XWRD. Experimental Weapons Research Division. Crossword, as it was pronounced.

It was more than just another mound of paperwork on her desk; Twilight was sure of that. It was the fate of the realm. Every innovation, every technology, every new piece of equipment that would come out of Crossword's labs was a life saved, an advantage gained over their enemies, and a step closer to victory.

Therefore, it was imperative to push the boundaries of science and magic both to bring the very best to Equestria’s soldiers. It meant giving birth to the strongest shields, the most efficient of spells, and the most destructive of weapons. The yoke had been thrown, and it was time to answer the challenge.

Twilight sighed. Could I really do all this?

At least she had some of her friends at her side.

Applejack and Rarity handled Crossword's material and pony resources. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy liaised with the military and handled testing procedures, and she oversaw the research. Lyra and Radiance, as well as their teams, were on the project as well, pitching and developing ideas in their respective fields.

Everything was running at optimum. Major projects like Black Widow and Manehattan were delivering results past expectations, and were set to deliver their first units in two weeks. The first ACE suits were on their way to selected Army and Airborne Infantry units for field testing. Development for the Knight MBT project was looking up, with combat testing scheduled in a couple of months.

Director Twilight Sparkle was proudly emblazoned on her desk's nameplate after she'd replaced the previous director. She made a point to finish his projects before moving on to her own ideas. It was the least she could do.

And yet, she didn't feel so proud. This was the business of war, and they were dealing in its number-one commodity: death. She wasn't a merchant, she was the manufacturer. She felt her gut twist as she thought of how the wonderful adventure of discovery and science had taken a dark turn in time with these events.

She had been standing for what seemed like hours in front of the mirror, the faucet spewing water into the sink unattended. Could I look at myself in the mirror after everything's said and done? She asked herself.

The answer came to her as she stared into her reflection's violet eyes. The sun broke over the horizon, sunlight streaming into the tiny window.

12 down: firm or fixed intention to achieve a desired end. - Mareiam-Webspinner Dictionary

Applejack set the crossword puzzle down on the table as she sipped her morning coffee, pondering the latest turn of events. Two days had passed since the blast in front of Rarity's and they were now caught up in a sickening world of secrets and deceptions that were, for all intents and purposes, necessary to uphold.

They had to mislead friends and family of their whereabouts, deny involvement and affiliation in front of the public as reporters clamored for information marked classified. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Disaster would come if she told the truth about what really was happening at Apple Industries, and her heart would be ripped apart if she kept it up.

She was living a double life. She, Applejack, Bearer of Honesty, Head of the Apple Clan, President of Apple Industries, Owner of Sweet Apple Acres, and XWRD Director of Engineering couldn't take any more of it. She just wanted to find an escape from the turmoil, both within and without.

She considered having a changeling appear in her stead in public.

"Consarnit!" she hissed, bringing a hoof down on the table so hard that the mug shook. "Why can't everything be just like the good old days?"

"Things change, sugarcube." A warm presence enveloped her, bringing with it the voice of her father. "The world changes, and every time it does, it brings with it new challenges to overcome. Sometimes they won't be easy, and sometimes you'll make mistakes, but I know you're strong enough to keep holding on. You've never given up before."

"This is different, Pa," she whispered to herself. "Ponies are gonna die if Ah do, ponies are gonna die if Ah don't."

"My advice is to be honest with yourself." Applejack's father rustled her mane. Then the presence was gone.

Applejack didn't notice the hot tears streaming from her eyes as they stained the newspaper underneath, or if she did, she didn't care. She reached over and cradled her father's hat, sobbing into the leather. It's musky scent did much to comfort her, and soon the tears stopped flowing.

Her father was right, though. She had to be honest with herself. She had to accept the reality of the situation they were in and face it head on. Yes, good ponies were going to die, but she' be damned if she didn't at least try to help them survive the coming storm. The Apples never got by running away from their problems, and they certainly wouldn't start doing it now.

One thing leads to another. Her actions now would help the determine the course of history further on, and she was loathe to see it end in flames.

The final word was 'determination.'

"Twilie! Happy Birthday!" Shining grinned widely, and then rubbed a hoof behind his neck apologetically, "I'm sorry I couldn't meet you today. You know how my duties are."

Twilight sighed, "Yeah... Well, at least we can see each other now. Telephone sucks."

Shining nodded sagely, and then a sudden lag spike caused the screen to distort. Another window popped open as CrystalPrincess294 joined the conversation.

"Cadance!" Twilight smiled.

"Sunshine, sunshine! Ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" The two princesses chanted.

Shining had on a soft smile, "Well, it's good to see my family. How are you dear?"

"Same-old, same-old, dear." Cadance returned the smile, "I miss you, you know that?"

"Love, I'm only going to be in Vanhoover for three days."

"And it's three days without you. In any case, aren't we supposed to congratulate our birthday girl?"

"That we are." Shining put on a big apple-eating grin. "You're twenty now, right?"

"Twenty seven." Twilight deadpanned. Cadance laughed.

Soon, all of them were laughing, their worries melting away like fog under the sun. Twilight wished it would last forever.

“Gunslinger 1-1, this is Cloudbase Tower. Be aware that you are entering Vanhoover airspace, please copy. Over.”

“Copy that, Cloudbase Tower. Over,” Lieutenant Sprint spoke into his mic.

It was a milk run. Just take out the birds for a spin and come back to mares and alcohol in return for service to the crown. The sun shone brightly and there were hopes that the riots in the West Coast were calming down.

The F.16C’s single engine roared behind him, muffled only by the insulation around the cockpit and the helmet he wore. The recent hardware and software upgrades worked perfectly, it seemed. Various symbols and statistics were overlaid on the view from his visor. Heading, speed, armament status, IFF tags, and even potential threats in the sector were displayed in emerald green.

“Gunslinger 1-1, this is Rodeo 1-1.” The associated tags appeared at the 11 o’clock mark, outlined bright emerald as five aircraft broke the cloud cover. “If you do not turn away from Free Equestrian airspace, we will be forced to shoot. Over.”

Sprint chuckled, “Nice one, Rodeo. We’ll just finish our milk run and we’ll be out of your tail. Over.”

, or we will open fire.”

“Jeez,” Gunslinger 1-2 whispered, “what a hardass, first he jokes 'bout treason and now he's driving us off?”

A series of beeps cascaded onto his ears as the word <> appeared on his visor. Sprint saw the smoke trail coming in and popped his flares, rolling away as his flight broke apart to escape the incoming ordnance.

Rodeo’s tags were now red and they were bearing down upon them. The missile had gone for one of the flares and detonated in a burst of flame. But there were more inbound.

“Cloudbase Tower, this is Gunslinger 1-1. We have rogue birds in the air!”

“Copy that, Gunslinger. Lasso and Buck flights are inbound to assist. ETA is one-zero minutes.”

“Gunslinger, fangs out!”

Sprint flipped a switch, activating the fire control systems. A soft warble filled his ears as he lined up with a rogue, waiting for the radar to get a proper lock. The confirmation came a moment later as a high-pitched beep.

He let fly. "Fox One."

The missile accelerated to Mach-5 within seconds of its launch, propelling a twelve-kilogram explosive warhead jacketed by a pineappled steel fragmentation shell. The seeker unit estimated the target's position as it closed in and aimed for a point ahead of it. The estimation proved correct and the warhead detonated mere meters from the target's metallic body, tearing it apart in a storm of heat and shrapnel.

Sprint watched the fireball tumble to the ground with a heavy heart. The pilot didn't eject.

"Damnit!" he hissed."Why didn't you eject?"

The first casualty of the war was a pony-on-pony strike.

The shrill tones of a hostile infra-red lock broke his train of thought. He jinked, cutting power to the engines as he turned the aircraft into a rolling dive. He jammed the flare button rapidly, hoping to drive the missile to a futile self-destruction. The cessation of the warning tone, a small thump heard through the cockpit, and the fact that he was losing airspeed quite rapidly served as a prompt to jam the throttle forward and bring the jet out of its dive.

The Dart was a small, nimble craft unsuited for prolonged engagements. He threw a glance to the fuel gauge and swore. He was almost at bingo fuel. He swung around and searched the area. Rodeo flight had either been driven away or destroyed entirely.

That wasn't the same for their reinforcements however.

Rainbow Dash let out a string of curses as the pounding at he door tore her from her sleep.

"Yeah, yeah," she groaned, groggily making her way downstairs, "gimme a minute."

The pounding only intensified. Dash put on her best hostile look, not quite an effort due to the circumstances, and threw the door open.

"What?"

Her glare sublimated immediately into an expression of pure terror. Fluttershy's mom--no, General Winterheart was standing at her door with a look that could only be matched by the coldest of winters.

"Uh... I-I apologize, ma'am." She rubbed the back of forehead, wearing a sheepish smile.

"No need. Captain." Winterheart's voice was only slightly warmer than her expression. "May I come in?" She stepped inside immediately and motioned for Dash to shut the door.

"Close the windows, too," she continued, looking around the living room. "You have good taste."

"Permission to speak candidly, ma'am?" Dash worked up the nerve. After all, the general's presence here was certainly uncalled for.

"Granted."

"Is there trouble? A general just doesn't appear at my door for casual visits," Dash said, trying not to stutter as Winterheart's eyes pierced into her soul.

The general's shoulders drooped for a bit as she sighed. Her back straightened and grim determination blazed in her eyes.

"There is. Lieutenant," she said. "I cannot tell you here."

Dash nodded. She had just turned around to get her uniform when Winterheart spoke.

"No need for that. A new one will be supplied at the base. We must leave quickly."

Dash quickly turned off the lights and unplugged the appliances, then locked the door as a stealth transport seemed to materialize out of thin air above the street. The general snapped her wings, launching herself into the transport's rear compartment after motioning for Dash to follow. She shook the midday sun out of her eyes.

With a similar--though flashier--maneuver, Dash jumped into the transport as the ramp closed and the transport engaged its engines with a soft rush of exhaust. Winterheart shook herself, green flames burning off the facade as a metallic undertone crept into the changeling's voice.

"So far so good," Specter said, "That should throw them off the trail."

"Who?" Rainbow Dash glared daggers at Specter for his deception.

"Right. I have some explaining to do."

"You mean we're now in a state of civil war?" Twilight asked incredulously. "Do you know what this means? We'll be off schedule! The rebellion will draw efforts away from developing and building equipment for our soldiers! That will lead to..."

Twilight began hyperventilating as she explained the slippery-slope consequences of the rebellion to her brother and her in-law. Her mane was in disarray and a manic look gleamed in her eye as the stress of getting XWRD and the College of Combat Magic up and running compounded the problem. Her Royal facade cracked.

Shining Armor's previous calls for attention had gone unnoticed as Twilight rambled and he was forced to raise his voice. "TWILIGHT! FOR LUNA'S SAKE, CALM DOWN!"

Twilight's ears folded backwards and she cringed, apologizing in a way that would have rivaled Fluttershy's meekness. Shining's expression softened.

"Twilie, overreacting like this isn't going to help any. And besides, you're my LSBFF, I know you can overcome this."

Cadance nodded in agreement. "You can do this, Twilight. Your special talent is saving the realm, after all." She said with a wink.

"Thanks, you two." Twilight smiled, and then frowned as muffled thumps and staccato gunfire rang out behind her brother.

Shining turned around as a pegasus wearing combat gear barged in and whispered into Shining's ear. Her brother's eyes widened, and he swore, levitating his combat armor onto him.

"Twilie. I have to go," he said, a look of fear and concern crossing his face. "Get your fri--"

Shining's window dissolved into static and then cut to black, leaving Twilight and Cadance alone and feeling terrified for her brother.

The warning sirens erected over Ponyville wailed to life, casting their haunting cry for kilometers around as black shapes descended from the clouds. Gun and spell fire reached for the bloated, malformed bodies of the outcast dragons as they bore down upon her city. Twilight's heart skipped a beat.

Twilight quickly assembled and compiled a spell matrix for a dome-shaped barrier, inputting the variables that would make it cover the city. She tied the spell into Ponyville's power grid, something that normally required a technician to do so, and cast it. A shimmering lavender dome sprang up around the city, repelling the dragons that touched it with arcs of lightning. The lights flickered, and the entire city went into a rolling blackout before stabilizing as the shield pushed the power plants to their limit.

Police swarmed into the streets, urging everybody to stay calm and keep indoors for the duration of the attack. Thankfully, the drills concerning Contingency 1-Gamma had paid off, despite the low chance of a dragon attack actually happening at the time it was devised.

She picked up the hotline and dialed a number.

Soarin' guided his F.22b35 into a firing position against the hostile airship. Things around Vanhoover had gone from bad to worse as rebel airships arrived on the scene. The wyverns were still twenty minutes away, and the airships were posted on the East Coast because that was where everypony thought the fighting was going to begin.

Something bugged him, though. The Air Force ponies were the best of the best, and certainly the most loyal. Whoever was behind this would be hard-pressed to find recruits from the RAF. So why did they have so many exos?

He scolded himself for falling into a trance. Now wasn't the time for thinking about the big picture.

He corkscrewed around a line of tracer fire and unleashed a barrage from his Helix-64 rocket pods onto a rogue airship. The rockets tore gaping holes into the airship's upper deck in gouts of flame and debris. Something important was caught in the blast and exploded as well, adding to the chaos that ripped the airship apart in midair.

He quashed a thrill of horror as the wreckage pitched downwards and cantilevered into the ground kilometers below. He was trained to deal with dragons, griffons, and even Discord, but how could expect traitors in a time when Equestria had to be united? How could he kill fellow ponies?

He shook his head.

A hostile lock tone alerted him to an incoming missile. The tone of the warning reminded him that it was radar-guided. The automatic chaff dispensers thumped as he maneuvered to throw the missile off even further. The warning stopped and a red-orange fireball blossomed behind him.

The rest of the Wonderbolts were caught up with the enemy, exchanging gunfire and missiles in a deathly tango, to buy time for him and Spitfire to take out the airship. With that accomplished, Soarin’ and his wing mate leapt back into the fray.

He sighed as his last missile streaked off its mount, tearing apart the rear third of an enemy F.4.

The Lizan High-Priest bowed graciously as the meeting closed, securing a treaty with the Lizan Hegemony to the south as a military and economic ally in these trying times. His head frills bent downwards and the skin on his forehead turned a mottled blue, signifying reverence and respect. Princess Celestia returned the bow and escorted the delegates down the familiar hallways of Canterlot Castle, allowing her mind to wander.

Both countries relied heavily on magic to sustain their industries, but while Equestria melded its arcane with the technological, the Hegemony shunned any form of technology more advanced than clockworks and steam engines in favor of high-level elemental and physical magics along the lines of the classical elements: Earth, fire, wind, and water.

There were the igua, the 'earth benders' of the Hegemony's caste system. They were in charge of mining, building, farming, and all other things 'earth' related. All of them could manipulate soil and rock to some extent, while few were able to master their art enough to be able to bend metal to their will.

And then there were the salamanders, which lived near volcanoes and other geological hot spots. They had special glands that allowed them to spit a cross between napalm and thermite over long distances, as well as summon intense flames and lighting with their magic.

Celestia saw their transport waiting ahead and bid farewell to the delegates as they boarded. It was manned by volans, the Lizan fliers. They looked superficially like dragons and were sometimes mistaken for young noble dragons. But while dragons were mostly bipedal, the Lizans were quadrupeds, not excepting the volans. She noted that they lacked the head crests of the other Lizan races.

She watched with interest as the Lizans took to the sky in their airship. It resembled an old wooden-hulled ship except that instead of using a gas envelope to stay in the air, it flew by way of magical crystals mounted in pods on its sides and ventral surfaces. Celestia made a note to see if Twilight's teams could imitate the design on their airships. The Lizan craft looked especially maneuverable after all.

The last of the Lizan races were the naga, amphibians capable of manipulating water currents and molecules with ease. Some of them could even manipulate the water vapor in the air! They lacked rear legs, and their skin had a slimy look to it.

Celestia ventured back inside as the airship left to join its escorts, REAS Windrunner and REAS Cutlass. She made a point to borrow a cake from the kitchen and returned to her musings as she ate.

Lizan magic was very gestural and required complex bodily movements in order to perform. It was as much dance as it was martial art, and quite frankly, very beautiful to watch. They could even channel it through their weapons and armor with graceful sweeps of the claw or steps of the feet. They, much like the griffons, were a martial species with great history and culture as well as vast amounts of knowledge on the art of war. It would be good to have them as allies.

Luna emerged from the shadows, as she often did. Celestia smiled at her and she returned it, but the grave look didn't disappear from her eyes.

"Lulu, what's wrong?" She wrapped a wing around her sister, "Bad date with Big Mac?"

"'Tis not the time for jokes, mine sister," Luna admonished. "I bear grave news from the West Coast."

She continued, now that she had Celestia's attention. "Several cities have ceded from the Realm and now fly the flag of the 'Free Democratic Republic of Equestria' and have engaged unprovoked hostilities against our forces. We are now in a state of civil war."

Celestia's scream could be heard all over Canterlot.

Everything was not going as planned.

The outcasts had attacked too early, and an overzealous lieutenant in Vanhoover had revealed the extent of the rebellion by attacking a flight from Canterlot. Months of subverting the loyalties and moralities of her little ponies may have been wasted. They were supposed to be the trump card that broke Celestia’s back as she fought against the griffons, not the prelude to war. It reeked of sabotage or gross incompetence, maybe even both.

He sighed, the act causing saliva to drip from the left side of his mouth. That bitch Sparkle had taken away his beauty five years ago and left him with disfigurement even the most powerful magic couldn't repair.

Extra care would need to be taken in order to prevent them from failing even more spectacularly. Ravenous would not be pleased, and neither would their Benefactor.

But perhaps there were advantages to be gained in this turn of events. One thing led to another, after all.

He pushed a chess piece forward. “Your move, auntie.”

Author's Note

And now back to our regular programming.