It took a few days for everything to settle down, what with a new species showing up out of nowhere. The girls were going to stay for a while, at least until we would start recon assignments, and Reku'un was given a place to sleep. Given how massive he was, a normal bed wouldn't be enough, so the princesses, the girls and I gave him any spare blankets and cushions to sleep on. He insisted on us keeping them, as he didn't mind sleeping on the ground. He said he'd slept on worse.

Only a few days and we were starting to plan out the taking of Equestria.

Celestia asked any of the recon, Solar AND Lunar veterans if they would volunteer to send a message to the four nations around. Very few did… but enough would be sent. Now we just have to wait for a reply… if they don't die, at least.

Over the few days, Reku'un was familiarizing himself with the cavern, and Celestia, Luna and I showed him most of the tunnel system maps. He only took one glance and never looked again, but he remembered them as if it was the back of his hand (as he's told us).

Today, Celestia, Luna and most of their commanders and generals would speak to Reku'un on plans of attack. I would have to be there to decide whether or not we would have enough unicorn support or if we would even be able to cast enough barriers in the first place.

Honestly, I've never done something like this before. I led recon missions, but never a full-on assault – especially against these monsters. But now, I had to. If we wanted any chance of making an attack, I had to give it my all. No lies, no doubt, just facts and variables that could ruin the mission.

Knock knock

"Miss Twilight?" A firm voice of a guard called. "The Princess would like to see you."

I gathered a few things, slung it over my back, and opened the door. He stepped to the side as I started for the castle, and the moment I reached it, he shut the door behind me. I could guess why Celestia didn't want anypony interrupting, or even seeing for that matter.

I navigated through the halls, trying to recall where the war room was. It only took a few turns and a lot of voices to guide me towards it. The moment I stepped in, the room fell silent. I glanced emotionlessly to each of the stern and grim stallions in the room, then slowly made my way over to Celestia and Luna.

"Have a seat, Twilight," Luna said softly, gesturing to the chair beside her.

I nodded and placed the bag beside my chair before sitting. "Where's Reku'un?" I questioned.

"We were hoping you'd seem him," Celestia said, almost disappointed.

"Didn't we send a guard for him?" A stallion snorted. "He should be—"

The door bursted open and a Solar guard saluted while panting breathlessly. "What is it?" He questioned quickly.

"We can't… find the… the creature, sir," he forced himself to say. "Half a squad checked the entire camp."

"You've brought it here, and now it abandons us?!" An older stallion shouted.

"We weren't told that he would be leaving," Celestia calmly stated, a slight jerk of her temple displaying a second's irritation.

"But why didn't you keep somepony around it?" He practically bellowed.

"Because I trust him," Celestia said loudly, venom slipping in gradually. "You don't have any right to judge him."

Before any more shouting occurred, the door swung open and slammed into the wall. Reku'un ducked under the doorway and stepped inside, his armor slinking behind him. He greeted the princesses formally, bowing to them, then nodded with a small smile to me. I returned the gesture, then peered at the officers in the room. Mixed emotions of fear, interest, and distrust were obvious, but mostly fear.

"Nalo." The machine whirred to a standing position. "Yugvka ut ika (Display the city)"

His armor detached into four different pieces, startling the officers and causing them to step back from the table. The four pieces crawled their way to the corners of the war table, then clicked as miniature poles stuck out, the spherical tips glowing bright orange.

They flashed once… and Canterlot was displayed before us.

The officers had shielded themselves when the flash emitted, but now they could only stare in shock and wonder. Reku'un moved closer and put his hands on the image. He spread his arms further apart, and the images became smaller and smaller as we were given a birds' eye view.

"I apologize for my absence," Reku'un said, nodding to the officers in the room. "I needed to make one last reconnaissance trip around the city."

"You left the settlement?" Luna questioned.

Reku'un nodded. "I can't connect with my partner," he sighed. "I just needed to see where she's most likely to be."

"I thought we were here to discuss how we would retake our country," another lieutenant angrily stated.

"We can discuss that after I rescue my partner," he replied, a tone that was not to be trifled with.

Unfortunately, we had our own stallions like that.

"We can't risk hundreds of stallions for one of your kind!" General Thunder, a Pegasus pony, shouted. "You said you'd help us! How is this—"

Reku'un slammed his fist onto the table, disrupting the hologram and cracking the stone table. The guards at the door pointed their spears at him the moment he did.

I went to say something, but Celestia placed a hoof in front of me.

"I DON'T HAVE TIME TO EXPLAIN MY REASONS, ALRIGHT?!" He snarled, glaring daggers at Thunder. "I promised to help… I have, but to be of any use I NEED my partner. She holds as much power as I do."

He stepped back and exhaled softly, then looked to Celestia, Luna, and me.

"Forgive me. I haven't dealt with offworlders at all," he admitted. "

"From now on, I'm going to ask that you allow him to FULLY explain," Celestia announced. "His kind knows what these monsters are capable of, and they've fought longer than any of us have been alive."

The old stallions glanced to one another, then retook their seats with mixed dispositions. "Thank you," Reku'un said. "You said you'd found me in this city. Those Arthanians didn't to keep us separate for long."

"And why not?" Luna asked.

"My partner would die, if they did," he told her grimly. "They were most likely planning on killing her in front of me… or torture me even more."

I couldn't imagine what that would look like. A female version of him… and was what worse was that it was his partner. I still didn't know exactly what he meant by "partner". Was it his partner in battle, his marefriend… his wife?

"Where do you think she is?" Commander Lance asked.

Reku'un turned the image, then zoomed in on the castle. "From what Nalo recorded, they have a considerable amount of activity in this particular structure," he explained. "And he was able to detect energy suppressors and sub-zero pillars."

"Sub-zero pillars?" I interrupted. "Why do they need those?"

Reku'un turned to me and sighed. "Nyla is a pyro Nera'ak. She can manipulate fire through her eternal flame," he informed us. "But they're trying to keep her element suppressed. Her energy is drained, and the pillars keep her from being able to fight back."

I nodded slowly. "Could you destroy the pillars and suppressors?" I asked him.

"Not exactly," he sighed. "They'd drain enough energy to force me to smash them apart. And touching one would cut my energy in half."

He zoomed back out, then swiped his hand to move through the city. "What are those?" Luna asked.

"These are smaller versions of the prison you broke into," he answered. "They're usually used in order to stock prisoners for torture later on, but they keep generators here for the prisoners to work."

"So we attack them and you could free your friend?" Thunder questioned. "It isn't going to be easy to sneak enough guards in without attracting their attention."

I stared with a look of disbelief as he… smirked.

"We'll need a distraction, then," Celestia said, rubbing the side of her head softly. "I don't think any—"

"I'm going to be the distraction," Reku'un announced.

We all fell silent, looking at him as if he were crazy. And still, he was smiling. "You're not serious, are you?" Major Crawler exclaimed.

"This mission will fail before it even starts!" Major Streak pointed out. "Our stallions will get caught!"

"Reku'un, I don't think even you could handle that many of them," Celestia softly said. "Luna or I could—"

"I'm not arrogant," he firmly told us. "I can buy you all enough time to destroy the generators and free your own. But you'll need to be quick about it."

"How can we know?" General Thunder insisted. "You survived the attack in the first settlement but—"

"He can do it."

All eyes turned to me, even my mentor and her sister.

"How do you know?" After Crawler asked that, I gulped and tried to use what knowledge I had.

"He was powerful enough to take out the entire pack that came into the tunnels," I calmly said, which I was surprised I could pull off. "If he's telling the truth, and he could get stronger, then there's no telling what he can and can't do. As long as we do our part, he can save his partner and we would have TWO powerful allies."

Some of their moods changed, and I took it as a sign I was getting through to them.

"Reku'un could lead a frontal assault, but I don't know how the stallions could sneak in," I said, my inexperience finally forcing me to stand back.

"We'd need a force of at least 20 guards," Luna said. "That many camouflage spells will severely limit our movement."

"Or," Reku'un began, pointing to the mountain, "you could come up from behind."

"Setting up our force would take hours," General Thunder informed us. "There needs to be another way."

The officers started speaking among one another, offering various ideas from spells to covering themselves in mud. Reku'un slowly looked over the city's infrastructure, the streets, even some underground sewer pipes. I thought about all I knew of Canterlot… it's history, it's progress through history, old tunnels, sewers… tunnels…

"The old train station!" I shouted. They all turned to me as I pointed to the cliff near the south-most edge of the city. "Here! There used to be a subway project back then, a second train to get around Equestria."

Reku'un resized the image to make it clearer, and we all noticed the solid cement wall standing out from the jagged cliffside.

"There," I said, my hoofing pointing to the wall. "We could break down the wall and sneak into the city from there."

"Wouldn't that make enough noise to compromise us?" Major Crawler deadpanned.

"I could destroy the wall, then go on with my distraction and you could slip your forces in," Reku'un suggested. "You only need a force of ten or so."

"Ten?" I parroted, just as confused as the rest of the table.

Another smirk, and Reku'un swiped across the projection, highlighting a specific area. "They'll send everything after me. They know I won't give in… so you'll have enough time to do your part, however you can."

The princesses seemed concerned and unsure, as did the officers. I myself didn't know if we could pull this off. And with 10 squadmates; only 10 squadmates. An entire platoon could barely handle half of a pack… what would happen if we were caught? We'd be surrounded, outnumbered, and outmatched. This was a suicide mission if he failed on his part, and we would probably be taken prisoner… especially any mares on the mission.

But this was a chance to get stronger. To even the odds by just a bit more.

It was enough for me…

"I'll go."

Everypony, and Reku'un, turned silent as they stared at me. I wasn't physically strong, and magic abilities was a meager factor against these things. I could buy us time, I could protect us probably… but I volunteered because I needed somepony to see that if I could go, so could they.

"Twilight," Celestia softly said, obviously exasperated. "Twilight, you can't—"

"The girls and I are the only ones who could coordinate well enough to pull this off," I quickly said, "and we're the only ones who've seen what he can do."

Her argument seemed to falter, as did Luna's. Reku'un kept a stoic and neutral gaze, but I knew he was thinking. Would he force us to stay? Would he let us go? Would he even explain why?

"Explain why you want to come," he finally told me.

"Reku'un, any of our guards are more suited than her, and I mean no offense when I say this," Thunder said.

"In my culture, we don't choose a warrior based on his skill. We base it on their reasons." He went around the table, kneeled in front of me, and gave me a solemn stare. "Why do you want to fight?"

…

…

"Because I'm tired of my life."

…

It came out grimly… almost sociopathically.

"I'm tired of running. We don't even remember what it was like back then… there's no happiness like there used to be…" I could see his expression lighten up, but he was still waiting. "I want to go home… I want to wake up in my home… I want to laugh with my friends… fight with them… just be plain dumb like we used to be."

He only stared for another minute, then turned to the side. "Nalo… yuurikk (Nalo… deactivate)" The projection disappeared, and the armor pieces reconnected before waiting by the door.

"Reku'un, what is your decision?"

…

"Bring me the others… I'll see if they have enough reason," he told us, handing his blade to his armor.

"They will," I stated proudly, a small smile working its way across my lips. "And thank you."

He turned to me, nodding softly. "This is your home we're fighting for," he reminded us. "When we fight, you must all be there when it happens. When our forces fall, when blood is shed… and when your flag rises once more."

Nalo, his armor, covered his body, but didn't create the helmet. "We'll be sending specialists to help with the infiltration," Luna said. "We can send our best."

"Alright… but be blunt when you tell them who is leading," he said.

"I'm sure they'll listen to y—"

"I am not leading this attack."

My eyes widened as he turned back to me and pointed.

"She is."

Author's Note

Been a while since I updated. Trying to get back into this, so look out for more chapters! As always, like, fav, comment, and have an awesome day or night! Peaces.