//------------------------------//
// Chapter 41: Underground 
// Story: Brother Against Sister 
// by CartsBeforeHorses 
//------------------------------//

The sun rose on the city of Mareicopa, reflecting off of the shiny white dome of Chupacabra Stadium. There were twice as many guards there as normal, patrolling the hallways and the exterior, standing on the sidewalks outside, and perched atop the dome. Their haggard, stoic gazes betrayed little of the hunger and hatred that burned within, driving them to such a task as guarding seventy thousand earth ponies and pegasi who, in as little as a few hours, they could very well begin slaughtering.

The guards’ faces were soon overcome by flinching, wincing, and agony as hundreds of them all doubled over on the ground, clutching their chests in pain and screaming. About a minute later, all five hundred guards in and around the stadium were entirely lifeless.

Into the now unguarded lobby, twenty guerrillas from Pumpkin Cake’s group appeared in a single flash. The group had begun calling itself the Mareicopa Resistance, to contrast itself with the Mareicopa Loyalists, the group of Equestrian loyalists which most of the Resistance members had been kicked out of after being betrayed by Agent Sparkler.

Walkabout looked back at his accomplishment, a twenty-pony teleportation a great feat even by his standards. He grinned widely as the uneaten half of a fresh-baked Prench baguette stuck out from between his teeth like a cigar. Unlike some other unicorns living in the Second Kingdom, he never had to worry about going hungry due to his teleportation skills.

“That potion is powerful! Got me brekky in Prance this morning with enough time to spare!” Walkabout exclaimed.

Nurse Redheart surveyed all of the guards who lay on the floor, lifeless. “Not quite the most ethical use for voodoo, but if it saves lives...”

The other four earth pony Resistance doctors and nurses from St. Prancis simply shook their heads. The one unicorn doctor, an oncologist who had performed the mass voodoo execution, shook his head as well, upset over what he had had to do. But it was hard for any of them to feel too sorry for ponies who held others in such squalid conditions, threatening genocide. They stood there for a few moments, nopony speaking.

“Alright, where’s the sound booth so I can get set up?” asked Vinyl Scratch, breaking the silence.

“It’s at the very top near the owners’ box,” said Pumpkin Cake. “Take a left at the mares’ restrooms, then head straight down until you see a black door. Walkabout can take you, if he—”

“Oh, no worries, I just did,” said Walkabout, who had already disappeared with Vinyl in a flash as soon as she asked about the sound booth, and had reappeared in the lobby, all while Pumpkin Cake was giving directions to nopony. Everyone chuckled quietly.

The twenty Resistance members continued on their way towards the field, navigating through the lobby and the long hallways in the vestibule. They stepped over the bodies of guards that they hoped were all truly dead. Just to be sure, Vinyl’s earth bouncer Juan was running ahead of the guerrillas with a silenced machine gun, double-tapping every guard. With the potion enhancing his earth pony stamina, he moved at lightning speeds.

It was perhaps over-cautious, as properly-executed voodoo attacks were almost always lethal, but they didn’t want to take any chances. Meanwhile, the pegasus bouncer Reynaldo flew high above the stadium along with three other Resistance pegasi, keeping watch for reinforcements. The potion improved their reflexes and flight skills.

“Damn, that’s some dank stuff that you gave us, Pumpkin Cake!” a young unicorn stallion, one of Vinyl Scratch’s fans, exclaimed. With his enhanced telekinesis, he was levitating himself through the air, fluttering effortlessly like a butterfly. “Where can I score some?”

Professor Fossil lit up his own horn and pulled the raver back towards the ground, shaking his head.

“And how did you get all of the hair from those guards to make five hundred voodoo dolls?” asked Nurse Redheart. “I thought your power was intangibility, not invisibility.”

“Leave the poor girl alone and quit interrogating her,” Professor Fossil urged. “...Though, I must admit, I’m curious as well.”

Pumpkin answered, “The hair? I got it from the military barber’s trashcan. Luckily all the guards here had just gone in for their haircuts.”

The ponies all nodded, buying the explanation.

“The potion? I found it hidden at Trixie’s house. She was the Magical Research Minister, so she was trying to make magic more powerful. It must’ve been her invention,” she lied.

“That’s a coincidence,” said Nurse Redheart. “You were too young to remember, but back when I still lived in Ponyville, Trixie used a magic amulet to take over the town once. The amulet was blood-red just like that potion, and made her magic really powerful. I wonder if it’s related?”

Pumpkin Cake raised an eyebrow. As a filly growing up in Ponyville, of course she’d heard tales of Trixie’s escapades with the Alicorn Amulet before; her day-long reign of terror was the stuff of local legend. But it hadn’t crossed Pumpkin’s mind again until Redheart had just mentioned it. Then again, Pumpkin hadn’t actually found the magic potion at Trixie’s house. Sparkler had given it to her, who in turn had gotten it from Zecora. But then where did Zecora get her secret ingredient from?

Pumpkin asked, “What happened to the amulet?”

Nurse Redheart shrugged. “Nopony really knows. Rumor was that Zecora the zebra hid it out in the Everfree Forest.”

The small group of rescuers were now in sight of the field, through a set of double doors.

The first thing to hit them was the stench, that made them all reel. It was a vile mix of waste and offal, and was twice as terrible as when Pumpkin had been here by herself a couple of weeks ago. The moans of starvation, and the sounds of wailing children and mothers echoed through the dome. The ponies were malnourished, filthy, and even gaunter and bonier than before. 

Pumpkin theorized for a moment that Top Brass might not actually have any of his guards kill these ponies themselves, because why waste the bullets? Perhaps the plan was to let them starve to death, since most of them looked like they were almost already there. And maybe that plan was involuntary rather than strategic, because judging by the almost-empty shelves at the grocery stores in the past few days, Pumpkin hardly imagined that there was much food left to give these ponies, even if their captors had wanted to. It was a cynical plan, she thought.

After the shock subsided, the guerrillas continued on. Pumpkin Cake had already scoped out this area the evening before, with the help of Agent Sparkler, and knew the right spot to go. She teleported down to the field, appearing in a flash. With her gun slung over her shoulder, she no doubt looked like a guard, and none of the ponies paid her any mind.

“Clear an area,” she commanded. 

She motioned for the captives to move, and used her magic to lift the cots and noncompliant ponies out of the way. Soon she had cleared a space for herself of about four by four meters. The grass, once green, was now brown and yellow from having been trampled on, eaten, and lived on for so long. With a stick, she drew a circle in the dirt, four meters in diameter. She signaled up to five unicorns who were ravers at Club Copa, and they all rushed down to meet her. Most of the captives didn’t seem to pay the ravers any mind. But the earth pony doctors and nurses came as well, and their white lab coats and healthy body weight drew far more stares. 

Of the twenty ponies on the rescue team, the five doctors and nurses, five ravers, and Pumpkin stood in the circle area on the field. Juan stood guard near the doors leading into the field, while Reynaldo and three other pegasi kept watch outside. Walkabout and Professor Fossil stood on the sidelines for now, ready to spring into action when they were needed, while Vinyl Scratch was in the sound booth. 

The twentieth pony, a lone unicorn pyromaniac named Ember, was on the other side of town creating a diversion, wreaking havoc against Mareicopa’s puppet government to draw as many police officers, firefighters, and military there as possible. After drinking the magic potion, he could use his horn as a powerful flamethrower, setting dozens of ponies alight at once. Thus far, it appeared that the diversion was working, but soon the police would become wise to it. The authorities might arrive at Chupacabra Stadium soon, if they radioed in and discovered that nopony was answering, but Vinyl Scratch was trying her hardest to ensure that the problem at the stadium merely sounded like some radio static rather than a crisis. 

Suddenly, just as planned, Vinyl Scratch came over the PA, reading a statement that Professor Fossil had pre-written for her to be as clear and concise as possible. This part of the plan was the most critical, and the most time-sensitive.

“Attention, captives of Chupacabra Stadium. We are your liberators. We will rescue you and nurse you back to health, but you must follow our instructions exactly. In the center of the field, there will soon be a hole appearing in the boundaries of the circle drawn in the dirt. This hole will lead to caverns below the stadium.”

Pumpkin and the other guerrillas surrounded the edges of the circle, motioning towards it, as the hostages looked over towards them. Pumpkin thought of how bizarre it was to hear Vinyl speak so formally.

“This hole is intangible, and you may pass right through it. Entering it successfully and carefully is your only chance of survival. It is a drop of about thirty feet to the caverns below and will injure or kill you if you simply jump. So each pegasus, on his way down, should grab one earth pony and lower him down into the shaft. Once you are underground, please do not try to fly back up to the stadium. Walk out from under the hole and spread out, to make room for more new arrivals. At the count of three, please begin filing into the hole. Move as quickly as possible, as this hole can’t be left open indefinitely. 

“Three…”

Pumpkin Cake lit up her horn, and all of the ground inside of the circle turned intangible, creating a shaft extending from the green grass of the field down to the ancient chupacabra den below the stadium. The hole from the green to the den was the largest single area Pumpkin had ever applied her intangibility spell to, and even with the magic potion coursing through her veins, it was still challenging. She wasn’t sure how long she could hold it open, or if all seventy thousand ponies could make it through a four-meter-wide opening before her magic gave out. This hole was quite literally the plan’s bottleneck.

There were already lanterns lighting the way down in the caverns, which Pumpkin Cake and Sparkler had put there the evening before. Down at the bottom of the shaft, there were several trampolines and cushy pillows underneath. It would probably still break a pony’s bones if he landed on it from so high, but at least it was better than landing on hard dirt and rock.

“...Two…”


Walkabout teleported the five doctors and nurses down into the cavern, where they would be waiting to attend to any wounded, and where they would start the freed hostages on a sugar water diet to begin to reverse their malnourishment. All of these medical supplies were also waiting, deeper in the complex system of tunnels.

“...One...”

The five raver ponies saw that hardly any of the captives had moved a muscle to get into position. Only a few thousand of them had started walking towards the hole; the rest of them didn’t move at all, or were shaking their heads no. It was just as the Resistance had feared. Of course, the hostages’ lack of action was understandable, as they were weak, tired, and perhaps didn’t trust these ponies who were instructing them to go down into a cavern.

So, as per the plan, the ravers cast the Want-It, Need-It spell on the hole. Even five experienced ravers hyped up on magic potion couldn’t cast a powerful enough WINI spell to cause seventy thousand ponies to unwillingly jump in. But with all five of them contributing their enhanced magic, it at least got everypony’s attention, and would make them more amenable to the suggestion. Of course, if the ravers had tried this stunt in a stadium with well-nourished ponies, it could have risked a dangerous stampede. But since the captives were all very weak, there was little danger of this.

“...Now!”

DJ Pon3’s beats played over the intercom, and she started rapping the verses. Since they needed the ponies to move quickly, the rap was very fast-paced, and the backing electronic dance beats were meant to get ponies off their hooves.

“A hundred million years ago
The molten magma lava flow
Hid all the caverns down below
The chupacabras had to go
They died of flames and sulfur smoke
There's nothing left of them but bones
It’s safe to stay down there, you know
But you won’t make it if you’re slow.”

Ponies started rushing towards the hole. Many of them were cheering, smiling, hooting and hollering, for probably the first time in months, ecstatic from both the WINI spell and from their chance of finally escaping this hell. Even an unknown, underground cavern would be an improvement over the stadium. Pon3 continued with the chorus,

“Underground!
Make your escape,
drop through the hole as I drop the bass.
Underground!
Don’t jump from high;
just take a ride from pegasi.
Underground!
Is where we've learned
illegal spells that you’ve observed.
Equestria!
Repeal the laws
on WINI, time spells, voodoo dolls.”

“Hell yeah! those are some fat beats, DJ Pon3!” one of the ravers exclaimed. The others threw their hooves up in the air.

Perhaps the political message was a bit exploitative at a time like this, but DJ Pon3 was the artist, not Pumpkin Cake. And she couldn’t argue with the results, as several thousand hostages had already made their way through the shaft, passing through at a rate of about sixty per second. Sure enough, each pegasus was carrying an earth pony down with him as per the instructions. With each pony who went through, the WINI spell became a bit more powerful, since it was now spread out over fewer remaining hostages that it had to effect. So the most reluctant and fearful ponies, who would be the last to want to go into the hole willingly, would fittingly be subjected to the strongest concentration of the spell, that could hopefully change their minds.

Walkabout was zapping around to find the sick and injured ponies who simply were too weak to get through the hole even if they wanted to, and teleporting them down there himself, while quickly assuring their family members that they’d meet their loved ones down below if they followed. After all, not even the want-it, need-it spell could override the protection instinct or the love that spouses, siblings, or parents and children had for one another. The entire field filled up with flashes as Walkabout worked efficiently. 

In this task, Walkabout was aided by Professor Fossil. Or rather, by several copies of Professor Fossil from future timelines. Fossil had been locating sick and injured ponies, signaling to Walkabout with a bright light from his horn, and then traveling back in time to find even more in different sections of the grandstands. In the five minutes since the song had started, Fossil had spent the equivalent of several hours searching out these ponies, of whom there were thousands. At one point, Pumpkin counted at least five lights from Professor Fossil’s future copies’ horns in different areas of the stadium, all quickly met one after the other with flashes from Walkabout.

Five minutes in, and nearly twenty thousand ponies had now entered the hole by Pumpkin’s estimation. Her horn was starting to ache, but she felt that she could still keep the spell going as the song continued.

“The lost, departed souls we grieve
Are buried six feet in the deep
There lie the ones who used to be
Such loving, caring company
But from the ground there grows a tree
There sprouts a flower from a seed
Though life can be so cruel and mean
For now your sorrow’s all wiped clean.

Underground!
Make your escape
drop through the—"

Suddenly, there was a burst of gunfire from outside. Then, there was an explosion. The white dome of the stadium burst open, revealing the blue sky above. Part of the stands exploded, chunks of it raining down on the crowds of fleeing hostages. They screamed as flaming metal debris was flung towards them, and they scattered in all directions to avoid it, now no longer heading down the shaft.

A piece of debris flew right towards Pumpkin Cake. She instinctively turned herself intangible to avoid it. But in her momentary lapse of concentration, the hole temporarily turned solid again. About three dozen ponies were still inside when this happened, and there was a sickening crunch of their bones being compacted by the now solid dirt. Pumpkin quickly restored the hole, but the damage had been done, and the hostages who’d been trapped in the dirt when it was solid were crushed to bloody pulps.

“Yo, don’t lose your cool!” Vinyl Scratch called over the intercom. “A plane dropped a bomb on the stadium! The only safe place is underground! Keep going into the hole!”

The ponies did as Vinyl and the still-active WINI spell commanded and continued pouring into the hole. Through the crack in the dome, Pumpkin glimpsed Reynaldo and the three other pegasi flying up into the air to fight five Second Kingdom bombers which had just arrived. Another part of the grandstands exploded as a bombshell landed, knocking out a group of hundreds of ponies. Yet another bomb was falling, but it disappeared as Walkabout teleported it back up into the air, above one of the planes itself.

“Like a boomerang!” he exclaimed gleefully as the bomber exploded with a distant boom, blown up by its own bomb. Reynaldo took out a plane with a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher.

“Though war has brought your lives far down
Your life today is like a sprout
You'll follow us into the ground
And spring up mighty, strong, and proud
The soil that you'll grow around
Are spells that they don't want allowed
So listen as I sing it loud,
This rescue will remove their doubts.

Underground!
Make your escape
drop through the hole as I drop the bass.
Underground!
Don’t jump from high;
take a ride from pegasi.
Underground!
Is where we've learned
illegal spells that you've observed.
Equestria!
Repeal the laws
on WINI, time spells, voodoo dolls."

At this point, there were about twenty thousand ponies left in the stadium who hadn’t either died from the explosions or already made it through the hole. Pumpkin’s horn was beginning to feel like it was on fire, but the gruesome images of the ponies squashed to a pulp earlier from her lack of concentration compelled her to continue. The hole shrunk in diameter as she slowly ran out of magical energy. This slowed the rate of ponies entering it over the next five minutes.

But now there was a bigger problem. Several flashes of light erupted throughout the stadium. They weren’t flashes from Walkabout. They were SK reinforcements, and they were teleporting in through the crack in the dome. There were still thousands of hostages left to rescue, Pumpkin estimated, and it would take the better part of five minutes for them to all get through with the hole its current size, now about two meters in diameter. Cherry-red sweat dripped from her forehead, no doubt her body filtering out the potion. Either that or she was sweating blood.

About a dozen SK soldiers started shooting with machine guns. They fired everywhere. Into the stands at the hostages. Into the field at the rescuers. The sound of gunfire and the sound of screams dueled in a back-and-forth contest of which could be the loudest. The brown grass and grey seats were now strewn with bright red blood.

Pumpkin’s horn now burned with a pain so white hot, it was as bad as many years ago when Trixie had branded her with a hot iron. By now the hole had shrunk to a single meter in diameter, and the flow of hostages entering had slowed to a trickle. Even if she were immune to pain, she physically couldn’t keep up her magic like this.

“Pumpkin Cake! Drink more potion!” Walkabout shouted.

He appeared right next to her, holding the remainder of the red magic potion, about 50mL. Pumpkin grabbed it, careful to still keep the hole open as best as she could. Walkabout disappeared off to help the other ponies. As Pumpkin put the vial of metallic-tasting liquid to her lips, a curious thing happened. She found that, with a bit of effort, she was able to expand the escape shaft back to its size of four meters in diameter, her energy seemingly renewed… but she hadn’t actually drank any more potion yet. Apparently, just having the vial of potion touching her was enough to boost her magic back up, albeit to less than it had been that morning.

What is this stuff? Is this a potion or a charm? she thought. Whatever it was, she didn’t even need to drink it to get its effect, so she didn’t. Though her fatigue remained, and she was still exhausted and about to collapse, at least now the hole had opened up larger.

Walkabout was now teleporting every single pony within range of him down the hole, injured or not. The ravers had abandoned casting the WINI spell and were now fighting off the SK troops, who were summarily executing every hostage they saw. The hostages kept rushing into the hole even without the WINI spell active, just to escape the hail of bullets from the executors.

Five more SK troops arrived. Then ten. Then twenty. The hostages’ numbers kept dwindling, either through being shot or by escaping. Soon, the only ponies left above-ground in the stadium were the guerillas and the SK troops. Pumpkin Cake closed off the hole, sealing the hostages and their caregivers safely underground, and collapsed onto the floor, entirely depleted. The Resistance members, now able to focus on fighting without worrying about any innocents getting caught in the crossfire, attacked the SK troops, firing back with guns and magic. Walkabout teleported them up into the air as high as they could. The ravers flung them up into the air with telekinesis, back through the dome. The soldiers were no match, and they had to retreat from the stadium.

The stadium was now empty except for the Resistance guerrillas. They stood on the field near the endzone, all cheering, jumping up and down like the Copa Chupacabras did after scoring a game-winning touchdown. After they finished cheering, they did a quick headcount. Unfortunately, they had lost three guerillas, two of them unicorn ravers who had been shot trying to stop the massacre, and then a pegasus who’d died fighting the bombers. 

Also, between the bombing of the stadium by the airplanes, the subsequent shooting of the hostages by the soldiers, and the ponies who’d been crushed or accidentally fallen down the hole and hit the ground below, almost thirty thousand of the captives had died during the rescue attempt.

The survivors were attended to by the five earth pony doctors and nurses. Despite Nurse Redheart’s put-downs of earth ponies, they played perhaps the most important role in the entire rescue attempt. Thanks to the same sort of life-giving magic that allowed earth ponies to grow crops, they were also excellent healers. Earth ponies passively gave off an aura of life, and any sick pony attended to by an earth pony doctor or nurse could expect for his wounds to heal faster. When the healers took the potion, their normal healing powers were increased by twenty times.

Pumpkin felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment. Some might have called the mission a failure because of the high casualty rate, but she called it a success. Though the mission had been far from perfect, they had saved over forty thousand ponies from being killed. That was something to truly be proud of, she thought, and indeed, it was the biggest accomplishment in her young life. But she and the Resistance weren’t done yet. They had freed the hostages, and now, they were going to free Mareicopa itself.





Fires smoldered in the downtown area of Mareicopa. The city hall was a charred, blackened skeleton. Blazes raged at the library and in the park, the stench of burning wood and paper filling the air. The police station was still burning, the officers trapped inside as smoke filled their lungs and they desperately tried jumping and teleporting out of windows. Pegasi snipers from the Equestrian Loyalists pinned them inside, shooting at them as they tried to escape. A fire truck exploded as a grenade fell onto it, and firefighters ducked for cover, holding their hooves in the air and begging not to be killed. 

Unlike the Mareicopa Resistance, this was the partisan group which had remained loyal to Equestria, who Sparkler hadn’t reported on her list to Fancy Pants. So they hadn’t been involved in the rescue of the stadium. They had seen the moment of chaos to spring into action and were acting all on their own. Or, perhaps Sparkler herself had ordered them to.

A lone unicorn stallion galloped through the streets, with an orange coat and a red mane, and a flame for a cutie mark. Fire emanated from his horn as he set the bushes, trees, and buildings alight. He now was no longer even targeting government buildings, as he set a corner shop and tavern on fire.

He cackled manically. “Burn everything all down! BURN IT DOWN! Make the voices stop! MAKE THEM STOP!”

Ember was never the most stable pony. Agent Sparkler had wanted him dead not so much for his loyalties, but for his mental problems, which included pyromania and paranoid schizophrenia. It was potentially unwise to give him a sip of magic enhancement potion, but the rescuers had needed a diversion while they were liberating the stadium. It worked a little too well, and by the time anypony in one of the buildings realized that it was on fire, Ember had already moved on to the next one. There were squad cars and hoof patrol police officers chasing after him, but it wasn’t so easy to catch somepony who could just teleport away if he was cornered, or make his pursuers spontaneously combust. The police also were hampered by the Equestrian loyalists, who were firing on them left and right.

Meanwhile, the remaining fifteen rescuers were still at the stadium, hidden inside the locker room. They hadn’t yet joined in the chaos in the city itself, though Reynaldo had scouted out and told them about it. He also had told them about an approaching Second Kingdom army convoy of a few thousand mechanized infantry, who were expected to arrive later that afternoon.

“We better go out and join the fun,” Walkabout urged.

“Hell yeah! I’ve got loads of fans at Club Copa who can free this city! Just say the word and I’ll give them all these guns. We’re not afraid to die,” said Vinyl Scratch.

Hundreds of guns were stored inside of the lockers, after the guerillas had gone around the vestibule and taken them off of the dead bodies of the guards. The three remaining ravers nodded, undeterred by the loss of their two friends.

Nurse Redheart shook her head. “You guys go if you want to, but the medical personnel have to stay in the caverns and attend to the injured and malnourished.”

“Nopony should go,” said Professor Fossil. “Not yet. Let the partisans who are loyal to the invisible mare do all the heavy lifting. They will weaken the SK army, who will kill the partisans. When the time is right, then we can strike.”

“That potion is wearing off, though,” said Walkabout, wiping red sweat from his brow. “Me teleports are still powerful, but not as powerful as this morning. And those pahtisans will need our help to liberate Copa. Shouldn’t we strike now while we’re still strong?”

“You and I will, Walkabout,” said Pumpkin Cake. Then she turned to the others. “But I agree with Professor Fossil and Nurse Redheart: the rest of you should stay. Vinyl, too. Her fans didn’t take the potion, and neither did she, so there’s no harm in them waiting. Our full group can attack at any time, so we don’t need to do this too early.”

Vinyl opened her mouth to speak in protest, but Nurse Redheart turned to Pumpkin and Walkabout and said, “What are you two going to do?”

Pumpkin answered, “Defanging.”





Across the desert sands, hundreds of SK armored personnel carriers and tanks raced towards Mareicopa from the front lines near the Everfree River. They had retreated from their positions so that they could go reinforce the city, and were no longer bothering to hold the lines against the Equestrian army, who had filled in the territory that they’d ceded. This meant that the Second Kingdom army and territory was now cut in two, with no land connection between Copa and Canterlot anymore. Black smoke billowed from the desert city from the raging fires and explosions, visible even from several kilometers outside of town. But the Second Kingdom would not lose their grip on the city if General Top Brass could at all help it.

Sergeant Popper sat inside of one of the carriers, which was bringing up the rear of the convoy. He had received word that the partisans had captured the stadium and freed the hostages, but that the hostages hadn’t gone far. They were directly under the stadium, hidden inside of an ancient cavern.

Top Brass, who remained in Canterlot to run the government, had ordered Popper to seize the stadium back from the insurgents at all costs. A new shipment of oranges had arrived from Horseshoe Bay, and Popper’s division of 6,000 soldiers had been allocated 300 crates of oranges as provisions. Once the threat was eliminated and the stadium was secure, the army could simply dig down into the caverns and retrieve the hostages, and Top Brass’ ultimatum to the Princesses could still be carried out.

Sergeant Popper’s division wasn’t trained in urban warfare. The specialized urban warfare battalions were busy trying to root out opponents of the junta in Canterlot, including Fancy Pants loyalists and the remainder of his secret service, and had their hooves full. So Poppers’ regular army division was the only hope of keeping control over Mareicopa and recapturing Chupcacabra Stadium and the hostages underneath it. It was now or never.

As they continued along the paved road leading into town, in a single-file procession, there was a flash in the road half a kilometer ahead. Two ponies appeared: a navy blue unicorn stallion wearing sunglasses and a wide-brimmed slouch hat, who none of them recognized, and Pumpkin Cake, who many had seen on the wanted posters. She’d abandoned her different-colored disguise by now, and her fiery orange mane stuck out like a sore hoof against the tan desert sand and dark blacktop of the road.

Sergeant Popper’s heart leapt in his chest for a moment. But then he chuckled, relaxing. What was Pumpkin Cake going to do? She was powerful, but could she really fight off thousands of ponies all by herself? Not even an alicorn could do that. Was she expecting to massacre them all before running out of magical energy? Popper commanded for the convoy to proceed as normal as if she wasn’t there.

But it turned out that Pumpkin didn’t need to directly fight them. One by one, the wheels of the trucks and the treads of the tanks turned intangible in a red glow and then fell off onto the ground, resolidifying. The hundreds of trucks and tanks came to a halt. With nothing to hold them up, they thudded to the ground. 

Mechanics in the convoy raced out to retread the tanks and put the tires back on the trucks, but the blue stallion teleported the treads and tires into a giant pile, about a kilometer away from the side of the road. Some of the soldiers tried firing on the two ponies who were sabotaging their armor. But Pumpkin had turned herself and him both intangible as well, so it was no use, and the bullets flew right through them. 

Then, after the entire convoy had ground to a halt, the bolts of the soldiers’ rifles turned intangible. Thousands of bolts flew out of the guns and through the air like a swarm of metal dragonflies, rendering the guns unable to fire. They also landed in the pile with the tank treads and truck wheels. This continued for about ten minutes, until the entire division was effectively disarmed and unable to move.

Now confident that nopony could fire on her, Pumpkin Cake and the stallion resolidified.

She shouted, “Second Kingdom soldiers: you wanted a massacre? Then try coming into town without your guns and vehicles, and just see what happens to you! We have hundreds of armed ponies who won’t be so forgiving of you for your genocide. You will never control Mareicopa again.”

The blue stallion commanded in an Oatstralian accent, “Now go, into the bush, and never return!” He pointed to the desert. “Take nothing. Your guns, tanks, and provisions are our trophies now.”

The soldiers all murmured amongst themselves. They would have to surrender to the Equestrian Armed Forces, after making a long trek through the desert without their vehicles, without guns, without provisions. Some of them could teleport, but not all.

Upon hearing their hesitation, Pumpkin scowled. “Be thankful that I only plucked the bolts from your guns, and not the stems from your brains! Now leave before I change my mind.”

The soldiers got the message: leave or be massacred. Before Sergeant Popper could even give them the order, they retreated, bailing out of the trucks, APCs, and tanks, abandoning their guns and their food, with only canteens strung around their necks. Sergeant Popper, with nothing else he could do, followed his soldiers on hoof out into the desert.

Many hours later, they encountered the advancing Equestrian army, to whom they surrendered. The Equestrians, who weren’t prepared to take on 6,000 hungry and thirsty prisoners of war, had to stop their advance just to take them back to the POW detention centers.





The remaining Second Kingdom forces inside the city of Mareicopa, finding themselves surrounded and under fire from partisans, with no heavy armor to reinforce them, surrendered that afternoon. The police laid down their weapons and removed their uniforms, and were allowed to leave the city peacefully.

With quick use of intangibility and teleportation, Pumpkin, Walkabout, and some of the mechanically-minded guerillas retreaded the tanks and put the tires back onto the trucks, and reassembled the rifles. The Mareicopa Resistance was now armed as well as a conventional army, albeit with no formal training in how to use their new toys. So, as per Professor Fossil’s advice, they quickly quelled any resistance from the few remaining Loyalist partisans who had survived the street battles with the Second Kingdom army. Some of the Loyalists weren’t so happy that the ponies that Sparkler had labeled as traitors were still alive. But other than a few hit-and-run attacks, the Loyalists were no match.

All across the city, the armored personnel carriers and tanks drove clumsily along, manned by the Mareicopa Resistance group, as they tried to maintain calm and stop looters, vandals, and others who had been taking advantage of the chaos earlier. Hundreds of guns were distributed to small business owners for them to protect their shops, in return for their loyalty to the Resistance. The red and black flags of the Second Kingdom were torn down all over town. But the flags of Equestria didn’t go up in their place. Instead, the flagpoles remained bare except for the orange and purple bicolor flag of the city of Mareicopa. 

Professor Fossil held a press conference the next day at noon, when the city had quieted down some, and the fires had all been put out. By that point, all of the guerillas’ magic had returned to normal levels after they had sweated the potion out. Only Pumpkin’s magic was still enhanced, since she kept the vial of remaining potion with her, but she didn’t disclose this to anypony. For all the Resistance knew, she’d drank the last of it back in the stadium.

Hundreds of ponies gathered inside of Club Copa, which had become the de-facto gathering place for Resistance members, whose ranks had now swelled to well over 1,000 thanks to a hasty recruitment drive. From the massive stockpile of surrendered weapons, guns were given out to practically anypony who pledged allegiance to the Resistance and its ideals, promised to fight for them, and promised not to loot or steal. Tanks and armored personnel carriers were parked outside of Club Copa, orange and blue flags fluttering from them. Ponies armed with machine guns stood on the roof, standing guard. A few guards stood inside of the club itself, now uncharacteristically lit with fluorescent lights rather than strobe lights and disco balls.

Dozens of reporters flocked around to Pumpkin Cake and Professor Fossil as they walked through the club, up to the stage where they were to give their statement.

“When will the rule of law be reestablished? Will Mareicopa be part of Equestria again?” asked an eager cub reporter from the Mareicopa Monitor.

“Our statement in a few moments will address this,” said Professor Fossil, trying to edge his way past a group of journalists.

“Why do you have those guns? Why do you have tanks?” asked another reporter, a middle-aged pegasus from the Cloudsdale Courier.

“For our protection,” said Pumpkin Cake bluntly.

“Who was responsible for the arson attacks downtown yesterday, and have they been apprehended?”

“Mister Ember is currently still on the loose, but rest assured that he is no longer a threat,” said Professor Fossil. This answer led to even more questions, both about Ember and other things.

“Care to comment on reports that your group has set up roadblocks to prevent the Equestrian army from entering the city limits?”

“How will the food shortages be addressed?”

“Have there been any background checks before you gave out all those guns to civilians? What about the increase in crime?”

Pumpkin Cake rolled her eyes and simply teleported along with Professor Fossil, since the reporters wouldn’t let them pass.

“The Mareicopa Resistance has prepared a group statement declaring our intentions,” said Professor Fossil, who now stood on the stage with Pumpkin Cake, where Vinyl Scratch’s electronics normally sat. “I will read it, and then all questions will be answered afterwards.”

The reporters were quiet as Professor Fossil spoke.

“Citizens of Equestria: I am Professor Fossil, the spokespony for the Mareicopa Resistance. We have liberated Mareicopa from the Second Kingdom. We have freed forty thousand of the seventy thousand Chupacabra Stadium captives alive. They are all being treated and are returning to good health, and are being released to go about their lives. A few hundred have already recovered physically well enough to walk on the streets. Some have even joined our ranks.”

Ponies in the crowd cheered at the news. A few even included the rather gaunt but smiling freed hostages, who just a day ago were trapped inside the stadium. Machine guns were slung over their shoulders.

Professor Fossil continued, “We must remember how these ponies were freed: with the use of spells such as want-it need-it, voodoo, intangibility, and time travel, which are restricted or banned in Equestria due to their perceived harm. But a spell in and of itself is not good or evil. The same spells which can control minds, kill ponies, and sow chaos can also cure cancer, inform historians, and induce bliss. It is not a spell itself, but how the spell is used, that should determine its morality and legality. Our rescue of the hostages has proven this.

“Though the Second Kingdom rule over this city was full of abuses, they did allow the unicorn race to practice all magic freely. We cannot return to a system where using our natural abilities and talents could result in our imprisonment. It would be unethical and impractical. The knowledge of these spells has already spread too far in Mareicopa, a city that is over 50% unicorn, to be contained without harsh, dictatorial measures. According to a recent academic survey by the University of Mareicopa, nearly a fifth of unicorns in this city have casted at least one spell that was banned under Equestrian rule. We, the unicorns of Mareicopa and our non-unicorn friends and allies, refuse to return to Equestria if it means having our horns shackled.

“Thus, we urge Equestria to repeal its magic laws before welcoming Mareicopa back. At that time, we will lay down our weapons and peacefully rejoin the new Equestria. But if the Equestrian military attempts to enter the city before the laws have been repealed, they will be treated as an occupying force and responded to appropriately. We believe that won’t be necessary, since we are confident that the Equestrian parliament will convene and change the laws, and this situation will resolve itself without bloodshed. Mareicopa will be a proud Equestrian city once again, and families will be reunited, but without the draconian laws against magic use.”

After Professor Fossil was done speaking, there was muted applause. Pumpkin Cake turned to the reporters. “I am Pumpkin Cake, commander of the Mareicopa Resistance, and I have a single statement.”

Pumpkin paused for a moment, as several camera flashbulbs lit up. Then, she spoke, “Princess Twilight, your agent and the Mareicopa Resistance made a deal. You already betrayed us once and condemned us to die at the hooves of the Second Kingdom. Now that they’re gone from this city, you would be foolish to try betraying us again. We don’t want bloodshed; in fact, just yesterday we saved forty thousand lives. But your agent should remember her promise, and your parliament should know its place. Their vote for repeal is the only way to preserve peace. 

“If the parliament insists on betraying us and provoking a war with Mareicopa, your citizens should recall the Second Kingdom division that surrendered to you yesterday. You ought to ask yourself what force would drive six thousand unicorns to thrown down their weapons and run across the blazing desert, into the arms of their worst enemies for safety. Do you really want such a force turned against you? I don’t. Make the right decision.”

Ponies asked Pumpkin Cake a barrage of questions about her cryptic statement, but she simply disappeared off the stage. Even most of the Mareicopa Resistance members had no idea what Pumpkin was talking about, as they hadn’t known about Sparkler, and even the ones who did had no idea about Pumpkin’s deal to change the magic laws in exchange for the hostages being freed. And nopony in Mareicopa but Pumpkin knew that the ‘potion’ could act as a permanent, magic-enhancing charm if a bottle of it was kept on one’s person, and that due to this, the disarming of the Second Kingdom’s mechanized infantry could easily be repeated against any Equestrian adversaries.

But Agent Sparkler and Princess Twilight would surely know. It was their move now.





Twilight Sparkle sat in her conference room as the radio replayed the press conference by the Mareicopa Resistance. It was later on that afternoon, and Twilight wished that Amethyst Star would arrive to give her a briefing, but she was mysteriously absent. The last time Twilight had spoken to Agent Sparkler was about an hour after Top Brass’ junta had taken power in Canterlot three days ago. Sparkler was supposed to be helping to take down the junta, but she was also supposed to contact Twilight to give briefings when needed. Where was she? Didn’t this situation warrant an update?

Several newspapers lay sprawled on the table. Though Twilight had official military and government information sources and updates, she still wanted to see how the ponies on the street were perceiving the situation through the lens the media presented. All of the different slants to the same story were fascinating. 

For instance, the Canterlot Cornucopia gave a rosy picture which glossed over the utter magnitude of the Second Kingdom’s loss, and the headline simply said, “Brave Unicorn Soldiers Fight Valiantly, Make Tactical Retreat From Mareicopa.” It was a sparsely-written article that gave no mention of their humiliating military defeat or the loss of the hostages at Chupacabra Stadium.

The Hollow Shades Sentinel was a bit more neutral, the headline saying “Hostages Freed As Second Kingdom Defeated At Mareicopa, But City’s Future Remains Uncertain.” And, of course, a special edition of the Tall Tale Times had just been printed, and it was far less reserved than the other papers. The headlines screamed, “TERRORISTS SEIZE MAREICOPA FROM S.K., DEMAND EQUESTRIAN LAW CHANGE… OR ELSE!”

Twilight Sparkle shook her head as she looked down at the paper. Perhaps the Times was a bit alarmist, but whichever way it was presented to the ponies, it was still bad news.

“I don’t know what they think gives them right to make demands of the Equestrian parliament,” said Twilight, glancing at Agent Spitfire and Princess Luna, who were also in the conference room with her. “Agent Sparkler told me that she only told Pumpkin Cake that if they freed the hostages, Parliament would consider changing the magic laws, not that it was a guarantee. And only altering the laws was discussed, not an outright repeal. Also, thirty thousand hostages weren’t supposed to die!”

General Spitfire chuckled. “Maybe, to get Pumpkin Cake’s help, Agent Sparkler had to promise her more than ‘we’ll think about it.’ Or maybe, Pumpkin Cake misunderstood what Sparkler said and only heard what she wanted to hear. Or maybe she’s just seizing the opportunity to get herself a better deal than what Sparkler offered. But the original words spoken in private between the two don’t matter at this point. The Resistance wants what they want.”

“This Mareicopa Resistance is a terrorist group and should be dealt with as such,” said Princess Luna, scowling.

“Well, it depends on how you define ‘terrorist’,” said General Spitfire, holding up a hoof non-confrontationally. “I mean, they haven’t fired a single shot at my troops yet. They’ve just parked a bunch of armored vehicles on the roads into town as makeshift roadblocks. They stand on top of them holding guns, but all without the magazines, just meant as a display of force. Like ‘yeah, we have guns. We’re not ready to use them just now, but push us far enough and we will.’ It’s a bit tense, and they’ve been shouting at my troops, but there hasn’t been any combat yet. It’s obvious that they want to avoid bloodshed. So do I, if I can help it.”

Twilight nodded. “We all do. But if it comes down to it, how easily could you retake the city from them by force?”

General Spitfire shrugged. “I honestly couldn’t tell you. On the one hoof, there’s still a food shortage in Mareicopa just like in Canterlot, so their hungry fighters will be a lot less effective than our well-fed ones. Also, they’re really inexperienced with all that armor they captured. They’re driving around on those tanks like they’re go-karts instead of sixty-ton battle machines. My pegasus scout saw one guerilla in an APC doing doughnuts on the street, I kid you not.”

The princesses both chuckled nervously.

Spitfire continued, “Yeah, and some of these new recruits of theirs have obviously never held rifles before, and are waving them around in the air with no regard for gun safety. It’d be almost comical if it wasn’t so serious.”

“But on the other hoof?” asked Twilight.

Spitfire sighed. “On the other hoof, some of them are so experienced in magic that it might make up for their lack of skills in conventional warfare. The stadium rescue did have higher casualties than we’d have hoped, but it was still remarkable how they used those spells in such a creative way, especially since they had no training in hostage rescue. And then that stunt that Pumpkin Cake pulled where she magically disarmed that division? I mean, could you have even done that, Princess Twilight?”

Twilight chuckled. “I’ve never tried my hoof in war, because if I died, it would be terrible for Equestria. But what Pumpkin Cake did would have been difficult. I suspect that Agent Sparkler might have given her and the other Mareicopa Resistance members a magic potion.”

Princess Luna’s eyes narrowed. “One that was never supposed to be shared with anypony but RISK agents. If this is true, she will be severely reprimanded for breach of protocol.”

General Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “What sort of potion?”

Twilight answered, “The Alicorn Potion. It’s made from a rare earth element called alicornium: the same metal that was used in the Alicorn Amulet. Drinking it can enhance your magical abilities up to twenty times, as strong as the amulet. One sip is all it takes to get the maximum possible effect.  But usually, alicornium is just worn on jewelry like the Alicorn Amulet, not actually ingested. Jewelry can boost your magic indefinitely, while ingested alicornium would be excreted out and lost. And alicornium is so rare, that there is estimated to be less than twelve cubic inches of it in the whole world.”

“Then why melt down the amulet and waste it on making a potion?” asked Spitfire.

“The Alicorn Amulet had to be destroyed, since it was enchanted with dark, corrupting magic. The evil enchantment was broken, but even without it, simply having such strong magic power could be enough by itself to corrupt a pony. So we decided that the only way to entrust such power to ponies again was to have them drink the alicornium in the form of a potion. This would make the effects only temporary.”

Spitfire raised an eyebrow. “But what if the Resistance still has some of the potion left? They could still be a big threat.”

Twilight Sparkle sighed. “Hopefully Agent Sparkler didn’t leave the potion with them. But without a briefing from her, I’m in the dark.”

“Perhaps the terrorists killed Agent Sparkler and took the potion. I cannot envision her making such a foolish blunder otherwise,” said Princess Luna.

“We need to wait and see, or else I’m going into that city blind,” said Spitfire.

Twilight Sparkle nodded. She recalled when Trixie had taken over Ponyville with the Alicorn Amulet. At the time, that had seemed like a big deal to her young mind. But Trixie had been acting by herself, had been inexperienced in magic other than parlor tricks, and had no guns or tanks. And Ponyville was a small town, not a large city with over a million residents like Mareicopa. The situation with the Resistance had the potential to become very bloody if it wasn’t handled with care.

After a few seconds, Twilight Sparkle made her decision. “Until I get a briefing, we’ll hold off on sending any military into Mareicopa. I’ll convene an emergency session of parliament tomorrow morning, and they can vote on the magic laws.”

“Do you think they should they be repealed?” asked General Spitfire.

Twilight shook her head. “I used to be a unicorn. My special talent is magic. But I spent years in school learning how to safely use all of those spells. I have no problem allowing ponies to use whatever spells possible...so long as they’re law-abiding and properly trained. But just letting anypony cast the want-it, need-it spell, or time travel spells? There could be anarchy. There were problems even when I used those spells, and I’m trained in them! It’s up to the parliament to vote on it, though.”

“I would concur with Princess Twilight,” said Princess Luna. “But we should not convene a session of parliament. We should never negotiate with rogues at the barrels of guns. We refused to negotiate with Top Brass when he held those hostages, so why is this Mareicopa Resistance gang any different? Our national parliament is not a battering ram; it is a conduit of the voters to reflect their will.”

Twilight sighed. “I just want this all to be over. I’m sure that the citizens of Mareicopa do, too, and they’re caught in the middle. Agent Sparkler did promise Pumpkin Cake that if she rescued the hostages, the parliament would consider changing the magic laws. A majority of the hostages were freed, so I intend to keep Agent Sparkler’s promise. But I do want to meet with Pumpkin Cake personally and try to talk her into seeing reason. I hope that we can keep Mareicopa from turning into yet another front in the war, and I hope that they’ll peacefully rejoin Equestria, even if parliament doesn’t vote their way. I just pray that Sparkler is successful in her regime change operation to overthrow Top Brass.”

Twilight’s eyes nervously shifted. Though Luna disagreed, Twilight could understand if Sparkler had offered the potion to those guerillas, since she might not have seen any other options for them to free the stadium otherwise. There was room for disagreement on whether that was strategically sound. Time would soon tell. But at this point, Twilight just wanted to know that her friend and most trusted RISK agent was okay, and that her absence didn’t mean that something bad had happened to her.