new breed

Chapter 20

“Under Fire”

    “You’re up late.”

    The Princess turned slowly to regard her arriving sister. “I just received some troubling news,” Celestia answered, “It seems that there is no slowing of Goldtalon’s mobilization. Within the week we will see war with the gryphons come a reality.”

    The younger sister all but growled at the news, “He doth presume to push us to the brink?!”

    “Voice, Luna.”

    Luna cleared her throat and looked slightly abashed, “Apologies, sister, old habits sometimes return when I grow angry. So he dares to try and push us? What hope does he have of overcoming our forces?”

    “I know not,” Celestia sighed and looked away, shuffling worthless reports along her desk with a hoof. “I think he has an ace we do not yet know of, something other than his pet ‘Godkiller’. He would know that Filigree would pass on any intelligence she gathered during her stay, thus he must have secrets he withheld from her.”

    Luna frowned and lowered her head in thought. She barely saw the richly woven rug, stained in bright oranges and reds and yellows as she began to pace. She avoided the heavy mahogany desk, only regarding the golden lamp upon it for the briefest of moments before moving on, crossing the office before returning again. “Our spies have been watching them as closely as they can. The gryphons most certainly are working on something unseen. Their mage corps is in full swing as well, thus stymieing your unicorn seers as they attempt to scry events. Whatever it is, it’s being done deep within Gryphon held territory. I suspect they might have found their own ‘brilliant’ inventor, and are forcing him or her to build siege weapons the likes of which we have never seen.”

    Celestia smiled wanly back to her sister. “Now see, my guess was on a ‘special’ mage that they were training in secret, especially with the amount of magic we have felt coming from deep within their territory.”

    “That is a possibility as well,” Luna admitted, “but they wouldn’t need to move him or her so deep within their territory if it was that easily hidden.”

    Celestia sighed and shuffled towards the window, “Diplomatic attempts are at a dead end, he is turning away all my ambassadors. Goldtalon wants this war, and only our complete and unconditional surrender will stop him. I do not know what his game-plan is, but he wants this fight.”

    “Then a fight he shall have,” Luna answered flatly, and then moved to her sister, “but that day has not yet arrived. What else troubles you, sister?”

    “Am I that transparent?” the elder princess chuckled. “I do not know, and that is the problem. I feel… something, something coming. Not Goldtalon, he’s a known quantity, but some sort of gathering, like clouds before the storm. I hear the rumble of thunder, but I cannot yet see the lightning. I feel as if our chance to stop it has passed us by, if that makes sense. Something we missed, something we should have known about, and yet…”

    “We presume you mean other than this Kaos character?” Luna slipped in.

    Celestia chuckled a bit, partly in recognition for her past overreaction, “He has been silent. I am starting to view him less as something we may have missed than as a threat that never truly materialized. No, I believe this would be something else…”

    “Celly, you’re not perfect,” her sister noted with a soft tone. “You are as pony as the subjects who worship you as a ruler and a deity, and you remind every pony why you have ruled for the thousands of years after we unseated Discord. You seek to protect the ponies, your little ponies if I might use your affectation, with every fiber of your being. You have remained steadfast in your guardianship over them, even when it meant going to war with your very sister. But you’re not perfect, opportunities will be missed, and chances will slip through your hooves. But you always have had a knack for manipulating events from behind the curtain, if you will. With these gryphons, you have not been given that chance, for they are operating in a completely different manner than you are accustomed too. As you said once before, King Goldbeak had been hard, but reasonable. His daughter, his chosen successor, was tough but fair. King Goldtalon is none of these things, and thus, he is moving in ways we cannot anticipate.”

    “He should at least want to talk!” Celestia cried out, slapping the windowsill with a hoof. “Damn it, Luna, he has to have some purpose! He cannot just want to go to war for no reason at all! So why is he choosing this route? I do not understand! He has made no demands, he has made no threats, and he has not once requested to negotiate! The only words passed between us since this started was his demand that Filigree be returned to him and we surrender unconditionally. Why? Why does he want to hurt my little ponies?!”

    “Has evil ever needed a reason?” Luna asked evenly.

    “Yes, as a matter of fact, it has,” Celestia retorted, ignoring the snort from her younger sister. “Even Sombra had his reasons for assaulting the Crystal Kingdom, and he barely materialized as more than a cloud when he was defeated.”

    “You’re mistaking motivation for reason,” the younger corrected. “Sombra had motivation, but not reason. He was incapable of reason in that form and, if reports from your late student were accurate, he could not even express himself in complete sentences. And then there’s Discord, who never had a reason for anything. He had motivation, mostly revenge against us, but that isn’t a reason. Discord himself would laugh at the very idea that anything he did had a reason.”

    “Sister,” Celestia said in an oddly serious voice, and her piercing gaze bored into the lunar regent, “are you suggesting to me that this could be a Discord level threat?”

    “I’m telling you that we don’t know,” Luna forced herself to answer evenly, her sister’s tone sending shivers down her spine. “We know the gryphons are motivated to attack our little ponies, and we need to make sure they regret that decision. Motivation and reason can be worked out by the historians; we need only to know that the Ponylands need to be protected.”

    Celestia frowned, and closed her eyes, resting her head on her hooves for a moment, “I disagree, but understand what you are saying. If we knew their motivation, their reason, for attacking, we could focus our counterattack on that target.”

    The younger sister chuckled softly, “We already know that, though.”

    “We do…?”

    “Certainly,” Luna answered, grinning darkly. “They want you and me. They all but announced that via Filigree, and their statements about Godkiller. I have no doubt that their attack may include secondary targets, but you and I are a threat to them, and they are going to make us their primary focus. I would hazard a guess that they will spearhead their way into our lands as directly they can towards Canterlot, hoping to catch us off-guard, and will do their level best to destroy us. They will use every point of leverage, including the lives of innocent ponies, to take us on directly. Simply put, Goldtalon wants us dead.”

    “How much of that intelligence should we assume was fed to us intentionally?” Celestia asked softly.

    “That doesn’t matter,” she answered simply, “because if it’s not his true goal, it will be as soon as we make it so. It has been millennia since you and I both donned our war armour, but the time has come to do so again.”

    Celestia looked closely at her sister. “Yours was corrupted by the Nightmare, and became your regalia as Nightmare Moon. I destroyed mine after our final battle; I never wanted to see it again…”

    “It was also quite old, the design ancient,” Luna stated simply. “I had new armour commissioned for us both, integrating spells woven into gems from your own academy, to present us with battle attire suited for the war that confronts us both.”

    The elder sister almost growled as she stomped a hoof, “You know what I think of this, Luna! Why would you go behind my back to do this?”

    “Because your safety is important to all of us, Celly,” came the response, the voice sounding less like a princess and more like an echo of her sister when she was but a foal. “The armor is protection for us both, designed to be purely defensive in nature. It’s not a weapon, no spells from your school could compare to the magic you and I can channel. But if this Godkiller is everything that Goldtalon believes she is, then we need something to protect us if our powers have been nullified. Even if the magic in the armor is gone, the plates will protect us from most attacks. You, especially, must be kept safe.”

    Celestia paused and looked back at her sister and Luna’s pleading eyes met hers. In that instant, she realized that she’d lost this argument before it even began. Luna was right; they would need to be protected. But it felt like an admission of failure to the elder sister, the final realization that any and all attempts to circumvent this war had failed, and that was like a knife right into her heart. Still, one thing her sister said gave her pause. “Why ‘especially’ me?” she asked softly.

    “You’ve proven, beyond a shadow of doubt, that you can rule alone,” Luna responded. “While I have no intention of leaving your side again, we must be prepared in case this sacrifice is required. You must continue, at all costs.”

    “No!” Celestia thundered, crossing the distance between her and her sister in barely two steps. “You are not expendable! Not now, not ever!”

    “Celestia,” Luna said with firm resolution, “we may not have that choice. The Nightmare nearly killed me before you and my team finished her off. You are the stronger mare, as you have proven time and time again, and you have a duty to the Ponylands and to Equestria. Once this is finished, you will need to heal this land, both for Gryphons and Ponies alike. They will all look to you, and you need to be there for them. I was gone for a thousand years, and a holy terror for years prior to my banishment. I’m an anachronism, and I know it. I try to fit in, and to an extent I have, but I will never be able to take your place. You, the mare who should have been queen but retained her title of ‘Princess’ in a show of humility. You, the ruler who took up the most powerful magic known in Equestria, if not the world, and made the decision to use it against your own sister for the good of all. You, who have always put the needs to your little ponies ahead of your own. You, Princess Celestia, must survive this encounter and lead Equestria through the darkness. I only bring the night… but you can end the darkness and bring forth the day. Neither of us can fail the Ponylands or Equestria, in this. You are simply too important.”

    “Sister…” Celestia whispered, her eyes widening with horror at the thought.

    “Celly, I promise that I’ll stand by your side for as long as I can. I’ve no intention of perishing in this battle, and nor do I plan to sacrifice myself on a whim,” the younger Princess said with a smile, “but I’ve made my peace with this. You are the heart of the ponies, and you always will be. You have to be here, from now into eternity. It’s not like you’ll be alone, even if this sacrifice must be made.” She motioned back over her shoulder, where Celestia spotted the cyan unicorn framed in the doorway, her body frozen and expression unreadable. How much had she heard?

    Luna smiled as broadly as she could, hiding her own fears and tears behind that façade, and turned to leave, slipping past Trixie easily. The unicorn watched numbly, and let the door close before facing her teacher, her mentor, with wide eyes. For the first time she could remember, the eyes that met hers were every bit as fearful and vulnerable as her own.

    Trixie bolted across the room and hugged her mentor, bracing her before she crumbled.

    It was late when she finally returned.

    Or perhaps it was early, that would depend on your perspective, Clockwork supposed, as the last of her armour was pulled free. She tossed her short mane a bit and stretched, feeling tired but better than she had in weeks, and turned to face her armour even as the robotic arms reassembled it. She spotted no appreciable damage, just a few scratches here and there, and she’d have to tweak the power output on the back left thruster, but otherwise her night out had been moderately successful. No combat, just a few tight squeaks trying to sneak back out of that abandoned warehouse without laughing. Mare-Do-Well was furious, but Clockwork just couldn’t help but find it funny. That entire chain of notes and items and clues they’d been tracking since the night in the rail-yard, all leading to some poor stuffed teddy bear with a simple note taped to it, taunting the heroines for their failure. It had all been a classic red herring, and it sent them on a wild good chase for the past four days, only to realize in the end that the gangsters had them figured out right from the beginning and led them intentionally astray.

    Clockwork smiled as she drew the teddy bear out of a storage compartment on her armour. It was a sad little thing, with dirty matted brown “fur” and sewn on eyes. The thing that made her giggle was that some pony had spent the time to add a tongue to the mouth, making it look like it was sticking it out at them teasingly. That alone had infuriated her “partner”, enough so that Clockwork had barely prevented her from destroying the poor bear on the spot. It had taken a few minutes to calm the masked mare down, but there was a reason to preserve the toy, and why she’d brought it back with her.

    With a wide yawn, she motioned in the air of her lab, and immediately the tiles before her shifted upwards and formed a desk like surface before her, which she set the bear down upon. Holographic displays flickered into existence around her even as she reached a hoof upwards, and a tile from the ceiling dropped out of the way, lowering a number of robotic arms and sensors in easy reach of her hoof. With a tug she pulled down a scope and aimed it at the bear, and paused for a moment to synch it to one of the displays hovering around her. Once it displayed the proper images for her, she started to inspect the stuffed toy under high magnification as well as additional sensor data sent directly to the visual feed.

    In a way, she found it relaxing as she spent far too much time going over every inch of the bear, with the computer tracking her exact progress over the small stuffed form. A number of hairs had been pried from the cloth “fur” of the bear via directed mechanical tweezers and set in a few nearby plastic containers, sorted by color, as she worked. A trio of those hairs had been a sort of silver-gray, while almost a dozen were a coarse blue-black, and finally a pair of long curly strands that were a pinkish-red. She took a few samples of the dirt from various spots on the bear as well, hoping a chemical analysis might give her some clues where the little guy had been. With her examination complete, she set the computer to sweep the toy with low power magical radiation to make sure there was nothing inside the teddy bear that they might have missed, or spells Mare-Do-Well might have overlooked, while she used another display to catalog the hair and dirt she’d recovered. She was pretty sure the hairs were from the stallions and/or mares who might have handled the bear, but she was at a loss how to determine who they belonged to. Unfortunately, it wasn’t like she could pull up some sort of large filing cabinet or computer file of known criminals that she could somehow compare these hairs to… but she did hope that she could use the information to get more data from Mare-Do-Well. Who knows? Maybe the masked mare had a way to track the owners magically through the strands. At least the dirt, once analyzed, should provide a few leads.

    For now, however, Clockwork tapped at her displays. She saved her files and, now that the bear was proven innocent, swept up the toy in her hooves while her lab stored the entire set of “evidence” away. The desk before her folded back into the floor as robotic arms carefully capped the containers, and then shifted them to one wall, where they disappeared under a small cube of tiles, where they would be held until she was ready to access them again. She smiled as she regarded the bear in her hoof before tossing it lazily onto her back. “You deserve a nice home, Mr. Bear…” she mused as she trotted out the door of her lab, which chimed softly and dimmed the lights as she left, “...and I know just the foal to help.”

    “Oh? And who’s that?” a familiar voice chimed from her side, making the short mare start. Her eyes narrowed as she examined the golden colored pony standing there, clad in the uniform of the palace servants. For mares, it was a mostly black affair with white lace trim that clung to the torso and flared out in a broad skirt, broken up by a wide apron hanging from her waist. With a cute ruffled cap pinning her mane back, it actually took Clockwork a few moments to recognize her.

    “Honey?” she asked before a broad smile split her face. “By Celestia, it IS you! I suspected that the Princess planned to get you out of that cesspool, but I didn’t realize she was going to hire you on here!”

    Honey chuckled as Clockwork hugged her, and fell in step beside her. “Yeah well… the Princess made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I can’t complain though, even if it means I’m still mostly working the late shift, but it’s a safe new neighborhood and it gets Indigo into the daycare they provide here. They’re far better teachers than I ever was, that’s for sure; they’ve already got her levitating some basic things! I’ve been trying for a year to get her to so much as turn a book’s page, and in just a few weeks they’ve got her lifting small pebbles and toys. There’s even some talk that she might be ‘gifted’ in some way or another.”

    “That’s good! I was worried when I went by your old place and found it emptied out,” Clockwork noted softly, “especially after spending the past week or so hanging out with Mare-Do-Well. She’s got my head so full of the seedy underbelly of Canterlot. I didn’t think, until a few days ago, to look you up in the city directory, and I saw that you moved into one of the nicer districts. I was going to try and swing by your new place today, actually…”

    Honey chuckled softly, “Oh? Any reason in particular?”

    “Well…” Clockwork hedged, her ears splaying as a light blush worked across her cheeks.

    “You got yourself a special some pony, didn’t you?” Honey asked simply as the pair stepped into the elevator. They each flicked their tails, Honey more clumsily than Clockwork, to avoid the closing doors. “I thought the gossip was mildly amusing. Seems you and that other mare… Galaxi was it? Seems you two finally stopped dancing around the whole subject and jumped in. They’ve been joking in the kitchen about how much room service you two have been getting the past week…”

    Clockwork blushed more brightly and dipped her head. “Well, yes.”

    Honey chuckled and looped a foreleg over the other mare’s shoulders for a quick hug, “Good. Just remember the advice I gave you.”

    “Find some pony…” Clockwork started, and the other mare gave a nod.

    “Find some pony to love, and hold on to them with every ounce of strength you have. Don’t even let Celestia herself take them from you,” the other mare said with a smile. “So what did you need me for?”

    “I had an… idea,” Clockwork admitted, rubbing her foreleg sheepishly. “Galaxi admitted how much she loved that make-over you did for me, and… well… I was going to ask for help. I’d never so much as touched make-up before that day, nor had I ever worn heels, and I was hoping you could teach me. I hardly need to be an expert, but I know she likes that sort of thing, and…” She trailed off, blushing even harder as Honey’s smile grew.

    “You want to dress up for her, don’t you?” she asked, and watched the shorter mare nod bashfully. “Is that what the teddy bear is for? A bribe?”

    “What? No!” Clockwork cried, shaking her head quickly. “I got this from an investigation, and I just finished scouring it for any evidence we could use. I even gave it a scan to be sure it was clean of any magic or technological tricks or hazards. It just needs a good wash, but I thought Indigo might like it. Give it a good home, y’know?” Clockwork hoofed it over without a second thought, and Honey studied it with a little half-smile.

    “Cute. I can ask the laundry girls to give it a quick scrub for me and give it to her tonight, she’ll be thrilled that you haven’t forgotten her,” she noted with a smile as the elevator doors parted for them. “As for the rest, sure, I don’t have a problem. Give me a ring on my day off tomorrow, and I’ll see what I can do. Most of it is just practice though, so don’t expect to be perfect overnight.”

    Clockwork waved a hoof lightly. “I know how that goes,” she answered with a smile, “but I’ve got to start somewhere.”

    Honey smiled and gave a quick nod, “That said, I’d better get back to work. It’s almost time for Princess Luna’s dinner, and with only a few hours before sunrise yet, the cooks will want some help getting breakfast ready for Princess Celestia and the day shift.” With a light wave, she turned on her hoof and trotted down the hall, leaving Clockwork to blush and look away. That uniform did nothing to cover the flank, and given her new appreciation for mare’s flanks, she couldn’t help but… appreciate the view.

    It took the short mare almost a full minute after Honey had passed from view to shake off the last vestiges of her flush and head down the hall in the opposite direction. She trotted lightly, only seeing the rare night guard here and there, all of whom nodded their recognition, as she went. It didn’t take long before she found herself in the area for “guest bedrooms”, and the small number of which were set aside for the team, most of which were occupied lately thanks to the Princesses’ concerns of the oncoming conflict with the gryphons. For a long moment she paused at Galaxi’s door, looking at it and thoughtfully chewing her lip. She’d be asleep by now, wouldn’t she? Should she wake her up? That’d be selfish, wouldn’t it? It’s not like they’d be able to do anything, Clockwork was exhausted and needed at least a few hours of sleep, but somehow she didn’t feel right sleeping alone after the past week…

    Clockwork shook her head. She was a grown mare, she could handle sleeping alone in bed for one day, and it’d be rude to wake Galaxi just for this. If she hadn’t been out so long, she might have risked it, but as late as it was… With a sigh, she forced herself to continue past. What she hadn’t accounted for was the occupant of said room, who, in one smooth motion, psychically pulled the door open, wrapped Clockwork in a telekinetic field, yanked the hapless mare inside, and slammed the door shut behind her. Had any other pony been walking by, it would have looked like the scene out of some old horror story…

    “Going somewhere, young mare?” Galaxi asked archly as Clockwork was set on the bed by her…

    “Er… I didn’t want to wake you,” the short mare noted sheepishly, folding her legs under her.

    “You weren’t here,” Galaxi answered, “I was already awake.”

    Clockwork could only think to blush as the other mare hugged her close.

    The air itself felt tense.

    The figure regarded the palace evenly, but could only think that the very air about the place felt charged with electricity, that sense of expectation akin to an oncoming storm. The threat of the gryphons had been looming ever closer, and Canterlot Castle itself felt braced for the approaching conflict. The pony simply shook his head and tugged down the helmet over his mane, securing the golden regalia in place. His stubby horn poked through the available opening on the helm, allowing him to use magic without stripping off the official guard’s uniform and armor, which he checked to make certain was properly secure.

    When satisfied, the pony turned a slow circle, looking about carefully to ensure he was not being observed. But despite the bright noonday sun on this chill early spring day, no one was out and about in the royal gardens. Satisfied, the guard trotted along with purpose, his bright fuchsia eyes scanning the hedges and rows of flowers. In a way, it was a beautiful retreat, but he had business here that dulled any of the inherent beauty to his eyes. Instead he simply surveyed the gardens before him, mentally categorizing each one.

    The Canterlot gardens were rather large, and split into three segments or “sections”. One of these sections constituted the parade field, which presently stood empty. The precision ceremonial guard team would come there frequently for drill practice, and the field’s primary use was for formal situations, outdoor ceremonies, and the occasional garden party. Sitting adjacent to one of the smaller palace ballrooms, it was covered in evenly cut grass, edged with flower bushes in a uniform rotation of yellow and red flowers in alternating groups. Come evening, the night flowers within those bushes would bloom, and bathe the perimeter in a glowing blue that was quite striking to see. The nighttime feature saw only infrequent use, but Princess Celestia insisted on the addition some years ago. The second section seemed, at a glance, to be overgrown and poorly tended. But closer inspection revealed this area was where a number of exotic creatures made their homes, as well as flowers grown for their beauty, variety, and rarity. It was a bit of ordered chaos in that section, admittedly, but most who visited were always left with a sense of peace and serenity. The animals there tended to be a little shy, but usually warmed up to those who appeared frequently or were emotionally distressed. Overgrown signs reminded travelers of the true name of this section, but most in the palace just called it “Fluttershy’s Garden” in reference to all the time the lady spent there when she had been alive. The final segment of the gardens was the hedge maze, well trimmed and extending for acres. The Princesses both stated they found it soothing to trot along its paths, but most ponies assumed they found it far more amusing when individuals got lost within it and needed help to find their way out. The stallion doubted that the Princesses would be that cruel, but they both had a bit of a prankish streak in them, so he supposed it wasn’t beyond them. Still, it was this section that he was the most interested it, but not for the maze…

    No, he was interested in the statuary that surrounded the maze. With frequent glances over his shoulder, the stallion trotted along the line of statues, past a marble mare holding a flag, around a mare and stallion captured mid dance in stone, and beyond the statue of a rearing dragon... scaled down, of course.

    Finally, the guard reached the statue he was seeking. It was positioned in such a way that it could not only be easily seen from the palace, but also so that it looked out into Fluttershy’s Garden. The guard didn’t seem concerned about that, he only worried that someone closer might overhear him. With a final crane of his neck, the stallion sidled closer to the statue, almost brushing it with his hip before glancing up at the terror stricken face. He couldn’t help but feel sad and a bit sorry for the creature captured within the stone. A mismatched web of parts built his body, and yet it was that frozen expression of terror that chilled him. What did this Draconequuis see? What were his final moments like? Had he been in pain?

    The stallion drew a deep breath and looked around himself warily, surveying the surrounding area to ensure his solitude. Only then did his horn begin to glow, lost among the sunlight and his helm. For long moments he focused on this magic, sweat rolling down his brow, seemingly to no avail. He panted from the effort, and frowned. This was supposed to be the easy part!

    A sudden snap made him jump, and then look around self-consciously. Only when he was sure snuck up on him did the stallion regard at the statue to his side. A smile snuck across his face as he regarded the thin crack along the hind leg, in the pony leg ironically, that crumbled slightly along the edges even as he stared at it.

    “It’s almost time,” the guard said, in a voice that sounded more like a mare’s than the stallion he appeared to be, “we move at sundown. Be ready.” The guard trotted away from the statue of Discord and towards the palace, ignoring all else as he ducked through the servant’s entrance. Soon enough, the only sound was the light breeze through the grass and trees around the statue, and the soft grinding as some additional powder fell away from the crack.

    No one was there to hear the dark laughter that emanated from the statue…

    “Have you got all that?”

    “I believe so, ma’am,” the maid responded professionally, “and the cook will have an early dinner prepared for the Princess, to be delivered to her study. I will ensure that it includes an extra slice of cloud cake, should we still have some, which we always do.”

    “I’m not surprised,” Trixie noted with a grin, “any news I need to pass along, Feather Down?”

    “Only word that the pegasus guard, Swan Dive I believe the name was, has been released from the hospital,” the maid answered, checking a small sheet. “She’s still on leave from the guard to recover from her flight, but the Princess asked to be notified.”

    Trixie smiled and tapped a hoof against the carpeted floor, “That’s good news; I will pass that along to her. With any luck it will cheer her up a little bit in these gloomy times. Is there anything else?”

    The lavender colored unicorn shook her head, “No, ma’am, I do believe that’s everything.”

    “Alright then, I’ll let you get back to work,” Trixie said. “Oh, and thank you. I appreciate you agreeing to let me handle the palace staff while the Princesses are occupied with this oncoming ‘problem’ with the Gryphons.”

    The mare smiled sadly and shook out her white and silver streaked mane. “I understand completely, Miss Trixie. The Princesses have their minds on things far above the day to day operations of the palace. Oh, and if you see Princess Luna, please tell her that the new girl is fitting in nicely. While she’s rougher around the edges than I usually prefer, she’s proving to be quite the hard worker, and her daughter is a delight. I’ve only had to pull the ‘scary head maid’ routine twice with Honey, and usually I have to do it a half dozen times the first week on a new hire.”

    “I’m glad to hear she’s fitting in, and I had heard Indigo doing rather well with the new classes,” Trixie chuckled as the pair moved away from her bedroom, where Feather Down had caught up to her there in the “guest wing”. Fortunately there was a small block of rooms designated to house the team, with four rooms on the inner wall and three on the outer. Trixie’s room was on the outer, across from Galaxi and Clockwork’s chambers on the end. Beside her was Flourish, with Skillet beyond her.  Across the hall from the couple Spectrum and Filigree had their rooms. Trixie and Feather Down continued past, hooves barely making a sound in the lush carpet that decorated the halls, and passing the heavy wooden doors that guarded the entrance of each room (and ignoring the gaudy nameplate Flourish felt the need to adorn her door with).

    “Yes,” the maid confirmed as they rounded the corner and moved to the more generic guest rooms, “her tutors are rather impressed how quickly she is picking up magic. It took several attempts for them to ascertain the best teaching method, as the usual memorization techniques didn’t work very well with her, but they think she’ll grow up to be exceptionally talented. Mind you, she is hardly in a position to challenge your talents…”

    “She’s a foal still,” Trixie answered with a smile, “give her time. Anyway, I should pass on that news about Swan Dive to Princess Celestia.”

    “I will get back to work then, Miss Trixie. If anything comes up, I shall inform you.”

    “Thank you,” Trixie answered with a smile, “anything I can do to take some of the stress off the Princesses…”

    The unicorn nodded understandingly and swished her skirts a bit as she passed Trixie and turned the corner. Trixie sighed and was about to follow when she heard the head maid’s voice float about the corner, perhaps a bit louder than normal, “Good afternoon, Miss Key.” Trixie’s heart leapt into her throat and she immediately started to backpedal down the hall. She’d almost made it to the bend when Clockwork rounded her corner, green eyes immediately locking onto her own.

    “Trixie?” she asked, her expression growing cloudy. For a moment, the cyan unicorn thought she might be able to slip away and put off a confrontation to another day. Unfortunately luck wasn’t on her side. “Trixie,” Clockwork said, her voice growing firm, “we need to talk.”

    Trixie tried hard to smile, “Trixie is sorry Clockwork, she’d love to, but she’s terribly busy helping Princess Celestia.”

    “Trixie…” the khaki mare repeated, taking a few steps closer.

    “In fact, Trixie should really get going,” the unicorn noted, panic seeping into her voice. She didn’t want to do this, not now! Clockwork only found some joy with Galaxi, let her enjoy it for a while longer! “In fact, she probably should get this news to the Princess right away,” she lied, and started channeling her magic, getting ready to teleport away…

    Clockwork approached closer. “Trixie…” she said again, her voice taking a pleading tone, “…please…”

    Trixie froze, the magic energies dissipating. That voice had pinned her to the spot as surely as if the other mare had pinned her to the wall. Inwardly she cringed, realizing how bad this was, and how poorly this could go. “Clockwork?” she found herself asking, even as a small portion of her mind screamed at her to flee while she still could.

    “I… I need to know,” the shorter mare answered, her voice so soft Trixie could barely hear her, “I need to know why.”

    Trixie blinked. “Why? That’s easy. Trixie wants you to be happy. You deserve to be happy, and Galaxi does too, so Trixie felt that she should step back and let you enjoy it. Trixie has always wanted you both to be happy, that’s why she kept trying to fix you both up with all those dates in the past. You both insisted you were looking for a stallion, so Trixie looked for stallions that would make you both happy, maybe even give you families. Of course, Trixie has no problem with the arrangement between you both. It makes you happy, and that is the important thing --”

    “You’re avoiding the subject,” Clockwork interrupted softly, and Trixie winced.

    “I d-don’t know what you’re…” she stammered, but the expression in the other mare’s eyes killed the lame excuse even before it passed her lips.

    “Trixie…”

    “Let’s… let’s get out of the hallway at least,” Trixie hedged, and was thankful when Clockwork silently agreed. Fortunately, their bedrooms were right there, and she was able to guide the shorter pony around to her room and opened the door. Sunlight streamed in through the partially drawn curtains, revealing her rather plush bed with all sorts of comforters and pillows she could nest in. The room also held a rather large dresser, as well as a heavy desk situated near the window. Her eyes were drawn momentarily to a stain on the rug, and the memory of Clockwork struggling to apologize for it flitted past her mind’s eye. Trixie jumped slightly when the door was pushed closed, almost forgetting her “shadow” … not that Clockwork seemed much more substantial than that right now.

    “Why?” Clockwork asked again, and Trixie frowned.

    “Why… what?”

    Clockwork didn’t immediately react, and slowly lifted her head to meet the other mare’s gaze. “Why did you lie to me?”

    “Lie to you?” Trixie asked in feigned innocence, even as her stomach twisted. “Trixie wouldn’t lie to you, Clockwork. She merely came across some faulty intelligence is all... There was a belief that… that… Wait, where are you going?”

    “I’m leaving,” Clockwork answered flatly. “I know you lied to me about that, and I know you are lying to me now. Goodbye Trixie…”

    The cyan unicorn could only taste bile in her mouth as her stomach clenched, watching helplessly as the khaki pony made her way to the door. The words pounded against the inside of her mind like a prisoner trying to escape, but she couldn’t bring herself to say them. Her head thudded, her very heartbeat ringing in her ears as she saw Clockwork reach for the door handle…

    “I did it so you would be happy!”

    Clockwork stopped with her hoof on the handle to the door. Her voice was hollow when she finally asked, “How in the name of Celestia did you think that lying to me would make me happy?”

    Trixie sniffled and answered in a wavering tone, “Because you were in pain. Your condition was preventing you from seeing the truth, from seeing your friends who were trying to help you. Galaxi and I were both there, just waiting for you to open up, and you wouldn’t. Maybe you couldn’t, I don’t know, but that didn’t change our desire to help! You helped us both out many times, and I…  I missed that Clockwork Key. I just wanted you back…. And then, after talking with Galaxi, I found myself just lying awake and thinking and… I had an idea.”

    Clockwork lowered her hoof, and sat her flank on the carpeting. She still had her back to the other pony, but at least she was listening.

    “I… I had the idea that I could use your nature, your element of Loyalty, to push you to seek help,” the unicorn admitted, wiping her face at the tears that for some reason wouldn’t stop flowing. “So I sought out Princess Celestia and pitched my idea to her. She agreed it might help, and concocted the fake letter for me. I… I just wanted to help! You were there for me right up until winter, but I couldn’t help you….”

    “Galaxi warned me that this might cost us our friendship, she warned me what you might do when you found out, and I believed her. T-that’s why I’ve been avoiding you,” Trixie stammered, wiping a hoof across her nose, her vision so blurred she could no longer see the other pony. “Galaxi found a way to help. You are starting to find a way out of that darkness. You are leaning on each other now, and you even found some pony else outside our team who could help you… So I just got out of the way. I… I’d rather have you happy than…”

    “…than have you as a friend?” Clockwork asked softly.

    “If I had to make that sacrifice, yes,” Trixie whimpered. “I will live forever, or at least until some pony figures out how to kill me. I’m immortal. I’ve seen friends, ponies I knew, leave this mortal coil. I knew ‘The Six’ when they were still alive. I was still a young mare when… when Twilight Sparkle was old and nearing her end. But here I am… the Great and Everlasting Trixie. I didn’t… I don’t want to lose you as a friend, Clockwork. But your happiness was my priority; you won’t live forever and your condition was eating you alive….” The unicorn lowered her head and sniffled again, wiping a hoof over her face. Her body was trembling, drained and weak after the maelstrom of emotions.

    A pair of forelegs slipped about her and hugged gently, much to Trixie’s surprise. She lifted her head just slightly to see Clockwork holding her tightly, tears of her own staining her cheeks. With shaky hooves, Trixie answered in kind and hugged her back.

    Trixie lost track of how long they had clung to each other, but Clockwork finally started to disentangle from her. Her voice was surprisingly strong after all of that, “Trixie, please don’t lie to me like that again.”

    The unicorn nodded quickly and wiped her face again. “Does this mean…?” she started, almost scared to ask.

    “No,” Clockwork answered and lowered her eyes. Trixie would have collapsed on the floor, despondent, had the other mare not continued, “The wound is too fresh for me. It’s too painful to forgive… yet. But I’m not going to turn my back on you, either. You’re still my friend, and I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I didn’t give you a chance.”

    Trixie blinked at the other mare. “A… a chance?” she croaked.

    “Yes. My trust was breached here, you lied to me, and then lied again to try and cover for yourself. It’s… going to take some time for me to move past that,” Clockwork answered.

    “I understand,” the cyan unicorn answered. Still, a chance to earn her friend’s trust back! That was more than she had expected, or even dared hope for…

    “Princess.”

    Celestia turned her head slightly to the newly arrived guard and frowned. “Another one?”

    “Yes Princess,” the stallion answered, saluting with a pristine white wing. He was a touch older than most ponies still serving in the guard, but his armor was shined and immaculate. “This is the fifth report we’ve received.”

    Celestia sighed and pressed a hoof to her forehead, “So it’s an epidemic then.” She sighed and looked out the window of her study, and towards the late afternoon sun. It would soon be time for her or her sister to nudge the moon along its nightly path. “Have you conducted your own investigation, Corporal?”

    “I would hardly call it an investigation, Princess,” the guard answered smartly, “but I did send some of my ponies to investigate. At different times during the day they bore witness to a horde of squirrels as they stampeded out of town, birds of every flight and color taking a direct path southward and out of the city, and even the palace gardens lie abandoned. Even natural enemies have put aside their differences; clearly their only concern at this moment is leaving Canterlot.”

    “I see,” the Princess answered in a weary tone. “Have you sent for my sister yet?”

    “That is unnecessary, for we are present,” a new voice answered, and the Night Princess stepped into the room. The long time soldier and corporal gasped and backed up a step, eyes widening at her approach. Celestia’s heart sank as she lifted her gaze to view her sister, wearing the armour she had commissioned for herself.

    Thankfully, the armour was a number of very large steps away from the regalia she once wore as Nightmare Moon. The helm was swept back along the sides of her head, with only a reinforced ring near the base of her horn to both secure the helm in place and protect the obvious weak point. The helm fit along the sides over her head in delicate swept-back curves and arcs that almost resembled a fish’s gills. A grillwork visor rested just below her horn, waiting to be tugged down to protect bright eyes, and reminding Celestia of a little used, ancient design. The armour extended down her neck in overlapping plates, a far cry from the near solid metal helm and neck guard she once used. The neck armour swept about her neck and down her back, offering the maximum protection possible along her saddle and flank, leaving gaps only at her shoulders and hips. On her fore-legs, the gap was more pronounced, allowing her flexibility of motion, but picked up as soon as feasibly possible with heavy overlapping plates starting at the middle of her upper leg, with a reinforced cover at her knees, and finally down and over her hooves in silvery shoes that seemed more like weapons than for walking. A similar design was used over her rear legs, but was complimented by a segmented skirt that swept back and refused even her tail freedom as it covered her flank perhaps even more strongly than the rest of her.

    “You could not wait to break it out, could you?” Celestia accused, but Luna’s expression was rock hard and immobile. Celestia remembered that face, it was the same face that once stared at her from across the field of battle in the days before she was forced to banish her little sister. She prayed to the only forces she could, the Elements themselves, that it would not be the last time she saw that face.

    “Whatever is coming, we will be ready,” Luna answered, standing proudly. She then turned her head to the corporal, “Prepare a perimeter around the castle. If so much as a sparrow breaks through, We want to know. We have already mobilized the rest of the guard, and the mages are preparing their shield spells, so we need your pegasi into the air.”

    The guard blinked widely, not used to taking orders from Luna, and glanced to the elder Princess. She looked weary, older than the guard could ever remember seeing, but the shallow nod she gave was all he needed. “Right away, Princess!” he replied, snapping a salute with his wing before dashing from the room.

    “I thought you didn’t want command of the military back?” Celestia teased gently, hoping to get a smile or a smirk from her sister. She was left disappointed.

    “We must be ready for anything,” Luna reiterated, “and while I would rather defer to you, the threat is coming. We would prefer be prepared and left wanting than to be unprepared and caught with our bare flanks hanging out.”

    Celestia frowned darkly for a moment when a thought drifted past her mind. “She was here last night, wasn’t she?”

    “And this morning,” Luna answered, her gaze wavering a moment. “Perhaps we scolded her too strongly last time she snuck out of the Summerlands to be with the animals, for she hid whenever we came near. She was elusive, and worked far into the morning. Something is coming, and she was evacuating every animal that would heed her warning. She knows what is coming, but because she fled from our presence, we were unable to question her.”

    “Lady Fluttershy always did put her animals before other ponies,” Celestia sighed softly, “but you are correct, this is a warning. Something is coming… something that has her terrified.”

    “We wonder if she has not foreseen the true nature of the secret weapon that King Goldtalon wishes to bring to bear against us.”

    “We… I would not be surprised,” Celestia muttered, and chuckled at herself as she almost got sucked into the old royal “We” herself. “It is nearly sundown.”

    Luna nodded and looked briefly to the window, “It would be the ideal time to launch an attack. Our celestial duties trump even those to our land, and they would fools to pass up this opportunity. Given our dual cycle, one of us is always awake and aware, thus why not hope to use the darkness of night to cover their attack? Gryphons have excellent night-vision, which many of our ponies do not, thanks to their feline heritage.”

    “A valid point, Little Sis --" Celestia started, before her head snapped up, eyes wide.

    Luna’s own eyes met that of her sister’s, the stony expression broken with her surprise of what she felt. “Was that…?”

    “Discord.”

    The Sister Princesses dropped all protocol in that moment, and the window to the study was thrown wide. Celestia launched herself out first, unadorned by the heavy regalia her sister wore, and gracefully swooped down into the garden. Her sister was only moments behind, the scaled metal that covered the outside of her wings slowing her considerably as she came to a stop by her sister. The pair simply stood for a moment and stared at the statue before them, the stone edifice that had been created by Discord’s last defeat. Mismatched in every way, with the look of horror and fear on his face still apparent, he stood there with outstretched arms and twisted serpentine body. And yet they both felt it, the power radiating from the stone prison before them.

    “How is this possible?” Luna breathed, her eyes narrowing. “We bled off his power to make him helpless!”

    “I don’t know, but it’s started,” the elder sister answered, pointing a hoof to one of the statue’s legs, which carried a large crack in it from hoof to hip. Even as they watched, a crumble of stones fell from it, widening the gap further.

    “You should get the armour,” the lunar regent stated firmly, “if this attack is to come, you must be prepared!”

    “Time is of the essence, little sister,” Celestia answered firmly, “Discord must be contained. You must lead the guard while I struggle with the Draconequuis should an attack come. But stay close; I may need your assistance.”

    “The question remains, how is he doing this?” Luna asked. “His magic is bled away; he should be far too weak to do this.”

    “Sheer force of will, Luna,” she answered, and turned to the statue. Celestia’s horn began to glow brightly, lighting herself and the statue she was facing. Luna stepped back, leaving this to her sister unless her intrusion was necessary. She turned to the expectant gaze of the heads of the three guard divisions that trotted up, drawn by the disturbance.

    “We must protect her with our lives, Captains.” Her eyes swept past their salutes and to the northern skies. “When were the anti-teleportation runes recharged?”

    “Just yesterday, Princess,” the unicorn guard, the elder of the three, answered.

    “Good. Prepare your stallions to cast the shield. Triple layer defense, if what we fear is coming arrives, I want it to go up the moment you hear the first word from your scouts,” Luna ordered.

    “Yes, Princess.”

    The guard stallion peered carefully around the corner.

    He smiled thinly to himself as he felt the sudden burst of energy; Discord jumped the gun. Fortunately for him, that worked in his favor. He entered the mystic room situated at the base of one of six spinnerets along the wall of the palace, one of six identical rooms devoted entirely to the protection of the Palace.

    Magic charged the very air, with motes of energy dancing about the dimly lit braziers like moths drawn to the flame. The simple stone room was reinforced heavily against attack, the mortar coated in a cloying smoky film. But the real attraction of the room was sprawled across the floor like the signature of some ancient giant. Scrollwork and heavy lines made up the mystic sigil, white magic flaring along its surface, one of the six anti-teleportation runes of Canterlot Palace. The city was too large to benefit from such protection, but the palace itself…

    The unicorn stallion tapped his chin for a moment, humming to himself in an oddly feminine voice as he considered the rune. More than once he started to reach a hoof towards it, only to stop and reconsider. Finally, he decided on his course of action, and with an armored hoof, dragged it through one of the looping curves of the sigil.

    The sudden release of magic tossed the stallion back against the far wall, dazing him with the intensity of the release. He slowly climbed to his hooves, shaking off the stun and surveying his work. The room stood silent, the faint buzzing of magic now gone, the power now bled off into the ether from which it was drawn.

    Satisfied, the stallion turned and trotted away.

    “It’s time, gentle-stallions.”

    The four males, plus one female appearing unknown, lined up before the pacing figure of Kaos. The zebra seemed agitated, and kept pausing to straighten his tie, but determined as he reached for a nearby box on the table. The monitors about the central meeting room watched with almost eerie silence as Kaos opened the box.

    “Zose are not ze earpiecez I made…” the orange unicorn pointed out.

    “No, they are not,” Kaos confirmed, “they are a special design from the Prince himself. They are necessary to deal with the extreme range involved in this operation, thus the Prince had a custom set made that were more magical than technological. Each of you take one, and we’ll give them a test.”

    Professor Burner frowned as he lifted one in his hoof, studying the orange and brown thing, curved to fit just behind the ear with a ball that would hang down and into the ear itself. A thin wire from it held an even smaller ball near the side of the mouth. “Mine iz built into ze Manticore armour,” he explained patiently to these neophytes, “zis vould not vork vith it.”

    “The Prince checked that it would have clearance for it under your helm, Professor,” Kaos soothed as he watched the rest of the team tug the earpiece on, making sure it fit properly. Zilch found an inordinate amount of amusement by plucking the microphone wire alongside her head (really an unnecessary addition, given the fact she was mute) with her hoof and making it bounce up and down wildly. “I understand that you dislike this change of equipment at the last minute, but the Prince assured me that it was necessary. In addition to the range issue, it uses a custom frequency that the guard won’t be able to track and disable. The Prince has promised that it would only be necessary only for this one mission.”

    With a long suffering sigh, the stallion gripped the earpiece with his magic and tucked it about his ear. He had to admit, it felt nothing like the earpieces he designed. It was warm to the touch, and seemed to adjust its fit about his ear as he flexed it this way and that, keeping the ball centered at all times. He touched the microphone near his mouth with a hoof, close enough to his head to be almost unnoticeable, before speaking into it, “Tezting, vun, two…”

    “Three… four…” Alto picked up on his own microphone. “Hopefully this has a cut-off for when I scream,” he noted worriedly.

    “I assure you, it does,” the Prince purred into all their ears at once, “I have no intention of allowing such a small technical detail to defeat you at this, the eleventh hour. Now then, gentle ponies, and lady, suit up! Let’s get this show on the road, for time is of the essence!”

    It took little more than that to push the team into action. Even Verdigris was caught up in the flurry of activity, helping Bunsen Burner into his armour and running a final system check. A few final tweaks to his tail laser, the overheat problem resolved via a rotating multi-barrel system that allowed it to be fired for rapid bursts without melting. Verdigris was sure there was a better solution that still that eluded her, but it was the best the pair of them could come up with in the final hours. It was tested in every way save for actual live combat… which even the suit had not faced yet.

    “Do or die time,” Kaos noted, as the team began to re-assemble. Gone was the uncertainty in their expressions, the hesitation in their eyes, and the weakness in their postures. Each stood tall and firm in a half circle before the sharply dressed zebra. “Zilch, you know where we are going.”

    The white suited pony nodded her head, and in the flash of white, they vanished.

    “You’re too cute sometimes, you know that?”

    Clockwork Key couldn’t help but blush, splaying her ears even as Galaxi nipped playfully at them. “And you are a horrible tease,” the khaki pony retorted, trying hard to sound offended… and failing miserably.

    “Ah, but you love it…” Galaxi giggled.

    “Not to change the subject, but shouldn’t we be suited up?”

    Galaxi shrugged, “I checked in with the Princess earlier. She’s got the team on standby for the moment, and you brought your rapid deployment sled up here and have it sitting in the corner, so I don’t see the need to be dancing around on the tips of our hooves. If the Princess needs us, she’ll contact me.”

    “You’d never make it as a guard pony,” Clockwork teased, “not that I’d do much better. Waiting was never my strong suit…”

    With a chuckle, Galaxi nuzzled the side of the other pony’s neck, teasing the squirmy khaki pony when the wall opposite from them exploded! Chunks of plaster and wood rained down at them, and each pony instinctively rolled away from the center of the bed mere milliseconds before something large crashed through the canopy, shattering at least one of its supports, and dropped heavily into the space the mares had just vacated.

    A strange silence pervaded the bedroom in the wake of the sudden explosion, as each mare carefully looked over to each other, silently confirming that the other was alright. The wall across from them had been reduced to a haze of rubble and dust, leaving them to wonder what could have caused such damage. However, before either of them could do more than open their mouths, a strong foreleg gripped them both about the waist and pulled them close to what, or more specifically who, had dropped into the bed, which turned out to be a blue pegasus with a wild fire-red mane and a matching half-suit.

    “Well well, some pony’s been a good boy. I only just got to the Summerlands, and already I have a lovely filly on each wing,” the stallion gloated, and swatted their flanks with a hoof. Clockwork’s eyes widened with surprise, but Galaxi’s were already glowing as she grasped the stallion with her telekinesis and hurled him straight upwards, cracking the ceiling with the impact. Her door exploded in a shower of splinters when she hurled the stallion through it for an encore.

    “Next time, you vill vant to bounze Crozzwind’z head off ze zeiling a few more timez…” a familiar voice said through a vocal synthesizer. Clockwork’s eyes widened when she saw a massive power armour of oranges and reds step through the veil of dust. “…hiz zkull iz extremely thick.”

    “Burner…” Clockwork whispered, immediately recognizing the accent. A shiver ran down her spine.

    “Zo glad you remember me, Mizz Key,” the stallion mocked, before waving a mechanical claw. “Get zuited up, I vant to beat you fairly zis time. I vill prove who iz ze better inventor.”

    Clockwork’s eyes never left the other powersuit as she slipped off the bed and skulked towards the deployment sled near one luckily unmolested portion of the far wall. Burner responded in kind, the glowing eyes of his armour following the small mare’s every move with wary interest. He watched as she moved to the sled and wiped some of the dust and rubble from it with her hoof, then tapped at some switches to power it up. But she hesitated before stepping onto the slab of metal, her hoof hovering just over the surface.

    “Vat are you vaiting for, Mizz Key, an engraved invitation?” Burner asked in a mockingly conciliatory tone.

    “I want to know why,” Clockwork insisted in a soft voice. “Why would you invade the palace with Crosswind? Why are you telling me to suit up? Is this still about revenge? You nearly killed an entire village of ponies to just eliminate me, all because my AI impinged upon your reputation. I remedied that situation personally with the Princess and made sure what happened was known, so why are you still coming after me? If you’re looking for an apology, you only needed to have asked…”

    “Zis iz not about your ego, or your apology, Mizz Key,” Burner stated, his voice dipping, “zis iz about ze zecurity and zaftey rizkz you reprezent. You could not control your machine, zo how can you be truzted vith one of ze mozt powerful weaponz in all of Equeztria?”

    “Wouldn’t it be up to the Princesses, if not the Elements themselves, to make that decision?” Clockwork countered. “I don’t believe either one of us had much say in that matter….”

    “I vill have my zay, vether zey like it or not.”

    Clockwork paused and glanced back over her shoulder to Galaxi, who was watching her in return. Their eyes sought out each other’s gaze, and the blind mare gave a slight nod and a thin smile from where she stood by the bed. With a sigh, the short khaki mare stepped up onto her deployment sled. Her eyes pressed closed as mechanical whirring filled her ears, and the metal unfolded beneath her. Robotic arms withdrew the armour, piece by piece, from the storage compartments and fitted them into place, starting with her hooves, then up over her legs and hips. The central torso of the armour, the hardest part to break down due to its inflexibility, was fit about her torso like a series of external ribs before covering her entire body. Her tail was tucked out of the way and she felt her mane flattened down first by the neck plates, and then the draconic helm fitted over her head, the last of her pony features vanishing from sight.

    For a moment, the mechanized pony stood like a statue, the contrasting manticore-like armour watching with an almost palpable sense of anticipation. Then the eyes flared, blue-white light shining from them. The light coursed over the armour, a quartet of energy wings flaring into existence over her back, and some components now glowed with power. The sled, now finished its primary purpose, slid the metal cover back into place. The pony’s hooves came free and she stepped forward, her head angled towards the hulking armour standing before her.

    “Now ve vill zee who ze zuperior mind iz,” Burner said in a voice not unlike a foal eager to show off his new toy.

    “I’m sorry,” the mare answered in a soft voice.

    “I zaid I vas uninterezted in your apologiez, Mizz Key,” he sneered.

    “Not for what I did,” she answered almost sadly, “but for what I am going to do.”

    Galaxi watched in astonishment as Clockwork walked the armour from the room, through the massive hole in the wall, and past the larger armour. Burner seemed shocked, and perhaps a bit unnerved, by the almost regretful tone in her voice before he turned to follow.

    “Y’know, we don’t have to join them,” a voice crooned in her ear, shattering Galaxi’s reverie. She looked flabbergasted at Crosswind, who in turn arched his eyebrows suggestively and looped a foreleg over her shoulders, “We can just stay here and test out the springs of your mattress…”

    Galaxi can’t remember ever trying to shove some-pony’s head through the ceiling before, but she made a valiant effort with Crosswind. Were the pegasus not so fast on the uptake and able to use a well timed whirlwind to bowl her over, she might have actually succeeded. Instead he fled through the now open wall of her room, leaving Galaxi a moment to collect herself, grab her headset, and follow warily. She glanced crossly at the destroyed dresser with her usual bodysuit in it as she trotted past. She’d have to forgo it, this time.

    Galaxi was astounded by the wreckage she encountered. Room after room destroyed and ripped apart, hers just the last in a long line. Clockwork’s room was next over, and it lay in shambles. Her computer sparked and fizzled in the corner, and her bed had been literally crushed under a broken wall panel. It was fortunate she wasn’t in it at the time, given what that would have done to any occupants. Shuddering at the thought, she pushed herself further; crossing into the remains of what she knew was Spectrum’s room. She was surprised to find it littered with a number of small dolls and figurines, most of which were destroyed or crushed. With a hoof, she lifted one of them, holding the delicately molded figurine up for scrutiny before she realized that it was painted, not colored mechanically. Spectrum painted them in her spare time? Galaxi let the figurine drop from her hoof, berating herself for how little she knew about Spectrum’s hobbies. The final room of their row was occupied by Filigree, whose quarters were downright stark and empty even in comparison to Clockwork’s Spartan chambers, but it was not completely featureless. By the bundle of blankets Galaxi assumed was her nest, she was surprised to notice the remains of an excellent stereo system with a top of the line headset connected to it. Records littered the floor by its side, most of them shattered, with titles ranging everywhere along the musical spectrum from classical to contemporary to techno… A touch of melancholy worked its way through Galaxi as she forced herself past it all. Bits and pieces of the lives, which they brought with them to the Palace, now lie crushed under the rubble. In a way it felt prophetic, and not in a way that gave the psychic mare confidence.

    Breaking through the dust with a sweep of her telekinesis allowed her to push straight through quarters usually reserved for guests , each of them done up in a slightly different color scheme and layout, but all hopelessly plain and generic. Still, she was slowly growing more impressed by whatever force managed to hurl the pegasus through all these walls, not to mention Crosswind’s durability to withstand the impact.

    A final wall of dust parted before her, and she realized with a start that she was standing in the central hall and throne room! To get from the bedchambers to the hall was usually something that would usually require a bit of navigation, so Galaxi had never realized before how close together they truly were prior to stumbling into the scene before her.

    She’d seen the main hall many a time in the past, usually in the evenings with Princess Luna, but sometimes for formal gatherings and even the occasional visit with Princess Celestia. She and her team had seen the dome-like chamber all but destroyed completely approximately a year ago, and it had been nearly rebuilt since the Nightmare’s invasion, including some modifications that would have been impossible otherwise.

    Now, it stood once more in rubble. The long hall extended from a massive pair of double doors, which right now looked as if they’d been knocked off their hinges by a battering ram and so firmly wedged in place they would be all but impossible to open again. A red carpet extended from under the door and ran the length of the chamber, effectively bisecting the hall into two halves, but it now lay in tatters, lush crimson thread scattered about like so much dried blood. The walls of the chamber, decorated with delicate filigree, had been scored various pockmarks, scorch marks, cracks, and other types of damage, not to mention the areas where the wall had been broken straight through and into the next room over. All the destruction left so much dust in the air that it clouded the floor from her eyes, disguising the checkerboard marble floor beneath her under a thin coat of white soot. It seemed that the fighting had only preserved two things in the room, the thrones of the Sister Princesses which sat side by side upon the dais. Both sat untouched by anything beyond dust.

    “About time you made it, G!” Flourish called, forcibly dragging the blind mare’s attention from the stage to the players occupying it. At the moment it seemed to be a lull in the fighting as each side paused to recover their breath, one side obviously faring worse than the other… namely her side.

    “Good, both you and Clockwork are here,” Spectrum added from where she stood at Filigree’s wing, “we were worried they might have gotten to you first.” Spectrum looked all the worse for wear, with her white coat heavily smudged and a number of nasty looking bruises forming on her side. Filigree, for her part, was in a cat-like stance with her head and forelegs low to the ground, while her rear stuck upwards and her tail lashed the air as if it were a live snake. She had several bruises forming, and even a bit of blood on her cheek, but otherwise she looked in relatively good shape. Even Trixie seemed to have taken a few bucks, and was limping just slightly as she stepped forward, her expression dour at best. Aside from Clockwork and herself, both of whom had just arrived, only Flourish seemed untouched, but her chest was heaving with the effort of this fight.

    Galaxi slowly turned her gaze to those who would oppose her and her friends, and scowled. She knew three of them by sight, and the fourth she met only a few moments ago. Professor Bunsen Burner and his power armour looked almost as clean as Clockwork did, and the Zebra near him seemed somehow untouched by even the dust, his dark suit jacket meticulously clean even as he straightened his tie with a hoof. Zilch was a mystery, since she technically wasn’t a pony, and thus didn’t show fatigue, damage, or even if she could be hurt or not. Crosswind, on the other hoof, had the start of a black eye beginning to form, but otherwise seemed relatively unhurt, much to her annoyance. The pegasus was flanked by a diamond dog almost as large as Burner’s power armour with slate gray fur and piercingly intelligent eyes. He had a number of bruises as well, but they seemed to heal the longer she watched. Finally, staying mostly behind the others, she caught sight of a startlingly white gryphon that seemed to skulk about as if he were more cat than anything else. Of course, it could also have been the weight of Filigree’s glare, which he looked decidedly uncomfortable about.

    “Sorry about that. I see Burner has made some new friends,” Galaxi joked weakly as she sidled closer to the team, specifically Clockwork.

    “Ah yes, the last of the element bearers. So nice of you to join us, ladies,” the zebra noted with a surprisingly sincere smile, “I apologize for starting without you, but my colleagues jumped upon a perceived opening I fear.”

    The blind mare frowned and opened her mind, plucking psychic impressions from the team opposing them. Burner was focused strongly on Clockwork, as expected, and the other gryphon was indeed trying to avoid Filigree’s gaze. Crosswind was… eeeuw. She did not need THAT mental image, especially not when it included all six of them! Shaking it off, she found the diamond dog guarded in thought, almost as if in a meditative state. Zilch, she knew from experience, was pretty much unreadable. But it was the final member, whom she knew only as Kaos, which surprised her, his glowing amber eyes meeting her gaze from across the room. But that wasn’t the only thing… there was something, or someone, else. She could almost make out…

    ~No peeking~ was all she heard in her mind, as if an unknown reedy voice had just whispered it in her ear, and recoiled from the immense pressure that seemed emanate from the zebra. She staggered for a moment before Spectrum steadied her.

    “You alright?” the rainbow-maned leader of their team asked.

    “Y-yeah,” she answered softly, “I don’t know what the Zebra does, but I can’t read his mind. And… there’s some pony else here too, but I couldn’t begin tell where.”

    “You’ll find my teammates are similarly protected from your mental intrusion now,” Kaos answered with an enigmatic smile, ignoring the slightly surprised look from his own teammates, “and, just to keep it fair, I’ve isolated you from the Princesses as well, just in case the distraction we’ve arranged doesn’t hold their attention.”

    “Wait, you orchestrated this assault with Discord somehow?” Trixie demanded, stepping forward.

    “Not explicitly,” Kaos said with a shrug, “we merely arranged for someone to prepare a distraction for the Princesses so we would not be interrupted.”

    “We don’t need the Princesses to handle the likes of you,” Filigree growled.

    “You may quickly find out otherwise...”

    “Enough with the banter,” Spectrum cut in sharply, “you and your team are in violation of so many laws I can’t even begin to count…”

    “Twenty-seven… wait, no… twenty-six, I counted destruction of royal property twice,” Flourish chirped with a broad smile.

    “…but as duly appointed representatives of the crown, we are giving you exactly one chance to surrender,” Spectrum concluded, pointedly ignoring the gray unicorn.

    “Please, oh please, resist arrest,” Filigree growled, a dark grin crossing her beak.

    “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to disappoint you,” Kaos said, spreading his hooves and answering with a broad smile, and his team spread out to each side of him, “Besides, our targets are right before us. Your reign as element bearers is at an end.”

    “What does that have to do with anything?” Trixie demanded, stomping a hoof.

    “Everything.”

    The word seemed to hang in the air for several long seconds before Spectrum shook her head. “Flourish, is Skillet online yet?”

    “No, he is still busy with that… uh… project,” she replied evasively, eyeing the other team.

    “Understood. Clockwork, set ‘em up, it’s time to take them down.”

    “FINALLY,” Crosswind cried, “all this talking was giving me a rash! I mean, as nice as you girls are to look at, unless we’re going to make use of one of those bedrooms we might as well just get on with the fighting already!” Kaos’ eye twitched and he barely managed not to lose his smile even as the rest of his team groaned and face-hoofed.

    “Maybe Galaxi can hit him on ze head a few more timez,” Burner muttered.

    “He may be a creep, but he is right about one thing,” Spectrum stated, ignoring the outcry from Crosswind, “the time for words is over.” Her own team spread out from behind her at those words, even as Spectrum herself stepped away from Filigree. “You six are under arrest.”

    “Come and get us then…” Kaos answered with that annoying smile.

    “Team,” Spectrum said, her voice dipping dangerously, “let’s make some noise.”