Chapter 2

Celestia woke, her memory of last night fuzzy, and she fully expected to be chained to a rack and assaulted mercilessly for hours, until her entire body ached. So, she was surprised when she awoke to find herself wrapped under the wings of three alicorns, all of them snuggled up to her protectively. "Where am I?" she whispered.

"You are safe in Stormshadow." came the reply of her sister, who was speaking from where she had draped her head on Shadowsky's chest.

Celestia looked up, noticing how she was free, and how the two other alicorns were now awake, Twilight with her tearstained face, and Shadowsky with his...well...his face had a little more expression than usual. "Come, we need to get you back on your feet" Shadowsky said, before pulling a rope to summon breakfast to be brought to them. It arrived shortly, brought in by a ESF soldier, wearing a chef's hat, yet with a warhammer strapped to his side.

He served them their food, then left silently. "So this is what those millions of bits were paying for." Celestia commented as they dug into the nutritious food, lots of greens and proteins, not many sweets. While they were eating, Celestia caught sight of what she looked like in a mirror, "I look like shit." She said, deadpan.

"Yep, but we will get you back to yourself in no time. In the mean time, we have been wreaking havoc with the takeover....namely by getting you out, and freeing as many of the enslaved as we can, and taking them to safe locations." Shadowsky yawned out, while he dug into the food.

Celestia ate the food hungrily, it tasted amazing after having only...well she wouldn't dwell on that now... She was safe, or as safe as she could be. She had an army now, loyal, and the enemy had lost the element of surprise. Now they would pay with blood, sweat and tears. The caribou would pay dearly for their mistake of attempting to break Equestria. A long moment passed, where the four ate in silence.
"So....How did you find me?" Celestia asked to break the semi-awkward silence.

"When word got out that Luna and I had escaped and survived, many stallions thought it better to aid us, then risk a slow and painful death." Shadowsky replied, biting a massive chunk out of an apple.

"So this means that not all the guards are under the control of the caribou." Celestia said, "And therefore, we still have informants and spies." She concluded.

"Correct dear sister, now, rest, we have some business to attend to, and you and Twilight need some time to recover and catch each other up." Luna said, as she and Shadowsky got up and put on their uniforms and armor.
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A lone caribou soldier wandered along the edge of the Everfree forest, his armor glinting, and a short infantry sword at his side. He was unaware that several ESF soldiers were sitting in the trees, ready to kill him if he ventured too far into the border. Several Unicorns held together a spell that made the forest seem shrouded in mystery and danger, so many ponies and caribou gave it a wide berth.
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In the recovery center in Everfree Forest:

A neat military camp was set up in a clearing, with tents in organized rows, a palisade set up around the entire camp, and guards patrolling on offset shifts, so that at least two soldiers were on duty at all times. Among the tents, crying, moaning, and groaning could be heard.

Ponies in the black and silver uniform of the ESF ran around quickly, the red cross patches on their sleeves denoting medics.
The tents were arrayed around one large central tent, form where most of the sounds could be heard. Luckily, the unicorns of the ESF had placed many spells on the area, making the entire camp silent and invisible from outside. To find the camp, one had to know exactly where it was.

In the first row of tents, there was the name station, and the processing station. in this station, freed mares and fillies were processed, where they remembered their name, or they were given one based on their cutie mark, or previous pictures taken, or by concerned parents, or friends. It was a laborious process, but after that, there was the de-paraphernalia station, where the horrifying tack used by the caribou was removed.

In the large tent, there were specially trained psychologist medic ponies, who took care of the newly liberated fillies and mares, turning them back into their old selves, at least as close as they could. After that, they would be shipped to castle Stormshadow, where they would be turned into a militia, because as it was, there was only about 300 ESF ponies total, whereas the invading army had well over a five-to-one advantage in numbers, as well as having trained troops.

Luna had taken it upon herself to go visit the camp in Everfree, to see what the resistance had been able to do. Shadowsky was back at the castle, coordinating the various small unit movements, attacking the supply lines to the main camps, and intercepting shipments of mares on their way to be sold.

At the sight of Princess Luna, many of the ponies gasped and called out to her, she visited every single one, especially the fillies, holding their small hands in her own soft ones, telling them that they were safe now.

"Princess Luna, how are we going to ever get back to normal?" one small filly asked, her mouth bruised from beatings, her flank covered in whip marks.

Luna knelt down to the child's bedside and took off her gold beret, with the insignia of the ESF on it,"By taking the fight to them. And my brave ponies like you who did not give in. I am going to tell you a secret, which you can't tell anyone, ok?"

"Ok" The filly asked, looking up into Luna's eyes.

"Celestia is alive and we rescued her from the castle. maybe she will visit soon" Luna whispered into the filly's ear.

"Really?" The filly asked with wide eyes, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Yes, here," Luna used her beret to wipe the tears off of the filly's face, then she set the cap on the filly's head," Here, keep it, you deserve it" The filly's eyes were filled with wonder and hope, not only from the fact that a princess had gotten down on her level and told her a secret, but also that the princess had taken the time to care for her, and given her something personal to keep.

Shadowsky meanwhile had turned up with Celestia under escort to the Everfree. Celestia was almost back to herself, except her horn was still growing back. But the Princess of the Sun had insisted on visiting the rescued ones. So, she was disguised in the black and silver uniform of the ESF, with a golden beret on her head the only thing indicating her rank.

They found Luna and the filly, and the filly gasped,"Princess Celestia!"

"Yes, It is I, and I see my sister has been taking care of you" The sun princess also knelt down to eye level with the filly (No small feat, as Celestia was still tall and rather big). The young filly almost fainted, and Celestia kissed her on the forehead, then moved among the beds, visiting each of the rescued females. In the background, Shadowsky handed Luna a spare golden beret.

Shadowsky watched from the entrance of the tent, worried, his own golden beret crumpled up in his hand. He knew they were spread thin, and without a larger force of numbers, they would be doomed. The caribou had doubled the guards on the slave shipments, causing problems for the ESF squads. They did not have enough troops to withstand an all-out assault. Twilight was learning fast, under the mentorship of the unicorn instructors, but there still was not enough time. He turned and walked out to the command tent, trying to come up with some kind of plan.

Author's Note

I need character names, desperately