance canst be completed by soldiers less talented than thyselves.”

“Not sure if you noticed your Majesty, not sure where you were,” Glint replied, “but there were several pegasi who tried boardin’ the ship from above. They do it all the time at sea. Problem was, once they got on, they couldn’t get off. General Armor’s got an estimate of four dozen pegasi trapped on board, give or take. Our mission’s to get inside, free ‘em, and rout the enemy from the inside.”

“Good luck with that,” Inky said flatly.

“Inky Jay is her scribe, and he…” Twilight began, only to have the unicorn in Glint’s team lower his horn with a flare of magic at its tip.

“At ease soldier,” Spearhead sighed. “I don’t like it any more than the rest of us. But what Miss Sparkle was trying to say before you interrupted with your petty show of force, which you so idiotically displayed before your Commander in Chief Princess Luna, is that Mr. Jay is our one-shot at getting inside without ravaging the ship entirely.” The unicorn extinguished his magic and brought his head up with an almost audible snap, ears twitching in embarrassment. “Now, Captain Glint, with you and your team here, we have a far better chance of success.”

“I’m not sure what you mean sir,” Glint replied. “You have two monarchs on your side. I’m not sure exactly what my team can offer, sir.”

“Our combat magic becomes just as useless as yours when we get anywhere near that cursed ship,” Chrysalis said. “Until that changes, we are all, for better or worse, equal.”

“The fastest way to the underside of the ship is through the Changeling defense,” Spearhead elaborated. “But there are too many on high alert to make it even close to possible. Our second option would be to come from the side and face the guns.”

“You definitely don’t want to do that, sir,” the unicorn burst out, eyes hesitantly wandering away from Spearhead’s own when the general fixed him with a hard stare.

“Now with you here Captain,” he continued, “we don’t have to weigh the options.”

“We’ll take the guns and we’ll move first,” Glint replied without hesitation. “It’ll draw the attention of the Changelings too and give you more time.”

“When I activate the teleportation Devices, everypony must be quick,” Inky added. “Changelings are just as capable of entering as you or me and we will already be faced with a horde of them on the inside without the addition of these outside.”

“We can stay outside if we need to,” Glint’s thestral mare said. “It might be better that way anyhow. Draw away the defensive line an’ all.”

“We wilt not have thee put thyselves at greater risk if thou need not do so,” Luna commanded. “If thou canst not follow us inside, flee with all haste.”

“Your Majesty,” Glint saluted, grim faced. Turning to his general, he said, “Get into a good position, then wait for the shots to start.”

“You don’t have to tell me that soldier,” Spearhead grunted before marching off with a wave of his hoof for everypony else to come behind.

They were a block or so away from having met Glint and still walking in Spearhead’s confident, silent stride, when Inky spoke up, “Guard yourselves. We have just come close enough to feel the effects of Lady Aurora’s defensive fields.” Rainbow Dash swore, inspecting her wings carefully until she snorted in disgust and let them droop ever so slightly. Twilight began the mental exercise of separating herself from her magic pool and once secure in her own preparations (having become quite skilled at the art), explained to Rarity how she could do the same. Princess Luna, Chrysalis, and Spearhead showed no signs of being affected, though the sensation had to be worse for the queen and princess, what with their greater skill and raw power. Pinkie Pie and Applejack, having only ever experienced the effect once or twice and even then only mildly as their Earth pony magic was far more subtle than that of the unicorns or pegasi, merely shivered as the suppressing effect began to build. Fluttershy, amongst them all, seemed to deal with the change best. Perhaps she was too preoccupied with the House of a Thousand Fangs looming ever closer to truly notice the disabling of her wings, but regardless, she paid no attention to the detriment.

At last, Spearhead disappeared from off the street between two of the larger houses in one of the nicer homes in Ponyville. Everypony else followed him, crowding into a half-alley: the way to the courtyard blocked only by a barrier barely tall enough to be considered a wall and consequently easily jumped. “Looks like she’s got most of her anti-Element ponies out and about,” Spearhead whispered from where his eyes peaked over the wall’s edge. “None down on the ground. Don’t see any of ‘em on overwatch anymore either. She’s probably sent ‘em out to find where Princess Celestia’s massing her troops. I only see Changelings.”

“Can you see any formation?” Chrysalis hissed, only to be answered by silence as Spearhead searched.

“Not anything I recognize from the Invasion anyway,” Spearhead finally answered. “But that doesn’t mean squat.”

“Out of the way,” Chrysalis muttered, her vibrant turquoise eyes joining Spearhead’s yellow ones. Again a brief silence reigned in Chrysalis’s severe observation until she scoffed, “Pfft, a complete lack of organizational ability. I should have known. She has no strategic sense at all.”

“Thou shouldst not insult her so much,” Luna said gravely. “Were it not for her lack of talent in that field, we might not be here to discuss it.”

“Touché,” Chrysalis shrugged, stepping away from the barrier. “At least I can tell we now have an advantage. Before, it was like looking at a mass of moving black, even with dragon vision.”

“I would think you would be accustomed to the horde-like qualities of your subjects,” Inky said. 

“Only in battle,” Chrysalis said with superior flair. “Changeling soldiers bind themselves with their queen and each other in a fight to become a single, coordinated unit. Otherwise, they are all unique like any other self-aware creature.”

“Everypony up! Up now!” Spearhead growled at all of them. “I can hear the mechanics working!” Any words died on everypony’s lips as they all scrabbled into a better position to leap the wall and gallop ahead. In the relative silence, the collective chittering of Changelings could be heard beneath the deep rumble of the ship engines, and marking these overlying tones were harsh and brief but numerous cries of metal shifting against metal. Then there was stillness for a fraction of a moment that seemed to drag itself out forever; a feeling that the world teetered on the edge and that everything in the next few moments would decide its fate. 

Twilight could hear nothing save the screaming build of magical energy even as she watched Spearhead’s mouth bellow orders to run. Her hooves placed themselves one before the other in a fierce gallop over which she had no control, her focus now drawn to the brilliant explosion of orange light coming from her left. Her hooves continued to work for and without her. Her eyes shifted to the courtyard expanding before her as the walls of the homes disappeared to her gallop. Cruel red magic bolts shrieked their fury before pelting the ground like rain on newly fallen snow. Hundreds of Changelings rushed as far as they could to defend their false master, hissing and growling battle cries. The grating metal sounded again, but she could no longer watch their new comrades’ futile endeavor.

A howl of injury from Pinkie Pie penetrated her senses, and all the sound and feeling of the world returned. She had no time to think, a Changeling from the front defensive was already attempting to slice her with a wicked cut of his curved horn. He never had the chance, for Spearhead charged the Changeling from the side, ramming his powerful shoulders into his foe’s ribs and knocking him unconscious with a single hoof-swipe to the face. Twilight wasted no time, eyes darting among the chaos, trying to find Pinkie. For once, her friend’s bright coat color proved helpful, Twilight spotting her surrounded by six Changelings on all sides. She was still smiling, and as Twilight neared, heard her say, “So I guess you guys don’t wanna play fair do ya?” 

At that moment, both Rarity and Twilight attacked the Changelings, Rarity leaping and tackling one while Twilight speared another in the flank with her horn. Pulling away from the screeching Changeling, Twilight swatted another in the face, satisfied with the crack of his jaw dislocating. Pinkie, against whatever injury she had received, barreled into a fourth Changeling, unknowling slaying him with a solid blow crushing his wind-pipe. The remaining two Changelings Rarity expertly managed, slipping beneath them as they galloped at her from opposite sides and allowing them to careen straight into one another. Twilight would have asked after Pinkie’s wound, but had no time as Princess Luna stepped between her and Rarity. She opened her mouth to say something, but her words were drowned away when a second blinding flare of orange magic collided with the ground in a frenzy of sound. “... the teleportation Device!” the Princess’s words met Twilight’s ears as the din of the attack faded. “Inky Jay hath reached the teleportation Device!” she repeated, louder this time. Her words were punctuated when the shadow of the ship was lit not by the evil light of war magic, but the white shine of a teleporting spell. “Go! We and Chrysalis shall hold them off last.” 

Twilight was about to argue when Chrysalis herself joined the princess and bellowed, “Go! Don’t be so stupid!” She accentuated her point when, with a single blow, she and Luna brought low six armored Changelings. “Go!” both rulers roared again, this time to retreating backs as Twilight helped a now wincing and limping Pinkie Pie run to the glow of the teleportation beam. Twice as they ran, Rarity bucked Changelings away from them, leaving the path clear. 

“Get ready Pinkie!” Twilight yelled as she shoved her friend into the white. “Rarity!” Twilight’s fellow unicorn followed Pinkie, vanishing as the light took her into the ship. About to leap into the beam herself, Twilight felt a leg forced out from under her, her face landing hard on the compacted earth. She rolled onto her back, only to see  Changeling  lift a warrior’s hoof to end her hold on consciousness. In a wild flash, everything Shining Armor had ever tried to teach her about self-defense returned. Her own two fore-hooves flashed up, blocking the Changeling’s blow. But with trained speed, he pulled his hoof back and attacked a second time. This one Twilight dodged, rolling onto her side, and retaliating with a buck to her enemy’s hind leg. He stumbled, and Twilight had her advantage. She placed a hoof in the curve of his horn and pushed down. Pressure point exploited, the Changeling reeled back in pain, giving Twilight the chance to scramble to her hooves and all but throw herself into the beam of pure, white light.