A new order

Chapters

2. What we have
3. The old seat of power
4. A plan is born
5. An impolite war
6. Just dropping in
7. What's right, what's wrong, and what's best
8. Making it up as we go along
9. Play it coup
10. For great justice
11. Like shadows at night
13. Nonroutine check-up
14. Blackout
15. Reunions, happy and otherwise
16. The rising sun
17. Time alone
18. Not for unicorns
19. Foreign politics
20. Unconventional treasure hunting
21. The long con
22. Strange bedfellows
23. Honest intent, dubious execution
24. Professional runners
25. To Zebrica!
26. Keep calm and kirin on
27. Dig for victory
28. Kirining on like nothing's wrong
29. They don't come back
30. The first try
32. A matter of management
33. Earning your stripes
34. City of death
35. gtfo
36. Half the pieces
37. Barely recognisable
38. Fine feathered friends
39. Seeking an audience
40. A big deal
41. Meet the family
42. Decisions, decisions
43. Opening moves
44. Territorial dispute
46. Fate has been cruel and Order unkind
47. Heck, it's about time
48. Together again
49. We're not okay
50. Worlds within worlds
51. All in
52. The end for some
53. Epilogue
1. Screw the plan? There is no plan!
12. Keep your friends close, and your enemies not close
31. Two roads, one destination
45. Pop goes the weasels

2. What we have

Luna ran the sharp edge of her hoof along the desk she was sat at, circling her hoof from one back corner, to the other, then back again. She found it relaxing, and also faintly amusing as Moondancer's ear twitched every time she started a new circuit.

Luna knew that she should really be helping to research a way to stop Faust, but her mind was still in the war, and refused to settle down enough to read. Besides, what was this if not a war? It might have progressed from a war of soldiers to one fought in the shadows, but it was still a war nonetheless. The battle for Equestria might have been lost, but the war was still ongoing, only you needed resources to fight a war.

Luna picked up a piece of parchment and a quill, dipping it into an inkwell to write, headlining the page with the words 'what we have.' The first thing she did was add herself to the list, followed by Twilight and Trixie, although she did add a tentative question mark after them considering their decision to go off and do as they wished. As for the rest of Twilight's friends, only Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor had any experience at fighting, although Sunset maybe stood a chance. Moondancer wouldn't, and Daring Do seemed reluctant, while Mayfly was... unknowable.

Luna quickly jotted down the three Wonderbolts, along with a tentative Sunset, then added Moondancer, Daring, and Mayfly in a section headed non-combatants, then added Starsy as well. That just left Cadence, who had an even bigger question mark than any of the others. Luna had no idea what was going through the pink alicorn's mind these days, and spent pretty much all her time moping, looking after Flurry, and giving Luna hateful glares. None of those were exactly resources.

Luna studied the list, finding only seven names where ponies capable of fighting was concerned, and most of those were a maybe. All in all, the list wasn't exactly awe-inspiring, but Luna pushed on and made a new section named 'what we don't have.' Straight away she wrote down Celestia's name, followed by 'my weapons.' Luna growled under her breath, wishing she could have her glaives Artemis and Apollo back by her side.

Luna pushed the feeling away and returned to her list, adding that they currently had no way to defeat Faust. It was rather tempting to write that they had no hope either, but thinking that way was counterproductive. Instead she wrote down 'an army,' because that might at least be useful. Or it would be if they had a plan, which they didn't, which is why it was also added to the list.

"What does Faust have?" Luna said under her breath, writing the words into a new section. She considered it for a moment, then wrote 'everything she needs to crush us entirely,' and left it as that, because what more was there to say? The section on what Faust didn't have was equally short, simply saying 'refer to list one.'

Luna grunted and turned the paper over, knowing that she was just being silly. She knew what they had, and she knew what Faust had. What she needed to know was what they needed to beat Faust. First among those things was a way to defeat the alicorn herself, and once they had that, hopefully everything would fall into place. That was still only one piece of the puzzle. If they were really going to get this done, what they needed was allies.

"What allies though?" Luna said to herself. Save Mustangia, Equestria had been left alone to defend itself in the war, so she saw no reason now for other countries to respond to her requests for aid. They would stand apart, and would likely fall one by one to Faust until there was none left to oppose her. Luna had to prevent that from happening, but how?

Luna was distracted from her thoughts by Flurry as the foal started crying, but suppressed her groan. "What is the matter with her now?"

"Oh I'm sorry, do foals now need solid reasons to cry?"

Luna cringed at Cadence's rebuke, and kept her own comeback to herself. "Apologies Cadence. I realise that this place isn't exactly rich in comforts suitable for foals. Is there anything I could do to help?"

"She misses her father." Cadence bowed her head and sighed, "I do too. It's far worse knowing we left him there with Faust than it was when he was off fighting."

"I also worry about Celestia," Luna admitted. "I can't help but wonder what she's being subjected to in an attempt to get her on Faust's side." Luna smiled sadly, "Unfortunately that likely involves getting Celestia to deny me being her sister."

"Oh Luna, I'm so sorry."

"Don't apologise Cadence, not when it isn't your fault. We've all paid a price for my foolish belief that Equestria could stand up to Faust, not counting the price that Equestria shall continue to pay for many years to come."

"And yet you want to keep fighting," Cadence stated, her even tone of voice throwing Luna off. "Don't look at me like that Luna, I have no desire to see more fighting, but if no one does, Faust wins."

"I'd like to remind you that she literally cannot achieve her goals," Starsy said as she floated near them. "Faust can never win on her terms."

"Can you be so sure though?" Luna said back to the illusion. "She's in possession of powerful mind controlling magic, and has been given a vessel to spread it further in the form of the Crystal Heart. How difficult could it be to reduce a pony mind to a bestial state?"

"Impossible if she's trying to use the Crystal Heart, as I created it with ample fail-safes. There's a reason Sombra was unable to corrupt and use it, just as there'll be a reason why Faust will fail to use it to her ends as well."

"You haven't denied that she could turn a pony into a dumb beast though," Luna pointed out. "Could it be that you consider that to be quite possible?"

"It's impossible to us, but even I don't know the limits of Faust's powers."

"Discord could certainly do it," said Cadence, "so I see no reason why Faust couldn't achieve the same."

"There's a comforting thought," Luna muttered. "So, we shouldn't discount Faust finding a way to reach her final goal. In that case, finding a way of stopping her is suddenly more important. It's one thing to let her conquer the world, but another to see her plans come to fruition."

"My terms still stand," Starsy said pointedly. "I won't see Faust suffer more than she has already."

"And so you would see our ponies very sense of self destroyed just to satisfy your conditions? Pay witness to the millions of lives ended in Faust's war to make the world that way?"

"Luna," Cadence warned, "back off. There's no reason we can't find a way to solve this that won't involve Faust suffering."

"And I see no way we can do this without making her suffer in some way. Surely the fact that she would know we won, and denied her her goals would make her suffer? We can in all likelihood prevent physical suffering, but the anguish she would feel over having failed, and over having lost Celestia again would be ample suffering for anypony."

"So we find a way to change her mind," said Cadence.

"She has the ability to achieve whatever she wants," Luna retorted. "What possible means could we have to make her radically change her goals? And don't say magic, because that's a lost cause before we even begin."

"Then..." Cadence trailed off with a sigh, knowing there was no real argument to what Luna was saying. There was no reason for Faust to change her mind on anything, and no way to defeat her without some form of suffering, even if only mental. "I'm sorry Starsy, but I think Luna might be right."

"I do too," Starsy said quietly. "However, I still refuse to countenance any methods of stopping Faust that will result in her physically suffering for a prolonged period."

"That we can at least agree on," Cadence said, getting a nod from Luna.

"Then perhaps you're approaching this the wrong way."

All three of them looked over as Sunset spoke up, the amber mare smiling nervously under their scrutiny. "You seem as though you have an idea," Luna said to Sunset. "Please, do tell."

"Alright, we all know what it is Faust wants, right?" Sunset waited until she had an affirmation from the three of them, "Then we need to find a way to make her think she's gotten what she wants, while not actually giving her anything."

"Okay," Luna said slowly, "you might want to explain this so it actually makes sense."

"She's basically suggesting you place Faust in a dream, or fantasy, where she has everything she wants," Moondancer explained quickly from across the room, not even bothering to look up from her book. "She thinks she wins, but she doesn't."

"Could you do that?" Cadence asked Luna. "Trap Faust in a dream where she has what she wants?"

Luna shook her head, "Even if I were sure it was doable, the power required to maintain it would be impossible to keep up with, and would end as soon as she realises it's a dream."

"Could we do it while she's awake?" Sunset enquired. "Cast a spell on her that makes her see the world as she wants to see it?"

Luna quickly rebuffed the suggestion, "Good grief no, she'd probably be more dangerous than she is now, constantly hallucinating her ideal world."

"Right," Sunset sighed, "scrap my idea then."
"I wasn't saying your idea isn't without merit, but it would need to be refined considerably before it becomes practical." Luna turned to Starsy, "Any thoughts?"

"Hmm... perhaps. I'll need to put more thought to it, but I think the thing here is not to put the fantasy into her mind, but to put her mind into the fantasy. Build a false world that she can inhabit, and control to her heart's content."

"Like a sandbox rpg!" Sunset exclaimed.

"A what?"

"A sandbox rpg. It's a... video game thing from the human world that people play." Sunset clamped her jaw shut, feeling that she might've gone a bit too far with this one, and had no idea how to explain it. "They're a form of entertainment, like... a book, but you're watching it happen."

"Like a film?" said Cadence.

"Yes, sort of, but you're the main character, and what happens in the film depends on what you do. I really don't know how to explain this without showing you, but Starsy was onto something when he called it a false world you can control."

Luna screwed her face up as she thought, "So rather like a lucid dream then? Only the world around her would be real? Or at least real to her?"

"Close enough," Sunset muttered, giving up on trying to explain it. "I couldn't tell you if it can be done though."

"A reverse dream..." Luna murmured softly. "Instead of putting the dream in the mind, you put the mind in the dream. A perfect solution, if indeed it can be done."

"I'll see what I can think of," Starsy said, reverting into a mote and rushing off into the library.

Luna smiled at Sunset, "Well done Sunset Shimmer, you've given us a point to start from. Perhaps the praise Celestia heaped upon your abilities is well deserved."

"She really did that?"

"Oh yes, although there were some aspects of your previous self that were less pleasantly described."

"Oh. That's... fair, I suppose."

Luna smiled softly at Sunset, regretting saying those last words. "She misses you."

"And I miss her. I probably owe her an apology too."

Luna smiled at Sunset, "I can guarantee that she's already forgiven you. Speaking from personal experience of course. There seems to be no limit to what she can forgive."

-0-0-0-

It had been a hair raising week to get to where they had. They'd come far too close to Ponyville, and had to skirt around the northern edge of the Canterhorn to avoid detection, always staying wary of being spotted from the air. It seemed things hadn't changed too radically though, as there were no patrols, on the ground or in the sky. You could almost believe that nothing in Equestria had changed, so long as you didn't know better.

"I don't get it," the filly said as she sat observing the world through the doorway of the half ruined building they were using as shelter. One of many in the small village they'd found on the way to Manehattan. "Why is there this random patch of desert here, and why did somepony think it was a good place to build a town? It's maddening."

Fleur shrugged as she looked along where the filly was, along the sun blasted street before them, their view framed by two rows of identical terraced houses. She knew they were in the place that Starlight Glimmer had tried to create her society based on equality, and that Luna had damaged the place in a fight against said pony, but that didn't change the filly's point. Why would any sane pony want to live in such a forsaken place?

"I think it's charming in its way," Nightlight said, the dark blue stallion that was father to both Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armour. "The stars at night really are beautiful here."

"You would think that though," the white unicorn Twilight Velvet said back, giving her husband a conciliatory peck on the cheek. "I'm not saying you're wrong mind you."

Fleur rolled her eyes at the antics of the pair, again wondering why they'd seen fit to join them on their escape from Canterlot. Not that she wasn't grateful for their aid in doing so, although Twilight Velvet's suggested method of going over the Canterlot falls in barrels could have used some work. Fleur was sure her bruises had bruises after that.

"It'll do as a shelter until we know what we're doing," Shining Armour said, making it clear that he was ending that discussion. "What we need to work out is what we're going to do once we reach Manehattan."

"Are you sure we couldn't just stay here?"

Fleur sighed at the words from Honeydew, currently known as Bluebelle per her disguise. While it had been essential that she not fall into the hooves of the Mareitanians, she was far from ideal material for long hikes through occupied countryside. At least her companion, the also disguised changeling called Thorax, kept his complaints to himself. That was the only reason Fleur had kept it to herself that his crystal pony disguise was a dead giveaway, being far too sparkly and easily spotted.

"No offence Bluebelle," the filly said to Honeydew, "but it's hot as balls here, and there's nothing to eat that probably doesn't want to eat us back. Pretty sure water is going to be an issue too. We should just get to Manehattan."

"I second that," Twilight Velvet agreed.

"It's no good just running into Manehattan without a plan," Shining argued. "Fleur and I are wanted ponies, and-"

"That's why we should stay hidden out here!" Honeydew argued. "They aren't looking for us here!"

"This is a good place to regroup and have a rest," Nightlight agreed. "You've just come out of fighting a war, son. Don't you think it's a good idea to have a break before throwing yourself back into it?"

"I'll have a break when I know my wife and child are safe. Faust may have let them get away, but I won't pretend she's not going to go after them at some point."

"Let's not forget the rest of what's going on," Fleur said to all of them. "Faust will probably take her war to other countries now that she has Equestria. Those same countries that might be our only hope of beating her now, so we need to do something to slow the Mareitanians down."

The filly's eyes lit up with a mischievous twinkle, "You mean like some sort of... rebellion?"

Fleur choked on her breath, "Oh hell no! I'm not talking about fighting the Mareitanians head on, because we've learnt that doesn't really work unless you have the numbers. I'm talking more about acts of sabotage, and things along those lines. Twilight, Luna, and Cadence are still out there, along with Trixie and whoever else, and they're probably working on a way to stop Faust, leaving us to take care of the rest of it. If we can cause enough disruption to Faust's war machine to stop her invading other countries, then we need to do it."

"But what if she starts taking retribution out on our ponies for what we do?" Shining argued. "I'm not sure we can risk that."

"Equestria has more to lose if we don't," Fleur argued back. "We only need to keep Faust and her army bogged down until Twilight and the others are ready to take on Faust."

"And how will we know when that happens? We don't have any contact with them, and have no way of knowing what their plans are, or if they're even okay!" Shining sighed heavily, "Maybe we should head to the Everfree and find the portal to wherever they are instead."

"And risk leading Faust right to them?" Fleur firmly shook her head, "No chance. Come on Shining, we may have lost the war, but we still have a job to do. If we can distract Faust from hunting the princesses at the same time, then all the better."

"It still won't matter unless we can contact Cadence and the others."

"Hopefully I've already taken care of that." Fleur half smiled at Shining, "Knowing Twilight, she's bound to go after her friends in High Rock, so I've left a messenger there for when she arrives. She'll inform Twilight of what we're up to, where we are, and get her in touch with us."

"Wow," Shining said with a hint of admiration. "You really do think of everything, don't you? What if she doesn't go to High Rock though?"

"One thing at a time Shining, but after getting forced to postpone saving her friends in favour of saving Equestria, she no longer has a reason to put it off. Twilight might be a bit... different, to the pony she was, but one thing the same is that there's nopony she cares more about than her friends. I really do think that's going to be the first thing she'll do, if she hasn't done it already."

"Alright," Shining nodded, "I believe you." Shining spent a moment in quiet contemplation as he stared at Fleur, who quickly became uncomfortable with the attention. "I hate to say it, but I'm really out of my depth here. I understand armies and fighting, but subterfuge is beyond me. I'm making this your show, Fleur."

"Ooh, a vote of confidence, my word."

"It's been known to happen, now don't disappoint me." Shining waved a hoof at Fleur, "Come on then, what's the plan?"

"We're going to have to start slow. We don't even know what the situation is in Manehattan, so for now we should just think about getting there and laying low. Thankfully I know any number of ponies that can find us somewhere out of sight, so that shouldn't be an issue. Once we've got the lay of the land, we can start to branch out into other plans."

Shining nodded at Fleur, "So the first step is to get to Manehattan?"

"That was always going to have to be the first step of the plan."

"Alright, let's rest up for tonight, then we'll get moving."

"Actually, there's something we need to sort out first." Fleur looked Thorax straight in the eyes, "You really need to find a less conspicuous disguise, Thorax. There isn't exactly an abundance of crystal ponies wondering about the place, so you'll draw attention in Manehattan."

"What are you talking about?" Thorax said with a staged cheer that didn't hide his fear of being found out. "My name isn't Thorax, it's Crystal Hoof, ha ha..."

"Everypony, this is Thorax. He's a changeling that decided to leave his hive to come live in Equestria, and isn't a threat to any of us."

"We already know," said Twilight Velvet. "Shining already told us about him, and nopony in the Crystal Empire was really trying to keep his existence a secret." She smiled at Thorax, "Shining told us you were friendly, and a natural with Flurry."

There was a flash of green as Thorax changed into his true form, his dark chitin shining in the light coming in through the door. "Then why didn't you say anything?"

"We weren't sure who else here knew, so we kept it quiet."

"Honeydew knew," Fleur said, smiling as Honeydew's eyes bugged out at the casual use of her real name. "This is Honeydew by the way," she added, pointing at the pony in question. "She's a political refugee from Mareitania, hence the fake name and disguise."

"What are you doing Fleur?" Honeydew shrieked.

Nightlight hummed at Honeydew, "I was wondering what the yellow specs in your coat were about. I guess you must've upset Faust quite a bit to come on the run here."

Directing a hateful glare at Fleur for a moment, Honeydew shrank back from the others. "It's not what I did do, but what I can do is the reason she wants me." Honeydew sighed and closed her eyes, "I was Mareitania's chief engineer after the civil war. I helped construct their rail network, on top of other things."

"What other things?" Twilight Velvet asked, only getting a small shake of the head in answer. "Come on sweetheart, it can't be that bad, surely?"

Honeydew sighed again, and admitted the truth. "I'm the one that designed and built the steam tanks the Mareitanians use. I'm the reason hundreds of Equestrians are dead, if not more. Faust wants me back because of those."

There was an awkward silence as the news was allowed to sink in. Fleur knew already the entire truth, but she wasn't sure Shining knew the nature of what Honeydew had made for Faust. The only others that weren't surprised by anything was Thorax and the filly.

"I can't believe it," Shining whispered. "You're the one that built those?"

"I didn't want to!" Honeydew shouted, jumping to her hooves like she expected to be attacked. "Part of the agreement I had with the Council of Mareitania was that I never had to build those things that I was originally forced to build for the Duke! But Faust turned up, and I was forced to build them anyway! I hate those things, and I wish I could destroy every single one of them!"

"Then why build them?"

"Because I keep getting forced to, again and again! When Bon Bon and her team found me in Mareitania, they were going to kill me because of it, but Fleur persuaded them to spare my life and hide me. I was then given the chance to come to Equestria, and I took it, just to see it be conquered by Faust and those machines I helped create." Honeydew turned her back on them and sat hard, "Hate me if you want. I deserve it."

"That's not true," Thorax said, stroking a hoof down her back.

"It wasn't your people my designs got killed."

Conflicting emotions swept across Shining's face as he took in the news, ending with a snarl on his lips. He stood, and he was about to yell when the clear voice of his mother stopped him.

"Don't you dare, Shining Armour."

"What? But she's-"

"A victim in this. Look at her Shining! Does that look like a pony that wished to do what she did? To hurt ponies? She was forced to do it, so you know you can't really blame her."

"I spared her life for a reason." Fleur narrowed her eyes at Shining, daring him to cross her. "You should listen to your mother when she says Honeydew isn't to blame."

"Fine," Shining huffed, sitting back down. "Why bring it up if you knew I was going to act this way?"

"Because we need to trust each other, and part of that is there being no secrets. If you found these things out by accident, you'd feel a lot more betrayed by it."

"Huh," Shining grunted, "you're not wrong there. Alright, if you trust her, I will."

"That's all I ask," Fleur said sweetly. "Now we should all get some rest. We have a lot to do tomorrow."

-0-0-0-

Fleur couldn't put a hoof on it, but Manehattan felt wrong, but not for the obvious reason of being under a hostile occupation. The entire place seemed to have a nervous energy about it that made you want to hurry to your destination just to get off the streets. Perhaps the greatest indication of the city's feelings came from its many graffiti artists, who had taken to creating images of Faust looking stern, with the word obey written in bold letters beneath.

"Intriguing," Nightlight said of such an image. "Do you think they're trying to be ironic, or does Faust actually have a bit of a following here?"

"For the sake of Equestria I hope it's the former," Fleur replied. "The last thing we need is Faust getting genuine support from ponies." Fleur dismissed the image and turned her attention elsewhere, stopping on a lengthy queue of ponies outside a shop. "I wonder what that's all about?"

"I guess food shortages," the filly told her. "Used to see that sort of thing back in Prance a lot during the winter."

"Yeah, but this is Eques..." Fleur let the word die on her lips. For all intents and purposes, Equestria looked a lot like Mareitania now, and the war couldn't have been good for food production, amongst other things. Fleur could only hope that this queuing was a symptom of the recent occupation of the city disrupting things, and not a result of Equestria's food stores running low before winter had even begun.

"Shit, soldiers!"

"Language, Shining!"

"Sorry, sorry."

All of them moved back into the shadow of the bridge they were by, and waited for the pair of soldiers to pass. That fact that they were bold enough to go around in pairs irked Fleur, but she knew better than to assume the ponies of the city were putting up any resistance.

"Perhaps we should get a move on to where you're taking us," Twilight Velvet said to Fleur, keeping her voice low as the soldiers moved on.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Come on."

There were only a few blocks between them and their destination, and the entire journey displayed more of the same. The city seemed lifeless without the usual hustle and bustle, but what was there to hustle and bustle about in times such as these? Perhaps calling whatever was gripping the city a nervous energy was wrong, because the more you looked at it, the more it seemed like fear, justified as it may be.

The news had to have gotten around about the fall of Canterlot, and the disappearance of Celestia, not to mention the other princesses going on the run. Equestria, as ponies had known it for centuries, had effectively ended. It was only fair that they be concerned over what happened next. Hopefully the actions of a few ponies was enough to make that future brighter than the one Faust promised.

"This is the place," Fleur said, stopping at the corner of a large tower block, the well to do kind that would typically have a pony minding the door in more usual circumstances. Not that it mattered to Fleur much as she had no intentions of using the front door anyway.

Instead she led them around the back of the building, down an alley that was starting to fill with rubbish as the ponies responsible for such hadn't been performing their duties recently. She paid it no mind as she quickly trotted to the rear entrance of the building, and opened a small box by the door, pressing her hoof to an intercom hidden inside and holding it until somepony answered.

"I'm not deaf you know, you need only press the button once. Now who is it?"

"It's Fleur."

"Fle- Good heavens Fleur! What are you doing here? Never mind, get up here at once."

There was a buzz, and Fleur pushed the door open, entering quickly. As soon as she was inside she could feel herself relaxing, the risk of being spotted now being considerably less than it was outside.

"What is this place?" Shining asked, inspecting the cold concrete surroundings as they clattered up a steel staircase. "And why are we coming in through the back entrance?"

"An old friend lives here," Fleur told him. "She provides a discreet service for ponies that wish to escape the limelight for a while, for whatever reasons they might have. She'll keep us hidden for a little bit."

"She lives on the top floor, doesn't she?" Honeydew huffed.

"How did you know that?"

"Just a feeling."

Fleur smirked and kept diligently leading the way up all the way to the penthouse. As predicted, not a soul was to be seen in the maintenance sections of the building, which suited Fleur perfectly. The door at the end was unlocked, and they slipped through, heading quickly to the one accommodation that existed on the top floor. Fleur was about to knock when the door whipped open, and they were quickly urged inside.

"Honestly Fleur, I never expected to see you slinking in through my back door ever again."

Fleur smiled at the dark grey mare before her, observing that the earth pony had kept her short pink mane in exactly the same manner since the last time they'd spoken. Not what you'd expect for a fashion designer. "It's been far too long, Prim."

The other mare broke out of her stern composure to return Fleur's smile before the two ponies embraced and theatrically kissed the air on both sides of each others heads with loud smacking noises. "Indeed it has Fleur. A shame that we had to reunite in such a manner, and that you couldn't come alone."

Twilight Velvet took a hesitant step forward, "I'm sorry, but when you say Prim, do you mean Prim Hemline, the fashion designer?"

"I prefer the term couturier extraordinaire, but yes, that is I. You must be Twilight Velvet, mother of both Princess Twilight, and Prince Shining Armour, who is also here, along with your husband Nightlight."

Twilight Velvet's eyes bulged, "You know who we are?"

"But of course! It pays to know everypony who is somepony."

Nightlight raised his chin slightly, a look of pride on his face. "I've never felt so famous as I do now."

"Still," Prim continued, "I don't know everypony here." She gestured at the other three ponies with Fleur. "Who might these be?"

"This is Swift Wings, my... uh, "Fleur rotated a hoof as she tried to conjure an appropriate word and failed, "I'll say adopted daughter, and general hanger-oner. The other mare is Honeydew, and Blaze-" Fleur pointed at the red coated pegasus stallion with a mohawk of black streaked, flame coloured hair, who looked like some abomination straight out of a preadolescents imagination, "-is an idiot."

"Hey..."

Prim appraised all of them with a look, "I see, and since when did you have a daughter, adopted or otherwise? Why are you even here with all these ponies? Especially the crown prince of the Crystal Empire?"

"We're trying to hide from somepony."

Prim rolled her eyes, "This should be good. Come on then, who are you hiding from?"

"Faust."

Prim launched into a choking fit, and it took several seconds of Fleur patting her on the back to get her to stop. "Good grief Fleur, I was expecting you to tell me the prince had got you in the family way! Not that you're on the run from Faust! And while I could understand her wanting the prince, why would she want any of the rest of you?"

"I'm the director of Equis," Fleur answered, "and Honeydew is on the run from Mareitania for her own reasons. The rest of them just came along to escape Canterlot."

"You're the head of Equestrian intelligence? That's why I haven't seen you on a catwalk for the last two years?"

"Not quite, but partly."

Prim pointed a hoof at Fleur's scars, "I'll happily tell you that is no reason to shy away from the public eye, Fleur, however you might've acquired it."

Fleur lost some of her good cheer towards Prim, "It's not all related to my scars, and honestly, I have plenty of other reasons besides that. I didn't come here for a lecture over missing the last two years worth of prancing about in other ponies clothes, I came to get your help to hide."

"And you shall have it my dear, but you must realise this is all a surprise to me. I never expected to see anypony related to the war coming to ask for my help. I don't suppose I should expect any of the princesses at some point?"

"I shouldn't think so."

"Good, because hiding them might be a challenge."

"Less than you think," Fleur said dismissively, knowing how capable the princesses were at disguising themselves. "Thanks for helping us Prim."

"I pray I don't come to regret it. Unfortunately I'm not exactly equipped to deal with so many guests at once, so you'll have to share a room for now. Make yourselves comfortable while I attempt to find suitable bedding for all of you."

The filly threw herself onto one of the many sofas occupying the middle of the large living room in the penthouse as Prim went off in search of bedding. "This place is sweet! I'm so glad we decided to not stay in the desert."

"I still think we would've been safer there," Honeydew said as she sat in her own seat. "I know it's not like we're in Canterlot, but it still feels like we're in the vipers' nest."

"And I still don't understand what's wrong with my disguise," Thorax hissed.

Fleur sighed a quiet laugh, "Oh so many things that I won't go into. What I am going to say is that we shouldn't get too comfortable. If us being here brings trouble to Prim, we'll be leaving." Fleur walked over to the window and looked down into the streets below. All was quiet now, but it was far to easy to imagine hundreds of soldiers getting ready to invade and apprehend them. Then she spotted something across the street. "Oh, that won't do."

"What won't?" Shining asked, moving over to where Fleur was to see what was wrong.

"That." Fleur pointed at one of the images of Faust they'd seen throughout their time in Manehattan, plastered on the corner of a building opposite them. "Ironic or not, if we're staying here, that's getting changed. Prim? I don't suppose you have any spray paint do you?"

"Spray paint?" came the reply from elsewhere in the apartment. "Do I look like the kind of pony that uses spray paint?"

"Alright, do you have anything else colourful I can use? Maybe some ordinary paint?"

"The only thing I have remotely close to what you want are my dyes."

"That'll do." Fleur turned to Prim's workspace in a well lit corner of the room, where several cupboards and a sewing machine was situated. "Thanks Prim."

Shining squinted suspiciously at Fleur as she searched through the cupboards. "You're not going out there just to deface some graffiti are you."

"I can't promise I'm not going out there to do such a thing." Fleur finally located the bottles of dye, and picked through them before settling on a deep red colour. There was also a handy brush on the shelf below, which she was sure Prim would complain about her ruining. "Be right ba-ack!" she sang.

Fleur ignored Shining voicing his displeasure, and exited the penthouse, swiftly trotting back the way they had come up and leaving the door slightly ajar. After checking the coast was clear she hurried across the street to where the offending piece of artwork was located.

Fleur hummed to herself as she thought about how to best deface the image, and settled for drawing a big red cross over it. It didn't seem to be enough though, and needed a little something to really complete it. "Ah, I know." Dabbing her brush back in the dye, and sticking her tongue out the corner of her mouth, she daubed the word resist underneath in big capital letters. "Perfect."

Her job done, Fleur stepped back to admire her work, paying particular attention to how the running red dye looked convincingly like blood as it dribbled down the wall. Fitting really, as the cost of resisting Faust was likely to be blood, along with maybe some sweat and tears. Still, it was a long way until that, and Fleur hoped that a catchy slogan was at least a decent starting point.

-0-0-0-

Sunset shifted in her seat, her mind distracted from her work by the presence of Cadence nearby, playing with Flurry in the hopes of keeping the foal distracted while others tried to work. It was Cadence herself that was distracting her though, as the pink alicorn had said barely a word to her through the last two weeks, and it was starting to bother Sunset that Cadence was being so quiet about their unhappy history.

Sunset tried to ignore it a little longer, but finally decided that she couldn't, and stood to walk over to the princess. "Cadence, can we talk?"

"I was wondering when this would happen," Cadence said, without malice, or any emotion really. "Of course we can talk."

Sunset sat in front of Cadence, waiting for the pink princess to give Sunset her full attention. Sunset breathed in slowly, then released it in one. "I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted."

"I- Wait, what?"

Cadence smiled tiredly at Sunset, "I said, apology accepted. You didn't think I'd been holding a grudge against you for all this time, did you?"

"You'd have every right to. I treated you like garbage back before I left."

"You weren't displaying your best qualities back then, I admit, but considering you'd been Celestia's apprentice for some time when I came along, a freshly minted alicorn princess, I can't deny that I didn't anticipate some hostility from you."

"Some? I'm pretty sure I gave you more than some."

"True, but you never acted on a lot of it. Whether that was from fear of disappointing Celestia if you did, I couldn't tell you, but I never held any of it against you. If I was in your position, seeing me come along and suddenly stealing so much of Celestia's attention away, I'd be upset too. You know she'd never replace you though."

Sunset chuckled bitterly, "If I was the pony I was back then, I'd tell you she replaced me with Twilight easy enough. I know that isn't true now," Sunset added before Cadence could correct her, "but that's how it felt when I first found out. Now I'm glad to see she could find an apprentice as humble as Twilight. She turned out better than the arrogant pain in the ass like I was."

"You weren't all bad," Cadence said softly.

"No, I'm pretty sure I was."

"And I disagree. I could've turned Twilight against you easy enough before we sent her to reclaim her crown, telling her about your snide, arrogant ways, and all of that, but I didn't. Do you want to know why?"

Sunset gave Cadence a lopsided smile, "I suspect you're going to tell me anyway."

Cadence laughed softly, "Yes I am. Do you remember the busker? The one we found on that trip out together, when Celestia was still trying to get us to be friends. It wasn't long before Hearths-warming, and it was absolutely freezing. That poor busker was just trying to make a few bits for the train fare home, but in typical Canterlot style, he was being ignored. He wasn't very good, which didn't help."

"He was trying, and it was freezing."

"I know. You made us sit there for over five minutes, listening to him badly play the guitar, then gave him twenty bits, telling him to go home and get warm, because he couldn't play for shit with cold hooves."

Sunset cringed, "Those were my actual words, weren't they? Ugh, nice going Sunset."

"Umm... yes, that bit wasn't charitable, but you paid for his train fare, and for something warm to eat, and had a big smile on your face for the rest of the day. That's how I knew there was a good pony deep down inside you, and that's why I kept everything you did to me to myself. I'm glad to see it paid off."

Sunset looked down as she twisted a hoof on the floor, her breath catching with her relief at how much better this went that she thought it would. "Thanks, Cadence, I mean it. If it's not too late, perhaps we could have another go at being friends?"

Cadence placed a hoof on Sunset's, getting the mare to look her in the eyes. "I'd be delighted to Sunset. You've come a long way from the pony you were, and it'd be silly of me to not give you another chance. Come here." Cadence pulled Sunset into a hug, and smiled properly for what felt like the first time in ages.

"I guess they don't call you the princess of love for nothing." Sunset released the hug and sighed happily, "You have no idea how much better I feel now."

"And I'm glad I have one less thing to worry about. Unfortunately, we still have a job to do."

"Actually," Moondancer said, inserting herself into the conversation, "I might've found something useful. Do any of you know what an arcane oubliette is?"

"Are you talking about a magical prison?" Luna asked. "Trapping a pony in a void?"

"Actually it's more like a pocket dimension inside an object, but yes. I thought something like that would be perfect for containing Faust."

Starsy zipped into view, hovering in front of Moondancer in a manner that suggested he was angry. "Absolutely not. I am not trapping Faust in an endless void."

Moondancer smirked back at him, "Who said it had to be an endless void? What if we could combine Sunset's idea with an arcane oubliette? Create one that Faust could be happy in? Would that be good enough?"

"Hmm..." Starsy morphed into his pony form, a hoof rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he formed. "That would satisfy both our ends I suppose, but the spell work to create such a thing would be astronomical."

"But not impossible?" Luna enquired.

"No, but it will take time to do. Weeks... maybe even months, but it would work, and leave Faust in a state where she's contained, yet comfortable." Starsy nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, that sounds like just the ticket. I'll get started right away."

Luna smiled as Starsy zoomed away, "It seems we might pull this off after all. We do still have one problem though. We'll need to fight Faust to get her in, and to do that we need to get through her army. I hate to say it, especially to you Cadence, but there may be only one way to do that."

"But we don't have an army," Cadence pointed out.

"No, we don't. If we are to pull this off, we shall need allies willing to fight to save our world. Unfortunately for us, the only one I can think of with an army even capable of such, is the Griffon Empire." Luna smiled helplessly, "As you can imagine, it might take a little work to convince them to join our cause."

"So when do we leave?" asked Sunset.

"Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. I would prefer to have Twilight come with us, so we'll have to wait until she returns. I pray she doesn't take too long."

3. The old seat of power

"I never asked for this," Trixie whimpered, the miniaturised pony holding on for dear life inside Twilight's saddlebag that the alicorn had teleported to herself in the hopes of remaining undetected in the short time they had re-entered Starswirl's sanctuary to take the portal to the Castle of the Two Sisters, so they didn't have as far to fly to Mareitania.

It had still been a long flight though, and the entire journey had been an excellent opportunity to see what had become of Equestria in both their absences, if Trixie had been willing to look. Twilight was however, and she was not particularly impressed. The train in the river just north of Las Pegasus was one thing, but the damage done to Vanhoover as they moved north to follow the land bridge, was something else entirely.

"Woah, you ponies really don't mess around in a fight," Ember said of the destruction.

"Apparently not," Twilight said back. Rainbow had told her of the bombing, and of destroying the Royal Canter, but seeing it was very different. Now the city was mostly abandoned, and the damage gone unrepaired. It creeped her out.

"It seems so different like this," Rainbow said, but who she was saying it to was debatable. "Why did the Mareitanians abandon it?"

"Because it's a half destroyed mess?" Lightning answered her. "It feels weird that we did more damage to this place than the Mareitanians ever did."

Rainbow closed her eyes and shook her head, "We shouldn't have come this way. We should've just flown straight over the undiscovered west, and over the ocean."

"Still don't know why ponies call it the undiscovered west if you know it's there," said Mayfly. "Is it more that you haven't bothered to settle there yet?"

"Not now Mayfly," Twilight said to the changeling, sensing that Rainbow didn't want to be distracted by random chatter. There was a revelation about to be made, and Rainbow was about to make it.

"Do you think we tried too hard to defend Equestria?"

Twilight nodded with satisfaction.

"How could you say that?" Vapor gasped. "Ponies gave their lives to save Equestria! Sky gave his life for it!"

"But we still lost. We pretty much destroyed Vanhoover to stop the Mareitanians using it. We blew up a bridge, crashed a train, collapsed a tunnel, and destroyed significant parts of Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Baltimare, and Canterlot, but barely even slowed the Mareitanians down. We even blew up stuff in Mareitania, and it did nothing! Compared to a bombing in Manehattan and what those fucking griffons did in Appleloosa, we were far more destructive than the Mareitanians ever were!"

"We were denying resources to the enemy!"

"That doesn't mean what we did was right!"

"Actually, destroying those resources does help in the long run," Twilight said, smoothly inserting herself into the argument. "Rainbow may be onto something though. Luna could've fought the war much differently."

There was a sharp snort from Lightning, "And how exactly would she have done that?" she asked scornfully.

"By putting a greater emphasis on guerrilla tactics, and a hit and run campaign, instead of trying to fight the Mareitanians head on. Take out their supply lines, strike their soldiers at night, attacking and eliminate the griffons where you could to give you guys greater freedom to attack elsewhere, and setting traps and ambushes wherever the Mareitanians were going. Basically anything that spares ponies on our side, while making the Mareitanians scared of every step they took. There was no way you could win by fighting the Mareitanians on the battlefield."

Lightning looked sideways at Twilight, waiting for the punch line. "We tried all that."

"No, you set the occasional trap, but half of them didn't work. The one here in Vanhoover backfired on you in the worst way." Twilight shrugged at Lightning, "I'm just saying, it could've been done differently."

"Well maybe if the Mareitanians had never been a threat in the first place, none of this would ever have happened!"

"Here we go," Twilight muttered to herself.

"None of this is Twilight's fault!" Rainbow shouted defending Twilight before she could defend herself.

"It's fine Rainbow, let her. Then I can tell her that I never wanted to go there in the first place, and the Mareitanians weren't a threat until Faust made them to be. At the very least, if you're going to blame me, blame Celestia and Luna too."

"We shouldn't be blaming anypony for anything," said Rainbow. She glared at Lightning, "We should be finding a way to fix this instead."

"Except we're trusting the ponies that messed this all up in the first place to do the fixing! How is that a good plan?"

"Because," Twilight stated firmly, "unless you're willing to accept that Faust is going to one day try to turn you into a mindless, grass eating pony, leaving you as prey to get eaten by some griffon or timberwolf, then we're the only ones with even a hope of stopping that. It's not an ideal situation for any of us, but there's little we can do about that now."

Lightning laughed once, but it was far from happy. "There's a line to fill you with confidence. But fine, I know what's going on here, which is why I'm helping, but only because Dash has such faith in you."

Twilight tried to reply to that, but found she had none. Faith would only get them so far. A plan would get them much further. For now they would focus on getting to Mareitania, and getting their friends back.

-0-0-0-

They flew above the clouds, of which there was an extortionate amount, far worse than there ever was during the reign of the Duke. Twilight wasn't about to say she knew what was happening, but if she were to hazard a guess, she'd say that Faust hadn't been back here to change the weather for quite some time. Her other guess was that the weather was possibly going wild without pegasus intervention.

"How is anything supposed to grow on the ground with this much rain?" Rainbow asked. "Is Faust stupid enough to let this country starve?"

"Seems so," Twilight said lightly. "Why is it raining so much though?"

"Heck if I know. They don't exactly tell us how magically produced weather is supposed to act. That's more your thing."

Twilight hummed thoughtfully. She hadn't considered Faust producing the weather with magic as making any difference, but it might. Perhaps if rainclouds used a higher concentration of magic to work, that magic would overpower other clouds, and turn them to rainclouds too. Or, as Twilight realised, she could be throwing ideas at a wall and seeing what stuck. She honestly had no idea why this was happening.

"We must be getting close now," Twilight said instead. "Time to get wet," she added, diving down sharply.

Rain soaked them before they were even halfway through the cloud layer, and the effect on their wings was immediately noticeable as the rain made flying much harder. Thankfully High Rock was visible to the south, and would only take ten minutes to reach at their slowed speed.

"That place is big," Vapor said of High Rock, the dark stoned keep towering over pretty much everything except the mountain it was attached to. "To think that used to be Unicornia."

"And the home of a certain Princess Platinum," Twilight grumbled. She kept her eyes on the keep as they got nearer, watching out for signs of danger, but there was nothing. The keep was still and silent, and felt a little bit eerie without any ponies around it. "Where are the guards here? Something is definitely wrong."

"All the better for us," Trixie said from within Twilight's bag. "I wouldn't mind having to do this without a fight, for once."

"Wouldn't the point of sneaking in be to do this without a fight anyway?" Ember asked, making Trixie chuckle.

"You're new here, so I'll forgive for not knowing how things normally go for us. If we've only had to fight a hundred soldiers off, it'll be called a success."

"I don't think there's even a hundred ponies here at all," said Twilight. "Even the main entrance is unguarded," she observed as they flew around the front. "Screw sneaking in, I want to know what's going on here."

"Are you kidding me?" Trixie protested as Twilight flew straight down towards the entrance. "You're just going to walk in and hope it all works out?"

"That's right."

"You're insane."

"Very possible."

"So long as you admit it." Trixie went quiet as they landed, and stayed that way even as Twilight picked her out of the bag and returned her to her proper size. Even though she'd been here since the events of the civil war, looking at this place still made her feel sick.

Twilight studied the doors of the keep, then tested the handles. They weren't even locked, and she pulled them open to reveal the interior of the keep, poorly lit though it was. There was still nopony to be seen.

"That creep factor is just getting higher and higher," said Rainbow.

Twilight nodded at Mayfly, and suggested she disguise herself, then headed in. She lit her horn to guide their way easier, and made her way through the keep. It was clean and tidy, which at least suggested that the place was being looked after, but who was doing that was still to reveal themselves.

"I like it," Ember said cheerfully, using a ball of flame held in her claw to light her way. "Has a real nice imposing feel to it."

"Cool and dark like the hive was," Mayfly said in what was possibly an agreement.

"I still don't like this place," Trixie said to Twilight. "I have this strange urge to attack pretty much everything."

Twilight smiled sideways at Trixie to try and reassure her that she wasn't about to do anything to the unicorn, if that was something Trixie was worried about. "Try and keep it to yourself, yeah?"

"Okay, but if anything sneaks up on us in here, I make no promises as to what condition I'll leave them in."

Twilight rolled her eyes, but smiled, even as they came to a closed door blocking their way. If she remembered correctly, it led to the former throne room, which seemed like a good place to find anypony that might be here. She pushed the doors open, and had barely made it two steps inside when the voice of a young filly stopped her.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

"Excuse me?" Twilight resumed walking, and quickly found that the voice had come from the far end of the room, from upon the shattered throne of the former Duke, where a small filly was sat side by side with a colt. They seemed familiar, but it was Trixie who worked it out first.

"You have got to be kidding me."

"What?"

"Tracker and Opal. Pearl's kids?" Trixie added as Twilight continued to stare blankly. "Good job Fleur isn't with us."

"Right, yes. Why are you two on the throne?"

"Because this is our castle now," Tracker explained in a clear voice. "All intruders will be execute- What the hell is that?" Tracker pointed at Ember, his eyes wide with fear.

"I guess you kids haven't ever seen a dragon before?" Ember said to them.

"I didn't even think dragons were real! I thought they were just stories!"

Ember raised an eyebrow at Twilight, silently demanding an explanation. "You get that lot in Mareitania," Twilight explained. "Education wasn't high on the list of priorities around here."

"Uh-huh, right. Sounds like a poor excuse to me."

Twilight shrugged apologetically, then went back to Tracker and Opal. "Where is everypony?"

"We don't know," Opal answered. "I think the guards went to Equestria to help Faust, but it's not like anypony really tells us anything."

"What about the council?"

"Some of them went home," said Tracker. "There's been big problems with flooding, and food shortages, so they went to do what they could."

Trixie frowned at the two kids, "Isn't answering us like disobeying Faust or something?"

"We don't like Faust," Opal huffed. "She's a big meany. Things were better before she came along and made it all different."

Trixie laughed, "Who would've thought that Pearl's kids were the only two ponies we'd meet with sense around here? Seriously, I want to know."

"You should stop talking about her," Tracker said tightly. "I know you're the ponies that killed our mum."

"Then why are you talking to us?"

"Because... she was wrong." Tracker looked to the side as his sister hugged him. "Mum always told us that unicorns and pegasi were bad, and that earth ponies were good. Plenty of unicorns have been nice to us, and plenty of earth ponies have been horrible, so maybe the other things mum did were wrong too. I don't know. I try not to think about her too much."

"Why not?" Twilight asked gently.

"Because I want to remember the good things about her, but all the bad things make it harder to remember those."

Twilight was about to try and offer her condolences, but the small "uh-oh" uttered by Opal made her stop and look back at what Opal could see. It was Daybreak, the yellow unicorn that Twilight had once called an ally during the rebellion, then an enemy as he served Faust. Currently she didn't know what to call him.

"Twilight? What are you doing here?"

The caution in his voice made Twilight think that maybe there was a chance that the spell she'd hastily cast on him during their last meeting had stuck, freeing him from Faust. Unfortunately, Trixie didn't care enough to find out, and picked him up to slam him against the wall.

"So, Daybreak, if that's still your real name, we meet again."

"Of course that's still my real name!" Daybreak struggled to free himself, but soon gave up. "I see you haven't changed too much Trixie."

"I'm just treating you how I'd treat any servant of Faust."

"Then it's a good job I don't really serve her." Daybreak struggled to turn his head to see Twilight, "I don't know what it was that you did to me, but you saved me from Faust's control."

"Let him go Trixie."

"But-"

"Now please."

"Fine." Trixie released him, leaving him to fall to the floor and gasp for breath. Twilight waited for him to recover, but was confused by how she felt. She wanted to feel elated that he was okay, and free from Faust, but all she felt was a hardness towards him.

"What happened Daybreak? Why did any of this happen?"

"Because by the time we knew what was happening, it was far too late to stop it." Daybreak stood and sighed, "I don't know how much you know about this, but when the Viscount publicly revealed Faust's existence, when we didn't even know ourselves, we weren't left with many options. If we didn't investigate her ourselves, others soon would. We thought we could control the outcome if we did it, but she took control of us pretty quick."

"That's it?" said Trixie. "No apology or anything?"

"There's no apology I could give that would be enough."

"I guess you're all paying the price for obeying Faust as well now," Twilight said evenly. "She's left Mareitania in ruins."

"Ponies still follow her though, because of that blasted crystal." Daybreak shook his head, "It doesn't matter. Why are you all here, and with a dragon no less?"

"Where is everypony?" Twilight asked, ignoring Daybreak's question. "Tracker and Opal said-" Twilight stopped as she found the throne was devoid of the two ponies, then carried on. "They said the guards all went to Equestria, and everypony else left to help with the flooding. Is that true?"

"More or less. There's only a skeleton crew here to take care of the keep, and the other councillors are gone, leaving me on my own. As you said, Mareitania is in ruins through sheer negligence, and what you see here is just one small symptom of it."

"Uh-huh."

"Why didn't you tell us about her?" Daybreak asked suddenly, his tone angry. Twilight supposed she could understand that at least.

"I wanted no part in it really, and left it all to Celestia and Luna. The fact is, we didn't tell you because we thought others would find out and try to free her. We never considered that the Viscount would know."

"Yeah? Well he did, so I guess he got that revenge he wanted on all of us. Now why the hell are you here?"

"I want my friends, Daybreak. Where are they?" Twilight felt her chest tighten as Daybreak hesitated, and knew something was wrong. "What?"

"They aren't here any more. The guards that left this place took your friends with them."

"No!" Rainbow shouted as Twilight's rear sank to the floor. "You're lying, you have to be!"

"You can search this entire keep if you want, but I promise you they aren't here. Faust wanted them where she could keep an eye on them. She must've suspected you would come for them."

"Raargh!" Rainbow screamed, bucking a chair hard enough to smash it. "I can't believe this! We were finally going to get them back, and this happens!"

"I'm sorry," said Daybreak. "If I'd have thought you were coming to get them, I would've tried to keep them here."

"I don't want your apologies! I want my friends back!"

"Rainbow," Twilight said sternly, making the pegasus stop. "We'll get them back."

"But-"

"But nothing, Rainbow. I said we'd get them back, and we will, just... not now, apparently. Once we know where they are we can make a new plan, okay?"

Twilight knew Rainbow wanted to argue, she could see it, but with nothing to argue against Rainbow eventually relented with a small sigh. "Okay Twilight, I- Okay."

"This mightn't have been a total waste though," said Daybreak. "Now you're here you can destroy the crystal Faust uses to spread her mind control."

"What crystal?"

"I'll show you."

-0-0-0-

Twilight turned her head as she inspected the large, green glowing crystal, keeping back from the wisps of energy that came off it. Apparently it was the source of the mind control in Mareitania, maintaining the spell that kept everypony under Faust's hoof, even during her absence. Twilight wondered how it worked.

"Can't you just destroy it?" Trixie asked, watching Twilight with disdain. "You destroy it, and boom! End of problem."

"Except it isn't. I could destroy it, but it won't change anything. Ponies here would still be under Faust's spell. I might have another idea though."

"You're going to use it, aren't you?"

Twilight nodded, "I'm going to try. I doubt I could totally rewrite everything in this crystal, because this is some old magic Faust is using that I don't understand, but it's far from flawless. I think I could overwrite it with a new subtle message that could get ponies to doubt Faust, and get them thinking about what's really going on here. Hopefully that would be enough to get them to turn against her. Unfortunately it only reaches as far as around Mareitania as far as I can tell, so those occupying Equestria won't be effected.

"Okay, that's something at least."

"Hopefully this won't take long."

"Good." Trixie turned to Daybreak as Twilight set to work, giving him a smile. "So, how's Thorn?"

"Thorn's... gone."

"What?" Twilight said, her work quickly forgotten. "How? When?"

"She fell in Vanhoover, to an Equestrian bomb."

"Oh Daybreak, I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," Daybreak said back, his voice cracking. "Faust is the one I blame for all of this."

Twilight felt what was left of her anger at Daybreak die. She couldn't be angry at him now. Faust had cost him his daughter, a wonderful mare that Twilight had also called a friend during the rebellion. Twilight wished she could say something comforting, but words escaped her as she really saw how broken Daybreak was. All she could really give him now was justice by stopping Faust, so she went back to work. Sadly others didn't feel the same.

"We've all lost ponies in this war," Vapor said bitterly, eyeing Daybreak with undisguised hatred, refusing to appreciate how much of a victim he was since she didn't know who Thorn was. She lessened it a touch as Trixie explained that Thorn was his daughter.

"Who did you lose?" Daybreak asked her, his voice sounding tired.

"I lost my best friend Sky Stinger."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Daybreak said to her. Vapor didn't return the sentiment.

"What about Sugar Cookie?" Trixie enquired further.

Daybreak made a face, "She was proud of Thorn for giving her life for Faust. I couldn't be around her after that."

"Oh." Trixie twitched the corner of her mouth, feeling awkward for a moment. She decided to take the questioning away from Daybreak's family, to safer areas. "How's... um... Sawbones?"

"He's in Equestria with Suture. They're in charge of Mareitania's medics."

"Y'know what? I'm just going to stop asking."

The room went silent after that, save for the occasional grunt from Twilight as she tried to work her way around Faust's spell. Faust would likely detect it the second she returned here, but Twilight had made sure to cover for that, and make it so her own magic could only be stopped by destroying the crystal. A minor victory, but it was one she could enjoy for the moment.

The only thing bothering her was how the crystal was getting its magic through the warding around the keep. It shouldn't have been possible, but she could feel the thousands of tiny threads of magic that connected to the small crystals in the figurines distributed around the populace. It shouldn't have been possible, but it was, and it wasn't like they were all going out of the nearest window. It was breaking the rules here, but only one type of magic could do that. Chaos magic. The crystal had to have been tainted by Discord at some point.

"No wonder she needed this crystal specifically."

"What was that?" Rainbow asked, pulling herself from staring out of the window high above the ground.

"Nothing important. I do believe I'm done though."

"Sweet. So we can get out of here now?"

"Sure, I guess. Unless there's anything more you can think of Daybreak?"

"Nope, I can't think of anything."

"I can," said a newcomer from the doorway. All of them turned to her, finding a white coated earth pony with a mostly red mane and tail, save for the purple specks at the tips. She smiled at Twilight, then bowed deeply. "It's nice to see you again Princess."

"Uh, do I know you?"

"Hmm? Oh right, the disguise. I'm Bon Bon, from Ponyville."

"Bon Bon," Rainbow said flatly, "as in the sweet-maker?"

"The very same, but that wasn't always my occupation. I was once a member of Smile, the organisation that used to manage monster attacks and suchlike within Equestria until we were shut down. I was asked to join Equis at the start of the war, which is why I'm here now. I also have a message for you from Fleur."

Twilight perked up, "You do? How? No, forget how, just tell me what it is."

"She wanted me to tell you that she's escaped Canterlot with your brother and some others, including your parents, and is now hiding in Manehattan. I'm also to give you the means to get in touch with her, but I can't do that right now."

Twilight was relieved. Immensely so, and that only grew with the news that her parents and brother were also safe. "Finally some good news."

Daybreak stared flatly at Bon Bon, "I thought you seemed a bit too competent for a mare begging to work for food to feed your family. I let a bloody Equestrian spy in here," he added to himself in a mutter.

Bon Bon shrugged at Daybreak, "It was partly true, but that's not important right now. There's something else I need to tell you, Princess. In the short time I've been here, I've heard that there's another alicorn being kept in the dungeons somewhere."

"Another one? I- What? How is that possible? Do you know anything about this Daybreak?"

"She's not been there for long if that's what you're thinking. Faust put her there, although I couldn't tell you why. There's a lot of things she got up to that very few know about."

"And you didn't think you should mention this?"

"Faust said she was dangerous, and needed to be contained. I wasn't totally disinclined to believe her on that one."

Twilight rubbed her head as Daybreak shrugged, "Do you at least know what this alicorn looks like?"

The unicorn shook his head, "All I've heard is that she's black, like the night."

"Black like the- Nooo... it couldn't be..."

Rainbow cocked her head at Twilight, "You know what he's talking about? The only black alicorn I can think of is-"

"Nightmare Moon, I know. Try not to think of her as that, because she won't appreciate the comparison. Daybreak, take us to her."

-0-0-0-

Anxiety grew in Twilight's mind as Daybreak led them back down through the keep. She hadn't had much time to think about where Nightmare had gone on the day she disappeared, so to think she'd been here the entire time wasn't a nice thought, not when you considered how Faust felt about Luna.

Her worries were temporarily forgotten as she saw a pony in the dungeons that she recognised far too well, the former Viscount, Francis. His filthy and gaunt appearance suggested that he wasn't been kept to even a minimum standard of welfare, and for a moment she almost felt sorry for him. Almost. He'd have some work to do before she could feel particularly sympathetic towards him.

"If you're looking for your friends, you're too late," Francis informed them, not seeming too pleased about it himself.

"And now you're all alone again," Twilight replied, not caring. "You better not have laid so much as a hoof on them."

"From in here? How could I? Besides, the guards made it clear that such wouldn't be tolerated. Faust has views on such things."

"And I can agree with her about that at least." Twilight stared for a moment at the pathetic visage Francis provided. "So, how are you enjoying your revenge from in there? Are you ecstatic now that Equestria's fallen under Faust's control? Was it all worth it?"

"It most certainly was. At least now I have something to keep me warm in here between the scarce meals I'm brought. Seems to be a lot less ponies working down here these days."

Twilight looked to Daybreak who shrugged, not even needing to speak to say that Faust had pretty much drained this place of all its ponies she could use. How far that sentiment extended beyond High Rock wasn't worth asking.

"Who are the pegasi?" Francis asked, distracting Twilight back towards him.

"Nothing to do with you," Twilight answered tersely. "I'll leave you to your peace and quiet."

"That was the Viscount?" Rainbow asked as they moved on. "I thought he'd be more... I don't know, sinister?"

"He wasn't ever anything more than a prat with ambitions greater than his abilities. If he couldn't have sex with it, it didn't interest him."

"Ew."

"Exactly."

Twilight stopped as Daybreak led them to the entrance to the lower set of cells where Faust had previously been imprisoned, back in what Twilight was tempted to call the good old days. It shouldn't have been a surprise that Faust put Nightmare down there, but it did make Twilight wonder whether Faust planned on having herself, Luna, and Cadence down there as well. Maybe even Flurry too.

Twilight tried to put the thought away as she started down the stone stairs into the darkness below, hers, Trixie's, and Daybreak's horns lighting the way, while Ember made another torch in her claw. The place seemed to have been cleaned up a bit since the last time Twilight had been there, back when she discovered Faust was free, and it only served to multiply her concerns.

"I think I'm going to have to go on the run after today," Daybreak said conversationally as they descended. "Once Faust finds out what happened here, there'll be no more feigning my obedience."

"Back to the tunnels under Neigh Orleans then?" Trixie asked cheerfully.

Daybreak snorted a laugh, "That does seem fitting. Perhaps from there I could start some kind of rebellion to remove Mareitania's tyrannical leader."

"Sounds good. You could call it the 'Mareitania Liberation Front,' or something along those lines."

"Indeed I could." Daybreak smiled sadly, "I'll have to take Tracker and Opal with me. I'm pretty much the only one that looks after them these days. I'm sure they'd appreciate the adventure." Daybreak stopped outside a bricked up doorway to a cell, save for a tiny hole that was probably left for air. "This is it."

Twilight pulled the corner of her mouth back in disgust, "They bricked her in? Seriously?" She placed her ear to the bricks, but couldn't hear anything from within, but that didn't mean much, although it did make her feel sick about what they might find.

Twilight stepped back and turned to buck the wall, cracking the bricks and mortar with each blow until it was easy enough to tear the rest apart with her magic. She could see the others being extremely uncertain about what she was doing, since none of them knew of Nightmare, or her accidental creation, or that she was at least friendly. Twilight was thankful that they didn't question her. Especially Rainbow, who knew far more of Nightmare Moon than the others.

Twilight growled as she came upon a thick sheet of metal behind the bricks, and really started to wonder what she was going to find. Her imagination was presenting her with a great many options. Some of them were downright bizarre, but not one of them wasn't unpleasant to some degree. Unfortunately the wall of steel was stopping her from finding out.

"They really wanted to keep her in," Trixie commented as Twilight strained to break through the steel.

"Maybe we should respect that," Rainbow said, her stance looking as though she was ready to fight if need be.

"She's not dangerous," Twilight told Rainbow, not that she was going to stop even if Rainbow asked her to.

"You haven't even told us who 'she' is!"

"It's complicated."

"That's not an explanation!"

"Fine, you're right. Ember, I don't suppose you know some way of getting us through that?"

The dragoness stepped up to the steel barrier and rapped a claw against it, listening closely to the sound it made. "Shouldn't be a problem. You might want to stand back a bit though."

"Okay, I'll just be over here explaining what's behind that door. Or at least what I think's behind it." Twilight ushered the others out of Ember's way, and tried to explain as best she could what exactly Nightmare was, how she was made by accident between her and Luna in the dreamscape, and that she wasn't Nightmare Moon, or a threat. None of them seemed very convinced, and Trixie seemed annoyed more than anything.

"I didn't realise you were keeping secrets from me."

"Both Luna and Nightmare asked me to, so yes, I did. The last thing we wanted was news of this all getting out, especially to Celestia. I'm sure you can imagine what she would think of all this, and I can assure you forgiveness wouldn't be close to what might be going on in her head."

"Even though you said this Nightmare was blameless," said Lightning.

"Celestia would probably only ever see the monster that took her sister away, even though that monster was only ever Luna herself." Twilight sighed as Lightning raised an eyebrow at her, "Look, none of that is my business. I was asked to keep it a secret, so I did. That's all. All you need to know is that Nightmare isn't a threat, and could even be a useful ally."

Rainbow whined in the back of her throat, "I don't know Twilight, what if we unleash something worse than Faust?"

Twilight laughed. She wish she hadn't, just to spare herself the hurt expression Rainbow was giving her, but it had slipped out before she could stop it.

"Not even close, Rainbow. Nightmare's no more powerful than myself or Luna, so between us I think we can manage her if she gets ideas. That's the wonderful thing about there being more alicorns now, we can keep each other in check."

"Except Faust," Mayfly pointed out.

"If she was just an alicorn it'd be fine," Twilight muttered defensively. There was a clang from the cell, so Twilight rushed back to see what was going on. Ember was stood, grimacing as she shook a claw that was glowing with heat.

"That took some scales off."

Twilight tried to see what she meant, but apart from the glowing door shaped line traced in the steel, there wasn't much to see. Then she noticed that Ember had gone through the steel and had cut herself in the process. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just wasn't expecting it. Hold the middle bit steady so I can finish this."

Twilight did so, from a distance, and watched as Ember exhaled a narrow breath on the steel to keep it hot, and worked at it with her claw, slowly cutting through it until Twilight was able to pull the middle section out.

A foul stench wafted out of the cell as Twilight discarded the cut out section, and a highly muffled shouting could now be heard from within. Twilight cooled the doorway as fast as she could, while Ember stood wide-eyed, staring at the sight within. It wasn't hard to understand why, as Twilight did the same a moment later.

"Dear Celestia," Twilight whispered, frozen to the spot at the sight of Nightmare chained up in the room, forced to remain standing with her wings half spread and kept that way by the rings pierced through the webbing of her bat-like wings, and around the bones in them. Glowing bands of an easily recognisable metal was wrapped around her middle, hooves, and horn, while her mouth was muzzled with steel, leaving only a gap for her to breath through, a task made harder by the tight band of metal around her throat. Her eyes had been left uncovered though, and they brimmed with tears of relief as they locked on to Twilight.

"Fucking hell," Trixie cursed, unable to believe what she was seeing. "Faust did that?"

Twilight tried to run in, but a strong claw on her tail stopped her before she even made it two steps. Twilight was about to yell at Ember when she reached out with a claw and cut a thin wire that was near invisible in the dark, the plink as it was cut suggesting it was under a lot of tension. A split second later there was a clang from the rear of the cell as two weights crashed to the floor. It wasn't terribly difficult to figure out it was a trap designed to behead Nightmare if she tried to break out.

"Woah, thanks Ember."

"Eh, no problem."

"Now could you please cut her chains loose?" Twilight asked, hoping the dragon wouldn't refuse as she ran in and started the slow process of cutting through the steel band around Nightmare's neck. Trixie started working on the muzzle as she did, while the others just watched, no longer making the effort to doubt Twilight.

"Al-most got... it!" There was a ping as the collar came apart, and a rapid intake of breath from Nightmare, who had clearly missed being able to breathe normally. Her wings drooped as the chains holding them were cut, and she was able to lower herself to the floor as the final chain connected to the band around her middle was severed, a series of muffled thank yous coming from her muzzle.

"This is sick," Lightning said as Trixie tried her best to get the muzzle off. "If Faust's supposed to be the spirit of order, or whatever, how could she do this?"

Trixie gave Lightning a sly look, "I can imagine her as saying 'make her suffer,' and not put any actual thought or effort into it herself."

"I suppose that's possible."

"They certainly put effort into this fucking muzzle though!" Trixie grit her teeth and strained, and for a moment her magic turned black until the metal broke apart, freeing Nightmare.

"You... you have no idea," the black alicorn wheezed.

Twilight wet her lips as Nightmare tried to do the same, "I-" Twilight shook her head, not sure what to say. "I had no idea you were even here."

"How could you have?"

"Why would she do this though?"

Nightmare sighed a laugh, "The price of helping your friends."

"You've seen our friends?" Rainbow asked, suddenly sounding a lot more interested. "Wait, you helped them? You?"

Nightmare nodded, "They were falling under Faust's spell. I tricked her into letting me help them. That may have pissed her off a bit."

"So they're okay then?"

"Last I saw them, yes. You're welcome, by the way." Nightmare swallowed hard, her dry throat itching with the need for water. "I don't suppose something to drink is out of the question?"

Twilight turned to Daybreak, who acquiesced and ran off, leaving the dark to become slightly deeper without his horn to combat it. "So, you have a body now," she said as they waited for his return.

"Faust couldn't talk to me without one, so she gave me one. Good job she messed up and let me do the designing so I came out as an alicorn. I'd probably be dead now if I wasn't."

"Let's try not to think like that, shall we?" Twilight started removing the metal rings from Nightmare's wings, but the rune laden bands around her horn and body were uninterested in cooperating. It was time to see if Ember could do as promised.

"My claws are going to be fucked after today," Ember grumbled. She breathed a stream of her purple fire onto a single digit until it glowed, then ran it over the runes of the band on Nightmare's horn, cutting into the metal and stopping the runes from working. After that it wasn't much work for Twilight to cut through the metal and remove the band entirely.

"Oh thank goodness," Nightmare breathed. "Wearing that stuff was like being blinded."

A minute later a jug, highlighted in blue magic, floated towards them, it's carrier Daybreak barely visible behind it until he reached the patch of light in the cell. He passed the jug over to Nightmare, who drank greedily, even though she spilled half of it down herself. He then quietly passed a bread roll to her, and kept his thoughts about her fangs to himself as she tore into it with relish.

"Oh my goodness, actual food," Nightmare said between mouthfuls. "You have no idea what it's like to try and remember how things taste when you're trapped in the dreamscape." She shoved the rest of the bread in her mouth, and happily chewed it for a while before swallowing. "So I'm guessing that since you're here you won the war?"

Twilight grimaced at that. "Not so much."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning the complete opposite. Faust won the war, Celestia's missing, and don't really know what to do right now."

"Celestia's missing?"

Rainbow scowled at Nightmare, "Try not to sound too happy about that."

"Oh please, anything that puts off the inevitable confrontation we're going to have over the affront that is my very existence, is welcome in my books. Hopefully she'll turn up sooner or later though." There was a clink as Twilight tore the last band off Nightmare, "Thanks. Now could we get out of here? It stinks in here."

Twilight rolled her eyes, but supported Nightmare as she struggled to her hooves and started placing one hoof in front of the other until they were out of the lower dungeons. In the better light they had, it was easier to see how thin Nightmare had become during her imprisonment, and how badly she needed a wash. Nightmare seemed none the worse mentally though, at least compared to normal, and even had the energy to bare her fangs at the Viscount as they passed, just to scare him.

"I know you're saving me, but it would seem pertinent for me to ask how we're wandering around High Rock unmolested. Where is everypony here?"

"Gone, mostly," Twilight told Nightmare. "You would think we should've seen somepony by now though," she said, glancing at Daybreak for an answer.

"You do realise it's like eight in the morning, right? Only the guards and kitchen staff would be up now, and the guards are all gone. We will start seeing ponies soon though, so it's probably time you got out of here."

"That I can agree with," Nightmare muttered. "If Faust finds out I'm free..."

"By the time she finds out it'll be too late," said Twilight, hoping to reassure Nightmare. To contradict what Twilight thought earlier, Nightmare was starting to tremble and display signs of panic, so clearly she wasn't as unaffected as she made out to be.

They reached the top stairs of the stairs out of the dungeons, and set for the main entrance to get out. From there Twilight hoped to find a spot to teleport away from, but the sight of Bon Bon with three others stopped her, especially when she recognised one of them. "Flicker?"

"Oh crap," Flicker swore, surprised that Twilight had remembered her. "Uh, I mean, hi my Lad- Ma'am, Twilight, ma'am. Um..."

"Relax Flicker."

"Sorry."

Bon Bon walked up to Twilight, giving the black alicorn leaning against her suspicious glances. She held out a hoof, upon which was the speaker stone that paired with the one Fleur had. "She's expecting to hear off you."

"Well she's going to have to wait a little longer because we need to get out of here first." Twilight inspected the other unicorn, and the stallion with Bon Bon and Flicker. "I get the feeling you want to come with us."

"There's nothing more we can do here, so yes, we would like to go."

Twilight counted around the ponies, dragon, and changeling with her, not including Daybreak since he wasn't leaving. Twelve was considerably too many for her to teleport, even with a beacon, so there were going to have to be compromises. "I can't teleport this many, so those of you that can are going to have to fly back to Equestria. Sorry guys."

Rainbow groaned loudly, "But we just flew here!"

"As I said, I'm sorry. You, Vapor, Lightning, Ember, and Mayfly are going to have to fly. Head to the castle. I'll be waiting."

"I can't believe this..." Rainbow pouted at Twilight, then led those named outside to start the long journey home. "I didn't even get to do anything while I'm here."

That still left seven for Twilight to teleport, which still pushing it, but without wings there wasn't really any other way to get back to Equestria, and Nightmare was in no condition to fly anywhere. "This is going to hurt."

It was still raining outside, to the surprise of none of them, although Nightmare seemed happy enough about it as she staggered out into it, leaving Twilight to say her farewells to Daybreak. She could also see Tracker and Opal as well, lurking where they probably thought they couldn't be seen.

"You make sure you stay safe," Twilight said to Daybreak. "The last thing I need is to worry about you on top of everything else."

"I'll be fine. If I can't hide in Neigh Orleans, I know plenty of other places I can go. Besides, you're the ones planning on taking down Faust. Perhaps it's you that should take care of yourselves."

"I can't, and won't promise anything. Hopefully I'll see you soon."

"Hopefully." Daybreak watched as Twilight headed out into the rain with the others, and made some distance between them and the keep to escape the field around it that prevented teleportation. A minute later there was a flash, and they were gone, leaving him to sigh at their absence.

"Who was the scary black pony?" Opal asked from behind him.

"I honestly have no idea, but Twilight seems to know her." Daybreak turned around to see both Tracker and Opal looking up at him, "Say guys, how do you fancy getting out of here and going on an adventure?"

-0-0-0-

Twilight face planted onto the ground as they came out of the teleport, her entire being having been focused around a horn that felt like exploding to the point that standing, or even having legs, was a tertiary consideration.

It still hurt to fall over like that though.

"Ungh..." Twilight cracked her eyes open, and was rather concerned to find that she was smoking. "Oh Luna damn it."

"I find that offensive," Nightmare mumbled. "As do I find your choice of location to bring us offensive." She turned her head to look up and down the length of the throne room in the Castle of the Two Sisters. "This was pretty high on my list of places I never wanted to see again."

"Excuse me for not expecting to find you anywhere to bring here."

"Shush!"

Twilight furrowed her brows at Trixie, "Did you just tell me to shush?"

"Yes! So do it!" Trixie held her hoof up as they all went quiet, "Don't you hear that?"

"All I can hear is a ringing in my ears, Trixie," said Twilight. "What can you hear?"

"Voices."

Twilight went quiet again, and really tried to listen as the others did the same. Trixie was right, there was voices nearby, and Twilight couldn't recognise them. "Shit, we need to get to the mirror right now, before they find us, or it."

"Who are you even talking about?" Nightmare enquired politely, not hearing much herself.

"They're soldiers, searching for the portal."

"And how would they know what they're looking for?" asked Trixie.

"Because Celestia told them is my guess."

Trixie blinked at Twilight a few times, then jumped to her hooves. "Oh shit Twilight! We need to get to the portal now!"

Twilight mimed strangling Trixie, "Sometimes Trixie, just sometimes..." Twilight struggled to her hooves as the voices started to come closer to their location. Clearly their arrival hadn't gone totally unnoticed. "We should split up. Bon Bon, can you and your team distract some of them away from us?"

"Sure."

"Good. Do that, then head to Manehattan. I'll tell Fleur to keep an eye out for you." Bon Bon saluted, then ran with her team, leaving Twilight with Trixie and Nightmare. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you what to do if we're found, Trixie."

"Yeah, but that's not a good idea if we want to continue not being found."

"I know, I know." Twilight helped Nightmare to her hooves, then stopped as Nightmare's horn lit up and wrapped them in darkness. "Huh, okay."

"I very much doubt I can keep this up for long, so we should get moving."

Twilight just nodded as a trio of soldiers entered the throne room, looking about as they searched for whatever had made the noise they'd heard. They completely missed the trio of cloaked ponies as they walked by, then ran off at the sound of a commotion further away.

"Let's go," Twilight whispered, letting Nightmare lead the way since she seemed determined to. Thankfully there wasn't many other soldiers in the castle, so it didn't take long to reach the portal and pass through it, and it took less time to deactivate it behind her. Then she shouted Luna's name until the blue alicorn came running in.

"What's the matter Twilight? Are you-" Luna froze and stared at Nightmare, her darkened copy giving her a nervous, if toothy grin in return. "Bluh?"

"We have a problem," Twilight said as Luna continued her staring match with Nightmare. "Soldiers are searching the castle for the portal!"

"Huh?" Luna forced herself to give her attention to Twilight, "How? The only ones that know it exists are the ponies here."

"And Celestia."

"And Celestia." Luna nodded to herself, "Shit."

"My sentiments exactly."

"I hate to imagine what this means for us if Celestia has told Faust where we are, or what it means for Celestia. Faust would surely know of this place, and where it is. Also, where is Rainbow Dash and the rest of them? Where are your friends?"

"Rainbow and the others are flying back because we had some unexpected ponies joining us in Bon Bon and her team. Although I do now realise that I would've had the same issue with my friends..." Twilight shrugged the thought away, "As for my friends, they weren't in High Rock. Daybreak said they'd been taken to Equestria somewhere."

"Curses. Although, does that mean Daybreak is on our side?"

"More or less."

"Then the spell to free him still holds. At least we have some good news."

"Fleur's also broke out of Canterlot with the filly, my brother, and my parents, and have made their way to Manehattan."

Luna considered that for a moment, "Seems you have come with entirely mixed blessings." She offered Nightmare a hoof, the other alicorn taking it hesitantly to let Luna pull her to her hooves. "We also have news from during your absence, and possibly a plan, although your input is very much required. A bath for Nightmare as well perhaps," she added with a sniff.

"If you'd been where I have, you'd need one too."

"Okay," Twilight said as the two bigger alicorns resumed their staring match. "Let me talk to Fleur, and I'll be right with you."

Luna led Nightmare away, not speaking to her, but also not really seeming to take great issue with her being there either, even though she had to have been dying to ask what was going on. The few screams and shouts a moment later suggested that Cadence, Flurry, Sunset, Moondancer, and Daring had their own concerns about it too.

"Today had been fucking weird," Trixie said after a while, as Twilight waited for a reply from Fleur on the speaker stone. "I mean, I know we didn't get your friends, but we somehow ended up with another alicorn that somehow happens to be Nightmare Moon, and Luna, yet neither of them."

Twilight laughed quietly, "Funny thing is, that's not even our biggest concern. If Faust knows where we are, should we be expecting her to come busting in here at any moment?"

"Ugh, don't even say that." Trixie sat and shuddered, "I used to feel safe in this place until about ten minutes ago."

"We'll have to ask Starsy about it when we can. Hopefully the only way in here is through the portals."

There was a crackle from the stone, and both of them tensed as nothing was said for several seconds. Then Fleur finally spoke, letting them both relax. "Hello? Twilight?"

"I'm here. Trixie is too."

"Oh thank goodness. I was beginning to get worried. I take it Bon Bon filled you in on the basics of what happened?"

"She did, although she didn't tell us what you were up to in Manehattan."

"Taking shelter for now. We have Honeydew and Thorax with us, and managed to steal the Crystal Heart, so our biggest priority is keeping them safe for the time being. Past that though, I'm hoping to stir up some civil unrest, and basically do what I can to keep Faust focussed on events in Equestria."

"Right, well I would tell you to not do that and stay safe instead, but I imagine I'd be wasting my breath."

"You got that right," the filly muttered, earning herself a shushing from Fleur.

"Hello to you too filly."

"Hey Twilight. Since you're here, I feel it best I tell you that you know we're right. Keeping Faust distracted here keeps her distracted away from you."

"Er... yeah." Twilight suddenly felt it best to not mention that their location might be compromised already. "By the way, you should expect Bon Bon and her team to come looking for you soon. If you're so determined to cause trouble, I imagine they might be useful."

"Probabl-"

"Now Fleur, tell me why you got my parents involved."

"Hey, blame your brother for that, not me. Besides, he only went to them to ask about a way out of Canterlot. He wasn't expecting them to come with us."

"I'm guessing my mum suggested barrels over the falls."

"How could you tell?"

"She is my mother, Fleur, I do know her."

"And I'm starting to understand where you and Shining get your reckless streak from."

"I'm pretty sure that's not inheritable," Twilight replied with a smile. "Anyway, as much as I want to catch up with all of you, we have a lot going on here at the moment. Give them my love, and tell them I'll be in touch soon."

"You got it."

"Take care Fleur, I mean it."

"Hey, we've got the easy job."

"Fleur..."

"Alright, I promise. Bye."

"Bye." Twilight ended the spell and flopped onto her back. "Weren't you going to say anything to them?" she asked Trixie.

"What is there to say? We all know what we're doing is crazy."

"That's not what I meant. I mean you've been kind of quiet all day."

"I think we can call it High Rock syndrome. That place does unpleasant things to me. Don't you worry about me though, Twilight, I'm fine. Now how about we go hear what this wonderful plan is?"

Author's Note

Alright, time for another sequel!

4. A plan is born

"And that's how I came to exist," Nightmare said, ending the story of how she came to be. None of them seemed any the wiser for hearing it though, but there was at least a consensus that Nightmare Moon was a lot less scary when she was shorter, looked more like Luna, and was sat on a cushion happily munching on whatever food was given her.

"So you were made by accident," Moondancer said bluntly.

Nightmare playfully twitched her eyebrows up and down, further reinforcing that she really wasn't all that scary right now. "Or was I?"

"It really sounds like you were, yes."

Nightmare hissed at Moondancer, "Trust a pony with a moon in her name to say that."

"You have an issue with the moon? You?"

"A thousand years, Moondancer. See how you feel about it after being trapped on it for that long."

Luna smiled sideways at Nightmare, "So I'm guessing becoming corporeal has done nothing to fix your selenophobia, or your heliophobia?"

"If anything they're worse because I now have actual eyes to see the real sun and moon with." Nightmare viciously tore at a sandwich and chewed grumpily. "The hardest part is deciding which one I hate most."

"Okay," Twilight said with false cheer, hoping to drag the conversation somewhere more useful, like to their larger predicament. "We have a far bigger problem than Nightmare right now. Soldiers were searching the ruins of Luna's old castle, meaning that our location might be known by Faust, which is obviously a problem. Starsy, are the portals the only way in here?"

"Apart from coming in through the window, yes. Nothing living can really survive outside, so a doorway to it seemed rather pointless. Besides, unless you specifically told Celestia that we're in an old outpost in the frozen north, I doubt Faust would know where Celestia would mean by saying we're in Starswirl's secret retreat."

Twilight laughed nervously, "Hah... funny you should say that, because that's almost exactly what I told Celestia and Luna this place was."

Starsy stared at Twilight, then exhaled slowly as he closed his eyes. "I'm surrounded by idiots. Good news for you then is that even Faust couldn't traverse the frozen north easily, so unless she finds a portal, she's not getting in. Besides, you're assuming much by saying they were searching the castle for the mirror. Maybe they were there simply because of who it used to belong to."

"A fair point," Luna agreed. "With the portal closed we should be safe for now. Of course this still begs the small issue of our most useful exit now being in a castle full of soldiers."

"And that Rainbow Dash and the others are heading right for it," said Trixie.

Twilight's eyes went wide. She'd completely forgotten about that little fact. She knew well enough that they'd see the soldiers well before the soldiers saw them, but Rainbow didn't know the portal was closed, meaning she'd probably try to sneak to it instead, meaning she might get caught.

"Shiiiiit."

Moondancer held up a hoof, "Might I suggest moving the portal somewhere safer?"

"Like where though?"

"How about your castle?" said Luna. "I was under the impression that only you could get in at this moment in time."

Twilight nodded slowly, "Yeessss... but there's the small issue about it being in Ponyville, and Ponyville now being a prisoner of war camp. They're even building more stuff there, so we'll be easily spotted moving around my castle."

"Manehattan with Fleur then," Trixie suggested as well. Again, Twilight disagreed.

"If they get caught, we get caught, and vice versa. We can't risk that. We need somewhere easily accessible, but is rarely visited."

"There's a certain place in northern Equestria by the name of 'Our town,'" Luna said thoughtfully, "where Starlight Glimmer set up her rather bizarre dictatorship. It's abandoned now, so that might be a good place to hide the mirror."

"Now that sounds like an idea," Twilight said thoughtfully. "That's not far from Manehattan either, which could be useful, although I might leave it if the castle is empty when I go back out. I'm the meantime, perhaps you could tell me the plan to stop Faust you apparently have."

"Are you aware of what an arcane oubliette is?" Starsy started by asking Twilight.

"Are we talking about a white void inside an object?"

"Yes, but also no. I'm hoping to create an arcane oubliette that contains a world for Faust to inhabit, like a vid-e-o game, as Miss Shimmer put it."

Sunset held up her hooves as Twilight turned a questioning look upon her. "It's the only analogy I had, alright? Ponies don't exactly have anything like what they have in the human world."

"But why do you want to trap her in a pixelated nightmare?"

"I was still using human terms to describe it, but human games put pony ones to shame. They almost look real. And it was only a analogy!"

Twilight gave Sunset a teasing grin as the amber unicorn fumed. "So there won't be little ghosts chasing her around all the time?"

"Nope, I'm done talking now."

Twilight chuckled at Sunset, and then went back to Starsy as he pointedly cleared his throat. "Sorry. So basically we're trapping Faust in a fancy magical prison where she can have her own world to inhabit."

"Her own world she can control," Starsy corrected. "The idea was to trap her in a world she'll be in control of, and happy with."

Twilight pondered the plan for a bit, and found she was quite happy with it. It gave them a world without Faust, and it gave Faust a world without them. Everypony won. "So what's the catch?"

"The catch is finding something capable of containing the sheer amount of power Faust represents, on top of the magic required to create and sustain the prison. We're talking of an object capable of containing an obscene amount of magic here. So far we've thought of nothing capable."

"The crystal heart."

"No!" Starsy and Cadence both shouted together, before babbling the reasons why it shouldn't used to do such a thing. It took several seconds of Twilight staring flatly at them to get them to stop.

"Okay, if it meant stopping Faust, I don't think it'd be too unreasonable a price to use it. Besides, I was talking about the one from Caverndown."

Cadence's mouth formed an 'o' of understanding, while Starsy just looked confused. "There's two crystal hearts now?"

"Yes, there is, although the one from Caverndown is a lot less powerful than the one you made. However, due to what was done to make it, or something native to the crystal itself, it can hold an incredible amount of magic. Sounds perfect to me."

"That does seem promising," Starsy said thoughtfully. "If I could see it for myself I'd know for sure, although it's only small part of the problem we have."

"What's the rest?"

"Even if this crystal heart is suitable, I haven't even begun to tackle the spell-work to make this idea a reality, and then there's the other problem."

Twilight laughed sadly, "You're going to say it's about getting Faust into it, aren't you?"

"Indeed. It can't be done quickly, and the casters would have to be protected, while at the same time Faust prevented from escaping. I'm loathe to say it, but there's only one way to do all that."

Twilight held back her groan, along with some other things. She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised, but even unspoken, the idea of fighting Faust didn't exactly appeal to her. Still, they had another alicorn in the mix now, so if they could convince Cadence to join that particular fight, perhaps there was a chance.

"That leads us onto other problems," said Luna. "Faust is protected by an army. Obviously we can't fight her and them at the same time, so we will be required to launch a massive attack on wherever she is to keep the army distracted. Obviously we need an army of our own to do that."

Twilight caught Cadence looking sad, and for a moment thought she was going to speak up, but didn't. "Faust's likely to bolster her forces with Equestrians. We'd be attacking our own people."

"That's taking a rather large assumption towards any of our people joining her, because thankfully she cannot force them to fight for her through mind control. Hopefully she won't enforce conscription, or other means, so our ponies would be far from the fighting."

"We can only hope. That still leaves us with a problem though. We don't have an army."

"I am aware," Luna said with a faint smile. She looked up as Cadence stood and left, sighing quietly once the pink alicorn was gone. "I suppose that's better than her fighting us over this."

"Hold that thought for a moment." Twilight stood and trotted after Cadence, while using her magic to activate the speaker stone. Fleur answered after a moment, although it wasn't her Twilight wanted to speak to, and it wasn't Twilight that needed to do the speaking.

Twilight followed Cadence to a quiet corner of the library, where she held Flurry in her legs, looking absolutely miserable as tears silently slipped down her cheeks. She looked up as Twilight joined her, and huffed at her fellow princess.

"If you've come to convince me Luna's plan is the right one, don't. I know what we need to do, and I know I have no grounds to refuse."

"Actually I don't know what Luna's full plan is yet, so I'm not saying anything. I'm actually here to do something for you." Twilight placed the stone down in front of Cadence, who watched her quizzically. "Say hello Shining."

"Hello? Cadence? Are you there?"

"Shining!" Cadence shouted, suddenly a lot more keen as she grabbed the stone between her hooves. "Oh my goodness, Shining! Are you alright? How is this possible? I thought you'd been captured!"

"I'm fine Cadence, really. Fleur and her filly got us out, somehow... and I'm in Manehattan now, with them, my parents, and some others, all perfectly safe. We even got the Crystal Heart too."

"Oh thank goodness. I was so worried, Shining!"

Twilight smiled, genuinely pleased at having been able to do something so simple for Cadence. Unfortunately her motives weren't entirely pure though, because they needed Cadence to get through this, and Shining was perhaps the only pony capable of convincing her to take a more proactive role in saving the world. She needed to put her feelings aside, and do what was needed to be done.

Twilight left them to catch up, not feeling the need to intrude on what was going to be a private moment for Cadence, Shining, and their child. Instead she returned to the others, hoping to hear what the rest of the plan was.

"I'm just saying that I'm going to have to live with worse stigma than you, Luna, because I actually look like Nightmare Moon. I don't eat foals! They're too fatty!"

"I pray for your sake that was actually a joke."

"I've actually forgotten what normal is," Sunset said to herself quite loudly. "I didn't think that was possible."

"Okay," Twilight said cheerfully as she walked into the discussion. "That should cheer Cadence up for now, so let's get back to the proper discussion. What's the plan Luna?"

"We beg the griffons for help."

Twilight burst out laughing. She just couldn't help herself, because that was clearly a joke, although nopony else seemed to be laughing at it. Her laughter died slowly, and Twilight cleared her throat awkwardly. "You're being serious? The griffons would never agree to help us."

"That depends heavily upon the griffons, but if they don't, there's nopony, or no one rather, who can stand against Faust."

Sunset held up her hoof, then felt silly for a moment before asking, "What about the zebras?"

"They don't have a standing army, Sunset, whereas the griffon empire has the largest army in the world." Luna shrugged helplessly, "I wish it could be otherwise, but the griffons have what we need to fight Faust."

"Except they don't," said Twilight. "Historically, griffons lost several wars against Equestria, despite having a numerical advantage. Why was that?"

"Magic," Luna said in a low voice. "You're right, of course. Griffons alone still stand a chance of losing, even if they're only supposed to be a distraction. If they're ineffective, they may not even manage to be that."

"So we'll need more than the griffons, or at least some way to make the griffons more effective."

Luna shook her head rapidly, "No chance. I'm sure we've learnt a lesson somewhere recently about making our enemies too effective against us. We'd be fools to make the griffons a greater threat to us as well."

"Then we make them into a firm ally instead. Besides, we don't have the means to strengthen the griffons against magic."

"Zebra alchemy might," Starsy said, putting his own thoughts into the conversation. "They can create substances to coat their bodies and armours that lessens the effects of magic upon them, and can also treat their weapons to be able to pierce through magical shields easier. If you were to treat griffon weapons and armours with such substances, they could become quite effective against Faust's forces."

"Except the zebras get along with the griffons about as well as we do," said Luna. "Convincing the griffons to help us is one thing, but to convince the zebras to help the griffons is quite another."

Twilight lay down as she tried to think, steepling her hooves under her chin. It wasn't enough to just ask for help in this situation. The griffons currently had to believe Faust wouldn't attack them, just as the zebras similarly would. That would be a false belief though. Griffonia would be a challenge to conquer, but Faust would do it, and one by one the countries of the world would fall. "Together we stand, divided we fall..."

"Excuse me?" Luna said to Twilight.

"We need to give the griffons and zebras something in return for their aid. We can't just ask them to fight our war for us and get nothing in return, even if helping us benefits them in the long run. I'm thinking we need to create a pact between our countries, with an eye towards the future. Improved trading perhaps, and a military requirement where if any country is threatened, the others come to its aid. We stand together, and become stronger for it."

"Like the United Nations!" Sunset said excitedly, only to have that excitement tempered by embarrassment as the others all stared at her. "It's a thing from earth that sorta does pretty much what you're saying," she explained. "Please stop looking at me like I'm crazy."

"It could also temper the griffons if they get greedy," Luna mused. "The threat of us and Zebrica ganging up on them if they don't behave would be advantageous. More so if we add other countries as well, like Mustangia, Saddle Arabia-"

"And Mareitania, once Faust is gone."

Luna winced at Twilight's suggestion, "Is that truly wise?"

"They have no reason to be a threat to us once Faust is no longer controlling them, and will need help to survive considering the state their country is in."

Luna conceded to Twilight on that point. "Very well, Mareitania may have the option to join if they wish. A mutually beneficial alliance between our countries, offering aid in times of need, and greater prosperity through trade. I can't promise the griffons will buy it, but it is something we can offer them. I fully suspect them to ask for more though."

Twilight shrugged, "That will have to depend on what they ask for. Frankly, stopping Faust might be worth any price in that regard."

"I wish you were more wrong about that," Luna sighed. "But we do seem to have a plan for now, so the sooner we get to Griffonia, the sooner we can put it into motion."

"Not quite." Twilight stood and stretched her legs. "First I need to move the mirror if your old castle is still being searched. Then I need to find Rainbow Dash and the others before they get into trouble, and then I need to get the crystal heart from my castle for Starsy. During that, you can put some of what we just talked about into writing."

"But- but-" Luna spluttered. "Why me? Celestia was the legislator, not I!"

Twilight turned to Moondancer, "You're extremely well read, Moondancer, could you help Luna with that?"

"I suppose I could."

"Excellent! In that ca-"

"Could I be of assistance?" Cadence asked meekly, re-joining them in the observation area. "I'm not Celestia, but if we're talking legislation I could definitely help." She passed the speaker stone back to Twilight, "Thanks for that Twilight, I... I needed that."

"Does that mean you're on-board with us creating an alliance to defeat Faust."

"I don't relish the thought of it, but Faust needs to be stopped, so yes, I'm on-board with whatever your plan is."

"Great! Luna will catch you up on everything, while I go do some things. I'll see you all later."

"You're going alone?" Trixie whined plaintively. "Alone without me?"

"I'm going to be doing a lot of flying around, so you can come if you want, but it won't be much fun for you."

"Oh, well... um..."

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Come on then Trixie."

"Yes!" Trixie cheered, only to blush at herself. "I mean... oh screw it, let's just go."

-0-0-0-

"See anypony?"

Twilight shook her head, then remembered that Trixie probably couldn't see her. "No, nothing. Not yet at least."

"Seems odd that the soldiers would just go. You don't suppose that they caught those ponies that we brought from High Rock, whatever their names were?"

"I don't think so. Well, maybe, but we can only hope not. I guess the soldiers would only assume they were seeking shelter from the war here."

"I guess. Shit!" Trixie took cover behind a corner as a pair of soldiers came into view. She waved frantically at Twilight, who took the hint and teleported Trixie to her position where they slipped into an unoccupied room and hid until the soldiers had passed. "That was close."

"There's something wrong about this whole thing," said Twilight. "Those soldiers didn't look like they were looking for anything, but like they were doing a scheduled patrol. Why patrol this place?"

"I get the feeling we should stop caring, grab the mirror, and get out of here before we're caught."

"Agreed, but it mightn't be bloodlessly if they're patrolling the castle."

"Can't you just teleport us out?"

"Can you teleport a portal?" Twilight asked.

"I don't know. Why're you asking me?"

"Because I don't really know either, and don't want to find out if it doesn't work." Twilight checked the coast was clear and left the room, picking the mirror up off the wall and giving it to Trixie. "I'll clear the way while you keep that safe."

"Got it."

Twilight nodded at Trixie, then led the way through the castle, keeping her steps gentle so they didn't echo too loudly on the stone floor, or off the stone walls. It was almost like being underground at times. Thankfully the castle didn't seem too busy, so progress was quick as they made their way through the winding corridors. The problem was that their route took them towards the large hall that provided the only way out of the castle if you couldn't fly, unless you felt like jumping out of a window, or one of the many holes in the walls.

As she'd suspected, the hall, and the exit, was occupied, but not just by soldiers. Others were there as well, with surveying equipment. Twilight watched them for a while, before it came to her that they had to be planning to rebuild the castle. Or at least that's the only thing she could think of considering their equipment, but why do it so soon after conquering Equestria? It made her think that Faust had been planning it for a while, but again why? There was no tactical reason to it, so it probably had to be connected to Celestia or the Tree of Harmony. Neither was good news.

Twilight yelped as something bumped into her rear, and she turned to find it was Trixie, who had been backing towards her. She was about to ask why when the soldiers came out of the gloom of the hall past Trixie, holding their weapons towards the two intruders.

"Oh."

"Yeah, nice going Twilight. So, are we pretending to be taken captive? Or are we just going to end up doing what we normally do?"

"We don't really have time for either of those, so you just hold on."

"What?"

Twilight teleported into the air and took flight, swooping down towards Trixie to drag her and the mirror along in her wake as she flew over the heads of everypony there, a screaming unicorn following after her, flopping around like a ragdoll.

They went for the stairs at the end, heading up to the throne room, which was equally occupied, but provided greater means of escape through the many holes in its ceiling, of which Twilight quickly made use, soaring high above the castle.

"If you drop me, I'm taking you with me!"

"I'm not going to drop you, you drama queen. You'd think you'd be getting used to flying by now. Do you still have the mirror?"

"Yes I still have the mirror! And I managed to not smash it against any walls either! Despite being tossed around like a used up whore at an orgy."

"Good, and ew." Twilight looked down towards the ground, back at the castle. A road had been cleared through the Everfree forest back towards Ponyville, and along that road a trail of ponies were walking. If the castle was to be rebuilt, it was being taken seriously if the amount of effort being put into it was any indication.

"Twilight, why are they rebuilding the spooky castle? And could they stop? They're ruining the Nightmare Night party I had planned!"

"I hope that was a rhetorical question, because I don't really know. I don't suppose you can see Rainbow Dash, or any of them, can you?"

"No, but I imagine that we'll be seeing some griffons once news about us being here gets back to Faust."

"Ah. Yes." Twilight groaned loudly, "Tomorrow better be an easy day, because today has been both disappointing and interesting in excessive amounts."

"Hey, at least there is a plan now."

"Yeah, but that plan is relying on the generosity of the Griffon Emperor, who isn't exactly known for his altruism towards non-griffons." Twilight sighed and started to fly towards her castle, "Seems like a big flaw to have in the plan."

"Could be worse."

"How?"

"I dunno," Trixie shrugged, "I'm just saying it could be. I mean, at least we do actually have a plan."

"You know what? You're right. I should try to think more positively. The Emperor will see the advantages of our plan, and will agree to help us. Or take Equestria for himself, but that's still better than Faust having it."

"Well, you're halfway to positive thinking at least."

"Yeah, but then I saw that." Twilight pointed to the massive fence that had been erected around Ponyville, while on the far side of the town, opposite her castle, foundations were being laid for a building of some description, just outside the fence. "Suddenly my pessimism just rocketed right back up."

"The fuck is that shit? They're turning the entire village into a prison?"

"Seems that way. Suddenly, what we're going to do to Faust seems far too nice."

"Looking at the positives though, at least your friends got to go home."

"As if Faust would send them... back... huh. Maybe you're right."

"Of course I am, I'm Trixie."

Twilight smiled at Trixie in a way that made sure she knew how much Twilight doubted that. There was perhaps a slither of truth to the idea though. With the Tree of Harmony being closely watched, keeping the bearers under such close scrutiny wouldn't be as necessary. Perhaps they were in the camp somewhere. Somewhere they could be found.

"Okay, new plan. I'm going to leave you at the castle, then while you find the crystal heart I'm going to scout around the fence and see if I can find somepony to ask about my friends. Oh, and once you find the heart, stay on the balcony and keep watch for Rainbow."

"And if I see them?"

"Signal them or something. The direct route takes them over Ponyville, so they're bound to see it."

"Uh-huh... and the heart is where?"

"In the room off the library with the other miscellaneous stuff I seem to have collected over the last couple of years. It's big and shiny, so you can't miss it."

"I sense an insult in there somewhere."

Twilight tried to look as innocent as she could as she lowered Trixie and the mirror onto the balcony of her castle, then opened the way inside for her. She was glad to see nopony had entered since she'd sealed it upon their departure to locate Starswirl's retreat, although she could feel that somepony had tried at some point.

"I'll be back as soon as I can."

"And I'll be here, hoping I don't get spotted while I stand out in the open."

Twilight smirked at Trixie, "I get the feeling you probably know what to do if something happens."

"Panic and scream for you to help me?"

Twilight was taken aback for a moment by the honest tone of that. "That's not quite what I was going for, but sure, do that. I'll see you in a little bit."

Trixie pouted up at Twilight as the alicorn flew away, "Why does it feel like you're trying to encourage me to kill? Like we've somehow forgotten what that means for me." Trixie huffed at the now empty sky, "Trying to not get possessed here, remember?"

-0-0-0-

"Something is definitely up with Trixie. It's not like I want her to go on a murder spree or anything. I just her to defend herself if she has to. Weird."

Twilight put her thoughts of Trixie aside for the moment. Ponyville was a big place when you're trying to find a few ponies in it, but at this point she was only hoping to find somepony that might know who her friends were if she asked. Failing that, just finding somepony would be something, because the place seemed deserted, at least from the outside. The town centre could be packed, but she'd never see that from the edge of town, and flying over was too big a risk.

To make matters worse, although not for herself, there was nothing stopping Twilight from flying in. That did mean that steps had to have been taken to stop pegasi from flying out. Twilight had visions of wing binders and mistreatment, Mareitania style, and hoped that really wasn't the case. All the same, a sense of caution told her to not fly over the fence, because there had to be more to it than what she could see.

It took a while of skirting around the outside of the fence, avoiding patrols, and not looking where she was going as she flew into a tree to find somepony, but eventually Twilight located a pony that might be able to help. She was slumped against the back of a house, eyes closed, and appearing as though she was trying to not cry.

"Psst! Hey!" Twilight shouted in a whisper, frantically waving to get the pony's attention. It took several attempts, but eventually the pale grey unicorn noticed her, and made the short journey to Twilight, her head swinging back and forth as she looked out for guards.

"Princess Twilight? What are you doing here?"

"Eh?" Twilight cocked her head at the flat delivery the unicorn had in her speech, and it took her a moment to work out who the pony in front of her was, her normally vivid mane and tail looking almost as grey as the rest of her. "Vinyl Scratch? What happened to you? Why do you look so... bland?"

"It happened when this happened." Vinyl turned so Twilight could see her flank, and more specifically the big equals sign in the place of her usual music note cutie mark. "Some crazy unicorn called Star... Star-something, took all our cutie marks, and now I can barely whistle a tune, and when I tried to listen to some of my music it all seemed really... loud. She ruined music. I didn't even think that was possible."

"Are you talking about Starlight Glimmer?"

"That could be her, yes. She didn't seem very happy about doing it though. I think she's getting forced to do it."

Twilight groaned and swore, annoyed at the extra complication this could present in the future. Starlight Glimmer was well known enough even to Twilight that her mark stealing, and brainwashing ways could have ponies helping Faust. Hopefully that wasn't their plan, and that Starlight genuinely wasn't pleased to be doing what she already was.

"Are you looking for Octavia?"

"You can give her and Summer my best, certainly, but you should be able to help me just fine. I was wondering if you've seen my friends in here. Y'know, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike?"

Vinyl shook her head slowly, "I've not seen any of them in here."

"Damn it!"

"Pinkie's in here though."

"She is? Wouldn't she be with all the prisoners from Canterlot?"

"A load of them were brought here a couple of days ago, including her, the Wonderbolts, and a whole bunch of others."

Twilight nodded thoughtfully. There was no way that Faust wouldn't have separated Pinkie if she thought it was necessary. So if Pinkie had made it here, then maybe the rest of her friends would too, even if it meant getting their marks stolen. Twilight could work with that.

"Alright, Thanks Vinyl. I don't suppose you have any other news you could share?"

"Just rumours. Apparently some yaks arrived in Canterlot some time recently. I couldn't tell you what that means, but it can't be coincidence if they turn up right after Faust takes over Equestria."

"No it can't," Twilight agreed, knowing better than Vinyl what it meant. The yaks revered Faust as their creator, or something similar, even though Twilight now knew that was unlikely. It wouldn't be a huge stretch of the imagination to think the yaks would seek out Faust, and it wasn't much more of a stretch to think they might come to serve her cause. "Yaks on the battlefield..." Twilight shuddered at the thought.

"Are you alright?"

"Hah, good one. You worry about yourself Vinyl, not me."

"Oh, okay. I don't suppose you're planning on getting us out of here at any point?"

Twilight looked up and down the fence, not seeing any reason why she couldn't get them out now, and she was about to start cutting when Vinyl stopped her.

"You'll set off an alarm doing that. These fences are electrified, or magical, or I don't know what, but they set an alarm off if you tamper with them, and frankly I'd rather not get a beating off a load of guards today."

"Okay, but what's stopping the pegasi flying away?"

"This." Vinyl grabbed a stone and threw it up. It reached its zenith when it struck what appeared to be a web of red magic that zapped the stone. It was smoking when it landed, making Twilight very glad she hadn't tried to fly in. "It covers the entire village, and it tends to draw attention from the guards as well, so they'll probably come and investigate soon."

"Great. Okay, well, I can't promise an imminent rescue, but we will get you all out of here at some point." A bright flash and a pop came from Twilight's castle, setting Twilight to cursing even more this time, all of it directed at Trixie. "That's my cue. Stay strong Vinyl."

"You too, Princess."

Twilight smiled at the words, but found that she was having to fight to do it, so quickly flew away. She had reached the point where she genuinely hated being called that. In her opinion the princesses had failed Equestria, but even so they were still called princess by ponies, with or without a country to rule. It was more than a little annoying, and a strong indicator that she had an uphill battle to convince ponies that the princesses weren't the best way to rule. That she wasn't the best way to rule.

The fireworks Trixie had set off was already drawing the wrong kind of attention as Twilight made it back to the castle, and even though it was starting to grow dark, it wasn't enough to hide her flying to the balcony. Trixie was there, and it was some relief to see Rainbow, Lightning, Vapor, Mayfly, and Ember were there too.

"Couldn't you have found a subtler way to get their attention?"

"Maybe?"

Twilight rolled her eyes at Trixie, then spotted the crystal heart next to the mirror. That at least wasn't a problem, and did mean they could get out of there sooner rather than later.

"What's going on Twilight?" Rainbow asked. "Why are we here? Why's the portal here?"

"There are soldiers all over the old castle, so we're moving the mirror. Do you know a place called Our Town?"

"Sure I do. That's where Starlight Glimmer had her... thing. It's kinda trashed though, after her and Luna had a fight there."

"Exactly. Nopony goes there, and it's not far from Manehattan, so we figured it was a good place to hide our portal."

Rainbow sighed and let her wings sag to the ground, "Great, more flying."

"Sorry Rainbow, but until Luna repowers the mirror you're stuck coming with me."

Rainbow glared at Twilight for a moment, then sighed. "I'm really starting to wonder why we even came with you."

"Hey, you got to see some neat things, so it's not all bad. Anyway, grab the crystal heart and let's get out of here."

-0-0-0-

"So do the dragons get an invitation to this alliance things you're doing?" Ember asked as Twilight filled them in on what they'd missed.

"That depends on your dragons, doesn't it. You said yourself that most dragons don't take an interest in anything beyond their hoards, so why would they be interested in a security pact where they have to help others? Especially when it's unlikely you'll ever need help. Only an idiot would attack the Dragon Lands."

"Because some of us want to take an interest! I'm tired of being seen as some big, treasure hoarding brute, just because I'm a dragon!. Do I look like a brute to you? Huh? Do I?"

Twilight jerked away as Ember's jaw snapped shut uncomfortably close to her, as in within a hundred yards of her personage. "No ma'am!"

"Exactly! If I don't get a hoard, leading to some crazy growth spurts, I'm pretty much as big as I'm ever going to get, which suits me fine. I don't want to sit on some big pile of gold in a cave somewhere, I want to be part of the world."

"You really don't get big without treasure?" Rainbow asked, surprised that Ember was already calling herself fully grown. Dragons were supposed to be huge as far as she was concerned.

"Nope. Getting a hoard is like a dragons' passage to adulthood, and if others want to do that, fine, but not me."

Twilight tried to get her head around what Ember was trying to say. "So you're saying greed growth isn't natural?"

"It is, and it isn't. You can do it, sure, but you don't have to. Have you never wondered why dragons come from such tiny eggs when dragons are so big? Spike told me you hatched him when you were a kid, and his egg was smaller than you when you were even smaller than you are now."

It took Twilight a moment to work out the verbiage. "Huh... now you mention it, yeah, that does seem odd. How are you going to convince the other dragons though?"

"The older ones," Ember shook her head, "not a chance, but the younger ones might come around to the idea." Ember shrugged, knowing that she was clinging to a fairly hopeless dream, "I guess we'll have to see how it goes. Anyway, is that where we're going?"

Twilight peered down towards where Ember was pointing, the moon barely lighting up the patch of desert where Our Town was located. There were buildings visible though, half destroyed as they were.

All of them flew down, and Twilight lowered Trixie to the ground, the unicorn whimpering and hugging a rock, before setting her own hooves on the dry ground. She turned on the spot, inspecting the damage to the buildings, some of which were barely standing any more. "Luna really did a number on this place."

"Both of them did," said Rainbow. "I don't know who this Starlight Glimmer thought she was kidding, but she really should've thought better than to try and fight an alicorn. Not that she didn't deserve a good whupping for stealing our cutie marks."

"Ponies have been through here recently," Mayfly announced, her head low as she sniffed at the ground. "Seven of them. Four unicorns, an earth pony, a pegasus, and a... wait, that can't be right."

"What can't be right?" Twilight asked, suddenly worried that today could somehow manage to get worse.

"A changeling. Specifically the changeling Thorax."

Twilight relaxed, relieved that's all the problem was, and that all Mayfly could smell was Fleur and the others as they had passed through. Rainbow seemed a little less convinced though.

"That's some weird skills you got there, Mayfly."

"Heightened olfactory senses to detect danger and track prey. Very useful."

"Yeeaaahhh... okay. What you thinking Twilight?"

"I'm thinking more ponies might come through here, so leaving the mirror here might not be as safe as I thought."

"I might have an idea then. Follow me."

Rainbow led them up the short distance to the lone house that sat at the end of the two rows of houses. A campfire had been made outside the front door, appearing to be little more than a couple of days old, and the broken door to the house was ajar. She shoved it open and entered, then picked the only piece of carpet up to reveal a trapdoor beneath.

"It leads to some kind of escape tunnel. It should be safe enough to leave in here, I think. It comes out through some cave further on."

"Okay, good, and it's within reach for Fleur if she needs to come to us."

"Plus there's probably a bedroom upstairs if Cadence and Shining want to, y'know, spend a little 'quality' time together."

"Welcome back Trixie," Twilight said flatly. "Enjoy the flight?"

"I definitely prefer the shrinking and bags method, I'm not going to lie." Trixie looked sideways at Lightning and Vapor, both of which seemed exhausted. "Perhaps we should be getting back now. Our poor pegasi look sleepy."

"I don't know," Lightning said sarcastically, "perhaps there's a few hundred miles more you want us to fly today? Maybe we should get a headstart on flying to Griffonia? I'm sure we'll really be needed there."

"Nopony likes sarcasm," Trixie replied lightly, only to get a snort of laughter from Twilight.

"Nah, we don't like it, we love it." Twilight glanced at the mirror as it flashed and shimmered, then settled into a reflection of the portal chamber. "Perfect timing. Let's get to the retreat so you can have some rest."

Twilight smiled at them as they filed past and through the mirror, and took the crystal heart off Rainbow so it was easier for her to walk. She then pulled the trapdoor shut and fervently hoped nopony discovered the mirror before passing through into the cool interior of the retreat.

"Is the mirror secure?" Luna asked as soon as Twilight was through.

"Hopefully. We should probably stick our heads through at some point to make sure. I also have the crystal heart, and some bad news."

-0-0-0-

It didn't take Twilight long to catch Luna and the others up. Rainbow and the other Wonderbolts, along with Mayfly and Ember, had chosen to go to bed, having heard it before, and even though she was having to hear it again, Trixie listened attentively. Nearby, Moondancer was helping Starsy analyse the crystal heart, with occasional input from Cadence.

Luna sat back and folded her legs in front of her. "The news of Ponyville and Starlight Glimmer, while disheartening, isn't a total surprise, nor a total disaster. She was stopped once, and can be again. Although that may not be necessary if she is as unwilling as you were told she was. The news about the yaks however, that is far from ideal. If they agree to fight for Faust their inclusion would devastate any battlefield."

"Are they really that good in a fight?"

"If you want to charge an enemy position, there are none better than yaks to do it. Let us pray that there are no others willing to join her cause, because our odds will become ever bleaker if there is."

"Are there any other cultures that revere her as their creator?" Sunset asked. "Or some kind of deity if not their creator?"

"Many cultures make a reference to a figure like Faust in their legends, including our own forgotten legends from the time before the exodus. Discord too." Luna shrugged at Sunset, "Few cultures revere their legends quite like the yaks do, so I would not worry unduly. Even if they were to link those legends to Faust, I doubt they would seek to join her."

"Mareitania says hi," Trixie muttered under her breath, being heard only by Twilight, who hid her mirthful snort.

"What about the Castle of the Two Sisters?" Cadence enquired, failing to notice the small shudder that name brought out in Nightmare. "Should we be concerned about what Faust is planning there?"

"Probably." Luna shrugged at Cadence, "Until we know what we're doing there though, there's not a lot we can do or say about it. For now we should focus on our own plans. Starsy?"

"This crystal is astounding!" Starsy said excitedly. "The spells to replicate the effects of the true Crystal Heart are sloppy, mostly due to being done by anypony other than myself, but the crystal itself is perfect. You could store half the world's magic in this thing!"

"So it's more than enough to hold Faust?"

"Most certainly. There's still going to be a lot of work to do to get it to do what we want, but with this as a base, we should start making some rapid progress."

"Excellent," Luna said happily, pleased to finally be getting some good news today. Hopefully that trend could continue. "I shall leave that to you, Moondancer, and Sunset then. Twilight, Cadence, and myself shall make our way to Griffonia tomorrow, and start putting our own plans into motion."

Cadence held a hoof to her chest in surprise, "You want me to come?"

"But of course! Celestia may be missing, but showing a unified front between the remaining princesses should convince them of our resolve. You are also a fine diplomat, Cadence. A skill Twilight and myself aren't so... practiced with."

Twilight cleared her throat, "That said, would now be a bad time to point out that I'm bringing Trixie, Rainbow, and the Wonderbolts with me? You know, those four very diplomatic ponies."

Trixie faked a gag, "If they eat meat in front of me, Trixie is going to hurl."

"Very diplomatic," Twilight reaffirmed.

"It seems as though it is impossible to separate you two, so very well. At the very least the Wonderbolts should hopefully be welcomed into the griffons warrior culture."

Moondancer raised her hoof to make a suggestion, "Why doesn't Nightmare disguise herself as Celestia if you're trying to put on a united front?"

Nightmare immediately burst out laughing. "That is a terrible idea," she said, then scowled as she slowly looked over at Luna, who said the exact same thing, at the exact same time. "You can stop that as soon as you like."

"At least we agree that it's a terrible idea."

"I don't know so much any more. I could probably do a decent job of imitating Celestia." Nightmare cleared her throat, then fluttered her eyelashes. "Oh I do so hope the griffons have cake! I can feel my fat plot wasting away without my precious ponies to coddle me in my dotage." Nightmare grinned at the flat expression on Luna's face, "What? Too soon?"

"Why do you feel the need to do that?"

Nightmare lost her grin, her eyes going half lidded. "Really Luna? How about you tell me why?"

"Right." Luna suddenly said brightly, clapping her hooves together as she quickly changed the subject. "Everypony try and get some sleep, and we'll set off tomorrow when we're ready to go. Goodnight."

Nightmare chuckled as Luna swiftly trotted off. "Oh she is far too easy to rile up. I almost wish I could come now. It'd be glorious. That said," Nightmare turned to Moondancer, "why did you suggest that blatantly stupid idea?"

"Because the alternative is you staying here." Moondancer rose to her hooves, "Excuse me if I don't find that prospect thrilling."

"I appreciate your honesty." Nightmare smiled at Moondancer, who scoffed and left rather than argue further. "By the way, I am so taking over this place while you're gone," Nightmare jokingly said to Twilight once Moondancer had gone.

"Don't you even dare. We don't have the time to waste kicking your ass on top of everything else."

"But it could be fun!"

"No."

"Aww." Nightmare fixed her gaze on Twilight, her cat's-eyes piercing into Twilight's. "Guess that's what I get for no longer being the scariest mare in the room."

Twilight didn't dare ask what she meant by that.

Author's Note

And here we are back to an hour of my Sundays being occupied with posting chapters. Kinda weird how much I missed it, like I'd forgotten to do my homework. Anyway, nice to see the old familiar faces back here for book three. Love you guys, as only anonymous strangers on the internet can.

5. An impolite war

"I have a question."

Fleur looked up at the ceiling and sighed, trying to decide if it was worth the effort of humouring the filly. Chances are it wasn't, but Fleur wasn't so cruel as to dismiss any genuine concerns.

"I swear Swift, if this is about breakfast-"

"Not every question I have is about breakfast!"

"I swear you ask those kinds of things on purpose just to be contrary."

"Damn it Fleur! Of course I do! But sometimes I have a genuine query, and I just want to ask how you're planning on getting this whole idea of yours started! Graffitiing some graffiti, while insulting to the original artist, isn't going to start a revolution."

"And I'm not trying to start a revolution, so that's fine. What I'm aiming for, is to stop Faust from rebuilding all the things we destroyed, slowing down her ability to wage war. With Mareitania in such dire straits, she's going to have to rely on Equestrians to make her weapons and all that. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Of course I do, and while that's great and all, my original question still stands."

Fleur grumbled to herself, wishing for a moment that the filly could be a little less clever. "I don't know," she admitted, feeling her ire rise as the filly grinned at her.

"I knew it! You're just doing this because it's the only thing you know how to do! You're so totally incapable of doing nothing, that you're forcing yourself to do something, even though you have no idea what that something might be!"

Fleur stared coolly at the filly, "Was there a point to that?" She nodded as Swift shrugged, "Thought not. I think our biggest problem here isn't how to get this started, but how to do it when Shining and I are both very wanted ponies. It's not like we can go strolling about the city."

"No, but none of the rest of us are wanted. You'll just have to rely on the rest of us to be your eyes and ears and all that stuff. When Bon Bon and the others get here, you'll have some kick ass hooves too."

"Yes, but eleven of us still isn't going to be enough to do all that I'm hoping to do."

The filly rolled her eyes, "Okay, I'm going to say it now. Trying to get other ponies involved is going to be a bad idea. Faust will come down on anypony found defying her like a ton of bricks, and ponies will get killed. I don't know about you Fleur, but I don't like the sound of that."

Fleur stood and moved to the window, looking down at the image she'd altered. She couldn't tell why, but after a good night's sleep somewhere safe, she couldn't find it in herself to disagree. Getting ponies to try and fight Faust was tantamount to getting them killed. Starting a movement out of civilians to try and do just that, was no longer the idea she thought it was.

"Might I make a suggestion?"

"Ahh!" Fleur jumped and span around, coming back down to find the calm blue eyes of the disguised Thorax facing her. She'd never even heard him enter the room. "Thorax! Good heavens, are all changelings this sneaky?"

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to."

Fleur dismissed it with a wave of her hoof, "Forget about it. What's your suggestion?"

"Okay, well, I know you don't want to get ponies killed, and I agree with that, but if you start attacking things Faust wants, others are going to see that, and they are going to try to do the same. You can't stop that from happening."

"So you're saying I should try and start something, just so I can be in control of it?"

"Yes, and yet also no. I mean you could if you wanted to, but the bolder ponies become, the harder they're going to fight, meaning that ponies will inevitably end up getting killed, whether you're in charge or not."

Fleur sat as she tried to figure out what he was saying, "So are you saying that I shouldn't do anything at all?"

"I'm saying, that if you want ponies to stay safe, you need to show them a way of fighting that minimises the risk to them. Something better than rioting in the streets."

"Even though rioting in the streets is going to be the inevitable conclusion to all this," said the filly. "Eventually a few attacks on a few places will inspire ponies to push back, and you know that's going to become total chaos. Some ponies get themselves killed, others want revenge, and boom! The city is now on fire."

"Stop! Both of you!" Fleur clasped her head in her hooves, "I know what can happen, and I know ponies might get killed, but what else can we do apart from nothing?"

"I didn't realise I was sheltering revolutionaries."

"We're not starting a revolution!" Fleur screamed. "Pretty sure this is the completely wrong context for that word anyway." Fleur sighed at Prim, the fashionista taking it with good grace as she pulled her designer dressing gown tighter around herself. "I'm sorry Prim."

"Oh, don't be. I'm not saying I'm glad for this development to be developing in my home, but I had plenty of reason to suspect you might be planning something." Prim smiled at Fleur as she picked up the jug from the coffee maker, sniffed it, then poured some of its contents into a mug. "I only wish for you to remain safe."

"Which is the opposite to riots," the filly pointed out.

"I'm not seeing you having any ideas," Fleur growled back at the filly.

"If you want to avoid inspiring ponies to emulate whatever it is you're hoping to do, my suggestion is to do it completely unnoticed." Prim took a dainty sip of her coffee, "Operating under the cover of night, and not using high explosives like other military groups I might mention, would keep you fairly invisible, and therefore uninspiring."

The filly snorted with mirth, "It's a nice idea, but how are we supposed to do anything meaningful without doing a little damage?"

Fleur looked over as Shining entered the room with Honeydew and his parents. "Come to add your two bits as well?"

"Not really," Shining replied. "You've all raised valid points so far, so I don't really have anything to say about it, other than that you can't do this like you did in Mareitania. If you try to build an army, you will be noticed, and I think the Mareitanians are smart enough to shut that that down asap."

"Great, so either I do nothing, be subtle yet ineffective, or get ponies killed in something that might actually make a difference." Fleur closed her eyes and breathed deeply, hoping for one of these ideas to seem better than the others. None of them did.

"And why would my idea be ineffective?" Prim asked with a sniff. "Sometimes you can do more damage with a needle than you can with a scissors."

"Except," Fleur said firmly, "that our needles are knives, and our scissors are bombs. Knives don't really do a lot to buildings, but bombs do."

"Then maybe you ought to alter your targets."

Shining scowled at Prim, "I'm pretty sure murdering soldiers in the streets won't gain much for anypony, except for more attention than we know what to do with."

"Stars above! That is not what I was suggesting! You need machinery, and supplies, and scaffolding to build buildings. There's plenty to destroy without having to resort to bombing things. Murdering ponies in the street... good grief."

Shining blushed as his parents looked at him with concern. "It's been a long few months, alright?"

"The last thing we need is you developing the same... issues as your sister," Twilight Velvet said carefully. It was clear on her face how much she hated to say it.

"I'm fine," Shining insisted. "Twilight will be too." He dismissed his parents with a quiet snort and turned back to Fleur. "So you meant disrupting the things needed to build buildings. Right, that sounds easier, up until security gets increased. That sounds like something we could do with relative ease, especially once Bon Bon and her team gets here."

"Agreed," said Fleur. "Right now what we need is some new intelligence on what's going on around Manehattan, and the easiest way to do that is by air. That means you, Blaze."

"You mean the changeling?" Prim said evenly.

Fleur winced and cursed under her breath. "Ah, you heard that?"

"I did indeed, and since he's in the company of Prince Shining Armour, he must be the changeling Thorax I've heard of from the Crystal Empire. The fact that he looks like no pony that should ever exist doesn't help him."

Thorax looked back at himself, "Is it really that bad?"

"It really is," Fleur confirmed. "Try something a bit more like a pony, and you'll be fine."

There was a flash of green, and Thorax changed from a impossibly garish red pegasus, to a mostly brown one, such like you might see flying down the street and not pay much attention to. "Is this better?"

"Much," said Fleur, pleased to no longer have to see his previous form. "Now, as I was saying, you're going to have to be the one doing the scouting for us, since you can fly, and none of the rest of us can. No offence filly."

"Some taken," the filly sighed.

"I don't think so," Honeydew burst out, loudly interrupting Fleur. "I don't know when you decided it, but I don't remember Thorax or myself agreeing to help you at any point. Don't presume to think that everypony here is on board with what you're doing, or is here at your disposal."

"Then leave," Fleur replied calmly.

"What? I can't just leave! If I get found I'll be done for!"

"Then don't complain when we decide to do things. Thorax, are you willing to help us?"

Thorax anxiously rubbed the back of his head as Honeydew glared at him, "I guess?"

"Great! Then we have no problem."

"Yes we do." Honeydew gestured wildly towards the window, "I know you think that you should do something to fight Faust, but have you ever considered whether it's actually worth it? Your princesses might already have a plan to stop Faust, so everything you could do here might be pointless. If you're worried about getting ponies killed, I think getting them killed for no reason would be worse!"

That made Fleur stop. Would they make a worthwhile difference in the end? Or would they end up doing it all for naught. Twilight had suggested she not bother doing anything, but it hadn't occurred to Fleur at that point that it mightn't be worth doing anything at all.

"I don't think so," Nightlight said to Honeydew, breaking the silence he'd maintained up until then. "If we can increase the odds of our Twilight, and the princesses, beating Faust by even one percent, then it's worth it. I'm with you Fleur; we can't do nothing when we could do something."

"You tell 'em honey!" Twilight Velvet cheered in agreement. "We're in," she added to Fleur.

"You're all insane," Honeydew muttered. "I won't do anything dangerous, but if you think I could give you some advice, I'm here, otherwise I'm leaving this all up to you."

"That was almost a vote of confidence," Fleur said with a smile. "I guess if you're all in then, that we-" Fleur winced as the sound of a throat being cleared interrupted her. "I guess that means you're out, Prim?"

"I was never in, Fleur. While I'm happy to shelter you for a little while, you will not be fighting a war out of my living room. While your changeling friend is out gathering the intelligence you require, I suggest you put your own thoughts towards finding somewhere more permanent to hide."

Fleur made a face, but made no move to defend staying where they were. Prim had every right to ask them to leave if they were to do what they were planning. "Alright. Let me find Thorax a map, then we can start looking for somewhere to work out of."

-0-0-0-

"How about there?" Shining pointed his hoof at a patch of warehouses on the outskirts of the city. Or at least the vague location of them on a map, which was one of those colourful tourist ones, rather than something more useful. "Last I remember they were empty and due to be demolished before the war started."

Fleur hummed thoughtfully, "I do believe they bought up by Tough Nut industries, to expand their operations. They made the armour that the Air Corps, Mage Corps, and Wonderbolts used. At least until the bombing that killed Mr Tough Nut. They'd just about rebuilt their main factory when the war reached Manehattan, and the factory was destroyed by our forces."

"So are they unoccupied or not?"

"I can imagine the Mareitanians claiming them to save them having to rebuild the places we destroyed." Fleur pursed her lips as she glared at the map, "I suppose leaving those places I un-destroyed was an oversight on my part. Intelligence agency, my flank."

"You were fine Fleur. If anything, I wish you'd been in charge from the beginning."

Fleur smirked sideways at Shining, "You ole charmer."

"I have you know I firmly believe what I just said."

"Uh-huh." Fleur looked up at the filly across the table from her, and let her expression fall flat as the filly mouthed something about Shining being married. "I think a warehouse is a bit big for us anyway. Perhaps we could find an abandoned house, or apartment, or anywhere ponies don't really go."

"Because there's nothing less suspicious than ponies going somewhere they're not meant to go."

Fleur leant her head back and sighed, "Why are you being such a massive pain in my flank today, filly? It's not even ten in the morning yet."

Swift shrugged at Fleur, "I'm just saying, going to places ponies don't go is a bit suspicious. Plus they're usually dirty, and cold, and generally horrible. I've done the whole homeless 'sleeping where you can' thing before, and I have no real desire to go back to it."

"Needs must, filly."

"Needs must what?"

"Huh?"

"Needs must what? I know ponies say needs must, but never say what those needs must, so... needs must what?"

Fleur diverted her gaze from the filly and went back to the map, because that seemed better than admitting that she didn't know what needs must either. "So apparently we want somewhere liveable for the softies among us."

"Does it even have to be in Manehattan?" the filly asked. "What about Fillydelphia and Baltimare? There's things Faust wants in those places too. If anything, Fillydelphia is probably a bigger issue for us because of the steel works which supplies all the steel to the things we're trying to stop."

"She does make a good point," Shining said to Fleur as she glared at nothing in particular. "We can't just focus on Manehattan."

"There's seven of us, soon to be eleven, but that's still a small number! We can't possibly do it all." Fleur paused, then slammed her hoof down on the table, gaining herself a dirty look from Prim. "Sorry." Fleur sat and pushed the map away, "We can't do all this on our own. We need to get others involved."

"No we don't," said Shining. "Nothing is going to be rebuilt so fast that we need to get help. We've got this Fleur."

The filly nodded with Shining, "We could always steal a boat if we want something more mobile to travel between the cities."

Fleur stopped and stared straight ahead, "Sweet Luna that's tempting. I've always wanted a boat. Too bad none of us are sailors."

"You'd be surprised," said Shining. "Dad and I have gone sailing plenty of times in the past. If you find us a boat, we can probably sail it."

Fleur bit her lip. Part of her knew this was probably a terrible idea, and that part was probably right, but the majority was currently caught up in a piratical fantasy that showed no sigh of fading. They could even give themselves a catchy name, and it'd be the most fun they could hope to have given the current situation. If they were going to go down, they'd go down doing something stupid, which was all you needed sometimes. "Alright."

Shining pumped his hoof, "Yes! Oh this is going to be sweet!"

"But," Fleur said loudly before Shining could get too carried away, "nothing too big, and we're waiting for Bon Bon and her team to get here first."

"I accept your conditions," Shining replied calmly despite the excited grin he had. "Maybe some kind of yacht, or something similar with a bit of speed. What do you think dad?"

"Preferably something with an arcane engine, because we have plenty of unicorns to recharge it if need be."

"Oh yeah! Then we won't have to search for fuel either."

Twilight Velvet walked over to Fleur, giving her a playful smile and a roll of the eyes as the two males went into an in depth discussion on the merits of using an arcane engine. "Boys."

Fleur said nothing, being quite excited about the idea herself. It was always nice to try something new, and the strange adventure they were about to embark on definitely counted for that. She also didn't respond for Honeydew's sake, as the mare followed the discussion between the two stallions with both interest and a frown. Clearly the lack of steam power was confusing her.

"Do you think we could find a cannon?"

Fleur blinked as the filly's question caught her off-guard. "What the heck would you do with a cannon?"

"The question you need to ask is what wouldn't you do with a cannon if we had one."

"I certainly wouldn't brush my teeth with one for starters, and the list after that is quite long."

The filly scoffed at Fleur, "You really are no fun today."

"We've decided that we're going to be sea faring rebels, and you're accusing me of being no fun? What kind of standards are you using right now?"

"The highest ones, clearly. Our time in Mareitania did set the bar pretty high. I haven't seen an explosion in over a week now! A week, Fleur! Do you have any idea how long that is?"

"I might, and no, we are not getting a cannon." Fleur looked sideways as she was filled with the feeling that they'd have a cannon before the month was out. "Where the hell is Thorax?" she asked, hoping for the distraction.

"Hopefully he's being safe!" Honeydew snapped angrily at Fleur. "I really think you need to remember that we aren't your minions in Equis, and we don't have to jump at your command."

Fleur met Honeydew's irate glare, and wondered briefly about the timing behind her seeming to grow a spine, and why she seemed so protective about Thorax... "Oh shit, you're in love with him."

"No I'm not!"

"You totally are."

"But he's a changeling!"

"So he can literally be whatever you want him to be."

"I- No- But- Shush!"

Fleur swapped her smirk for a reassuring smile, "There's nothing wrong with it if you are. At least I think there isn't."

"Well that's good, even though I'm not. He's just nice to me, and he's very sweet, and has done a lot more for me than most ponies I've met."

"And I'm sure none of that means a thing in any way possible."

"Well of course it does!" Honeydew froze, then dragged her hooves down her cheeks with a groan. "Oh dear."

"Oh dear nothing. There's nothing wrong for having feelings for someone, but I would advise against acting on them in the next day or two. Once we're out of here somewhere safe, feel free to tell him."

"I'm not going to tell him!"

"You don't need to," Shining said, joining the conversation. "Changelings are empaths, so Thorax probably already knows how you feel about him. Chances are he just doesn't want to bring it up until you're ready."

"That's even worse!" Honeydew buried her head in her hooves, but looked back up long enough to glare at Fleur, "What my original point was going to be is that we aren't here to be bossed around by you!"

"I know, I know. I only asked because I'm concerned about him and where he is, and not because I'm only interested in what he's doing for me. I know this isn't Equis."

"Good."

"Of course you do have to wonder how much of that Thorax heard," the filly said conversationally. "He's been hovering outside the window for the last two minutes."

All of them looked over at the window the filly pointed at, seeing a sheepish looking Thorax outside who waved back at them with a nervous grin. He waited until Shining opened the window for him, and made his way to the table as a blush grew on his cheeks. A blush that only grew the more Honeydew tried to hide behind herself.

"What's the news Thorax?" Fleur asked to spare Honeydew her blushes.

"Oh, uh, well I went to all the places you told me to, but all that's happened so far is that the places have been cleaned up. Nothing's been rebuilt so far."

"That's a relief-"

"But there was one thing though. Well, two." Thorax passed a flyer to Fleur, who took it in her magic and unfurled it. It took her a moment, but she did eventually figure out it was a leaflet extolling the virtues of embracing Faust's rule. It had been stamped with the signature of Prince Blueblood, and had a terrible picture of him on the back.

Fleur crumpled it up and tossed it into the bin, "That mealy-mouthed little weasel. First betraying Equestria's secrets to Mareitania, and now this. I can't wait until the princesses catch up to him." Fleur breathed deeply, then released it in one, feeling no calmer for it. "What was the other thing?"

"Just a rumour, but there's word that due to the war, and the food shortages, winter's being cancelled this year."

"What? But you can't just cancel an entire season! Can you?" Fleur asked, not actually knowing. Judging by the collection of shrugs she got in return, none of them knew either. "I guess I'll have to ask Twilight about that. Still, that's not entirely bad news, I suppose. We don't want ponies to starve, even if it does mess things up a bit."

The filly shrugged at Fleur, "It's not like winter's really going to be missed, is it? I know I won't miss it."

"It could also be due to the weather factory being put out of action," Shining pointed out. "I know Faust could take care of the weather, but I imagine she has other things to think about. Including hunting down my wife, daughter, and sister..."

"Good luck to her then, because I certainly don't envy her that task." Fleur nudged Shining and gave him a smile, "You know they'll be fine."

"I hope so." Shining stared into the distance for a moment before continuing. "Anyway, since nothing much is happening at the moment, I guess we move ahead with securing somewhere safe for us to live."

"Once Bon Bon and her team are here," Fleur reminded him.

"Right, but I still think we'd be better off scouting for a decent boat first. Unfortunately, that's not something you or I can do."

"And I don't know the first thing about boats," said Thorax.

Shining turned to his parents and smiled weakly, "I don't suppose you two fancy a trip to the marina?"

-0-0-0-

"If this is what having parents is like, I'm not sold on the idea. Parents walk too slow."

Twilight Velvet smiled at the filly in a way that could be described as motherly, so long as you amended it somewhere with the words 'long suffering.' "You asked to come, remember? It wouldn't have made any difference if you'd stayed back at the apartment."

All three of them smiled at the pair of soldiers that walked past them along the waterfront, although the filly stuck her tongue out at them once they couldn't see. "I can't believe the way they just walk around like they own the place."

"But they do own the place now," Nightlight said with a faint laugh. "We're on the opposite side to them, so we're the intruders here."

"I suppose that goes double for me since I'm a Mareitanian. Or would that be half? Or does that make me a double agent?"

Twilight Velvet laughed at the filly, "Or it leaves you as a filly that has no business thinking too hard about such things."

"Hey, I'm probably tougher than you are. Not many ponies could go through what I have and survive."

"You were wise to leave a probably in there," Nightlight said quietly.

"We're not doubting you," Twilight Velvet reassured the filly. "You are doubting us though, which is a bit unfair. We're just thinking that Fleur wouldn't want you to get into trouble."

"Oh no, you're not changing the subject. You look at me and see some kid, where what you're really seeing is a young adult who survived getting her wings torn off her back at the age of six, and grew up on the toughest streets of a country that hated pegasi. Pretty sure that makes me tougher than the majority of ponies in this country. Sure you might be a bit of a thrill seeker, Mrs Twilight, but that doesn't make you tough."

"And I could tell you that toughness isn't everything. Yes, you are a hardy little thing, I won't deny it, but that doesn't make you capable of fighting off any soldiers that decide they don't like the look of us."

The filly tapped a hoof to her chest, "Run and survive, that's my motto."

"Even if it meant leaving somepony behind?"

Memories of the time Fleur was captured in Prance flashed through Swift's head. Fleur had forced her to hide rather than get captured as well, even though the ones hunting them had let her go to lead Twilight Sparkle into a trap at High Rock as they attempted to rescue Fleur. She hadn't run then, because she didn't want to leave Fleur behind. "Oh Luna fucking damn it."

"Language!"

"Oh bite me. If you're going to go around reminding me of things I don't want to remember, you can put up with some bad language."

"Easy ladies," Nightlight said soothingly. "There's no need to go falling out. Twilight was only asking you a question, and didn't mean to remind you of anything. And darling, you know full well from our daughter what that blasted country does to ponies."

"He's right filly, I-"

"Swift," the filly said coldly. "Only my friends get to call me filly."

Twilight didn't push the issue, although it stung a little to be cast out in such a small yet significant way. "Alright, Swift, I didn't mean to dig up any unpleasant memories for you, and I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted, and for your information, the one time I didn't run was right before Fleur got those scars. You'll have to ask her how she got them."

"Actually we already know," Twilight Velvet admitted. "Twilight told us not long after she came back, when she was telling us about a lot of the things that happened. That sort of thing happened a lot over the first couple of months after she came back, usually with her in floods of tears. Even now, what happened in Mareitania haunts her, and I hate that it's on her to try and stop Faust. Much more of this, and I don't know if she'll even be our little girl any more."

The filly stopped walking, forcing Twilight Velvet and Nightlight to stop as well as she turned to face them. "Are you even kidding me? Twilight is always going to be Twilight, even if she acts differently, and she'll never stop loving you or the rest of your family. Sure some shitty things happened in Mareitania, and dying would mess anypony up, but maybe you should stop focussing on the bad things that happened to her, and maybe think on all the good things that she did to help a lot of ponies, including me."

"What do you mean she died?"

"Ohhh..." the filly drawled as she found out she may have gone a little too far. Not that she knew Twilight hadn't mentioned having died to her parents, although she could appreciate why. "Did you know alicorns are immortal? Fascinating really, if you think about it."

"You're seriously telling us Twilight died in Mareitania?" Nightlight asked the filly, getting a queasy nod in return. "Oh my goodness, our poor Twilight."

"It was her own stupid fault, which she'll happily tell you. Well, which she'll tell you without the happily part, but anyway, she's immortal, so she's fine, so there's no need to worry, and certainly no need to bring up that I told you about it, ha-ha..."

"But what if it happens again when she tries to stop Faust?" Twilight Velvet gasped.

"What part of immortal aren't you getting?" the filly replied flatly. "She'll die, then she'll come back to life. Apparently she doesn't get much choice about it."

"We almost lost our baby!" Twilight snarled at the filly, who took a step back in shock. "You can stand there and joke about it, but our darling Twilight could've died in some Celestia forsaken country, fighting a war that wasn't even her own! She could be dead right now!"

"But she isn't! Twilight can't die! Permanently at least, and will now live to the end of time itself, so you really don't have to worry about her!"

"Good! I'm glad!"

"And I'm glad you're glad, but believe me when I say Twilight feels quite differently about it! Maybe you should really have a talk to your daughter about all this at some point. You might learn some things about her."

"Oh look, the marina!" Nightlight said brightly, before his wife could properly retaliate against the filly. "I know we have some things to think about, Twilight, but maybe we should save it for now? Or at least until we're safely away from Manehattan?"

"Fine," Twilight growled through her teeth, setting off down the steps to the wooden jetty, leaving Nightlight with the filly.

"Phew, dodged an arrow there. Thanks."

"Do you take some kind of special pleasure from pushing ponies buttons?" Nightlight asked the filly, giving her a hard look. "We've had our daughter return to us as a very different mare to the one that left to go to Mareitania, and that alone is hard enough to deal with without finding out that she died, and is thankfully immortal. We will never forgive Celestia and Luna for what they made her go through, and you would do well to remember how your mother would feel about you, if you-"

"My mother's dead. My sire is dead. I was born in a pegasi foal factory to be brought up into a life of slavery, except my wings were too small to allow me to be used to breed as well, so I was going to be killed. The last I saw my mother she was begging the guards to let me live, and their compromise was to rip my wings off and toss me out into the cold where I had a slim chance of surviving. She died giving birth to a unicorn, which only one of the guards could've put in her, so don't you dare tell me how my mother would feel if I died, because she knows full well the pain of having her children stolen off her, and often killed. Your immortal daughter... well, you don't realise how good you have it with that, just as you don't realise how much all us pegasi from Mareitania owe her for helping us to escape the very hell that was our daily existence."

Nightlight stared wide-eyed, and closed his mouth with a click, only to cautiously reopen it. "You still owe my wife an apology."

The filly shrugged, "Maybe I do, but she won't get it because I don't care about her, or you, because I'm too busy caring about Twilight, the mare that saved my people from slavery. Maybe you should stop thinking about all the bad things involving Twilight, and maybe think a little about the good things, and about how wonderful she is as you try to follow her selfless example. Now are we going to stand around here talking all day, or are we going to go find a boat?"

Nightlight stood quietly as the filly sashayed around him and down to the jetty, only daring to speak once he thought she was far enough away. "Ho-ly shit."

"Language!"

"Oh come on! I wasn't even that loud!"

-0-0-0-

There was a tense atmosphere in the apartment as night started to fall. Nightlight, Twilight Velvet, and the filly hadn't been very long as they searched for a suitable vessel, and when they'd come back, Fleur had been less than surprised that the filly had fallen out with them. What did surprise her was what they'd fallen out over, and while Fleur could see both sides, she could agree that Twilight's parents had put too much effort into worrying about how Twilight had changed, which helped nopony because Twilight was always going to be different now.

On the plus side though, they'd heard from the mare in question, Twilight, as well, and had at least learnt that there was now a plan, and that the princesses were heading to Griffonia on what was the first real step in making it work. Of course Fleur was left with no idea whether what she planned to do would make any difference, but as Nightlight had said, even making a small difference was worth it.

Unfortunately that piece of good news hadn't uplifted the atmosphere by much, mostly because the news that the princesses were seeking help to invade their own country was always going to be bittersweet, but also because half of the room wasn't speaking to the other half. Even Shining wasn't talking to his parents at this point. Fleur near cried with relief when the buzzer on the intercom went off.

"Hello?" Prim said curtly into the intercom, listening intently to the buzzy voice on the other end of it. "I see. Fleur, do you know somepony by the name of Bon Bon?"

"Yes! Wait, they're here already? Whatever, just let them in!"

"Would a please kill you?"

"Ahem. Please?"

Prim nodded and gave instructions to Bon Bon to head to the penthouse, unlocking the door for them as she did. It took as few minutes for the four ponies to reach the penthouse, and the entire time Fleur was bouncing on the tips of her hooves, much to the amusement of the others.

"Bon Bon!" Fleur shouted as they entered the penthouse, "I'm so glad you all made it! How'd you get here so fast?"

"Well," Bon Bon replied with a wan smile, "the good news is the trains are up and running again. The bad news is the trains are up and running again. Purely military as far as we could tell."

"Of course." Fleur waved them in, and a quick series of introductions was made, ending rather awkwardly on Thorax.

"You have a changeling here," Rocky stated flatly. "You do know we used to hunt those little bastards back when we were in Smile, right?" Rocky cracked a tiny smile as Thorax swallowed hard at the mention of that name. "Why the hell do you have one here?"

"He's friendly, and he's with us," Fleur said firmly, daring Rocky to make an issue out of it. "He's under the protection of the princesses, which admittedly doesn't mean shit right now, but that should give you an idea about what will happen if you try anything."

"He just looks like a pony to me," Flicker said as she eyed Thorax up in his pony guise. At a word from Fleur, he removed his disguise, and stood there in all his bug-like glory. "Woah, that's kinda freaky dude."

"He is not freaky!" Honeydew shouted, finally drawing to herself the attention that hadn't made it past Thorax. "He is a wonderful individual, and you would do well to treat him as just another pony."

"Sure," Crème said dryly, "just another pony that can disguise itself as anything, and lives off the raw emotions of others. So very regular. Still, it's nice to see you again, Honeydew. I dare say you'd have been safer hiding in Mareitania at this point, but we live and learn."

"Yes, well, if it weren't for Fleur I'd probably be back in Faust's clutches by now, building more of those blasted tanks."

"Don't think about that right now," Fleur said to Honeydew. "Since we're all here, we can now move onto the next part of the plan sooner rather than later."

"You mean how you're planning to fight back?" asked Bon Bon.

"Yes, but not quite. First we're going to find somewhere safe to hide and live, and since we need to be mobile, we've decided we're going to steal a boat so we can operate pretty much anywhere along the east coast. From there we can hopefully do whatever is needed to slow down Faust's manufacturing capabilities."

"Okay," Bon Bon said slowly, "sounds reasonable. Where is this boat?"

"At the marina. Nightlight's picked a good one out, and the marina's on lockdown, so it won't have gone anywhere. Unfortunately that will make it harder to steal, but we have you guys now, and I know you can do it."

"Just show us where to go."

"Alright, everypony go pack your things, and Prim?"

"Yes dear?"

"Thanks for having us."

Prim smiled affectionately at Fleur, "Any time Fleur, you know that, although I do wish you'd reconsider this scheme of yours. Since I know you won't," she added quickly, holding a hoof up to silence Fleur, "all I'll say is to take care. Or at least try to be careful."

Fleur considered it carefully, "I think I could manage that. Goodbye Prim."

"Bon voyage, Fleur de Lis."

-0-0-0-

It was with some pride to Fleur that other pictures of Faust had been altered like the one she had done. Of course that wasn't exactly the plan any more, so she hoped that actual resistance wasn't on the cards of many ponies. Still, she'd started a trend, and that always felt good.

"There's another one," the filly whispered, pointing to another picture just inside the entrance to an narrow street. "Seeing as how this only started last night, it seems to have kicked off pretty quick."

"What can I say? Ponies love having a trend to follow." Fleur shushed the filly as Bon Bon waved back at them, and scooted into covered. Seconds later the faint clatter of armour passed nearby, and they waited until it was gone before daring to move on. "That said, I can't wait to get out of here."

A change in the smell of the air suggested that they were getting close to the seafront, and the sound of water, and the quiet tapping of boats as they rubbed against their moorings suggested that the marina wasn't far away either. Bon Bon stopped them as Flicker went ahead to make sure the coast was clear, which they were fairly sure it was as a strangled cry followed by a splash reached their ears.

"Nngh, sloppy Flicker, sloppy," Rocky cursed, twitching his ears for any other guards that might have heard the commotion.

"Excuse me for only having my hooves to work with," Flicker hissed back at him, making most of the ponies there jump in surprise. "The coast's clear, so if we're going to go, we should go now."

"Where's the boat, Nightlight?" Fleur asked.

"I mightn't have thought to memorise where is was," Nightlight admitted with a nervous laugh. He pointed to the right, "I think it was that way." Twilight Velvet reached over and moved his leg so it was pointing more ahead of them, "Or over there."

"Direction never was your strong point, honey."

A shout in the distance behind them spurred them into moving, and for a minute the only sounds to be heard was the tapping of hooves on the wooden boards of the jetty as the ten ponies and one sort of pony, rushed to the boat.

"You don't think Prim sold us out, do you?" the filly asked as the shouting increased.

"She wouldn't," Fleur answered her. "We must've been spotted at some point on the way here. We'll be out of here soon, so just ignore it."

"That's the one," Nightlight said proudly, pointing at one of the boats, whose white colour showed it up in the dark. Fleur knew as much about boats as she knew about magic, which was very little, but she could tell it was big enough for all of them, while still appearing like it could produce a fair bit of speed. What she did know was that it must've cost somepony quite a few bits, and since they were stealing it, it sucked to be that pony.

"Everypony get on board," Shining commanded. "Dad, get it started. Fleur and I will get the moorings."

"We'll get the what?"

"We'll untie the ropes!"

"Ooohhh... right." Fleur ran left, while Shining went around the far side of the boat, both of them quickly doing their work while a different problem developed onboard.

"I don't know where the keys are Shining!" Nightlight shouted, far too loudly.

"Can't you hotwire it?"

"Son, this boat is a technological marvel of magic and engineering. You can't just hotwire it! Hey what are you-" The engine came to life with a soft purr that could barely be heard. "Oh, well Miss Crème informs me that you can in fact hotwire a boat like this."

"Good!" The shouts were quite close now, and the thuds of ponies running could be felt through the wood. "Are you done Fleur?"

"Uh... maybe? I don't see any more ropes." There was a splash as the gangplank slipped off the side of the boat and into the water. "Wait, didn't we need that?"

"Oh for fuck sake!"

"Langua- Nevermind! Now's not the time, I know."

Shining sprinted back around the boat, and in one smooth motion, grabbed Fleur under the chest and tossed her into the boat with a squawk, then jumped on himself, grabbing onto the rail and scrabbling for purchase with his rear hooves until Rocky pulled him over. "Why aren't we moving Dad?"

"Uh..."

"Dad!"

"I've never sailed something like this before! Just... give me a minute!"

"We don't have a minute!" Fleur shouted as the soldiers ran towards them. The one in the lead jumped for the boat, and would've made it if a roundhouse kick from Bon Bon hadn't met his face before he could land. The other soldiers, who didn't fancy a swim, were a bit smarter about it as they pointed a collection of crossbows at them.

"We have you surrounded! Surrender immediately, or we will fire!"

"Is there an option two?" the filly asked the soldier that had spoke.

"You have ten seconds!"

"Guess not." The filly stepped back as a purple orb surrounded the boat, courtesy of Shining as he smirked smugly at the soldiers.

"I'd like to see them get through that."

"I wouldn't," said Fleur. She stumbled as the boat lurched and started to go backwards, reversing out of its berth. She glared up at the elevated cockpit, getting an apologetic grin from Nightlight. A grin that only grew as they crashed into the boats behind them. "I thought you said you knew how to sail!"

"It's... been a while."

"Ugh," Crème groaned, "get out of the way." Rather than wait for him to move, or argue, Crème shoved Nightlight aside and spun the wheel to port as she smoothly pushed the throttle forwards, taking them out of the marina at speed, and away from danger.

"We'll anypony could've done that," Nightlight mumbled, earning himself a pitying kiss on the cheek from his wife.

"Is everypony okay?" Shining asked, quickly checking everypony over. Nopony seemed to be hurt, and none of them said anything, so he took the opportunity to slump against the side of the cockpit. "That was not how it was supposed to happen. They're going to be looking for us now, and probably get their griffons involved."

"We're safe for now though," said Fleur. "Let's just get some distance between us and Manehattan, and worry about the rest in the morning."

"Such as where we can put this," the filly quipped, pulling a black square of cloth out of her meagre belongings. She unfolded it to show the skull and crossbones motif it bore.

"Where did you get that?"

"Prim made it for me."

"What? But Prim never does anything for free!"

"Have you ever asked her?"

"...No?"

"There you go then." The filly held the flag up and imagined it flying just behind the cockpit. "This is going to be sweet."

Author's Note

And this is the chapter where Fleur, and ultimately I, learnt that being a resistance sucks, so be pirates instead. They're going to do things. It's going to be great, you'll love it. Please love it?

6. Just dropping in

"Okay, so..." Twilight leaned forwards over the small table in the living quarters of the retreat where she, Trixie, Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor, were getting a crash course on Griffonia's leadership over breakfast. "Emperor Hergest is the supreme ruler, no questions asked. That's easy enough. His brother Eustace is in prison for conspiring against him, which was discovered by Equestria from the Emperor's disgraced and disowned son, Theron, whom Eustace was conspiring with." Luna gave her a nod as she finished.

"These griffons all have weird names," Trixie moaned quietly. "They have no meaning to them. They're just... a-a collection of syllables! I don't know how I'm going to keep them all straight."

Twilight looked sideways at Trixie, "There's only three names. Four if you include the ambassador, Deetra."

"Actually, there's five," Cadence corrected. "The heir to the throne, Crown Princess Clarissa, is also a name you will have to remember. The Emperor always keeps his daughter close."

"Uh-huh," Twilight nodded, "and there's a fair bit of political strife going on there."

"You could say that," Luna confirmed. "Eustace had gotten a lot of griffons riled up with his forward thinking ideas, claiming the Empire to be too stuck in its ways, and too eager to give in to the whims of other nations like, well, us. The truth is that Eustace just wants power, and was willing to lie to get it. The fact that he conspired with Theron was all the proof the Emperor needed to imprison him."

"And what was that conspiracy, exactly?" Rainbow asked, a slice of toast held halfway to her mouth.

Luna shrugged, succinctly conveying that she hadn't the foggiest, and said as much. "We can only speculate. Theron wanted Griffonstone, which was once part of Griffonia until we took it from the Empire in centuries past. My guess is that Eustace wanted to reclaim Griffonstone for the Empire, making him look good to the rich and wealthy supporters of the Emperor, many of which want a return to the old expansionist way of thinking. I'm not sure how many griffons actually want that, but it's money that matters with griffons. If he could get the support of the upper echelons of griffon society, he could stand a chance of getting the Emperor forced out."

"But didn't Theron say that his uncle getting put in prison was part of the plan?" Cadence said, confused. "Surely if that was his plan, prison doesn't help."

"Then he must be planning something worse," Twilight told her. "What better way to appear innocent than to be in prison at the time of an assassination attempt?"

"Indeed," Luna agreed. "Unfortunately this means we will have to tread very carefully. If Eustace gets it into his head to pin an assassination on us while we're there, we will be in dire straits indeed. Honestly the timing of this is atrocious, but there we go."

"And what does Commander Theron get out of this?" Lightning asked.

"Eustace has no children," Luna replied. "An heir will have to be named, and who better than the reclaimer of Griffonstone? I imagine they plan to stop Faust by means of conquering Equestria after that point, since Theron must at least be aware of some of her intentions. It will only bring them ruin, and our chances of success will be greatly diminished."

Trixie rubbed her temples with her hooves, putting on the appearance of a headache, rather than actually having one. "Why did it have to be political? I hate politics. I do have a question though. What about the Emperor's wife?"

"Sadly deceased," said Luna. "I was still enjoying my sabbatical on the moon at the time-"

"Like fun you were!" Nightmare shouted from next door.

Luna rolled her eyes and continued, "-but I do believe my sister mentioned there were complications laying her second egg, and she died shortly thereafter."

Trixie's face screwed up as she tried to picture that, and it was pretty clear she wished she hadn't made the effort. "Uh, is that really how it works?"

"Quite so. That's what you get when you mix avian biology with mammalian. Griffon hens give birth to their eggs at six months, then incubate it for the remaining three." Luna snorted with mirth, "Now that we know about it, you can almost see Discord at work right there."

"Well that's horrific," Trixie said glibly. "Anything else we should know?"

"What about griffon society?" Twilight asked quickly. "What should we expect from that?"

"Hostility, mostly," Luna answered with a laugh. She stopped at the look Twilight gave her. "It's not too dissimilar to our own. No griffon is really poor, and can all live comfortably enough, but the difference between those that have enough, and those that have whatever they want is larger than what you would see in Equestria, and it is those wealthy few that have the political clout that Eustace wants behind him. Common griffons have very little say in how their country is run."

"I don't know, that sounds familiar enough," Twilight said blithely.

Luna ignored the jab. "Pointing out the flaws in their society isn't going to make us any friends, so all of you do your best to nod and smile, and maybe we might pull this off."

-0-0-0-

"I get the feeling this is going to become a recurring thing," Sunset said to Twilight as they stood in the portal chamber. "Staying here doing research while you go off on adventures. Curse my brilliant mind for lumbering me with this task."

Twilight smirked at the cheeky grin Sunset had given her, "You can come next time if you feel the need to stretch your legs, although there's no saying when that next time will be. Who knows how long this'll take us?"

"Hopefully not too long," Trixie commented. "We got shit to do, y'know? Faust ain't going to beat herself."

Twilight pushed Trixie away, "You just take care of yourself and the others, and have some good news waiting for us when we get back. Oh, and on the off chance that Nightmare starts making trouble, come find us."

There was an anxious sounding buzz from Mayfly, drawing their attention to her. "Are you sure you won't need me? This one is quite adept at spying."

"I think we're trying to do this with honesty," Twilight told Mayfly as Cadence looked back at them out of the corner of her eye, although the sight of Flurry sitting on her back blowing bubbles with her mouth ruined the image. Or improved it. It was really a bit of both. "Believe me, I'd bring all of you if I could, but the less ponies we have with us, the better."

"But... I'm not a pony."

"I know, but being with us kind of limits your disguising abilities to being a pony, otherwise it will look weird."

"What about Ember? Also not a pony."

"Alright, I'm sorry," Twilight apologised, taking the hint. "The less people with us, the better. And I'm pretty sure bringing a dragon anywhere with you is viewed as making hostilities, no matter how well intentioned that dragon might be."

"It's a gift," Ember said as she leant against the wall and inspected her claws.

"Quite." Twilight looked around, but couldn't find what she was looking for. "Is Moondancer not coming to see us off?"

"No," Sunset sighed, "but she does hope that none of you get killed, or eaten."

"Oh, well, it seems like she's finally warming up a bit," Twilight joked. "You can tell her we appreciate her concern."

"Uh, sure." Sunset pricked her ears as a subtle tone filled the air as the portal to Griffonia was activated by Luna. "Guess that's it then. Good luck."

"Thanks, and I'll see you soon." Twilight smiled at Sunset, Mayfly, and Ember, then turned away to pass through the mirror. Luna went first, and Twilight swore she could hear the hint of a shout as she went through, and again as Cadence did the same with Flurry. She glanced at Trixie and the others, but only got shrugs in return, so decided to find out herself what was going on. She stepped through the mirror, and shouted as the ground disappeared from beneath her.

"What the hell?" Twilight shouted as she caught herself on her wings. She was staring down the side of a mountain, having appeared in the crumbled ruins of half a tower. The mirror was stuck inside the remaining half of the tower, the floor beneath it having fallen away, meaning there was nothing to stand on once you passed through.

"What's all the shouti-waah!" Trixie started to say before plummeting down several feet. Twilight caught her quickly, but Trixie's fear of heights caught her first. "Wah-hah-hah-haah!"

"Trixie."

"Waaahhh-ahhh-haahh!"

"Trixie!"

"Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Damn it Trixie! Shut up!"

"Huh?" Trixie opened her eyes to find she was hovering safely in Twilight's magic, and not plummeting to her death. "Oh. Sooo... where'd the floor go?"

"Starsy could have perhaps informed us that the mirror wasn't in the castle," Luna said, keeping an eye on the mirror as the Wonderbolts came through and quickly took flight. "It seems the tower it was kept in hasn't stood the test of time. It would serve us well to move the mirror once we have a place to move it to."

Rainbow turned in the air as she looked about, seeing only snow capped mountains around them. "So if this isn't the Eyrie, where are we?"

"We're close." Luna gestured for them to follow her. "Very close."

She led them in a flight around the side of the mountain the had arrived on, and it soon became clear what Luna meant as they arrived in a verdant valley that lay between three large mountains. The valley floor was all farmland, green and lush from the water that trickled down from the mountains, but the real action was on the mountains themselves.

Built on the sides of the mountains, and surrounding the upper end of the valley, was a sprawling city, that was near vertical at times. It started from the ground and reached to not far below the snowline, although the highest part of the end mountain was taken up by a large castle dug into the rock of the mountain, looming over the rest of the city below it.

"This is the Eyrie," Luna said as they started the flight towards the castle. "Makes Canterlot look like a child's plaything by comparison."

"I'm guessing this is why you wanted ponies with wings to come with you," Trixie said, her fears temporarily forgotten as she took it all in. "Whoever thought of this must've had a tiny penis."

"Actually, there's no one griffon responsible for this. The Eyrie is a result of centuries of growth."

Twilight, while suitably impressed, was also sceptical of what she was seeing. "I'm guessing the higher you live, the wealthier you are?"

"And vice versa," Luna said cheerfully. "Just like Canterlot, and just like Canterlot, anyone can move up so long as you can make the money to do so. It's surprisingly fair in that regard at least. There's no caste system, or tribal issues to keep a griffon down. Just their ability to fill their coffers."

"But I'm guessing that once you get rich, you stay rich?"

Luna levelled a hoof, "It's not perfect. There are also plenty of wealthy griffons that like to keep the poor from rising to their level. Still, we're not here to try and change that. We're here to get help."

Twilight said nothing, although her thoughts steered towards darker places like the griffons not being interested enough in helping their own to help others. Those thoughts slipped away as they neared the castle, and what had been carved into the mountain around it. A massive griffon head, its beak hanging over the castle, surveyed the land before it, and firmly held its claws at the edges of the main wall that protected the castle. Twilight felt surprisingly small as she flew into its shadow.

A dozen armed griffons flew up to confront them as they made to fly over the wall. A razor sharp collection of spears encouraged them to stop as a large griffon came forward to speak with them.

"State your business here, ponies," he spat, reminding them that ponies weren't exactly the most popular beings in Griffonia.

"We seek an audience with the Emperor," Luna replied in a clear voice. "It concerns the threat of Faust."

All of them caught the look in the guards eyes, because he made no attempt to hide it. He was laughing. Not externally, but inside he was rolling on the floor. "Ah yes, you lose that war and come limping to us. This should be go-"

"Hold your tongue!"

All of them jumped in surprise at the shout that came from below them. A silvery hen flew up, staring daggers at the guard until he backed off a little. "Apologies, Ambassador."

"These ponies are to be allowed entrance into the castle, without interference from your guards, Captain."

The Captain spluttered for a second at the order. "You haven't the authority to allow that! Only the Emperor can give the authority to admit entry to these ponies."

"The Emperor has." The hen held a scroll bearing the seal of the Emperor, the same twin headed griffon that adorned the red flags fluttering in the wind around them. "Let them in."

The Captain locked eyes with the Ambassador for a moment, then waved for his guards to disperse, a displeased caw slipping from his beak. The Ambassador waited for them to go, then turned an apologetic smile onto the ponies. "Sorry about that, princesses. The Emperor's desire to grant you entry to the castle wasn't disclosed to the guard to stop them thinking of ways to creatively ignore the order. There are plenty that would see you walking the halls here as an insult, and a threat."

"A threat?" Cadence asked, surprised at such a notion.

"We know full well what Faust wants thanks to the griffons your Director of Equis sent our way. Unfortunately, if ponies weren't treated with suspicion before, they definitely are now."

Twilight smiled and silently cheered for Fleur for possibly making their task a little bit easier. "You were expecting us then?"

"We thought you might come this way eventually. I was asked to wait out here for your arrival, which wasn't the most exciting task after a week of waiting, as you might imagine. Thank goodness it wasn't longer." The ambassador blinked, realising that she was being rude. "Apologies. Follow me, and I shall try and get you in to see the Emperor."

"Thank you," Luna said earnestly. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Deetra."

"And you as well, Princess Luna. I'm surprised to not see your sister with you."

"Celestia is... missing, and is most likely in the hooves of Faust."

"Oh, my deepest sympathies, Princess." Deetra sighed heavily, seeming far too theatrical with it, even if it was genuine. "Unfortunately that may make things more difficult as the Emperor was expecting to be greeting Celestia."

Luna didn't care what the Emperor wanted, or expected. "Then he shall simply have to be disappointed with us other princesses."

"I'm sure he'll be quite accommodating to you."

Luna said nothing, not wishing to point out the obvious doubt in Deetra's voice. From that alone, Luna was already beginning to paint a picture in her mind of how this was going to go. It wasn't very pretty.

There was a short window of quiet as the group flew down to the main entrance of the castle. An imposing edifice in its own right, with carvings of griffons sat each side of the entry, keeping a silent vigil. They were about to enter the castle proper when one of the guards spoke up with a rough accent.

"Weapons, please," he asked sharply. Luna was impressed that he even bothered to say please.

"You can't be serious," Deetra started, only to get interrupted by the guard again.

"Very serious. Ponies give up weapons, or don't see the Emperor."

"You do realise that there are three alicorns and a unicorn here, yes? Their horns are far more dangerous than what the pegasi are carrying, or would you like their horns to be removed as well?"

"Hey," Rainbow whined quietly, "we're dangerous too."

"Weapons. Please," the guard reiterated.

"Relinquish your weapons," Luna ordered the Wonderbolts, not wishing to waste any more time on this minor issue. If the griffons sought to harm them, they would quickly learn the error of their ways from Twilight, Trixie, and herself.

It took a minute for the Wonderbolts to extricate their weapons from their uniforms, and give them over with a faint promise of having them returned upon their departure, with a fainter warning that their departure could in fact come in many different forms.

"They seem to be taking our presence very seriously," Luna said to Deetra as they proceeded deeper into the castle, ignoring all other paths to take the one before them. "I was expecting us to be treated as laughably non-dangerous."

"Uh... typically, yes, but the Emperor is no fool. Faust's sudden rise to power, and subsequent conquering of Equestria has made a lot of griffons concerned. While we expected to be visited by yourselves, we have no idea what capacity that visit might be in, or on whose behalf."

"We are no servants of Faust if that is what you are thinking."

"As I am now aware, but the story your griffon agents gave us was quite detailed, and concerned quite a bit of mind control. Without magic of our own, we have no way of verifying whether you are being controlled or not, other than to take the word of your agents that you're immune, and have taken steps to protect your subjects as well."

Luna nodded, not able to disagree with their concerns. "I can assure you we are not under Faust's sway, and have come to ask assistance in combating her, rather than aiding her. If she had her way, I would be confined to something worse than Tartarus right now, rather than be a tool she could use."

"I understand." Deetra stopped them at the final door, and looked nervously at the two Imperial guards standing stiffly to attention outside it. "Things are still rather tense around here, so I will advise you to be patient, and not make any threatening moves. The castle guard might tolerate it, but the Imperial guard won't."

"We shall all be on our best behaviour," Twilight assured the ambassador. "Isn't that right, Trixie?"

"Trixie isn't about to go and screw this up for us if that's what you're thinking."

Deetra nodded at the guards, and they pushed the doors open to the throne room. Most of them were put straight on edge as only prey animals could when walking into a room full of predators. The lingering smell of cooked flesh did nothing to help.

The only one unperturbed was Luna, who wore the friendliest smile she could muster as she followed Deetra through the throne room to the opposite end, ignoring the eyes on her as she looked at the collection of banners that filled the rafters, one from each province of Griffonia. She couldn't stare at them for long though, as she reached the throne where a brown and white crested griffon lounged on a cushion, a golden crown on his head, rings on his claws, and a thick red cloak on his back that failed to obscure how obscenely fat he was.

All of the Emperor's chins jiggled as he set his beady eyes onto Luna, and a nasty little grin spread across his beak. Luna was frankly disgusted at the sight of this misshapen blob occupying the throne. She suspected from his build that he had been quite the fit, strong, and athletic griffon once, but that was naught but a memory after years of overindulgence.

Luna stopped short of the four Imperial guards that lined the bottom of the raised throne, and dropped into a bow that her companions, including Trixie, by some miracle, followed her into. "It is an honour to meet you, your Imperial Majesty, Emperor of Griffonia."

The Emperor bowed his head to Luna, "As it is an honour to meet you, Princess Luna. Please though, your Majesty will suffice."

"As you wish." Luna stood again, carefully maintaining her smile. "Your Majesty, as I'm sure you are aware, Equestria has fallen to-"

"Ah-ah! I am fully aware of the troubles that have befallen Equestria, and I suppose I should thank you for taking the time to warn me of the treacherous antics of my son, and brother. However, that does not mean you can waltz into my country and ask for my help."

Cadence stepped forwards and raised her head to make sure she was heard. Flurry was sat on her back again, and was peering at the Emperor like he had offended her. "Your Majesty, you must realise that Faust poses a threat to you, and your country. If we do not work together to stop her, we will all lose."

"But you have already lost," the Emperor reminded her. "How could you lose again? And what interest would she have in us griffons? If she wants your pony lands, so be it. You, the Mareitanians, the Mustangs, the Saddle Arabians, even the zebras, none are of any concern to us."

"She wants the world," Twilight said loudly. "She isn't just seeking to conquer the pony nations, but the entire world. Ponies, griffons, minotaurs, dragons... all of it, and if we don't stop her now, she'll have it."

"And how could you possibly know that? Unless you are working for her?"

"We know, because she's told us."

"Was that before or after you released her?"

"Father! You know the Equestrians aren't responsible for Faust's release."

All of the ponies looked over at the newcomer into the conversation. It was a hen, similar in colour to her father, if more of a golden brown, and unlike the one she called father, was slim and sleek, and was probably quite beautiful by griffon standards.

"Silence, Clarissa, and do not speak over me again." The Emperor stared his daughter down until she looked away, then went back to the ponies. "Did you release her or not?"

"No," Luna answered. "We were aware of her prior to her release, but sought to keep her contained due to the threat she posed. Unfortunately her existence was made known to the Mareitanians, many of whom revered her as a goddess, and they released her. I imagine you know the rest from there."

"Oh indeed, and had I not been beset by betrayal, I would've been watching events unfold with great interest."

"Surely you must have seen enough to know how dangerous Faust is?" Twilight asked as the Emperor smiled smugly. "She will come for you, and on your own you will be defeated."

"My army outnumbers hers near two to one," the Emperor spat gruffly. "She would stand no chance against us!"

"Your ancestors thought that too," Luna said lightly. There was a quiet smack as Deetra covered her face with a claw. "Multiple times."

The Emperor stood, and narrowed his eyes at Luna, before letting a smile creep onto his beak. "Indeed. Is that perhaps not reason enough for me to let Faust do as she wishes? Why fight her if I stand no chance?"

"Because we don't want you to just fight her," Cadence explained. "We have a plan to defeat Faust, but we can't do it alone. We're hoping to form an alliance to defeat her, and we wish for you to be part of it, along with our other neighbours."

"Three deposed princesses do not make a country," the Emperor reminded them. "Even if Celestia were here too, which I note she isn't, I would still say to her what I will say to you. The griffons need no help from ponies, so unless you have something to offer me, I have no interest."

"That will be part of our alliance," Luna tried to explain. "Favourable trade agreements between nations, increased security from all threats, and other benefits that do nothing to harm your country. Our alliance would be made with an eye to the future, but that is a future that will not happen if Faust is not stopped."

The Emperor chuckled deeply, making his chins wobble most disconcertingly. "Have you heard nothing of what I said? We, the Griffon Empire, have no use for you. I could order an invasion of Equestria and claim your country for my own if I so wished. Then we'd both get something we wanted. Me, Equestria free from ponies, and you, Faust defeated."

Luna shook her head sadly, "Except you would never defeat Faust. You might see her as like us, but in truth she is far beyond any one alicorn. You would lose. As to you conquering Equestria, would it give you a hint on how Faust concerns us if I told you I'd rather see Equestria in your claws, than in her hooves?"

There was a hint of respect in the Emperor's expression after that, although none of the ponies there truly believed Luna had meant what she'd said. "Intriguing. Perhaps we shall have to have a more in depth discussion about this, but not right now. Unfortunately you've arrived just before I am to depart tomorrow for a short visit to the south with my daughter, and I have much to do before departing, so you shall have to wait until I have returned to discuss it. In the meantime you shall be my honoured guests. Chamberlain, find them some rooms."

"Actually, father," Clarissa interrupted, coming forward to stand next to the ponies. "Might I show them to their rooms? I wish to learn more about ponies."

The Emperor stared coolly at his daughter for several long seconds, before granting his permission with a wave of his claw. Clarissa bowed to the princesses, and directed them back out of the throne room, then left to another part of the castle.

"Oh my goodness, you are just the cutest!" the hen gushed suddenly, catching them all off guard with her sudden change in attitude. "The foal I mean, not the rest of you, although you're all pretty cute too! Uh, if that's alright to say?"

"Well," Trixie said with a sly grin, "a pony can call another pony cute, but when a non-pony does it, eeehhh..."

"It's fine," Twilight said quickly, giving Trixie the eye. "Although, it's a little demeaning to be honest."

Clarissa blushed with embarrassment, "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry! I've never met ponies before, so I'm a little unsure of what's appropriate, and what isn't. Is it okay that I called the foal cute?"

"So long as you don't say she's cute enough to eat," Trixie whispered, getting an elbow in the ribs from Twilight for her troubles.

"That's fine, yes," Cadence said with a smile. "And thank you."

"You're welcome! I'm sorry about my dad by the way. The Emperor, I mean. He's probably not going to help you."

"As I may have suspected," Luna said evenly, neither surprised or disappointed, as it was almost exactly what she expected. "What do you think?"

"Me?" Clarissa asked, like she was shocked anyone wanted her opinion on anything.

"Yes you. You are the crown princess after all, so you should really have an opinion on this."

"Oh, well, I'd help. I don't know what everygriffs problem is with ponies, and I'm tired of them dragging along a centuries old bias when what happened back then doesn't affect any of them now. That said, I don't know about this alliance thing you're proposing, but I've heard enough about Faust to know she's bad news, and needs to be stopped."

"First bit of sense we've heard from a griffon all day," Trixie laughed.

"Trixie!" Twilight shouted.

"What? It is!"

Twilight swatted Trixie on then side, then smiled awkwardly at Clarissa. "Sorry about her, she's... an idiot."

"It's fine, really. I'm curious what ponies think of us though. It can't be that bad if you want to make an alliance with us."

Luna looked ashamed for a moment, but it was gone in a flash. "For the longest time, my sister tried to make peace with her enemies. She may be gone right now, but her message is more prevalent than ever. If we are to stop Faust, we must all become friends and work together."

Clarissa waited a while before speaking, and Luna hoped it's because she was considering her answer. "That didn't answer my question. What do ponies think of griffons?"

Luna laughed quietly, having been caught out. "I imagine that most ponies opinions are different than mine, because for the longest time I only ever encountered griffons on the battlefield. It wasn't very pleasant, and while I say I might I prefer Equestria in the claws of griffons, I don't want that to happen."

"Why not?" Clarissa asked lightly, making it clear she was curious rather than offended.

"Because historically speaking, griffons have used ponies as food at times, and taking prisoners was seen as a way of keeping that food fresh for longer. Excuse me if I fear a return of such barbaric acts amongst even a few scattered griffons."

"Oh." Clarissa hung her head, "That's reasonable I suppose. I hate to say it, but I wish you were more wrong about what might happen if we invaded Equestria."

"Why do you say that?" Cadence asked, sorry for the young hen that seemed determined to bear the guilt for her people's worst sins on her shoulders.

"Because we had a small border conflict with the zebras about ten years ago, I think? Zebrica hardly touches Griffonia, but it stemmed from a zebra mare being captured and... eaten. The griffons responsible were punished, but nowhere near to the degree they should've been. Father seemed quite bemused by it really."

"He stopped the fighting though?"

Clarissa nodded, then shrugged. "The zebras attacked us, and Princess Celestia was able to talk them down with a promise of compensation. Father never actually wanted a war, but there's no lie in saying he probably would've won."

Twilight felt sympathy for the hen, as she was clearly unhappy about the way other griffons thought about those with hooves. "Perhaps we should change the subject. Where are you and your father going tomorrow?" Twilight winced at the expression of guilt that Clarissa now wore. "Bad question?"

"Tomorrow is my parent's wedding anniversary. My father and I travel to mother's grave in the province of Pelegrin. It's a pretty private affair, which is why father didn't tell you exactly where, or why we were going."

"But you don't mind us knowing?" said Trixie.

Clarissa shrugged, "I never knew my mother, considering laying my egg was the reason she died. She'd been gone for months by the time I hatched. I know it's a big deal for him though, so I just go along with it. Theron used to come too, until father cast him out. He never forgave me for killing mother."

"You didn't kill her," Cadence said gently. "Unfortunately these things just happen."

"Speak for yourself, little miss alicorn," Trixie grumbled under her breath.

"I know," Clarissa said back to Cadence, "but it sometimes feels like everygriff thinks I did." She shook her head, "I'd rather not think about this."

It wasn't much further until they reached their rooms, and they were split off into three different rooms. The Wonderbolts shared one, while Twilight, Trixie, and Luna shared another, leaving Cadence alone with her child. Clarissa didn't say much past that, merely giving each of them a feeble smile before slinking away.

"That was awkward," Trixie commented cheerfully, jumping onto her bed and bouncing on it for a few seconds before sitting. "Do you think she meant it when she said the Emperor wouldn't help us?"

"Sadly, yes," said Luna. "The problem we have is that he thinks we have nothing he wants that he cannot get himself, including Equestria. He won't see the danger Faust presents until she is sitting in his throne. By then it'll be far too late to do anything."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Faust is far likelier to go for softer targets first. Probably Zebrica, then Saddle Arabia, then Griffonia, using their additional strength to conquer Griffonia, then using the further strength of Griffonia to attack further afield in places like Abyssinia and Minos. Once Griffonia falls, our hopes would die with it."

Trixie sat in quiet thought for a little, "You mean there's nowhere else with the strength to stand up to Faust?"

"I mean that there'll be nowhere with the strength to stand up to a union of Mareitania, Equestria, Zebrica, Saddle Arabia, and Griffonia."

"Oh." Trixie turned thoughtful again, "Does anyone find it weird how all those countries end in an a?"

Luna rolled her eyes and turned to Twilight, catching her wearing an odd expression. "What do you think Twilight?"

"I think we're in trouble." Twilight rolled onto her bed and stared up at the high stone ceiling. "We need to speak with the Emperor as soon as possible if we're to get some headway, and convince him that he needs us to stop Faust. I get the feeling that he couldn't care less about an alliance, so we need something to sweeten the deal."

"And what might that be?"

"Give him Griffonstone."

Luna choked, "You must be joking! Give the Empire a foothold in Equestria like that? No chance!"

Twilight shrugged, spreading her wings out over the bed, "I'd say it's a fairly small price for getting Equestria back."

"But- Ngh... damn it, you're right. We'll try and hold that back in the negotiations though. Hopefully the Emperor is feeling more amenable than we all think he is."

-0-0-0-

Twilight stared up at the ceiling, barely able to make it out in the dark. Supper had been hours ago, and consisted of whatever the omnivorous griffons had that the herbivorous ponies could eat, although Luna had suspected it was left poor on purpose to annoy them. Twilight didn't care.

Something was wrong here, and it didn't involve their visit. Not entirely. There had been plenty mentioned about the troubles that Griffonia was having with the Emperor and his brother, but that had been taken care of in the Emperor's view, whereas his brother was apparently exactly where he wanted to be. One of them was right, but which one?

There was also the issue that Twilight had seen no evidence of any problems. She had no reason to doubt what she had been told, but at the same time it did seem like something that would be mentioned more, and it was bothering her to the point that it kept her awake. The Emperor was departing for a short excursion the next day, and Twilight was beginning to feel like that was a bigger deal than the Emperor knew.

Twilight sat up, taking care to stay quiet as to not disturb the others. Trixie was snoring loudly, half covered with blankets with two of her legs dangling over the side of the bed. Twilight felt a short pang as Trixie's face creased up and her legs moved in a faint running motion, but the unicorn soon settled again, so Twilight moved onto Luna, who was looking right at her.

"...!" Twilight almost shouted, catching herself just in time to not wake Trixie. A tight smirk from Luna had Twilight pouting as she rolled out of bed, keeping her steps light as she made for the door and gestured for Luna to follow her.

"Is there a problem Twilight? I see you too weren't sleeping."

"I'm just thinking about things. Why weren't you sleeping?"

Luna glanced at the door between them and the room, "Trixie was having some troubling dreams, but I'm not sure she'd appreciate me interfering. She fears for herself Twilight."

"Likely with good reason, but we can't really do anything about that right now. At the moment I'm more concerned about the Emperor's trip tomorrow. Something doesn't feel right about it."

"Whatever do you mean?"

"I don't know." Twilight sighed and kicked the floor, "I have no reason to think this way, but us coming here just before the Emperor leaves, the thing with his brother... it all feels far to convenient to just be a coincidence."

"While I agree that's not much to base a suspicion on, I would encourage you to follow your instincts. At the very least it wouldn't hurt to have a little look around, if only to assuage your concerns."

"And yours?"

Luna smiled sideways at Twilight, "It's in my nature to be suspicious of everything. Go, have a look around, and try not to get caught."

"I'm sure you'll hear about it if I am." Twilight tossed a quick wave at Luna, and left, travelling back the way they had arrived to their rooms, unsure of where she was intending to go. What she thought she was going to find just wandering about, she didn't know, but there had to be something that would put her mind at ease somewhere.

The thought arrived soon after that. The Emperor's brother, Eustace, was being held in prison somewhere, and that somewhere was likely within the castle where the Emperor could keep an eye on him, except for while he was away. If there was anywhere to start looking, it was there. The only issue then was that Twilight didn't know where the dungeons were.

"Stealth, Twilight, stealth," Twilight said to herself, keeping her steps light and her stance low, perceiving that she, and the others weren't likely to be allowed anywhere but their rooms during the night. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be a lot of places to hide either, so no matter how stealthy she thought she was being, the odds were still very much against her.
Her luck seemed to be sticking though, and her progress was swift and unnoticed. The guards were few and far between, likely being concentrated in more important parts of the castle. Apparently she and the others weren't important enough to be protected, which made no sense, especially if you considered that the ponies could be a threat, but what griffon would ever think that?

Twilight found herself in the main corridor through the castle which led to the throne room. There seemed to be a bit more traffic here, but none that seemed to be paying too much attention to anything. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be any signs saying where to go either, so Twilight picked a direction, waited for the guards to turn their backs, and teleported across the hall.

She quickly regretted her choice. Even at this time of night the lingering smell of cooked flesh hung in the air with a greater intensity than anywhere else in the castle, leading Twilight to think that she must be headed towards the kitchens. She was about to turn back when she remembered what Luna had said earlier, and suddenly had a terrible sense of morbid curiosity take over her.

The large kitchens were thankfully empty when she reached them, although there was a selection of leftovers left on the side for the guards to pick over. Twilight gagged at a plate of sliced meats, and forced her mind elsewhere, spotting at the rear of the kitchens a heavy door. She could smell blood as she got closer.

"Why the hell are you doing this, Twilight?" Twilight asked herself, neither turning from her path, nor speeding any faster along it. She reached out with her magic and tentatively turned the handle, opening the door and fighting down her stomach. "You've killed ponies Twilight, why is this getting to you?"

"Probably because I wouldn't eat them," Twilight answered herself, edging down the short steps beyond the door. She lit her horn, and bit her tongue to stop herself shouting at the collection of butchered bodies hanging from hooks within the room. Twilight closed her eyes, and thanked... something that the room was actually quite clean. If the floor had been sticky with blood, she might have lost her dinner.

"They're just bodies Twilight, you've seen Trixie do worse. Heck, you've done worse yourself. Stop being a wimp and open your eyes."

Twilight did as she told herself and opened her eyes, forcing herself to look at the carcasses. Most of them obviously weren't ponies, or even similar. Most of them were chickens, and other fowls, although it was hard to tell what exactly they were with their bodies stripped of feathers, and their heads missing. The larger bodies were harder to tell though, although none seemed to have the hooves of a pony, which was all Twilight needed to see. All she could hope from there was that they weren't sapient, like cows, sheep, or even the elusive deers that inhabited parts of the world.

Twilight fled from the grisly scene, although she would have called it a hasty retreat herself, and leant upon the door once it was closed. She found herself wondering if carnivores were Discord's idea, or something from before his meddling. She fervently hoped it was the latter.

Twilight pushed herself off the door and away from the kitchen altogether, and was about to head back the way she had come when she considered the opposite direction. The prisoners would need feeding, so that meant there had to be a way from the kitchens to the prison. It wouldn't make a massive amount of sense to drag the prisoners meals halfway across the castle, so maybe if she continued in her original direction it'd bring her closer to the dungeons. It was at least worth a shot.

The corridor past the kitchens turned into a stairs, with some heading up, and some heading down, which Twilight took for logical reasons, and much to her pleasure, found herself coming out at the bottom into another short corridor that split in two directions. Left went down again, while right went back towards the castle if Twilight's sense of direction was worth what she hoped it was. The sound of voices coming from the left also worked to confirm her hopes.

Walking slowly and carefully, Twilight worked her way down the stairs, stopping when the voices dropped, and resuming when they did, using the noise to mask her approach. Light spilled onto the ground in front of her as she made it to the bottom, and the voices were quite close, making Twilight think that there had to be a little area for the guards to use. She could hear three distinct voices within.

"You up for another round?" one of the griffons asked, a male.

"Yeah, sure, just let me go for a piss," another male replied, his voice having a strange whistle to it. "No robbing my chips while I'm gone."

"Ugh, you say that every time, and we haven't once." The third voice was feminine, but had no remarkable qualities beyond that.

"And I like to think it's me reminding you that keeps it that way. Back in a minute."

Twilight was already pressing herself against the wall of the stairs as a shadow passed through the light in the corridor, and thankfully went the other way. Twilight shifted across and watched the griffon go, and decided to use the opportunity to incapacitate the others while there was only two.

"Do you think it'd be funny to add more chips to his pile just to mess with him?" the hen asked.

"And give him an advantage? No way."

"Oh come on, it's not like he ever wins anyway."

"I know. That's my job."

The male griffon went to reply, but only blinked as a fog filled his mind, and he felt himself having to stifle a yawn. His companion seemed just as stricken with exhaustion as he was, if not more so as she planted her face on the table and started to snore. He went to smack her to wake her back up, but his own arm betrayed him, failing to move when commanded. "What the hell?" he murmured, slumping onto the table himself and falling into a deep sleep.

Twilight shook her head at how easy that was, then hid again as the other griffon returned. She waited a moment for him to try and wake his fellow guards, then put him to sleep as well before coming out of hiding. He'd fallen with his beak hooked on the edge of the table, suspending himself by it, and showing the chip in it that was probably responsible for the whistle in his speech. Twilight unhooked him and let him lie comfortably.

"I should probably wake them up before I leave," Twilight told herself. "Last thing we need is them getting found and thinking Luna was responsible."

Twilight stood watching them a moment longer, then moved on once she was sure they wouldn't wake up. The dungeons here seemed a bit better maintained compared to her experiences with the ones with High Rock keep, but there was still a smell of unwashed bodies that lent the air an unpleasantness that Twilight had no interest in experiencing for longer than necessary. Moving slowly, Twilight went deeper into the dungeons, quickly inspecting each one. Only half were occupied, and the griffons within asleep, but she knew she hadn't found what she was looking for until she found one with better furnishings than all the others.

The griffon within the cell before her slept in an actual bed, and had a small writing desk and a dresser taking up some of the space, along with an actual toilet, where the other prisoners had to make do with buckets. Twilight frowned at the sight, then shrugged as it was no business of hers. She placed a bubble of silence over herself and the door, and rapped a hoof on the metal bars separating them until the griffon started to stir.

"What do you think you're doing?" the griffon growled.

"Waking you up of course. Are you Eustace?"

The griffon popped an eye open, quickly followed by the other when he saw who was talking to him. "And what is a pony doing here?" He shifted his head sideways, noticing her wings. "And a princess no less. To what do I owe this dubious honour?"

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted to meet the griffon trying to remove his brother, the Emperor, from power. Sounds like a good griffon to know."

"I could just call the guards."

"You could, but even if they were awake they can't hear you."

Eustace sat up, leaning on one leg to give Twilight a long, cool stare that lasted several moments. "What is it you want?"

"As I'm sure you're aware, since you sent your Nephew to assist her, Faust has conquered Equestria. We need Griffonia's help to stop her, but your brother is unwilling to listen. I was wondering if you'd be more willing to help."

"You said it yourself, pony, I sent Theron to assist Faust. Why would I want to help you?"

"Because you're using her. She helps you take Griffonstone, you use that as leverage to get others on your side, then you use that leverage to remove your brother as emperor, giving you the chance to rule."

"Hmm, an admirable guess. I often wondered why you ponies were so behind on news about Faust. I knew about her a whole month before you did."

"And how did you manage that?"

Eustace smiled smugly, "My position as Director of Griffon Intelligence provided me with ample opportunity to find out. Just as it allowed me to deny news getting back to you in Equestria. I sensed an opportunity in Faust, and I wasn't about to let you ponies ruin it."

Twilight hid her surprise, as hard as it was. It wasn't quite as hard to hide as her impulse to smash his face against something, but hard enough. "Clearly you hold no love for Equestria then. Why though?"

"Because I despise you, frankly. Faust may have conquered you, but she'll be in for a surprise when she is conquered in turn. You're half right in your guesses about my intentions, but Griffonstone wasn't taken to build my good graces amongst our griffons. I have no intention of letting her attack us here, so at the very least you don't have to worry about Faust taking over the world, because I will be stopping her."

"So this is about Theron then?" Twilight asked, letting some of her confusion show.

"This is about Griffonia! No more will our Empire be undermined by my brother's weak policies and pacifist manner, wasting our strength! Theron is just a small part in this, as you'll see."

"So you intend to assassinate your brother then?"

"My intentions are no business of yours, and I assure you that my brother shall be hearing about you coming down here."

"Except he won't," Twilight said with a smile. "In fact, you won't even remember us having this conversation." Twilight lit her horn, the beginnings of a memory removal spell forming around it. "Sorry about that."

Eustace opened his beak with the start of a shout, but Twilight cast the spell before he could get it out. She laid him back down and tucked him in, then left quietly, casting a spell to wake the guards up slowly once she was gone, then teleported back to her room. She needed time to think about this, and then she needed to discuss their options with Luna.

Author's Note

Finally, some more dragon lore. About damn time. Kinda fits with the canon I put towards natural growth vs greed growth, which is nice, and his stone cocoon thing runs with dragons being born of the earth. *fist-pump*

So we're off on the first major leg of this journey, and off to visit the griffons. Should be fun hopefully.

7. What's right, what's wrong, and what's best

"Do you have any idea of when, where, or even how?"

Twilight took a few seconds to reply, mostly because she didn't have any solid ideas towards those three rather important little things. "No, but it must be soon. Maybe even today, while we're here. If they could blame us for it, that'd give Eustace an actual reason to attack Equestria."

"Weak though it may be." Luna quickly checked up and down the hall, making sure that no guards had turned up over the last couple of minutes. "Speak of this to nopony for now, and we shall see what the situation is once the Emperor leaves."

Twilight nodded as the first rays of dawn peeked in through the window at the far end of the hall. Yet another sleepless night to add to the collection, but at least this night had contained some purpose. "Alright, but we can't just let this happen. If we want some good will with the Emperor, preventing his assassination would be a really good start."

"Agreed, but preventing that relies on us knowing when, where, and how. Unfortunately we have only speculation to fall back on, which isn't very helpful."

"So you do at least believe me about Eustace's intentions?"

"I do," Luna confirmed with a nod. "Unfortunately we cannot rely on his testimony to accuse him with, based as it would be on a conversation he doesn't remember. We must be careful here Twilight, lest our actions backfire upon us."

"And wouldn't that be new and unique." Twilight pushed off the wall she was leaning against, and stretched some of her tiredness away. "I guess we better get back in our room before we're accused of plotting."

"We're plotting to foil a plot. Very different thing." Luna opened the door to their room, and led the way in. Trixie was sat up in her bed, blinking blearily at the two alicorns, her mane stuck out at odd angles. "Sleep well, Trixie?"

"I guess? Where have you two been?"

"Just talking," Twilight told her. "We didn't want to disturb you."

"Oh. You weren't talking about me, were you?" Trixie asked suspiciously.

"No."

"Although you should discuss your nightmares," Luna added quickly. "It's not healthy to keep these things bottled up."

Trixie shrugged at Luna, "I think I left my therapist back in Equestria somewhere. Find him, and I'll tell him all about it."

"Uh-huh."

There was a sharp knock at the door, and when Luna opened it there was a guard there, peering down his beak at her, despite Luna being taller. "Yes?"

"The Emperor... cordially... invites you to join him for breakfast. It shall be ready for eight."

Luna smiled politely, "Of course, we'd be delighted to join him." The guard nodded stiffly and left, and Luna waited until he was out of sight before letting her smile slip. "Invited for breakfast. Will wonders never cease? Trixie, get up and prepare yourself."

"But I've only just woke up!"

"Yes, but it's pretty typical for them to invite us to breakfast at eight when it's ten to eight already."

"Then we'll just have to be late."

Luna chuckled at Trixie, "Clearly you have no idea how this works. Breakfast is at eight, and we shall be there at eight."

-0-0-0-

Cadence was immaculately turned out, and so was Flurry. Luna saved effort by having an ethereal mane, so looked perfect as always, and Twilight put the same modicum of effort in as she usually did. Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor were all well presented, their time in the military leaving some useful habits. Then there was Trixie.

"They tell us breakfast is at eight, giving us ten minutes to prepare and get here, and you get us here just before eight. They then tell us the Emperor is late, and that breakfast won't be served until he arrives." Trixie stroked her mane down as some of her hair threatened to stick back up, "The fuck is this shit?"

"It's all part of the game," Luna whispered. "I suggest you silence your complaints."

"Or what?" Trixie waited for Luna to reply, but got nothing. "I'm serious, what? What could they possibly do?"

"We're trying to convince them to help us, remember?" Twilight hissed in Trixie's ear. "Really make with the shutting up now, or I will force you to."

"Oh yeah? And how are you going to do tha-" Trixie tried to asked, but the end of the sentence failed to leave her mouth. She tried to swear, but again there was only silence. "...!"

"I'm sorry Trixie, but what was that?"

"..."

"Oh! You're wondering why you can't speak right now?" Twilight sniggered at Trixie, the unicorn turning red with frustration. "I'm using magic, Trixie, obviously. You can thank me later, when you have a voice again."

"Isn't that a little cruel?" Cadence asked, voicing her concern while Flurry giggled at Trixie's antics.

"Maybe, but Trixie suffers from a terrible case of saying the worst thing at the worst time. As you can imagine, that can be extremely unhelpful under certain circumstances, such as the one we find ourselves in." Twilight smiled sweetly at Trixie, "Isn't that right?"

Somehow, Trixie managed to fit an entire lexicon of curses into the glare she gave Twilight, and carefully mimed where she was considering shoving her hoof.

"No need for that, Twilight," said Luna. "I think there's something better we can do." Luna's horn glowed, and Trixie grinned as her voice returned, and she prepared to lay into Twilight.

"Lovely weather we're having!" Trixie clamped her hooves over her mouth as the inane sentence dropped out of her mouth in a rich Canterlot accent. "Very warm for this time of- Aah! Why, I seem to be talking like a nincompoop!Nincompoop? Good heavens! I'm speaking such gobbledygook... oh my Celestia it won't stop! In what wonderfully helpful way have you inflicted me with this curse? I politely request that you remove it from my personage! If you so wish that is."

All of them watched as Trixie near glowed with embarrassment, although none of their expressions matched the insane amount of glee that Twilight had in hers. "What is this? More importantly, can you teach it to me?"

"I think that'd be a lovely idea!" Trixie's pupils shrank at the horror of what she just said. "The more cheer in the world, the merrier!" Tears started to leak from her eyes with the amount she was straining to not speak like she was.

Luna tried to hide her smile, but not very hard. "Forthright's friendly censor. Takes every curse word, aggressive sentence, and negative outburst, and replaces it with... that."

"What a delightful spell!" Trixie quipped, her expression saying otherwise.

"Suddenly the silence spell seems considerably less cruel," Cadence muttered.

Twilight shrugged at Cadence, "She'll be fine if she doesn't try to speak."

"Blessings upon you, Twilight Sparkle."

"That's the spirit, Trixie!"

"I've never been so happy!"

"Ahem." All of them looked up as the Emperor's Chamberlain tried to get their attention. All of them except Trixie that is, whose cry of frustration got turned into a bout of giggling as she stared at the floor. "The Emperor has arrived, and breakfast is served."

"Ah, excellent! Thank you," Luna said to the Chamberlain as he stepped aside to let them into the dining room. The Emperor was already there, along with Clarissa and the Imperial guard, with a decent spread of food, while at the same time there wasn't a hint of meat to be seen. "Good morning your Majesty. Thank you for the invitation to breakfast."

"You should be thanking my daughter," the Emperor said absently as he buttered a piece of toast. "She seems quite taken with you ponies." Beside him, Clarissa blushed.

"I see. Well, whatever the reasons, we appreciate the gesture."

The Emperor ignored them as they took their seats, and continued to ignore them as they waited for a cue to start eating. Trixie didn't seem interested in waiting though, so once she started, the others did as well. He then waited until Princess Luna's mouth was full before asking, "Would you like to know the latest news from Equestria?"

"Nughs?" Luna choked and banged her chest, swallowing as fast as she could. "What news?"

The Emperor picked up a few sheets of paper and read them for a moment, "King Garland has made his way to Canterlot to offer Faust an unconditional surrender before her armies even set so much as a hoof in Mustangia. Typical of him to show such little backbone."

"But it is the right decision in his position," said Cadence. "With his army lost, how could be possibly try to resist?"

The Emperor scoffed, "With an army the size his had been, he still couldn't have resisted."

"Then you are unaware that Yakyakistan is possibly allying with Faust?" said Luna, calmly buttering a croissant. "Even you must consider the addition of a few thousand screaming yaks on the rampage as something worth worrying about?"

"My legions can fly. Yaks can not."

"You might not feel so confident when they're battering down your castle doors with naught but their faces." Luna took a bite of her croissant and hummed appreciatively. It was a good croissant. "Yaks are not to be trifled with. Even less so when backed up by magic, siege weapons, and things that should concern even griffons."

"And so you would have me waste our strength on your enemy?"

"She's your enemy too, I assure you. Faust isn't just after the subjugation of Equestria, but the entire world. It's in your interest to fight back now before her army becomes too strong, even for your considerable military strength."

"And in return we get what? Thousands of dead griffons with nothing to show for it? Pah! That isn't even worth considering."

"If you join the alliance we're hoping to form, there'll be-"

"What? Plenty of chances to dilute our strength even further? And your alliance is nothing but a dream while you give nothing to ally with. You may still call yourselves princesses, but you have nothing to be the princesses of! Why should I consider the words of failed rulers, like you, worth listening to?"

"Because you know that without magic, you can't stop Faust," Cadence said with a nervous smile. "We have that magic, but without an army, we can't get to Faust. This is our dilemma here, and the only way to succeed is to work together."

"We'll give you Griffonstone?" Twilight added as a helpful afterthought, although the sharp glare Luna gave her made sure she knew it wasn't wanted.

"Oh? You'll give us something that already rightfully belongs to the Empire? How novel, especially considering it's not currently yours to give."

"But father, what if they're right?" Clarissa asked, wringing her claws at the thought of speaking over her father again.

"And what if they're wrong? Would you have us throw the lives of thousands of our griffons away, fighting a war that might never have involved us? And for nothing more than words? Would you Clarissa?"

"I-" Clarissa bowed her head, and her father harrumphed triumphantly.

"We must prepare to depart," he said to the seven ponies, "so you may continue as our guests for now, but rest assured that unless you find something worth offering, there shall be no alliance of any sort. Griffonia had always stood alone, and I see no reason to stop that now."

"It was a delight talking to you!" Trixie said just as the Emperor was about to leave. "I mean it was a pleasure! I mean you're a fantastic griffon! Ahahahaha!"

The Emperor squinted at Trixie, then ushered his daughter away. His guards followed him, leaving the ponies alone.

"I humbly request that you correct my mannerisms, post-haste!"

Luna ignored Trixie and sloppily buttered another croissant, shoving half of it in her mouth and chewing on it aggressively. She swallowed, and dropped the other half on her plate. "I really dislike that griffon. It seems like he's going out of his way to not talk to us for more than a few minutes at a time."

"He might have some uses though," Twilight said, picking up the papers the Emperor had left and started reading through it. There didn't actually seem to be much in it, and detailed nothing much more than what King Garland had done, along with a few things they already knew about. Something felt off about it though, although she couldn't say what. "Or not, as the case may be."

"Shouldn't the ambassador have been invited as well?" Lightning asked between mouthfuls of muesli. "That seems like something that should've happened."

"We should also have been introduced to our griffon agents from Equis by now," Twilight agreed. "Something is definitely up here, but if it's the Emperor behind it, I have no idea."

"Unless Eustace has griffons working with him inside Griffon Intelligence," Luna thought out loud. "They could keep our agents contained, and keep important information from the Emperor. They might even be planning to assassinate him themselves on Eustace's behalf."

"I don't think they'd go that far," Twilight told Luna. "The safest way would be to use an intermediate so they don't get exposed if things go wrong."

"But who?" asked Luna.

"The Bloodfeathers," said Rainbow. "They have the means, and their leader has the motivation to do it. They could even pin the blame on ponies if they're smart. Is there anything in those papers about the Bloodfeathers, Twilight?"

"No, nothing. In fact there's no mentions of griffons at all. Not even the Golden Claws. You think there'd be something." Twilight tapped a hoof on the floor as she tried to think, "This is all wrong, and I think you might be right about Griffon Intelligence, Luna, but how can we get the Emperor to believe us?"

"We can't, but there's a griffon here who might if we can help her find the proof. We need to find her first though." Luna stood, a feeling of confidence filling her. "If we can find evidence and fix this, the Emperor may be far more willing to help us."

"But the Emperor won't be here," observed Cadence. "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, which concerns me that I'm thinking that way, the Emperor will be vulnerable on his trip. If they seek to kill him, today will be the best chance they'll get."

Luna nodded at Cadence, "So we'll need to protect him, although I doubt he'll let us if we ask. Twilight, you, Rainbow, and the Wonderbolts will have to shadow the Emperor on his journey, and protect him if they are attacked. I know he'll have his entourage, but they won't be able to beat a large number of experienced warriors like the Bloodfeathers. Hopefully you can even things out a little."

"No problem." Twilight turned to Rainbow and her friends, "Gear up and get ready to go. I'll get your weapons back before we leave."

"On it!" Rainbow wolfed down the rest of her breakfast, "Come on guys!"

"Hey! I'm still the ranking officer here!" Lightning complained as she and Vapor chased after Rainbow. "Damn it Rainbow!"

"She seems jolly keen for action," Trixie joked, even though her words weren't exactly what she'd use. "Since I can't fly, I guess I'm staying here. What will we be doing instead?"

Luna shrugged at Trixie, "Getting to the bottom of things hopefully. First we need to find Deetra. Actually, first we need to see the Emperor off, then find Deetra, if she isn't there to see him off as well."

"Very well. When's that happening?"

-0-0-0-

"We wish you a safe journey," Luna called out to the Emperor as his massive palanquin was dragged into the air by a dozen griffons, followed by his Imperial Guard, who apparently numbered no more than thirty altogether. With a few others, besides those carrying the palanquin, there were almost fifty griffons going. Didn't seem like much of a private affair if any of the ponies had been asked.

"Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor are ready to go," Twilight whispered to Luna out of the side of her mouth. She kept her eyes on the Emperor, watching his palanquin rise slowly into the sky.

"Good. You can leave when you're ready."

Twilight nodded, and Luna trotted after Deetra, catching the griffon before she vanished. Trixie gave her a small smile, which Twilight returned, then she left, breaking into a brisk canter that carried her swiftly back inside where Rainbow was by a hole in the wall, arguing with the griffon on the other side that had disarmed them upon their arrival.

"But you can't just keep them! They don't belong to you!"

"Do I look like I hatched yesterday? The Emperor has just gone, and now you want your weapons back? Do you even realise how suspicious that is?"

"There's three of us," Lightning pointed out flatly. "Do you really think we're going to attack them? It'd be suicide!"

"Then why do you want weapons?"

"Because we want to go flying in a country where the inhabitants don't like us," said Rainbow. "Excuse us for wanting to stop troublemakers from bothering us."

The griffon folded his arms, making it clear he wasn't going to give the Wonderbolts their weapons back. "Were I able I'd accuse you of plotting to harm our Emperor. Get out of my sight before I have you arrested."

"Not without our weapons!"

"Easy Rainbow," Twilight said as she trotted up to them. "The poor griffon's just trying to do his job. Why do you want your weapons anyway?"

It took Rainbow a split second to catch on, and they hoped the griffon hadn't noticed her short lived confusion. "We just want to go and explore the city without getting jumped by punks thinking we're an easy target."

Twilight hummed with feigned understanding, then looked to the griffon. "Are you sure they can't have their weapons?"

"Very sure. They look tough... for ponies, they should be fine."

"Very well." Twilight shrugged helplessly at the Wonderbolts, "We're the guests here, so what they say, goes. We'll just have to explore without them. Sorry to bother you," she added to the griffon.

Twilight started to walk away, followed a moment later by a very confused Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor. "What are you doing Twilight?"

"Left of the door, third shelf up, box sixteen," Twilight said quietly, her eyes a little glazed as she walked, like she was looking at something that wasn't there.

"What are you talking about?"

"You'll need to remember that so we can put them back in the right place." There was a flash, and three pairs of blades and their sheaths appeared in the air in front of the Wonderbolts. "You can thank me later."

"How did you-?" Rainbow stopped and shrugged, taking off to free her hooves up to carry the blades. "Are we clear to go then?"

"Luna's started on her part, so we're free to keep an eye on the Emperor." Twilight took to the air herself, and pumped her wings hard to put some distance between them and the castle, heading to the right where they could fly upwards without being seen by those in the castle.

The Emperor's entourage wasn't really challenging to find, flying low as it was with a large number of escorts. Considering the speed they caught up to it, it wasn't exactly going very fast either. Twilight hung back from it, keeping well above them and out of sight, and settled into a lazy method of flight as they waited for something to happen.

-0-0-0-

"Do you even realise what you're saying?" Deetra ran a claw back through the feathers on her head, "Griffon Intelligence wouldn't dare side with the Emperor's brother."

"And what are you basing that on?" asked Luna. "Eustace was their director, and it couldn't have been hard to get some of them on his side. Frankly, considering Eustace's expansionist desires compared to his brother, the presence of griffons in Mareitania at the end of the civil war makes even more sense." Luna dismissed that thought, unimportant as it was. "The point is, if Griffon Intelligence is performing proper reconnaissance of Equestria, the whereabouts of Theron, the Emperor's disgraced son, would be something they'd keep a close eye on."

"That is hardly enough for us to go accusing them with!" Deetra groaned and started pacing around her office, "I can't believe this... but at the same time it makes a sort of sense."

"Where were you this morning?" Cadence asked the ambassador. "We thought you would've been invited to breakfast with us and the Emperor."

Deetra stopped pacing and slowly turned to Cadence, "I wasn't even informed of such a thing."

"Oh gosh!" Trixie raised her hooves to her cheeks, "Even the messengers are in on this!"

"Trixie..." Luna said slowly, giving the unicorn the eye.

"Wow, that was the exact same tone of voice that Twilight uses. It's almost like she was here."

"Don't make me respell you."

"Alright, shutting up."

Luna huffed with exasperation, wondering less how Twilight consistently put up with Trixie, but why? The mare was uniquely annoying. Too bad she might've had a point, no matter how unintentional it may have been. If the message to Deetra was purposely undelivered to prevent her being at the breakfast, that was definitely something to think about. The ambassador's presence would likely have smoothed things out at least a little bit, and maybe prevented the abrupt conclusion the meal had instead. It was still hardly proof though. That lay elsewhere.

"There are two griffons from Equis here," Luna said to Deetra as the griffon resumed her pacing. "Do you know where they're being kept?"

"They haven't told you?"

Luna raised an eyebrow at Deetra, "Haven't told us what?"

"No, I mean they haven't told you where they are?" Luna shook her head. "Well they should've."

"Are they being detained by Griffon Intelligence?" Luna smiled awkwardly as Deetra lowered her head a little. "And the plot thickens."

Trixie leant back in her seat and kicked her rear hooves up on Deetra's desk, getting a dirty look from the griffon in return. "It really does feel like that the Emperor's brother being the head of Griffon Intelligence is something we should've known about some time ago. I guess that was something us mere ponies weren't allowed to know."

"Indeed," Luna said darkly. "I doubt it would've made much difference up until this point, but it still would've been good to know. Who is the current director?" Luna asked Deetra.

"That would be Janice." Deetra rotated a claw in the air as she spoke, "She's a bit severe in her mannerism, but she seems to know her job even better than Eustace did. Of course I wouldn't expect anything less from a scion of the old families-" Deetra stopped as Trixie started laughing, "What?"

"A scion of the old families? Sounds exactly like one of the griffons Eustace wanted on his side, if she isn't already."

Deetra raised a talon, lowered it, raised it again, then lowered it once more as she muttered, "Oh. That could explain why G.I's internal investigation didn't turn much up against Eustace."

Luna smiled tightly as the griffon sighed, "Our agents, Deetra, where are they?"

"In a safe house outside the castle. Of course, by safe house I mean pseudo-prison, and knowing what I do now, I can't guarantee much towards their condition."

"Can we have them back? They are Equestrian citizens after all."

"There might be a couple of problems with that," Deetra said nervously. "You aren't the rulers of Equestria at the moment, so have no grounds to make that request. At least, not with any weight."

"So..?" Luna asked slowly, hoping Deetra would get to the end of whatever little mental journey she was taking for this.

"So there's two ways to do this. One is asking the director of Griffon Intelligence for them back, since they are technically her prisoners. Obviously that isn't likely to get you very far. The second method is to ask the Emperor, but he isn't here."

Trixie sat up and rubbed her hooves together, "So we're going for option three then, breaking them out."

"That isn't what I would call advisable," Cadence said like she thought Trixie was joking. "We'll just have to wait for the Emperor to return, much like we must for everything else."

"If he returns," said Trixie.

"Have faith in Twilight."

Trixie shrugged. She did have faith in Twilight, but it was faith that Twilight would do the thing best for them, not Griffonia. "Sure. So, since we're not breaking anyone out of jail, and we have no idea what's going on, are we just going to end up waiting around until the Emperor returns? Assuming he doesn't end up dead."

"He'll be fine," Luna said firmly, although she had her doubts, as much as she kept them to herself. She was beginning to think she should have gone as well.

"I still feel like we're missing something," Trixie said to no one in particular. "The Emperor gets assassinated, and probably his daughter too, ensuring the line of succession passes to the Emperor's brother. The thing is, with all we know, how can Eustace ensure things work out how he wants when the majority of griffons think of him as a criminal? Either he has to frame someone to make himself look innocent, or-"

"His supporters do something while the Emperor is gone in the sure knowledge that he won't be returning," Luna finished. "It would be fairly pointless, but that way he possibly gets a smooth transition of power when he comes to claim the throne."

Trixie pointed a hoof at Luna, "That's even better than what I was going to say!"

"There's a problem with that though," said Deetra. "No griffon would accept that while they think the Emperor is alive. It would quickly turn bloody, and Eustace would lose. There's no point to him staging a coup when the throne is his by right anyway."

"Let's face it," Cadence said quickly. "We don't know what's going on, so we can't plan for it. All we can do is hope Twilight comes through."

"Or..." Trixie held her hooves out, making sure she had their full attention before continuing. "Or we assume that things aren't going to go the way we want, and do something about it. I reckon we should find this Janice and demand the return of our griffons, because they have to know something to be locked up so securely."

"No Trixie," Luna sighed, "let's not go upsetting anyone for no reason at all."

Trixie shrugged at Luna, "We did that just by coming here."

-0-0-0-

"I'm bored," said Rainbow.

"So you keep reminding us," Twilight said back, not taking her eyes off the palanquin ahead of them for a second. "I do feel like something should've happened by now though."

"Maybe they're waiting for the Emperor at his destination?" Vapor suggested. "It would be easier to ambush them on the ground with their attention on something else."

"Where is Pelegrin anyway?" asked Lightning.

"Pelegrin is a coastal province to the south of the Eyrie," Twilight answered. "Mostly known for seafood, if you're into that sort of thing."

"I think I'll pass."

"It also reaches some distance along the coast and ends where the border to Saddle Arabia begins, although that's not exactly relevant. What it does mean is that the province is quite large. Hopefully we're heading to its biggest town at its middle, rather than any further."

"Joy."

"I don't think it's far away now."

None of them bothered to question why Twilight thought that, but as the land became less mountainous, and shifted into sprawling grasslands, they could see the faint shimmer of the ocean in the distance. Shortly after that they could see a large town on the coast, although as the palanquin banked right, it became clear that wasn't where the Emperor was headed.

"Where are we going now?" Rainbow asked, fully expecting to not get an answer, but was fully surprised when Twilight pointed to a sprawling estate with a mansion built into a tree that was nestled into a small valley. "Huh, that's pretty neat."

Twilight motioned for them to stop as the palanquin came in to land on the ground in front of the mansion, and dragged them into the cover of a cloud as the Emperor disembarked. They watched as some griffons greeted the Emperor and his daughter, then groaned as they were led inside.

Lightning rolled onto her back and stretched her wings out, "This is so dull. Shouldn't we be spreading out and searching for the Bloodfeathers or something?"

"It's not a bad idea, Twilight," Rainbow said in agreement. "We spread out and search for any signs of hostiles, and you can stay here to keep an eye on things."

Twilight shrugged as it gave the three pegasi something to do, and also gave her the chance to try and get closer to the mansion and see what was going on. A win-win in her book. "Alright, you go do your thing, then meet back up here in half an hour. Really try to not be seen."

"Yes ma'am!" Lightning replied cheerfully, directing Rainbow and Vapor into two different directions before choosing one for herself and leaving Twilight on her own.

Twilight pondered on how she was going to do her part, and briefly regretted not bringing Mayfly with them as the changeling could've infiltrated the mansion with ease. In the end she decided to wait, rather get caught and mess everything up.

-0-0-0-

Vapor frowned tight-lipped at the ground. The town, the hills, all of it reminded her of Baltimare, the town where she grew up, and had met Sky Stinger. The entire thing had a bittersweet feel to it because of that, leaving her both angry and... empty.

Even thinking of Sky Stinger wanted to drive her to the ground, like lead weights had been hooked on her wings to drag her down. Lightning and Rainbow didn't even mention him any more, and the feeling of being alone with this pain was so much worse because of it. She never even got the chance to say goodbye, or tell Sky how she really felt about him.

Vapor quickly fought the feeling back before... before... Vapor didn't really know. She'd gone over this with herself again and again, but part of her refused to accept that he was gone. Far too much of her wished she'd gone with him. Being alone made the thought easier to hear.

"Stop it Vapor," the pale pegasus scolded herself, yet again. "You're not alone, and you have a job to do."

Vapor fought through the noise and returned herself to her task, not that there was anything to do for it. The ground was clear, the sky was clear, and there didn't seem to be anything around that could present a danger to the Emperor. Perhaps the princesses were overreacting to this whole thing.

Vapor checked the time, seeing that only fifteen minutes had passed. Too soon to be going back just yet, so she had no choice but to fly around aimlessly for a bit longer. She did consider going out over the ocean to dip her hooves in the cool water, but returning with wet hooves would definitely make it seem like she wasn't trying very hard.

She still longed to do it though, and flew closer to the ocean as temptation pulled at her. She was about to turn back when she spotted a lone griffon sat in the shade of a tree at the top of a cliff. She was shocked for a split second that a griffon would be so brazen, then remembered that she was in their country, not the other way around.

Her curiosity was piqued though, as this was the only griffon she'd seen during her short reconnaissance, so she flew closer. He was sat in front of a gravestone, unmoving like he was carefully considering the words upon it. He was also armoured, and armed, and Vapor froze as there was one griffon she could never forget after what he did to Sky, and he was sat below her, totally oblivious to her. It was Theron.

Vapor froze save for the flapping of her wings and the beating of her heart. The griffon responsible for Sky's death was within her reach, and she was suddenly struck with a temptation that she couldn't possibly resist. She could do it. Take revenge on the griffon for taking Sky away from her, and kill him before he had the chance to enact whatever twisted scheme had brought him here.

She drew her blades, their weight on her legs feeling like more of a comfort than they ever had before. Theron still hadn't moved, clearly unaware of the danger he faced, so she prepared herself, a sureness of purpose pushing her on as she began her dive, her blades whistling through the air, giving her away.

She was barely two dozen meters away when Theron rolled to the side faster than she could correct herself, and she only just avoided colliding with the ground and headstone. She pulled up and looped around to the right, hoping to get another chance at Theron before he could get away, or call for help.

She swung a blade at him as she flew in for another attack, and shouted in surprise as he caught her leg in a vice-like grip, dragging her down to the ground. She hacked wildly with her free leg, hitting nothing but armour that her blades couldn't pierce without a decent run-up, and after a few strikes he caught that too.

Vapor flapped her wings hard, hoping to overbalance him enough into letting go, but all it did was push him over onto his back, dragging her down with him. She tried to kick him, and got maybe two or three decent strikes in before he pushed a paw up under her belly. She tried to kick it out from under her, but he lifted her up so her rear legs no longer touched the ground, and extended his claws so they dug into her belly.

Vapor froze, her mind filled with visions of him dragging that paw down to her groin, her flight suit not having enough armour in that spot to stop him doing some serious damage. Judging by the look on his face, he'd thought the same thing.

"Stop right there pony, or your guts are on the floor, and since I'm expecting to meet somegriff very important here, I'd rather not do it covered in blood."

Vapor flinched as Theron craned his neck up and undid her muzzleguard with his beak, then pulled her goggles off. He stared into her eyes for a moment, then chuckled.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the little pony that learnt to throw lightning. What are you doing out here?"

"Looking for you."

"Oh? And what did I do to garner such attention?"

"You killed my friend."

Theron's face went flat, "And you killed plenty of mine, so I think it's only fair I kill at least one of yours."

"You attacked us first!"

"Yeah... I don't care. Equestria was just a means to an end." Theron forced Vapor's front legs back, one at a time, sheathing her weapons. He then kicked her into the air a little to reposition his paw under her chest. "This is going to hurt," he said, covering her mouth with one of his wings.

Vapor screamed into his wing as he pushed away with his back leg, and pulled on her front ones until her shoulders dislocated with pops that she both heard and felt. Once both had been pulled out, he let go and let her flop sideways to the ground, causing her yet more agony. Tears streaked her cheeks, and her vision darkened, but no matter how much she wished it, her mind resolutely refused to surrender to the dark.

"Y'know, it really can't be just a coincidence that you've turned up here today of all days," Theron said conversationally as he stood and dusted himself off like he'd done nothing more than shake her hoof a bit too vigorously. "I suspect there's something you haven't told me. Why are you really here?"

"Fuck... you!" Vapor panted, wishing desperately that she could at the very least wipe the tears from her eyes, even with her wings, but they felt as useless as her legs.

"Of course. Now I'm going to ask again." Theron extended a talon and stuck it into the muscle beneath Vapor's right wing, and pushed until it pierced her flesh, and she started to scream again. "Why are you here?"

"Fuck off!"

Theron growled and grabbed Vapor around the neck, picking her up and removing her helmet with his other claw. "I have to admit that I was surprised by the ferocity you ponies showed in battle. It wasn't what I expected at all." Next he unzipped Vapor's flight suit, letting it slide off to the ground. "But you're only brave and strong together. On your own you're pretty weak."

"We're stronger than you know," Vapor hissed, forcing the words out past the claw constricting her neck.

"Are you now? Anyone might say you had the advantage here, launching an ambush against me when I'm alone and distracted, yet here we are." Theron dropped Vapor, the mare crying out as she came close to fainting from the pain. "You don't seem very strong to me."

Vapor said nothing, getting a shrug in response to her silence. Theron picked up her uniform and pulled the straps from it, tying them into a single length that he tied around her rear hooves, before dragging her over to the tree. He jumped up into the branches, pulling Vapor up with him, and tied the other end around a branch, leaving her to dangle.

Theron jumped back down, and grinned at Vapor as she cried and struggled. "I bet you really regret this now," he said, pressing the tip of a talon to Vapor's forehead, just above her left eye. "Last chance to just tell me what's going on, pony."

"I'll never talk!"

"That's what you think."

-0-0-0-

"Anything happening yet?"

Twilight shook her head, steadying herself as the cloud bounced from Rainbow's landing. "I think they're just talking so far."

"Probably making fun of us coming here and asking for their help," Rainbow grumbled. "I didn't see anything, just so you know. At least nothing heavily armed."

"Alright, good, but we can't be sure until the others get back."

Rainbow nodded and sat down next to Twilight, watching the mansion below. "I have a question."

"You do? Let's hear it then."

"I'm sure you've noticed as much as I have that Crown Princess Clarissa seems much more accommodating towards us, so I was wondering, should this totally hypothetical assassination happen, what would happen if we saved her but let the Emperor die?" Rainbow held her hooves up as Twilight looked at her out of the corner of her eye, "I'm not saying we do that! I'm just asking."

"Alright then, what happens is that everything gets screwed up. Clarissa is still young and learning, so if she were suddenly thrust into the role of Empress, she would likely be a weak ruler at first, and prone to listening to those she trusts, no matter how wrong they might be. There would also be the issue of transferring her father's power to her, which would probably take a while, meaning that it would be a long time before Griffonia would be in a position to aid us, and that might well be too late. The point is that her father is in a better position to help us, even if he is less willing."

"Oh." Rainbow fiddled with her hooves for a few seconds, "So I guess letting him die is a bad idea."

"Not as bad as letting both him and his daughter die. That would be all kinds of disastrous."

"Right." Rainbow nodded, "Right. No letting the Emperor die. I'm guessing that saving him but letting Clarissa die is just as bad?"

Twilight had to think about that one, and concluded that the Emperor would likely never help them if he thought that they'd let his daughter die, especially when she was the one trying to get him to consider their request. "I think that's possibly worse for us than letting the Emperor die and saving her."

"So we really should save both of them?"

"As was the plan all along, yes."

"Awesome." Rainbow went quiet again for several seconds before speaking further. "What if they've been poisoned by whoever's down there?"

"Unlikely. Poison isn't a very griffon thing to do. They're more about duels, and honour, and all that stuff."

"And we're not?" Twilight shrugged lazily to Rainbow's question. Historically ponies had equal use for poisons as they did honour duels. As in not at all. "Oh. Guess that's something the griffons have on us then."

"Not really. While I'm not advocating poisoning our enemies, the problem with duels is that you can lose."

"Nothing to report," Lightning said as she flew in, interrupting the two friends. "Is Vapor not back yet?" she asked, landing on the cloud. "That's not like her. I hope she isn't in trouble."

"Should we go look for her?" Rainbow asked Twilight.

Twilight bit her bottom lip, wanting to say yes, but knowing that anything could happen at any moment, so she needed the others with her. "We'll give her quarter of an hour to come back, then Lightning can go looking if nothing's happened by then."

"Why quarter of an hour?" Lightning enquired. "Why not now? Makes just as much sense to go now than in fifteen minutes."

"Just... wait, please?"

Lightning sighed but obeyed, flopping onto the cloud beside Rainbow as they watched the mansion.

Twilight had been watching movement within for some time, and suspected that the Emperor would show himself soon, so was extremely vindicated when he left the mansion with his daughter not ten minutes after she had asked Lightning to wait, and boarded his palanquin.

"How's Vapor supposed to find us if we're gone?" Lightning asked as Twilight stood and stretched her wings.

"Uh..." Twilight stopped moving as she mulled it over, "hmm. Okay, once whatever the Emperor is doing is done, we'll search for her. Now come on, we need to keep up."

The three ponies took flight, still keeping high to avoid detection as the flight of griffons headed towards the coast, towards a tree on the edge of a cliff. Twilight considered it an unusual destination, but concluded that it had to hold some significance for the Emperor to go there.

There weren't any clouds to hide on as they reached the tree, so they hovered instead as the Emperor disembarked. It was only then that they noticed the two figures by the tree. One mostly brown and wearing armour, and the other white, and hanging from a branch. Twilight's stomach sank as she could tell it was Vapor.

"No!"

"Rainbow wait!" Twilight shouted, but Rainbow was already going, and a few seconds later her world went bumpy and colourful as a sonic Rainboom burst across the sky, sending both her and Lightning flying. "Shit!" Twilight cursed as Lightning shot off after Rainbow, leaving her to play catch up.

Rainbow aimed straight for the griffon by the tree, ignoring the Emperor, and the large number of griffons guarding him. He dove to the side as she tried to attack him, and rolled with the blow as Lightning followed Rainbow with her own attack. Both of them looped around to try again, but stopped as a single voice bellowed at them all.

"What is the meaning of this?!"

"Hello father," Theron said, spitting on the ground towards the Emperor. "I've been waiting for you."

"Your Majesty!" Twilight landed heavily on the ground adjacent to the two griffons, "I can explain!"

"You can explain later. First I want to know why this filth is here, desecrating his mother's grave!" The Emperor gestured towards the gravestone, and Twilight felt bile rise in her throat as she saw there was an eyeball sat on top of it. She then looked to Vapor, seeing the mare was covered in blood from dozens of cuts, and dripping out of an empty eye socket. She didn't dare move though, not until the Emperor was safe.

"Clearly you didn't know mother as well as you think you did," Theron said back to his father. "I'm sure she would've loved this."

"You disgrace her memory, or have you forgotten it was her that changed my mind towards the ponies in the first place?"

"Why do you think I know she'd love this? She always had a fantastic sense of irony."

"Stop this, brother, please!"

Theron rolled his eyes as Clarissa stood next to her father, "Hello sister, still simpering in father's shadow I see. Is the prospect of ruling this one day getting to you yet? If so, I have a way to ease that burden of yours. Maybe even two."

"What are you talking about?"

"You'll see." Theron reached into his armour and pulled out a device that he held in his claw. He pointed it at the Emperor, who dove for cover, needlessly, as Theron raised the device and pointed it up over the cliff edge and pulled the trigger.
A flare of light shot from the device, travelling up into the sky for some distance before gravity started pulling it back down, not that anyone there was paying much attention by that point. As soon as Theron had fired it, the sound of griffish battle cries had come from below the cliff edge, followed soon after by a couple hundred griffons dressed in the armour and colours of the Bloodfeathers.

The Imperial Guard formed a line around the Emperor and Princess, while Twilight fired wildly into the mass of griffons, blasting as many out of the sky as she could before they reached the Emperor. Rainbow flew to her side, leaving Lightning as she rushed to Vapor, cutting her out of the tree and getting her into cover.

"Kill them!" Theron shouted to his griffons. "Kill them all except the Emperor! He's mine!"

The Bloodfeathers descended onto the Imperial Guard, and Twilight quickly learnt that the guards were no pushovers. Even with their numerical advantage, the Bloodfeathers failed to break through the Guards' defence, instead meeting a line of spears that cut a dozen down in the first few seconds. Twilight gawked for a second, then remembered she had a job to do.

"Stay with me Rainbow," Twilight ordered, summoning Swordy as she joined the battle in the air. Her horn glowed brightly as she blasted griffon after griffon with all the power she could muster, making sure that if she hit a target, it stayed down. When a griffon came too close she put Swordy to work, the enchanted blade slicing through weapons and armour like a knife through butter.

"Stop taking all the fun!" Rainbow shouted, darting out to tackle a griffon that had been lining up to attack one of the Imperial Guard, killing her with a blade between the shoulders before she could make their position any weaker. A flash of lightning boomed, knocking another griffon out, and signalling that Lightning was in the fight as well. "We got this Twilight! Protect the Emperor!"

Twilight nodded and dropped back to the ground, holding Swordy out in front of her as she did, meeting a griffon on the way down that landed in two places afterwards. She tried to get closer to the Emperor, but one of the Imperial Guard lashed out at her, forcing her to stop. "I'm trying to help!"

Twilight never heard what his reply was as a griffon leapt on her, dragging a blade down the length of her ribcage. Her legs collapsed with the sudden pain, which might've saved her life as a bolt of lightning hit the griffon, knocking him away like he'd been hit by a train. She was about to try to stand when a claw grabbed her back leg and pulled her into the defensive line. It was the guard she'd spoken to.

"Can you shield the Emperor?"

"Of course!"

"Do it then, before these bastards whittle us down to nothing."

Twilight complied, erecting a shield over the Emperor, Clarissa, and the few other unarmed griffons there, freeing the Imperial Guard up to really join the fight.

"No!" Theron shouted, launching himself at the shield and slamming his short swords down onto it. "No-no-no!"

"Fuck yes you bastard!" Twilight shouted back at him. She was about to attack him when he took to the air, short sharp cries leaving his beak that had the other Bloodfeathers breaking off from the battle and retreating. Within seconds, the battle was over, the Bloodfeathers seemingly unwilling to go up against an alicorn. It almost seemed like they had experience with that.

Twilight lowered the shield, breathing a sigh of relief as she turned to the Emperor, who was staring at her flatly, apparently nonplussed by what had happened.

"I hope you have a good explanation for this."

"Your brother and son want you and your daughter dead so they can claim the throne. Doesn't get much simpler than that really." Twilight hissed as her chest reminded her of its injury, and she pressed a hoof to it. "I really don't think now's the time for this."

"Agreed. Judging by their path, those traitors are heading for the Eyrie. They must be planning to free my brother and take the castle by force. You're going to help me stop them."

"Of course, your Majesty, as you wi-"

"Twilight!" Rainbow rushed over to Twilight, grabbing her and pulling her away. "Vapor's in a real bad way! She needs help!"

Twilight glanced back at the Emperor, then forgot him and her injury as she flew to Vapor. Lightning was with her, propping her up against the trunk of the tree, desperately pleading for her to stay with them.

Twilight didn't even know where to begin. Vapor's injuries, while survivable individually, were numerous. Blood loss alone would claim her if nothing else did first. She was alive though, her chest moving with shallow breaths, and that meant she had a chance.

"What do we do, Twilight?" Rainbow asked, her voice heavy with pleading. "Tell us what to do!"

"There's nothing I can do for her here. She needs a healing device, and those are back at the castle, or the retreat. Retreat's probably safer." Twilight glanced over her shoulder as a shout came from the cliff edge, directed at the Emperor. "Stay here with her. I'll be back in a moment."

Twilight flew over to the Emperor as he waddled over to the cliff, then slowed as one of the guards flew up carrying the body of a unicorn wearing the uniform of a Mareitanian Adept. It had been roughed up and stabbed a couple of times to make it look like the pony had died in battle, and judging by the blood on the uniform, the pony had been alive at the time.

"There's at least two dozen of them down there," said the guard. "Unicorns and earth ponies. They even have a pile of pony weapons with them."

Twilight swallowed as the Emperor turned his gaze on her, "I think it's time for that explanation."

"You already know about what your brother was doing, plotting with your son, but to put it simply, you brother wants you and Clarissa dead, making him the next in line to the throne. Since he's accused of treason, these ponies must've been to deflect the blame off him and onto Faust, making him look innocent."

"And what would be my son's part in this?"

"Your brother would declare him as next in line to the throne. That's why they wanted Griffonstone, for Theron to prove his worth to the Empire by returning Griffonstone to the fold, and to help reinforce your brothers expansionist dreams. Or at least that's the most likely reason I can think of."

The Emperor nodded slowly, "Very well, but that doesn't explain what you're doing here on what was to be a very private journey."

"Because I had a talk with your brother last night, although I removed it from his memory. He didn't confirm anything, but I knew he had to be planning something. Then I checked those reports you left at breakfast this morning, and saw no mention of the Bloodfeathers, which I thought was odd because it seemed like something you'd want to know. I then figured that there were likely griffons in Griffon Intelligence that were on your brother's side, and were holding information from you."

"And so you followed me here?"

Twilight nodded rapidly, "You'd be out of the castle and vulnerable, and both your brother and son would know exactly where you were to attack. We followed you to help if something happened, and well..." Twilight gestured at the battlefield, "yeah."

The Emperor went quiet for a while, and could see him putting it all together. She tried to wait patiently, but in the back of her mind she could feel Vapor's time ticking away.

"I'd never thought I'd say this, but you have my thanks, Princess. I'd ordered an internal investigation of Griffon Intelligence, but I had never suspected the rot ran that deep. To think my brother had been able to do this from within his prison cell."

"Your Majesty, I know this is important, but my friend is dying, and I need to get her help."

"Really? I've lost over half of my personal guard in this attack, and you're concerned about one pony? I-" The Emperor stopped as Clarissa pressed a claw to his shoulder, "Ugh, fine, what do you need?"

"You and your daughter alive. I know you're going to be heading back to your castle, but I can't guarantee your survival, and neither can Princess Luna. I'm asking for you to leave Crown Princess Clarissa in my care, to keep her safe while you sort this out. If anything were to happen to both of you, that'd be a disaster for both our countries."

"Absolutely not."

"Father!"

Clarissa cowered as her father wheeled on her, "I'm not letting you out of my sight!"

"She just saved our lives! If she meant us harm, she could've just left us to Theron. You know she's right, and you know she'll keep me safe."

"Nnngh... very well, but I tell you this now Princess Sparkle, if anything happens to her, anything at all, there is no place in this world you'll be able to hide."

"You have my word that she won't be harmed, and I'll tell my other friends to stay with you to... supplement your protection." Twilight nudged her head back towards Vapor, "She really is dying though, so with your permission I'll be getting both her and your daughter to safety."

"Very well." The Emperor turned to Clarissa, and nuzzled his beak against hers, "Stay safe my darling."

Clarissa returned the gesture and grabbed her father in a hug, "You too, papa."

Twilight let them finish their goodbyes and returned back to Vapor. Her remaining eye was open, but didn't seem very focussed.

"I didn't talk. I didn't talk," she repeated.

"I know," Lightning choked. "You did good, Vapor." She looked desperately up at Twilight, who gently scooped Vapor up in her magic.

"Clarissa is coming with us to keep her safe, but that doesn't mean much if her father gets killed. I'm taking them to the retreat where the others can take care of Vapor, then I'll head back to the castle." Twilight looked over as Clarissa walked up to them, "You're staying with the Emperor."

Lightning's eyes bulged at the suggestion, "You can't be serious! Vapor needs us!"

"Vapor just let this happen under the belief that her silence would help us protect the Emperor! If he dies now, this'll have been for nothing! You are staying with the Emperor, so keep. Him. Safe!" That said, Twilight lit her horn and teleported away, reappearing in the confines of the Retreat's portal chamber, alongside Clarissa.

"Sunset!" Twilight shouted, running for the observation area.

Sunset jumped, dropping her book as Twilight thundered towards her, leaving a trail of blood in her wake. "What? Twilight? What are you doing here?" She froze as she saw Vapor, "What the shit?"

"Healing device! Now!"

Author's Note

There's probably a lot more I could do to prepare this chapter, but I'm tired and just staring at it, so meh. I think my own lack of planning is again hurting my ideas. Curse me. *shakes fist*

8. Making it up as we go along

Sunset bit her lip, her eyes flitting back and forth between Twilight as she healed Vapor, Clarissa, the heir to the throne of Griffonia that had been brought with her, and the bloodied form of Vapor herself, who had been knocking on death's door not fifteen minutes earlier. A lot of something wasn't adding up here, and it was bothering her.

"Twilight, what the hell went wrong?"

Twilight snorted into a laugh, although she stopped it quickly. "Believe it or not, this is things going right. Not this," she quickly amended as she nodded at Vapor, "this is awful, but the rest of it is going pretty well compared to how it could be going."

"I really feel like you need to explain things a little more than that."

"I'm not sure I have time to-"

"Twilight! The Crown Princess of Griffonia is sat right next to me for some reason! Tell me what's going on!"

"Alright! Sheesh." Twilight spent a couple minutes trying to explain it, but found that a lot of what they'd been right about was based on being paranoid enough to follow the Emperor. Sure it'd worked out, but it had all been based on a suspicious hunch, which didn't sound so good when she tried to say it out loud. "And that's why Clarissa is here, to keep her safe in case the worst happens."

Sunset repeated the basics of what had happened back to herself, just to be sure. "So they wanted to kill the Emperor and his daughter so his brother Eustace got the throne, named Theron his heir, then frame the Mareitanians for the Emperor's death, giving them a reason to attack Faust. Sure, makes sense."

Nightmare chuckled darkly as she listened from across the room, "Sounds to me like this Eustace should be constantly looking over his shoulder where his nephew is concerned. Theron doesn't sound like one to wait for nature to take place."

"None of them do," Sunset agreed. "It still doesn't explain why this had to happen to Vapor."

"If she'd told him we were planning to protect the Emperor, Theron might've had a chance to plan a different, and possibly more effective attack. Frankly I'm thankful she didn't talk, or things could be a lot worse right now."

"That's not an explanation, Twilight."

"And Theron might just be a sadistic fuck." Twilight looked at Moondancer's empty seat, vacant since she'd ran off after taking one look at Vapor. "I know it's only been a day, but has anything good happened here?"

"Not really," said Sunset, "and don't think that's something you need to worry about. What's happening in Griffonia right now should be your primary concern."

"Not until Vapor is stable enough to survive on her own. Until then they'll just have to manage without me."

-0-0-0-

Lightning punched Rainbow on the side as soon as the flash from Twilight's teleport faded from her vision. "I swear Rainbow, if Vapor dies, I'm done. We've lost enough of our friends already."

"She'll be fine," Rainbow replied, rubbing the spot where Lightning had struck her. "Those healing thingies can fix anything."

"They can't fix dead!"

"Alright, no, but she isn't dead, you saw that." Rainbow walked over to Vapor's discarded uniform, and rolled it up, squeezing it into Vapor's helmet and strapping it to her side, along with Vapor's weapons. "Come on Lightning, don't be like this. Twilight needs us to protect the Emperor, and that's what we're going to do."

Lightning sighed tiredly, "That Emperor couldn't give a shit if we died right now. Let's face it Rainbow, were still just pawns fighting someone else's war."

"Twilight just went to save Vapor's life when she had plenty of reasons to stay here. She does care about us, Lightning, and she wouldn't have left us if she thought we were in serious danger. Right now we need to make sure the Emperor stays alive until she gets back, or something so much worse could happen."

"Like the Bloodfeathers coming back for another go?"

Rainbow quickly looked around, "What? Where?"

"I'm just saying, if they did that now, we'd be totally fucked, so I think we should get the Emperor to safety." Lightning grinned weakly at Rainbow, "Gotcha, by the way, and you're right. It's just... Vapor, she's been through so much now. She didn't need this as well."

"Ain't that the truth, but there's nothing we can do about it. To be honest, she must have some serious guts to lose an eye like that and not talk."

"Which only scares me more. Whatever she's going through in her head since losing Sky, I don't think she's coming back from it." Lightning shrugged at Rainbow, "Guess there's nothing we can do about it now. Come on, let's go meet the Emperor, and see where he wants us."

Rainbow decided to say nothing, and followed Lightning. She wanted to say that Vapor would be fine, and that she would come back from it, but she knew she'd only be projecting her own hopes for all of them, instead of all of them being casualties of what had happened over the last half of a year. Not even she was that blindly optimistic though.

They found the Emperor overseeing the lining up of bodies over their small battlefield. Bloodfeathers, Imperial Guard, and the ponies in Mareitanian uniforms were placed in separate lines, and neither of them could work out what the hell he was doing.

"Your Majesty?" Rainbow said, looking up at the Emperor. It was funny, but in this situation he seemed much less like the slovenly blob that she'd seen him as so far. Now he moved with purpose and determination, and seemed much more like a leader. "What are you doing?"

"Hmm?" The Emperor turned to face the two ponies, and smiled at them. "Ah, my noble protectors. I'm just preparing the bodies for collection later while I try to think of a plan. Since I have no idea what we'll be facing when we return to the Eyrie, I think it best we be prepared for anything and everything."

"You mean like an invasion?"

"I wouldn't go that far, but between those blasted Bloodfeathers, and whatever traitors my brother has on his side, we could be facing hundreds of foes. Obviously we're not going to face that with two ponies and a clawful of Imperial Guard."

"Princess Luna's at the Eyrie, and Trixie. They'll help."

The Emperor smiled again, "While I have heard much of the battle prowess of Princess Luna, and a surprising amount about Trixie Lulamoon, not even they could turn the tide in this battle. No, we need much more than that."

"Begging your pardon, your Majesty," Lightning said with the utmost politeness since she was about to contradict an emperor, "but we've seen Luna in action plenty of times, and she's no pushover. I'm not going to say she'll have this sorted out by the time we get there, but she'll definitely have thinned them out."

"You'll have to excuse me if I don't share your confidence in the Princess," the Emperor replied. "I cannot put my faith in an unknown quantity. I need to plan this like she's not even there."

Rainbow nudged Lightning, and shook her head, indicating that she should drop the issue. "Where do you want us your Majesty?" she asked instead.

"You stay by me, little ponies. I have no wish for your princesses to get upset at me if you get killed. As for where we're going, we're going to get some help."

-0-0-0-

"I'm getting the suspicion that we should've been a touch more proactive about things," said Trixie, ducking her head back inside the door to their room and shutting it, blocking the sounds of battle coming from nearby. "There is definitely an attack going on."

"Thank you for the information, Trixie Lulamoon," Luna said flatly, glancing quickly over to the bed Cadence was sat on, nervously holding Flurry. "Maintain your readiness to point out the obvious at all times, understood? I fear we will not last the day without it."

"Alright, you don't have to be a sarcastic cow about it. What I was going to say was that I think that we should go out there and take the bull by the horns and help the griffons on the Emperor's side. Otherwise we're going to be sat here like idiots when they come for us."

"While I would like to agree, we have two issues. First is that we have no idea if this is a result of Twilight having failed to protect the Emperor, in which case fighting is fairly pointless, and second is that we have no way of telling who is on whose side. I doubt even you would advocate killing all of them just to be sure."

"Actually, I was just going to stand behind you and give moral support." Trixie shrugged at Luna and smiled half-heartedly, "I'm trying to not use dark magic."

"Then use your regular magic? Twilight has been teaching you, has she not?"

"It's not as simple as that," Trixie grumbled. "I can attack with my regular magic sorta okay, but without dark magic I'm defenceless. I can't for the life of me work out how to make decent shields, no matter how patiently Twilight explains it."

"Did she tell you the most important part?"

"That a dome shaped shield is stronger than a flat one, yes."

"Not that." Luna smiled at Trixie, then looked over at Cadence. "Cadence, what's the most important part of forming a shield?"

"The desire to protect."

Luna nodded at Trixie, "The desire to protect. Yourself, others, doesn't matter. This is going to sound cheesy enough to leave a lingering smell, but without the proper motivation, a shield is no more effective than a soap bubble. Tell me Trixie, how's your self loathing these days?"

"Neither here nor there," Trixie replied stiffly while Cadence goggled at Luna. "Are you about to tell me that I need to learn to love myself?"

"No, but... ngh, here we go. I'm sure I don't need to explain my past in much detail any more, but I developed a very aggressive fighting style in the past. The reason I did so was because I was compensating for my lack of defensive capabilities. Frankly, my shields were rubbish because I despised myself, and others. I lacked the desire to protect. Your issues may well be similar."

"Uh-huh. That sounds like utter bullshit, frankly. I care plenty about others."

"But do you feel the need to protect them?"

"Not really. Twilight's an alicorn, you're an alicorn, and the rest of them aren't in the line of fire, so it doesn't matter." Trixie paused as she considered what she'd said, and realised something. "Oh. Suddenly I see what you're getting at."

Luna nodded once at Trixie, "Quite. Unfortunately we don't have the time to get you to explore your feelings on this, but try to keep it in mind while we go out there and work out who it is we're supposed to be stopping."

"Right." Trixie lit her horn as she started to summon her armour and put it on. "Hopefully my fancy magic armour will be enough to keep my blood where it's supposed to be. If not, tell Twilight that she needs to explore a new mane style in the next century at least."

There was a groan from Cadence, "I will never understand how anypony can make jokes in these situations. At any rate, I'll stay here and keep Flurry safe while you two go do whatever it is you're planning to do."

"You do that," said Luna. "Although I do hope that if any griffons try to get in here and harm you or Flurry, you will not hesitate to act."

Cadence swallowed hard, "I'll try."

"Trying isn't enough, Cadence." Luna stopped Cadence with a raised hoof before she could retort. "Just... stay safe until we return. Come Trixie, let us see if we can't turn the tide of whatever 's happening to the Emperor's favour."

"Sure... let's go do this... thing."

Luna led the way, which Trixie was more than happy about. They locked Cadence in the room and made their way to the more important parts of the castle. It didn't take them long to find some bodies, and nearby the sound of fighting. The deceased seemed to be from the castle guards, although there was no sign of who they had been fighting.

"What if they killed each other?" Trixie suggested to Luna as the alicorn inspected the bodies.

"I doubt it. There's no blood on their weapons. These poor griffons weren't expecting an attack off whoever killed them, or never saw their attackers I suppose, although that seems unlikely." Luna rolled one of the bodies over, showing a stab wound in his unarmoured neck. "Honestly Trixie, I have no idea what's going on here."

Trixie cocked an ear as the sound of fighting intensified, with an increase of the ear splitting calls the griffons used. She had no idea what they meant, but she could tell by the look on Luna's face that she could. "What is it?"

Luna listened for a second, letting her experience pick though the nuances of griffon calls, which had a tendency to sound similar to the uninitiated. "More attackers have arrived. Any more than that I can't say, other than they've come from outside the castle."

"And you picked up that much from craawwwaughck!" Trixie banged on her chest a couple of times as her imitation griffon call threatened to rupture her lungs. "Ahem."

"It's all in the inflection."

"Of course it is, of course." Trixie nodded to herself a couple of times as she waited for something to happen. Nothing did. "Luna, what the hell are we really doing here?"

"I... don't know. Perhaps we should see there is something we can do further into the castle. Perhaps the new arrivals have a way for us to differentiate them from the others here."

"They're certainly managing it," Trixie observed of the griffons still fighting in the distance. Letting Luna again lead the way, Trixie kept herself ready. They weren't far from the main corridor through the castle, where most of the fighting was taking place, and in the distance they could see griffons flying past the entrance of the hallway they were in as a battle was fought on both land and in the air.

"Well that should make things easier."

"What should?"

Luna pointed at a griffon in mismatched armour that was grappling with one of the castle guard, "Bloodfeathers. If they aren't our enemy, I don't know who here is."

"Neat. So kill the ones in the crappy armour. Got it."

"And any griffon that attacks you. Although not a guarantee in this place, considering griffon sentiment towards us, there's a good chance they aren't on the side of the Emperor."

"That's our story, and we're sticking to it," Trixie said cheerfully. "Alternatively, we could encourage those defending the castle to leave it, then trap the bad guys inside."

"A fair idea, but I doubt these griffons would listen to us."

"Then let's just go and make sure the good griffons win." Trixie bowed to Luna and gestured towards the main hall, "After you, your Highness."

"So gracious." Luna trotted up to the fight, noting that none of the griffons had taken the slight bit of notice of them so far, although that would quickly change. She charged her horn, picked out a Bloodfeather that was grappling with one of the guards, and fired, blasting the griffon across the hall and into the wall hard enough to crack the stone.

Luna ran out into the fight, making a point of targeting the Bloodfeathers until it became more obvious who their enemies were. Trixie did the same, her pale pink magic striking the Bloodfeathers with a fraction of the power she was used to. Luna could see it just by looking, and by the frustration on Trixie's face. She wanted the power the dark magic gave her, but it remained to be seen if she'd give in to that temptation.

"Oh come on!" Trixie shouted, putting her all into each attack. It seemed to make no difference though, because as powerful as she had become, her regular magic simply lacked the punch that dark magic had, and there was a little voice in her head screaming at her to use it, to kill her enemies, and most beguilingly of all, to protect her friends. She tried to ignore it, but as her frustration grew, so did her anger. Black started to tinge the colour of her magic.

"Trixie!" Luna called out as the unicorn started to put more of her anger into each attack, and she was thankful when Trixie looked back at her and realised what she was doing. Luna wasn't given much time to act further on it though as a griffon hen wearing armour very different to what she'd seen so far attacked her. It was dark grey, and bore no markings. That alone made Luna think that she had to be with Griffon Intelligence.

Luna's magic caught a claw wielding a dagger as it came down towards her, but rather than withdraw from the attack, or try to pull her claw away, the hen reached back and grabbed something from her belt before throwing it into Luna's eyes. It was some kind of dust, and it burned like fire.

Luna coughed and retched, tossing the griffon away from her as the powder went up her nose as well as blinded her. She couldn't even begin to hazard a guess as to what it was at that second, but it certainly had a effect. Luna shielded herself as she tried to recover, and cried in pain as her lungs felt like they were full of lava, and her eyes watering from the powder.

"Oh shit-oh shit-oh shit!" Trixie yelled as Luna hid beneath a shield that failed to cover the cries coming from beneath it. That wasn't her main concern though, as the fact that she was now alone was far more troubling. She staggered as a sword hit her on the side, and she found herself face to face with a grey armoured hen that was aiming to throw something at her. Trixie never gave her the chance as terror took over her, and her horn.

The hen screamed as black magic coiled up her arm and tore it off. Trixie screamed as well, but it was more of an existential horror based scream rather than a pained one. She crushed the life from the hen, then came to find that all the other griffons were staring at her, and the severed appendage that she was still holding in her magic. Thankfully Luna came to her rescue, grabbing her and dragging her under the shield.

"Calm yourself, Trixie," Luna wheezed, trying to look at Trixie through puffed up eyes that were running to the point it was dripping on the floor. "You're safe under here."

Trixie dropped the leg, like she was surprised to be holding it. She wanted to say something, to make a joke, or offhand comment, but there was no hiding what she'd just done. She'd been in danger, and had gone straight back to the dark magic to save herself. She'd lasted barely thirty seconds without using it, if that.

"What happened to you?" Trixie asked, if only for the distraction.

"Chilli powder, I believe." Luna rubbed her eyes and tried to blink away her tears. "Truly the griffons have found a weapon capable of destroying alicorns."

"Do you need help?"

"Short of asking you to gouge my eyes out, no. I shall have to endure it until it passes." Luna rubbed her eyes again and sighed, trying to hide how much it hurt from Trixie, "What's happening outside the shield?"

"They've carried on fighting. Seems me ripping a leg off wasn't too big of a distraction for them." Trixie stared at the leg in question for a moment, then turned away, choosing to look at the floor instead. "What now?"

"Now we assume that the griffons in the nondescript grey armour are also our opponents." Both of them jumped as the body of a griffon slammed against the shield, "Perhaps we should make for the throne room, and see if we can push back from there."

"I'm not sure I can."

Luna groaned loudly, shocking Trixie. "You, Trixie Lulamoon, have seriously misplaced your moxie. Using dark magic every now and again isn't going to damn your soul, just as refraining from using it isn't going to save it either. There isn't a quantifiable amount you have to use it before it damns you, because you only have to use it once. That said, I'm not encouraging its use either, but this is somewhat of an emergency."

"So basically you're saying I'm damned whatever I do." Trixie placed a hoof on her chest as something ached within. "Wow."

"Alright, while what I said might've sounded a lot like that, what I mean is that refraining from dark magic isn't what's going to save you, while at the same time the best way to avoid what it is you fear is by staying alive, which your dark magic is rather useful for in these situations."

Trixie kept her hoof to her chest for a little longer, waiting for the ache within to subside. It didn't, but Luna's words made it ignorable. If staying alive postponed her damnation, then that was what she was going to do. She stood and turned to face the way to the throne room, picking out those griffons in Bloodfeather and Griffon Intelligence armour. "Let's do this."

"On three then. One, two... three!" Luna dropped the shield and launched into an attack while Trixie did what she'd done so many times before. A barrage of razor sharp crystal spears flew from her, impaling those griffons she'd picked out before. In seconds, half a dozen of them were dead.

Luna had less luck, with her sight being limited. She was using her magic to compensate, which she often did anyway thanks to her huge, wafting mane blocking much of her sight a lot of the time anyway, but it wasn't quite as nice as using the eyes you'd used since birth. Instead she did her best to keep Trixie safe as the armoured unicorn pushed on to the throne room.

"All griffons loyal to the Emperor, make for the throne room!" Luna shouted, hoping that they'd listen to her. They certainly had no reason to, and would probably be accused them of orchestrating the coup later, but right now actions spoke louder than words as the two ponies cut a path through the loyalists opponents. As one, they started to push for the throne room. Even so, Luna found it weird to be fighting alongside griffons.

The doors to the throne room were sealed tight as they reached them, which left Luna thinking that whoever was within was suddenly very worried about what was coming. And they should be, she thought to herself. She quickly counted the griffons with them, finding just under forty had joined them, which didn't seem like a lot, but if Trixie could keep it together, they would be enough.

"What's the plan... uh, Princess?" one of the griffons asked. He was quite young, and gave an impression of youthful enthusiasm that most of the other guards lacked.

"Not great I'm afraid. We're to take the throne room, then hold it until we receive word about the Emperor. Hopefully he still lives, in which case we'll be ready for his return. If not..." Luna didn't say, not being sure of what to do herself. At the very least Twilight would return, and they could plan from there.

"Let's just get this over with," Trixie said sullenly.

Luna found Trixie staring at the floor, tears running down her cheeks from green tinged eyes that leaked purple smoke, and suddenly felt very guilty at having gotten Trixie to do this. Sadly, she still needed Trixie, and she needed Trixie to be effective, but she resolved to never ask such of the unicorn again after today.

"On my mark then," Luna said, giving Trixie an encouraging smile. "We'll pull the doors open, and finish this. Try and take any unarmed griffons alive." Trixie nodded once, which was good enough for Luna to ready her magic as Trixie did. "Three, two, one, mark!"

Both of them pulled at the door with all their might, although to the griffons watching, all they saw was a couple of ponies waving their glowing horns around as they strained and grunted, with very little tangible evidence of doing anything at all. Eventually though, the door began to crack, and with another almighty wiggle of their horns, the two ponies tore the doors open.

A hail of arrows greeted them, and Luna just got a shield up in time as Trixie jumped behind the door for cover. The arrows stopped coming as the defenders reloaded, and Luna took the chance to run in, her horn blasting as many griffons as she could while Trixie and the griffons ran in behind her, changing the fight into a mêlée very quickly.

There weren't as many defenders as Luna had thought there would be. Less than thirty by her guess. There were also two griffons by the throne, a male and female, the male of which Luna was pretty sure was the Emperor's brother, Eustace.

"Trixie! Finish off the defenders while I take care of those two!" Luna shouted, not waiting for an answer before making straight for the two griffons. The hen was wearing the same dark grey armour as the other intelligence operatives, which was why Luna was more than prepared when the hen reached down to a pouch on her belt.

"Oh no you don't," Luna said, catching the chilli powder in her magic and throwing it back. The hen yelled loudly as it went in her eyes, and Luna considered her taken care of enough to ignore her for a second while she took care of Eustace. She was surprised to find him with his claws in the air in surrender. "What?"

"You can't kill an unarmed opponent who's surrendered."

"Cute," Luna replied with clear irritation, "but I was never going to kill you anyway. I also know you're just trying to distract me."

"And what do you think I could be trying to distract you from?"

Luna stepped to the side as the hen stabbed a dagger down towards the centre of her back. "This," said Luna, catching the blade, and the entire leg in her magic, and twisting it sharply until she heard bones break and screaming in her ear. She'd felt the griffon moving to attack her the moment she'd started to draw her weapon. Griffons always were a little oblivious to the ways ponies used magic.

"You broke my leg! You broke my leg!"

"And you were going to throw more chilli powder in my eyes and stab me, so I think it's only fair." Luna grinned as the hen clutched her leg and hissed in pain as she glared hatefully at the alicorn. "I'm guessing you must be Janice, head of Griffon Intelligence?"

"I'm not telling you anything."

"Uh-huh... and would you tell me if I broke your other leg?" The hen only glared harder. "Guess not. Very well, Trixie?"

Trixie dropped the lifeless body she was holding, and sat hard, her hooves shaking. "Throne room secured." She smiled emptily, the defenders having been routed in no time at all. "Really, really secured."

"None of what you're doing matters!" Eustace shouted suddenly. "The Emperor is dead, and so is his heir. What you're doing now is an act of war against the new ruler of this nation, and you will pay for it!"

"Are you certain he's dead?" Luna asked like she was speaking to a child. "I don't think you are. Especially if you're counting on your nephew to do the job."

"You're not sure either," Eustace stated firmly, raising his beak into the air.

"You're right, I'm not, but I'm not going to pretend either way. Trixie, close the doors and seal them tight."

"What are you doing?" Eustace asked as Trixie begrudgingly complied.

"We're going to wait here, all of us, until we know for certain whether the Emperor is dead or alive. I pray for your sake he's dead, because I suspect he is far less merciful than I if he's alive."

-0-0-0-

"What is this place?" Rainbow asked as they flew towards a large fort built on a string of interconnected bluffs and pinnacles leading out into the sea, east of where the ambush had happened. She and Lightning were flying alongside the palanquin, invited to be an honour guard for a reason they were sure they didn't want to know about.

"This is Fort Seaguard," the Emperor told her with a hint of pride, "our foremost defence against invasion from the sea. For our purposes though, it happens to be the nearest concentration of soldiers to us. Here we can find reinforcements to deal with my son and his traitorous Bloodfeathers."

Rainbow kept her next thought to herself, as the place seemed to be empty. There should've been patrols, and guards, and all the mundanely military stuff requisite of a place like this, but there was nothing of the sort. As they got closer, the Emperor started to notice it himself.

"How peculiar," he said in what Rainbow thought to be a very muted response. They aimed for a large, central part of the fort, and flew into an open courtyard inside it, where no one came to greet them for several minutes until a lone griffon in some fancy armour came scurrying out looking panicked.

"Your Majesty! Uh... welcome to Fort Seaguard! I-um-"

"Where are my soldiers?"

"Your soldiers?" The griffon adjusted his spectacles at the bluntly delivered question, showing his nerves with his shaking claw. "They're out on manoeuvres, your Majesty, just as you ordered."

"I see. When exactly did I order that?"

"I received the orders two days ago, signed by yourself." The uniformed griffon rubbed his claws together anxiously, "If you wished to rescind the order, you need only have sent a messenger, your Majesty."

"I shouldn't have to rescind the order, because I never made it!" The Emperor grabbed the griffon by his armour and pulled him closer until they were beak to beak, "Why would I order one of our most important defences be emptied, hmm?"

"I was wondering that myself, your Imperial Majesty."

"And yet you obeyed anyway."

"O-of course... it was signed by your own claw. Or at least appeared to be. I wouldn't dare disobey such an order."

"How long will it take to issue a recall?"

"Days at least, your Majesty. They were sent to the Saddle Arabian border to protect against possible incursion from the Storm King. I found it odd since there's been no sign of the Storm Kings' forces so far north since his attack on Ammare, but I wasn't about to refuse your orders."

The Emperor clacked his beak, stopping the Legionnaire from babbling, then released him. "Issue the recall."

"Do we have time for that?" Rainbow asked as the Legionnaire half ran, half flew away, back into the fort.

"Of course not," the Emperor informed her, "but I can't leave this place unmanned either. Surely you understand this has been a ploy to stop me from gathering help easily? Nice to see they had the foresight to plan for me surviving their assassination attempt."

"Where's the next nearest place we could gather help?" said Lightning.

"Fort Eiderdown, but that's guarding against incursions from the Dragon Lands. I dare not pull my soldiers from there."

Rainbow and Lightning shared a look. "We don't think that'll be a problem," said Rainbow. "We're friends with the Dragon Lord, and she-"

"I don't care what she says. The moment we give the dragons an opportunity, they'll be ransacking my country. No, I will not be pulling soldiers from Fort Eiderdown, and that is final. We'll just have to do this ourselves."

"Surely there's other places we can go to find reinforcements?"

"We don't have time to go that far!" Both ponies backed away a step as the Emperor shouted. "The longer we take doing this, the more solid my brother's grip becomes on my country! We need to act now, or we've lost anyway!"

"Yeesh," Lightning muttered as the Emperor swept back to his palanquin. "I know we've said some stuff about our leaders, but at least they're not alone."

"Mmm," Rainbow hummed, neither agreeing or disagreeing. "You have to admit though, he seems at lot less useless than that fat lump we met when we arrived."

"Come on ponies, we're leaving!"

"Here's hoping he doesn't get us killed," Lightning concluded.

-0-0-0-

"Maybe I should've gone with them," was the conclusion Cadence came to as she sat in the room she'd been locked into by Luna and Trixie. It had been quiet for a while now, but she knew better than to assume that meant it was all over. Nopony had come back for her, so that meant she stayed put. Unfortunately Flurry wanted none of it.

"Bwwaaaaahhh!" Flurry howled, using the fullest ability of her lungs to destroy Cadence's hearing, all while kicking her way out of the pink alicorn's hold. "Bwaaahhhhh!"

"Will you stop? The bad griffons are going to hear us!"

"Bwaaaahhhhhh!" Flurry replied, indifferent to Cadence's pleading.

"Flurry, please! Shush!"

"Its coming from in here!"

Cadence froze upon hearing the voice, and even Flurry stopped her bawling to listen to the sounds coming from outside the door. Cadence silently begged them to move on, but as the latch lifted, and door rattled on its lock, she knew there was no chance.

"It's locked! This has to be the right one."

"Buh-oh," Flurry said, now realising the full weight of her actions, and the consequences they may have engendered.
The door cracked as whoever was beyond it tried to bash it open, and Cadence grabbed Flurry as she tried to reinforce it as best she could. She'd be able hold it for a while, but with nowhere to go, it was only a matter of time until they got in. All she could hope was that they gave up trying after a few goes, although that seemed unlikely as Flurry started to cry again in fear.

"Come on out little pony, we promise we won't hurt you. Princess Luna sent us to get you."

"I don't believe you!" Cadence shouted, clamping a hoof over her mouth as soon as she did as she'd never meant to say that out loud.

"Sure she did. She's a little busy in the throne room right now, so she asked us to get you."

Cadence decided to say nothing more as there was nothing she could possibly say that would convince these griffons to leave them alone now. After a few seconds a different griffon spoke.

"She isn't buying it you asshole. Plant the explosives and we'll get her out."

"Wait!" Cadence screamed. "I'll open the door, just don't hurt us." Cadence released her hold on the door and moved back as half a dozen griffons moved in, making sure to look as unaggressive and nonthreatening as possible. She swallowed as one of the griffons grinned at her.

"I was totally bluffing about the explosives, just so you know. Good of you to fall for it. Now come along quietly, and lets see if you can't convince your fellow princess to give up quietly."

"Raargh!" Flurry growled adorably, fluffing her wings up to try and look big to the scary griffons. The griffons just laughed at her.

"Daww, look at da scawwy lil pony," one of them said, getting in close to Flurry. "Sadly, you just aren't that scary. If you want to hear a scary roar though, I'll happily show you one." The griffon drew a deep breath, stopped, then kept sucking in air as Flurry screwed her face up and lit her horn. The griffon's eyes went wide in pain as his chest inflated to a unnatural size, and there was a wet pop as the griffon dropped dead, blood dripping from his nose and mouth.

"What the fuck?" The other griffons stepped away from the body as it slowly deflated with a sound not unlike a whoopee cushion. Cadence stared at the body, fully and horribly aware that her daughter had just killed that griffon. Flurry merely giggled, then growled again, seeming to find the whole thing funny. She found it less funny as the griffons pointed their weapons at her.

"That thing just killed Gus!"

"She didn't mean to! She's just a foal, she doesn't understand!"

"Yeah, well I'll make her understand." The griffon grabbed Flurry from Cadence, taking hold of her by the horn. The other griffons piled on Cadence as she made to grab Flurry back.

"No! Give her back! Flurry!"

Splortch!

The griffon holding Flurry screamed as the claw holding her horn exploded into meaty chunks, leaving nothing behind save for the blood that now covered her. Flurry giggled as she took flight, staying away from the griffon as he held the stump of his wrist in his other claw.

"What the fuck is that thing!?" One of the griffons holding down Cadence yelled, ducking down as Flurry wobbled through the air towards her.

"She's just a baby! Leave her alone!"

"Babies don't kill people!"

"She took my claw!" the wounded griffon shouted. "Kill that fucking demon spawn!"

"No!" A surge of power passed through Cadence as her thoughts became consumed with protecting Flurry. Her eyes glowed white, and her horn pulsed with a shield that slammed the griffons against the sides of the room, and held them there, while Flurry passed harmlessly through.

A feral scream escaped Cadence's throat as she pushed the shield harder and harder, crushing the five griffons long past the point that they had stopped living. It wasn't until a terrified crying from Flurry reached Cadence's ears that she came back to her senses. She dropped the shield, letting the bodies flop to the ground, except for the one that remained glued to the wall, and found Flurry in the corner, safe within a golden shield and hiding in her wings.

"Flurry, sweetie, it's okay, the bad griffons aren't going to hurt you." Cadence felt her heart sink as Flurry refused to come out. Clearly it wasn't just the griffons that had scared her. "Mommy isn't going to hurt you either. Mommy would never hurt you."

Flurry turned to look at her mother, and lowered her shield as Cadence smiled warmly at her child, even as the final griffon slid down the wall to the floor with a horrible squelching sound. "Mama?"

"That's right, I'm here."

Flurry jumped through the air to Cadence, grabbing her around the neck and nuzzling into her coat as Cadence held her. While that small issue had been quickly taken care of, there was still another to deal with. Cadence wasn't about to lie to herself about it, because there was no denying that she'd just killed five griffons, and even worse was that Flurry had killed one. Hopefully she was just acting out of fear, and that it didn't become a recurring theme.

Cadence would never forget the giggle Flurry had made as the griffon died.

"We need to get out of here," Cadence said, trying to pull her thoughts anywhere from the fact that they'd both just killed griffons. Cadence had heard of the alicorn survival instinct from Celestia, which Twilight had referred to as a panic mode, but she'd never seen it in action. Now she'd just used it to crush the life from five griffons, and barely even remembered doing so, leaving her stood in a room full of bodies, holding her blood-soaked foal.

Cadence shook her head as the thoughts crept back in. She moved Flurry up to her back and left the room without saying another word. Luna was in the throne room, and that seemed like the best place to go, if only because another alicorn might have a better handle on Flurry if she decided to turn another griffon into a balloon animal.

Thankfully there weren't any other griffons around outside the room, although there were likely to be plenty around towards the throne room. Unfortunately Cadence didn't know where else to go, and no part of her wanted to go hide again in case they had a repeat of what had just happened.

The hairs on Cadence's neck rose as the sound of griffon calls reached her, and she dared not move out of fear that doing so would attract them towards her. It wasn't until she heard fighting that she came to think they probably weren't interested in the two of them. But that didn't answer the question of why there was still fighting going on. Cadence had been given the impression that only the throne room hadn't been taken.

Cadence wished she could have the question answered, if only to use it for her own survival, but decided that going away from the fighting was a better idea in both the long and short term. The problem was that an actual, defensible castle, had few ways in or out, and she wasn't sure enough to risk trying to teleport directly to the throne room.

The fighting ended as quickly as it began, and Cadence heard the sound of massive doors being slammed shut. She knew that had to be the main entrance to the castle, meaning that they were now trapped in there whatever she did, unless she tried the one horrible idea that just came to her.

"Oh no. Oh no-no-no-no... why would I even think of that?" Cadence sighed and turned left towards a small room adjacent to they rooms they'd used the night before. A small room that even from outside the door had a bit of a smell. She'd been forced to use it herself from lack of choice, but she swore the smell had lingered in her coat afterwards.

Taking the latch in her magic, Cadence took a deep breath and opened the door to what she was going to generously call the water closet, despite it being nothing more than a wooden board with a hole in, over a very deep drop.

"This can't seriously be the only idea I have. Come on brain, give me something, anything but this!" Apart from questioning why she hadn't made a teleport beacon back to the retreat like Twilight always did, Cadence's brain supplied her with a big, fat zero. "Damn it. I'm sorry about this Flurry, but mommy is going to be smelly for a while."

Not giving Flurry a chance to question what she'd meant, Cadence lifted Flurry off her back and cocooned her in a protective bubble that would at least keep the foal from suffering the worst of what was about to happen. Flurry fought to escape, but Cadence ignored her struggles to lift the wooden seat up, and position herself on the edge of the hole. Somehow the smell was much worse even being that little bit closer. "We speak of this to nopony," she added to Flurry as a final thought, holding the shielded foal in her legs.

Cadence took another deep breath to ready herself, but really regretted it. That done, she pushed herself over the edge and plunged into darkness. She instinctively spread her wings, but found the hole she was falling through wasn't anywhere near large enough to let her fly, as the light from her horn showed her well enough. Instead she used levitation to slow her descent enough to not shatter her bones as she hit a slope, and now found herself sliding diagonally before getting tossed out into a larger hole that went straight down again.

Cadence against tried to fly, but her wings were too messed up to fly, being covered in unthinkable substances as they were. She levitated herself again, but had barely slowed herself as she splashed down into the fetid pool that acted as the destination of whatever went down the toilets. Cadence swam for the surface, not daring to breathe, or open her mouth, or eyes, or anything, not until she found the surface and an edge.

Cadence clung onto the small ledge for her life, and wiped her face clear enough in time for her to throw up down herself. The stench was strong enough to the point that it became a physical force, and it felt like her lungs were rotting from breathing in the foul air. Flurry at least seemed to be okay inside her bubble, so Cadence could at least be pleased that worked out.

"If only Celestia could see me now," Cadence muttered, hauling herself out of the muck and wiping herself down. There was light coming from behind her, through a small grated outlet, and Cadence followed the ledge around until she could see through it, and savour the miniscule amount of fresh air coming from beyond. Sadly she couldn't see anything without going back into the sewage, but she didn't fancy staying where she was, so got into it with only a small groan.
The outlet led into a small yard with a few carts inside it, and an amusing little sign saying 'Imperial Fertilizer, Emperor approved' informed her that some enterprising griffon had set up a business selling the excrement from the castle inhabitants. "Wonderful."

Cadence teleported them through the grate into the yard, thankful that the high fences stopped her from being seen. That was only a fraction of the thankfulness that she had for the hose she found though. She supposed she should've been thankful that they'd made it out, but her heart wasn't quite into that. It was being amongst a still mostly hostile people that ruined it.

Cadence turned the hose off, having briefly considered hosing Flurry down as well, but didn't fancy having a cold, wet, screaming foal to deal with as well. For all she knew they'd made it out of the frying pan, and the fire, but may well find out the floor was made of lava too, and she didn't want to have to deal with Flurry through that.

"Ugh, what are you doing, Cadence?" Cadence asked herself. She'd got this far through sheer luck and adrenaline, but now she was still trapped in a city under attack, surrounded by angry griffons, had an easily confused and murderous foal, and stank of raw effluence. It was high time she made a plan. Or at least a plan that didn't involve flying back to the portal and leaving, although that did sound like the best possible option. Luna and Trixie were still trapped inside the castle, and Cadence... had no hope of fixing that. The problem was that there was nothing much back at the retreat capable of fixing that either, and Cadence wasn't about to go trusting Nightmare with such an important task at this junction. There was perhaps two potential allies somewhere nearby though.

Cadence left the yard, which wasn't part of the overarching plan, but was a necessary step. Flurry flew along next to her, refusing to be carried as Cadence was both wet and stinky, and Cadence couldn't blame her.

"Princess Cadence?"

Cadence squeaked in surprise at the voice, and searched about until she found a griffon looking at her through a barred window. She then looked back at the yard, and at the griffon again. "Huh, that was easy. Are you Sonny?"

The griffon nodded, "I am. Derek's here too. I'm not sure why you're here though, or why you've left the castle through the sewage system either."

"It's... complicated. Really, really complicated."

"They've assassinated the Emperor, and now his brother is trying to take over using the Bloodfeathers and traitors in Griffon Intelligence."

Cadence was speechless for a moment, having not expected to hear that in the slightest. "Uh, yes, actually-"

"I knew it! I knew it wasn't over"

"-But I think us being here has thrown a massive spanner in the works. The Emperor might not be dead, and Princess Luna currently holds the throne room against the Bloodfeathers."

"Huh, nice. Um, what are you doing, if you don't mind my asking?"

Cadence started to answer, but it stuck in her throat as the answer was that she didn't really know. "I was looking for you, but I'm not sure what to do past that." Cadence lowered her head, suddenly feeling ashamed and useless. She'd always relied on others to make the plans and follow them, and now she was on her own she felt clueless.

"Well, you found us," Sonny said cheerfully. "I don't suppose you can get us out, Princess? The guards have all gone to fight with the other traitors, so it shouldn't be too difficult."

Cadence nodded, keenly aware of how the plan was once again not hers. At least she wasn't required to do any fighting, or so she hoped. Making sure Flurry stayed with her, Cadence made her way to the front of the building, finding that Sonny had been right about the lack of guards. They did have the foresight to lock the doors though.

"Oh come on Cadence, it's a door. You've shielded an entire city before now. Shining can do it, and he's not even an alicorn!" Cadence directed her magic at the lock, blasting it clean out of the door. It wasn't even hard, and it bothered that she got so worked up about it.

Inside was a large room, with a few desks and a single doorway leading off to a dozen cells. Only two were occupied, those containing Sonny and Derek. Sonny pressed her face to the bars and grinned, "Alright, Princess! The keys should be somewhere in the office." Sonny leapt back as Cadence blasted the lock on her cell, "Or that works too." She sniffed the air, and failed to hide her gag. "Sorry, Princess, but you smell pretty bad."

"Like I need reminding," Cadence sighed as she moved to the other occupied cell.

"Thanks," Derek said as Cadence opened his cell. "So what's the plan now?"

"I say we go knock some heads," Sonny replied, flexing her claws eagerly. "Our gear should be around here somewhere."

"Tch, you mean my camera? I'm an aerial photographer, you nitwit, not a fighter."

"Yeah, but we have Princess Cadence with us, and a giggling alicorn foal covered in blood, so it'll be fine! Won't it, Princess?"

"No, it won't." Cadence avoided meeting Sonny's eyes, "I'm not a fighter either." Cadence wanted to say that she should be, but she wasn't. She was silly, weak, little Cadence, who may have just killed five griffons in a magic infused panic, but it wasn't really fighting. She was in a situation where she really needed to step up, but she was too scared to do it.

"Oh," Sonny said with clear disappointment, "well, nevermind. There has to be something we can do in this situation to help Princess Luna." Sonny led the way back into the other room, and started searching through cupboards, exclaiming "Ah-hah!" when she found their stuff. Or some of it at least. "Aww, what? They took my weapons. Those were custom made!"

"There's weapons lockers over here," Dereck said, standing by metal lockers on the adjacent wall. "And they have your weapons. Not sure why they put my camera in here though."

Cadence stood quietly while the two griffons geared up, keeping an eye on Flurry in case the foal decided she didn't like these griffons either. Thankfully she didn't seem to bothered by them, or at least recognised that they weren't an enemy. She was still avoiding getting too close to Cadence though, and Cadence still didn't blame her.

"Princess? Are you ready to go?"

"Hmm?" Cadence blinked at Sonny, only noticing now that she'd phased out. "Oh, sorry. Yes, I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

"Good." Sonny placed a claw on the door out, pulling it open, "The sooner we get moving, the bett- Oh... fuck me."

A dozen griffons in golden armour surrounded the exit. None of them had their weapons pointed at the four, but it was clearly implied that those weapons were present, so they had better be well behaved. Two of them moved aside, making a gap through which an aging griffon in ornate armour walked up to them. He bowed deeply before Cadence.

"Uh, who are you?" Cadence asked, knowing full well that the armour marked the griffons as those of the Golden Claws mercenary company, but the last she'd checked they'd been an enemy.

"I am Commander Lurin," the griffon replied, "and I've come to deal with a traitor to the Empire."

Author's Note

I'm always been in the school of thought that Flurry Heart is a delightful little abomination, and has all the powers of an alicorn, but with the lack of restraint that comes with not understanding the concept of consequences, or empathy. I also adhere to the idea that she is far smarter than she lets on, but is also smart enough to hide that.

Currently 50/50 on if there's a chapter next week. Going away with the girlfriend for a few days, and I feel like the last chapter I wrote is unnecessary trash anyway, so might scrap it. I don't know yet. Peace.

9. Play it coup

Sonny drew her daggers, rearing up and placing herself between Lurin and Princess Cadence, ready to defend her. "And what reason do we have to believe you're not on Theron's side after helping him attack Equestria?" she asked, her claws flexing eagerly on her weapons grips.

"None, admittedly," said the Commander, "but I never assisted Theron out of any spite towards Equestria. It was only a contract."

"Bullshit!"

"Sonny, please." Cadence pressed a hoof to Sonny's side, holding it there until the griffon relented with a groan and stepped aside. "Commander Lurin, I'm not going to lie to you here, you did great harm to Equestria at a time where we really could've done without it. While you might claim to be here to stop Theron, your previous actions have done nothing to make us think you're not on his side with this."

Lurin held his composure for a second, then sighed. He dismissed his soldiers with a wave of his claw and removed his helmet while he waited for them to leave.

"I'm not going to apologise. Had I known where it would lead I wouldn't have agreed to the contract, but I'm not going to say sorry either. My only true regret here is that Theron has betrayed my trust by attacking his own kin and country. I had hoped that by reclaiming Griffonstone he aimed to redeem himself in his father's eyes. I never thought he'd side with his uncle and do this instead. This is far from what the contract entailed."

"How did you know the Princess was here in Griffonia?" Derek asked, having been warily watching the Commander since his arrival.

"I didn't actually, and I certainly didn't expect to find her..." Lurin ended his sentence with a sniff, making Cadence blush with embarrassment. "Griffonia would've been the last place I expected the princesses to take refuge. As for how we found you right now, you were spotted while hosing yourself off."

"My purpose here is not for you to discuss," Cadence said firmly, pushing past the humiliation. "Just tell us what it is you want with me, Commander. Do you seek to turn me in to Faust?"

"Hunting you and your fellow princesses wasn't in the contract, so no. I have no interest in Faust, or her desires, and since our contract was with the Bloodfeathers, with Theron's recent actions I now consider his employment of us terminated. You need not worry about us any longer, and if you seek some kind of reconciliatory gesture from us, we will not be assisting Faust again, no matter how much she asks." Lurin shrugged, "As I said, I should never have fought for her in the first place."

"You killed innocents for her."

Lurin hung his head, "Now that I am sorry for. Had I known Theron's plan at Appleloosa, I would've stopped it then and there. I imagine yet more innocents have died to the Bloodfeathers today. Yet another reason for me to end them once and for all. Princess, do you know where the Emperor is right now?"

"Away from here, and very possibly dead. It's his wedding anniversary, so he's off visiting his late wife's grave with his daughter."

Lurin cussed under his breath, "Of course. It's one of the few times he's away from the safety of the castle. Hopefully he still lives then, or at least Princess Clarissa does if he does not."

"And if they don't?"

"Then the throne passes to Eustace, and we've already lost."

Cadence looked up at the castle. Dozens of griffons in golden armour were flying around it, and there must've been a lot more on the ground that she couldn't see. She had wanted help, and now she had more help than she knew what to do with. Unfortunately, no matter what they did though, it all hinged on Twilight's, Rainbow's, and Lightning's ability to keep the Emperor and his daughter alive. Thankfully they were probably up to the task.

"Princess Luna has barricaded herself inside the throne room," Cadence said to Lurin after a moment. "She has one other pony with her, but other than that I can't say who or what is with her."

"I know," Lurin said back. "From what we've gathered from survivors of the castle guard, Luna has both Eustace with her, and the new director of Griffon Intelligence. Reaching and capturing them are our main priorities, but unfortunately the Bloodfeathers, and other traitors, have taken the rest of the castle and locked us out. I was hoping your magic would be of some assistance in getting us inside."

"My magic?" Cadence bit her lip, quickly regretting it as she repeatedly spat to get rid of the taste in her mouth. For a brief moment she wondered how well alicorns dealt with diseases, then remembered that she'd been asked a question. "I think you're asking the wrong princess."

"I see. Since Princess Luna is already inside the castle, and Princess Celestia is missing, that leaves Princess Twilight. Do you know where she is?"

Although she hadn't expected to hear it mentioned, Cadence's heart ached at hearing that Lurin didn't know where Celestia was. "T-Twilight's with the Emperor. Luna asked her to follow him and make sure he and his daughter stayed alive."

"So you knew about this plot? Why didn't you tell the Emperor?"

"We had no proof, and only had suspicions to begin with. If Griffon Intelligence was involved there was no one we could trust, so we decided to act ourselves."

"I see." Lurin seemed to fall deep into thought for several seconds, and ended it with a small nod to himself. "Thank you for involving yourselves when you had no need to."

"Actually we did need to. It's not by accident that we're here."

"Oh?" A grin spread across Lurin's beak, "Come to enlist Griffonia's help in getting Equestria back?"

"Actually we're far more interested in stopping Faust. While you've been fighting for her, you've been totally unaware of what her goal is."

Lurin raised an eyebrow at Cadence, "You mean she's after Griffonia as well?"

"She's after the world, but even that isn't the end of her plans. Now isn't the time to be going into it, but feel free to ask afterwards what it is you've helped her get closer to."

Lurin lost his grin, seeing how serious Cadence was as she spoke. A tiny worm of doubt started to wriggle in his gut, because if the princesses were desperate enough to ask a country that traditionally hates ponies for help, then they had to be desperate indeed.

"You're right that now isn't the time, but I will have to insist that you tell me what this is about afterwards."

"I'm sure Princess Luna would be delighted to tell you all about it." Cadence smiled as Lurin swallowed. She wasn't a typically vindictive pony, but she'd be damned if she was going to let what the Golden Claws did be forgotten.

"I-ah... shall look forward to it." Lurin made the mistake of looking in Flurry Heart's eyes for a moment, feeling their accusing stare sear his soul. He quickly turned away from the blood soaked infant. "We need news on the Emperor, one way or the other. There's no point in us throwing ourselves at the castle if he and Crown Princess Clarissa are already dead. Do you have a way to contact Princess Twilight?"

"No, I don't." Cadence frowned as griffon calls started to fill her ears. They sounded similar to the last time she heard them. "What does that mean?"

Lurin quickly returned his helmet to his head, "It means we have incoming. Come with me Princess, and we shall keep you safe."

Cadence found that hard to believe, but lacking a great number of better ideas beyond leaving and never coming back, she spread her wings and dragged herself into the air, her wet and bedraggled feathers making the task harder than necessary. Thankfully Flurry had no such issues, and seemed content to follow her mother.

"Yeah, you go, and we'll catch up!" Sonny shouted after Cadence.

"What? Why?"

Sonny spread her wings, showing off the gaps where a lot of her feathers were missing. Cadence could only imagine that Derek's were the same. "Prisoner control. Don't worry though, we're great climbers, so we'll be up there in no time."

Cadence paused as the two griffons started scaling the sheer cliff between them and the castle, using nothing but their claws to grip the bare rock. She didn't watch for long though, and followed the Commander up to the castle entrance, landing and doing her best to keep herself and Flurry out of sight as a new group of griffons flew in.

A large number of the Golden Claws flew up to meet the newcomers, who didn't seem pleased about being given an escort, but the Golden Claws' greater numbers did much to convince them that fighting would've been a terminal proposition. After a moment of hesitation they flew into the castle grounds, giving Cadence a chance to work out that they were Bloodfeathers, and judging by the appearance of some of them, they'd already been in a fight today.

One of the griffons landed heavily and stomped up to Lurin with a rage that couldn't be easily hidden, even if he'd tried. "What are you doing here, Lurin?"

"Keeping a promise that I made."

"Oh yeah? To who?"

"You. I told you that if you were to try anything against your Father that we'd be on opposite sides. No amount of muttering that I'm an old fool behind my back would change that. When you and your followers vanished from Equestria, I knew there was only one place you'd be going. Now, where's the Emperor?"

Theron raised his beak and smiled smugly, "The Emperor is dead, long live the Emperor."

"Even with the alicorn princess protecting him? Don't lie to me, Theron. Better griffons than you have tried and failed at it."

"I'm sure if he was really alive, he'd be here instead of me," Theron retorted.

"Wouldn't be the first time you've run from ponies."

Theron leaped for Lurin, but the older griffon stepped around the attack and smacked Theron to the ground, holding him there while the Golden Claws made sure none of the Bloodfeathers made a move to assist their leader.

"Face it Theron, you and your uncle have failed at this little coup. Give up now before more blood is needlessly shed."

"You're betraying your own people by siding with that useless fuck," Theron said in a growl, giving up trying to get Lurin off him. "He should never have been the Emperor, and you know it!"

"Your father mightn't be perfect, but he's a better leader than you give him credit for. He was the one that advised me to leave the ponies alone, and oh how I wish I'd listened."

"Is that so? Is that why you're ignoring him?" Theron turned his piercing gaze onto Cadence, "Don't think I can't see you back there Cadenza! I'm going to enjoy presenting you to Faust. Or maybe I'll keep you myself, just for fun."

Cadence swallowed and stepped out of what she'd thought had been a decent hiding place behind one of the statues lining the courtyard. Fear was telling her to run, but she powered on towards the grinning griffon, trying to think of a punchy one-liner to wipe the grin off his face with. "I'm can't imagine what's worse, a lifetime with you, or an eternity in prison." Cadence congratulated herself for not messing up the delivery.

"I guess we could spend a few decades working it out for you before I hand you over." Theron squawked as Lurin pressed an extended talon down into his neck, piercing the skin. "Okay, okay... I'll marry her first if it bothers you that much. It's not like death do us part isn't a thing."

"She's immortal you idiot, so you've already lost that one."

"Oh." Theron shrugged, "More fun for me I guess."

"Are you going to stop soon?" Cadence asked. "You're in no position to think any of your sick fantasies are going to come true. Besides, I have a question for you. Where is Celestia?"

Theron snorted into laughter, "What the fuck makes you think I know, you stupid pink whore? Wherever Faust secreted her away to, not even her own advisors know about it. It's not like I even care anyway. Once my uncle has the crown, Faust will fall just like you did."

"So all that talk of hoofing me over to Faust was all made up then."

"Hoofing you over," Theron sniggered. "Honestly, you ponies."

"I've heard enough," Lurin grunted. "Claws, take the Bloodfeathers into custody. We'll know soon enough whether there's any truth to Theron's bluster." Lurin waited for Theron to be bound and dragged away before speaking to Cadence. "I can honestly say that I'm not sure what to do now."

Cadence twitched the corner of her mouth up into a tiny smile, "If you were looking to me for advice, you're asking the wrong princess. If I was them in the castle, with all my leaders taken captive, I'd probably be surrendering about now."

"That would be the sensible course of action," Lurin agreed. He glanced over at Theron, meeting the glare the former prince was giving him with an eye roll. "Unfortunately, not a lot of griffons around here seem interested in sense. I can't even begin to imagine why they thought this would work."

"I don't think they accounted for three alicorn princesses turning up in the middle of things," Cadence laughed, although it quickly died. "I wished that'd worked against Faust."

Lurin nodded vaguely, then cocked his head at an unusual whistling sound from above. Cadence followed his gaze as he turned to look up, cocking her own head at a dot that was rapidly getting nearer. It wasn't until the dot became discernibly purple, and fired a torrent of magenta magic at the Commander that she worked out it was Twilight.

"No!" Cadence shouted, throwing a shield over Lurin just in time to catch the bolts of magic. She maintained the shield as Twilight landed hard between them, confused by the fact that Cadence was protecting him.

"What are you doing Cadence? Stop protecting him and run!"

"It's alright Twilight, he's on our side!"

"He- What?" Twilight looked back and forth between Cadence and Lurin, who was standing calmly beneath the shield. "I think you're going to have to explain that one to me."

"He's here to stop the coup, meaning he's on our side, and he's already said he won't be working for Faust ever again."

"That doesn't excuse what he did! How many ponies are dead because of him and his mercenaries? You can't seriously think that because his goals currently match ours that he's a friend!" Twilight wrinkled her nose as a foul scent entered her nostrils, "And what the heck is that smell? Is that you, Cadence? And why is Flurry covered in blood?"

"Okay, I've had a bit of a weird day, so I want you listen to me, Twilight." Cadence locked eyes with Twilight, making sure she had the smaller alicorn's full attention. "He needs our help, and we need his, and if you can't accept that, go find another army to retake the castle with."

Twilight maintained her stance for several seconds, finding it curious that Cadence was matching it the entire time with one of her own. Eventually, she gave in. "Alright, fine. I'll even accept that you don't want to talk about why you smell so much, or about why Flurry looks like she killed someone- No way," Twilight said as Cadence went stiff. "Flurry killed someone?"

"You were right in assuming I didn't want to talk about it."

"But-"

"Shut up, Twilight! Shut up and tell us that the Emperor is still alive!"

Twilight backed off a step, not even trying to hide her surprise. "Uh, yeah, he's alive. I can't tell you where he is right now because Vapor got hurt, so I had to get her back to the retreat before she died. Rainbow and Lightning are still with him though."

"And Vapor?" Cadence asked.

"She's stable. Sunset and Nightmare are taking turns healing her until she's fully recovered. Oh, and Clarissa is there too, because I thought that'd be the safest place for her."

Cadence breathed a sigh of relief. With Clarissa safe, Theron's claims were now proven to be totally empty. All that remained was to liberate the castle, which was a task for someone else as far as she was concerned. Hopefully with their plans foiled the griffons holding the castle could be convinced to give up. She was about to make the suggestion when Twilight walked over to the captive Bloodfeathers, or more specifically their leader.

"You owe Vapor an eye, you prick. Time to pay up."

"Twilight!" Cadence teleported between Twilight and Theron, blocking her sister in law. "What do you think you're doing?"

"He tortured Vapor. He tore her eye out and almost killed her, so I think it's only fair that we take one of his as payment."

"That is not how we do things, Twilight, you know that."

Twilight rolled her eyes and huffed, "I wasn't really going to do it, Cadence, I was just going to scare him a bit. He deserves that much."

Cadence held her stance for a bit, then relaxed, feeling that Twilight wasn't lying to her. "We need to get inside the castle, to Luna and Trixie. They've barricaded themselves into the throne room, and have taken Eustace prisoner, but there are a lot of griffons between us and them."

Twilight squinted suspiciously at Cadence, "It almost sounds like you're suggesting we attack."

Lurin spoke before Cadence could. "Without the doors they can't stop us getting in, and lose their major defensive advantage. Remove those, and we've already won. If they continue to fight after that, that's their own stupid fault."

Twilight scowled at Lurin, but followed his suggestion enough to at least look at the doors. They were big, made of what appeared to be a dark wood so old that it was damn near fossilised, and were bound in iron that was as thick as her leg was wide. "Riiiight... I don't think just blasting it is going to work. Any ideas Cadence?"

"Me? What ideas could I possibly have?"

"I'm sure you can at least think of something that might help."

Cadence um'd and ah'd as she studied the doors, trying to find some kind of weakness in them, but they seemed insurmountable to her. "What about the hinges?"

"What about them?" Twilight asked back.

And suddenly Cadence knew this was a test. Not one she wanted, or that Twilight was maybe consciously giving, but if recent events were anything to go by, one she was going to have to pass because she now understood that this was no longer her world she was in. This was a world of conflict, and she needed learn to at least survive in it. She couldn't keep relying on others to look after her. That didn't mean she had any intention of lowering herself to killing if she didn't have to.

"Could we break them?"

"Maybe. How could we do that?"

Cadence groaned, "Don't do this Twilight. You know I don't know how to open those gates. If you can think of a way to open them, tell me, and I'll help you do it."

Twilight smiled without facing Cadence, "Alright, but I will need your help. Commander Lurin, how many bars are used to keep these doors secured."

"Three I believe." Lurin traced three lines across the door with his finger, just above the three rows of large bolts that led to the hinges. "Nothing too heavy because you have to lift them while flying, but strong enough to stop the doors from being pulled open easily."

"And that's it?"

"That is it, yes. There hasn't exactly been any need to use them in the last few centuries, so our method of securing the doors are probably a bit outdated." Lurin shrugged, "Fortunately that works in our favour right now."

"And there's a straight gap between the doors?"

"Not quite. The iron creates a bit of a lip on the outside."

Twilight huffed in irritation, "It had to be the metal, didn't it? Alright Cadence, we're going to have... to..." Twilight trailed off as she watched Cadence sizing up the doors like they'd offended her. "What are you doing?"

"Making our job easier." With complete disregard for her safety, Cadence trotted up to the doors, leaving Twilight to be thankful that the griffons inside weren't currently pointing any weapons at her. She then, with all the precision of a drunk workhorse wielding a sledgehammer, slammed a series of crystals beneath the lip and started to bend it over out of the way.

"Sweet Celestia," Twilight sighed, leaving her with a desire to facehoof, but also wanting to congratulate Cadence on her use of initiative, even if what she was doing was no easier than just cutting through the metal. She was trying, bless her.

"You seem as if you intend to attack quite imminently," Lurin said to Twilight as Cadence did what she was doing.

"Is that a problem?"

"Not at all. I'll get my griffons ready."

Twilight nodded as Lurin left, wondering how the hell had it got to the point that they were fighting to stop what had become a pretty feeble attempt at a coup by this point. The war wasn't even theirs this time, and yet Twilight was about to lead a charge into yet another battle. Why did this keep happening to her?

"Brraaajaaa," Flurry suggested as she sat on the floor next to Twilight, playing with her hooves.

"Makes as much sense as anything," Twilight muttered.

"There," Cadence panted, wandering back over to Twilight, "now we have a clean shot at cutting the bars."

"Yes we do," Twilight said back with what she thought was the most neutral answer she could give. "I suppose I don't need to tell you to take Flurry somewhere back and stay safe?"

Cadence opened her mouth to answer when she spotted Sonny and Derek stagger into the courtyard and flop over onto the ground as they fought to regain their breath. "Huh, they made it. Uh, yeah, I'll stay back. I'm probably not somepony you need beside you in a fight anyway, not least because of the smell."

Twilight chuckled, glad that Cadence could find some humour in this situation. "Perhaps you could do one thing though. Could you put a shield over the entrance once we're all in. The last thing we want is for some of these griffons to escape to plot another coup."

"I can do that."

"Good, thank you." Twilight looked over at Lurin, seeing that he'd got most of his griffons ready for the assault. "Okay, I guess that means it's showtime. What I wouldn't do for some armour."

"Be careful Twilight."

Twilight grinned at Cadence as the pink alicorn gathered up Flurry, "What's the worst that could happen?"

"That's not a healthy attitude, and you know it." Cadence gave Twilight a stern look, then left, letting Lurin take her place.

"How do you wish to play this, Princess?"

"You're asking me? You're the griffon here, so you should be telling me how this goes. It's no water off my back if every one of those traitors in there dies. I'm not saying that's what should happen, but I'm just getting the point across that it's none of my business."

"I'm amazed they haven't tried to escape as yet, meaning they must have a plan on how to get through this. Being trapped between three alicorns can't be easy for them."

"Why is everyone so talkative today?" Twilight asked quietly to herself. At this point she just wanted it all over so that the throne was secure, and the Emperor could be convinced that working with ponies could be beneficial to him. It wasn't that much to ask for, was it?

"Take prisoners if you can, kill them if you can't," Twilight said louder. "Otherwise, get ready."

"As you wish."

"Urgh... I just want this over with already." Twilight walked closer to the gate, then realised that she'd sort of sent Cadence off before having her help open the doors. In Cadence's defence though, it was now easier to get them open, and as Twilight fired a beam of magic that burnt through the top bar, she was quite thankful for it.

Twilight had cut halfway through the bottom bar when the doors swung open, and the griffons within exited with their weapons sheathed and in an orderly fashion that suggested they wanted to surrender. It was a nice touch to have them do so, since it fairly obvious how the battle was going to go for them.

Twilight stepped back as the Golden Claws went to work disarming and securing the traitors once the surprise wore off. Cadence joined her shortly after, a smile on her face. "Well that was pleasant. I imagine this was the best outcome you could hope for."

"It is," Cadence confirmed. "Fighting would've got them nothing but killed."

"I know." Twilight waited as the last of the griffons exited the castle, then walked in with a number of Golden Claws going ahead of them. There were a few bodies in the main hallway through the castle, plenty of them killed with conventional weapons, but there were also quite a few that had been slain by magic. Luna and Trixie had definitely left their mark on what had happened here.

The throne room was still secured, and the Golden Claws were staring at it with the expression reserved for people that've locked themselves out of their own house. Twilight walked past them and pounded a hoof on the door.

"Trixie, it's Twilight! Open this door right now, or I'll have to get creative!"

Twilight smiled with satisfaction as the doors creaked open, but the satisfaction faded as she got a face full of griffons who seemed keen to get out of there. She picked herself up and cautiously entered the throne room, which seemed a lot darker than usual, and colder.

"Luna? Trixie?"

"Over here, Twilight," Luna called out from the far end of the room.

Twilight followed Luna's voice, finding her sat next to Trixie, who was laying on the ground with her hooves covering her head. A dark miasma swirled around her horn, leaking off into the shadows and making them feel uncomfortably alive.

Twilight sighed under her breath, "Why is she using dark magic, Luna? Hmm?"

"We were under attack, and she thought she needed it. I may have encouraged it a little since we were in dire straits, but I never once thought she'd do this to herself."

"What do you mean she's doing this to herself?"

"You know that dark magic works as a twisted form of wish fulfilment, but it's not exactly precise. This is happening because Trixie thinks it should happen. She's manifesting her own fears."

"How do we fix this?" asked Cadence. "Some kind of light magic infusion?"

"I have an idea that'll work faster," said Twilight. She lined herself up, making sure she was in the right position for maximum effect with minimum effort, and smacked Trixie around the back of her head. And just like that, the spooky shadows were gone.

"Ow! What the hell Twilight?"

"Are you okay, Trixie?"

"You mean apart from getting smacked on the back of my head by an alicorn? Yeah, I'm-" Trixie stopped herself as she realised she was surrounded by the three princesses, and that there wasn't a griffon in sight. "Oh no, it happened again, didn't it?"

"If you mean going catatonic while oozing dark magic, yeah, it totally did." Twilight smiled lopsided at Trixie, "On the positive side, nothing bad happened while you were like that. The griffons surrendered, the castle is secure, and the Emperor and his daughter are still alive. I think this means we won."

"Thank goodness," said Luna. "I was wondering if you were successful in preserving the Emperor. If this is truly over, perhaps we could..." Luna cocked her head as she saw Flurry. "Cadence, I'm not so naïve to think that's red paint on dear Flurry Heart. Is she alright?"

"She's fine," Cadence said with a brittle cheerfulness. "Totally fine. Nothing happened that we need ever discuss."

"Does that include why you went skinny dipping in raw sewage?" Trixie asked, wrinkling her nose up.

"It does indeed, and once this is all taken care of, I can clean myself and Flurry up, and never speak of this again."

"Cadence..." Luna said with a hint of warning.

"She killed a griffon, and then giggled about it, Luna. You have no idea how that feels. Is this the kind of thing that happens when you put the power of an alicorn into a child that has zero comprehension of consequences? I'm not any better! They were going to hurt Flurry and I lost control! I crushed five griffons to death with a shield! A shield! How do you kill things with a shield!?"

Luna, Twilight, and Trixie all shared a look as Cadence ranted, waiting for the shoe to drop that she'd killed people. They didn't have to wait long as Cadence whimpered and sat with her hooves over her mouth as tears slipped down her cheeks.
Twilight hugged Trixie from the side, giving her a smile to let her know that her problems hadn't been forgotten in the face of this new one. "Cadence, I know this is hard. I had the same thing happen when I killed for the first time. The guilt, the self loathing... all of it, but you need to remember that they were going to hurt you and Flurry, and all you were doing was defending yourself."

"Flurry wasn't!"

Twilight looked at Flurry as the foal looked up at her. She didn't want to think it, but it felt like Flurry had known exactly what she was doing. Twilight knew her mind was filling in that gap for her, but she had to turn her gaze elsewhere pretty quick.

Luna placed a comforting hoof on Cadence's back, then removed it as she was reminded of the odour the pink alicorn currently possessed. "Flurry is but a foal, and in all likelihood won't remember this past the end of the week, but you Cadence, you shall have to come to terms with what happened. We shall all be here for you, but right now I'm afraid we have other things we must do."

"I know, okay? I know." Cadence brushed her tears away. "By the way, the Golden Claws are here helping us. Please don't hurt any of them."

Luna stiffened, "Are you serious? After what they did?"

"I mean it, Luna, they aren't our enemy. Their Commander has ended their contract, and won't be fighting for Faust again, so please just leave it at that."

"Very well, but I am far from happy about it. I imagine Rainbow and Lightning's reactions will be far worse." Luna shook her head and walked over to where she'd left Eustace and Janice slumped over unconscious, having grown bored of their petty squawking pretty fast after their capture. "Let us put an end to this farce."

-0-0-0-

Hours later and the Emperor still hadn't returned. Twilight was starting to worry that something had happened, but knew enough that Rainbow and Lightning would've probably left the griffons to die and made it back to the Eyrie by now if that was truly the case. Not exactly ideal, but she didn't expect them to stick their necks out that far for the griffons.

In the meantime, all that had happened was that Cadence had finally given in and went to get herself and Flurry cleaned up, Luna avoided contact with the Golden Claws as much as she could, and Twilight finally decided that now was as good a time as any to address Trixie's concerns.

"Ah, time for the talk is it?" Trixie said as Twilight sat down next to her.

"It sure is. Now, when a boy pony and a girl pony love each other very much-"

"They bump nasties and create an abomination like me, I know." Trixie sighed and hung her head, "I don't know why I did it. Things got a little bit hard, and there I was back to using dark magic. I just can't help myself!"

"So I figured, but it's your use of it that's going wrong. You're scared of it."

"How could I not be? Things want my soul, Twilight, I think that would concern anypony."

"Fine, but it isn't the magic itself that wants it, and I doubt not using it would make any difference, so maybe you should stop worrying about using it."

It took a while for Trixie to say anything after that, mostly because she was failing to sum up just how stupid she thought what Twilight had just said was. "Are you kidding me? It sounds increasingly like you want me to go back to the pony I was in Mareitania! Encouraging me to kill, encouraging me to use dark magic! What gives?"

"I don't particularly want you to do either of those things, but I do want you to stop being scared. You just said that you can't help but use dark magic. Fine, we can work with that, but what we can't do is have you going to pieces every time and making something worse out of it. What happened back in the throne room, and in the Tenochtitlan basin, that was because you're frightened of the consequences of what might happen if you use dark magic, but you use it anyway!"

"It's fine for you to say that, but you've never had an addiction!" Trixie spread her hooves apart as she sat, looking around at the attention they were gaining. "Come on then Twilight, lecture me on something you've never had to endure before."

"Ugh, why are you making this difficult? All I'm saying is that if you are going to use dark magic, use it with the same indifference that you used to. Don't work yourself up to the point that you're too terrified to function. Be confident."

"Sure, I'll be confident as I use that thing that's going to destroy me. Okay, good talk."

Twilight grabbed Trixie in her magic as she rose to leave, and dragged her back down. "Surely that's better than facing it as a terrified, crying mess? Of course the other, more preferable course of action is to stop using dark magic altogether. You don't need it, Trixie."

Trixie shook her head, saying nothing else and feeling rather alone with her struggle. Twilight didn't stop her as she left this time, although she could feel Twilight's eyes on her as she walked away. It wasn't about how she felt while using it, but more about that she felt like she was being watched when she did. It only had to be a matter of time until they claimed her, and used her to do goodness knows what. The thought that she might have to watch as that happened scared her most of all.

Twilight sighed as Trixie walked away. She'd seen Trixie use light magic before now, even if only barely, and for practice at that, so it bothered her why Trixie thought she had no other choices but to use dark magic.

Twilight wasn't given much time to think about it as the triumphant cries of griffons filled the sky. She quickly found what they were about as the Emperor's palanquin approached the castle. Twilight quickly scrambled to her hooves, knowing that as soon as Rainbow and Lightning saw the Golden Claws, there'd be trouble.

Much to her surprise, neither of them made any moves to attack as the palanquin came in to land, although what they might've been thinking about it was hidden behind their armour. The only real sign they gave of their discomfort was the tensing of their bodies as Commander Lurin walked up to the palanquin and bowed deeply as the Emperor disembarked.

"My Emperor, it is most gratifying to see you safe and sound."

The Emperor held his tongue, cocking his head as he studied Lurin intently, right before smacking him across the face.
"I hope you realise that you're partly responsible for what happened here today," the Emperor said sternly to Lurin. "My traitorous son would've died in Equestria had you not saved his miserable skin."

"I know that now, my Emperor, and I am sorry. I never thought he would go this far."

"Hmm." The Emperor scanned his eyes over the mass of captured griffons, counting them. Nearly four hundred griffons were there, each and every one of them a traitor to the Empire. Especially the two in front. "Hello brother, son."

"Hergest," Eustace said back with distaste as Theron glared hatefully at his father. "Still living I see."

"Thanks to ponies of all things. While I find no joy in that myself, I do enjoy that your schemes have been thoroughly undone just by them being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The fact that they could do that just by being here speaks volumes about the depth of your plan. Frankly I'm disappointed."

"So what? Now you're going to execute us all?"

"Such is the fate of all traitors," the Emperor said evenly. He glared at Janice briefly, "Apparently they're everywhere at the moment."

"With no trial, father?" Theron spat. "Further proof that you're not fit to rule."

The Emperor grabbed the back of Theron's head, digging his claws in until the smaller griffon cried in pain. "You, and a large number of these griffons tried to kill me today, so how much proof do you think I need? I'm sure the princesses here would also be interested in the number of ponies you had killed just for todays' purposes."

The Emperor released his son, and wiped the blood on his claws onto Theron's neck. "Fortunately, I'm feeling generous. Your cohorts here will be sent to prison, while only you and my brother will put on trial, if only so all griffons can learn of your crimes."

Luna smiled at the Emperor as he walked towards them, ignoring the shouts he was getting from his son. "It is good to see you still hale and hearty, your Majesty."

"Thanks to you and yours, yes. Unfortunately my work has only begun in some regards. My intelligence service shall have to be rebuilt from the bottom up for starters, and I would have my brother put on trial sooner rather than later."

"But not your son?"

The Emperor shook his head, "The punishment for treason is death, and while I'm not going to ignore my own laws, Clarissa would plead relentlessly for her brother's life, even if he despises her."

"Perhaps best I not say anything on that matter," Luna said with a weary smile. "My sister and I's sibling spats have been the stuff of legend for quite some time."

"Indeed," the Emperor laughed. "Perhaps that might-"

"I invoke the right of trial by combat!" Eustace shouted suddenly, making them jump. "I invoke the right of trial by combat!"

"I heard you the first time!" the Emperor yelled back. "And as is only right and proper, you will be given that right. Would you fight for yourself, or would you put forward a champion."

Eustace looked across at Theron, "He will be my champion, and his fate would be the same as mine, win or lose."

"Wait, what?"

The Emperor chuckled, letting it grow into a boisterous laugh as Theron glared at his uncle. "Ballsy, brother, very ballsy, but I will grant you your request."

"And who would fight for you, my Emperor?"

"I will!"

"Oh for fuck sake," Twilight cursed as Rainbow stepped forwards.

"I will fight."

"Um, are you sure about that?" the Emperor asked. "Maybe you had best leave this to someone else?"

"No!" Rainbow tore her helmet off and eyed up Theron, "If I have the chance to make that bastard pay for all he did to us in Equestria, I'm going to take it."

"Very well, I'll allow it."

"And the stupidity continues," Twilight muttered.

"The trial shall be held tomorrow morning. For now, take these traitors away." The Emperor dismissed all of them with a flick of his claw, and turned to Rainbow Dash. "You are both brave and stupid in equal measure I think. It'll be interesting to see how you fare in the ring. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have much to do."

"Thou art a blithering fool, Rainbow Dash," Luna scolded once the Emperor had moved on. "You don't even know what you've gotten yourself into."

"How bad can it be?"

"It'll be a traditional griffish duel. No weapons, or armour, just your claws."

"But I don't have claw- Oh. Oh shit."

"Indeed."

"Then why did the Emperor let me fight?"

"He gave you a chance to back out, but you insisted. He must think highly of you to even consider letting you fight."

Rainbow grinned nervously, "How would they feel about me using lightning?"

"That would technically count as magic, which is also not allowed."

"Then I'll just have to beat him the hard way." Rainbow smiled semi-confidently, but it was clear that she was kicking herself quite hard. "So, how's Vapor?"

"Alive," Twilight told her, "and getting healed. I've put a spell on her to keep her asleep until she's fully recovered, because I doubt the sensation of getting an eye grown back is a nice one."

"So she'll be fine then?" Lightning asked, her voice full of hope.

"On the outside, sure, but she will need her friends after going through what she did."

Lightning jumped, grabbing Twilight around the neck in a hug. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Twilight returned the hug and patted Lightning on the back, "You're welcome." Twilight wriggled out of the hug and stepped back to watch the Golden Claws as they started to lead the captured griffons away. "I don't know what to do now. I was expecting a fight, but this happened instead."

"So were we," said Rainbow. "False orders had been given to the nearby military outposts, so we couldn't find any back-up. The Emperor got it into his head that we'd have to do it all ourselves."

"It has been a most peculiar day," Luna agreed, "but a favourable one nonetheless. For us at least, save for some issues concerning Cadence and Flurry Heart. Perhaps now the Emperor might be more amenable towards an alliance after the assistance we have given him. At the very least he must know we're serious after all this."

"That'll have to wait until after the duel though," said Twilight. "I guess we have to wait until that happens before we can do anything else at all." She stared at Rainbow, letting her displeasure be shown in plain sight.

"What? I didn't know it was some fancy griffon honour duel."

"I figured." Twilight stared at Rainbow for a moment longer as an idea started to form in her head. One that she was going to keep to herself for now. "I suppose I best head back to the retreat and get Clarissa now that things are more settled. The Emperor would probably like to keep her where he can see her."

"Um, I saw the Emperor just now."

All of them looked over as a more pleasant smelling Cadence, and a less demonic looking Flurry, came to join them.

"What did I miss?"

Author's Note

That publish button is an illusive beast sometimes, but here we are a whole day later with a chapter. Going ahead with things at the moment, then deciding on the trash chapter later. It really just doesn't add anything to the story. *sigh*

10. For great justice

Twilight's mug wobbled in her magic as she sat on her own at the table in the dining hall, the griffons in there giving her a wide berth. Her quick trip to fetch Clarissa had altered quickly to taking over healing Vapor for most of the night as Sunset had started to flag, not being used to prolonged expenditures of magic after being on Earth so long. Moondancer had refused, thinking wrongly that her magic was too weak, and Nightmare had been occupying herself elsewhere. Rather than get frustrated, Twilight simply took it upon herself to keep at it while Sunset slept.

Of course that had been over most of the night, and by the time she was done Vapor was mostly healed. A couple more hours with Sunset would finish the job up. Unfortunately it also meant Twilight hadn't slept since she'd had other things to do when she got back, leaving her with no other option but to suck down caffeine like it was air in the hopes it kept her going.

"Ah, good, you are awake," Luna said as she entered the dining area where Twilight was doing her best to make the table rattle with her jitters. "I was hoping to discuss the duel with you, because I cannot being the only one thinking this is a bad idea."

"Rainbow will be fine," Twilight stated, raising her mug to her lips again.

Luna made a face at Twilight, "Perhaps I should also be concerned about you. What time did you return last night?"

"This morning, and no I haven't slept. This is now my third day in a row without sleeping, and I'm honestly starting to feel like shit."

"Uh-huh. Twilight-"

"Don't say it! Just don'... say it. I know, and I can assure you that once today is over I will be sleeping for at least twelve hours, even if you have to force me to."

"Very well, I can do that. By the way, what did you say to Trixie yesterday? She was most tetchy all night, and is feeling isolated if her dreams are anything to go by."

Twilight swirled her coffee around, trying to think of an appropriate answer. The fact was that everything she seemed to say to Trixie lately was wrong, and her attempts at reason were running up against, well, Trixie. "I may have told her something along the lines of stop worrying about using dark magic so much, because the magic isn't what's claiming ownership of her."

"And I'm guessing she told you something about you not understanding?"

"Something like that."

"She'd be right too."

Twilight sighed and put her mug down, "I sense some ancient alicorn wisdom coming. Let's hear it."

"No need to be so flippant about it. I'm only going to tell you that what you said isn't being a good friend and understanding her concerns. That was you trying to make your own life easier. Trixie is scared. Accept that."

Twilight went still, those three words, Trixie is scared, rolling around her head until she heard it in Trixie's own voice, which was easy considering her speech habits. More to the point though, it made Twilight realise that she really wasn't being a good friend by not recognising that, and was being a terrible one by telling Trixie to get over it.

Luna smiled sympathetically as Twilight cursed, "I can understand your reasoning for saying what you did. This is an ongoing problem, and one that could've been avoided if she'd only listened to you in the first place."

"But that doesn't excuse what I said." Twilight downed the remainder of her coffee, "I guess that means we'll have to have another of our little talks once this duel is done."

"I suspect that would help, and I advise you to lead with an apology." Luna picked a mug of her own up off a tray by the table, and helped herself to some coffee as Cadence entered with Flurry, both of them glancing nervously at the griffons as they made their way to their fellow alicorns. "Good morning, Cadence, little one."

"Uh, morning." Cadence slipped into a seat and placed Flurry onto the one beside her. "Has nothing horrible happened since last night?"

"I don't think so?" Luna said slowly, looking at Twilight for her unspoken opinion of Cadence's behaviour, and getting a shrug for her efforts. "Is there something on your mind, Cadence? More so than there would be after yesterday at least."

"Hmm?" Cadence blushed as she realised what she was doing, "Sorry. I guess I'm still a bit put out by things. I-" Cadence shook her head, "Nevermind. I don't suppose either of you have talked to Rainbow this morning? She's acting a bit weird, and keeps calling herself Rainbow Fast."

"I'm sure she's just psyching herself up," said Twilight. "Where is she now?"

"She said she was going to go warm up a bit, claiming that'd it been a while since she's fought a griffon."

"But she was fighting them yesterday," Luna pointed out. "Does Rainbow often display such strange behaviour when 'psyching' herself up?"

Twilight shrugged again, "I wouldn't put it past her. She is very competitive after all. If I were you, I'd be more concerned about what she does during the duel, not before it."

"That does not put my mind at ease. She's going to be fighting a seasoned killer with no weapons and no armour, using nothing but her wits and speed to not only survive, but win. Acting strangely beforehoof is not a good sign."

"Well unfortunately we don't have time to worry about it," Twilight said with finality. "The duel will be soon, so we're just going to have to accept whatever happens, and pray to Cele- whomever is listening, that she wins."

"I still think this is barbaric, "Cadence half whispered, to avoid drawing grief off the nearby griffons. "Duels to the death instead of an actual trial."

"It's written pretty deeply into griffon law," Luna explained. "Not every griffon opts for it, and few situations call for such a thing, but Eustace knew it was likely the only way to keep himself and Theron from the noose. Rainbow Dash's decision to put herself up as the Emperor's duellist must've seemed like a godsend to him."

Twilight continued with Luna's point, "The Emperor had every right within his authority to have every one of those traitors executed, so it could've been a lot worse."

"Not doing that was a smart decision," Luna agreed. "By sparing those griffons he avoids drawing the ire of their families, and having them side with the traitors and continuing their work. There's a small chance those traitors might make trouble in the future, but mercy was the better decision, politically speaking, and morally as well."

"Still seems barbaric to me," Cadence grumbled.

Twilight shrugged helplessly, "As we learnt in Mareitania, we aren't in Equestria. Right now we're in Griffonia, under Griffonian law; we have no say here, and no right to interfere. Besides, from what I've been told, Theron deserves little in the way of mercy."

"But that's how we become better people! By granting mercy, even if there's no need to!"

"Which the Emperor has already done," said Luna. "I doubt that he truly wishes to see his son and brother dead, but as the ring leaders of this coup, they need to bear the full brunt of Griffonian law. Even if Rainbow Dash loses, which I sincerely hope she does not, there is little chance of them going free, not after what they did. Much griffish blood was spilled because of them, and they would still need to pay for that."

Cadence nodded, knowing that the other two were right, even if they were also wrong. The Emperor could've put all the griffons involved to death, so she could at least appreciate that he did not. "I still don't understand why we're required to be there for the duel though."

"Because we're the Emperor's honoured guests," Luna answered. "We were also involved in events, and that means we must be there at its conclusion. Thirdly, one of ours is fighting the duel." Luna placed a comforting hoof on Cadence's back, "None of us really want to be there, except maybe Lightning after what Theron did to Vapor, so I understand your reticence."

"Pretty sure Rainbow wants to be there too," Cadence grumbled. She picked a croissant up from a basket nearby, and started pulling it to pieces to give to Flurry, the foal burbling happily as she chowed down. "At least the Emperor seems a good deal warmer towards us."

"Don't think that to mean we shall get what we want," said Luna. "At most I'm expecting a token support of our efforts, and at least a hearty hoof shake in thanks."

Twilight laughed once at Luna, "That's a bit pessimistic, even for you. We've shown him that having us on his side in the future might well be worth it."

"We shall see." Luna looked up at the ceiling, getting a bearing on the position of the sun. "It is almost time. Come, let us see this to its conclusion, and hope for Rainbow Dash's success."

Cadence grabbed another croissant as the other two started to head out, then ran after them as Flurry flew along behind her. She fell into step beside Twilight, and started to build herself up into asking something that was bothering her. "Why aren't you more bothered by this? Rainbow Dash could die."

"I have faith in her."

"Twilight! This is serious! Aren't you even a little bit scared? I am!"

"Cadence, I appreciate your concern, but Rainbow can handle this." Twilight turned a grin onto Cadence, "You know she lives to compete."

"This is far beyond a simple competition." Cadence decided to stop asking, fairly confident that Twilight was living in denial about what could happen today. She couldn't blame Twilight for that, but it was... Cadence didn't know what it was. Rainbow Dash should've just stayed out of it.

The courtyard outside the castle was quiet, much to Cadence's surprise after the previous day, and as Luna went to spread her wings to fly, Cadence had no choice but to ask where they were going.

"The Ring of Justice I believe it's called. The duel isn't taking place here if that's what you were thinking."

"Oh." Cadence looked around the courtyard, "Aren't we being escorted there?"

"The Emperor just laughed when I asked him about that," said Luna. "Apparently that seemed a bit unnecessary after all we did yesterday. We're meeting him at our destination."

"Oh, okay." Both Twilight and Cadence followed Luna into the air, trusting that she knew where she was going. They didn't have to go very far, the Ring of Justice being in the upper reaches of the city, and there were plenty of griffons flying around it, mostly wearing the armour of the Golden Claws. One of them flagged down the three princesses as they drew near, directing them to an elevated box where the Emperor was already waiting with his daughter.

The three of them dropped into bows as they landed within the box, with Twilight noting the sullen expression on Clarissa far more than the highly animated Emperor. It didn't take a genius to figure out why she was like that, seeing as how she was about to lose her brother and uncle, but why the Emperor seemed lively when he was about to lose his brother and son was a mystery. Clearly there was no love lost between any of them.

"Good morning your Majesty," Luna said as she rose from her bow, "Princess Clarissa. Good to see you both still well after yesterday."

"And you as well, although I doubt I should expect anything less from alicorns." The Emperor gestured at some cushions, two of which were already filled by Trixie and Lightning, which was good because Twilight had been wondering where Trixie was for a while. Twilight had expected Lightning to be with Rainbow, and was unsurprised by the answer she got when she asked about it.

"No one's allowed to be with her when the duel starts, so here I am. Besides, she's been acting weird all morning, and I'm starting to think this is getting to her. Here's hoping she at least remembers how to kick griffon ass."

"Of course she does." Twilight took a seat next to Trixie, sighing as the blue mare shifted away from her. "Trixie..." Twilight paused, hoping that Trixie would look at her. She didn't. "I'm sorry about what I said yesterday. It was insensitive, and an inappropriate thing to say given what's happening."

"And did you reach that conclusion on your own, or did the Princess of poking into ponies dreams tell you that?"

"She may have advised me, yes, but she's not wrong. I'm going to be honest here Trixie, and tell you that I'm not sure how to approach the problem you face-"

"There's a surprise. I doubt anypony really does."

"-But if it helps we could put more effort into your magic training, so you hopefully feel less of a need to fall back on dark magic, and are good and prepared for whatever happens." Unexpected tears pricked Twilight's eyes as Trixie continued to not look at her. "Please forgive me, Trixie."

"Y'know, I put up with a lot of crap from you, and in all fairness you put up with a lot of crap from me. I can't help but worry that one day, one of us is going to do something the other can't forgive."

"But that's not today?" Twilight asked hopefully.

"No, it's not today," Trixie sighed, "but you really need to stop relying on my forgiving nature, and actually think about what you say to me occasionally."

Twilight jumped on Trixie, grabbing her around the neck in a hug. "I promise that I'll at least try, but I can't guarantee that I'll get it right all the time."

"I know." Trixie hugged Twilight back, then nudged her. "Hey, Twilight?"

"Yeah?"

Trixie gestured with her eyes for Twilight to look up, showing her the bright, swirling energies wafting around her horn. "Boom, light magic. Ta-da!"

"You're a constant source of amazement, Trixie," Twilight said with an honest smile. "We're really going to have to work on your shields and teleporting though. You're close to shields, but teleportation is going to take a bit more effort."

"Yeah, but not right now." Trixie nodded towards the arena before them as things started to happen, with Theron being led into the arena under guard by a quartet of Golden Claws. At the opposite side of the ring, Rainbow walked in alone. "Now we should start working on miracles if Rainbow's going to pull this off."

"That can be arranged," Twilight replied, cryptically. She only smiled as Trixie turned a questioning look onto her.

"Fine, keep your secrets," Trixie grumbled as the Emperor stood and waved to the crowd.

"Griffons of Griffonia," the Emperor said in a clear voice that filled the arena. "Yesterday an attempt was made on mine and my daughter's life, orchestrated by none other than my own brother. At the same time an attack was made on the castle, resulting in the deaths of many of our noble defenders. Rather than face a jury of his peers, my brother has opted for trial by combat, with his cohort, my very own son, as his champion."

Theron raised his head proudly as the crowd booed, then held a closed claw up in the air towards his uncle, who was kept under guard in a smaller stand next to the Emperor's.

"Fighting against him," the Emperor continued, "is Rainbow Dash, a brave champion from Equestria, who has personal grief with Theron. Should she emerge victorious, my brother shall be put to death for his crimes, but should she lose, both my son and brother will be pardoned for trying to end my life. You may begin once I say."

"Why is this happening today?" Trixie asked as another griffon flew down into the arena. "The attack only happened yesterday."

"Less time for a rescue attempt to be made," the Emperor answered. "I have no doubt that there are plenty of griffons out there still willing to try. Here's hoping my decision to let this Rainbow Dash fight doesn't backfire on us."

"And if either of you leave the ring, the fight will be considered forfeit. Do you understand?" Both Rainbow and Theron nodded at the griffon that had flown in to explain the very simple rules to them. "Then you may begin upon the Emperor's word. Your Majesty?"

"Fight!"

"Look at mommy," Cadence said to Flurry as the other ponies leaned forward to watch. "Ignore everything else, and keep looking at mommy."

Much to the surprise of a number of ponies, Rainbow didn't immediately rush in to attack, instead choosing to remain still as Theron waited to defend himself. She kept him waiting as she sauntered forwards, her hips swinging with a seductive swagger.

"What the hell is she doing?" Lightning asked, watching Rainbow with disdain. "Has she lost her mind? Attack him!"

Rainbow stopped and wriggled her hips at Theron, finally goading him into making the first move. He ran at her, swinging a claw that she dropped beneath, then rolled sideways as he tried to stomp on her with a paw, springing back up onto her hooves and giving him a saucy wink.

"This is just embarrassing," Trixie said as Twilight hid her face behind a hoof. "Rainbow really should have better hips to be attempting those kinds of wiggles."

"I'm saying nothing," Twilight mumbled. She saw the look Luna was giving her, and quickly looked away again.

"Fight me you coward!" Theron shouted at Rainbow as she danced back from his every attempt to hit her. "This doesn't end until you die!"

"Oh, so that's how it's going to be, is it?" Rainbow shook her head sadly, "And here I thought you were going to be a gentlegriff and just die for me, but no, apparently I have to kill you myself. Such a pity."

Theron roared and jumped into the air, crashing down onto the ground where Rainbow was standing hard enough to raise a cloud of dust. Rainbow flapped her wings once, pushing herself out of the way, then bucked at the cloud, producing a squawk as her hooves hit their target.

The dust sank back to the ground, uncovering Theron as he clutched his ribs, his face contorted in pain and rage. Rainbow gave him a moment to recover, then jumped out of the way with a laugh as he lunged at her.

"Gotta try harder than that if you want to catch Rainbow Fast!"

All of the ponies in the box were looking at Twilight as she glowed with embarrassment. Not one of them dared to suggest that she'd done something, but she knew they all suspected her of some kind of trickery. Perhaps her biggest crime was not taking enough time to explain certain things to the pony in the arena.

The crowd booed as Rainbow landed another blow on Theron's hind quarters, none of them apparently willing to support a pony over a traitor. Rainbow couldn't have cared less though as she polished a hoof on her chest.

Theron recovered quickly, and ran in with a low sweep of the claw that Rainbow jumped over, but quickly turned the attack around as he flipped lengthways and punched her between the eyes hard enough to knock even the sturdiest earth pony out cold. Instead, both of them shouted in pain, Theron clutching his claw in the other, and Rainbow holding her head and rubbing the spot that Theron had struck.

"Boy that Rainbow sure is a tough pony, ha ha," Twilight said with a nervous grin. Even the Emperor wasn't buying it at this point. Thankfully he kept his beak shut, letting the fight continue.

"That... was rude," Rainbow said, keeping an eye shut as she lifted her hoof from her face. "You're lucky I can't use magic right now, or you'd be fried chicken."

"She's talking about her lightning," Twilight quickly and unnecessarily explained.

"What the fuck kind of pony are you?" Theron asked, massaging and flexing his claw back to life.

"The kind that kills little bitch griffons like you, and you just made me angry." Rainbow leapt at Theron, knocking him to the ground where she proceeded to kick, punch, and occasionally bite every inch of him. He tried to escape the one sided attack, but every time she was there, blocking his way with a kick to the face, or a punch to the chest.

The crowd fell more and more silent as the onslaught continued, and even Twilight was watching with interest at the speed and grace Rainbow was putting into each perfectly executed strike. "I didn't know she was capable of that."

After a couple of minutes Rainbow relented, finishing with an over the shoulder toss that sent Theron sprawling into the dust. She walked up behind him and pinned Theron with a hoof on back as he tried to crawl away. Blood seeped from a dozen knicks and scratches that she had to have gotten by accident as she leaned down to his ear and whispered. "You can surrender, you know?"

"And die in the noose?" Theron rasped through a throat that had been punched more than once. "I'd rather you kill me now and spare me the shame."

"You just lost an unarmed duel to a pony, so your shame is pretty well rounded out already."

"Just do it!"

"That depends. It's no water off my back, but it might be off someone else's." Rainbow straightened up and looked at the Emperor's box, "Your Majesty, should I finish him?"

"No!" Clarissa screamed, jumping up to try and fly to her brother. The Emperor grabbed her and dragged her back to the ground, keeping hold of her as she struggled. "Father, please!"

"I am sorry Clarissa," the Emperor whispered to his daughter before speaking to Theron. "Do you submit?" he asked his son, getting a hate filled snarl in return.

"I will never submit!"

"Then the duel continues."

"Oh come on," Rainbow grumbled. She bucked Theron on the side, audibly cracking a rib. "Do you submit now?"

"Just kill him Rainbow!" Lightning shouted. "For Vapor, for Sky... for all of them!"

Rainbow looked to Twilight, waiting until she got a small nod from the purple alicorn. "Alright then." She wrapped a leg around Theron's neck, and held it there for a second. "Nothing personal," she whispered. "I'm sure the real Rainbow Fast would've loved to do this."

"What?" Theron asked, but never got an answer as Rainbow whipped his head around, breaking his neck and relieving him of the burden of living. The crowd was utterly silent until the sound of a single griffon clapping filled the arena. It was the Emperor.

"Bravo, Rainbow Dash, you have fought well and upheld the passage of justice."

"Rainbow Dash?" Rainbow's eyes bugged for a moment as the Emperor turned to his brother. "Ooohh..."

"Your champion has lost, brother, to a pony no less. If that isn't proof of your guilt, then nothing is. I hear by sentence you to be hung by the neck until death. May the ancestors have mercy on your soul. Take him away."

Eustace made no fuss as he was led away, and there was nothing said in his support by any of the griffons in the crowd. Commander Lurin pushed past him as he made his way to the Emperor's box, but paid Eustace no attention past that.

"We've searched the properties you indicated, your Majesty, but we found little evidence of any wrongdoing."

"As I thought," the Emperor said gravely. "With-" The Emperor glanced over at the body of Theron as it still lay in the dust, and sighed. "With my son dead, and my brother due to be executed, hopefully that will pass as enough of a warning for any dissenters to rid themselves of their treasonous thoughts."

"We can only hope," Lurin replied dutifully. "The Golden Claws are at your disposal as long as you need us."

"Appreciated." The Emperor nodded to Lurin, then turned to his guests, staying quiet as he saw Cadence wrapping a comforting wing around Clarissa, she in turn resting her head on Cadence's side, not sobbing, but her eyes were wet with tears. "This is a fine mess."

"How could you do it?" Clarissa asked, not looking at her father as she did.

"No griffon is above the law, not even amongst our family, and treason is..." The Emperor shrugged slowly. "They also threatened you, my darling, and I could not bear to see you harmed."

"You didn't have to cast Theron out in the first place!"

"I know why they hated me, Clarissa, and maybe it was only right for them to do so. Unfortunately the past cannot be changed, no matter how much we may wish it." Hergest sighed again as his daughter continued refusing to look at him. "Princesses, I will be returning to my castle as I have much to do. There's going to be a feast later, to celebrate those that gave their lives to defend the Empire. I would be honoured if you would join us, and perhaps we can finally, properly discuss the issues that brought you here in the first place."

Luna bowed to the Emperor, the others following suit. "We would be delighted, and if you desire our assistance, do not hesitate to ask."

"Thank you. Come along Clarissa, I shall need your help."

Luna held her gentle smile as the two griffons walked away, then let it drop, only to replace it with a scowl as she faced Twilight. "I'm not going to be so foolish to declare the trial a fake since the Emperor didn't, but there was definitely some skullduggery going on here. What did you do?"

"Me?" Twilight asked, full of innocence. "What could I have done?" Twilight glanced over as Theron was carried from the arena, watched by Rainbow. "Are you saying that isn't Rainbow down there, and that she didn't win the duel?"

"I don't think even Rainbow Dash could forget her name for an entire morning, Twilight Sparkle."

"You'd be surprised." Twilight didn't either, but she was too stuck in the lie now to say anything else.

"Then I would have to be." Luna shook her head, "I suppose it doesn't matter now, and I have things to be doing. Cadence, would you mind coming with me? I wish to talk with the ambassador to get a better handle on how to put our proposal to the Emperor. Twilight, go and make sure whatever you did stays a secret, please?"

Twilight waved to the other two princesses as they left, feeling rather pleased with events, although it was now coming to her attention that they'd been left in the arena with a large number of potentially unfriendly griffons. "We better be getting out of here. Come on, I'll teleport us back to the castle. Rainbow Dash, get over here!"

"You called?" Rainbow purred as she flew up to the box.

"You're a shit actor, Rainbow," Twilight said to the blue pegasus.

"It was the name, wasn't it? I was wondering why I was getting funny looks every time I said it." She grinned as Lightning gave her another funny look, "What? I was almost right. It's not like I've spent an extensive amount of time with the pony in question."

"There had best be an explanation for all this," Lightning said in a low growl, "and soon."

"There will be." There was a flash as Twilight teleported the four of them to the castle interior, just inside the hall outside their rooms. She opened the door to the room Rainbow shared with Lightning, and briefly Vapor, and led them to a chest in the corner that had a sliver of wood under the lid. Twilight pulled the chest open, revealing a peacefully sleeping Rainbow Dash curled up on some cushions.

"Good news Rainbow," Twilight said cheerfully as she removed the spell keeping Rainbow asleep, "you won the duel. Congratulations."

"Pphmmuh?" Rainbow slowly opened her eyes, blinking against the light assaulting her eyes. She ached from lying still for so long, and it took a surprising amount of effort to look up at Twilight, and the bloodied, rainbow haired pony next to her. Rainbow jerked as she realised she was looking at herself, banging her head against the side of the container she was in. "Ah! What the fuck is going on?"

"Saving your life, that's what," Twilight said as the Rainbow next to her blinked, her eyes changing to turquoise cat eyes when she reopened them. She also grinned, showing off a tiny pair of fangs. "You can be angry if you want, but I'll take that over you being dead."

"Why would I be dead? Wait, the duel! I'm late for the duel!" Rainbow jumped up and out of the chest, and was halfway to the door when Lightning blocked her way.

"The duel's over," she said. "You won, and Theron's dead."

"What? But-" Rainbow snarled as she worked out what had happened and stomped up to Twilight until they were face to face, "Damn it Twilight! I was supposed to fight that duel!"

"I know," Twilight said apologetically. "And if you were allowed weapons and armour I probably wouldn't have done this, but I couldn't let you fight that duel."

"I could've beat him!"

"Could've, yes, but mightn't have. I couldn't risk you dying, or them winning, so I took steps to ensure neither of those things happened." Twilight shrugged at Rainbow, "I'm sorry."

Rainbow shook with anger, and stomped her hooves on the ground as she failed to find a way to express herself. She wanted to kick Twilight, and was pretty tempted to when Lightning placed a hoof on her back.

"Chill, Rainbow. I know you're angry, but Twilight just made sure the monster that hurt Vapor and killed a lot of our friends didn't get away with it."

"But I should've been the one to do that! Even if he could've killed me." Rainbow sat and groaned as she realised what she just said. "Fuck! Fine, so Theron is dead?" Lightning nodded, confirming that he was. "Then I'll just have to live with that. I'm still mad," she said to Twilight, "but... but... I really gotta pee. Be right back."

"So this is how it feels to see this kind of crap from the outside," Trixie said as Rainbow dashed for the loo. "The whole thing seems less offensive when you aren't the one getting screwed over."

"What makes you say that?" Nightmare asked, still looking like Rainbow, although with fetching bat wings instead.

"Because normally it's me these things get done to."

"Alright, yes," Twilight sighed, "I'm horribly misguided these days, I get it."

"But your intentions are usually there," Trixie said, giving Twilight a nudge. "So, the duel is done, we won the day, the Empire is secure, and if we're lucky we might get that alliance we're after. What now?"

"Sounds a bit too easy when you put it like that."

"Here we go," Trixie grumbled. "Time for Twilight to overthink everything and get us neck deep in shit again."

"I'm just saying, this plan they had to take over the Empire was terrible. They gave up on the assassination far too easy, and the attack on the castle was pitiful to be stopped like it was."

"Gee, thanks."

"We have to have missed something."

"Such as?"

"I don't know! If I knew that I wouldn't be having this tiny little crisis here!"

"Ugh, do you have to keep on looking like me?" Rainbow asked Nightmare as she trotted back into the room. "It's like looking into a messed up funhouse mirror."

Nightmare rolled onto her back and smiled as she looked at Rainbow upside down, "Oh let me have my fun. I imagine I'll be sent back to the retreat soon at any rate. Can't have a pony like me wandering around unsupervised."

"Twilight, I've just had a brilliant idea!"

"No, Trixie, just no."

"Eh, sorry Nightmare, I tried. Still, since we have no clue as to any possible further issues, what are we supposed to be doing?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. Anypony bring any playing cards?"

-0-0-0-

Luna walked around the courtyard, amongst the bodies of the ponies that had been discovered after the assassination attempt. She lifted the sheet on each one of them, but didn't recognise any until she found a unicorn mare with a pure white coat, a chestnut brown mane and tail, and golden eyes. She'd been a servant in Canterlot castle.

"Blast that griffon," Luna said, lowering the sheet back over the mare. "If these had been actual soldiers it would be bad enough, but to kill innocents just for this ruse... it's enough to make you sick. Where would he have even gotten these ponies from? Are they all prisoners? Or did he just abduct them off the street?"

"I'm sure that is something we'll never really know," Deetra said, the griffon quietly observing as Luna checked each body. "The depths Theron had fallen to over all of this, it makes me wonder if he was always this deranged."

"Maybe, maybe not." Luna checked under another sheet and grimaced at the expression of fear and pain still written on the stallion's face. "If he wasn't already dead, I would be tempted to kill him myself."

"You don't answer barbarism with barbarism," Cadence said as she kept Flurry occupied in the corner away from the bodies. "That solves nothing."

"Call it justice and it solves plenty," Luna spat, ignoring Cadence as the mare grumbled back at her. "Thirty two dead ponies for nothing. I can't even say that they gave their lives with purpose. They were simply murdered for a plan that failed anyway, because Theron found Twilight too scary to face."

"I'm also afraid to say that because of Equestria's recent change of hooves, we cannot send the bodies back," Deetra told the two princesses. "Faust might think we killed them, encouraging her to seek retribution."

Luna dismissed the idea that came to her as soon as she got it, figuring it to be beneath her. "All we ask is that you treat them with respect."

"That's the least we can do, at least until we can repatriate them, whenever that might be."

Luna sat amongst the bodies, at a loss of what to do. She'd originally planned to discuss the alliance with Deetra, but as soon as they'd met, the news about the bodies being retrieved was brought to them. Now all Luna could think about was the deceased, and how they'd died.

She sat like that a couple minutes more, right up until a couple of griffons walked up to Cadence, keeping quiet. She was about to ask them to leave, when she noticed they weren't wearing any armour that the Griffonians used, and figured that they had to be Sonny and Derek, the two agents from Equis.

"This is a crying shame," Luna heard Derek say to Sonny. "Ponies would've been nothing but fodder had those pillocks overthrown the Emperor."

"So you bear no hard feelings for your imprisonment?" Luna asked. She waved a hoof at them as they saluted her, "No need for that."

Sonny lowered her claw as Derek hesitated to lower his. "No, we don't have any hard feelings about it. Griffon Intelligence were the ones that ordered us imprisoned, and I think they've had their comeuppance. The only thing that really bothered me was why this happened. Overthrowing an empire just for revenge is a bit too much."

"You know why Eustace did all this?"

"We heard it being discussed once. Apparently the Emperor's wife, Moira, was being courted by Eustace, but the Emperor was mesmerized by her beauty to the point that he pretty much took her for himself, although I get the feeling he really did love her, and possibly her him. Eustace never forgave him for that, but when Moira died laying her second egg, it pushed him over the edge. He attacked the Emperor, but obviously didn't kill him, and I guess after that was when he started planning to do all this."

"The dangerous side of love," Cadence murmured sadly.

"All that for revenge though." Luna didn't want to believe that could be the entire reasoning Eustace had used. "I suppose Theron's hatred of his sister could be blamed on Eustace as much as his own shortsightedness. Wrap all of it up in a rhetoric about reclaiming the glory days of the Empire, and suddenly your revenge has a more solid backing."

"This is why love should always be allowed to take its course," said Cadence.

"Who's to say Moira didn't love Hergest more in the end? Or that she even loved Eustace?" Luna asked back. "This story, while painting a sad picture, is no reason to commit treason. Chances are that the Emperor's theft of Eustace's henfriend was but another instance of him getting everything he wanted, while Eustace was left on the side-lines."

"Ah," Cadence said, suddenly understanding where Luna was going with this. "So we'll just be calling him Nightmare Eustace, shall we? Sadly he won't be getting a chance to redeem himself, on account of how he's going to die soon."

"He has to, for the sake of the Empire's stability if nothing else." Luna gave Cadence a short, hard glare for what she'd said. "He has plenty of other crimes to pay for as well."

Cadence paid back Luna's glare with one of her own. "You sound uncomfortably in favour of the death penalty."

"I was never against it. Ask Twilight if you don't believe me."

"Of course," Cadence deadpanned. "Look, we're surrounded by the remains of our ponies, so I don't think now is the best time for an argument. Deetra, we were hoping to talk to you to assess whether an alliance was now possible after the events of the last few days. What do you think?"

Deetra shrugged at Cadence, "That decision is ultimately the Emperor's, and I'm afraid that I haven't seen much of him lately to give you an accurate opinion. I'll dare say that saving his life, and his daughter's, and maintaining the integrity of the Empire while exposing its traitors, might give you a favourable chance."

"I sense a but coming," said Luna.

"You are asking much of the Empire, even with the other benefits that comes with the alliance. If you should fail to stop Faust, that price is unpayable."

"That price won't matter if we fail," Luna said harshly. "What Faust wants to do... that is something worth stopping at even a high cost, for the sake of the very future of this world."

"I'm afraid that is something you shall have to explain to the Emperor then." Deetra sat, taking a moment to scan over the bodies. "If there was a lesson to be learnt from Mareitania, it was that sometimes things are best left alone. I think it perfectly reasonable for the Emperor to apply that thinking to this situation, no matter how detrimental it might be in the long run."

"Then I shall take great pains to explain it all, carefully, and thoroughly."

-0-0-0-

Hours later, and the seven ponies and a foal found themselves sitting on a table with the Emperor, his daughter, Ambassador Deetra, and unfortunately Commander Lurin. Cadence, Twilight, and Trixie had been placed between the Commander and the others, them bearing the least ill will towards him, but the atmosphere had been made tense by his presence.

Still, the food was good, so long as it came from something that didn't go cluck or oink, the drink equally so, although not all of them drank, and while the company of griffons wasn't something the ponies sought, the majority of the griffons there knew what they'd done, and they received more than a few toasts for their efforts.

"So you mean to say that Faust wants to revert us back to the stone age?"

"Only for a starter," said Luna, her patience a little frayed at having to explain the situation with Faust in its entirety. "She wishes to return the world to its natural order, and intends to do so by removing our sapience. Basically, she aims to make us no better than animals."

"Is that even possible?"

Luna shrugged, "A credible source has said it is not, but even he admits that it might not be beyond one such as Faust, even if she has to alter the world one individual at a time. First though, before she can change the world, she has to conquer it."

"Hmmm..." The Emperor scratched his chin with a talon. "While I do find this story a little hard to swallow, what Faust has done so far indicates an ability to maybe achieve most of her goals."

"Faust may be a little distracted so soon after taking Equestria, but it cannot be long until she resumes her efforts to conquer the world. With her new allies in the yaks, that goal is now slightly easier to reach."

"And goodness knows what others might join her." The Emperor lapsed into a thoughtful silence, which Luna could only hope was a good sign, if only because he was really thinking about it. So much hinged on this moment, it was making Luna feel sick with nerves.

"Deetra, have you gone over the other proposals in this alliance?"

Deetra nodded in answer to the Emperor's question, having been caught with her mouth full. "Mngh, excuse me. Yes, your Majesty, I have."

"And what did you think? Does it really benefit us?"

"I believe it would. Apart from a significant raise in trade, we would be able to share intelligence, as well as request aid from other members of the alliance as part of the security pact. Something that could be advantageous considering the last few days. Yes we would have to also provide aid as part of that agreement, but the alliance's security would also be our security, and therefore worth it in my opinion. Other than that though, we would retain all autonomy as an independent nation."

"You aren't required to adhere to every part of the alliance," said Luna. "While the security pact would have to be pretty solid, if you wish to opt out of the trade, or open border agreements, then that shall be your right. We aren't trying to force anything other than to increase the safety of all members."

"What other countries do you hope to have join?"

"We will be approaching the zebras and Saddle Arabians at some point soon, and possibly Mareitania once the war is over, but all nations may request to join if they wish."

"And I get an equal say in all decisions made as part of the alliance?"

"You, or your chosen representative, yes." Luna smiled at the Emperor, "I promise you that Equestria won't be running the show. All members will have a voice in all decisions."

"I see." Once again the Emperor went quiet, and once again Luna felt giddy with anticipation. She was about to break the silence when he beat her to it, uttering a question that ruined her mood a bit.

"What of Griffonstone?"

Luna turned to give Twilight the eye, the purple princess pointedly looking the other way while appearing as innocent as possible. She sighed, and prepared to upset the Emperor.

"Absolutely not."

"Luna!" Cadence shouted over the dark alicorn, making most of the ponies around her jump in surprise. "Why are you so determined to keep Griffonstone?"

"I won that place fair and square," Luna huffed, folding her legs. "I don't see why I should have to give it back. It's also a vital strategic point between Eque-" Luna stopped that line of thought since saying it was a vital strategic point between Equestria and Griffonia would likely be counter-productive.

"Because giving up something we currently don't have anyway, to get back Equestria, is probably worth it," Cadence continued, pasting over Luna's slip of the tongue.

"But-"

"No buts!"

Luna pouted at Cadence, "So unfair."

The Emperor chuckled at Luna, "So we agree that Griffonstone is to be ruturned to Griffonia?"

"Not quite," said Cadence. Several of the beings around her raised an eyebrow in question as she said the two words. "There's more to it than that."

The Emperor gestured with a claw, "Let's hear it then."

"Griffonstone has always been treated as its own independent nation within Equestria. Normally that's worked well, up until recently at least. It may well be better off in your hooves... claws, ahem. However, it has been part of Equestria for some time, and its citizens shall retain the full rights of Equestrian citizenship. Additionally, if you decide to withdraw from the open border agreement, that decision does not extend to Griffonstone. As a final point, should any of the griffons living there not want to live under Griffonian rule, they will be granted the right to relocate to wherever they wish, without interference. Agreed?"

"Since it likely spares me problems, agreed, although you speak as though I've already agreed to join your alliance." The Emperor grinned as Cadence blushed. "Now there is one final thing to discuss before I make my decision. All member countries must maintain at least a minimal military. As it stands in this security pact, I can see my forces having to compensate for your lack thereof, and not just you."

"A reasonable request," Luna agreed. "After recent events, Equestria shall be never be without an army again. I'm not saying it will be large," Luna added as Cadence started to protest, "but I refuse to let Equestria be so defenceless again. I suppose it would also have to be required to enact our portion of the security pact. Saddle Arabia already has an army, so no problem there, and I find it hard to imagine Mareitania without one, should they decide to join after the war."

"What about Zebrica?" Cadence asked. "You can't be leaving out mentioning them for no reason."

"The Zebrican's would be a stick in the mud about this," the Emperor said before Luna could. "That is likely something to be agreed on over the negotiating table, although I could see them refusing to join because of it. I could also see them refusing to join the alliance because of Griffonia being part of it. We do seem to have a habit of alienating our neighbours."

"I'm afraid that is something I cannot comment on," said Luna. "That's something Celestia would know far more about. But, if they refuse to join, so be it. At the very least they should be willing to provide us with what we need to stop Faust."

"Oh?" the Emperor said questioningly. "And what might that be?"

"Something to help counter that which griffon numbers never could," Luna said with a teasing smirk. "Magic. The alchemists of Zebrica have long held knowledge on substances that provide significant resistance to magic, and which allow their weapons to pierce through it. We will need such things to fight Faust's army."

The Emperor nodded slowly, "Typically I would be full of bluster about griffons needing no such thing, but seeing firsthand how effective magic is in a fight, thanks to Princess Twilight, I'm inclined to agree. It seems like you've thought this through."

"We've tried," said Luna. "So does this mean that we're in agreement here? Do you wish to join the alliance?"

The Emperor turned to his daughter and to Deetra, both of which nodded at him, along with Lurin. "I do, although the finer points will have to be worked out at such a time where you have a nation to be rulers of. I'm also going to suggest you find a proper name for this union of nations."

"How about the Union of Nations?" Trixie suggested with a smile.

"A bit of a mouthful," the Emperor laughed. "But something along those lines would do. A shame that it had to be born out of a desperate necessity like stopping Faust, but if this is how we fight for the survival of our world, then it could be worse. Chamberlain, bring the good wine. I would like to toast our new alliance with the princesses."

The chamberlain bowed and hurried away, only to return less than a minute later with a bottle in his claw, from which he poured wine into the glasses of the Emperor, Luna, and Twilight. He was about to do the same for Cadence when she placed a hoof over her glass.

"Not when I have Flurry with me," she said with an embarrassed smile. "I'll just use water."

The Emperor raised his glass and waited as the others around him did the same. "To the birth of the Union of Nations, and the prosperity of its members. May its united strength strike fear into the hearts of those that would cause this world harm."

Author's Note

And an alliance is born. For once I went with not letting the worst happen.

11. Like shadows at night

"Something is definitely wrong here," Shining said, making a full observation of the situation he and the others found themselves in. "We've been on the run for days now, but we haven't seen a single griffon."

"Not that you're complaining," Fleur said to him as she sunned herself on the deck, taking the time to enjoy herself as much as she could while they were still free and unhindered in their actions. The fact that they were in a small bay by the Hayseed Swamp, and sheltering under trees, was irrelevant to her attempts to sunbathe.

"Well no, I'm not complaining, but you have to admit it's weird. We're some of the most wanted ponies in Equestria, and they know we're on a boat on the Celestial Sea, but they're not even trying to find us."

Fleur shrugged at Shining, "Perhaps you should take this as a golden opportunity to think about our next move."

"Or you should," Shining said evenly, "since you are the leader here."

"Right! And as the leader, I'm telling you to calm down and relax. There'll be time for stressing over things soon enough."

"I can't believe this," Shining growled to himself, irritated at Fleur's lack of motivation. The rest of them were the same, including his own parents as they treated this whole thing as an amusing adventure. Even Bon Bon and her team were chilling out on the beach nearby, dipping their hooves in the surf, and they were supposed to be the professionals.

"Frown any harder and you're going to bust something," the filly said to Shining. Like Fleur, she was stretched out on the deck, and like Fleur, few shits were being given at that moment. "What do you think we should be doing that has you so wound up?"

"Our next move! We can't just hide when we have so much to do!"

"You just said we're being hunted, and you want us to expose ourselves so soon?" The filly shook her head at Shining, "You have no idea, do you? We have to let the heat die down a little."

"Are we being hunted though?" Shining retorted. "It doesn't seem like we are."

"Then maybe they're waiting for us to make our move? I don't know."

"Except that they don't know where we're going to be! This is my point! They aren't looking for us, so we should start thinking about getting stuff done."

Fleur sighed and pulled herself up until she was sat on the deck. She gave Shining a long, cool stare, then sighed again. "Fine, but since we don't know where to start, I'm open to hearing suggestions."

"Fillydelphia," Shining said quickly, grinning with relief that he was finally being taken seriously. "We agreed that the steelworks there would be essential to Faust's plans, which is why we have to stop it being rebuilt."

"Yes, we agreed that, but that doesn't mean it's doable, so we should keep a list of options ready. We're sticking to the east coast for a reason after all." Fleur heaved herself onto her hooves, her body complaining at having been torn from its relaxation. "First of all, we need recent intel, and we only have one pony for the job, and he isn't exactly a pony."

"It wouldn't hurt us to find another flier," Shining said as Fleur whistled shrilly at the ponies on the beach, waving at them to get back onboard. "We can't rely on Thorax all the time."

"So we'll just ask the first pegasus we find shall we?" Fleur asked, shrugging playfully.

"I'm not saying that, but we need somepony to share his burden."

"Fiiine, we'll have to see who we can find that can help us do recon. Until then, let's get to Fillydelphia and see what we find about what Faust's up to."

-0-0-0-

Night had fallen before they made it to Fillydelphia, which suited their purposes fine as Thorax flew out to investigate the steelworks. Most of them kept below deck as they waited, except for Fleur, Shining, Bon Bon, and Crème, who was ready to pull off a quick getaway if they had to.

So far nothing of note had happened, and to pass the time Fleur found herself watching the lights of the city shimmering on the ocean. If she was in a more practical frame of mind, she might have been impressed that the lights were still on at all, but it hadn't even crossed her mind, although it may have crossed the others' as they stared out at the city.

"I wonder what other kind of crap Blueblood's pulled to get ponies to side with Faust," Crème said after a while. "Would the ponies rebuilding the steelworks even think about what that steel would be used for?"

"I imagine it's just a job to a lot of ponies," Bon Bon said back. "You can't blame them for needing bits to feed their family."

"If the bits are even worth anything anymore." Crème shrugged at a night that was indifferent to the plight of ponies. "Even if they are, I imagine profiteering is probably rampant in places."

"Most ponies probably just want to live their lives," Fleur said to both of them. "Builders need work too, even if it means working for Faust."

"Betraying their country you mean," Crème spat.

"It's Faust's country now," Fleur said back. She decided to not engage Crème any further in that kind of talk, because while Fleur was being practical, it did irk her that there were plenty of ponies now working for Faust, willingly or unwillingly, but mostly out of lack of choice.

Wingbeats could be heard a minute later, emphasized by the quiet of the night, and soon after Thorax landed on the boat, a worried look in his eye that had Fleur thinking the steelworks had to be heavily guarded or something.

"How bad is it?" Fleur asked.

"Bad, but also maybe good? I'm not sure."

Shining gave Thorax a confused smile, "You're going to have to give us a little more to go on there, buddy."

"Okay, well, it was being rebuilt."

"Yeeesss?" Fleur said encouragingly as Thorax struggled over his words.

"And now it is no longer being rebuilt, as of very recently, and seems to be on fire."

"Wha? What do you me-? What?"

"It's been attacked, I think, but not by us."

Fleur turned to look back at the city again, her mind drawing a blank at Thorax's news. The steelworks had already been attacked? By who? Was it something to do with what she'd done in Manehattan, as unlikely as that seemed? She needed answers, and she needed now.

"Crème, take us to shore. I want to see this myself."

-0-0-0-

It was definitely on fire, but perhaps the most noticeable aspect of that was that nopony was attempting to put it out. There were bodies too, although it was difficult to say who they were from the small hill they were using nearby to observe events.

"This goes way past knocking some scaffolding over," Rocky said, his amber eyes glowing in the firelight. "There's something weird about that fire though. It's burning on things that aren't flammable."

"Some sort of chemical fire bomb then?" Fleur asked him, only getting a shrug in return.

"That was Tootsie's area of expertise," he said sadly. "One of them at least." Rocky sighed as he remembered their fallen teammate.

Fleur nodded silently, not wanting to push Rocky for knowledge he didn't have. She suspected it had to be the case though, as a pile of bricks were on fire, and bricks weren't exactly known for their ability to burn. In fact, where the steelworks was concerned, that was probably the complete opposite to what they should be doing.

"Yeah, I'm stumped," Fleur admitted. Rocky, Shining, the filly, and Thorax nodding along with her. "Hopefully Bon Bon and Flicker can find something down in that mess."

"Does it really matter though?" the filly asked. "We want to destroy this place, and lo and behold, it is destroyed. Our wish has come true."

"It matters," Fleur said, "because it mightn't hurt to know the ponies responsible for doing this. I also would've waited until it was half built, just to waste more of their time. Wait, no, we don't have explosives. Ignore me."

"Consider it done."

The five of them settled in for the wait, being ignored by everything and everyone as they watched the fires slowly die out on those things that weren't flammable, while those that were burned all the brighter in comparison. Ten or more minutes passed before Bon Bon returned with Flicker, and with an extra guest slumped over Bon Bon's back.

"Who's this?" Shining asked as Bon Bon dumped the earth pony to the ground. Since that didn't get so much as a groan out of the mare, they quickly surmised that she was in fact deceased.

"Don't know, don't care," Bon Bon replied to Shining, "but what does interest me is how she died. Bon Bon rolled the uniformed mare onto her front, showing two bloody puncture marks on her back, just behind her shoulder blades.

The filly stuck her tongue out at the body, "Did you really have to bring a body here to tell us a pegasus killed this pony?"

"Yes, because that's not all I'm trying to show you. First of all, all our pegasi surrendered with the rest of our forces at Canterlot, so how are there armed pegasi still fighting? And secondly, there's this."

Bon Bon rolled the body some more, demonstrating that the mare's back was also broken, but that wasn't the point she trying to make. What she was trying to show as she pulled the uniform away from the body, was the bruises that covered much of the mare's off-white coat, although it was hard to tell in the dark.

"What are we looking at?" Shining asked, lighting his horn up without being asked. His eyes widened at the bruises, "They don't look very old. Not fresh, but not old either. She looks like she's been beaten, and not in a fight."

"That's what I thought," said Bon Bon. "The funny thing is, out of all the bodies I've seen, hers was the only one like this. The others only had the wounds that had killed them."

"Maybe she just had an accident," the filly suggested. "Shit happens outside of wars."

Bon Bon nodded at the filly, "I thought so too, right up until I saw this." Bon Bon pulled the mare's collar down, uncovering a half attached bandage. Pulling that aside, it was revealed that the mare had a brand on the side of her neck consisting of the letters NB. It looked about as old as the bruises did.

"Good grief," Fleur muttered, sympathising for the mare in a way the others couldn't. Beaten, branded, and a few days later, killed. It was hard to not feel sorry for her. "Any idea what 'NB' means?"

"It means nonbeliever," said Flicker, a slight frown on her face. "You used to see this back before the war started, a few months into Faust's takeover. Ponies would sign up to the army, either out of a sense of duty, or whatever, but if they didn't believe in Faust like the majority did, they quite often ended up having something like this done to them. The brand was always put under the collar so the pain of it rubbing would constantly remind them of their blasphemy."

"So everypony not completely under Faust's control ended up like this?"

"Not everypony, if they were smart, and it only really happened in the forces."

"Did you do this to anypony?" Shining asked Flicker, his eyes narrowed.

Flicker quickly shook her head, "Ponies in the Shades were among the first to be placed under Faust's control. She only wanted the faithful to be a Shade. There was no need to do this to anypony there."

"There's no need to do this to anypony at all," Fleur said to Flicker.

Flicker winced at the subtle rebuke, "Right, of course not. Sorry."

"That's better. More to the point though, why was this done to her now? She's a Mareitanian soldier, so why would she be marked as a nonbeliever? Do you think this had something to do with Twilight's messing up of Faust's crystal?"

"That shouldn't make any difference to the ponies already here," said Bon Bon. "Or that's what Twilight said at least. Maybe she's fresh here from Mareitania, and has been affected by what Twilight did."

"Maybe she's an Equestrian." Shining shrugged as the others looked at him, "You know it's a possibility."

"One I'd rather not think about." Fleur stood quietly, her eyes roaming over the body of the mare, and ending it with a sigh. She still felt sorry for the mare, nothing was going to change that, but it also wasn't helping, so she pushed the mare's fate out of her thoughts. "I think it's time we got out of here. Bon Bon, take the body back, and let's go."

-0-0-0-

Now they knew what to look for, and where, they could see the glow coming from the fires from out in the bay. It was the perfect backdrop to the discussion they were having about who could've done it.

"I'm just saying that maybe some of the Air Corps got away," Shining argued. "Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor did, so why not some of them?"

"I really don't think the Air Corps would be brave enough to carry on the fight now," Fleur argued back. "No offence to them, but they weren't the best or most courageous fliers Equestria had to offer. Maybe if some of the Wonderbolts were leading them, but the there's barely enough Wonderbolts left to count on your hooves, and most of them were taken prisoner."

"Maybe the Exiles returned," was the filly's suggestion. It made Fleur smile, but she sincerely doubted that they would be seen in Equestria for a long time, if ever.

"It's a nice idea, filly, but you know they lost interest in fighting."

"Maybe they realised they were wrong?"

Fleur shook her head, "I doubt it."

"You don't know that."

"Filly, please, I know you want to believe in them because they're your people, but they left, and are unlikely to return while Equestria is under Mareitanian control."

The filly took a breath and released it through her nose, "Yeah, I know."

Fleur smiled sympathetically, understanding that it had to be disappointing for her. "Any other suggestions?"

"What if they really are just civilians fighting back?" said Rocky. "I can't explain where they got the weapons, or the training to use them, but it's the most logical explanation I can think of."

"Actually, it isn't," Twilight Velvet said, raising her hoof with an apologetic smile. "I don't suppose any of you put any thought into what happened to the Night Guard after the war ended?"

Fleur hummed thoughtfully. The Night Guard certainly fit the bill, and she honestly hadn't put any thought into what had happened to them after Canterlot. If she had she'd only have assumed they surrendered with the rest of Equestria's forces. Thinking about it now though, she could see what a silly assumption that would be. The thestrals were about as likely to surrender as Luna was.

"Why now though?" Bon Bon asked as Fleur mused on the idea. "Why do this on the very night we were going to do the same thing?"

"Griffons," Shining answered her. "They must've noticed that the griffons are missing too, and decided to act on it. Maybe they're even doing this to try and draw the griffons out."

"They'll certainly draw something out," Fleur commented offhandedly. "I guess the only way to find out is to stick around and find out. Maybe we'll even encounter whoever did all this."

"We'll have to hide the boat," Crème said from her position in the helm. "We're a bit too obvious out here."

"And some of us are still wanted ponies," Shining added. "I think some of us are going to have to stay on the boat while others go investigate."

Twilight Velvet and Nightlight both perked up. "Is it time for another little excursion?" Twilight asked as Nightlight smiled happily. "It'd be nice to get on solid land for a little bit."

"I'm not going," the filly said quickly. "Not with them."

"Tough luck," Fleur told her. "We need somepony going with them that the thestrals might recognise if they're around. Unfortunately for you, you're the only one with the freedom to go with them."

"Urrgh, so unfair." The filly pointed a hoof at both Twilight and Nightlight, "I'm telling you now that you'd better have some respect for certain ponies this time, and I don't mean me."

-0-0-0-

The filly kept her ears down as she trotted in front of Twilight Velvet and Nightlight, looking every inch the petulant teenager on an outing with her embarrassing parents. She was far from embarrassed though, and was veering more solidly into enraged as the two adults made no attempt to blend in.

"We really should've come here before now," Twilight Velvet said to her husband. "I always thought it'd be more industrial, but it's actually quite lovely.

Nightlight, for his part, merely nodded. While he was listening to his wife, he was also keeping an eye on Swift, and could tell that she was about ready to blow up at them. Whether it was at being stuck with them again, or for what had been said last time, he couldn't tell, but he could see it in Swift's... well, everything.

"Oh my goodness, look at that statue of Chancellor Puddinghead!"

Nightlight's world lurched sideways as he was dragged over to the statue in question, the filly following with a frustrated groan. "We're not here to see the sights! We're supposed to be part of the oppressed masses!"

"No reason we can't do both, deary," Twilight Velvet said in a chipper tone.

"We aren't tourists!"

"Actually Velvet, Swift's right." Nightlight fought against Twilight Velvet's pull, stopping her. "We can't go running around looking at everything when we're supposed to be blending in, and have a job to do."

"I'm perfectly aware of that," Twilight Velvet hissed between her teeth. "While I'm personally wondering why the Mareitanians haven't torn down all reminders of the founders, I'm also hoping to take a moment and watch what's going on."

"Oh," Nightlight and the filly said together, thankful that Twilight Velvet wasn't wasting time. Although if the filly were pressed, she'd probably say they were.

"Now, take a moment and think about what you can see," Twilight Velvet said in an overly condescending manner as she dragged them both over to the statue.

The filly sighed, not really interested in playing this game, but since it had the two morons with her paying attention to things, she went along with it. "Nothing seems too out of the ordinary to me. Well, I say ordinary, but you know what I mean."

"Exactly. If there was an attack here last night, why isn't it being discussed? Why aren't ponies more concerned?"

"They knew it was going to happen," Nightlight said thoughtfully, "or at least they're aware of who did it, and aren't worried by them. I wish there was a newspaper we could pick up and read about this."

"There is that," the filly said, pointing up to a small poster pasted to the side of the plinth the statue was on. It was offering a thousand bits on the identity and location of whoever was conducting the attacks. "I wonder if anypony knows enough to tell them anything about who did it?"

"Would they even want to?" Nightlight asked. "Why sell out the ponies fighting to protect you?"

"Because you're thinking of it from the nice direction it's currently going in. As soon as the Mareitanians start putting pressure on the ponies here, they won't be thinking quite so fondly of the ones doing the attacks. Classic Mareitanian tactic."

"And what makes you think they'll do that?"

"What makes you think they aren't already?" the filly asked back with a shrug. "I know we haven't seen any griffons yet, but that doesn't mean there aren't soldiers on the way. Once they're here, they'll probably get a lot more pushy than they are now."

As if to emphasize the filly's point, but not quite managing it, a quartet of soldiers entered the area, their weapons held ready in case they needed them. Most of them seemed on edge, and as they made their way across the square it was clear it wasn't just a patrol. They didn't interact with the other ponies there, but did stop at one of the shops. Two of them stopped outside while the others went in.

"That shop has a broken window," Nightlight observed as they waited and watched. "I wonder if this is related to what happened last night?"

"It is a hardware store, so it wouldn't surprise me," said the filly. "Probably stole their oil or something."

"And why would you think that?" Twilight Velvet enquired.

"Because Twilight did almost the exact same thing in Mareitania, except we were using it to destroy siege weapons attacking Puddingarde." The filly waited for the other two to make some kind of comment, and was pleased when they didn't, although they did share a look. "Wait, there are more soldiers coming, and some other ponies too."

As the filly had said, four more soldiers were coming across the square, and with them were two ponies, one in a different uniform, less rigid and armoured than the soldiers', and the other totally uncovered. The naked one was a beige earth pony mare, with a long blue-black mane and tail, and from that description alone they knew who it was; Black Rose, leader of the Shades.

"This must be getting some serious attention to get the head of the Shades here," the filly said as the two Shades entered the shop. "Perhaps we should head out of here and get to the steelworks to see what's happening there as well."

"Not yet." Twilight Velvet's face was taut as she stared at the soldiers outside the shop. "I want to go talk to the shopkeeper after they're gone. Hopefully he might know something about who did this."

The filly shrugged at the idea, "Alright, but it wouldn't surprise me if they take him in for questioning."

"They probably just want to know what was taken, and if he saw anything." Twilight Velvet sighed as the filly shrugged at her again, "You're going to wear yourself out shrugging so much." The filly shrugged at that too, and settled in to wait.

"We should probably try to not be seen," the filly suggested a minute later. "It occurs to me that this Black Rose might be one of the few ponies to know exactly who we are."

"There's a scary thought," Nightlight muttered as the three of them slipped around the side of the statue. A couple of minutes later they spotted the soldiers heading in the direction of the steelworks, the two Shades with them. Twilight Velvet trotted out of cover as soon as they were gone, and headed straight for the shop. The shopkeeper, an older stallion with a balding pate and sideburns was sat behind the till, his eyes glazed over as he stared into nothing. "Hello?"

"Gah!" The stallion shouted, jumping into the air as his wings instinctively started flapping. "Good grief! You walk quieter than a cat!"

Twilight Velvet smiled apologetically, "Sorry."

The shopkeeper fluttered back to the ground, "Store's closed anyway, so I'm afraid I can't help you with anything."

"Actually, we saw those soldiers come in here, and wanted to make sure you're okay. They didn't rough you up or anything, did they?"

"No, no, they were quite reasonable, considering. They just wanted to know about the break-in last night."

"Oh," Twilight Velvet gestured behind her, "you mean the broken window? Who was it?"

"Not sure. It was dark, and I couldn't see them. The only thing I could tell was that they were all fliers."

"That's a shame. Did they take anything valuable?"

"Sort of, and this is the part that gets me in trouble with those soldiers. Those ponies, whoever they were, took pretty much anything that would burn, lamp oil, heating oil, all of it, and I'm smart enough to know the soldiers think it's related to the attack on the steelworks."

Twilight Velvet feigned surprise, knowing full well that it had to be related, and was annoyed that neither her husband or Swift attempted to play along. "Do you think it was related?"

The shopkeeper squinted at Twilight Velvet, "You seem awfully curious about this. You're not with the soldiers are you? Or some other bunch of ponies working with them?"

"Not at all. I guess I'm just letting my curiosity get the better of me. Are you going to be okay here?"

"I'll be fine. I mean, times are hard enough after the war and everything, but I'll survive." The stallion smiled at Twilight Velvet and picked a broom up in his wings, "If you excuse me, I best get back to cleaning up, and you better get out of here. The last thing any of us want is some broken glass in their hoof."

"Right, of course. Sorry to bother you." Twilight Velvet ushered the other two of the store, and stood there for a moment feeling very pleased with herself. "I think that went well."

"Is that so?" the filly said with false cheer. "I'd love to know what you think you've learnt doing that!"

"Well-" Twilight Velvet stopped as she tried to recount what they'd learnt. The fact of the matter was that they didn't really learn anything much, other than that the break-in and the attack were related, which they could've expected anyway, and didn't actually help them. The worst part was that the filly knew it, and made no attempt to keep it off her face. "Fine, you got me."

"It was a noble attempt," Nightlight said in consolation, kissing her on the cheek. "I guess the only thing left for us now is to keep an eye on the steelworks and see what happens."

"And not get spotted," the filly reminded them. We're stuck here until night-time now, which is several hours worth of daylight to get spotted in. I'm tempted to say screw it if there are griffons around, because they'll spot us in seconds."

"And who put you in charge?" Twilight Velvet asked imperiously.

"Providence, but mostly Fleur did, because I have way more experience at this than you do."

"I think you are giving us far too little credit."

"Sure. Keep your head down until tonight, and I might just give you a little more."

-0-0-0-

It seemed as though somepony was taking the attack on the steelworks very seriously, because as the three ponies claimed the spot that had been used the night before, they were met with the sight of hundreds of soldiers crawling over the construction site.

"Holy moley, that's a lot of soldiers," was Nightlight's opinion as they lay on their bellies, hoping the long grass would keep them hidden. "I'm actually wondering if this wasn't the first attack along here, or if they're really just over compensating."

"Or this steelworks is too important," said Twilight Velvet. "It's the only one in Equestria with the kind of mass production you need to build things."

"And how do you know that?" the filly asked suspiciously, only getting a small shrug as an answer. "Whatever. I think the most important thing to take from all this is that I still haven't seen a single griffon. If the ones that attacked this place were all fliers, you'd think griffons would be a must."

"Well, the griffons were mercenaries, weren't they?" Nightlight looked to the other two for confirmation, "Maybe their contract ran out?"

"I think Faust would've signed a new one pretty... quick..." The filly trailed of as two large quadrupeds ambled across the construction site, their large, bulky bodies covered in a strange garb. Two large horns came from the sides of their heads. "What the fucking hell are those?"

"Language," Twilight Velvet scolded, even though she knew it was pointless by now. "Those appear to be yaks, so I guess it's true that they've joined Faust's army. I do not relish the thought of fighting against those."

The filly looked sideways at Twilight Velvet, "Since when are you going to be fighting anything?"

"Never say never," Twilight Velvet replied, sounding far too defensive for the filly's likes. "You are right about the lack of griffons though. If they aren't here to help hunt down the pegasi that did this, then they probably aren't here at all. Not unless Faust has them off doing something even more important."

Nightlight raised an eyebrow at his wife, "What could be more important than defending Equestria's essential infrastructure?"

"I honestly don't know. Maybe they're acting as the vanguard to attack somewhere else?"

"Possibly," Nightlight conceded, right before breaking into a goofy grin. "Check us out, it's almost like we're getting good at this stuff."

"I know!" Twilight Velvet giggled as the filly rolled her eyes. "What do you think, Swift?"

"Oh you've definitely nailed down that there are no griffons here, that's for sure."

"I get the feeling you don't have a lot of friends," Twilight Velvet said bluntly to the filly.

"Sure I do, but a bunch of them are in Mareitania, and a bunch more of those are possibly dead, and some of my friends are prisoners in Ponyville, while the others are off trying to save the world at the same time as some others are being mind-fucked into conquering it. Tell me, Mrs Twilight, where are all your friends?"

"Canterlot, mostly. I imagine some are trying to cozy up to the new regime in an attempt to keep their lives comfortable." Twilight Velvet smiled at the filly, "Any other questions?"

"Sure," said a feminine voice behind them, "what are you doing here?"

The three of them tried to turn around, but the sharp prick of blades between their shoulder stopped them. The only clue they had to the nature of their assailants was the flapping of wings, which sounded different to the sound of pegasus wings.

"You guys are super stealthy," the filly said, impressed that whoever it was had got the drop on them so easily. "I don't suppose you happen to be the Night Guard, do you?" She sighed as she got no answer, "Strong, silent types huh? Okay, well I think we both know that if you were going to kill us, you would've done it by now, so I'm just going to turn around."

"I really suggest you don't," the voice said as the filly started to wriggle around. "Not unless you want a new hole to breath through."

"Okay, look, your Night Mother is going to be pretty pissed if you kill any of us, never mind what Twilight would do to you, so how about we just knock all this pretence off and hug it out?" The filly squawked as she was roughly picked up and slammed back down with her back to the ground. When the pain faded enough to open her eyes, she found herself looking into the bright blue eyes of a pale grey thestral mare with an equally bright blue mane. Behind her was a half dozen other thestrals. "Misty, isn't it?"

"How do you know about the Night Mother?"

"Misty, it's me, the filly, from Mareitania?" the filly added as Misty looked unconvinced. "I was friends with Twilight, and Trixie, and all those guys. Shadow was the one that told me about the Night Mother, and how it's one of the names you use for Luna!"

"That's Princess Luna to you," Misty growled. "I'm also pretty sure that the filly was an earth pony."

"My wings had been cut off when I was small! Smaller! Come on, Misty, surely you remember me?"

"Yeah, I guess." Misty backed off and sheathed her blade, allowing the filly to stand. "Who are these other two?"

"Twilight Velvet and Nightlight, Princess Twilight's and General Armour's parents. We're also here with General Armour himself, and Director of Equis, Fleur de Lis. Do I have to throw any more fancy titles around, or do you believe me when I say killing us would be a terrible idea?"

Misty gestured for the thestrals pointing weapons at the two unicorns to let them up. "You better not be lying to me. If you are, I'll kill you myself."

"That's a bit over the top, isn't it? Give me a good kicking maybe, but kill me?"

"Our secrecy is essential," Misty explained. "Frankly you already know more about us than I'm comfortable with." Misty glanced up at the steelworks, and her eyes went wide as she saw the ponies there start running towards them, along with the two yaks. "We've been spotted, time to go."

"Wait, what about us-aaahh!" The filly shouted in surprise as Misty grabbed hold of her and dragged her into the air. Below them, two pairs of thestrals took hold of Twilight Velvet and Nightlight, lifting the two unicorns between them.

"Wait, you have wings. Why the hell am I carrying you?"

The filly grabbed on to one of Misty's legs as the thestral threatened to drop her. "I don't know how to fly yet! I haven't learnt!"

"Are your wings that new?"

"You've probably kept food in your fridge longer than I've had these wings. Canterlot fell not long after I got them, so I never got to learn how to fly."

"Huh, that sucks. Don't look at any of us to be teaching you though, because flying with feathers is probably different to how we do it."

"It's fine." The filly shrugged in Misty's grip, "I've just about got the hang of gliding, mostly by throwing myself down the stairs, but the rest of it is taking some time." She looked around as she noticed they were flying northwest, away from the ocean. "Where are we going? The others are on a boat to the south of Fillydelphia."

"Hollow Shades."

"Hollow Shades? What's there?"

"Home."

"...Didn't you come from Caverndown?"

"Uh... it's-ah, more of a-um... spiritual home."

"That was a terrible save, and you know it."

-0-0-0-

There was a derelict village in Hollow Shades. That's all that the filly could really find to say about the place. The place was gloomy and depressing to say anything more about it, and she could fully understand why the ponies that lived here decided to leave. For the night loving thestrals though, she supposed it was perfect.

They passed over the village, then looped back south towards Foal Mountain, which is where the filly learnt, to her utter lack of surprise, that the thestrals were living in some caves. Why they chose to do so when there are far nicer options was beyond her ability to comprehend. Maybe it was the dragon and bat in them?

"We're here," Misty announced as she dropped the filly off at the narrow entrance into the caves. A moment later Twilight Velvet and Nightlight were dropped off as well.

"If we do that again, it'll be too soon," Nightlight groaned. "Where are we anyway?"

"Foal Mountain," said Misty. "This is where my kin that didn't leave Equestria after Luna's banishment ended up. Officially it's named Nostralis, but most of us here call it Batsburg."

The filly rolled her eyes, "I'm guessing only thestrals get to call it that?"

"Don't know. You're the first non-thestrals to come here in the time I've lived here."

"I thought you lived in Canterlot, being part of the Night Guard and all?" the filly asked as they started the descent into the caves. The cave started out as a typical cave, but within a dozen meters it changed into an actual hallway, carved into the rock itself.

"When I say this is home, filly, I mean it's more like the home of the thestrals, rather than my personal home."

"Oh, so she gets to call you filly?" Twilight pouted at the filly, while Misty looked back at her with confusion.

"That's her name, isn't it?"

"Actually, my name's Swift Wings, but I only started using it after I came to Equestria. Only my friends call me filly now."

"Makes sense. Just so you know, it gets pretty dark in here until we reach Batsburg, and it's pretty dark there too, to be honest. You unicorns might want to light your horns up."

Two flashes of light lit the square cut passage, dimming down a second later to two steady lights that lit up the passage around them, while illuminating how dark it was everywhere else. For those not used to it, it was quite oppressive, and they found themselves not wanting to say anything to disturb it.

Eventually they reached the end, and the passage opened out into a huge, round chamber, lined with different levels that went up into the roof of the cavern, the exact centre of which held a pale white orb that cast a pale moonlight like illumination over everything, and was bright enough for even the non-thestrals to see by.

"Woah," the filly said as they stopped to take in the sight. "This place is awesome. How long has this been here?"

"Centuries," Misty replied. "It's not quite Caverndown, but it's a lot easier on the eyes without having bright, shiny crystal everywhere. Now come on, we need to go see the Captain."

"Uh-huh," the filly murmured. She was too busy looking around to do much else. Two dozen layers filled the cavern, and seemed to follow a pattern where businesses filled the lower levels, while the upper ones were residential. It was unusually well thought out, to the filly's mind at least, but there was one thing that struck her as odd. "Why are there ramps everywhere? You all have wings."

"For those few, non-flying visitors we have, and believe it or not, you aren't the first pony in the world to lose a wing or two."

"Alright, but couldn't you have built a lift? Must be annoying to have to walk everywhere."

"That's where we're going." Almost as if to answer the filly's query, Misty led them two platforms that continually moved up and down in opposition to each other, never seeming to stop. You simply had to jump on while you could, and jump back off where you wanted to go. "Mind the step."

It was a minute until one of the platforms reached the bottom level where they were, and they quickly jumped on in the brief window they had where it was stationary. Then it started going up again, carrying them higher into the city until they reached the middle level where they disembarked.

"What powers this?" Nightlight asked in wonderment.

"Underground rivers as far as I've come to understand. I think I heard something about it being diverted off the river from the Neighagra Falls. Anyway, keep following me, and we'll get you to the Captain."

There was another passage that Misty led them through, although it was much shorter than the one that brought them to Batsburg. On the other side of it was another part of the city, but one that only consisted of four levels, although that was being was being expanded upon judging by the tools on the ground floor.

"This looks new," Twilight Velvet said as Misty led them up to the highest level.

"It started getting built when the ponies learnt that we'd be coming here from Mareitania. Before this there was only the other section, but they dug this out and moved some things like the infirmary here so we could keep the residential part together. It also happens to be where the Night Guard have based themselves. Come on."

On the top level was a dedicated post for the Night Guard, marked by the eye symbol they kept on their armour. There were plenty of thestrals around wearing the distinctive purple armour, and each and every one of them was armed, like they were ready for action at any moment.

"Are you expecting an attack?" the filly asked as they passed a room where more Night Guard were gearing themselves up.

"With Faust in charge, we're having to gather supplies like we did back in Caverndown, which for the most part means us taking it from military targets. Just like the good ole days, except considerably more dangerous. We're doing okay for food, but our medical supplies are getting low. Just ask Shadow."

"Shadow? Is she okay?"

"Mostly. I know you two got along, so I'll take you to see her once we talk to Captain Greywhisker."

The filly swallowed and nodded, following Misty to what she assumed was the command centre for the operations being carried out here. There were thestrals rushing around, and orders being issued by a gruff thestral that the filly knew was Greywhisker from his voice alone.

"Have the patrols been switched yet?" he asked a mousey brown thestral.

"Last one hasn't come in yet, sir, but they're ready to go as soon as the last one is back."

"Good. If those reports were accurate, the Mareitanians are starting to gather the courage to explore deeper into Hollow Shades. We can't have them sneaking up on us."

"Yes sir, I know sir. I'll let you know when the patrols are changed."

"Good." Greywhisker looked up as Misty entered the room, and was about to ask about the situation in Fillydelphia when he spotted the other three ponies with her. "Misty, who are they, and why are they in my command centre?"

"Sorry sir," Misty said, snapping to attention. "We found them spying on the steelworks, and I decided to bring them here."

"And why would you do that?"

"Because the unicorns are the parents of Princess Twilight and General Armour, and the filly is the adopted daughter of Director de Lis. They claim that neither of those ponies are imprisoned in Canterlot like we thought."

"I broke them out," the filly said smugly, buffing a hoof on her chest.

"I doubt that," Greywhisker said back.

"Alright, so maybe I stole the key that helped them break out, but it was a pretty important part of the breaking out process."

"Of course. And where are they now?"

"On a boat we stole in Manehattan, south of Fillydelphia. We were going to attack the steelworks ourselves, but it seems you beat us to it."

"So you're fighting back then?"

"We're... trying to," the filly admitted sheepishly. "There's only like eleven of us, and six of those aren't what you'd call fighters. Apparently what you have going on is way more effective."

"And yet it isn't enough," Greywhisker sighed. "Most of our efforts are going into making sure everypony here is safe and fed. The attack on the steelworks was mostly to test a hypothesis while slowing their efforts to rebuilt. Speaking of which, report please, Misty."

Misty saluted as she delivered her report, "Not a single griffon to be seen, Captain. It seems Chocola's report on them going to Griffonia was accurate. However, almost five hundred soldiers were sent to defend the steelworks, and amongst them were two yaks, so we can definitely confirm their presence."

"They must be taking the rebuilding of the steelworks seriously to send that many troops to defend it."

"That's not all," the filly piped up. "While we were in Fillydelphia, we spotted Black Rose and another Shade questioning the keeper of the shop you raided. Faust must be taking what you did super seriously to send the fricking leader of the Shades to investigate."

"So it would seem." Greywhisker hummed thoughtfully, then started searching through some papers on the table in the middle of the room. "Since you're in the company of both Fleur de Lis, and Shining Armour, I don't suppose you've made contact with the princesses?"

The filly grinned at Greywhisker, "Actually, we have a direct line to Twilight. She's with Luna, Cadence, and some others. Currently they're trying to recruit the griffons into building an army to fight back."

Greywhisker stopped to stare at the filly, "You aren't lying, are you? Good grief, Princess Luna must be desperate to try getting the griffons to fight with us."

"You don't approve?" Nightlight asked, getting a scoff out of Greywhisker.

"Griffons rarely try to be helpful, so I don't expect the princesses efforts to amount to much. I am wondering if it has something to do with this." Greywhisker placed a report on the table in front of the three ponies, "The griffons, by which I mean the Bloodfeathers, took a number ponies from the Ponyville prison camp. I can't say why, or if it was approved by Faust, but they were spotted being taken to Griffonstone. Hopefully they aren't being taken as a snack."

Twilight Velvet raised her eyebrows as she skimmed over the report, "You think the Bloodfeathers are going to use the ponies in Griffonia?"

"We know Commander Theron has designs on deposing his father, and is certainly no true ally of Faust's. I'm wondering if he's going to use those ponies to goad Griffonia into attacking Faust, because if so, the princesses will have their hooves full, and should be warned if possible."

"That's back with Fleur on the boat," said the filly. "You'll have to take us there to get a warning out."

"Actually, I'd like to talk with General Armour myself, so I will be joining you when you're returned. Currently we have the numbers to pull together for an occasional attack, but doing that while maintaining Nocturlis and gathering intelligence is stretching us. I'm hoping that if you're willing to do that for us, I can ease the pressure on my thestrals a bit, and allow us to pull together for a bigger assault if needed."

"Sounds good to me," the filly said cheerfully. "I will have to remind you that there's still only eleven of us, so don't expect brilliant intelligence too soon."

"As I am aware, but I'll have to discuss the full details with the General and Director when I see them. Unfortunately I'm busy at the moment, so you'll have to wait until I'm done. Feel free to explore the city until then."

"Actually, there's somepony I'd like to see first."

-0-0-0-

"So were you going to let me do all the talking then?" the filly asked as Misty escorted her, Twilight Velvet, and Nightlight to the infirmary.

"You seemed to have it well in hoof," said Twilight Velvet. "I'm honestly feeling a little out of my depth after being abducted by bat ponies."

"Don't call them that!" the filly shouted as Misty turned to glare at the unicorn. "Really, really don't call them that. They're called thestrals."

"Oh, uh, sorry." Twilight Velvet grinned sheepishly at Misty, mollifying her for now. "As I said, I'm a little out of my depth. I'm starting to think I'm- we're going to have to ask Shining for some lessons on how to better defend ourselves if we run into ponies considerably less friendly than the thestrals here."

"I did learn fencing once," Nightlight said in a distant voice. "I'm not sure that's going to stand up in a proper fight though."

"And make you guys marginally more useful?" the filly gasped sarcastically. "Perish the thought. Maybe then you could contribute to the conversation a bit more."

Twilight Velvet breathed her irritation out through her nose, "We're trying, okay? I'm sorry we're not big, tough ponies like Shining, or Bon Bon, or even you. I'm a housewife for goodness sake's, and Nightlight's an astronomer! Not exactly useful skills in this situation."

"Apart from when you're cooking one of your delicious dinners," Nightlight offered.

"See? I'm typecast into the role!"

"Alright, sheesh. I'm sure Shining would be more than happy to put his parents further into the firing line than he already has, now if you'll excuse me, I'm here to see somepony. Wait here."

The filly kept following after Misty, ignoring the short complaint Twilight Velvet made as she wondered why they kept getting bossed around by somepony half their height, and a third of their age. Frankly she still found her tolerance to the two of them to be flagging after Manehattan.

"Hey Shadow," Misty said as she entered a room up ahead. "Got a visitor for you."

"A visitor? Who?"

The filly walked into the room, a smile on her face for the dark haired thestral. It quickly dropped off when she saw the pony in question, sitting as she was in a chair by her bed, one of her back legs hanging off the front. The other just... wasn't there. "What the fuck happened to you?" The filly froze as she realised she'd said that out loud, "I'm mean, hey Shadow! How's it going? Heh heh..."

"I dare say it could be better," Shadow said slowly. "What are you doing here? How are you here? Misty?"

"It's a long story, I'll tell you later when I don't have things to do. I'll see you later."

"Sorry, Shadow," the filly said when Misty was gone. "I figured you'd been hurt since you were in here, but I wasn't expecting you to be... like that."

"Missing a leg you mean? You can say it you know, I'm fully aware of what's happened to me."

The filly winced at the harshness of Shadow's voice, "How did it happen?"

"A griffon messed my leg up at Canterlot, like really bad to the point that it wouldn't have healed right anyway. Then it got infected, and one of the things were lacking are antibiotics, so when it got really bad, there was only one thing to do." Shadow drew a line on the chair below the stump of her back left leg. "Yep."

"Well that sucks."

"Putting it mildly, yes, it really does. Hopefully those healing thingies work on thestrals when we get the chance to use one on me." Shadow shrugged, and let a tiny grin show her fangs, "Still, you should've seen the other guy."

"No thanks, I'd like to keep hold of my lunch." The filly grinned back at Shadow, but it shrank as the thestral lost her own. "You are okay though, right?"

"Oh sure. I mean, think of the savings I'll make now I can make a pair of socks last twice as long. Totally worth losing a leg for." Shadow sighed as the filly laid her ears back, "Sorry kid, I'm probably not the best company right now. I'm just sick of sitting here being all useless, draining what scant resources we have, only to give nothing back."

"You can still fly, can't you?"

"Yeah, but I can't fight any more, and until I learn to compensate for my missing leg, I can't go that fast either. I can't patrol, I can't scout... I can't do anything."

"Then why not put you to work in the command centre?"

Shadow laughed once, "Greywhisker tried to put it nicely by telling me I need to rest, but the truth is I can't move very fast, and I'll just get in the way."

The filly nodded, understanding where Shadow was coming from, and yet already sick of hearing the self-pity spouting from her mouth. "If that's all true, why are you sat here instead of training yourself to get better at moving on three legs?"

"Because it's just... not that simple."

The filly snorted and slowly spread her wings, "Oh? Tell me more."

"That's different. You still had all your legs to get around on."

"And I certainly didn't have a massive part of my identity as a pony torn off along with my wings as I was thrown out to survive in a harsh and unforgiving world that hated pegasi. A missing leg would've been a blessing compared to all that. Come on Shadow, what the fuck? You're better than this."

"Not anymore I'm not. Look, if you're here to remind me how useless I am, good job. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some unexciting staring at the wall to get back to."

"Or you could come with us! We're looking for another flier to do some scouting, and we're more interested in accuracy than speed. You'd be perfect!" The filly pouted as Shadow said nothing, "Or you can stay here and drown yourself in self-pity, instead of getting back out there and doing something. Sure you lost a leg, but that only becomes a problem if you let it. It's entirely up to you."

Still there was nothing from Shadow, and not knowing what else to do, the filly stood and made for the door. She stopped and sighed again as Shadow pretended she wasn't there. "Come on Shadow, don't let becoming a miserable sack of shit be your epitaph," she said, closing the door and hoping Shadow came out of herself.

-0-0-0-

It was a couple of hours until Captain Greywhisker was free to escort them back to the boat. A couple of hours that had been spent exploring Batsburg from top to bottom. As Misty had said, it didn't quite have the aesthetic charm of Caverndown, but won some points back by not buying its independence with propping up the enslavement of pegasi. Swings and roundabouts, as it were.

Still, it wasn't quite big enough to occupy a full two hours, so the filly was more than glad when Greywhisker came looking for them, along with Misty and a few others.

"You'll be glad to know we've managed to procure a cart for the return journey," Greywhisker said with a smile. "It should hopefully be a bit more comfortable for you, and for those carrying you."

"You're too kind," Twilight Velvet said with plain relief. "I was not looking forward to getting carried back. Those two boys were rather... grabby, on the way here."

"Apologies for any discomfort they may have caused you," Greywhisker said as he started leading them up the path back outside. "By the way, I will have to ask you to not reveal the location of this place should you be captured. Even when Equestria isn't occupied by a hostile force, we do like our privacy."

"Your secret is safe with us," said Nightlight. "Frankly, I'm honoured to be one of the few non-thestrals to have seen Batsburg. I mean Nostralis," he corrected quickly as Greywhisker raised an eyebrow at him.

"Very good." A minute later they were outside, and as Greywhisker had said, there was a cart waiting for them. "Climb in, and we'll be on our way."

"Wait a sec," the filly said as a clattering sound accompanied by cursing came up the passage behind them.

"Wait!" Shadow shouted as she half limped, half flew up after them, her armour askew, and her mane a mess.

The filly smirked at Shadow, "Don't worry, we were already. Damn I'm good at this whole dramatic timing thing"

"What are you doing?" Greywhisker asked wearily. "You're supposed to be resting."

"Beg pardon Captain, but I've been resting for weeks, and I'm tired of being cooped up. I know I'm not much use to you, but the filly said their group could use another scout, and that I didn't have to fast, or the best at fighting." Shadow looked down at the ground, trying to hold back tears. "Please?"

There was a drawn out groan from Greywhisker, but he did at least seem to be thinking about it. "We'll have to see what General Armour has to say about it, but you have my permission."

"Yes!"

"Now get in the cart, and lets get going."

With a flap of her wings, Shadow jumped into the cart, taking the spot in the right, next to the filly. They took off shortly after, the two stallions pulling it barely even grunting with the extra weight.

"So I guess what I said was motivational after all."

"Uh, not quite. You weren't wrong of course, but mostly it was you saying you survived on the streets after getting your wings cut of when you were yay high," Shadow raised a hoof to knee level. "If you can do that, what the fuck's my excuse?"

"Oh. Well."

"Sorry kid."

"No-no," the filly waved a hoof to dismiss Shadow's worries, "don't sweat it. I'm just glad to see you're having a go."

"That's all anyone can do, really."

"Hmm, a-men to that."

Author's Note

Okay, so, apologies for last week, but we got to the chapter I was iffy about, and I decided to not go with it. It did indeed have a poison wine plot, but no one actually died, and it was actually a plot by Janice, head of Griffon Intelligence, to kill Eustace once he had claimed the throne. The Emperor survives by being fat enough to survive the poison long enough for Cadence to save him, Trixie decides to investigate, and she whines a lot, and Twilight and Luna feel like shit. It really didn't add anything at all to the overall plot, so into the trash it went.

13. Nonroutine check-up

"That is super freaky. Your hip moves, even though there's nothing there."

Shadow glared at the filly, but there was no real malice in it. "Are you going to spend the entire time criticising me? It's bad enough that I'm having to practice walking again without you telling me how freaky parts of me are while I'm doing it."

"Dude, you have wings. Fly."

"This may be a shock to you, but wings get tired, and they especially get tired when hovering. I need to be able to walk at least well enough to give my wings a break every now and again."

The filly grinned slyly at Shadow, "So you will be flying around most of the time."

"Of course I will! Walking on three legs is also really tiring!" Shadow sat and groaned up at the sky, "I suppose I should be thankful it was one of my back legs. Apparently, losing a front one sucks way more."

"I'm sure Twilight would fully agree with that," Fleur said as she walked over to the two of them. "If it helps, you appear to be getting around on it pretty well."

"Finally, someone who knows how to show a little support."

"Hey," the filly sniffed, "I'm showing support by telling you what you're doing wrong."

"Calling me freaky is not showing support, or telling me what I'm doing wrong! Fucking hell," Shadow groaned, "you grow one pair of wings back, and you think you know everything about this."

Fleur smiled sympathetically at Shadow, "Are you really sure you're up for this?"

"Oh no you don't, you're using the 'I'm not sure this was a good idea' voice. I promise you Fleur, I am a hundred percent up for this, and I refuse to slow you down or be a burden."

Fleur smiled lopsided at Shadow, "You're a friend, Shadow, so you're never going to be a burden. Even if you ended up not doing much, you'd still be welcome to stay with us."

"Oh, wow, um..." Shadow cleared her throat, "that's making me feel... feelings. Uh, thanks Fleur."

The filly raised an eyebrow at Fleur, "You're just saying that because Twilight tried to make you go home after you got messed up in High Rock."

"You are exactly fifty percent right. The other fifty percent is that Shadow wants to help as much as she can, and who are we to stop her?"

Shadow winced at Fleur's words, "I don't need ears like mine to hear the pity in that."

"Sorry, I tried to keep it out. By the way, you're on a moving boat, so if you can walk on this, you can walk on anything."

"Except water," the filly said sagely.

"Right, or anything of a liquid consistency."

Shadow smiled happily at the other two ponies, "You guys are no less irreverent than the last time I hung out with you. All we need is Twilight, Trixie, Octavia, and Summer, and it'd feel like the good old days."

"If the good old days were actually that good," Fleur deadpanned.

"And we weren't being pirates," the filly added. "Although we did do a fair bit of piracy, if on land," she supposed with a rubbing of her chin. "If anything, we've done less piracy since then by a long way."

Fleur closed her eyes and sighed through her nose, "Filly, I am quickly losing interest in whatever point it is you're trying to make."

"Yeah, me too." The filly rubbed her hooves together, her mind filled with glee at the prospect of stealing stuff from under the Mareitanians noses. "So, are we almost there yet?"

Fleur pointed to the city in the distance, the light of the setting sun shining off the few skyscrapers it had, and off the clouds of the pegasus city floating above it. "Take a wild guess."

"Well I don't know! That could be Las Pegasus for all I know!"

"Urgh... you're only stuck with her for the rest of your life, Fleur, you can manage that." Fleur winked at the filly as she pouted up at the unicorn. "Yes that is Baltimare, and yes that is where we need to go. In there is a whole bunch of medical surplus to prevent any more incidents like Shadow's, and a tiny, near pointless crystal to stop Flicker being so damn paranoid about that inhibitor she keeps on."

"Could you imagine the crazy if she didn't have it on though? A less paranoid Flicker is a good one."

"Faust isn't mind controlling anyone in Equestria! That's why Blueblood is doing whatever the fuck it is he's doing!"

The filly shrugged at Fleur, "Tell that to Flicker."

"I have. Repeatedly."

Shadow looked up, then back down again at Fleur, "I get the feeling you've never had a little voice in your head telling you to conquer the world for the glory of the Lady."

"And you have?"

"Fuck no, I've got my implant."

"Then you're only confirming Flicker's point!"

"Exactly." Shadow smiled lopsided at Fleur, "I'm just saying, maybe that paranoia is perfectly justified from her point of view, because she has had a little voice in her head telling to her conquer the world for Faust, or whatever the hell it was telling her to do. After escaping that once, I'd be paranoid as get all out."

Fleur held up a hoof, no longer wishing to discuss it further, because that would involve telling Shadow she might have a point. "If getting her an implant means she can take that inhibitor off, then whatever. Mostly, we're here for the supplies, where I'm hoping you know what is needed."

"Everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything."

"Oh." Fleur scratched her head as she looked around the yacht, "I'm not sure we can fit everything. I'm also not entirely sure we can transport everything." Fleur waited a few seconds, then cursed at the floor.

"What?" asked the filly.

"I was hoping somepony would say, 'leave that to me,' or something, but alas, no such luck."

"That's a weird thing to hope for."

"Anyway... we need to find out where the medical centre is, which is your first job, Shadow. Once it's dark, you and Thorax will head out to find it, while we think of a plan."

-0-0-0-

"Smash and grab," said Bon Bon. "It's the only way we're going to pull this off."

Fleur blinked, having been expecting a stealthy plan from the ponies that specialise in stealth. "Okay... that's a plan, certainly. I think you're missing the part where there'll be soldiers around though."

"Deadly force. If we want to stop an alarm being raised, we need to put any soldiers we find down hard and fast. Then we can grab what we need and go."

"How about we save that for the exit strategy," Shining suggested, unknowingly sharing Fleur's thoughts on the idea. "If we can get to the centre without raising suspicion, we can load up quietly, then get out of here with speed if we have to."

Bon Bon shook her head, "We might not have the timeframe for that, and we have no idea what we'll be facing, so I suggest doing this as fast as possible."

"Or we could run flat out into a disaster," said Shining. "What if the hospital isn't as abandoned as we think? A place like that would be perfect for desperate ponies to loot. Desperate ponies that aren't going to like us charging in and taking their stuff."

"Are you saying they could attack us?" Twilight Velvet asked her son in surprise.

"We don't know what those ponies might do. Everything might be fine, and life continuing as normal if we we're lucky, but that's not something we should count on. Bon Bon is right in that we know very little about the situation in Baltimare."

"Which is why I'm saying that the less time we spend here, the better."

"But your plan leaves us no options if we get found out, and getting seen doing this will guarantee a Shades investigation, possibly drawing Black Rose away from Fillydelphia, and completely screwing that plan." Shining nodded as Bon Bon bit the back of her lips. "I wouldn't mind grabbing the stuff and running, but I don't think it helps our future plans in the slightest."

Bon Bon stood to attention, "Apologies Sir, I withdraw my suggestion."

"No need to apologise, and if you have any suggestions on how we're going to move all this stuff, I would love to hear it."

"So we can't just grab it all and run?" the filly asked.

"The amount we need, all of us would have to go," Fleur told her. "If we could find a cart, that'd be something, but it would also make us a bigger target."

"Thorax did turn into a bugbear," said Rocky. "Perhaps he could carry it while we run back?"

Fleur saw the look on Honeydew's face as Rocky suggested the idea, but said nothing just as Honeydew also did. Eventually a real problem could develop between Honeydew and the rest of them if they didn't stop thrusting Thorax into danger. It wasn't their fault he was so damned useful.

"I doubt he could carry all we need," said Shining. "He could lessen it though, if he's willing," Shining added quickly as Honeydew directed a look at him. "Unfortunately that still leaves us with having to find a way back to the boat without getting noticed, while carrying a whole load of stuff."

"I think," the filly said in a tone that sounded like she'd come upon a world changing epiphany, "we're going to have to accept that we can't do this entirely stealthily. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, am I right?"

Fleur nodded in agreement, "I hate to say it, but the filly's right."

"Hey! What's to hate about that?"

"With Thorax, how many do you think we'll need?" Fleur asked, directing the question at both Shining and Bon Bon. "Excluding me of course, because I can't run very fast even without carrying a load of stuff. The filly too."

"For once, I'm not going to argue."

"Might want to leave Crème to pilot the boat too."

Shining quietly counted around the ponies with a hoof, starting with himself, then Bon Bon, Rocky, Flicker, and then hesitated as he ended up on his parents and Honeydew. Honeydew, he knew, wasn't worth asking, but... "Damn it. Mom, Dad, are you okay coming with us?"

Nightlight winked at his son, "If it helps the cause, sure, your mother and I would gladly help. We're in this together, Shining."

"Of course," Twilight Velvet cut in, "a little instruction on self defence might go a long way in making us safer."

"Right..." For some reason, Shining hated the idea of that, even though it made sense. "I'll teach you some basics if we have time. Time, of course, being a thing we have until we wait for Thorax and Shadow to return. We really should wait for them to get back before planning too much."

"That's probably a good idea," Fleur said, right up until a rhythmic thumping came from the deck above. With a quiet frown, Fleur walked to the way out and looked up at Crème as the mare started smacking the deck again. "What are you doing?"

Crème pointed to the south, and Fleur squinted in the direction she was indicating as the others followed her out. Leaving the Horseshoe Bay were a dozen ships, each of them fairly large, and each of them flying the Mareitanian flag. It was hard to tell from the distance they were at whether the ships were heavily armed, but armed or not, they knew it had to be bad news.

"They're going south," Fleur said dumbly. "Why are they going south? Where's south that they might be interested in?"

"They might be heading around to Las Pegasus," said Shining. "Or Mareitania. Or any number of places really. Maybe we should also worry about the why? A dozen ships that size could carry a decent sized force."

"This is getting ridiculous," muttered Fleur. "There should be a limit to how much shit we can put up with at once. I guess that for now, all we can really do is take a note of it."

The filly snickered at Fleur, "I guess we're delegating that to be somepony else's problem? We could follow them and maybe try to sink a few?"

"Out of the question," said Shining. "We already have enough to do without creating more work for ourselves. Especially when attacking them would be suicide."

"I didn't say attack, did I? I said sink. Sneak in quietly and blow a few holes in the bottom with your magic, then run away."

Fleur pondered it for a moment, then shook her head, as did Shining. "That's a bit too much for us. We'll notify the princesses when we can, but that's all we'll be doing."

-0-0-0-

It was another half an hour before Shadow and Thorax returned, and their news wasn't great either, besides their destination being on the other side of the city.

"How have we not heard about any of this before now?" Fleur asked rhetorically. "A refugee crisis in Baltimare? Great."

"I can't blame them though," Shining said to her. "The deserts around Appleloosa were a pretty poor choice in the first place, and even worse when we... abandoned them. They would have to gravitate somewhere, and Baltimare was probably the least threatening option."

"I realise that, but after what was done to them, you really have to wonder if they're as much on Faust's side now, as they were Equestria's?"

"I'm sure their primary concern is survival," insisted Bon Bon. "If they've raided the medical centre for supplies, that's where our trouble lies."

"You'd think Blueblood would've gone right after the refugees," Rocky thought out loud. "Disenfranchised bunch like them would be easy pickings, and fairly easy to buy onto your side. Sure the Mareitanians made them refugees in the first place, but, well, y'know."

"That's really not how Blueblood works," said Fleur. "The unwashed masses aren't his kind of ponies."

"They might not be ours either." Bon Bon nodded towards Shining, "He mightn't get a very friendly reception off the crystal ponies, if there are any, and I doubt we'll get a better one if we take things they need."

"What do you think, Shadow?" the filly asked suddenly, engaging the thestral that had been sat there quietly since mentioning their findings. "These are your ponies that need the medical supplies, so what do you think we should do?"

"Why are you asking me? I don't want to take things that others need!" Shadow hummed and bit her lip thoughtfully for a moment, "That said, I doubt the refugees are so desperate for medical supplies that they need an entire hospital's worth. What they probably want is food. What if we found some food to trade?"

"With the food shortages we've found?" Fleur shook her head, "Not likely. It's a nice idea though."

"Oh. Right." Shadow rubbed her head, "Well, what if we try to get aid to them in the future? Give us some medicine, and we'll see what we can do?"

"They aren't going to trade their supplies on the promise of possible supplies in the future." Fleur looked around the room and sighed as no other ideas were brought up. "I think the only thing we can do is go there. At the very least, getting an implant for Flicker shouldn't be an issue. Bon Bon, tell Crème to bring us in, and let's get this show on the road."

"Yes ma'am."

"We're in a boat," the filly quipped. "There are no roads."

"There are in the city!"

The boat lurched as Crème nudged the throttle, and a few minutes later it was brushing up along the coast as the team going in assembled on the edge facing the beach, jumping off one by one into the surf and staggering ashore, save those lucky two that could fly.

"Good luck!" Fleur shouted to them. "Remember to have Shadow or Thorax come find us when you're coming back!"

The boat accelerated away, leaving the seven ponies, and a one changeling in the dark. Without a word, they made their way up the beach to the outskirts of the city, and waited patiently as Shadow and Thorax explained where to go. Once their explanation was complete, they took to the air, leaving the rest of them to make their way to the medical centre on hoof, which was a much harder task. The city was quiet, but they knew that was down to the curfew, and actually made them easier to spot rather than harder, because there were no crowds to blend in with.

Shining did wonder for a while about how the Mareitanians were policing the cloud districts of Baltimare, and very soon came to the conclusion that they weren't. How could they? With the griffons gone, they had no means by which to do that. How they were keeping the pegasi of the city under control? The answers he came up with weren't very nice, ranging from the usual Mareitanian method, to holding the earthbound portion of the city hostage in exchange for obedience.

Shining put it out of his mind, like he did so many things these days, and concentrated on putting one hoof in front of the other, and before he knew it, they were at their destination. "New Hope Medical Centre," he read aloud from the sign out front.

"With a name like that," Rocky whispered, "no wonder the refugees were drawn here like flies to shit."

"Feel free to rephrase that," Shining said sternly.

"Sorry sir, but rephrasing it wouldn't change what I mean." Rocky gestured with his head towards the building, "Lights are on," he said. "Guess that means we're out of luck on doing this quietly and without a fuss."

"Seems so," Shining murmured in quiet agreement. "Hopefully they are actually refugees, and not Mareitanians, because we are going to look like the dullest bunch of idiots walking in through the front door into a bunch of soldiers." Shining set his jaw after staring at the hospital for several seconds, "Let's go."

All of them hurried through the grounds surrounding the hospital, and were joined at the front door by Shadow and Thorax, who hastily disguised himself as the brown pegasus he'd been travelling as for a while. The lock on the door was already bust, and allowed the door to swing open at a push from Shining's magic as he entered.

Fearful eyes met him, before changing to concerned caution as they saw he wasn't a threat, or so they might've hoped. Shining hoped that was the case at least, because more than a few of the ponies that had set up their beds wherever they could were crystal ponies, and he knew they probably recognised him.

"Uh, hi." Shining smiled at the ponies around him, "Sorry to disturb you. I don't suppose you could tell me who's in charge here, could you?"

A burgundy crystal pony mare with a dark grey mane and tail, stood and dragged herself over to them, her head low. Shining wanted to say he at least recognised her, as he did most of the crystal ponies, but her washed out colours prevented him from doing so. "Doctor Gloves is in charge, your Highness."

"Oh, thank you, um..."

"Paradise, your Highness."

Shining nodded, not really recognising the name, and completely failing to connect the cheerful name and happy looking palm tree cutie mark with the dreary pony it was attached to. "Could you take us to Doctor Gloves? Please?"

"I could."

Several seconds passed with Paradise having not moved.

"Oh, you mean you want me to?"

"Please?"

"Follow me."

Shining sighed with faint relief as Paradise started to lead them through the hospital, but his attention soon became occupied with the miserable looking ponies lining the halls as they either slept, or tried to sleep. Of those awake, some looked up to him with hope, while a few had only anger for him. The ones that distressed him most were the completely indifferent stares that didn't care who he was, and might be thankful that he didn't kick them while passing. Most of the ponies wearing that expression were crystal ponies.

"There's a very high ratio of crystal ponies here," Bon Bon observed. "I thought they'd barely make up twenty percent of the refugee population, at most."

"A lot of the refugees have gone home," Paradise explained. "Tall Tale was undamaged in the war, and large parts of Vanhoover weren't too badly damaged. Most of us left here are those with nowhere to return to, including quite a few Vanhoovians whose homes were destroyed, and Ponyvillians who were forced out of their homes when the village became a prison."

"I suppose that makes sense," Shining said carefully, not wanting to spend too much time talking about home around the crystal ponies. Paradise didn't seem to want to let him though.

"I wish we could go home."

"You will, one day, I promise."

"But Faust has the Crystal Heart, doesn't she?"

"Nope. We do, and when this is all over we're going to take the Crystal Empire back." Shining said that in the hopes of inspiring confidence, and while Paradise's ears did perk up, she seemed mostly confused.

"Isn't it already over? Faust won the war."

Shining acknowledged the stern look he got from Bon Bon, knowing he had to be careful with what he said now. "I wish it could be over, but it isn't until Faust says so, or we stop her. And we will stop her."

"Oh."

Shining groaned inside, but he knew that was better than telling her that they shouldn't fight, or something. "Changing the subject, what's the supply situation around here?"

"You'll have to ask Doctor Gloves about that."

"Of course. How much further is he?"

"We're here." Paradise stopped at a door and rapped a hoof upon it, "Doctor Gloves, I have some ponies that want to see you."

There was a groan from inside the room, and a few seconds later a young sounding male spoke to them. "Take them to the clinic and tell them I'll be there in a minute."

"Okay. This way please."

"But we're not patients," Shining protested weakly as Paradise started leading them on to another nearby room, where they were told to wait as Paradise left to go on whatever errand had popped into her head. A minute later, they were joined by a brown and white palomino unicorn.

"So which one of you is hurt?" he asked, not bothering with introductions.

"Uh, none of us are," Shining replied with a weak smile.

"What? Then why did you come looking for me?"

"Because Paradise said you were in charge of this place."

"Pfft, barely. I think you could say I'm in charge if me knowing most of what goes on here is a qualification for that." He stood there for a moment waiting, "Well? Come on then, spit it out."

"How long have you been here?" Bon Bon asked, deciding to sate her curiosity. It didn't seem as though the refugees had just arrived here.

"A few weeks. Why?"

"We were told this place was empty."

"Looking to set yourselves up here, were you?"

Bon Bon shook her head, "We need medical supplies, and we were going to take them from here. We didn't know at the time that refugees had moved in. We're not looking to take anything off ponies that need it."

Doctor Gloves smiled crookedly at Bon Bon, "Just how much were you thinking to take? There's only eight of you."

"We need them for Nostralis," Shining explained. "The home of the thestrals. They have almost nothing in the way of medicine."

"That's why I lost my leg," Shadow said quietly.

Doctor Gloves peered at Shadow's leg for a while, "Infected injury?" Shadow nodded. "On the table, now."

"What? Why?"

"Because I want to make sure it isn't still infected. The last thing you need is for the infection to travel deeper, because you have nothing left to cut off."

"I feel fine."

"Don't care. On the table."

"Just do it, Shadow," said Shining, getting the thestral to give up with an unhappy huff. She clambered onto the table, aided by her wings, and lay down with her missing leg facing up. She squeaked as the doctor started to unwrap the bandages.

"Did that hurt?"

"No, your hooves were cold," Shadow squeaked defensively.

"I'm using my magic," Doctor Gloves deadpanned.

"...Oh." Shadow decided to stay quiet after that, even as her wounds were prodded.

"Stitching looks good, and it's healing, but it's quite inflamed so I dare say that there is a touch of infection in there. Nothing a course of antibiotics can't fix. I'll stick a clean bandage on there and see what I can find."

Shadow grimaced as the doctor bustled away, and the others looked at her. "What? I didn't know it was infected. I just assumed it feeling like that was part of the healing process."

"She's lying," said Thorax.

"And what makes you say that?"

"He's an empath," said Shining. "All changelings are. He can tell when you're lying, just as he'll be able to tell if you do it again. Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because I don't want to be a burden, okay? Besides, it's not like we had anything to fix it with in Batsburg, or on the boat, so there was no point in getting you worried."

"Shadow, you might be new with us, but you're still part of the team, and your health is important to us, especially when you already have an injury. If there's something wrong, tell us." Shining placed his hoof on Shadow's to make sure he had her full attention, "Is that understood?"

Shadow nodded, a bit annoyed at herself that she was having to fight back tears. "It won't happen again." She was still having to control herself when Doctor Gloves returned and placed a tub of pills by her head.

"One of those three times a day should see you right," he said as he started to wrap a fresh bandage around her stump. "I would say to come back and see me, but we both know that's unlikely. Especially if you're planning on cleaning this place out."

"That's not something we want to do," Shining said quickly. "Had we known before getting here that refugees were using this place, we would've thought of something else. That said, we'll happily take what you think you can spare."

"That's the problem though, isn't it? New medicines aren't being produced, and there are already ponies suffering and dying because of that. We have stuff we can spare now, but who's to say we mightn't want that stuff in a few months time."

"And we understand that perfectly, but there are more ponies than these here that could benefit from the supplies you have." Shining could tell that his line of argument wasn't going to get him far, so he changed his tact. "What's the food situation like here?"

"Steady," Doctor Gloves answered, giving Shining a suspicious glance. "We get some donations, and occasionally some from our new 'benefactors' in Canterlot, and we get by with rationing. Thankfully the water problem isn't an issue any more."

"Water problem?"

"That's right. Y'see, some well meaning individuals in Canterlot decided to put the refugee camps in a fucking desert. Sure it was away from danger, until it wasn't, but a desert? Really?" Gloves shook his head at the thought of it, "When you all abandoned us, our water quickly started to run out, and it was entirely up to us to move a great many thousand ponies to somewhere with running water. Thanks for that, your Highness."

"So you do know who I am."

"Sure do, and if you weren't probably afloat with your own problems as you try to fix this mess, I'd have told you to get lost the moment I set eyes on you. Same for the princesses, wherever they are." Gloves secured the bandage, and turned to fully face Shining. "I'm not giving up what I have here so easily. I wish I could, but I simply can't."

"I understand, and-"

"However, I do have an alternative for you."

"You do?"

Gloves nodded, "Nearby is a place similar to this, but tends to cater to a different class of patient. The medicine might be a bit different, but so long as you know what to use, and what not to use, it should be fine for you. It's empty as yet, so there should be plenty for you to take."

"Great!" Shining grinned with relief, "What is this place?"

"A veterinarians, about half a mile up the road."

"A vets." Shining searched for some sign on Gloves' face that he was joking, but there wasn't anything. "You can't be serious."

"I can be, and I am. As I said, much of it is fit for pony use, so long as you know what's safe. I'll even come with you to tell you what is and isn't, so long as you accept that I'm not giving you anything out of this place, beyond those antibiotics."

Shining held up his hooves, "Understood, and if a doctor says it, I'm willing to accept it."

"Oh, I'm not a doctor." Gloves smirked at Shining as the white stallion became shocked. "I'm a vet."

"A vet? Then how are you treating all these ponies?"

"Quite easily actually. I started my training as a doctor, but I found that their single minded focus on treating ponies to be quite limiting. There are far more than ponies in this world after all, so I moved onto veterinary medicine, and learnt how to treat all kinds of people on top of animals."

"None of what you're doing sounds legal," said Rocky.

"It is so long as I don't treat ponies in a professional capacity, such as the one I find myself in now."

"I'm pretty sure griffons don't take themselves to the vets' when they're ill."

"No, but cows do. What makes ponies so special that they get their own hospitals, while the cows, sheep, and other fully sapient creatures here don't?" Gloves smiled with satisfaction as Rocky failed to say anything. "About the only non-ponies lucky enough to be treated in hospitals with no problems are zebras, griffons, and kirin. Anyway, enough lamenting the state of things, shall we be off?"

"Hold on," Shining said before Gloves could start to walk off. "Do you know if there are any of the crystal implants here? The ones used to-"

"Fend off mind control? Yes, there are some, assuming that's what the box of crystals in the supply room are. Why, do you need some of those as well?"

"One of us does, yes." Shining nodded at Flicker, "Although I have to admit I'm sceptical about asking you to do it now."

Gloves sighed loudly, "The only difference now is that you know I'm not technically a doctor. You probably wouldn't had said a thing before that."

"Just let him do it," said Flicker. "He can't be any worse than a Mareitanian doctor, or whoever was going to do it back on the boat."

Gloves gave Flicker a tiny bow, "Finally, a pony with sense enough to accept her limited options. Follow me, and let's see if we can't save your brain from the bogeymare."

-0-0-0-

Flicker shivered at the cold touch of the swab that cleaned the area on her chest, right next to the base of her front right leg. "Am I really supposed to be awake for this?"

"I was for mine," Gloves replied with a shrug, pulling on a pair of rubber gloves that came up to match the top of the white on his legs almost perfectly. "It only takes a minute anyway, so no point knocking you out for that."

"Okay, and you're really sure you know what you're doing?"

"Absolutely. I would describe it to you, but doing that makes it sound worse than it really is." Gloves picked up a syringe and injected it into the patch he'd cleaned. "Right, give that a minute, then we can get on with this. While we're waiting, how about you tell me what's going on in the world outside of this hospital. Has Faust taken over everything yet?"

"Only in Equestria," Shining told him. "We don't know exactly what she's doing, but a lot of what we were forced to sabotage at the end of the war is getting rebuilt. We're trying to stop her doing that."

"That can't be your entire plan."

"What do you mean?"

"There's no endgame to that. That's not going to stop Faust, and she has considerably more resources than you, so she'll win eventually. You must have something else going on to stop her."

"I'm... not sure how much I should say about that," Shining admitted slowly. "There is more, but it's out of my hooves. We're just doing what we can to slow Faust down."

"I see." Gloves picked up a scalpel and sliced the skin that he'd numbed, not getting so much as a squeak out of Flicker. Shining wasn't even sure she knew he'd done it. "I'm guessing the princesses are still at large then?"

"Most of them, my wife included."

"Good. Maybe that means they might fix this mess they made after all. Then their incompetency can be forgotten in the surge of warm fuzzies we all get for them saving us."

"You sound like my sister."

"Oh? And who might she be? She sounds like a smart mare."

"She's Princess Twilight."

"Is that a fact?" Gloves picked up a crystal and held it up the light as he inspected it for dirt. "Always knew I liked her. Can't say I see the family resemblance though, although I can in your mother."

"And that's all you have to say about that?"

Gloves slid the crystal into the opening he'd made, and manoeuvred it around until it sat nicely. "Pretty much. The crystal ponies here still worship the ground their Crystal Princess walks upon, so they aren't complaining, and I imagine most ponies will happily accept the return of the princesses as well. After that, us disgruntled few will either have to accept it, or leave."

Shining stayed quiet for a while as Gloves stitched up the opening, then cleaned it again. "Is that it?"

"For the operation? Or for what we're talking about?"

"Both."

"Ah, right. The operation is done. You're welcome by the way. As for the other thing, not all of us were so enamoured with the princesses before the war even started. Equestria isn't intentionally a bad place, but it's a little stagnant in its thinking. It's an egalitarian society, but only for the ponies. All the other natives can either live in a barn as indentured slaves, or fuck off."

"That's rubbish."

"Is it though? Why don't you take a moment to think about it."

Shining did, and as he did he ran into a problem. He wracked his mind for any occasion where non-ponies had the same opportunities as ponies, but all he was ever presented with was more examples of where that just didn't happen.

"I'll take your gormless expression to mean I'm right."

"Why didn't you ever bring this up with the princesses?"

"And go against the princesses? Do you any idea what that means? As soon as you try, everypony is against you, and you have less of a voice than if you hadn't said anything in the first place. I'll stick with helping them however I can, thank you very much."

"So you haven't even tried?"

"Oh I tried." Gloves eyed Shining as he pulled the rubber gloves off his hooves, "There's two reasons I'm not rushing back to Tall Tale, and only one of them is because the ponies here need me more."

"I'm finding this all a little hard to believe," Twilight Velvet piped up from across the room. "Equestria has always seemed fair to me."

"Alright then, picture this if you will. You all know the story of Hearthswarming, where the history says Equestria was a rich, unclaimed land, ripe for the taking. Now, go ask the sheep about Ewetopia, and they'll tell you what I am now. Equestria and Ewetopia are the same damned place, at least until ponies took it for themselves and changed the name."

"You mean the sheep were here first?"

Gloves nodded at Twilight Velvet, "That's right. Sheep, cows, pigs... all of those that our ancestors relegated to farmyard animals, they were here before us. Equestria rightfully belongs to them." Gloves beamed a smile at all of them as they silently took that in. "Weird, isn't it? Finding out the truth of what happened to Faust, and about Princess Platinum, that was far less of a shock to me than it was to a lot of others, because I already knew what the ponies did when they arrived here. I bet none of you have ever even wondered why none of them celebrate Hearthswarming." Gloves leaned in closer to them, "They mourn on it, and there are no prizes for guessing why."

-0-0-0-

As Gloves had said, it wasn't far to the veterinarians, although it was far enough for them to witness the mass of tents that covered the grounds around the rear of the hospital and beyond. If they thought that only those in the hospital represented the entirety of the refugees, they were sorely mistaken.

One thought that occupied Shining's mind though, and possibly some others', was that the founders of Equestria were the biggest bunch of assholes to have ever founded a country. Platinum's crimes were already numerous and fairly well known, but this latest revelation was a step too far. Why had none of them ever noticed what Gloves had told them when it was in plain sight?

"None so blind as those that won't see," Shining murmured to himself with an unhappy sigh. He needed to fix this, if he got the chance.

"Here we are," Gloves announced quietly as they came up to a building a fraction of the size of the hospital. "Happy Waggers veterinarians, or as I like to call it, a hospital for non-ponies."

"Yes, we get it," Bon Bon growled. "How do we get inside?"

"Through a door I imagine, although we could try a window if you're in the mood for something exotic?"

Bon Bon chose to ignore Gloves, "Can you get us in, General?"

"We really need to get you out of the habit of using a rank that no longer has any meaning. But yes, I can get us in." Shining ran up to the front door, finding only a single lock that proved no obstacle to a pony that had been taught to unlock pretty much anything as part of their guard training.

As the doors swung open, Shining wondered why nopony had returned here. The war was over, and even when it wasn't, ponies still went to work for the most part. What had changed here to stop ponies doing that? Ponies in Fillydelphia and Manehattan had been trying to regain a sense of normality, so why not the ponies of Baltimare?

"All clear," Bon Bon as she pushed in past Shining.

"What a shocker!" Gloves beamed a smile at Bon Bon as she looked back to scowl at him.

"Do you know where the supplies are kept?" she asked in a tone most ponies would be wary of. Gloves however, didn't seem to give a shit if he had even noticed in the first place.

"Of course not, it's not like I've been here before. It shouldn't be too hard to find though."

"Okay, Shadow, you keep an eye on things outside, and warn us if anypony comes."

Shadow looked back and forth between Bon Bon and Shining, wondering which one was in charge. Was it situational? Or was Bon Bon taking charge because Shining seemed preoccupied with his own thoughts all of a sudden. Whichever it was, Shadow decided to stop caring as she gave Bon Bon a crisp salute and took off back outside.

All of them spread out to search, and barely a few minutes later there was a shout from Rocky that he'd found the supply room, where Gloves started picking through what was useful with an almost insane glee. Much to their surprise, a sizeable stack of useable medicine started to build up.

"And you're sure all of this will work?" Nightlight asked, picking up a bottle and reading the label. "I've never even heard of this." Nightlight squinted at the bottle in his magic, "Sulfameth... sulfamethoxazole and... trimethoprim. What are they supposed to be?"

"That is for the treatment of bacterial infections in a wide range of creatures," Gloves answered, "including ponies, except it doesn't say ponies on the bottle, because this is the veterinarian version. Ponies get their own fancy looking version, despite it being the exact same stuff. Probably costs twice as much too."

"Oh. And what about flunixin?"

"Anti-inflammatory. Mostly used for cows, but again, perfectly safe for pony use. Just don't use it for too long, or it can cause liver and kidney issues. Now there's this," Gloves held up a bottle for Nightlight to see, "monensin, an antibiotic that is fine for cows and sheep, but toxic to us ponies." He frowned at the bottle and placed it back on the shelf, "I'm not a hundred percent on why they'd stock something with such a limited use."

"Fascinating! What about that one over there?"

"And we've lost him," Twilight Velvet whispered to Shining with a smile. "Are you alright dear? You've been quiet ever since Gloves told you about Ewetopia. You don't really believe him, do you?"

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because it's absurd, that's why. There's no proof that anything lived in Equestria before ponies."

"And that doesn't strike you as odd? The whole place was just empty before we found it? Really? It wouldn't surprise me to learn that our noble founders struck all mentions of such things from the history books."

Twilight Velvet sat next to Shining and rubbed a hoof up and down his back, "Even if that's true, you can't expect us to give Equestria back. It's our home."

"No, but when's the last time you saw a cow or sheep walking the streets of Canterlot, or riding the train, or going to their well paying office job? Never, that's when. Gloves is right in that us ponies treat them as second class citizens, in what might be their own homeland."

"And you're going to do something about it?"

Shining nodded, "If I can, and I know Cadence'll help me. First though, we need to do a lot of other stuff. Are you almost done in there, Gloves?"

"That depends. How are you all for dressings?"

"I'll ask Sha-" Shining looked up, remembering that Shadow was outside, keeping an eye on things. "Right, uh, just throw it in."

"You're the boss. Do you have any idea how you're going to move all this stuff?"

Shining had to admit that he did not, although that wasn't to say he was without ideas. "Are there any sheets in there?"

"Sheets... in a vets," Gloves deadpanned. "Have you even been listening to a word I've said?"

Shining groaned under his breath, "Fine, no sheets. Do you have any ideas?"

"Sure I do." Gloves swaggered out of the supply room with a half dozen cat carriers held in his magic, along with a ball of string. "You might look pretty stupid though. Just saying."

-0-0-0-

The string bit into Shining's back, but with two cat carriers full of medicine to carry, complaining wasn't going to help. Someone had helped though, and he at least deserved a bit of thanks.

"You're welcome," Gloves said before Shining so much as said a word.

"And now you're psychic apparently."

"No, but you had this pained expression cross your face, and I knew it had to be because you were about to show some genuine appreciation." Gloves grinned at Shining, "Honestly though, I'm happy to help."

"You really are, aren't you? You really are one of those uniquely helpful bastards in the world. You complain, you insult, and you're never so happy as when you're helping."

"It's both a curse and a gift." Gloves held out a hoof that Shining gladly shook. "Anyway, I best get back to the hospital. You all take care now, and maybe put a little thought towards what I told you. Other than that, good luck with the whole stopping Faust thing."

"And good luck to you with keeping all those ponies safe. Bye." Shining waved to Gloves until he was out of hearing range, "Good grief. Anyway, we more or less have what we need, so let's get out of here. Thorax, can you grab some of these carriers and go tell Fleur we're on our way back?"

"Sure." There was a flash as Thorax changed into a bugbear, and he grabbed several of the carriers to take with him, lifting them with ease, even on his comically small bug wings that made the air vibrate with force as he took off. Even after a minute, they could still hear his buzzing.

"This was a strange day," said Rocky. "Or at least it feels like one of them, where you do something weirdly left field, and nothing goes wrong. And now we have to sneak through a city carrying cat carriers full of medicine. I mean, really, what the fuck?"

14. Blackout

"Vet medicine," Greywhisker said in a flat tone that made it sound like he was so very disappointed with life.

"See?" Fleur pointed a hoof at Greywhisker as she looked at Shining, "Exactly what I said. Same tone of voice and everything."

"It'll be fine," said Shining. "I have it on good authority that what we have there is totally acceptable for ponies to use."

"And what about the hospital? Wasn't there anything there worth using?"

"It's been taken over by refugees, and we felt they needed it more, and had just as much right to it as we do."

Greywhisker closed his eyes and sighed as he massaged his temples, "You and your bleeding heart, Shining Armour. Fine, so these will work for my ponies?"

"They will. The doctor there went over it with us, and assured us that nothing here is harmful to ponies. There's everything you need to treat your wounded for a while, and he even helped Shadow out."

"Shadow," Greywhisker growled, displeased that she was making trouble for them already.

Shadow held her hooves up, her eyes going wide. "It's not my fault it got infected again! I swear!"

"It's fine, Greywhisker," Shining reassured the Captain. "She has some meds, and will be right as rain soon."

"Urgh, very well." Greywhisker picked up a bottle and inspected it, "I have no idea if you've held up your end of the bargain or not, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt since I have few other choices."

"There also wasn't a bargain," said the filly. "You asked us a favour, and we did it as best we could."

"Indeed." Greywhisker returned the bottle to the rest. "We've kept an eye on things here as you asked, and Black Rose is still in the city, and is staying in La Selle Dorée on Whinniacre avenue, on the top floor where she is rather well guarded."

"The Gilded Saddle?" Fleur translated. "Sounds a little bit seedy if you ask me."

"I won't deny it has had a reputation in the past, but it is now one of the highest rated hotels in Equestria. Certainly fancy enough for Black Rose to want to impose herself upon."

"What kind of guard are we talking about?" asked Bon Bon.

"A dozen or more Shades, although they're staying there on deployment rather than as her protection. Apart from that there's a complement of about fifty soldiers, both unicorns and earth ponies. The problem is that when she's there, most of the other Shades are as well."

"Not to mention there's plenty of soldiers in the city if they call for help," said Shining. "What do you think, Bon Bon? Can you do it?"

"Absolutely. All we need is the best way to approach without getting spotted, and we'll get it done." Bon Bon looked over to where Flicker was attempting to lift a throwing knife with her magic. "Maybe a little bit of preparation time is in order though."

"And I'll have to teach somepony how to sail this thing before I go," Crème added. "Yes, Nightlight, that can be you," she said as Nightlight grinned like a giddy colt.

"Very well." Greywhisker shrugged at all of them, "I'll leave that to you. In the meantime, I'll send a flight down to Las Pegasus to see if those ships you saw ended up there. If not, then I guess we'll have to see what the story is with those. Good luck."

Shining returned the salute Greywhisker gave, then turned to Bon Bon as the thestrals departed with the medicine. "Are you sure you've really got this?"

"I already have a plan, and once Flicker's magic is back in order, we'll put it in action."

"Thorax isn't getting involved."

Shining tried to hide his sigh at the words that came from Honeydew, and was pleased that he mostly succeeded. "He shouldn't need to be there this time, even if he is the expert infiltrator here."

"I feel like you're all taking the fact that he... survived what happened for granted. He mightn't do that every time something bad happens!"

"Then how about you do something instead?" Rocky asked. "We're all in this together, yet you seem conspicuously absent in everything we do. Heck, you don't even do the dishes. Thorax on the other hoof, he steps up and helps, and we appreciate that far more than complaining about everything."

"That's hardly fair. You haven't exactly done much that requires a pony with my skillset. I can't even maintain this boat we're on because of its crazy magic engine." Honeydew crossed her legs and huffed at Rocky, "It's not that I'm useless, but that I have no use."

"Doesn't stop you doing the dishes."

Honeydew opened her mouth to shout, but it snapped shut again as she looked down at the floor. "What do you want from me?"

Rocky looked to the others for an opinion, but when they gave him nothing he shrugged. "A little less complaining would be nice, and perhaps remembering that everything Thorax does is his choice."

Thorax gave Honeydew a smile as she looked at him, and kissed her on the cheek. "I said I wanted to help, and I'm sticking to that."

"I almost lost you."

"And I would've died saving lives, which is much better than dying in one of Chrysalis' insane plans." Thorax took Honeydew by the hoof, "Come on, you need to relax. Follow me." With a wink back at the others, Thorax led Honeydew away.

"It's official," Rocky said once Thorax had led Honeydew below deck, "I like Thorax way more than I like Honeydew. Such a complainer. I hate to think what she's like in the bedroom. No idea why she could possibly need to relax either when she doesn't do anything."

"She's just scared of losing the one she loves." Shining sighed as he thought of Cadence, and how she had to feel about him. "She's not the only one."

"Even so, screaming at us isn't going to help. None of us actually want to die, but we accept that we could."

"Just forget about her," Crème said to Rocky. "We have a job to do, and frankly it's a job that we've been looking forward to."

-0-0-0-

The skyline of Fillydelphia wasn't an impressive sight compared to Manehattan or Canterlot, or even somewhere like Appleloosa at times, but from the perspective of the tallest building in the city, it was pretty decent. For those not on the tallest building however, it was barely decent, and left plenty to be desired, such as a decent view, or at least a nearby coffee shop.

"La Selle Dorée," Rocky said, peering through his monocular at the hotel in question. "Something about that name rubs me the wrong way."

"It's literally across the street," Crème said, fighting to keep a sarcastic smile off her face. "I really don't think you need the monocular to keep an eye on it."

"Do I need to open my mouth to tell you to shut up? Or are you capable of doing that one yourself?"

"Alright Mr Touchy, take it easy."

"I am taking it easy. You don't want to see me not taking it easy."

"Stow it you two; here comes Black Rose," said Bon Bon. She made a face as Black Rose walked down the street towards them, escorted by two Shades, and apparently none the worse for their little tussle the other day. It made her wish there was a weapon capable of delivering death from so far away. It would make things much easier. "She's entering the hotel."

"That's us set then," said Rocky. "Now we just have to wait until it's good and dark. How long do you think that'll be?" he asked, turning to the singular thestral with them.

"Why are you looking at me?" Shadow asked. "I tell the time the exact same way you do."

"So you don't have special night-time powers then? Specifically one that lets you know when it'll get dark?"

"Other than the ability to see in the dark and take a few hits, no, I have no powers." Shadow cocked her head with a bemused smile, "Now I'm curious what else you might have heard about us thestrals."

"That you're soulless abominations that feed on blood and blah, blah, blah. Y'know, the usual."

"I wish ponies would stop giving away our biggest secrets like that."

"What?"

"What?" Shadow said back innocently.

Rocky blinked at Shadow's poker face, "...What?" he murmured weakly. "I honestly can't tell if you're joking now."

"I know! Great, isn't it?" Shadow hooked her hooves on the edge of the roof and looked down over the edge. "Do you think I could spit on a soldier from here?"

"Get down!" Bon Bon yanked Shadow back down below the edge of the building, "Do you want them to spot us?"

"Now you're just being paranoid."

"It's my job to be paranoid. Now sit down, stay out of sight, and wait until it's dark."

Shadow groaned and flopped onto her back, "The Night Guard would've stormed the building and killed her by now. This sucks."

"The Night Guard have considerably higher numbers than us, and are a good deal tougher, but even a few Adepts in there would severely mess up their attack." Bon Bon patted Shadow on the back, "Just sit tight and be patient."

-0-0-0-

Somehow, through the inexorable passage of time, night fell, bringing with it the darkness that would cover their entry into the hotel. The air near sparked with anticipation as the time came to make their move, and for three of them, get a little justice for their fallen teammate, Tootsie Roll.

"Two unicorns on the roof, probably two more on the far side," Shadow said as she peered up through Rocky's monocular, her night vision making her the only one capable of really seeing them. "Shouldn't be too difficult to take out if I'm quick. The problem is I'm not as quick as I used to be."

"Take me up with you then," Bon Bon suggested. "I can take out two while you take care of the other two."

Shadow gave Bon Bon a sceptical look, "Now that I'd like to see."

"And you will." Bon Bon gestured with her head up towards the roof of the hotel, and playfully raised her eyebrows, getting a groan from Shadow, although she took the hint and took fight, grabbing Bon Bon around the waist to carry her up.

"Good grief, either your gear weighs a ton, or you need to lay off the cake."

"Think of it as a workout for your wings." Bon Bon said with a grin, although it morphed into a frown as Shadow started heading away from the hotel. "Where are we going?"

"If we fly up by the hotel we'll be spotted, so I'm getting some distance to fly up then approach from above."

"Oh, good thinking." Or at least Bon Bon hoped it was good thinking, because most of her was occupied with how far above the ground she was getting, and how much faith she didn't have in the three legged bat pony she barely knew that was carrying her up there. "Oh dear."

"If you think this is the worse part, you're sorely mistaken," Shadow laughed. "I'm going to have to fly us in without flapping my wings so we don't get heard."

"And how is that worse?"

"I've never done it while carrying a pony before."

"Joy." Bon Bon sighed, and let her mind go to that empty place where her own mortality was a tertiary consideration.

Shadow smiled, having a far better handle on the situation than she'd ever let Bon Bon know. Once she was high enough, she found the direction the wind was blowing and faced into it, using it to keep her in an almost stationary position before slowly dropping towards the rooftop in the middle. As she'd suspected, there were four ponies up there, one on each corner, and not one of them watching the middle of the roof where Shadow dropped Bon Bon with the lightness of a feather.

"Yours," Shadow whispered, pointing at the two ponies at the one end of the building. "Give me thirty seconds, then go."
Bon Bon nodded, and with barely a sound Shadow was gone, letting the wind carry her back up into the night sky. Bon Bon crept closer to one of the ponies, practicing in her mind what she was about to do. Spring loaded blade up close and personal for the left one, throwing knife for the other.

Thirty seconds passed and Bon Bon silently ran out to the first pony, placing her hoof next to his neck and extending the blade before he even knew she was there. She caught him as he fell, and lowered him gently, then sprang forwards towards the other soldier, closing the distance a bit before throwing the blade that ended his life, hitting him in the neck. Not a quick death, but it was at least fairly quiet.

Bon Bon flinched as a shout echoed over the rooftop, and she whipped her head around just in time to see Shadow stumble through the air as one of the other soldiers pointed a crossbow at her. Bon Bon sprinted for the stallion, jumping on his back and killing him with her blade before he could fire. Thankfully the other soldier Shadow was supposed to eliminate was already dead.

"What happened?" Bon Bon asked as Shadow came in to land, sheathing her blades with more force than necessary.

"I fucked the turning up, alright? My back end just doesn't have the weight to throw into some turns like it used to. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise, but do learn from it." Bon Bon patted Shadow on the shoulder, and gave her a reassuring smile. "Go grab Crème and the grapples for the other two, then we'll get this done."

"On it."

Bon Bon groaned as Shadow flew off. She supposed it could've gone a lot worse, but that was too silly a mistake to have to call off the entire operation over. The success of this hinged on none of those soldiers and Shades below her knowing they were coming. Blowing that before they'd even started was... crap, to be honest.

Bon Bon was investigating the way into the hotel interior when Shadow flew Crème up, two grapples floating in her magic that she hooked to the side of the building as soon as Shadow put her down. She waved back down at Rocky and Flicker, then turned to Bon Bon with a grin. "Are we ready to go, Chief?"

"Almost." Bon Bon waved Shadow over and held a small item up in her hoof, "Do you know what this is?"

"A short range communicator. You stick in your ear and you can talk to other ponies with one. I assume you want me to have it?"

"That's right. I want you out here keeping an eye on things. If any soldiers come, or anything you think notable, tell us. Likewise, if we have to call for help, be ready, although hopefully that won't happen."

"Gotcha." Shadow shoved the communicator in her ear, and turned it until it felt comfortable. "Good luck in there guys. Luna knows you'll need it." Tossing them a lazy salute, Shadow took off.

"Do you really think we'll need her help?"

"I hope not," Bon Bon replied, looking up to try and spot Shadow in the dark, "because by the time we know we need help, it'll probably be too late."

"Aww, isn't that cheerful," Rocky's voice said over the communicator. "Now if you two are done gassing, could we get this show on the road?"

"So impatient," Crème snickered. "On your word, Chief."

-0-0-0-

"Move in."

"Finally." Rocky grabbed his rope and checked it was securely attached to his belt, with Flicker taking that as a cue to check her own climbing gear that had been acquired on the way to the hotel, and modified to hold her weapons. It wasn't exactly comfortable, to say the least, but if it stopped her plunging to her death, she was all for it.

"Remember to try and avoid the windows, although hopefully Crème remembered to put the grapples between them."

"I know. Let's just do this before we get noticed."

Rocky shrugged and got himself into position as he leant back against the rope. Fairly confident it was solid, he picked his back legs up and swung off the rooftop towards the side of the hotel, and landed between the windows, taking as much of the impact with his legs to make it quieter. Seconds later, Flicker joined him.

Rocky gave her a questioning nod to ask if she was okay, and pointed upwards when he got one back. The time had come for the hard part of the climb.

Again bracing himself on his back legs, Rocky pulled himself up with one hoof, and used the other free one to pull the rope through the attachment on his belt, repeating the action again and again to slowly ascend up the side of the building. To his dismay, Flicker was overtaking him, so he pushed on faster.

When they reached the third storey, they stopped on both sides of a window that was partially open with the curtains drawn, although a brisk wind was blowing them about enough to give them an occasional glimpse inside. A unicorn mare was inside, asleep and unaware that she was being spied upon.

Rocky shook his head and pointed upwards to continue climbing, only to be stopped by Flicker. Using magic, she held the curtains apart and highlighted something on the floor next to the bed. It was a Shades uniform that had been tossed in a pile.

Still using her magic, Flicker picked a blade up with her magic and floated it in through the window, slowly guiding it over to the bed where she held it over the mare's neck, before moving up to her eye. Clearly Flicker wanted it to be quick, and she winced as she stabbed the blade down.

"What was that face about?" Rocky whispered, feeling a little more free to do so now that the room's occupant wasn't going to catch them doing it.

"They might be making a mistake working for Faust, but they were my friends once. Excuse me if I don't take killing them too lightly. It's not like I enjoy killing ponies in their sleep either." Flicker wiped the blade down and returned it to her belt. She then tried to open the window, but found it only went so far before a wire stopped it.

"Pegasi proofing," Rocky said to an unasked question. "You'll have to unscrew it from the inside."

"What would you do if you didn't have a unicorn?"

"Why do you think we always have a unicorn with us?"

Flicker rolled her eyes and pulled her blade back out as she used her magic to search for the screws, and used the knife to undo them when she had. Free of its limitations, the window swung open, allowing the both of them to enter unhindered.

-0-0-0-

"They're in," Crème said, having been watching Rocky and Flicker the entire time. She pulled the ropes up once she was sure they were detached, and stored the gear on her waist belt.

"Our turn then." Bon Bon pulled open the door in the small hut on the roof that allowed access to the hotel, and slowly made her way down the steps within. An attic stretched out before her, its edges invisible in the dark, but it did give them another option if they could find which room Black Rose was in.

She could see more as Crème followed her down, the unicorn's horn providing ample illumination to see that the attic was actually full of the accumulated junk of ages. Old furniture and fittings filled the space, and scuppered that plan.

Continuing down brought them into the hotel proper, although they didn't rush in, instead choosing to observe what little they could through the keyhole. The place seemed empty, so they let themselves in and started the process of going door to door looking for their target, and taking care of a little business as they went.

Bon Bon put an ear to a door, checking for signs of life. A gentle snoring reached her, and there was no light coming from beneath the door. Checking the handle informed her that the door was locked, so she waited for Crème to unlock her own door before indicating for the unicorn to unlock hers.

A click from the lock was the only sign it had been unlocked, and when Bon Bon tried the handle again it opened. She crept into the room, the snoring informing her that she'd not yet been noticed, and stopped by the bed, finding a stallion of indeterminable colours in the dark, half covered by the sheets. A uniform hanging off a rail confirmed he was a Shade, so wasting no time she stood up on two legs and positioned her blade over his heart, readying her other hoof to cover his mouth.

She slammed her hoof down over his mouth as her blade shot out, piercing flesh and bone with ease to stab into his heart. His eyes went wide as he struggled briefly, but it wasn't long until his eyes rolled back in his head, and his movements stopped. Bon Bon released him, cleaned her blade on the sheets, and stepped out the room as Crème left hers. With a quiet nod, they moved onto the next.

It continued like this for a while. Not all of the rooms were occupied, and not all of them held Shades, although that wasn't to say they were civilians either. There were maybe twenty rooms per floor of the hotel, and it seemed unlikely that the Shades would let anypony not involved with them share their floor. Bon Bon decided to leave it to the other's discretion as to whether they eliminated more than the Shades, but she left them alone otherwise.

"We're running out of rooms," Crème whispered as they left another pair of rooms. "If she's not in one of the next few rooms, I have no idea where she is."

"How many empty rooms did you find?"

"Three."

Bon Bon had found four herself. There was a possibility that their occupants were off on a night time operation, but that sort of thing was to be expected. What wasn't expected was for Black Rose to be with them when they saw her enter the hotel. "Keep searching, she has to be here somewhere."

"What if she isn't on the top floor like Greywhisker said? Frankly, I'm curious how he came to even learn that much."

"Observation, probably."

Crème took a deep breath and released it through her nose as she looked up and down the corridor. "I know it's clichéd to say it at this point, but trap?"

"I don't think so. As I said, keep searching, and hopefully we'll find her."

-0-0-0-

Flicker held her nose as she entered a room, and twisted her head in sheer confusion at the fact that the bed had been replaced with a itchy looking slab of hay. The room was empty though, so she quickly left and ran into Rocky, who reported the exact same thing in the room opposite.

"Guess that means we found our yaks," said Rocky.

"Should we take them out too?"

"Heck no. I have no wish to get into a tussle with yaks. Have you seen the size of those things?"

"Uh, no, I haven't."

"Oh, yeah. Well, they're big, like four, maybe fives times your size big, if not bigger. And they have horns, two of them, and a hide as tough as your average armour. Believe me, you do not want to fight one of those big bastards."

"And what if we don't have a choice? How do I kill one?"

Rocky held up a hoof, then lowered it slowly, turning it into shrug. "Carefully, and with luck."

"That's not exactly helpful."

"I don't know, go for the eyes if you can find them."

Flicker pouted at Rocky and moved onto the next room, finding it unoccupied like several others. She hoped the others were having more luck than they were, because so far they'd found only a hooffull of Shades, and a few other soldiery types, although why they got to sleep in here was a mystery to her.

She shut the door and paused as a noise reached her ears. And it was definitely a noise by all descriptions, because she couldn't tell what it was supposed to be in the slightest. It was quite deep, and had a rumble to it, but if it was words she couldn't understand them. "What is that?" she asked Rocky, who was stood stock still as he listened.

"Trouble." Rocky opened the door he was at, and dragged Flicker in after her as the noise got louder. Other noises started to be heard as a string of complaints from ponies started to be voiced, directed at the noise, that upon further inspection appeared to be singing. Very bad singing.

"That's going to wake everypony up," Rocky hissed as the singing got closer. "If we have to abort the mission because of a crap singer, I'm going to be pissed."

Flicker swallowed as a loud thump came from nearby, followed by more that got closer each time. "How big did you say yaks were again?"

Rocky never got the chance to answer as the door bulged, then splintered before giving up entirely on stopping the yak leaning against it. Both of them jumped clear as the yak fell into the room, and stood like deer in the lights as the yak pulled himself upright and glared at them, which was odd since his eyes were hidden behind a mass of hair.

"What ponies doing in yak room?"

"This isn't your room," Rocky said as calmly as possible as another yak followed the first in. "This is pony room. I mean our room."

"Pony room? Then what yak doing in pony room? Where yak room?"

"Next door down I believe," Rocky said with a nervous smile, pointing with a hoof to the right.

"Oh." The yak froze for several seconds, save for a certain amount of swaying, then stomped around in one eighty turn and left. "Nirmata be with you."

"Who?"

Rocky narrowly avoided a concussion by facehoof as the single, innocent sounding syllable slipped out of Flicker's mouth. As unimpressed as he was at her, that was nothing compared to the expression the yaks were wearing.

"Why you no know who Nirmata is?"

Flicker's eyes flitted about wildly, fully aware of the massive cock-up she might've just made. "Because I've never heard that before. What's Nirmata?"

The yak stepped forward and snorted at Flicker, blowing her mane back. "You call her Lady, and if you do that, you know yak call her Nirmata."

"Oh, uh, I must've missed the memo for that. Sorry."

The yaks didn't appear to be buying it, and through some miraculous leap of drunk logic, managed to call them out as being exactly what they were. "Yaks' memo was perfect, and very thorough, so you must be imposters!"

"Rocky pushed himself in front of Flicker, "Now-now fellas-" he started to say in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

"Me lady yak!" the yak in the rear shouted over him. "Why you think me no lady? Yak smash rude pony!"

"That's what upsets you more?!" Rocky screamed as he dove out of the way of the yak's hooves as the supposed 'lady' yak reared up to stamp on him. He ran, dodging around the two yaks and back out of the door, and was surprised to see Flicker keeping up with him.

"I think they forgot I was there," she offered as an explanation.

"Who cares? Run!"

The wall exploded behind them as they rounded a corner as the yaks took a more direct route to them, not even bothering to shake the bricks off themselves before chasing after the two ponies. Nothing proved to be too much of an obstacle for them to smash their way through, except each other as they ran side by side down the corridor.

"You really fucked up this time!" Rocky yelled at Flicker, mostly to make himself feel better. In the back of his head he could feel the remaining seconds of his life ticking down with each rumbling step of the two yaks.

"Me? You're the one that didn't know she was a lady!"

"How was I supposed to know? Shit!" Rocky swore as they turned into a dead-end. "We're so fucked!"

"I have an idea."

"This should be good."

"Just shut up and stop running when we reach the end!"

Rocky did so, skidding to a halt at the same time as Flicker, and turned to face the yaks as she did. There was a bit of distance between them, but the yaks were eating it up quickly as they continued their relentless pursuit of the ignorant ponies that had insulted them on two counts.

"I really hope you know what you're doing," he said as Flicker lowered her stance, like she was preparing for her own charge against the yaks.

"Just get ready to move when I do." Flicker grit her teeth, her nerves doing a dance along with the shaking floor as the yaks got closer. There were barely a dozen meters away when her horn blazed with a blinding light that dazzled the two yaks, and with a shout for Rocky she dove out of the way.

The two yaks, either too heavy, or too drunk to think of stopping, continued their charge, ramming into the wall that had been behind the two ponies. The wall, having been designed for pony habitation, proved unable to withstand the blow, and fell apart, letting the two yaks persist in a journey that would take them through the wall, and straight to the other side in every sense of the word.

Rocky coughed, a cloud of dust filling the corridor as well as his lungs. A strong breeze was quickly clearing it though, and drawing it back out through the gaping hole the yaks had left in the wall. He risked looking out through it, and far below in the street were the two yaks. Both of them were most definitely dead.

"Hoo boy," Rocky muttered as a squawking in his ear started to deafen him. He pressed a hoof to his communicator, finding it had been dislodged a little, and the voice became a lot clearer as he put it back in right.

"Rocky? Can you hear me?"

"I hear you Chief."

"Good, now what the fuck was that? It felt like an earthquake!"

"Yaks. Two of them. They've been... taken care of."

"You can say that again," said a voice that took Rocky a moment to recognise as the one that belonged to Shadow. "The flight was pretty good, but they really failed to nail the landing. There's bits of yak everywhere!"

"Not now Shadow," Bon Bon barked, not sounding pleased. "That woke everypony up, which means our job just got impossible. I'm aborting the mission, so get your flanks to us. You too Shadow."

"Yes Chief," Rocky grunted, annoyed that it had to come to this because of a couple of pissed up yaks with no brakes. It was at least unique in that regard. "Come on Flicker." Rocky started to trot back the way they came, bit stopped at the lack of response from the unicorn. "Flicker?"

He turned back, finding Flicker half buried under rubble right next to the hole, which was odd because he knew she'd jumped away. Then he saw the gash across her right cutie mark, and the broken strap on her harness, and figured that she had to have got caught on a yak's horn as she jumped, then got smacked against the wall. Luckily the strap snapped rather than take her with the yaks.

"Flicker? Can you hear me?" Rocky quickly cleared the debris off her, and put a hoof to her neck, finding a pulse. She also appeared to be breathing, she just wasn't waking up. "Shit."

Rather than spend time he didn't have waking her up, Rocky picked her up and slung her over his back. He could hear plenty of commotion coming from elsewhere now, meaning that there would soon be plenty of ponies investigating what had happened. Ponies that would know they weren't meant to be there.

Luckily, they'd already taken out a lot of the ponies that would recognise them, which might have coincided with the immediate lack of ponies around as Rocky raced for the stairs up to where Bon Bon and Crème were waiting for them, although there were now some bodies in the corridor, along with Crème who waved to them as they turned the corner.

"Is Flicker alright?"

"She's alive, but that's as much as I can say for sure. Do we have a way out?"

"We're working on it."

Bon Bon was talking to Shadow out of the window as he entered the room, but turned to Rocky as he got closer. "You two have really kicked the hornets nest now."

"Well excuse us for having a couple of drunk yaks suddenly turn up." Rocky slid Flicker off his back and lowered her to the floor, checking again that she was still alive. She was, as yet, but the lack of consciousness was getting more worrying the longer it went on. "How are we getting out of here?"

"Quickly, hopefully," Bon Bon said as she finished knotting together the two lengths of rope they used to get into the hotel. "Remember, far side of the building," she said, passing one of the grapples to Shadow through the window. "Then you might have to come back for Flicker."

"Yeah, I got it." Shadow flew away quickly, and Bon Bon secured their grapple in the corner of the window. A minute later the rope went taut, followed by the return of Shadow.

"There's a lot of ponies out there around the yaks now. If you want to get out of here, you need to go now."

"I know. Rocky, give me a hoof." Between them, they got Flicker out of the window and into Shadow's hooves, and she quickly carried the unconscious pony away as Bon Bon climbed out of the window and took hold of the rope, hoping her suit would save her from rope burn. Hesitating for only a second, she pushed off, sliding down the rope to the rooftop opposite, landing with a dainty roll as her uniform started to smoke.

"Your turn, Rocky," Crème said once Bon Bon was gone. She could hear shouting coming from nearby as the bodies were starting to get discovered. It wouldn't be long until ponies found them as well, so it would be nice if they could be away before that happened.

Crème looked back as Rocky slipped out of the window, and with a final check of the corridor before shutting the door, she ran to the window herself. The Mareitanians were getting too close by far now, and as she took the rope in her hooves she could hear them running past in the corridor. Thankfully she was right over the rooftop before she was seen, and the shouts directed at her didn't exactly faze her as she landed and cut the rope to prevent the Mareitanians following them.

Flicker was already on Rocky's back by the time Crème was done cutting the rope, and without a word they made for the exit, hoping they could get down before soldiers started coming up. It was a feeble hope, and as soldiers started piling up the stairwell, Bon Bon led them through one of the many doors leading off the stairs.

Locked doors greeted them as they raced on, the building's inhabitants thoroughly unaware of all that had transpired in the hotel just across the road from them, although they would certainly become more aware as the soldiers started chasing after the five fleeing ponies.

The hallway ended in a dead end with a window, and Shadow flew ahead, pulling it open by the time the others reached her. A fire escape was outside, and there weren't any soldiers on it as yet. "This way," she said, again taking Flicker so Rocky could climb down easier.

"Shadow, take Flicker and get back to the boat to tell the others what happened, and that we're going to need an emergency pick-up at the docks."

"But how will I keep an eye on you?"

"You won't! Just go Shadow!"

A short, frustrated growl came from Shadow's mouth, but she obeyed, quickly flying away with Flicker into the night, leaving the rest of them to keep running.

The streets seemed considerably busier around the hotel as more and more soldiers became aware of the attack that had taken place, and the three of them found it hard to balance their speed with staying hidden, and more than once they almost ran full pelt into a group of soldiers heading for the hotel. At the opposite end of things, the further they got from the hotel, the easier things got.

"Where are we going?" Crème panted, struggling to keep up with the two earth ponies.

"The docks, like I told Shadow."

"But why? I thought we were avoiding places like that."

"Because I wasn't thinking! Too late now!"

The route to the docks was mostly clear past that point, probably because they'd passed most of the soldiers on the way as they ran to the hotel. Unfortunately, some soldiers had a sense of duty, and the docks were still being patrolled. Bon Bon slowed down as she saw the patrols, and stopped entirely as she saw their rescue wasn't there yet.

"I suppose it would've been faster to not have Shadow carry Flicker," said Rocky.

"I was thinking that at least her and Shadow would get away," Bon Bon told him, not disagreeing with his opinion, but not about to openly admit to how right he was in this case. "We just have to sit tight until they get here."

"We mightn't have that kind of time," said Crème.

Bon Bon looked around to see what she meant, and spotted as Crème had, the soldiers making their way into the docks, led by none other than Black Rose. Either they'd been spotted on the way here, or the mare had made an educated guess on where they were going. Whichever it was, they were in trouble.

"I guess we'll have our chance at her after all," Rocky said grimly as Black Rose started directing the soldiers to spread out. "It must be our lucky day."

Bon Bon shook her head at Rocky, "Don't even think about it. There are too many soldiers, and this wasn't supposed to be a suicide run."

"A mission gone this fubar, it might as well be."

"Hey, it was a partial success," Crème said defensively. "We took a decent number of Shades out, even if we never got our chance at Black Rose."

"Yeah, and we probably never will now. If she was being careful before, after today she'll be impossible to sneak up on."

Crème shrugged, and was about to say they'd have another chance, when a light on the horizon caught her eye. "There! That has to be them! Chief?"

"I see them." Bon Bon just didn't know how to get to them. She knew she'd fucked up a moment after the word 'docks' had left her mouth, but now she could see the full depth of that cock-up. "There," she said, pointing to one of several large concrete jetties that reached out into the sea. "We'll meet them there, and hope that they reach us before the soldiers do. Go!"

They sprinted out, racing through the docks and past surprised soldiers as they ran for the jetty and up it, keenly watching the light of the boat getting closer and closer. They were elated as the boat came into full view, with Shining Armour stood at the bow, ready for action. The elation died quickly as the boat flew straight past the jetty. They could hear Shining cursing at his father.

"Well...shit," Rocky swore, hanging his head for a second before turning to face the dozens of soldiers that crowded the jetty behind them. Black Rose was in the lead, and she did not look pleased.

"Do you have any idea what you've done? A dozen of my Shades dead, along with the two yaks that the Lady had sent to protect the reconstruction! If it wasn't for the fact that you're wanted alive, I'd have killed you all by now!"

"Then why haven't you?" asked Bon Bon, happy to keep Black Rose talking while the boat hopefully came back around.

"I just said, I need you alive." Black Rose tapped a hoof to her chin, some of her usual theatrics coming back into play. "I suppose I don't need all of you though. Question then is which one to spare? Which one of you knows the most? Probably the leader, but then I have to ask which one of you is the easiest to break? I suppose it doesn't really matter in the end. Soldiers, kill the big one first."

"No!" Crème shouted, raising a shield as the soldiers raised their weapons, saving Rocky from the volley, although she knew she wouldn't save them from another, and especially not if the soldiers decided to get up close and personal. If anything, she'd made herself their primary target, but she was alright with that if it meant not seeing her friends die.

A shrill whistling reached the ears of all there, and there was a short moment of confusion when the dark shape of Shadow came out of the night, two shining blades on her forelegs that lashed out at the back of a soldier, killing him. Seconds late a larger form fell out of the sky directly above the gap between Bon Bon and her team, and the soldiers. It was huge purple insect that started thrashing two of its six limbs at the soldiers, knocking them away. Arrows bounced off its hide, gouging chunks out of its chitin.

Crème gasped as she saw her chance in the confusion, and she ran for Black Rose as the mare tried to avoid Thorax. She gathered a single charge of magic, and fired it just as Rocky grabbed her, knocking her aim off. She heard a scream, although it might've been her own scream of outrage, she wasn't sure, and was dragged back behind a purple shield.

"Get on, quick!" Shining shouted as the fight started to turn against Thorax. The changeling retreated back through the shield, and jumped on board just as Shadow came in to land. As soon as they were on, the boat was moving again taking them to safety.

"I could've got her!" Crème screamed at Rocky, hitting him on the chest. "She was right there, and I could've got her!"

"It was time to go," Rocky answered simply, indifferent to Crème hitting him, but surprised by what she was doing.

"He's right," Bon Bon said sternly. With a sigh she turned to Shining Armour, "Thanks for the rescue."

"You're welcome, although I feel it could've gone better," he replied, giving his father in the cockpit a glare. "I'm just glad you're all alright."

"That said," Fleur poke sternly as she came out onto the top deck, "I wasn't expecting to be dealing with another fuck-up right now, and I would very much like to know what went wrong, and why Flicker is in the state she is."

"Drunk yaks," Rocky told her, fully aware of how feeble that sounded even to him. "You can't really plan for drunk yaks."

"Drunk... yaks." Fleur thought about it for a moment, and came to the conclusion that she didn't believe it for a single moment. "Even if there were drunk yaks, how could they have messed things up to the point this happened?"

"They attacked us, and woke everypony up in the process. Flicker got hurt saving mine and hers life."

"He's not joking," Shadow piped up. "You should've seen it! There I was just flying around, keeping an eye on things, and boom! Two yaks come flying through the wall and fall to the street like splat! It was fucking ace!"

"Fucking ace, hmm? You consider the mission getting ruined to the point we needed to pull off a risky pick-up like this 'ace?'"

"Uhh..." Shadow bit her bottom lip for a second, "No?"

"And that is the right answer. We can't afford screw-ups like this."

"How's Flicker?" asked Rocky.

"Alive and awake," Fleur grunted, annoyed at the blatant change of subject, "although I wouldn't call her as being entirely with it as yet. She's sleeping again now, I hope." Fleur looked up at the city as it fell further into the distance, and sighed. "Her being hurt is also another reason of many why we won't be attempting anything that ambitious for a while, if ever again, because we can't afford the kinds of fuck-ups where the few ponies we have get killed. I'm going to contact the princesses and see if they have any idea for us in the meantime, and to tell them what we've learnt so far."

"I think she's mad," Shadow stage whispered as Fleur went back below decks.

"I just wish she was wrong," Bon Bon said back. "Drunk yaks or not, we were out of our depth, even if the mission was a partial success. We really need to rethink how we do this."

-0-0-0-

"Why must I be constantly beset with failures and disappointments?" Faust asked as she paced around the hospital bed occupied by her head of the Shades, ignoring the grunts of pain from the mare. Faust had forbid her to be treated for now, and the pain of the raw burns on Black Rose's face was enough, Faust hoped, to keep her awake and listening thoroughly to every word she said.

"We have Equestria now, and are at a point where we can start moving our plans along, and yet we are constantly bested by small groups of- of- miscreants, right under our very noses! How does this keep happening?"

It took Black Rose a moment to answer, the pain she was suffering fighting her ability to gather the breath for a single sentence. "We know who they are, but without the griffons, we can't catch them."

"Ah, so failures aren't yours at all, but the fault of those disloyal cretins. Of course, how could I forget that they were the only competent beings at my disposal?"

"That's not what I meant, my Lady," Black Rose said quickly, when all she really wanted to do was scream and cry. "Fleur de Lis and Shining Armour, and whoever else is with them, are operating from a boat that we can't track or attack without soldiers that can fly. Luna's Night Guard also can't be tracked from the ground. We know they're around Hollow Shades somewhere, but exactly where is still unknown."

"I know all that," said Faust. "What I don't know is why nothing is being done about it."

It took Back Rose a few seconds to respond, and when she did it came out as a pained growl. "What can we do?"

Faust smiled and lit her horn up, and Black Rose gasped as the agony in her face suddenly abated. Potent healing magic swept over her, healing the burns and leaving nothing behind except a small scar on Black Rose's left cheek, to act as a constant reminder of her failures, and of who she had to thank for only leaving that much.

"While the yaks are a potent ally, at times, it is clear to me we cannot hope to match anything with wings without wings of our own. I can't be expected to be everywhere either."

Rose stroked a hoof over her face, amazement filling her at how Faust had done that. She was still thinking about what Faust had said though, and after a moment she came to realise what she was talking about.

"Do you really think she's ready?"

"I do believe she is, and I think this shall act as a fine test for her."

Author's Note

That's right, it's not entirely incompetency causing the fuck-up this time. No one plans for drunk yaks.

15. Reunions, happy and otherwise

With a wave of a claw from the Emperor, the executioner pulled a lever, dropping the platform out from under Eustace, bringing an end to his plans to usurp the throne of Griffonia. For the ponies there, their job had been completed, and their first, and possibly strongest ally had been secured. Past that, there wasn't much more that could be done or said, so with a farewell for the Emperor and his daughter, the ponies made for the portal. They had plenty to do elsewhere.

-0-0-0-

"Thank fuck for that." Trixie briefly considered kissing the floor, but she doubted it had been cleaned much in the last several centuries. Still, she was back in the Retreat, and it was strangely good to be home. "I didn't realise that would take so long."

"News flash, Trixie, but creating an alliance between nations is always going to involve some paperwork." Twilight stumbled as Rainbow and Lightning pushed past her, but she didn't mind. They'd earned their reunion with Vapor.

"Paperwork is putting it mildly I feel," Luna yawned as she and Cadence followed in after Twilight and Trixie. "I feel like we've written an entire novel in the last four days. The faff surrounding Sonny and Derek working to rebuild Griffon Intelligence felt like a novella in its own right."

"We got it done though," Twilight said with a smile, "and from here we can start work on recruiting Zebrica and Saddle Arabia to our cause."

"If they want," Cadence reminded them.

"If they want," Twilight repeated. "Not sure what there is to want more than stopping Faust and securing your nation for years to come, but that I suppose is just our opinion." Twilight stopped and smiled again as she saw the laughing pile of Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor. "When we can have more scenes like that, you know it'll all have been worth it."

"You might be having some sooner than you think," said Sunset as she walked up to Twilight and gave her a hug. "I'm just going to assume everything went well since you're back and happy about it."

Twilight returned the hug, "You assume correctly. We've taken a big first step in beating Faust, so I'm hoping you have some good news as well."

"Some. We've set most of it up. The spellwork I mean, but we're starting to find that the crystal heart you gave us isn't enough on its own. It can store Faust's energy, but we think we need something separate from it to keep that energy safely and securely contained. Starsy thinks he has something, so it shouldn't be too big a problem to overcome."

"That's good-"

"He also says he might have an idea on how to best fight Faust, but will need some help on working it out."

"Okay-"

"Fleur's also got in touch, and she says she has some big news that she wants to share with you. She didn't make it sound like good news."

"Of course not," Twilight sighed. "And how is she supposed to tell me this news?"

"She wants you to meet her on her boat around the southern point of the Bittish Isles." Sunset smiled and shrugged apologetically, "She didn't seem to want to tell me much more than that."

"Is that all?" Twilight asked cautiously, fully expecting Sunset to talk over her again.

"That's it. I'm going to suggest you take Cadence with you though. I think it'd be nice for her to see Shining again."

"That I can agree with. When does Fleur want us to see her?"

"As soon as possible I'm afraid." Sunset made another apologetic smile as Twilight groaned, "No rest for the wicked."

"No rest for anypony, wicked or not."

"I'm feeling pretty well rested," Ember said with an irritated pout. "I've hardly done anything since you left for Griffonia. I think Mayfly's pretty 'rested' too." Beside Ember, Mayfly nodded vigorously.

"Alright, so you can come too, but don't expect anything too exciting."

Ember stood and flexed her wings, shaking the stiffness out of them. "As long as I'm not cooped up in here, I'm sure I'll find something interesting to do."

"Okay then, guess it's us four going." Twilight rolled her eyes as Trixie pointedly cleared her throat, "Five, Trixie, fine. There's going to be flying though, if you don't feel up to that?"

"Since when has Trixie's fear of flying ever stopped us doing anything?"

-0-0-0-

The portal to Equestria was thankfully exactly where Twilight had left it in Starlight Glimmer's village, in the tunnel beneath the unicorn's former home. Twilight was immensely grateful for the amount of effort that saved had it been taken elsewhere, or discovered by hostile individuals.

Similarly, all of them were thankful for the lack of problems as they flew to the Bittish Isles, and as they spotted a boat in the distance, just off the coast, it was a relief that even that had gone right. It was still a bit annoying to Twilight that she'd got to the point of being relieved at even simple things going right, but she had nopony to blame but herself for feeling that way.

"Shining!" Cadence cried as she spotted her husband on the deck, and put on a burst of speed that ended abruptly as she barrelled into him and smothered him with kisses. Something which Shining gladly returned. "I'm so glad you're safe!"

"Me too!" Shining laughed. He kissed Cadence properly, holding it for several seconds before letting Flurry into the middle of an embrace between them. "I've missed you both so much."

"I see you brought friends," Fleur said, nervously eyeing Ember as the dragon landed hard enough to make the boat rock. "I'm not sure how well the changeling is going to go down though."

"What makes you say that?"

"You'll see." Fleur held a leg out and motioned for Twilight to embrace her, which the alicorn gladly did. "I'm glad to see you're unharmed, although I do now realise how silly I sound saying that to you."

"Yeah, I should probably be saying that to you. Hey filly!"

"Hey Twi, I see you managed to shake off Trixie for a little bit."

"Actually," Trixie poked her head out of Twilight's saddle bag, "I'm here too. Nice to see you, filly."

"Yeah, it's a regular family reunion. Too bad two of us are still trapped in Ponyville, or Fillydelphia."

"Fillydelphia?" Twilight asked. "Why would they be there?"

"We have got a lot to tell you," Fleur said, losing her smile. "Some of it is good, some isn't."

"Figures."

"Holy shit, Shadow's missing a leg."

Twilight quickly looked up as Trixie spoke, as she hadn't even been aware that Shadow was there, let alone incomplete.

"Still as tactful as ever, Trixie," Shadow sighed with half a smile. "Hi guys," she added as Twilight walked up to her.

"What happened?" Twilight demanded, keenly aware of how she sounded, but ignoring it in favour of figuring out why her friend was hurt.

"Got messed up by a griffon at Canterlot, and when the wound got infected, and we had nothing to treat that with, it had to come off." Shadow shrugged at Twilight, "Shit happens, y'know?"

"But my healing thingies could've saved your leg!"

"Maybe. Problem is with us thestrals, there isn't a unicorn between us to use said 'healing thingies'. Right now I'm just hoping it's possible to regrow my leg at some point when we're not too busy."

"I'm sure it will- I mean is," Twilight said, sounding far from confident. Now she was thinking about it, she wasn't entirely sure her healing devices even worked on thestrals thanks to their unique heritage, and she never really had enough reasons to try it out on them before then. Thestrals had a tendency towards either being lightly wounded, or straight up dead with little in-between. "If it isn't, I'll think of something else."

"Alright, but don't sweat it too much right now. Priorities and all that."

Twilight nodded slowly, "I know, but when we can."

"First," the filly interrupted, "there are two ponies that would like to speak with you."

"There are?" Twilight turned to see who the filly was talking about, and was very quickly reminded that her parents were on board. Parents she loved, but didn't particularly want to talk to. "Oh."

"Hi sweetie," Twilight Velvet said, her higher pitch betraying her nerves. "We're so glad you're okay."

Twilight squinted suspiciously at her parents, and wondered why they seemed so reluctant. "I'm glad to see you're okay too, but I am kind of curious why you sound like you're about to tell me my pet hamster died while I was at school."

Nightlight cleared his throat, "It's been brought to our attention that we failed you in the worst way after you came back from Mareitania. That's to say we completely failed you as parents. Instead of being proud of all the good things you did to help ponies, we focussed on all the bad things that happened, and how you had changed from the pony you were."

"Uh-huh... and what? You're sorry?"

"Of course we are!" Twilight Velvet blurted. "We're sorry, and we promise to be here for you, properly, if you still want us."

Twilight closed her eyes, the desire to call her parents well meaning idiots sitting at the tip of her tongue. Instead she hugged them. "You'll be surprised at how angry I wasn't at you, because I had the same thing off almost everypony else. I am wondering though, what brought this on?"

"I did," said the filly. "Your mother there was worried you wouldn't be their little girl any more after fighting this war against Faust. I may have hinted she was being stupid."

"Wow." Twilight looked her mother in the eyes, seeing the shame in them. "Just... wow. For your sakes, I'm going to pretend that didn't happen."

"Appreciat-" Nightlight started to say until Twilight Velvet elbowed him on the side.

"We're sorry, sweetie."

"For what?"

"For thinking that- Oh, right, I get it."

"Mmhmm." Twilight left them to stew in their thoughts as she went to squeeze herself into the snuggle still going on between Cadence, Shining, and their child. It was at that time that the filly walked up to Ember with an inquisitive look in her eye.

"So I'm guessing you're a dragon?"

Ember folded her arms and smirked down at the filly, "That's right."

"I thought you'd be like way bigger than that."

"You're thinking of dragons like my dad. He has scales bigger than I am."

"Then why aren't you that size?"

"Because of a lot of reasons that are simple to listen to, but complicated to understand. To put it simply, I like being this size, so here I am."

"Here you are... what?"

"Here I am being this size. Was that not obvious?"

"No, not really."

Ember raised a brow at the filly, fairly confident she was being played with. "I breathe fire. I'm pretty sure you shouldn't mess with things that breathe fire."

"You don't scare me. I'll mess with whoever I want to-eep!" The filly hit the deck as a burst of flame filled the air above her. "I'msorryI'llbegoodpleasedon'thurtme!"

Ember had already lost interest though, because she was too busy looking at what had just walked up on deck. "The fuck is that?"

The filly craned her neck around to see, "That is a Thorax. He's a changeling."

"That is not a changeling. Mayfly is a changeling. That's a... I don't even know what that is." Ember became aware of an alarmed buzzing, and found Mayfly standing alert, with her wings vibrating fast enough to blur. "Uh, are you okay, Mayfly?"

Others began to take notice of Mayfly as she and Thorax engaged in a staring match, the intensity of which might have threatened to start small fires if they weren't surrounded by water. Then Mayfly did something unexpected. She leaned forwards, her gaze still burning with intensity, and she opened her mouth, and licked the air before asking, "How?"

"I'm... not entirely sure," Thorax admitted hesitantly.

"Your energy tastes like sunshine and rainbows."

"Like what?"

"It tastes like love. In fact, you appear to be radiating it. It tastes most pleasant."

Thorax took a step back from Mayfly. "Please stop tasting my love," he asked meekly. "And who are you? Why are you here?"

"This is Mayfly," Twilight answered, stepping in as Mayfly started producing a humming noise without appearing to do anything to make it. "She's with us, and she's an exile from Chrysalis' hive, like you, so you don't need to worry about that."

"Exiled because of you," Mayfly quickly reminded Twilight, still coherent enough to not let that one slide. "You still haven't answered me on how this has happened."

"Uh... it kind of happened when I almost died. Actually, I would've died if this hadn't happened. Anyway, I was dying, and Honeydew was there, and I told her I loved her. Then, as I was slipping away, all I could think about was how I hadn't really given back the love she gave me, and as soon as I tried to, this happened."

"So you fell in love?"

"Yes?"

"And turned into that?"

"Apparently?"

Mayfly blinked slowly and frowned, "That doesn't make any sense. Twilight's friend Fleur," Mayfly said, turning to Fleur, "do you have ink and paper? I wish to study this in depth."

"Uh, sure. Filly, go find her what she wants while we catch the others up."

-0-0-0-

Twilight had taken off as soon as her friends being at Fillydelphia had been brought up. Ember and Shadow had followed her, meaning that they'd only wind up getting involved in whatever she was about to do, and they refused to go, no matter how much she insisted. It was touching in a way, but also really fucking annoying.

"Will you take a moment and think, Twilight?" Shadow said to the speeding alicorn, barely able to keep up. "What are you even going to do once you get there?"

"I don't know, something!"

"Something," Ember said slowly. "Greaaattt... then what's next in this master plan of yours?"

"Then I do something else!"

"Something else? Oh my goodness! Marechiavelli herself couldn't have outdone the subtle intricacies of this excellent plan."

Shadow grinned sideways at Ember, "Twilight, I really like this dragon."

"And you're not questioning how she knows about Marechiavelli?" Twilight asked, only to be ignored.

"And you're not bad either I suppose," Ember said back to Shadow, "for a freakily produced, forced hybrid kind of thing."

"And suddenly I get the feeling dragons dislike thestrals."

"It's nothing personal, but you are a giant bastardization of three different species, and a part of that is dragons."

"Wait, you know where thestrals come from?"

"My great uncle Snarfax was the dragon whose remains Luna used to create you and your people. Congratulations, we're cousins."

Shadow didn't know what to say to that, beyond apologising, which she wasn't going to do. "Huh."

"Yep. Anyway, Twilight's getting away now, so think about flying instead."

Both of them swooped in to land just behind Twilight as they came close to the steelworks. Ponies were swarming all over the construction site, rebuilding it as rapidly as possible. Twilight swallowed, having just come to appreciate what Fleur had meant when she said it was well guarded. Even if she could find her friends in all that, getting them out would be difficult to say the least.

"So is there an actual plan?" Shadow asked as she walked up to stand next to Twilight. "Or are we just going to wing it?"

"We really can't wing this. We might as well just throw ourselves on their spears if we're going to improvise an entire plan." Twilight sat and sighed, sorely aware of how stupidly impulsive it was of her to come here.

Shadow looked up at Ember, getting a shrug from the dragoness. "Okay, since no one else has anything, how about we just see if they're alright first?"

"And how do we do that?"

"A dragon attack ought to get their attention," Shadow said, grinning at Ember.

"Are you kidding me? I'm not attacking that many soldiers at once!" Ember turned away from Shadow and folded her arms, "You can just forget that plan right now."

"Aww, where's your sense of adventure? It could even be fun, terrorising those little ponies down there. Dragons are arrow proof, right?"

"Mostly long as they don't hit my eyes, mouth, nose, or other... orifices."

"There's an image I didn't need." Shadow rapidly shook her head to get it out. "All you have to do is scare them a bit. Shouldn't be too hard for you."

"Don't," said Twilight. "All you'll be doing is creating more confusion than we need, and giving Faust a reason to target the dragons."

"I fail to see that as a bad thing," Shadow mumbled.

"I'll just get in close and see what I can do," Twilight continued. "Wait here."

"Alright," Shadow shrugged, "but we'll be keeping my plan ready in case you get into trouble."

"You do that." Twilight stood and started trotting towards the construction site, muttering to herself. Couldn't they have just let her come on her own? Nopony, or dragon, had to get involved and risk getting hurt because of this. At least she could be thankful they were staying put for now.

The grounds around the steelworks were only lightly patrolled, Twilight found as she got closer, with single soldiers keeping watch over various points as a few pairs walked around. It was one of those single soldiers that gave Twilight an idea. If she could get a uniform, and disguise herself, she could hopefully get in and find her friends with little problem. All she had to do was get the uniform, which was embarrassingly easily really, when she thought about it.

Twilight watched the patrols for a few minutes, trying to work out their routes and timing for her to best do this without getting noticed. There was a small gap in the patrols that left one of the watch ponies on their own for a two minute period, and it was that pony that Twilight decided was going to be her unfortunate victim of uniform theft, which was also handy because it was both a mare and a unicorn.

Twilight waited a few minutes, then as soon as the mare was out of sight of the patrols, teleported the mare to herself, and clamped her magic over her mouth and nose while making sure the mare didn't cast anything that would draw attention. After a minute, the mare sank to the ground unconscious, and Twilight stripped her uniform off to wear herself.

It was a bit tight, and needed some adjustments, but once her wings were hidden, and her colours adjusted, Twilight looked like any other respectable member of the Mareitanian Adepts. All that left then was to secure the mare, and get onto the site unnoticed. Twilight summoned Swordy and held the tip over the mare's chest, but found she couldn't do it, as killing her while unconscious and defenceless really was murder.

"She could hurt somepony in the future," Twilight tried to reason, but she still didn't do it. She could've, and she knew she could've, but not if she didn't have to. Instead she transmuted some rocks into a rope to bind the mare's legs, and a gag to silence her, then, with careful deliberation, cast a spell to keep her unconscious, and cut her horn off before staunching the bleeding. She was at least mostly harmless now.

That job done, Twilight went back to watching the patrols, and as soon as her window of opportunity was open again, teleported herself to the spot the Adept had been before her abduction.

Not wanting to give the patrols a chance to point her out as not being the pony there before, Twilight turned and left the platform she was on to slip into the construction site. As she had hoped, none of the other soldiers paid her the slightest bit of attention as she made her way around the stockpile of building materials.

What did hurt her was that none of the prisoners paid her much attention beyond the occasional glance, and even then the mix of fear, hatred, and even downtrodden apathy she was getting from even those limited interactions was enough to make her heart sink. Fleur had said the prisoners were brought here as a form of insurance against future attacks, and Twilight could believe it, because they were the only thing stopping her from doing some damage herself.

Twilight put it out of her mind as best she could, and instead thought about what was going on at the site. They were just about done clearing up from the previous attack, and construction on two towers had begun, while the area between them was still largely empty, save for a marked out area. The foundations were still intact from the previous steelworks, which saved some time, so it wouldn't be long until the central building began reconstruction.

Twilight twitched an ear at a sound coming from her left. A chain gang of unicorns was being led towards her, and she stepped back to let them pass, and was shocked at what she saw. They were dirty, and tired, and wore expressions she'd only seen on ponies once before; the pegasi of Mareitania. These unicorns wore that same, hopeless looks that the former slaves had worn, and seeing as how these ponies had been captives for a fraction of the time the pegasi had, it gave Twilight a good idea of how hard the ponies here were being worked.

Twilight did a double take as the second to last unicorn passed by. She didn't even recognise her at first, with her coat so dirty, and her hair a mess, but her eyes were unmistakable. It was, and could only be, Rarity, even if her cutie mark was a equals sign like all the others'.

Twilight fought to keep her mouth under control, and fell into step just behind the line of unicorns. The one on the end was Lyra, which was convenient in its way, although she didn't recognise Twilight in her uniform with her looks changed a bit.

Rarity gave Twilight a fearful look as Twilight walked beside her, "I don't know what you think I've done, but I assure you I haven't done anything."

"What? No! I- Nngh." Twilight kept her mouth shut as she tried to think about how to talk to Rarity without giving the game away. After a moment she ran up to the stallion in the front leading them. "Hey, wait a moment."

"For what?" the earth pony asked, not slowing down in the slightest.

"The white unicorn near the end, I need to speak to her."

"Sure you do. Look, I know she's attractive when you clean her up, but she's extremely off limits, as in by order of the Lady off limits. Besides, you know that sort of thing gets you in trouble with any of the prisoners."

"What? I don't want her to... do whatever you're thinking of. I just want to talk to her."

"Is it important?"

"Yes it's important."

"Then you can talk to her while she works."

Twilight sighed and gave up pushing. She supposed she was lucky she was able to talk to Rarity at all, although it was still annoying that she'd have to do it like this.

Eventually they were led to one of the towers, where the unicorns were lined up to start lifting materials up to the top. Twilight bit her lip, unsure of how she was supposed to talk to Rarity like this. She tried nonetheless.

"Hey, Rarity," Twilight whispered while standing next to the unicorn.

"Oh, it's you again. Can I help you?" Rarity asked politely, although it was clearly an act for her captors benefit.

"I'm going to tell you something, and I need you keep your voice down when I do."

"I see. Is it important to do it now? Because I am rather busy, lifting and... things."

Twilight sighed and subtly took over lifting a metal beam up the tower, "Yes, it's very important. It's me, Twilight."

"Oh har-har, very funny. There's no possible way you could be-" Rarity stopped talking as she turned to face Twilight, and saw that even though her coat was a darker purple, and the mane near black, it was still cut the same way, and those eyes, they were definitely Twilight's. "Good heavens, it is you. What are you doing here? You could get caught!"

Twilight pulled her lips back in a nervous grimace as Rarity's voice rose in volume. A gantry was being used to lift bricks nearby, and while nopony was beneath it, she cut the rope, dropping the lot with an almighty crash.

"Holy shit, did you see that?" the stallion guarding the unicorns said.

"I can watch these unicorns for a minute while you go sort that out?"

"Uh, yeah, sure, just keep them here."

"Got it." Twilight tossed the stallion a quick salute, and as soon as he was gone, grabbed Rarity in a hug. "I'm so happy to see you!"

"Likewise, Twilight, but that doesn't change that you shouldn't be here! In fact, what are you doing here?"

"As soon as I heard you and the others were here, I had to come and see you. It's been so long. I was also thinking that I could get you out of here."

"Really? But what about all the other prisoners here?"

Twilight looked to Lyra, whose hopeful expression hurt Twilight when she thought of leaving all these ponies behind when getting her friends out. Lyra was her friend too, once. "I don't know. I really don't think I can get all these ponies out, but I might be able to get you guys out."

Rarity shook her head at Twilight, "I don't think you quite understand, Twilight. If you can't get all of these ponies out, then I'm not going anywhere either, and if we go missing, I can promise you they'll take it out on Fluttershy."

"What do you mean?"

"She's still at Ponyville, with the vast majority of pegasi."

Twilight turned to look at all the other prisoners, and saw that there wasn't a pegasus anywhere in sight. She cursed under her breath, knowing that Rarity was right.

Rarity smiled sympathetically at Twilight, "While I would love nothing more than to get out of here, I'm afraid we simply can't. I do very much appreciate the thought though, and knowing that you're still out there trying to stop this helps immeasurably."

"I'm sorry Rarity."

"And I'm sorry too. I know it must hurt to leave us here, but right now it's for the best." Rarity looked down for a moment, then back up, her eyes carrying more regret than before. "I'm also sorry for the way we acted with you after you returned from Mareitania. We weren't very good friends."

"You're bringing that up now? Y'know what? I forgive you, totally and utterly." Twilight bit her lip as the stallion started to come back. "I'm going to find Applejack and Pinkie, just so I know they're okay. I'll see you soon, I promise, and next time I'll get you out of here. All of you."

"I hope so, Twilight. I'm not sure how much more of this I can take. While you're here, how's Rainbow Dash? Is she with you? Pinkie said she was probably with you."

"She is, and she's fine." Twilight smiled at Rarity, then turned to the stallion, "Is everything okay?"

"Uh, yeah, although it's pretty weird. It looks like the rope had been cut."

"Really? That is weird. I guess we should be thankful nopony was standing under it."

"Yeah, that would've made a hell of a mess."

Twilight just nodded, since that wasn't really what she was going for. "Anyway, I'll leave you to get these, uh... slackers, back to work."

"Already? I was hoping I might get a chance to talk to you as well?"

"Sorry, I got some other ponies here I need to see. Maybe later though?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. Catch me later and I'll buy you a beer."

"Sounds good." Twilight rolled her eyes as she walked away quietly mimicking her exchange with the guard in a squeaky voice before shuddering. The fact that he could think about such things while overseeing the hard labour and suffering of hundreds of ponies... he'd be lucky if he only got the beer bottle smashed over his head.

Twilight set about searching for Applejack and Pinkie, and hoped they were together since they were earth ponies. It would also make Applejack easier to find since Pinkie, being pink, was far more noticeable than Applejack's earthy colours.
She found them several minutes later, using shovels to load rubble into some carts. Applejack's brother was there too, waiting to pull the cart they were loading, as well as Pinkie's sisters, and a pony Twilight sort of recognised as being part of their team, and most weirdly of all Pinkie's marefriend. Twilight was still a long way from getting used to that one.

Walking up behind them, Twilight cleared her throat, and made sure to keep her magic over Pinkie's mouth as she sucked in a deep breath. Trust Pinkie to know exactly who she was at only the barest sound of her voice.

"Please don't shout my name out loud." She could feel Pinkie grinning sheepishly through her magic.

"Who the heck are ya for Pinkie ta know yer name anyway?" Applejack asked, turning around to face Twilight. With a smile, Twilight released Pinkie to answer for her.

"It's Twilight, Applejack!" Pinkie said at a thankfully lower volume than her initial greeting would've been at. "Couldn't you tell?"

"Pinkie, that looks nothing like... huh, now you mention it though. Is that really you, Twilight?"

Twilight quickly checked where the guards were, finding them standing to the side, talking to each other, and paying no attention to her, or their prisoners. She supposed they didn't need to pay too much attention to their charges though, since they were all chained together on their back left ankle, which was further attached to a solid looking post.

"Yeah, it's me. I heard you'd been brought here, so I came to find you since it's easier than getting into Ponyville. I was hoping to get you out, but Rarity already made it clear that's not an option."

"No, it ain't," Applejack agreed with a sad shake of her head. "Look, Twilight, it's great to see you again, don't get me wrong, but you're going to get us all in trouble if you're caught."

"Pfft, like those guards ever pay attention to us," Limestone sneered. "So long as the carts keep getting filled, hint, hint."

"Hint, hint nothing, you." Applejack took the hint all the same and tossed a few more shovelful into the cart until Twilight took over for all of them. "Thanks Twi."

"I know I can't get you out now, and I accept that, but I can tell you that we have a plan, and we're working hard to make it happen. When the time comes, I'll be making sure all of these ponies get free."

"Now that I can look forward to, but I hope you're planning on freeing us from Ponyville rather than here. There'll be less guards, and less chance of all us folk getting done over than if you attack here, if ya get ma drift?"

"I know. I'll have to pay a visit to the pony that has all your cutie marks while I'm there, so it does make more sense. I just wish I could do it now."

"You're really not the only one," said Pinkie. "But don't worry, we'll be fine and dandy until you do, right girls? I mean, I guess we will?"

The range of looks the others gave Pinkie didn't fill Twilight with enthusiasm. "If you say so."

"I'm at least fifty percent sure that I know so, not that my opinion is any more or less valid than anypony elses-oh please get me my cutie mark back! I can't stand all this- this... blahness! How's Rainbow by the way?"

"Uh, s-she fine, I guess," Twilight stammered, put off by the two sudden changes in conversation.

"Great! Oh! Octavia and Summer are here too, so you should totally go give them a visit! You know, if you want? They're in the medical tent."

It took Twilight a while, but she did eventually notice that Pinkie's equals mark flashed darker every time she got too exuberant. She had no idea why it did that, but it was an observation nonetheless.

"Stay strong, girls. When I next see you, hopefully it'll be to bust all of you out of Ponyville."

"I hope so," Applejack drawled, her voice sounding more tired than it ever had before. "By the way, why didn't you tell us about Nightmare?"

It took Twilight a moment to work out what Applejack was talking about, forgetting that they knew about her. "Sorry, but it wasn't my secret to share."

"Oh, I see. Well, she did help us, so I think it's only fair I tell you that they're keeping her in High Rock, and I think..." Applejack trailed off as Twilight held up a hoof.

"We've already got her, and she's fine. Now she is at least. I did go there looking for you guys, but you'd already been moved by the time I did."

"Hey! What are you doing talking to those prisoners?"

Twilight sighed under her breath and put on her best frowny face for the guards. "I was wondering why the ponies guarding them are busy talking to each other, instead of doing their jobs? In the few minutes I've been talking to them, I'm still none the wiser."

"I will not be spoken to like that by a unicorn." The speaking guard narrowed his eyes while his companion backed away slowly.

"Dude, I really think you should drop it."

"No, not until she tells me why she thinks she can talk to me like that."

"Now, now, surely there's no need fer that? She di'nt slow us down none, and the cart's nea-"

Crack!

Applejack fell over as the guard back hoofed her across the face. "Shut your Lady damned, faithless, hick mouth!"

Twilight stood still and took a calm breath as Pinkie rushed to help Applejack. A thin trail of blood dribbled from the side of her mouth. Tears joined them, which surprised Twilight, as she'd seen Applejack take hits harder than that, and walk them right off. She wondered if it was connected to the cutie mark thing. What she was mostly thinking of though, was the several dozen ways she'd already torn the soldier apart. Thankfully her outward actions were considerably muted compared to those in her head.

"Do you even realise who that is?" Twilight asked.

"Why should I care?"

"Because that is Applejack, one of F- the Lady's special prisoners. One of those prisoners that you probably shouldn't be hitting."

Twilight was totally bluffing, having no idea whether that was true or not, but considering what the other soldier had told her about Rarity, she hoped it was. Either way, the stallion appeared to be calling her bluff, and seemed a bit nervous.

"Alright, if you forget this happened, I'll forget what you said to me."

"Let me take her to the medical tent, to check there's no permanent damage, and you have a deal. I'll just tell them it was an accident."

"But she hasn't finished loading her cart yet."

Twilight released a drawn out sigh, then finished filling the cart for them, and for good measure filled the next two carts in the space of a few seconds, then felt guilty at the exasperated whine Big Mac made. "Does that buy her enough time to get checked out?" Twilight asked, smiling at the slight nervousness he displayed after watching her do that without breaking a sweat.

"Ugh, fine." The soldier took a key off his belt and released Applejack from the chain. "Try anything funny, and a smack to the face will be the least of your worries."

"Ah'll be good, I swear."

Twilight offered a hoof to help Applejack up, then nudged her to start walking. "Lead the way, Applejack, and keep where I can see you."

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief as they got away from that soldier, although she almost wanted to do something when she heard him muttering about her being a soft touch. "Are you alright?" she asked once she thought they were far enough away.

"No, but that don't matter none. Guess I shoulda jus' kept ma mouth shut."

"You know you couldn't have. It's not in your nature to do nothing when somepony needs help."

"Maybe. I dare say I've learnt a lot about what is and isn't in a pony's nature these las' few months. It gets hard Twilight, trying to stand tall when everything's tryin' ta wear ya down. O' course, I s'pect you know that better than all of us."

"It's easy to keep fighting when you can fight. Trying to fight when doing so gets you punished, that's probably a lot harder. That doesn't mean it's not worth doing though."

"I guess." Applejack shrugged, "I don't know no more." Applejack stepped to the side as a cart came through, followed by more prisoners. "Twilight, why am I leading the way?"

"Because I have no idea where I'm going, and it's probably more convincing to have you in front when you're unsecured."

"Oh I'm still partially secured." Applejack rapped a hoof on the dark metal collar she wore, like all the prisoners here did. "They told us it was magic, and I figure it probably is. Rarity says she can feel something about them, but that's about all she can say."

Twilight made a face, her suspicions telling her that Faust, or somepony, was smart enough to counter the easiest method of freeing the prisoners. The collars prevented teleportation. A quick attempt to teleport Applejack confirmed her theory. "Guess that means freeing you just got that little bit harder."

"Sounds about right. So, I'm curious, what is yer big plan to stop Faust?"

"You know I can't tell you that."

"Why not?"

"Because if they find out I was here, they'll probably interrogate you, and no offense Applejack, I don't want our plans ruined by an oversight like that."

"Oh, yeah, okay, that makes sense. Sorry, I shouldn't have asked." Applejack pointed to a patch of tents erected on the grounds just off to the side of the steelworks. "The med tents are over there."

"Okay, just keep walking and do what I say."

"I don't think I could refuse at this point, but okay."

Twilight hid her thoughts on what Applejack had said, but it did worry her. Outwardly she kept quiet and maintained a stern, authoritarian image as she followed Applejack into the collection of open sided tents. To her surprise it wasn't too busy, but that wasn't to say it was empty either. She could at least be pleased that efforts were being made to keep the prisoners alive.

Twilight grinned as she saw Octavia and Summer sat quietly together, although she tucked it away as she pointed a hoof at them. "You two, over here, now."

Twilight led Applejack to a fairly secluded bed that had a curtain around it, and drew it shut and popped up a bubble of silence before dropping her disguise. "Hi guys."

"Twilight!" Octavia and Summer both shrieked, pouncing on her in a hug. "Oh my goodness," Octavia gasped, "it's so good to see you! But what are you doing here?"

"I heard my friends were here, so I came to see if I could get you out. It's not possible right now," Twilight concluded with a sigh, "but I will get you all back eventually." Twilight moved her head sideways as her hoof ran over some straps on Summer's back. To her lack of surprise, she was wearing wing binders. "Oh for goodness sake."

"It's not so bad," said Summer. "At least I get to be here, helping ponies, instead of trapped in Ponyville like the other pegasi."

Twilight nodded slowly, thinking Summer might have had a point. "I suppose. Doesn't look like you're too busy though."

"Not at the moment," said Octavia. "Considering the lack of supplies here, that can only be a good thing. We did have another attack on a soldier last night though."

"By a prisoner?" Twilight asked as Summer got up and started checking Applejack's injury out.

"By other soldiers. I don't know what's going on, but ever since the latest bunch of recruits came from Mareitania, there have been more attacks on them by the other soldiers. They keep saying that the new ones aren't true believers, and I'd say that's rubbish, but they do seem to question things a bit more. Unfortunately that makes them targets."

"Do they brand them on the neck with a N B?"

"That's right."

Twilight nodded, "Yeah, I've heard about this. I guess me tampering with Faust's mind control back in Mareitania has had an effect, but I never expected this sort of thing to happen." Twilight shrugged, not actually caring all that much. "Oh well."

Octavia smirked at Twilight, "Seems you've been busy."

"I have to be to keep ahead of this," Twilight replied, gesturing towards the construction site. "I find it hard to believe Faust would condone this use of prisoners as labour."

"From what we've heard, this is all Snowbright's doing."

"Of course it is," Twilight growled. "He's really not going to enjoy when I catch up to him."

"Are you going to kill him?" Summer asked.

"Perhaps," Twilight replied stiffly. "It depends on if the situation calls for it." She really hoped the situation called for it. "Even so, if this is Snowbright's doing, Faust would still be aware that it's going on. I'm guessing she's reached a point where she really needs to get things done."

"Or she's occupied elsewhere," said Octavia. "We've heard that she's been spending a lot of time in the Everfree forest lately, although I couldn't tell you why. Not even the soldiers seem to know."

"It could be something to do with Celestia, or the Tree of Harmony, or both. That's what we've guessed at least," Twilight added with a shrug. "I'm not sure which one of those is worse, to be honest."

"Do ya think she could kill the Tree?" Applejack asked, sounding worried. Or it was the cotton wool in her mouth making her sound that way as Summer treated her as best she could.

"I don't think she can kill it, but she might be able to contain its power somehow. She created it, so she'd know best how." Twilight tiredly rubbed the side of her head, "Is it bad to say that neither the Tree or Celestia are things we can worry about right now? It sounds bad."

"If they aren't high on the list of priorities," Octavia said with a sympathetic smile, "I hate to think what is. We believe in you and Luna though. We know you can fix this."

"You do? Because there are moments where I think that we really, really can't." Twilight groaned and stood up, "Ignore me. We have a plan, but it's taking time to get ready, and is filled with too many questionable elements, like hoping others will see our point of view." Twilight altered her appearance back into her disguise, "Come on Applejack, I better get you back to where you're supposed to be, then I better get out of here."

-0-0-0-

Twilight stopped by her own captive on the way back to the others, and cut her bonds before letting her wake up in her own time. Twilight had been tempted to wipe her memory of it, but since the mare hadn't really seen her, Twilight decided that waking up without a horn was messed up enough without having no idea how it happened.

That small job done, she teleported back to Ember and Shadow, lay down between them, and planted her face on the ground to groan loudly.

"That bad huh?" Shadow asked as she consolingly patted Twilight on the back. "Couldn't get them out?"

"They weren't all there, so if I took the ones that were, the other would... I don't know, but it would probably be bad. When we do get them back, it'll have to be from Ponyville all at once."

"That sounds hard," said Ember.

"There's an understatement." Twilight lifted her face up off the ground to stare owlishly at the steelworks. "We should get back to the boat. Hopefully something wonderful has happened since we left to make me feel better."

Author's Note

I thought it was about time they had a little get together after all this time. Too bad it kind of sucked. Also tré tired, so direct all fuck ups and spelling mistakes to future me. Current me is hitting the hay. Viciously, with sticks, until I pass out.

16. The rising sun

Scientific discovery was a process that neither Cadence or Mayfly were familiar with, as was made obvious in the way they grilled Thorax on what had happened to him. When Twilight came in to land, they were asking him conflicting questions he couldn't answer, while at the same time giving him no time to actually answer.

"What were you thinking?"

"What were you feeling?"

"Do you thinking the act of dying triggered something to cause the transformation?"

"Did having Honeydew with you make any difference?"

"Would a chemical imbalance from being wounded have been a factor?"

"Did you feel a particular bond with Honeydew as you were..." Cadence was unable to finish asking that question, mostly because she found it strange to say, rather than hard.

Twilight gave Thorax a pitying look, then examined Mayfly's notes, for lack of a better word. They were more a eye-hurtingly nonsensical collection of scribbles, topped off by a cutesy picture of Thorax as a goofy little love bug.

"Would you recommend getting stabbed multiple times as an acceptable trigger for causing the transformation in others?"

"Mayfly!" Cadence gasped, "why are you so obsessed with him getting wounded as being part of his transformation?"

"Because it's the most unique factor in what happened."

"Except it isn't. If nearly dying caused this kind of transformation in changelings, I imaging there'd be a lot more like him running around. And I can't believe I'm saying that." Cadence quickly shook her head, "Since it's unique, I'm going to suggest that something else triggered it. Something that a changeling has never done before."

"Like getting stabbed as he saved sneaky ponies."

"Does she mean us?" Rocky quietly asked Bon Bon, getting a shrug back in answer.

"No, I mean like falling in love with a pony. Not an awful lot of changelings do that."

"So falling in love with a pony causes transformation?"

"Perhaps."

Mayfly pondered this for a moment, then looked Honeydew in the eye. "I love you."

Cadence groaned a sigh, "I think you have to say it to a pony you actually know and care about."

"But all the ponies I know are crazy. Except maybe Sunset. Sunset is nice."

Cadence sat up and smiled, "Alright, how do you feel about Sunset?"

"Sunset pony provides a good meal. Lots of love to share. This one never feels hungry around Sunset Shimmer."

"Okay," Cadence said slowly, feeling that she should've expected an answer like that from the changeling, "but other than as food, do you have other reasons to like her?"

"Umm..."

"Reasons to reciprocate the love she must feel towards you?"

Mayfly made a face at Cadence, "I'm not going to go so far as to say she loves me, or that I love her."

"Friendship is a form of love, isn't it, Twilight?"

"Huh?" Twilight said dumbly, not expecting to have been dragged into the conversation. Considering her encounter with her friends earlier, she wasn't sure she could answer it with even a semi straight face, let alone a happy one. "Sure, I guess?" Seeing as they haven't even asked how it went in Fillydelphia, she was also a bit miffed.

Her reply did at least get Mayfly to think, even if it got Cadence to look at her funny. "So you're saying that I've been feeding on her friendship love, and that it might've been intended for me the entire time? I haven't been feeding on her affections for others?"

"That's right," Cadence said with a smile. "Now, knowing that, how do you feel towards her? Do you feel you could give that love back to her?"

"What? No! I don't want to starve by giving my love to others!"

"That's not how love works. Love is infinite."

"If love is infinite, why are changelings almost always hungry?"

"Because you're using it wrong," said Thorax. "Ever since I became friends with ponies, I've never been hungry, and since you said that you've not been hungry since meeting this Sunset Shimmer, you're going through the same thing. Just give it a try. The worst that can happen is that nothing happens."

"Fine," Mayfly said begrudgingly, "but I don't expect this to-"

A pulse of magic lit up the area, forcing the ponies there to shield their eyes until it subsided. When they dared to look again, they saw that Mayfly had changed much like Thorax had. Her eyes were a soft lilac colour, and her carapace had filled out its holes, and had changed to a pale blue, except for a splash of amber over her belly.

"That was unexpected," Mayfly muttered, stunned by the sudden transformation. She walked around in a circle as she tried to look at herself, then stopped and went cross-eyed as she reached back between her rear legs. "I have a gender now."

"Really, please stop doing that," Trixie said as she averted her eyes from the changeling's rear end, right in front of her.

"I seem to be female. Why am I female?"

Cadence beamed at Mayfly, "This is amazing! All this time, the thing holding changelings back was your reluctance to share love with others!"

Twilight made a face of quiet contemplation as many of the others fussed around Mayfly. Back in the changeling hive, Queen Primus had said that the changelings had been left incomplete and broken. Was the simple act of loving another really the key to fixing that? Was that the simple method behind curing the biological plight of the changelings? Seemed preposterous to her, and yet the evidence was right in front of her.

"Hey, where are my antlers?" Mayfly asked, rubbing a hoof around her head and finding only a single unicorn like horn. "Why does Thorax get them, and not... me... uh-oh."

"Uh-oh?" Cadence repeated. "What does uh-oh mean?"

"Thorax is larger in stature, and has unique appendages capable of performing magic. Only queens have those properties. Thorax is like queen. That is bad."

"I'm not a queen," Thorax laughed nervously. It died as he saw the way Mayfly and some of the others were looking at him. "That's preposterous, I can't possibly be a queen. I'm the wrong gender for starters."

"Irrelevant," said Mayfly. "I'm not one to use language like this, but Queen Chrysalis is going to be pissed when she finds out. I mean, murderous rampage type pissed, and not just at you, because I too am a deviant of changelings now." Mayfly whipped around on the spot and pointed an accusing hoof at Cadence, "Why did you make me do this?!"

"Me? You're the one saying that Chrysalis is going to try and destroy you for being different!"

"I don't even want to be queen!" Thorax wailed.

"King," Honeydew corrected him.

"I don't want to be king either!"

All of them stopped as the sound of Twilight laughing reached them. "Really? Is freaking out about this wonderful thing the best we can do right now? I hate to break it to you, but Chrysalis is so far from important right now, that its laughable. It'd be a miracle if she even manages to find out about you. I think for now you should calm down, consider how this could help your people in the future, and remember that if Chrysalis does find out, you have some significant protection in the form of at least three alicorns."

Cadence nodded, "She could've said it better, but she's not wrong." She frowned as Mayfly and Thorax shared a look. "What?"

"Should we tell them?" Mayfly asked Thorax.

"Probably. Guys, I don't think you realise just how good Chrysalis is at gathering information. It's an essential part of the hive being successful. Under normal circumstances she'd probably find out by the end of the week. At the moment, I'll say it might take a bit longer, but she will find out."

"Then she's just going to have to accept you being under our protection," Twilight said with finality. "We aren't going to let her do anything to you."

"Let's see if you keep to that with entire changeling hive coming for you," said Mayfly. "There's also something flying towards us," she added, pointing a hoof to the east towards a dark dot in the sky that was gradually getting bigger.

"Should we hide?" Cadence asked, only to be ignored as Twilight used her magic to create a lens.

"That's a thestral," she said. "She looks panicked."

Shadow sat up sharply, her attention fully engaged. "What do you mean she's panicked?"

"I'm pretty sure there's only one thing I can mean by that," Twilight replied bluntly. "If you want elaboration, I don't think she's here to deliver good news."

It was a couple of minutes before the thestral got there, and she flopped onto the deck to catch a breath before attempting to speak. When she did, her eyes went wide as she say the array of individuals facing her. "Princesses! Thank goodness you're here! Is Princess Luna here too?"

"No, she isn't I'm afraid," said Cadence. "Is something wrong?"

"They found us!" the thestral squeaked. "They found Batsburg!"

"What?" Fleur squeaked in surprise, stepping forward. "Who did? When?"

"This morning. An army came to the foot of Foal Mountain, not far from the entrance to Nostralis." The thestral swallowed and looked both Cadence and Twilight in the eye for a split second before looking down. "Celestia was leading them."

"What?" Twilight said dumbly. "How could- What?"

"Princess Celestia is leading the army that's about to attack-"

"I know what you said!" Twilight's breath caught, ashamed at yelling at the distressed thestral like that. "I just don't believe it." Twilight glanced at Cadence, seeing the same disbelief.

"Please, we need help. We need your help."

Twilight... struggled. There was no other word for it. The very idea that Celestia would lead an attack on anypony was already beyond her comprehension, but to do it for Faust? There was no way she could be doing it of her own free will.

"Twilight!" Shadow yelled, snapping Twilight out of her stupor. "Fucking do something!"

"Uh, right! Fleur, get on the speaker stone and tell Luna what's happening. Cadence, leave Flurry with Shining and come with me. You too Ember."

"What?" both Cadence and Shining shouted.

"Shining can't fly, and I'm not facing Celestia on my own, so Cadence, you need to come with me!"

"But Shining's the fighter, not me!"

"He's also just a unicorn!"

Shining gave Twilight a look, "So?"

"So you're not going!"

Shining shook his head at Twilight, not bothering to actually spend time arguing with her. Taking Flurry in his hooves, he gave her to Thorax. "Do you mind?"

"No, of course not," Thorax took Flurry in his own hooves, "just go help the thestrals."

Shining kissed Flurry on the forehead, then stepped aside to let Cadence do the same. "I'm coming."

Twilight blinked and shook her head, "Apparently you are. Trixie, you're coming as well."

"I knew I should've stayed at the retreat," Trixie grumbled, not really meaning it. Much.

"What should we do?" the filly asked.

"You... stay safe." Twilight smiled sadly as the filly huffed, "I think fighting Celestia is a bit beyond anypony without serious magic. Sorry."

The filly waved a hoof dismissively, "It's fine, just go. Didn't feel like getting killed today anyway."

Twilight smiled at the filly, and grabbed Trixie as Cadence picked Shining up in her magic. Ember took off after them, and Shadow as well.

"Shadow, I don't-"

"Don't you even dare finish that sentence," Shadow warned. "I am not sitting here while my people need me. At the very least I can help with the evacuation."

"Alright," said Twilight. While Shadow's injury was a concern, she was actually going to say that she didn't know where she was going. At least Shadow gave her a way out of that now. "Lead the way."

-0-0-0-

A massive golden shield covered much of the area between Hollow Shades and Nostralis, and ended on the ledge by the entrance into the thestral city. If they wanted a sign that Celestia really was there, they'd got it, and then some.

It was also serving a tactical consideration beyond protecting the Mareitanians beneath it. It was also protecting the ponies scaling the side of the mountain, attaching ladders to the rock to give the attackers an easier method of getting into the city.

Other than that though, it was very hard to tell what was lurking beneath the tree canopy. There could've been several thousand soldiers down there. At the very least the trees were preventing the use of siege engines, although they probably wouldn't have been much use against the mountain anyway.

"This is bad," Shadow said as they skimmed over the shield to the entrance. "We never even considered Celestia. She's one of the few ponies that knows Nostralis even exists, let alone where it is, and how to get in."

"It won't be long until they're ready to attack," Twilight surmised. "I'd give it half an hour, tops." Twilight placed Trixie down on the ledge and landed, and only then did she notice that there wasn't a thestral to be seen. "Where is everypony?"

"I don't know," said the thestral that came to warn them, a small, mousey brown thestral that had been identified as Mouse, pun probably intended. "Greywhisker said they were going to start the evacuation, and they couldn't have gotten everyone out yet."

Shadow stared stoically out over the shield, although it was easy to see the worry in her stance. "Something must've gone wrong."

"And I think I know what," said Trixie. Her horn lit up, and there was a crack from the mountainside above them as she pulled a chain net free from a crevice. "Apparently the Mareitanians are exporting their ideas here."

"Why haven't they fired on us yet?" Twilight wondered out loud. She supposed they couldn't get the angle right over the shield to fire right at the entrance where they were, but they could see the entrance well enough to get their shots mostly right for those flying out of it.

"I'm calling it here," Shadow growled, "the Mareitanians fucking suck."

"Aren't there any other ways out of the mountain?" Shining asked.

"Nope. Always thought that was a bit stupid. Now I know it is." Shadow gestured with her head towards the entrance, "We should probably go in and see what the situation is."

Trixie laughed humourlessly, "I'm going to out on a limb here and say it's not good."

"We'll see," said Twilight, thoroughly agreeing.

They let Shadow and Mouse lead the way in, and what they found was no surprise. Nostralis was in chaos as the few thousand trapped thestrals that lived here, with nowhere to go, panicked. It was at least a fairly polite panic that left the ground floor alone, where the Night Guard were gathered.

Shadow saluted once she'd reached the middle of the floor where Greywhisker was addressing the Night Guard, barely wobbling on her two legs left on the floor. "Captain."

Greywhisker looked up and breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness. Good job, Mouse. Princesses, we are in dire straits right now, and could really use your help."

"Why aren't you trying to evacuate?" Twilight asked off the bat. "There can't be that many net launchers out there."

"At a guess, two dozen," Greywhisker told her. "If they stagger their shots while we're trying to leave, they could take out maybe a third of us as we fly out. Far more if Celestia comes and stops us."

"If she really wanted to stop you, she would've sealed the entrance to... this... shit." Twilight stomped a hoof in anger, "Celestia wanted you to get a warning out. She wanted us to come to your aid. I'm betting she's sealed the entrance now we're in here." Twilight groaned under her breath. Celestia was the pony that taught her tactical thinking. Why she didn't remember that earlier was an oversight she wouldn't forget very soon.

"Where's Princess Luna?" asked Greywhisker.

"She's probably on her way," said Cadence. "We were much closer, so we got here first. Captain, I appreciate that you've asked for our help, but without a plan to evacuate these ponies, I'm not sure what we can do. We can't hold off Celestia and an army."

"I realise that, but we have very few options. With those net launchers out there we risk losing a large number of thestrals."

"If you want to preserve your people, why not surrender?"

Greywhisker didn't answer straight away, which worried Cadence more than any stupid reason he could have given.
"Celestia made it very clear that she seeks to destroy every single one of us, calling us the abominable spawn of a monster, and that there shall be no mercy for us this time. Then she topped it off with a demonstration where she killed a thestral she'd captured using Solaris, turning her to ash."

"Sounds like a solid reason to panic to me," said Ember, to resounding agreement. "Still doesn't mean you shouldn't have a plan to get out of here."

"There's only one entrance," Greywhisker reiterated.

"Then make another!"

Greywhisker narrowed his eyes at Ember, "And who are you, dragon, to come here and-"

"Captain Greywhisker," Twilight said harshly, interrupting the thestral, "you will not insult the Dragon Lord, especially when she's come here to help you."

Greywhisker immediately backed off. "Apologies, Princess."

"Now, is there any weak points in the mountain that you think we can dig through?"

Greywhisker shook his head, "This place was built for safety. Everywhere is quite solid, I assure you."

"Built for safety," Trixie scoffed. "That's working well now, isn't it?"

"We never expected Celestia to betray us like this!"

"Stop, all of you," Shining commanded. "Bickering isn't going to get us anywhere." He pointed to the two lifts as they continued their journey in opposition to each other, "I'm guessing they're powered by water, yes?"

"By an underground river, yes," Greywhisker confirmed.

"Can you get out through that? Where does it come out?"

"It rejoins the Neighagra river, south of the mountain, but it's almost entirely underground. I can't say there's going to be many opportunities to breathe, and it would take at least five minutes to get through. I also can't tell you if it's got anything dangerous to go through."

"I thought the river was artificial," said Shadow. "How dangerous could it be?"

"If you can't breathe for five minutes, very."

"We can solve that," said Twilight. "Shining, do you think you could hold back the water long enough to get all the thestrals out?"

"That depends on how big the river is."

"Then I think we better find out. Greywhisker, how do we get to the river?"

Greywhisker sighed through his nose, but gave no other signs of disobeying. He walked back to near the lifts, and spent a moment searching around until he located a large square in the floor, the gap around it so full of dirt it was pretty much invisible. There were notches along the sides, presumably to place something to lever it out, but magic precluded that necessity.

Twilight lifted the slab out with ease, and placed it to the side, and inspected the slick, mossy steps in the hole. She lit her horn and cautiously walked down for the half a dozen meters, listening to the running of the river, and the rumble of the wheel driving the lifts, until it came to an open area. She brightened her horn until it was bright enough to see the entire opening.

"What do you think, Shining?" she asked. The river didn't appear to be that wide, at maybe six pony lengths, and around three deep, and the channel was very deliberately cut, and was likely so all the way through.

"There's going to be a lot of weight on that very quickly," said Shining. "I might have to have help."

Twilight nodded, irritated. Help meant Cadence, and Cadence could've been more use elsewhere. "Alright, Greywhisker, start organising your thestrals to get out of here, and Cadence, you help Shining. Trixie, Ember, we're going to be helping to keep the Mareitanians out, and I don't think we'll have long until they're trying to get in."

-0-0-0-

The evacuation had barely begun by the time the Mareitanians were ready to attack. Cadence and Shining were holding the water back, and the thestrals were flying out through the empty channel as quick as they could, but it simply wasn't wide enough to get them all through before the attack began. It also didn't help that the evacuation was taking place in the same area as the attack would come. Whoever designed Nostralis to be safe must've forgot their meds that week, in Twilight's opinion at least.

Twilight had situated herself in the tunnel leading to and from the underground city. Nearer to the outside, she could see a shining disc of golden magic, blocking their way out. It also confirmed her theory about Celestia wanting them there before attacking. Twilight was not looking forward to when Celestia came, for practical reasons, but mostly because she was Celestia. Twilight might've had her issues with the pale alicorn, but this was a considerable step too far.

"This is not how dragons fight," Ember muttered behind Twilight. "We roar, we smack each other around, we breathe some fire, and the loser slinks off. We certainly don't plan to butcher their entire family."

And perhaps that was the biggest sign that Celestia truly wasn't herself. She'd granted the thestrals clemency long ago, despite knowing they were created to serve her sister during her descent into becoming Nightmare Moon. If she could do that then, to now declare them abominations was very wrong, and to decree their wholesale slaughter was... well, it wasn't Celestia, in the slightest. It wasn't particularly Faust either. It was...

"It's an attack on Luna's children, not the thestrals." Twilight wanted to smack herself. Clearly her disappointment with her friends had left her a bit slow.

"Isn't that the same thing?" said Trixie.

"Yes, but also no. They aren't being attacked because of what they are, but because Luna made them, because she would come to protect them. Sure it would stop the Night Guard attacking elsewhere, but that's not what this is about. Not entirely."

Ember made a face, "You ponies are really messed up, you know that?"

"I'm starting to. I'm also wondering if we should try to warn Luna to stay away. Not that I really think we can at this point."

"I'll go," Trixie said eagerly.

"Not likely."

"Worth a try... oh boy." Trixie gulped as Celestia's shield vanished, marking what could only be the beginning on the attack. "Here we go."

"Are you sure you want me to do this?" Ember asked, sounding neither unsure, or confident.

"Now is really not a good time to be backing out," Twilight snapped impatiently, without meaning to. If Ember picked up on that, she didn't show it.

"I'm not backing out, but even you have to admit that burning to death is a really horrible way to die."

"I know, but if we really want to put them off coming down here, fear of a horrible, burning death is pretty solid way to do it. The fact that dragon fire is good at burning through shields is also a serious bonus." Twilight raised a shield, filling the passage as the Mareitanians started to creep in. "Get ready."

Blasts of magic sizzled down the tunnel, and impacted on Twilight's shield, doing very little to even scratch it, let alone break it. As far as Twilight could tell, they were doing it to distract her from seeing them slowly get closer, but it'd take more than a light show to do that. She could see them getting closer between the flashes, and when she felt they were close enough, she made a small hole in her shield.

Whoosh!

Ember breathed a torrent of flame through the hole, filling the passage beyond it with a vibrant purple flame that ate through whatever defences the Adepts attempted to raise. Twilight found herself having to reinforce her own shield as the blowback started to burn through it. Thankfully that provided a good distraction from the screams of the ponies getting burnt alive. Screams which lasted far too long.

"Always hated the idea of flame weapons," Trixie said, shuddering at the thought of being at the wrong end of what Ember was doing. "No offense."

"None taken," Ember said back as she banged a claw on her chest and coughed. "Not sure I have more than a couple of those in me."

"That's fine," Twilight told Ember. She recoiled as the stink of charred flesh hit her nose, and she really, really hoped those ponies were dead.

Everything went quiet for a moment after that, except for the plink plink of the stone passage as it cooled from Ember's flame. Twilight instructed Trixie to go and see how the evacuation was going as they waited for what came next. They weren't to be disappointed.

"They're not even halfway thro-" Trixie stopped running towards Twilight and Ember, turned around, and slinked back the way she came as Celestia entered the passage. Celestia didn't even look at the bodies as she walked down, and didn't show the slightest sign that the smell bothered her, even though it had to have been.

Twilight felt horribly conflicted about it, but she opened another gap in the shield for Ember to breathe more fire through. The heat was intense as the flame became trapped between two shields, and it occurred to Twilight that Celestia was more likely to outlast her in this situation, so told Ember to stop.

Ember burped unhappily, and held a claw over her mouth, and another over her stomach. "I think I need to be a lot bigger to sustain flames like that. I'm done."

Twilight nodded and waved her down the passage. Her attention was on Celestia, who was none the worse for Ember's efforts. She was currently waiting for the area to cool again, giving Twilight a chance to really look at her.

Celestia's mane and tail had been done up in a plait that kept it out of the way, and free of her armour, which was done in an ivory colour, except for the golden trim. Solaris was held by her side, the spear burning with a heat that made Ember's breath look like a campfire in comparison. What Twilight mostly saw were her eyes in her stern expression visible through her helmet. Well, that, and how much taller than her Celestia really was, but mostly the eyes. They were cold, hard, and seemed to settle on a look that sat between anger, disappointment, and disgust. It was like looking into the eyes of an entirely different pony.

"Hello Twilight," said Celestia, in what was otherwise a pleasant, conversational tone. "I'm going to give you one chance to leave. You already know this isn't about you, and I'd rather not harm my former student, even you are betraying me further by being here, helping these creatures."

"So you suddenly hate thestrals now, is that it?"

"No, I don't hate the thestrals, but they are an unnatural creation that have no place in the world my Mother is creating."

The mechanical delivery of the words ground on Twilight's nerves, but she did her best to ignore it. "That's bullshit. You're attacking the thestrals to draw Luna out. You don't care about their origins, and you never did!"

A sad smile curved the corner of Celestia's mouth, "That was true, once, but the fact is that the thestrals will never accept their place in the new order of things, and so they must be removed. Mother has entrusted me with doing so, and I will stop anyone that attempts to impede my duty."

"Entrusted you? Tell me, Celestia, has she entrusted you with raising the sun yet? Or does she not trust you enough for that?"

"Don't try and bandy words with me, Twilight. Mother will allow me to resume my duty of raising the sun when the time is right. I am content to wait."

"Why are you talking like Luna?" Twilight asked, hearing the same slightly archaic speech patterns coming from Celestia that Luna used. That wasn't the question to be asking, apparently, as Celestia slammed the point of Solaris against Twilight's shield with a snarl. A sharp pulse of magic through the crack she made shattered the shield, and Twilight teleported away back down the passage, placing another shield in the way.

"Incoming!" Twilight shouted, although the Night Guard were already in position to fight, as was Trixie, which Twilight was more than appreciative for. "Greywhisker! Get those ponies moving!"

The thestrals started pouring down into their emergency exit as fast as they could, quite often blocking each others' way. It really wasn't any faster, and as Celestia reached Twilight's shield, Twilight found herself wishing to be anywhere but where she was. She was about to witness the murder of civilians. Ponies who were utterly helpless against an alicorn. If this didn't replace the pegasus massacre at Prance in her nightmares, she guessed nothing would.

A pained whine escaped Twilight's throat as Celestia used Solaris to brute force her way through the shield, and no matter how much power Twilight put into it, it was like trying to hold back the sea. Twilight hoped that Faust had given Celestia a boost somehow, because the idea of this being Celestia unleashing her full strength, a strength she'd kept hidden, didn't sit right in Twilight's head.

The shield buckled, and Celestia strode into Nostralis. The Night Guard swooped in to attack her as the Mareitanian soldiers poured in behind the alicorn. Twilight wanted to scream at them to stay away from Celestia, but her voice was lost to her at that moment, and all she could do was watch in horror as Solaris was swept around in a wide arc, slicing through two of the thestrals, and reducing them to ash.

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw Trixie backing away as she shook her head and swore repeatedly. She then turned and ran for the escape, pushing her way down in with the thestrals. Twilight didn't say a word as she did. There was nothing she thought she could say, but there was plenty she could do.

Twilight's horn burst into action with a blaze of energy that she directed at Celestia. The Night Guard could keep the soldiers distracted enough, but she knew that only herself was enough to stop Celestia carrying out her grim duty, so she rained destruction upon the once noble alicorn, forcing her onto the defensive.

Celestia took to the air, a move which Twilight calculated to mean she didn't want Twilight's stray magic to harm her soldiers, while also giving Celestia the chance to fire at the thestrals. Twilight didn't want to give her the chance, so launched into a barrage of magic that Celestia had to shield herself from. Twilight knew that the longer she kept Celestia shielded, the less she could do.

A blast of searing magic flew past Twilight, singeing her feathers and making her skin prickle with heat. Screams from below informed her that the thestrals had been hit. Twilight saw her mistake straight away after that. Solaris was still outside the shield, and could attack with impunity, while Celestia was safely within her protection.

Another bolt of magic from Solaris soared towards Twilight, and this time she intercepted it, catching it on a shield before it could harm others. She only just blocked it though. The sheer power behind it was more than Twilight would expect. She had to keep Celestia from firing more, because there was no way she could block every single spell.

Twilight flew up, trying to get a better angle on Celestia, who was watching her as she went up, but didn't move to match Twilight's elevation. That suited Twilight just fine as she pulled up into a loop that had her facing back down towards Celestia. A thin, yet powerful beam of magic erupted from Twilight's horn, running over the surface of Celestia's shield and cracking it enough that when Twilight reached the bubble, a hard kick from her was enough to shatter it.

Twilight darted away as Celestia swung her weapon towards her, and summoned her blade Swordy to block the return swing. The blades locked together, and as a struggle of power and will began, Twilight hoped Swordy was up to the task. The heat pouring from Solaris would've been enough to make any normal sword soft in seconds.

"You know neither of us wants this," Celestia said as the struggle continued. "We're fairly evenly matched. I have millennia of experience and practice, and while you have skill and raw power, I'm the one that taught you magic. I know things you don't."

"Oh yeah?" Twilight hissed. She feel the skin on her face and front beginning to blister from the heat. "You also have something else I don't."

"And what might that be?"

Twilight shoved the two weapons to the side, and swung her rear around and did a little twist that she knew she couldn't have done if she was really thinking about it. It did get her into the right position to bring her back right hoof around in a hard kick on the side of Celestia's head that made her helmet ring.

"That's what!"

Celestia growled and backed off, pulling her now dented helm off and casting it aside. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that your obsession with winning would make you fight dirty."

"You've only yourself to blame for that one," Twilight spat back at Celestia. "I learnt a lot in Mareitania, and fighting dirty is only part of it."

"Is that so? Then I hate to inform you that two can play at that game." Celestia turned in mid-air, bringing Solaris around as it blazed with the build-up of a spell that made Twilight's eyes water. A beam of superheated energy lanced from the spear in a stroke that swept through the still escaping thestrals, killing over a dozen of them in seconds.

Twilight screamed with rage and launched herself at Celestia, a pulse of magic sending the white alicorn flying away onto one of the ledges surrounding the outside of the city. Twilight flew after her, her eyes glowing bright white as her rage and desperation triggered that place deep inside her that refused to give in to anything.

Celestia shielded herself from another blast that smashed the rock around her, sending her tumbling to the ledge below. She fired her magic at Twilight, but the smaller alicorn batted it away as she came after Celestia again, and focussed her magic on crushing the life out of her former mentor. Celestia cried in pain as black started to creep in around the edges of her vision, and then cried louder as her own survival instincts kicked in.

Twilight jolted as Celestia returned her attack with a shockwave that shattered the ledge she was on, the ripple it caused collapsing the entire level around the city. She teleported as a more direct attack was fired at her that cut scores out of the other levels. Twilight counterattacked with a beam of magic that Celestia met with one of her own, and another battle of wills began, but this one of magic instead of weapons.

Through the haze, Twilight became dimly aware that what she was doing wasn't working. She was also becoming aware that the roiling mass of magic between herself and Celestia wasn't dissipating. It was building. Celestia wasn't fighting her magic, she was absorbing it, adding it to her own in what Twilight could only describe as a magical bomb that would devastate Nostralis, and pretty much kill everything in it.

Twilight snapped back to reality and teleported up in a move that Celestia hadn't predicted, and the force of her own magic slammed the bomb into the wall without Twilight's to counteract it. A wave of destruction, far less than it could've been, flew out from the impact, forcing Celestia to shield herself.

Twilight gawped in shock. The fact that Celestia had the awareness to do that during her 'panic mode' was astounding, and proof that Celestia really did know things that she didn't. But that didn't answer all her questions though, such as how Celestia was able to even consider doing what she had just attempted. She was going to kill everypony in the cavern. Celestia, the pony that Twilight had long considered a paragon of all that was good, even if that good only fully existed in those history books written by the victors. Even at her worst, she couldn't have done something like what she just attempted to. She would've killed her own soldiers as well.

"Do you even realise you could've just done? Do you even see what Faust has made you into?"

Celestia didn't answer. Celestia didn't need to as she prepared to attack once more. Apparently she'd passed the point where she cared about what Twilight had to say. Twilight nodded, accepting that words really were useless now, and she flew into action.

A dance of spells and shields began between the two alicorns, neither of them able to best the other, no matter what they tried. There was no angle they could find, no spell they could use, or defence that they couldn't utilise to best their opponent. They were at a stalemate, fighting now to outlast the other before exhaustion set in.

"This is pointless, Celestia," Twilight shouted, a small shield forming to block a single bolt of magic flying towards her. "The thestrals are almost gone, Luna isn't here, and you can't beat me. It's over. Just leave."

"No! My Mother has entrusted me with this, and I will not disappoint her! While you're busy with me, my soldiers will hunt those thestrals down until there are none left. There's nowhere for them to go down there, so it's only a matter of time."

"Uh... I'm not really sure if that's a bluff or not. The thestrals aren't trapped down there. It's a river, it goes somewhere."

"What?"

"Didn't you know that?" Twilight smirked at Celestia's confusion, and glanced down to see what the situation on the ground was. The Night Guard were pretty much gone, but a silvery dome was protecting the remaining thestrals from the soldiers, meaning that Luna had to have made it since that was unmistakably her magic.

Twilight blasted Celestia as she also looked down, keeping her distracted from what was down there for a little longer. Celestia wasn't interested though, and recovered from the attack to dive for the shield to try and break through it. Twilight flew in and intercepted her, grappling Celestia and hitting her off course. A physical competition wasn't what Twilight wanted though, because that one Celestia would definitely win.

"Why do you keep fighting?" Celestia asked breathlessly, the impact having winded her. "What do you have to gain except your own destruction?"

"Maybe I just enjoy pissing you off," Twilight replied, her voice hard. "Besides, I could ask you the same thing. You're quite famous for refusing to fight, up until now."

"I'm fighting to correct fifteen centuries of mistakes, Twilight Sparkle, and you're one of them."

"And what of me?"

Both of them looked up to see Luna hovering nearby, her face a picture of hurt and betrayal as her horn blazed with a build-up of magic.

"What am I to you now, sister?"

Celestia narrowed her eyes and sneered in disgust, "You aren't my sister, and you never were. You're nothing more than the unwanted spawn of a monster."

If Celestia's words hurt her more, Luna showed no sign of it. A moment later, both Celestia and Twilight were shocked as an impish smile crept onto Luna's face.

"So we all agree Faust is a monster then?"

Celestia's enraged shout was matched only by the boom of Luna's magic as she blasted the exhausted Celestia down onto one of the surviving levels. Luna flew after Celestia and pinned her down, stopping her from moving and casting magic, and forcing her to do the one thing Luna required of her. It forced her to listen.

"Today you have betrayed everything you ever cared about. Me, your student, your country, and even your very ideals. Worst of all, you murdered my children in cold blood. If you wanted proof of our shared heritage, look no further than our ability to make monumental errors of judgement!"

If Celestia had anything to say back, Luna didn't want to give her the chance to say it as she slammed Celestia's head down on the ground once, twice, and then three times. Celestia didn't move after that, save for a trickle of blood that escaped her nose, but Twilight knew she still lived, if barely.

Luna backed away, her limbs shaking. When she could finally bring herself to speak, her voice wavered with emotion. "Come Twilight, we need to leave."

"Luna-"

"Now!"

"Alright." Twilight flew down, and observed that the thestrals had mostly made it out, except for a few stragglers and what was left of the Night Guard. Both she and Luna reinforced the shield until they were through, then shrank it down behind them to cover over the exit.

"Is that all of them?" Shining enquired in a voice strained with effort, beads of sweat running down his brow. Twilight couldn't blame him for struggling. The weight of the water behind his and Cadence's shield had to be quite considerable by now.

"As many as is coming, yes," Luna said sadly. "You and Cadence need to go too," she added, taking over the shield.

"What about you?" asked Cadence.

"Twilight and I shall be along shortly, now go."

Both of them listened to the hoofbeats for a while as Cadence and Shining made their escape, but even that couldn't fill the gulf of silence that opened in their absence. Twilight wanted to fill it, but knew there was only one thing to fill it with, and she didn't know if Luna was ready for that. Twilight didn't think she was. Luckily, Luna filled the silence for her.

"What Starsy wants for Faust is far too good for her. In one day she has taken my sister from me, stripped her of compassion, and turned her on the ponies I love, my children." Luna raised a hoof to wipe her tears away, "There are no words that can adequately describe how I feel right now."

"I'm sorry, Luna."

Luna sighed at Twilight, "I'm sorry too. I'm not the only one affected by this, and I'm not the one that had to fight her as you did. You did well. Far better than could be expected of anypony in the position you were in."

"A couple of years ago, I couldn't have done that. I would've begged and pleaded with her to snap out of it, and if she attacked me, I don't think I could've fought back. The thestrals would've paid the price for that. Thankfully, Celestia herself has made it easier to fight back." Twilight glanced down the channel as the Mareitanians pounded on her shield, "Do you think they've had long enough?"

"It'll have to have been." Luna started backing up the channel, "Lower your shield and draw them in, then get ready to move."

Twilight obeyed, not about to argue with Luna at this point. She was going to put on a show that her shield was weakening, to make the Mareitanians think they were getting through, but at this point it was near enough to the truth that she didn't really need to bother.

The Mareitanians poured in through the gap, and Twilight snapped a few shots off as she ran to catch up with Luna, who was standing ready to run herself, joining Twilight as the smaller mare caught up. Twilight did her best to shield them from any stray attacks, while Luna maintained her barrier holding back the river for as long as she could.

Soon though, Luna got too far away to effectively maintain the shield, and her horn started to flicker with the strain. At that point she gave up trying, and spread her wings to fly as the river reclaimed its course, no matter who happened to be standing in it.

The roar of the water, and shouts of the ponies swept up in it filled the tunnel, and both Twilight and Luna took flight, going as fast as they could through the narrow pathway. The pressure of the air being pushed in front of the river helped propel them along, but as the spot of daylight in the distance grew larger, the river was nipping at their heels.

Both of them pulled up as soon as they were able, letting the river explode out of the tunnel behind them, and carry its grim cargo of bodies to the Neighagra river. The bank nearby was lined with thestrals, and those few that came to help them, including Rainbow and Lightning. All of them seemed shocked by what had happened, and more than a few were shedding tears. Luna landed amongst them, while Twilight headed for Ember, who was standing next to Trixie, whom Twilight didn't particularly wish to address right now.

"Are you hurt, Ember?"

The dragoness turned on the spot, pointing out a few lines cut into her scales using claws stained red with blood. "It's going to be ages before these all grow out. Apart from that, and a stomach ache, I'm fine."

"Good."

"What happened to Celestia?"

"She's been taken care of for now. We'll be well away from here before she comes to." Twilight saw Trixie turn enough to look at her out of the corner of her eye, but failed to meet Twilight's gaze when she looked back. "Have something to say, Trixie?"

"Other than to say I'm sorry, no, not really."

"Oh good, so you are sorry."

"Twilight, she turned ponies into ash! Not just any ponies either, but thestrals wearing armour! I'm sorry, but Trixie is still far too attached to her mortal coil to risk something like that. Besides, what chance would I stand against a pony like Celestia?"

"You've fought me before."

"Yeah, and I lost, and then you told me you were holding back to avoid killing me. If Celestia saw me using dark magic, I really don't think she'd have been as merciful as you."

"Alright, fine, so you don't fight anything that stands an actual chance of killing you. I'll try to remember that."

"You don't have to say it like that!" Trixie turned to fully face Twilight, but kept her next words to herself as she saw the tiredness in Twilight's stance, and the faraway look in her eyes. "Are you alright?"

Twilight barked a bitter laugh, "That question. Trixie, I just had to fight a pony that was like a second mother to me for years, and watch her kill innocents in an act that went against everything Celestia used to be. No, no I am not alright, but I think Luna's got to be feeling a lot worse than me."

"I guess." Trixie shrugged helplessly, "So what do we do now?"

"Now?" Twilight sighed explosively, conveying that she didn't really know. "I suppose we need to find somewhere to house a couple thousand thestrals. I dread to think of what's happened to those thestrals that didn't live here."

"Is it worth doing something about that, if we can?"

"Is it worth it, yes, but not necessarily possible."

"Oh. I guess all we can do is hope they got themselves to safety in time."

Twilight nodded, as that really was the most they could hope for. Perhaps they might be able to figure something out if they learn those thestrals were taken captive, but judging from today, catching them seemed to be the last thing on Faust's mind.

Twilight was interrupted from her musings as Cadence came over and pulled her into an embrace. Twilight's initial instinct was to push her off, but didn't. Instead she sank into it, breathing softly through the small bit of comfort it gave her.

"You're so brave to be able to face Celestia like that," said Cadence. "I don't think I could've done that. In fact, I know I couldn't."

"You'll be surprised what you can do when you have no choice," Twilight said back. "I doubt this will be the last time we have to do this though. If we want to get to Faust, we now have to go through Celestia."

Cadence nodded, then rested her head on top of Twilight's for a second before releasing her. "Luna's trying to hide it, but I can see how much this has effected her. If the thestrals weren't here to distract her, we'd probably be trying to talk her out of going after Faust."

"I don't think that's a mistake Luna would make twice. She knows Faust would wipe the floor with her again."

"And I am not so deaf as you would believe," Luna said as she walked over to them. "Faust will indeed pay for this, and premature action would only foil that."

"Oh Luna-"

Luna held up a hoof to stop Cadence as the pink mare moved to hug her too. "I am far from in the mood for such things. Right now I need to think of where to keep the thestrals safe."

"The only place I can think of," said Twilight, "that Faust wouldn't dare go, is Griffonia. Maybe the Circen desert, but I don't think that's really the place for thestrals."

"I suspect you are right," Luna said sullenly. "Let us hope that dear Hergest's patience with us can be stretched a little further. Let us get moving before we are discovered, and hope nothing goes particularly wrong."

"I'll have to catch up to you. If you take Trixie, I'll go with Cadence to take Shining and Shadow back to the boat, fill them in there, then come back with Cadence, Flurry, and Mayfly."

"Very well, but I shall request you do not dally. With Celestia now fighting for Faust, I feel that the noose around our necks has become a little tighter."

-0-0-0-

Fleur, and all of them, were speechless as Twilight described what happened in Nostralis. To think that Celestia could turn on Twilight and her sister like that and do what she did to the thestrals, they could scarcely believe it. The weariness in Twilight's voice only made it more believable.

"I hope you realise how dangerous it is for you now," Twilight said meaningfully. "If Faust orders Celestia to hunt you down, she'll do it, and won't stop until she has you. Personally, I'd feel better if you gave this up entirely, and came back with us."

"We can't do that," said Shining. "The less distracted Faust is by us, the more focussed she is on you. You've already lost one distraction today, so we're going to have to work that much harder to make up for it."

"Does that mean we're still going after the Shades?" asked Bon Bon.

Shining looked to Fleur for confirmation, and got it in the form of a small nod. "It does, except we're going to do it with less cock-ups and running away. After today, we really need to step up our game."

"Don't forget to ask for help if you need it," said Twilight. "I can't guarantee we won't be busy, but you can still ask."

"That's comforting," said the filly. "Do you even know what you're going to be doing next?"

"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." Twilight smiled sadly, "That also means we need to leave to learn what it is. Say your goodbyes, Cadence."

Twilight Velvet and Nightlight headed over to their daughter as Cadence took Shining and Flurry aside to make her own farewells. They embraced her from both sides, and this time Twilight found it hard to keep her tears to herself.

"It's okay sweetie, you don't have to hide it if you don't want to," Twilight Velvet whispered.

"This feels like a personal attack off Faust, like she thought of the one way to hurt us most, and found it in Celestia. I know that's probably not true, but it feels like it. The worst part is, with Celestia back, ponies are going to be so much more accepting of Faust's rule. If Celestia is on her side, why shouldn't they be?"

"I think most ponies are smart enough to know something's wrong with that," said Nightlight. "Once news gets out that she tried to use Celestia to exterminate the thestrals, no more proof will be needed of how unstable Faust is."

"I wish I could agree, but a lot of ponies don't have a favourable opinion of thestrals. Some might even be glad she tried to commit genocide on them." Twilight sighed as Nightlight squeezed her a little tighter, "Take care of yourselves out here. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

"You'd survive," Twilight Velvet told her. "You'd survive, because that's what you do. We're proud of you, for standing up to tyrants like Faust, and the Duke, even when it hurts to do so. I wish we'd seen this a little earlier."

"Don't sell yourselves short, you're standing up to Faust as well." Twilight broke the hug, and wiped her eyes, taking note that Shadow was being held by Fleur. She gave the unicorn a small nod, then turned to Cadence. "Are you ready to go?"

"No, but I don't think I ever will be." Cadence kissed Shining, holding it for several seconds, like it might be the last one they ever had. "Be careful, Shining. I love you."

Shining gave Cadence one last peck on the cheek, and did the same to Flurry. "And I love you both. Hopefully it won't be long until we can see each other again."

"Hopefully." Cadence heaved a sigh and pulled herself away from Shining. "Let's go, because if I stay any longer, I don't think I'll be able to leave."

"Alright. Come on Mayfly, you too. Bye everyone." Twilight took off, followed by Cadence and Mayfly. Fleur watched them go, still comforting the miserable Shadow, and once they were gone she leaned over to Shining.

"So how do you intend for us to try even harder?"

"By giving up our concerns over personal safety. If we really want to make a difference, we're really going to have to go for it, no holding back."

"And where do we start with that?"

"We start with the basics. Except for yourself, the filly, and Honeydew, all of us are going to have to learn to fight, and learn to kill. We can't afford anything less."

-0-0-0-

"Twilight!" Sunset ran over and hugged Twilight as soon as they walked into the observation area of the Retreat. "I'm so sorry Twilight, that must've been terrible, doing what you had to."

"It... wasn't the best," Twilight conceded. "At least we saved as many thestrals as we did. I take it Luna isn't back from Griffonia yet?"

"She isn't, and she said she might be a while." Sunset blinked as she took in the sight of Mayfly, "That's... new."

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Mayfly's reached an epiphany. Congratulations Sunset, you're her new best friend."

"I am? Neat." Sunset released Twilight, allowing her to head to by the window and flop over onto a cushion while Sunset talked to Mayfly.

"Please tell me there's some good news."

"There's some," Starsy said as he faded into view. "We've worked out a locking spell that should keep Faust contained, but... it requires some materials that can only be obtained in one place."

"And which corner of the world are you pointing us at now?"

"Zebrica, conveniently, since I understand that you'll be heading there at some point anyway. While time is an issue, I'm not saying that you need to go there now, because there's something else I'd like you to do first."

Twilight sighed and sat up, "And what's that?"

"If you're going to fight Faust, you're going to need protection. I do have some ideas on how to do that, which also stem from Zebrica, but I'd rather exhaust all our options first. Tell me Twilight, do you know where you can get a suit of rune warded armour?"

"I might," Twilight said slowly. "Adding to the conveniences, I have a suit in my castle. I'll get it tomorrow, because right now, I'm exhausted, and I want to think about what just happened."

"Any point about it in particular?"

"There most certainly is. If alicorns are immune to mind control, how did Faust get Celestia to do what she just did?"

Author's Note

You predicted Celestia. You were god damned right. Hope it was worth it.

17. Time alone

A dreamless sleep was probably the greatest mercy Twilight could've asked for, and she wished it could've lasted longer, but once her mind started ticking over, she knew it was pointless to try and go back to sleep.

The previous day's events replayed themselves slowly within her head. How could they not? Celestia's betrayal, intentional or otherwise, was just too significant. And yet, the events in Nostralis were destined to become but a footnote in the history of the war. There was simply too much going on to dwell on it.

Twilight briefly wondered if everything became a footnote if you lived long enough. The events of the war would become footnotes, then the war itself would become one, and eventually the events of the entire century would. Alicorns lived on too grand a scale for them not to, or so it seemed to her.

That thought was too depressing for Twilight to want to spend long on, and with nothing else to occupy her that wasn't also depressing, she got up to begin the business of the day. A day that would hopefully contain less disappointments and unpleasant surprises than the day before.

Breakfast was basic, being nothing more than an apple and some water. Anything fancier required time and effort that she wasn't willing to devote to a simple meal. A bowl of cereal would've been nice, but it had been weeks, if not months, since she'd had milk, and cereal without milk was pointless. Truly, the most unappreciated sign of the end times was the difficulty in getting milk to put on cereal, if they'd even had cereal to put it on.

Twilight laughed quietly at herself, then left the small kitchen to go and see who else was around. It was fairly quiet for now, and as she passed the tiny areas the others had claimed for themselves, she could see Cadence and Flurry were still sleeping, with Cadence holding onto Flurry for dear life. Her brow occasionally furrowed with what Twilight assumed to be dreams, and Twilight knew they couldn't be good ones.

Unfortunately for Cadence, there wasn't to be any relief from her dreams, because Luna didn't appear to be back, and the other alicorn capable of helping had vowed to stay out of the dreamscape as long as Luna drew breath, which Twilight had easily translated as meaning forever. Perhaps that wasn't unreasonable, considering her history with the place.

Trixie, Sunset, and Ember were still asleep, along with Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor, but the beds that Moondancer and Mayfly used were empty, as were Luna's and Nightmare's. Since they weren't getting breakfast, she could only assume that they were in the observation area, which she headed to. As she expected, they were indeed there.

"Morning," Twilight said in simple greeting, getting a small nod from Moondancer, which was almost exuberant for her standards. Nightmare gave her a taut smile, and resumed staring out of the window at something. Mayfly didn't respond at all though, and sat clutching her stomach.

"Is something wrong, Mayfly?"

"My tummy hurts, and it keeps making funny noises."

"It sounds like you're hungry."

"That's what I said," Nightmare intoned, not taking her eyes away from the window.

"But I have all the love I could need now, so why am I hungry? And why does it feel all rumbly?"

"Your body wants actual food."

"But changelings don't need food!" Mayfly wailed in frustration.

"You aren't exactly your typical changeling any more, so who knows what other changes might've come along with that. Go to the kitchen, eat something, and the rumbling should stop."

Mayfly didn't move for several seconds, then lowered her head with a sigh. "I hate this body and its stupid biological needs. Old body was much easier, even if hungry for love most of time. Next thing you know I'll be defecating."

"Quite possibly," Twilight said stiffly, not wanting to go into that much detail. Thankfully it seemed she didn't have to as Mayfly slunk away in search of sustenance. Instead, Twilight wandered over to Nightmare and sat next to her. "What's up with you?"

"The pony you could consider my nemesis, Princess Celestia, has been turned into the puppet of Faust. I'm not saying this is a good thing, because apparently it makes her more dangerous, not less, but you'd think I'd at least find some amusement in it. Instead I'm just... kind of... sad, I guess? I have no idea why, and it's bothering me."

Moondancer looked up over the top of her book at Nightmare, "For a being that spends so much time insisting they're not Nightmare Moon, you also spend a lot of time acting like you are her. If you aren't Nightmare Moon, why is Celestia your nemesis?"

"I- You- I-" Nightmare spluttered. "Oh shut up, Moondancer. What would you know about it anyway? I'm not even fully sure what's going on in my head at times, so don't you dare try to be clever at me about it."

"I wouldn't if it wasn't so easy."

"I'm sorry, do you want me to show you how much like Nightmare Moon I can be, Moondancer? Would you feel better then?"

Moondancer calmly turned the page in her book, "If it helps you decide who you're supposed to be, go ahead."

Nightmare turned back to the window and growled in frustration, "I'm not Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon would've killed you for a lesser insult, and it doesn't make me feel better knowing she would do so."

"Moondancer," Twilight sighed, "please stop antagonizing her, and Nightmare, I don't know why you feel sad about Celestia, but it's probably a good thing that you do. Try to remember from a certain perspective that she is your sister."

"I try not to."

"Well I suggest you do. The Nightmare Moon in you might hate Celestia, but the Luna in you loves her. Remember that." Twilight clapped Nightmare on the shoulder as the dark mare sighed, then stood up. "Right, I'm off to Ponyville. If I'm needed, that's where I'll be."

"Aren't you even going to ask why I didn't come to help you yesterday?"

"Luna didn't want the thestrals knowing about you just yet, and you didn't feel keen on Celestia and Faust knowing you're both existing and free." Twilight smirked at Nightmare, "Did I get it right?"

"Spot on, smartass. Go do whatever it is you're going to do. I'm going to stay here and stare into space some more."

"You do that, and I'll see you later."

-0-0-0-

There was an army marching from Hollow Shades back towards Canterlot. Twilight did wonder if Celestia was with them, but figured she would've been returned to Faust sooner rather than later, and was probably in Canterlot already. All the same, Twilight made a point of circling to the north and around to Ponyville on a route that avoided both the army and Canterlot.

The tower that was being built in Ponyville was maybe three quarters complete, so whoever ordered it built wanted it done quick. Twilight couldn't begin to guess why, because she couldn't tell what purpose it was supposed to serve. Ponyville was a prison now, so extra protections in the form of the tower seemed pointless to her when the prison was already functioning. At the very least, it would make flying in unnoticed that little bit harder for ponies like herself.

A pony was stood outside the front door of the castle as Twilight came to it, and she quickly adjusted her course to go around the back and land on the balcony to quietly spy on what the pony was up to. She watched the lilac unicorn light her horn and direct her magic at the front door, and raised an eyebrow as the mare groaned loudly in frustration.

"Oh come on! Why won't you open?"

Twilight had only seen this pony once, but that was enough to know it was Starlight Glimmer, the pony that had stripped her friends, and all the prisoners here, of their cutie marks as part of their captivity. What reason did she have to get inside the castle?

A mischievous grin crept onto Twilight's face as an idea came to her, and as soon as the glow from Starlight's next attempt started to fade, Twilight projected an image of herself down to stand in front of the unicorn, consisting only of purple lines.

"What are you doing?"

"Yah!" Starlight screamed, jumping a foot into the air. She crouched as she landed, the slowly straightened back up as she realised it was only an illusion. "You scared the life out of me!"

"Unfortunately, it seems not. Now what are you doing trying to break into my castle? Stop that," she added as Starlight waved a hoof through her image.

"How are you doing that? Projection like this shouldn't be possible over long range. Unless..."

"It's a giant, magic, crystalline, tree-castle, that came out of a mystical box," Twilight said before Starlight could finish that thought. "You'd be surprised what I can make it do, including keeping nosy unicorns out. I like your mane by the way." Twilight waved a hoof in front of her face, imitating the flick in Starlight's mane. "Suits you loads more than that straight fringe ever did."

"Oh, um, thank you? One of the ponies in here did it for me, before I... yeah." Starlight looked down, her expression guilty.

"Was it Rarity?" Starlight winced and nodded. "Of course it was," Twilight said with a roll of her eyes. Bless Rarity and her big heart.

"I didn't want this, if that's what you're thinking."

"Then what did you want?"

"I wanted equality, for everypony! Not this! This is- This is... enforced inequality!"

"Uh-huh. I'm guessing that nopony took the time to explain to you during your imprisonment that equality has nothing to do with stripping ponies of their marks in an attempt to remove what makes them different, and that equality comes from having the same opportunities in life? No?"

"It might have been explained at some point, yes," Starlight hissed through her teeth.

"And was it pointed out that us all being different kinds of pony is also rather unequal, no matter how many ponies you remove the marks from?"

"Perhaps."

"Was it also pointed out to you that drastically altering ponies so they'll be your friends isn't the best way to go about not being alone."

"It worked better than being trapped in a prison cell did!"

Twilight held up a hoof, then lowered it slowly back to the ground. "Alright, touché. Still, what you did was wrong, and I hope you at least realise that in some capacity. Now I'm going to ask you again, why are you trying to get into my castle?"

"Why do you care? I've been trying for days, and it's only now you've decided to question it."

"I've been busy. Now stop avoiding the question, and tell me why you want into my castle. I might even let you in if it's a good reason."

Starlight opened her mouth, then shut it again with a shake of her head. "You wouldn't understand."

"Is that so? Try me."

"No, I don't think I will."

"Oh, I see how it is." Twilight grinned at Starlight, "You're worried that I might tell somepony, and that it might get back to Faust. You're doing something she doesn't want you to."

"Don't be ridiculous," Starlight protested, backing away from the still grinning image of Twilight. "I wouldn't dare do something like that." Starlight smiled unconvincingly, "I mean, why would I? I love the Lady, and she... loves me."

"Real convincing, Starlight. But, considering that I'm trying to stop Faust, and you know that, why hide it from me?"

"Because it's not ready yet!" Starlight's eyes went wide at her own outburst, "I mean- I mean-"

Starlight turned tail and ran, leaving Twilight to wonder what she was doing, and why she was so adamant on keeping it a secret. Strangest of all, why did it require access to her castle? Twilight shrugged, suspecting it wouldn't matter in the end, so it wasn't worth worrying about. If Faust couldn't get into the castle, Starlight Glimmer stood no chance.

Twilight dismissed her illusion and made for the balcony entrance, opening the door like it wasn't magically sealed to everything that except herself. The inside was still and quiet, as it should be, but it took on a melancholy feel for Twilight. This bright and cheerful castle was gifted to her as the Princess of Friendship, but had for the most part been empty of life, except for the time it housed an angry, hurt, and confused Twilight, and the brief period when it also housed her study buddies, and a Trixie. It deserved better than that.

Twilight wandered languidly towards the throne room, and walked slowly around the thrones, running a hoof over each of them as memories of better times flitted through her head. She finished at her own throne, and after a moment of hesitation she sat in it. It was exactly as cold and hard as she remembered it.

"Alright map, what do you have to show me now?"

Twilight's magic swept over the crystal map, bringing it to life with a surge of magic, and gasped as dozens of cutie marks started to swirl around its surface, all centred around Canterlot. Hers, her friends, Luna's, Cadence's, Trixie's, Moondancer's, Fleur's, Shining's, Nightmare's, and more most of which she recognised as ponies she knew. There was even images of Spike's and Ember's heads floating around with the others.

"Wait..."

Twilight checked again, then once more, looking through the collection of marks, only to reaffirm to herself that there was two she knew that were definitely missing. One made sense, it being Celestia's, and she was serving Faust, so she was part of the problem rather than the solution. The other one made less sense though, as it belonged to Sunset Shimmer.

Twilight commanded the table to show her where Sunset Shimmer was in all this, but it showed her nothing. It was at that time that Twilight saw Starlight Glimmer's mark amongst the rest. Starlight Glimmer was part of this, but not Sunset? How-
The map changed, showing her own mark floating over the north western part of Ponyville. A sensation in her rear made her look down to see that her cutie mark was pulsing, trying to catch her attention. "Alright, calm down, I'm right bloody here."

Twilight zoomed the map in as much as she was able, trying to find as precise a location as she could. It was just inside the fence of the prison, which ruled out it being Starlight Glimmer, thank goodness, but there was only one pony in Ponyville that Twilight would be interested in, and that was Fluttershy.

"You know, map, things would be so much easier if you just told us what the problem is, instead of leaving us to figure it out based on a vague location. I mean, you can work out that there's a problem in the first place, so why not elaborate a little?"

Twilight glanced out one of the windows, for what little information concerning the time could be gleaned from doing so. At the very least, she could tell it was still daylight outside, which seemed more than likely considering she hadn't been here very long.

A sharp sting on Twilight's rear made her jump, "Okay, I'm going! Sheesh..."

-0-0-0-

Twilight took a direct route from her castle to where the map pointed her too, and since it was the closest part of Ponyville to her castle, it made sense. There weren't even any guards around as a bonus, so when Twilight walked brazenly up to the fence, she was able to hear the feeble cries of Fluttershy fairly easily.

"Come on Fluttershy, I'm sure they're fine."

And Spike was there too. Double bonus.

"How can you say that? You have no idea where they've been taken! We don't even know where Tw-i-i-ilight is!"

Twilight cleared her throat noisily and waved at her two friends that were crouched in the lee of a house. "Hi guys."

"Twilight!" both Fluttershy and Spike shouted, with Fluttershy soon forgetting her tears as they sprinted to the fence where Twilight was. Twilight herself traded joy for concern as she saw the mask over Spike's mouth.

"Why the hell are they making you wear that?"

"Huh?" Spike said dumbly, then figuring out what Twilight meant, he tapped a claw on the mask. "Apparently fire breathing dragons with teeth that can chew diamonds get extra attention in prison. They think we might chew our way through the walls."

"But how do you eat?"

Spike stuck his tongue out through a gap in the mask in front of his mouth. "Patiently," he said, managing a small laugh.

"Oh Spike, I'm so sorry."

"What for? You didn't put this on me. You didn't kidnap us either, so stop blaming yourself." Spike held a claw out through the fence which Twilight took in a hoof to hold to her cheek.

"I've missed you so much, both of you. I wish I could get you out."

"You can't," Fluttershy said quickly, "not without the others, but we don't know where they are. The Mareitanians took them away with- with so many others," she sobbed. "I hope they're okay."

"They are. They're in Fillydelphia, being used to help rebuild the steelworks there as prison labour. I've already seen them." Twilight glanced back as her cutie mark started to pulse again, "Really map? All this just to make me come here and tell that to Fluttershy and Spike?"

"Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, giving Twilight a funny look.

"Don't worry about it. So," Twilight said brightly, "how are you two?"

"I wish I could say I've been worse," Fluttershy said dryly, "but I haven't."

"That's... fair. Look, I know things haven't been great for any of you, but hopefully it'll all be over before long. You just have to hold on."

"Easier said than done." Spike sighed and pressed his forehead against the fence, "How much longer do we have to be here?"

"I can't say, not for definite. When I can though, I hope to get everypony in here out."

Spike looked up at Twilight, "You can do that? How?"

"With some help from some friends I've made. I wish I could tell you more, but the less you know for now, the better."

"Yeah, alright," Spike grunted, but Twilight could hear a trace of amusement behind it. "Keep your secrets then." He glanced about quickly, "I'm not sure how much longer you should stay here. The guards might come around at any moment."

"I know, and I'd rather nopony knew I was here. In person at least."

"Before you go, have you seen what they're doing to the Castle of the Two Sisters?" Fluttershy asked, a little tangentially in Twilight's opinion. "We've heard rumours that it's being rebuilt," she explained as Twilight shrugged at her.

"Okay, I knew that much, but do you have any idea why?"

"Not really, but there's plenty of stories about bad things happening in the Everfree. I would ask my animal friends, but ever since Starlight Glimmer took my cutie mark, I just don't understand any of what they're saying." Fluttershy's voice broke as she spoke, and Twilight knew how much that had to be hurting her.

"Alright, I'll go check it out, but I don't think I'll be able to risk coming back here to tell you what's happening."

"I know, but as long as you know, that's good enough for me."

Twilight returned a smile as Fluttershy smiled bravely at her, but it slid off her face after a second. "I hate what this has done to you all, even Rainbow. I wish there was some way to make it all up to you, but I don't think there is."

"Getting us out of here would be a pretty neat start," Spike joked.

"Watch this space then," Twilight joked back. "Seriously though, I will get you out of here when I can." Twilight looked around, checking no guards were coming. "I better not push my luck any more than I have already. Bye guys. Hopefully it won't be too long until I see you both again."

"Bye Twilight," Spike said sadly.

"And be careful," Fluttershy added.

"I'll try, but I don't seem to be very good at that."

-0-0-0-

The Everfree Forest, mystery that it was, was quiet. That was unusual. Twilight had no idea why the Tree of Harmony had chosen to surround itself with something as chaotic as the Everfree, which she knew was possibly Discord's doing, but still, it made no sense to her. Maybe it liked being surrounded by life? Maybe the forest represented a truer view of harmony that a pony couldn't appreciate? Maybe the Tree used the forest as a form of protection? It certainly kept ponies away.

Whatever the reason was, it certainly had nothing to do with what the Mareitanians were doing there. Twilight had thought the forest as being quiet. What she hadn't considered it as being, was empty. She didn't consider that until she came closer to the castle and found that the Mareitanians had been collecting various beasts from the surrounding woods.

Puckwudgies filled several cages, while a pack of timberwolves filled another. There were cragodiles, a manticore, and any number of beasts native to the Everfree. Twilight was a little ashamed she could name so few of them. That was far from the point though. The point was, why were the Mareitanians capturing these creatures? Two possibilities came to mind, to either use or destroy them, and neither idea sounded good to Twilight. There was always the possibility of other options though.

The castle itself was still in the throes of being rebuilt. A lot of it was having to be taken down before being rebuilt, and that was slowing down progress. The workforce also seemed reduced compared to the one in Fillydelphia, even without the prisoners, so that did suggest that the castle wasn't as high a priority. That still didn't answer why it was a priority at all.

Twilight alighted herself on the upper branches of a tree, one of the few surrounding the clearing that had expanded around the castle. From there she watched quietly as a few ponies threw some scraps to the caged animals, meaning they were at least being fed. That part made sense, as Faust was unlikely to allow them to suffer, and it also suggested that the creatures weren't there to be destroyed. Unfortunately that still left the option of them being used.

None of this was really making sense. Perhaps the animals were caged because they took exception to the commotion going on around their homes. Maybe it really was that simple. Perhaps it was just a big red herring designed to confused any ponies that happened to be spying on the place. Ponies like a certain purple alicorn, who decided that the creatures had taken enough of her attention. The castle was always going to be the main attraction after all.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked out loud. Ever since she'd learnt of the Mareitanians plans to rebuild the Castle of the Two Sisters, Twilight had always wondered what their plan was. Its position right over the Tree of Harmony can't have gone unnoticed by Faust, but since they aren't connected, why rebuild the castle? It just didn't make sense.

After staring at the castle for a couple of minutes, Twilight decided that asking herself wasn't gaining anything, and perhaps she'd be better off asking somewhere else, or rather, something else.

A quick flight brought Twilight around to the base of the cliff the castle was built on, and then she stopped as the cave where the Tree lived was gone, like it had never been there. A wall of sheer rock was all there was to greet Twilight as she slowly flew down to the place where she remembered the cave being.

Sparing herself the dumb questions of 'how?' and 'why?' Twilight pressed a hoof against the cliff, finding it to be quite solid. She could feel something coming from within though, an intense sadness that radiated through the cold stone and into her very being.

Twilight closed her eyes and let her instincts do the work as she teleported forwards a few meters, hoping beyond hope that she didn't end up inside the rock. When she opened them again, immensely relieved that she could, she was in semi-darkness, with what little light there was coming from the Tree of Harmony, and the shield around it.

"Oh no," Twilight murmured, finding herself unwilling to speak any louder. She lit her horn and walked up to the tree, but stopped short of the shield in case touching it triggered a warning to Faust, because only she could've created a shield like this. Twilight looked at the tree, its image distorted by the shield, and sighed.

"I'm probably the last pony you wanted to see, I know. You tried to warn about the pony I was becoming back in Mareitania, and I repaid you by becoming that pony you tried to stop me being. I didn't have a choice though. At least not one that I could see." Twilight sighed again as the Tree gave no sign of having even acknowledged her presence, "And I'm talking to a tree. Let's see what we can do about this shield."

Twilight started to cautiously probe the shield with her magic. It could only have been made by Faust, because the power in it alone outdid anything any of the princesses could do. Amusingly, the power was all turned inwards, trying to contain the tree, with very little thought put towards protecting the shield from outside tampering. Perhaps that protection was unnecessary though, because the amount of magic in the shield put it beyond most beings attempts to alter or undo it.
Thankfully Twilight wasn't most beings, and if she still wasn't good enough, she was going to try anyway, consequences be damned, or dealt with after at least.

Twilight started by exploring a little deeper into the magic, searching for anything that might give away that she'd been here, or that might warn Faust. She couldn't find anything, but she knew well enough that meant little where Faust's magic was concerned. Typically Faust used her raw power to brute force spells, but that wasn't to say she couldn't be subtle at times. The spells Faust used were so old they were mostly forgotten, and only seemed to be passable because of the strength of her magic. A single unicorn would have no chance at using these spells, which tended to be the reason older spells were cast with groups of unicorns. It also meant there could be things Twilight could miss.

Finding nothing obvious, Twilight started to study how the spell worked, searching for the metaphorical spot where she could throw in a magical spanner. She found it in how the shield maintained itself. It was tuned to contain the specific magic of the Tree, which was technically already the most powerful kind of magic available, excepting the kind that could contain it, meaning most other magic wouldn't affect it either. However, there was a underlying element to the shield that was constantly attuning itself to the Tree to provide the best containment. Inserting a powerful spike of magic into that process at the wrong time could destabilize, and even destroy the barrier.

That was the theory at least, and as it was happening constantly, the window in which to insert that spike of magic was miniscule.

Twilight unconsciously stepped forwards as she tried to find that window, and was very surprised as a feeling of warmth washed over her. When she opened her eyes, she laughed her find her horn, a hoof, and most of her nose was sticking through the shield.

"I'm fairly certain there's a lesson in this somewhere." Twilight stepped forwards, and while there no certain way to describe the feeling, beyond getting a friendly hug from an entire swarm of electric bees, there was no resistance from the shield. There was a small concern that she wouldn't get back out, but that was future Twilight's problem.

It was then that Twilight realised that the Tree wasn't nearly so contained as she thought, because it was still connected to the map in her castle. It wasn't a full outlet for the Tree, but it was enough to get her to Fluttershy, which was enough to get her to come here. "You sneaky bastard tree," Twilight said with a grin. "Well, you got me here, so what do you want?"

A tendril of magic stretched out of the Tree, coming from the image of Celestia's cutie mark on the trunk. Twilight closed her eyes as it touched her, and felt herself getting pulled away.

-0-0-0-

Celestia breathed deeply and smiled at the pony before her as they pledged their loyalty to the throne. She didn't know who they were, and likely wouldn't any time soon, but the fact that they felt they could do such a thing was touching. It was nice that something nice could happen before the events that would be starting soon.

"I accept your pledge of loyalty," Celestia said evenly, getting a smile out of the pony. "Please, stand, and know that you are ever in our protection."

"Indeed."

Celestia looked sideways, and part of her almost jumped sideways at the sight of her mother standing beside her. She feared she might never get used to it, but the loving smile her mother gave her assuaged her fears every time. Far better Faust be there, than the monster that had tried to rule beside her.

"Thinking of her again?" Faust asked.

"I was, and it still makes me so angry. To think I almost let Platinum convince me she was my sister, rather than the disgusting offspring of a beast like Sombra." Celestia shook her head in dismay, "I can't believe I was so naïve. And yet, you bore her, so is she not in some way my sibling?"

Faust smiled gently at Celestia, "Think not like that, my darling Celestia. I may have been forced to bear her, but she is no child of mine, and no sister of yours. She may appear innocent now, but one day she will show the darkness in her, and you would have to choose between her, and the world."

"I would choose the world every time, Mother. How could I be so selfish not to?"

"I know, my darling, but Luna would still make you choose, and she would only gain pleasure from the pain of your decision."

"The pleasure would only be mine as I scorn her," Celestia said coldly. "If she thinks I would choose her, she is sorely mistaken. She should count herself lucky she escaped while she still could."

"Indeed. Our role is to the betterment of our world, Celestia, never forget it. Follow my lead, and all shall know peace and happiness."

"I shall, Mother, always."

"I know. Now, come Celestia, as unpleasant as it will undoubtedly be, we have something we must attend to."

Celestia nodded dourly. The trial of the betrayer, Platinum, wasn't something she was looking forward to. The very idea that she'd imprisoned Faust and kidnapped Celestia, as well as the wretch, Luna, to rule as her eternal puppets was abhorrent to Celestia. There was no justice great enough for one who would do such a thing.

Celestia followed her mother through the soon to be renamed Castle of the Two Sisters, letting the older alicorn lead the way as she tried to think. Calling it a trial was an overstatement at this point as Platinum's guilt was well established. Only Celestia and Faust would be allowed to face such an evil, and only they would be there to decide her well deserved punishment.

The dungeons were cool to the point of freezing, but Celestia showed no sign of letting it bother her as they came to the cell containing Platinum. With a nod from Faust, the two guards unlocked the cell, giving them access to its single occupant. Chain jingled against each other in the darkness, until Platinum stepped into the light.

Celestia was shocked at what she saw. Platinum had always held herself with such regality, but here, with the veneer of righteous nobility she haughtily shrouded herself in stripped away, she was... ugly, in every sense of the word. Celestia's once loving mother had nothing but a vicious sneer for her adopted daughter.

"What do you want?" Platinum asked in a voice as hard as diamonds. There was no love in there, as Celestia had remembered there once being.

"The time has come for you to pay for your many crimes," Faust said calmly, impressing Celestia that she could do so, after all that Platinum had put her through. "If you have anything you wish to say, say it now, otherwise we shall get on with this."

"My daughter, my true daughter will avenge me." Platinum narrowed her eyes at both of the alicorns. "One day, the true ruler of this country will rise to overthrow you, and on that day, I shall sit upon your throne and laugh."

"Except you shall not," Faust said back, with that same, even tone she always used. "That day shall never come, and in the unlikely event it should, you won't be seeing it. Princess Platinum, I hearby sentence you to the very same fate you tried to impose on me. You shall languish, forgotten by all, until you draw your last breath. Only then will you know peace at last."

Platinum's eyes went wide. "You wouldn't dare," she said, a note of fear making her voice tremble.

"It is already done." Faust turned and left, and Celestia followed, only looking back as a scream of incoherent rage filled the dungeon as Platinum's cell was locked, never to be reopened.

"Many will not be happy about this," Celestia said nervously. "Platinum was much beloved, and her betrayal unknown."

"I know, which is why history shall have to tell another story. The world is not yet ready to know the truth of what happened here today."

-0-0-0-

The sound of weapons clashing against weapons filled the area, in both land and sky. The dark, armoured forms of bat winged pegasi flitted through the sky as they battled against the golden armoured members of the Royal Guard in a battle for supremacy. In the midst of the battle, two alicorns faced each other in a battle for Equestria itself, one white and wearing ivory armour that remained resplendent even in the dark and cloudy sky. The other was an alicorn of dark navy colours, wearing armour as black as the night sky.

"What have you done to my mother, you monster!?" Celestia thrust Solaris towards the vile cretin that had dared to steal her mother away and attempt to overthrow their kingdom. The pony that Celestia had once considered showing mercy to, and perhaps might have even called sister had her mother not warned her not to.

"She's been indisposed," Luna said with glee, her tongue darting from between her teeth to lick her dark lips. "Don't worry, you'll be seeing her soon enough."

"If you think you can defeat me, you are sorely mistaken." Celestia fired an orb of golden light at the usurper, which was blocked by a swirling shield of pale, silvery magic. "I won't stop fighting until you're vanquished for good, you fiend!"

"My name... is Luna!" the dark alicorn screamed.

"You aren't worthy of even having a name," Celestia said calmly, certain in her heart that this insane creature would never prevail, even if their battle raged on for millennia. Fortunately, Celestia had one trick up her armoured sleeve should the battle become that desperate.

"Die!" Two glaives of a shining metal swept down towards Celestia's head, the strike sloppy and predictable, with all power and no finesse. Celestia juked to the side, dodging it easily, and retaliated with a swing of her spear that Luna clumsily blocked with a shield, relying on her magic to compensate for her lack of skill with her chosen weapons. Celestia refused to underestimate her opponent though, as even she could do the unexpected, as her army of mutants proved.

As if to further prove her point, a powerful blast of magic exploded in the air next to her, sending her tumbling away for a couple of seconds before righting herself. Two of the bat winged abominations came for her, hoping to capitalise on her distraction. They only had a moment to realise their failure before Solaris reduced them to ashes.

That was enough of a distraction again though for her main opponent to strike with her magic again, smashing Celestia out of the sky and onto the cold ground below. Celestia barely recovered fast enough to defend herself as Luna flew in towards her, her glaives ready to deliver a beheading strike had Celestia not raised Solaris fast enough.

"I have underestimated you, Luna," Celestia said, saying the name that the dark alicorn so desperately wished to be called by. The power she displayed was at least worthy of giving her a name, but Celestia knew that by refusing to acknowledge Luna as Faust's offspring, she had unwittingly refused to acknowledge that Luna would rival her in power. A mistake she would be making no longer.

"I haven't underestimated you though. Unlike you, I prepared for this moment for decades. Your precious Faust is gone, and without her to coddle you, you're vulnerable!"

Luna raised her head to point her horn directly at Celestia's head, unleashing a beam of deadly magic that would've killed Celestia had she not fired a beam of her own magic to intercept it. The two conflicting lines of energy met, fighting back and forth in a battle of will that would mean the end for one of them. A battle that Celestia could feel herself losing.

Celestia could feel the darkness in Luna's magic fogging her mind and sapping her strength. Slowly, the conflagration of magic where the two beams met started to creep nearer to Celestia, and she shouted as the heat started to burn her. She refused to give in though, and closed her eyes as she drew on the harmonious power of her mother. It was only a shadow of Faust's true strength, but it would be enough to defeat Luna once and for all.

"What are you doing?" Luna asked, a note of fear in her voice as a rainbow of energy started to coalesce around Celestia.

"Finishing this." The rainbow of magic surged into Celestia's own, empowering it to levels she wouldn't had thought possible if she hadn't seen her own mother perform such things. In the blink of an eye, Luna was overpowered, and was sent flying away, further and further until even Celestia wondered what was happening. It was only when the profile of a mare's head appeared on the moon that she understood what had occurred. Luna had been banished to the moon itself, forever marring its pristine surface.

Celestia rolled onto her front, her mind struggling to catch up to the here and now. She may have been able to tap her Mother's power, but she was far from able to do so for long. By the time she was able to recover enough to stand, the battle was over, and a stallion in golden armour was standing before her.

"My Queen, the battle is over, and we have captured the twisted army of the usurper."

"Queen?" Celestia asked, her confusion plain in her voice.

"Our Lady has not returned with the usurper's defeat," the pony said sadly. "With no way of knowing if she will return, we have no choice but to name you queen."

Celestia shook her head firmly, "No, you will not. My Mother will return one day, and on that day she would be queen once more. Until that day, I shall remain as Princess Celestia, so as to not overshadow all she is to us."

The stallion nodded, "As you wish, Princess. In her Majesty's absence though, it is your duty to decide the fate of these abominations that the usurper created."

Celestia didn't know what he meant, but as she looked around to discover what he was on about, she saw clusters of the bat winged ponies being held prisoners by her soldiers. "Is this all of them?" she asked, as there didn't seem to be that many.

"A number of the cowards fled the battle upon your defeat of their Mistress. Without their fellows, those remaining soon crumbled. What would you have us do with them, Princess?"

Celestia didn't know. That was the long and short of it. These creatures had been made for the singular purpose of fighting a war against the rulers of Equestria. That alone was reason enough to see them destroyed, but as Celestia stood there, she could see the fear in some of them, telling her that they were still ponies at their core. She wondered what her Mother would do. Faust had always been a champion of life, and chose to preserve it where she could. Did these ponies deserve that mercy too?

Celestia walked up to a small group of the bat ponies, and looked down on the one in front, a mare with a long plaited mane in shades of lilac, which matched her slitted eyes, but remained in contrast with her grey coat. "In exchange for your life, would you pledge loyalty to Equestria?"

The mare nodded slowly, apparently unable to speak at that moment.

"Very well. If you promise to never be a threat to Equestria, and even protect it in times of need, I will grant you all mercy. Betray that mercy, and there shall be no escape from my wrath. Do you agree?" The mare nodded enthusiastically. "Very well. Soldiers, strip them of their weapons and armour. We shall soon see whether they wish to live or not."

Celestia sighed as her soldiers set to work disarming the bat ponies, and hoped she had made the right decision. Without her Mother, all these decisions were now hers. The knowledge of Faust's whereabouts were now beyond her reach, trapped with Luna upon the moon. Celestia could only hope the price Faust would pay for her banishing Luna was worth it.

-0-0-0-

"You have gone too far, Twilight! I forgave you for releasing Luna, after you claimed to have redeemed her, much against my better judgement, but to join forces with her, and to let her corrupt Cadence as well... I have no words. I thought it was bad enough that you agreed with her plan to start a civil war in Mareitania, but when I learnt it was to be cover for Luna to get to Faust and destroy her once and for all, I should've realised then what was happening."

"Even so," Twilight said coldly. "Faust is invading Equestria, and-"

"You refused to grant her her sovereignty again! You turned her own country against her when you had no right to! What other choice did she have?"

"This is our country, Celestia, ours! Faust has no right to it!"

Celestia shook her head in disbelief, "I hear your voice, but your words sound very much like that of Luna's. When I granted you the rank of princess, I did not give you permission to betray Equestria and deny the return of the Queen. I'm sorry, Twilight, but if you're so determined to walk this path, then we are now enemies."

Celestia looked down at Twilight, and where she might have expected tears from her former student at such words from her, all she saw was cold indifference. Luna truly had changed her beyond all recognition.

Twilight turned and flicked her tail at Celestia as she walked away, then stopped to look back over her shoulder, determined to have the last word. "If that is the way you want it, fine. I will see you upon the field of battle, Princess, because this war is far from over.

-0-0-0-

Twilight came to, breaking free from the images flitting through her head, a head that was aching as she felt like she'd been smacked around the head with a thousand pages of bad fan-fiction. The best part was that she wasn't the slightest bit sure of what she'd just seen. None of what she'd been shown had actually happened, so why did the tree want her to see it?

"Why can't I ever get a straight answer to anything, ever?" Twilight followed the tendril of magic with her eyes as it returned to the image of Celestia's cutie mark on the Tree's trunk. "Okay, so this is to do with Celestia, obviously, but none of what you showed me had actually happened, so they were fake memories?"

Realisation dawned on Twilight. They were fake memories! Major events in Celestia's life had been totally rewritten, changed, or even completely altered, all to put Faust in a favourable light, while putting her sister and fellow princesses in the wrong. That had to be how Faust was using Celestia, not by controlling her, but by making her think that Faust was right. She believed in what Faust was doing.

There was a problem in Faust's method though, beyond the feeling that those memories had been made by somepony that didn't know the ponies involved very well. The end product didn't match up with reality. Celestia had no memories of Faust ever considering committing genocide, so why would she agree with the destruction of the thestrals in Nostralis when Faust herself apparently wouldn't have done such a thing?

Then there was the problem where Luna, and even Twilight herself, were painted as being corrupt and incapable of reason, compassion, or other basic actions. Would that illusion crumble as soon as one of them displayed an act of kindness in front of Celestia?

"I don't suppose you have any idea how to fix this?" Twilight asked the Tree hopefully. If it did, it didn't show it. "Right, well, you have at least told me what the problem is, so that's something. I guess all I can do now is come up with a plan. Uh, thanks for the help, I guess?"

Almost as if it was acknowledging Twilight's appreciation, the Elements lit up, each emitting a beam of magic that converged into a larger one that made a small, pony sized hole in the shield. Twilight waited a moment, unsure of what was happening, but since the hole wasn't getting any bigger, she figured it was for her to leave through.

The hole snapped shut as soon as she was through, and she turned to look at the Tree as it sat behind the shield, seeming so lonely trapped there. "We'll get you free, somehow," Twilight said, as she focussed her magic into a teleport back to her castle.

-0-0-0-

Twilight searched through the accumulated junk in her room of stuff. That part library, part laboratory, part room of assorted knickknacks, and part portal chamber to an entirely different dimension room. She'd managed to collect all of the stuff she had in there over a short period of time, so it made her wonder how, after a thousand years, Canterlot wasn't a junkyard consisting of Celestia's crap.

She eventually found what she'd originally came for in the corner, with a sheet draped over it. Twilight carried the crate into the middle of the room, and popped the lid off. Chills went down her spine as she looked inside at the dark metalled helm sat on top of a full suit of anti-magic armour. She hadn't opened the crate since Celestia dropped it off with her to research for that exact reason. Just looking at it brought up a slew of unpleasant memories.

Twilight picked up the helm, and turned it around in her hooves until a sense of unease, and an echo of deranged laughter, almost made her drop it. It was tempting to slam the lid back on the crate, hide it, and claim she couldn't find it when she got back to the retreat.

"It's just a suit of armour," Twilight told herself, feeling no better for having said it. Even without the memories, it still conjured images of an army of dark armoured earth ponies, crushing the unicorns who were helpless to stop them. This armour could have created a very different world had the earth ponies of old been given a chance to field them in large numbers back during the war between the three tribes.

In the end, Twilight did slam the lid back down on the crate, but only so she could more easily transport it. It was then that Twilight came upon a problem so annoying it was almost funny. She couldn't teleport the armour, and in all likelihood couldn't take it through the portal back to the retreat either. In fact, she wasn't even willing to try in case it damaged the portal, or even destroyed it.

"Luna fucking damn it," Twilight cursed. Her only option was to carry it to the portal and leave it in Starlight's old village to conduct their research there. A minor annoyance considering the alternative. She hefted the box in her magic, looked out of the nearest window, and sighed. It was going to be a long flight.

Author's Note

So for the last couple of years I've been like 'Saddle Arabia doesn't have unicorns or pegasi, and Lightning Dust overcame her issues to become a decent person. Then season 8 comes along and is like 'nope and nope, all your head canons are pointing in the wrong direction you silly goose.' Fuck you season 8, and the many horses you rode in on. (jk,ilyr)

18. Not for unicorns

It was well into the evening by the time Twilight made it back to the retreat, having dumped the crate of armour next to the mirror, then kicking it once or twice for good measure. Most of the others had gone to bed, except Sunset, Luna, and Tr-

"You went somewhere without me!"

Twilight blinked at Trixie as the unicorn got up in her face close enough that their noses were nearly touching. "I was only going to get a box of armour, and you were sleeping when I left. Besides, nothing happened that required the expertise of the Great and Powerful Trixie."

"Don't you try and butter me up, Twilight Sparkle. Trixie is upset that you went somewhere without her, and now I feel like you've broken some unspoken rule of the universe. Besides, if you were just fetching something, why were you gone so long?"

"Because expectations rarely match reality."

"That's- That's not an answer!"

"Okay, I had to take the long way to Ponyville because of the army marching from Hollow Shades to Canterlot, then I had an amusing conversation with Starlight Glimmer via hologram. She wants access to the map in my castle for some reason. Then the map sent me to find Fluttershy and Spike, which led to me going to Luna and Celestia's old castle where I found the Mareitanians are collecting creatures from the Everfree, although that might be to stop them attacking the workers there, I don't know. Point is, the castle is still being rebuilt. After that I had a little chat with the Tree of Harmony." Twilight looked over to Luna, seeing how exhausted she was, "It told me some things about Celestia."

"Oh," Luna said, perking up a little, "and what might those be? Are they enough to account for her trying to murder all my children?"

"Perhaps? It's hard to describe. From what I could tell, Faust isn't controlling Celestia, but has replaced most of her memories so that she thinks Faust brought her up, and that Platinum was imprisoned for trying to trap Faust and steal Celestia, although you were still born in that scenario."

"Same sire?" Luna asked lightly.

"Same sire. It made you easier to paint as a monster. You're also the one that imprisoned Faust a thousand years ago when you tried to overthrow Celestia with your army of thestrals, which Celestia spared at the time, thinking that's what Faust would do."

"How wrong she was, apparently."

Twilight nodded sullenly, "I don't think that alone justifies what Celestia did, but with all these memories of her and Faust, I don't think she knows her own mind any more. She thinks she's in the right to do as Faust asks, because it's her dearest mother doing the asking."

Luna made a face, then closed her eyes and sighed. "What of other events Celestia and I did together? What of Discord's defeat, or what happened with the Crystal Empire?"

"Celestia and Faust did those things together, as far as I could tell." Twilight rubbed her head, "There was a lot of memories, and most of them passed in a blur. The only major events with you are your rebellion and banishment, then your return a thousand years later. Funny thing is, you were never Nightmare Moon in these memories. You were just... Luna."

"Making it all the easier for Celestia to see me as the villain Faust wishes me to be, no doubt."

"That's what I thought." Twilight broke out into a small smile, "Apparently I brought you back from the moon against Celestia's wishes, convinced her you were redeemed, then when Faust invaded it was because I'd allowed myself and Cadence to be corrupted by you, and together we were denying the return of Equestria's queen. Faust had no choice but to take her country back by force."

"While Celestia simpered and fretted about us stopping her beloved mother." Luna shook her head at the whole thing, "This all sounds terribly flimsy, Twilight, especially when the history books all say different."

"Faust tried to account for that. Apparently there are a lot of situations where the citizens of Equestria couldn't ever know the truth of what happened. Of course that just makes where the idea of Nightmare Moon came from in that scenario an even bigger mystery."

"Does she at least remember me?" Sunset asked quietly.

"A lot of stuff for the thousand years Celestia ruled alone didn't change, except for Celestia wanting her mother back, rather than Luna."

"So she still remembers me being a spoilt brat, betraying her trust, and running away?"

"Quite likely."

"Oh." Sunset sat and played with her hooves for a moment. "Is it weird I feel happy about that?"

"I wouldn't be," said Twilight. "She knows you're helping us, and we aren't exactly viewed favourably at the moment."

"Oh, right." Sunset looked down at her hooves, stilling their movements. "I guess I won't be getting that happy reunion just yet, huh?"

"I'm afraid not."

"I don't suppose a thousand gigathaums of rainbow laser friendship magic would bring her memories back?" Sunset asked hopefully.

"Possibly," Twilight replied, "although we really aren't in a position where we can do that. Hopefully there's other methods we can try."

"Especially since her memories likely aren't missing, just hidden from her." There was a flash as Starsy appeared among them. "The most likely method I can think of Faust using, is masking Celestia's real memories with these fake ones. The real ones are still there, but are hidden beneath the ones Faust planted. Even now her real memories likely creep into her dreams and absent thoughts."

"That's good, isn't it?" Sunset said, looking around the others until she stopped at Luna. "Oh, wait, Faust would probably just explain it as you trying to corrupt Celestia through her dreams, or something."

"Indeed," Luna muttered. "Faust has even turned dreams into a weapon against me. One might think she has an issue with my existing. Until we can think of something to shatter this mask of memories, we shall have to hold on to that 'thousand gigathaums of rainbow laser friendship magic' as our primary method of bringing Celestia back."

"We'll think of something," said Twilight. "How did it go with the Emperor, Luna?"

"He wasn't what I would call happy about it, but he has agreed to shelter the thestrals for now. I don't think we can impose much more upon him at the moment though, not without making promises we can't keep."

"At least he did that much," Twilight said pleased that the thestrals were safe for now.

"Were it that I never had to ask for such in the first place." Luna closed her eyes and sighed, "If only all my children had made it there too." She shook her head ruefully, then forced herself to move on. "There is at least some good news however. The Emperor has begun to organise his military in as subtle as way he can, so as to not alert Faust. He says that in a few weeks he'll be ready to make his move when we say. He's instructed Griffon Intelligence to focus on counter intelligence for now, due to their current limitations, so while we won't benefit from fresh news, what happens in Griffonia should remain secret."

"That's good, but a few weeks seems optimistic if you ask me. There's no way we'll be ready by then."

"Especially since you didn't bring the armour I asked for," Starsy grumbled.

"Actually I did," Twilight told him, raising her nose a little. "It's by the portal in Starlight's village."

"Well why'd you leave it there?"

"Because I thought that bringing the anti-magic armour through the incredibly magical portal, would lead to all kinds of disastrous circumstances," Twilight explained politely, "such as destroying our only route to Equestria."

"You might raise a valid point," Starsy sniffed, clearly embarrassed at having not thought of that himself. "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to research it if I can't see it though."

"I guess you'll just have to trust us to do it for you," Trixie said brightly.

Starsy raised an eyebrow at Trixie, "Miss Trixie, I can't even trust you to boil the kettle without hurting yourself, let alone research an ancient and highly complex set of anti-magic armour."

"That was one time!"

"One time this morning, might I remind you."

"Trixie?" Twilight asked, extremely unsure of what was going on.

"I'm fine, it was only a little scald, and Sunset used a thingy to heal me. Don't worry about it."

"I'm... still worried."

"She used a combustion spell to try heating the kettle faster," Sunset explained. "She basically flash boiled it, and while the kettle didn't quite explode, there was boiling hot water everywhere."

"Which is exactly why Trixie did it with nopony around, and at a safe distance."

"And you still got burned," Sunset said sarcastically. "Never heard a scream quite like it. I'm talking like a guy trapping his man parts in a zip type scream... which is a reference none of you understand. I really need to stop doing that."

"It wouldn't have happened if Twilight hadn't abandoned me here," Trixie said with a pout directed straight at the alicorn in question.

Sunset raised an eyebrow at Trixie, "Or you could've used the heating spell I showed you, and waited that extra thirty seconds for the kettle to boil. You spent considerably more time researching the spell you used, learning it, and cleaning up the aftermath, than you saved."

"But it could've worked perfectly."

"No, Trixie, no it could not. Combustion spells are supposed to blow things up."

"So in essence, you're saying that Trixie performed the spell exactly how it was meant to be cast."

Twilight decided right then and there that her brain had had enough for now, and didn't want to deal with Trixie being an idiot on top of everything else. "Okay, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear most of what I just heard. Instead, I'm going to get some sleep, then tomorrow we're going to figure out how that armour really works. Good night."

-0-0-0-

Twilight didn't sleep. She couldn't, not with the best part of a millennium's worth of memories crammed into her head that day. Couldn't the Tree have given her the highlight reel instead of the whole thing? She was thankful that she couldn't really remember less than half of what she'd been shown.

The memories that annoyed her most, apart from the ones with major divergences of Equestrian history, were the ones involving herself. The memories from before Luna's return are largely the same, except her younger self was shown to be argumentative, and unwilling to learn from her mistakes because she thought she knew better than Celestia. Amusingly that actually made her more like Sunset than not.

What she was like after Luna's return was very different. She was sullen and grumpy, and prone to angry outbursts, along with an outright rebellious attitude at times. Sure those things were true now, in a way, but not until Twilight had gone to Mareitania. The fact that this moody, sullen, failure of a pony had become an alicorn during that time seemed to have been whitewashed over.

It all seemed so terribly fake though, and not just because she knew it was. Perhaps it all seemed different in Celestia's head, more real, but Twilight was having a hard time taking these memories seriously. Maybe Celestia could see the problems with her new memories, but only went to big mummy Faust, who shushed her and told her to not worry about it.

"This is bullshit," Twilight swore, finally giving up to the call of her bladder as another morning crept in after another sleepless night, totally unapologetic for not letting Twilight get some rest. If she was going to have to be awake, she might as well be productive with it.

Having relieved herself, she made her way to the observation area, where she was surprised to find Moondancer already up and taking notes out of a thick tome. Twilight walked over to her, trying to see what she was doing, but Moondancer flipped the page over before she could see.

"Yes, Twilight?" Moondancer said testily. "I'm kind of busy here."

"I was only trying to see what you were doing."

"So you could point out what mistakes I've made, no doubt."

"Not at all. You know Moondancer, this hostility isn't helping either of us."

"It makes me feel better."

"Okay, fine, but it still isn't helping." Twilight lifted Moondancer's leg off the piece of paper, and flipped it over, finding the beginnings of a containment spell there. "Okay, that's all I wanted."

"So you're not going to criticize it, and tell me I've done it wrong?" Moondancer asked harshly.

"Why would I do that? You're literally copying it out of a book."

"Because that's what you used to do when we were kids."

"Moondancer, I was a smart-alecky little know-it-all when I was a kid, so yeah, I did. I'm not that pony any more though. Okay, I might say something if you were doing it wrong, but only because I want to help, and this isn't something we can afford to make mistakes with."

"Uh-huh."

Twilight sighed, quietly giving up. "I'll just leave you to it, although Sunset and I could use your help studying that anti-magic armour later, if you want?"

"And here I was thinking Trixie was going to be helping you with that," Moondancer said dismissively as she resumed copying the spell onto her paper.

"Moondancer, I could write an entire paper on how helpful Trixie is at times. Literally a single piece of paper, probably in big writing. The conclusion would say she is when she wants to be, but don't expect that to be often. Your skills would be far more use."

Twilight waited as Moondancer mulled it over, and could see the battle taking place between spending more with Sunset, versus spending time around Twilight and Trixie. Eventually Moondancer reached a conclusion.

"Fine, I suppose it wouldn't hurt if we need the armour to help fight Faust."

"Excellent. I'm going to have to find tools to make some adjustments to the armour, so if you could bring the others through the portal to Equestria when they're ready, I'd appreciate it."

"Okay, but what kind of adjustments are you talking about?"

"The armour's designed for earth ponies, so I'm going to have to spend some time drilling a hole for one of these," Twilight tapped her horn with a hoof. "Since I can't use magic to do that, it's probably going to take a while, so, no rush. I'll see you in a bit."

-0-0-0-

In actual fact, it took about twenty minutes to make the hole for a horn, but Twilight wasn't going to advertise that she had used a hammer, a rock, and a spike to do most of the work, so decided to stay where she was on the Equestria side of the portal, and take a quiet break sitting in the morning sun.

Both Ember and Mayfly were already there, with Ember basking atop a roof, while Mayfly wandered around doing something, but she did seem to be smiling. Both of them were oblivious to Twilight's presence, and Twilight was happy to keep it that way for now. Instead, she thought upon the oddities of the little village she was in.

It was a place where Starlight Glimmer befriended ponies who came to live in peace and equality with others. On paper it sounded pretty good, but when you add that its leader was a dictator that stripped ponies of their cutie marks, by force if necessary, then forced you to not only be equal to others, but the same, it quickly sounded a lot worse. It also didn't add up with the Starlight Glimmer she'd encountered the previous day, who could, in a good light, pass for a normal, functioning unicorn.

Twilight decided to not let herself be fooled by it. Sure Starlight might be chafing under the hold Faust had on her reins, but to have the freedom to wander around unchecked like she was, she had to be playing her role pretty well. Only time could tell which side she was really on.

The other pertinent question Twilight had was how the hell Starlight kept the ponies here fed when nothing grew here, but she knew that was likely to be a question she'd never get an answer to.

A memory popped into Twilight's head, although it wasn't one of her own, but one of Celestia's new ones. In it, Luna was still the one that stopped Starlight Glimmer, but only after losing hers and her friends' cutie marks, and getting rescued by other ponies. It made Twilight want to laugh, because there was no chance that could've happened in reality. No chance at all. Apparently Faust loved making Luna look like a failure.

"Twilight?"

"Hmm?" Twilight turned to see Sunset, Moondancer, and Sunset coming up the steps behind her. "Oh, hey guys."

"Were you just laughing to yourself?" Sunset asked.

"Was I? Oh, sorry. I had one of Celestia's memories about this place in my head, and it was pretty ridiculous. Anyway, thanks for coming."

Trixie raised an eyebrow at Twilight, "What else were we supposed to do?"

"I... don't know. Give me a break, okay? I got a head full of fake memories that belong to somepony else, and I didn't exactly sleep last night." Twilight held up the helm of the armour, "Anyway, I'm going to need you to put this on now, Trixie."

"Fuck no! I don't even want to look at that armour, let alone put it on. No way in hell am I doing that."

"But the rest of us need to study it, which I know isn't your thing."

Trixie shook her head emphatically, "No way, no how. Just seeing that armour again is giving me the creeps, to say the least. The last time I saw a suit of that stuff, I technically died."

"Then why say you'd do this if you don't even want to look at it?" Sunset asked.

"Because I thought Twilight was going to put it on, and I was more than happy to experimentally blast her with magic in the name of science.

Twilight pouted at Trixie, "Gee, thanks." She rolled her eyes as Trixie beamed a smile at her, then looked at Moondancer, before crossing her off the list and moving straight onto Sunset. "I get the feeling you're going to have to put it on, Sunset."

"What? Why me? Why can't you do it?"

"Two reasons. First, I'm a bit too big for the armour, so I'll have gaps between the plates, which isn't ideal, and second," Twilight spread her wings, "these."

"But- But-" Sunset turned her head towards Moondancer, but quickly drew the same conclusion as Twilight had. "Aww man. Fine, I guess I'll put the scary looking armour on."

"That's the go getting attitude we need," Twilight said jokingly as she tipped the crate over, spilling the rest of its contents onto the floor in a jumble of two dozen pieces. Thankfully her time in Mareitania taught her a thing or two about wearing armour, otherwise she wouldn't know where she was supposed to even start here.

They started from the bottom up, going up the legs to the bigger pieces of armour. It also took quite a bit of time since Trixie refused to help, Moondancer didn't know how, and none of them could use their magic.

"I really don't like the way this stuff feels," Sunset said as more pieces were put on. She started to anxiously shift her weight from side to side, "I'm really not sure this is a good idea."

Twilight paused in putting on the armour, "If you have a better idea, I'm willing to listen."

"No, I don't," Sunset sighed, trying her best to keep still as Twilight resumed her work.

"How does it feel?" Moondancer asked, notepad at the ready to write down Sunset's observations.

"I don't know, it's... cold, but not in a chilly way, but more a spiritual way, like... like..."

"Like somewhere saturated in dark magic?" said Twilight. "That cold, slimy sensation of wrongness."

Sunset shook her head, "No. It's like a... void, I guess. Like I can't even feel myself. Y'know what I mean, right?" Sunset sighed at their blank expressions and shook her head, "Of course you don't. That sounds insane even to me."

"So you're saying that you feel dead wearing it?" Trixie asked, her interest piqued for the moment.

"No. Yes. I don't know. I certainly don't feel like myself, that's for sure."

Twilight stopped in the middle of trying to attach another piece. "Do you want to stop?" she asked, taking Sunset's concerns more seriously than before.

"Yes, but we need to learn about this armour." Sunset smiled bravely at the three of them, "I'll be fine."

Twilight glanced at Trixie, who shrugged. "Alright then," she said, carrying on again. She knew Trixie was probably the worst pony she could be asking, but she had a limited number of choices. "If it gets worse, say, and we'll stop."

Slowly, Twilight managed to get most of the armour on, but not without further concerns. Sunset had gone quiet once Twilight started covering her back, and a sheen of sweat covered her face, which had gone pale. Before long, all that was left was the helmet.

Twilight held the helmet in her hooves in front of Sunset, very much worried about her friend's condition. "Sunset, even I think this is a bad idea now. Are you really sure you want to do this?"

"We've got this far," Sunset said, sounding like she couldn't believe what she was saying. "Let's just get this over with so I can take it off again."

"Alright." Twilight placed the helmet over Sunset's head, taking care to get her horn lined up with the hole. The helmet set into place, and Twilight stepped back as Sunset started to breath heavily. "Sunset? Are you alright?"

"I- I- I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" Sunset staggered sideways until she hit the wall, then started to yank at the helmet with her clumsy armoured hooves until her panic got too much for her to even do that, and she started to scream and cry as she thrashed her hooves around, making it considerably harder for Twilight to get the helmet off.

"Trixie! Pin her down!"

Trixie jumped on Sunset, keeping her legs from kicking Twilight as the alicorn fought to get the helmet off. She succeeded after a few seconds, and tossed it aside. "Sunset?"

"Get it off me! Get it off me!" Sunset whimpered tearfully as she unsuccessfully tried to pull the armour off. Twilight quickly took over, tearing off piece after piece, not caring if the fastenings got broken in the process. Trixie let Sunset go after a moment, letting her kick the last pieces off herself before she scooted away from it backwards until she hit the adjacent wall.

Twilight rushed over and grabbed Sunset as the unicorn sobbed, holding her tightly as she rode out the end of her freak-out. "It's okay Sunset, I've got you, you're okay." Twilight kept repeating that until the sobs were reduced to tears, and the shivering to an occasional tremble.

"That armour is evil," Sunset choked after a couple of minutes. Twilight could tell Sunset was trying to not look at it, so gestured with her eyes for the other two to put it back in its box out of sight for the moment. That took a minute, and when they were done, Trixie took up Moondancer's notepad that had been cast aside in the unicorn's hurry.

"Subject S. Shimmer is distressed," she said out loud as she wrote, getting a strangled laugh out of Sunset as Moondancer snatched the Notepad back.

"Distressed doesn't even begin to cover it," said Sunset, making no effort to get Twilight to release her. "That was... horrible, to say the least."

"Could you give us more details?" Moondancer asked, giving Sunset an apologetic smile as she did.

"It was like being trapped in a dark, airless room. I couldn't breathe, or see, or hear, or feel anything. It was cold too. So fucking cold." Sunset wiped her eyes and raised her head away from Twilight's chest, "So yeah, as you can tell, I kind of freaked out, a little. Or a lot."

"So, in conclusion," Trixie said loudly, "anti-magic armour is not for unicorns. Go figure."

"So that's what you were doing," said a voice from the door. Ember was standing there, along with Mayfly. "I've never heard those kinds of screams before, but they suggested you were going in dry, in the wrong hole, using something the size of your leg."

Sunset laughed once, "You paint a vivid image, Ember, thank you. I can honestly say though, I think I'd rather go through what you said than put that armour on again."

"You say that now," Trixie muttered. "So, yeah, as I said, not for unicorns. Guess this means we need a new test subject. Too bad we don't have any earth ponies. It doesn't seem to affect them. Wait," Trixie looked up at Mayfly, "you can turn into an earth pony."

Mayfly glanced over at Sunset, paying particular attention to the way she was still shivering. "No, I don't think this one will be putting that armour on. Besides, I'd only look like an earth pony, I wouldn't actually be one."

"But we have so many unicorns," Trixie whined. "Unicorns and alicorns that is. The only ones that aren't are the both of you."

"And Rainbow," said Sunset "Lightning, Vapor. Then there's Daring Do as well, occasionally."

"Wherever the fuck she is." Trixie pouted as she thought, "Actually, where the hell is Daring Do now I think about it? I'd almost forgotten she existed."

"You almost forgot the others existed as well."

Trixie shushed Sunset, "Stop changing the subject, because I really am genuinely curious about where Daring Do went."

"I'm sure she's fine, wherever she went," said Twilight. "Frankly, we have bigger things to worry about, such as how to defend ourselves in a fight against Faust."

"Quite," Trixie agreed. "Especially when we still have no earth ponies to experiment on."

Sunset gave Trixie a funny look, "I'm going to choose to rephrase that in my head. We could still use a pegasus though, unless they also get affected by whatever that armour did to me."

"Actually, there's not much point in carrying on," Moondancer said as she adjusted her glasses. "Since we're testing this armour for its effectiveness on alicorns, and it did that to a unicorn, we can only assume the same or worse would happen to the princesses. That said," Moondancer smirked at Twilight, "it mightn't hurt for Twilight here to try it, just in case. She is a third earth pony after all."

"No thanks," Twilight replied slowly. "I think we're just going to have to assume that encasing a unicorn, or alicorn, in rune warded armour is tantamount to torturing them. I'm sure there's plenty of conclusions we could draw from what little we've seen, primarily of which is the armour blocking even the passive magic of a unicorn. We have nothing of use to learn from it now."

"Apart from working out if it's an effect of the runes, or the metal they're cut into," said Sunset.

Twilight stood and walked over to the crate. She picked up a greave and placed it on her left leg. As soon as she did the runes started glowing a cold blue colour. "Yeah, I'll say that it's the runes," she said, shaking the piece back off into the crate. "So, I guess this line of investigation really is a bust."

"Back to the retreat then?" Trixie enquired, pleased for the chance to get away from that armour. She didn't want to admit it, or heavens forbid actually do it, but seeing that armour made her want to scream and attack it.

"Yep. That includes you two as well," Twilight said to Ember and Mayfly. "You shouldn't risk being seen like that. Especially you, Mayfly, considering what you think Chrysalis would do if she found out about you. What were you doing out here anyway?"

"I like exploring the village, seeing these abandoned homes and speculating about what happened to the ponies here. Did they all die? Or were they driven away by famine?"

"Uh, neither, actually. There's a bit of a story behind it, but the basic reason is that the village got damaged in a fight between Luna and a unicorn named Starlight Glimmer a couple of years ago, and the ponies that lived here moved away. Most of them ended up in Ponyville."

"Oh." Mayfly seemed disappointed with the explanation. "I think I preferred it when there was a mystery."

"Well if you want somewhere mysterious to explore, and somewhere to bask in the sun," Twilight added for Ember, "there's plenty of both in the Circen Desert. We don't need any unnecessary attention being drawn here, okay?"

"Fine," Ember growled, while Mayfly merely nodded, "I'll go sunbathe in the stupid desert."

"That's all I ask."

-0-0-0-

"So we're chalking the armour up as a completely nonviable method of protection then?" Starsy said after Twilight explained their findings to him.

"That about sums it up, yes."

"Hmm, disappointing, but not the end of the world."

"It technically might be," quipped Trixie.

"Shush you." Starsy hummed to himself as he started to pace around, running a hoof through his beard as he did. "There is another option, but it has an element of risk to it."

"Like that's ever stopped us," said Twilight. "What is it?"

"I believe I told you about the crystals we'll need from Zebrica?" Twilight shook her head. "I didn't?"

"We've been occupied with the whole Celestia thing, so no."

"Ah, yes, that." Starsy frowned unhappily, "Quite. Anyway, there's a place in Zebrica, a mountain specifically, that sits over a leaking ley line."

Trixie raised an eyebrow at Starsy, "Since when can ley lines leak?"

"They can if you dig into them, like the zebras did quite some time ago. They stay well away from that place now, and with good reason. A ley line, when it leaks, will cap itself in a process that takes centuries upon centuries. It does this by basically crystallising raw mana over the leak. These crystals that form have some interesting and useful properties. For starters, the ones that form directly on the cap are so magically charged they're practically immune to anything less than the power of the ley line itself."

"Here we go," Trixie scoffed. "What's the catch?"

"Interfering with the cap is incredibly dangerous. If you're too rough, the cap could crack, which would unleash the power of the ley line, and it wouldn't be a slow uncovering like the zebras did. It'd be an unleashed all at once, level the mountain sort of occasion."

"And you're going to say we need these crystals to create suits of armour?"

"That I am." Starsy smiled at them, although it wavered as Moondancer came up to him and whispered something in his ear. "Or I am not, apparently." Starsy cleared his throat in embarrassment, "My able assistant informs me I might have got that a little mixed up, although she could've whispered that from the other side of the library instead of making sure you all knew I had got it wrong."

"You can hear things from across the library?" Twilight asked in amazement.

"I can hear everything that goes on in here, and I have to tell you, some of you need to leave yourselves alone at night," he said, directing a dirty look at Rainbow, who blushed bright red. "You could go blind doing that sort of thing."

"You become a mare and see how much you like estrus, buddy," Rainbow grumbled defensively.

"Anyway," Starsy continued, "Moondancer has reminded me that the cap crystals aren't immune to magic, but are very stable platforms for powerful enchantments, such as we need for the lock on the oubliette. The crystal you want for the armour are from the opposite end of the scale. The crystals that form furthest away from the cap are the magically inert ones, and are perfectly safe to harvest."

Trixie smirked playfully at Starsy, "Bit of a difference there, don't ya think?"

"Get as old as I am, Miss Trixie, and we'll see how good your memory is."

Twilight nudged Trixie, silently telling her to back off. "So you're saying that everything we need is in Zebrica?"

"For now, yes."

"Then I guess that's our next port of call."

"By the by," Trixie drawled, interrupting Twilight, "I don't suppose you know where Daring Do went?"

"Saddle Arabia I believe."

"What?" Twilight shouted in surprise. "Why the hell would she go back there? She was deported from there!"

"She said something about dangerous artefacts falling into the wrong hooves." Starsy shrugged, "She seemed like she knew what she was doing."

"I strongly disagree." Twilight held her breath for a few moments, then released it in one. "Trixie, Rainbow, get yours and Lightning's things ready, and Vapor's if she wants to come, because we're heading to Saddle Arabia. I'll go find Luna and Cadence."

"And I guess I'm staying here. Again," sighed Sunset.

"I suppose you could come if you want, although I don't remember our last visit being all that fun with the giant spiders, and the attack, and all the other bad things that happened while we were there. I suppose helping Daring find whoever has those dangerous artefacts wouldn't be too hazardous to your health, in theory. Perhaps."

"You raise a valid point. I still want to go with you though."

Moondancer held up a hoof, getting their attention. "Uh, not to rain on your rescuing Daring Do parade, but surely getting the materials we need for the oubliette, and your armour, is way more important than saving Daring Do from her mistakes?"

"Mmm, potentially," said Twilight, "but we need to head to Saddle Arabia at some point anyway, so it might as well be now. Hopefully it won't take too long."

"That sounds exactly like famous last words."

"See, that's where I have an advantage in that I'll never have to say last words," Twilight said with a lazy grin. "Anyway, you all get ready, and I'll find the other two princesses."

-0-0-0-

Twilight found Luna and Cadence in the upper reaches of the library, tucked into the cushion filled reading nook. She had been following the sound of somepony crying so quietly it was almost silent, although she was surprised to find it was Luna doing so, with Cadence trying to comfort her. At the same time, it was hardly a surprise considering what had very recently happened.

Twilight shushed Luna as the dark blue alicorn tried to straighten up and tell Twilight she was fine, and wordlessly hugged her around the neck until those tears started to fall again. They sat like that for several minutes, until Luna started to dry her eyes.

"Forgive me," she said, sniffling. "You don't need to see me like this."

"It's fine, Luna, really." Twilight smiled soothingly at Luna, "I'd be more concerned if this hadn't happened, considering what you had to do."

"What I had to do? Twilight, you had to do considerably more than I did. Celestia was like a second mother to you, once upon a time."

"She was." Twilight snorted a sharp and bitter laugh, "Those days have passed though. Don't get me wrong, I still love Celestia, but that idolization I had for her died some time ago. It was hard to see the way she looked at me though, like she was so disappointed in me for choosing the sane and rational path of not utterly devoting myself to a psychopath like Faust."

"It's still hard to believe Celestia could do that though," said Cadence. "She's always been so caring and compassionate, so to be willing to wipe out the thestrals just because Faust told her to..." Cadence slowly shook her head, "I don't even know what to say to that. If Faust could make Celestia do that, what chance would we stand?"

Luna chuckled at Cadence, "I don't think I need to worry about that. The most I would get out of Faust is some gloating at my defeat, before making Celestia do whatever she has in mind for me, just to break my spirit that little bit more."

Twilight agreed with Luna, "I imagine she has plans for all of us except Celestia. Flurry might get out of it, but the rest of us? Not so much."

Cadence held Flurry a little tighter, "Flurry's so impressionable at this age. I hate to think what Faust could turn her into, given enough time."

"All the more reason to stop Faust," Luna said to Cadence reassuringly.

"Not that we don't have enough already," Twilight snickered.

"Indeed. In regards to that, perhaps it is time we moved onto the next leg of this venture. It is Zebrica we are moving onto next, is it not?"

"Actually, we have a small change in our schedule there. Apparently Daring Do has returned to Saddle Arabia after receiving news about some dangerous artefacts. Since she's been deported from Saddle Arabia, her going back there is already a bad idea, so we're going to help her. Since we also want to get Saddle Arabia on our side, I thought we could do two jobs at once."

"An excellent idea," Luna agreed. "It has been a long time since I set hoof in Saddle Arabia. Is it still as painfully hot as I remember?"

"Possibly hotter," Twilight replied with a smile.

"Marvellous. Saddle Arabia and Zebrica. Much sweat will be lost over the coming weeks, I feel."

"Perhaps a sun hat?" Cadence suggested.

Luna snorted into laughter, "Oh Cadence, you have no idea what you're about to experience. I think you'll find a sun hat isn't going to help all that much. I would recommend some sunblock for Flurry though. White ponies tend to have terrible trouble with sunburn in those kinds of places."

"And black ponies," said the voice of Nightmare above them. She was draped along the top of one of the bookcases, her gaze soft as she looked at Luna.

"How long have you been up there?" asked Twilight.

"Long enough." Nightmare stood and jumped down, softening the landing with a flap of her membranous wings.

Luna went rigid and raised her head a little as Nightmare stood before her, "I sincerely hope you haven't come to mock me for crying over Celestia."

"No, because I'm a bit torn up over it myself."

Luna relaxed a little, and let a confused smile creep onto her face. "Why are you upset over it?"

"Because she's my sister too!" Nightmare shouted. She made no move to cover herself like it had slipped out by mistake, and her lack of embarrassment made it clear she'd meant it. "She might not ever accept me, and honestly I can't blame her, but that doesn't stop me thinking of her as my sister."

"Oh," Luna said dumbly, like she'd just found out it was going to rain this afternoon after she'd already made plans. "I see."

Nightmare looked Luna in the eye for several seconds, then sighed like she'd been expecting something more. "Anyway, I want to come with you."

"You do? Why?"

"Because I need to stop Faust. She's slighted us by turning Celestia against us, and harming our children, and frankly, I don't accept such insults lightly."

"Uh..." Twilight held up a hoof until Nightmare gave her her attention, "This is mostly going to be a bunch of politics and potentially a rescue mission. Not a whole bunch of fighting Faust will be happening."

"I'm also really fucking bored."

"Now that's a reason I can believe. You'll have to travel in disguise though."

"Tell me that like it should surprise me."

Twilight shrugged, then looked to Luna and Cadence. "Any objections?"

"Not from me," said Luna, while Cadence shrugged and shook her head. "It might be nice to spend some time with my crazy little doppelganger."

"And why am I crazy exactly?"

Luna smirked at Nightmare, "Have you paid any attention to the rest of your family?"

-0-0-0-

"I'm telling you Vapor, you don't have to come."

Vapor calmly pushed Lightning's hoof to the ground, and gave her a gentle smile. "I'm coming, and that's final. Besides, how dangerous could it possibly get?"

"That's idiot talk, and you know it. It'll be dangerous because of the simple fact that we're going there. You did hear the story about the giant spiders, right?"

"And it was fucking ridiculous, even if it was true." Vapor spread her wings and flapped them slowly a few times, sending puffs of sand flying away from her. "I'm not hiding scared in that library because something bad happened to me. If there are giant spiders, roving war bands of griffons, or something even worse, I'm ready for them. Face it Lightning, you're not going without me."

"Rrgh!"

"They'd make a cute couple," Trixie said to Sunset as they quietly observed the argument. "Y'know, if both of them were raging homosexuals, instead of just one of them."

"You mean Lightning?"

"I certainly don't mean Vapor."

Sunset screwed her face up in thought, then shook her head. "Nah. I'm not saying Lightning isn't gay, but I'd say she'd have more of a thing for Rainbow. She wants a partner that can not only keep up with her, but push her."

"Hmm, you raise a fair point, and I counter it with the argument that some ponies want to look after the other in a relationship. In this case we have the more masculine Lightning, and the effeminate Vapor. Problem is, Vapor can take care of herself, and it's damaging how Lightning sees both Vapor and herself."

"So she's no longer the sweet little wifey in this equation?"

Trixie nodded once, "Exactly. Plenty of relationships go awry when one half discovers they can stand on their own four hooves, and the other doesn't know how to deal with it."

"Sounds like personal experience."

"Not really. There are few ponies I've met that I could consider as being even half good enough for the Great and Powerful Trixie. That, or I have a really terrible taste in stallions. What about yourself, Sunset?"

"Me? Um, well, I've had one relationship in the past few years, and I was only dating him to become more popular. He eventually caught on and dumped me."

"For shame, Sunset, using others to further your own goals. How positively maniacal."

Sunset looked sideways at Trixie, "I have no idea in what kind of spirit that was meant."

"Part of the mystery that is Trixie."

"Uh-huh." Sunset turned and shielded her eyes as she looked out over the half buried city in the Circen Desert. "This place still gives me the creeps. I mean, it's amazing, don't get me wrong, but still creepy."

"Yeah..." Trixie said without looking around. "Hopefully whatever eldritch abomination inevitably crawls out of this place is a bit easier to stop than Faust is."

"What?" Sunset turned back to Trixie, her mouth flapping soundlessly. "W-w-why would you even say that?"

"Because that's what our life is now, Sunset. Shit, followed by worse shit, with various gradients of shit in-between. For example, the thing with Twilight's friends in Fillydelphia is shitty, but it's a fairly solid shit that isn't worth worrying about. Celestia on the other hoof, is a full on attack of explosive diarrhoea. Y'know, the kind that comes on suddenly, and there's no toilet nearby, and it just slips out and gets in your tail, and-"

"Stop! Just stop! Your analogies suck."

"Oh come on, you could've at least said they were shitty."

"Nope! I absolutely refused to." Sunset rubbed a hoof between her eyes and groaned, "Great, now my head's going to full of shit analogies and thinking about what could come out of this place. Thanks, Trixie."

"I'm here to help."

"No, you're not. You're really not."

"Yeah, you're right." There was a whoosh of magic, and four alicorns, along with an extra baby alicorn, stepped out into the harsh sun of the desert. "Ooh, Nightmare's coming. This could be interesting."

"It could be." Sunset walked towards Twilight, "Are we ready to go?"

"More or less. Here's hoping Daring hasn't gotten into too much trouble. Hah! What am I saying? Of course she has." Twilight shrunk Sunset and Trixie down and tucked them into her bags, "Maybe if we're lucky, we can get through this without starting a war of some kind."

Trixie poked her head out of her bag as Twilight spread her wings, "You really need to stop talking now, before you jinx it."

"Too late now. Let's go."

Author's Note

One of those chapters that I write with no particular direction in mind, and let the crap in my head dribble into my writing. You'd think I'd learn to stop, but here I am throwing a scale of passing rocks to diarrhoea in, referencing butt fun and masturbation, and not bothering to remove any of it for something slightly less stupid or related to rear ends. Sorry, not sorry. I put a mature tag on these stories for multiple reasons.

19. Foreign politics

The flight to Saddle Arabia was quiet and uneventful. To some of the ponies there, that was a miracle unto itself, and more than appreciated. Even better, the quiet lasted all the way until they reached Ammare. Considering what had happened the last time some of them were there, Saddle Arabia was a country at peace. That only made the reasons for Daring Do's return here all the more puzzling.

"So how do these guys feel about heavily armed ponies turning up on their doorstep?" Rainbow asked Twilight as they flew low over the city towards the palace. "Do they at least react to it a little better than the griffons do?"

"It should be fine," said Twilight. "The Saddle Arabians are at least aware enough that the most dangerous amongst us have our weapons built in. Not to say you aren't dangerous," Twilight quickly corrected herself, "just... not alicorn dangerous."

"Alright Twi, chill, I get it. We're never going to be the magic slinging badasses you and Luna are." Rainbow grinned at Twilight, trying to put her at her ease. "I dare say that throwing lightning evens the field a little bit."

Twilight returned the gesture, "A little."

"The city is being heavily patrolled," Luna observed, having been scanning the city as they flew over it. "Unsurprising I suppose, but it's been a couple of months since the attack, and they're acting like they expect something to happen."

"Perhaps the reason Daring Do returned here for is worth worrying about," said Cadence.

"Hope so." Nightmare shrugged, the motion odd in her guise as a purple maned thestral, like she wasn't used to being smaller. "I haven't flown all this way through the glaring sun, which I hate for many reasons, for two days, just for nothing to happen."

"We should be thankful if nothing happens," Cadence said back. "The last thing we need is more fighting."

"Speak for yourself. It's been a while since I've gotten my hooves dirty, besides that thing in Griffonia, which was hardly a challenge."

"Oh, and should I be surprised that you enjoy that sort of thing?"

"Don't know. Ask Luna."

"That excuse is rapidly approaching its use by date," Luna said coldly. "Stop claiming to be your own pony, then blaming me for the parts you don't like."

"Who said anything about me not liking them? Besides, it tends to stop ponies talking about me in such ways because none of you seem as willing to speak ill of Luna as you do me, even though we're ostensibly the same pony."

"Knock it off, the lot of you," Twilight told them. They were nearly at the palace, and Twilight didn't want to make a bad impression by turning up arguing.

They landed outside the gates to the water gardens, and Twilight spent a moment returning Trixie and Sunset to their proper sizes while the two stallions guarding the gates eyed them up. "Good morning sirs. If it's possible, we'd like to see the Sultan."

The stallion on the left said something to the other in his native language. A moment later the right guard took a step towards them.

"I can take you to see the Sultan, but I cannot promise what kind of reception you will receive."

"And why is that?" asked Luna. "Is something wrong? Does this concern a certain mustard coloured pegasus?"

The stallion raised an eyebrow, "You are seeking her as well? We were under the impression that you had sent her here yourselves. That's what she claims, anyway."

Twilight cursed inwardly, but decided to be honest. "We didn't send her here, and if we had reason to, we wouldn't have sent her alone. Not after the means by which she left last time. Please, take us to the Sultan, and we'll get this straightened out."

"You misunderstand. We do not have her. We attempted to apprehend her when she came in here claiming you sent her, but she evaded us and escaped. We do not know where she is now." The guard instructed his counterpart to open the gate, "It is not she I wish to warn you about though."

"What are you trying to warn us about?" Cadence asked after the guard went quiet for a few seconds.

"It is difficult to explain. I'm afraid it may be better to see it for yourselves."

"Uh, sure." Twilight looked to her fellow princesses, but only found the same unsure expression that she had herself. The only two there not seeming particularly worried were Trixie and Nightmare. Twilight didn't bother asking for an explanation as to why.

As they walked through the water gardens towards the palace, Twilight observed that the damage that had been caused during the attack by the Storm King's forces months ago had been repaired, although it were never very extensive to begin with, being mainly focussed around making a mess rather than causing destruction. The only thing that couldn't be fixed or replaced so easily were the ponies taken as slaves.

That might've been the reason Twilight's nerves grew as they entered the palace proper, and since the guard hadn't actually explained, she still couldn't tell what other potential the problem was, and still couldn't as they entered the throne room. Twilight tried to smile as she entered, but she could feel how feeble it was.

The Sultan, Batal, was sat on his throne as they entered, but stood to greet them as they came in. "Ah! It is a pleasure to see you again, Princess Twilight, as it is a pleasure to meet you both as well, Princess Luna and Princess Cadence. I must say I'm surprised to see you though, considering events in Equestria."

"Thank you for the kind welcome," Luna said back, bowing to the Sultan with respect, which the others followed her with. "As for events in Equestria, they haven't stopped us yet, and are part of the reason we are here."

"Is that so? I had heard rumours that most of the princesses had escaped Equestria after its downfall, but only very recently had I received confirmation. While I am pleased to see you free, I do get the impression, since you're here, that you wish something of me. Something I might not be able to give, for many reasons."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Cadence glancing at another Saddle Arabian in the room, a pink mare with a long blue mane and tail. The pony wasn't looking at them, but what little Twilight could see of her face carried a scowl.

"Other interested parties have arrived here recently, seeking my aid, and now you have arrived. The problem is, I have plenty of problems of my own to deal with, on top of keeping my country safe."

"I have already told you my Sultan, my Lady Faust will do all she can to ensure the safety of our country, and see to the return of those taken by the Storm King, including my sister."

All of the them looked at the pony that had spoken. It was the mare Twilight saw Cadence looking at, and after what she'd said, she now knew who it was. It was Amira, the Saddle Arabian ambassador to Equestria, and technically still was if she was working for Faust in this current capacity.

"Sending my ponies to fight in her war is not what I call safety, Amira. If she were to prove her intent, I would consider it, but until that point there shall be no allegiance."

"It's good to see you're alright," Cadence said to Amira, only to get cut off with a glare.

"The feeling far from mutual, I can assure you. Lady Faust will be quite interested in learning you're here in Saddle Arabia."

"Interested enough to launch an attack to apprehend us?" Luna enquired, her tone hard. "I'm sure that would help your cause to no end." Luna smiled smugly as Amira spluttered speechlessly. "Perhaps you had best keep our presence here to yourself for now, until you're sure the Sultan is firmly on your side."

Amira closed her mouth and regained her composure, "Very well, but using threats like that should be far beneath you, Princess." Amira turned and bowed to the Sultan, "If you'll excuse me, I do not wish to discuss our business in front of the... former rulers of Equestria."

The Sultan nodded his head at her, and she left. Once she was gone he smiled at the princesses, "You have come at quite the auspicious time. Please, come with me so we might discuss whatever business you have with me in private, away from eager ears."

They followed him to a private audience chamber, not far from the throne room. It was richly decorated with silks, and had luxuriously soft furniture spread about the light and airy room. It was a strong contrast to the dark and irritated sigh that came from the Sultan as soon as the door was shut behind them.

"Your timing is impeccable, and not in the good way, although it may yet turn out to be." The Sultan helped himself to a piece of fruit from a bowl on a cabinet, and practically threw himself into a chair. "Last week I received an interesting missive from the zebras saying that you and the griffon emperor have forged an alliance of sorts."

"You share intelligence with the zebras?" Luna asked, a bit surprised by that tidbit of information.

"We have an agreement since are both neighbours to the Griffon Empire. Considering the size of the country, it's hard to keep track of what both ends are doing, which is why I was surprised to learn they'd entered an alliance with the princesses of Equestria from the zebras, when here I am closer to the Eyrie, and the Emperor's seat of power. It must've been big news indeed for the Night Maidens to hear it first. Is it true?"

"It is," Twilight confirmed for him. "Equestria may have fallen to Faust, but our goal to stop her is still the same."

"And yet I hear from Amira that Celestia has sided with Faust. That alone is a powerful argument in favour of siding with Equestria's new ruler."

"Don't believe it so easily," Luna said dismissively. "Faust has stripped Celestia of her memories, and replaced them with ones that make us look like villains. Before that, Celestia was as dedicated to stopping Faust as we still are. She serves Faust based on a lie."

"And yet it is still of her own free will." Batal smiled sympathetically at Luna, "I know enough of your history to know this must be hard for you. You have my sympathies."

"Thank you," said Luna, paying little attention to the huff of irritation from Nightmare. "Since you mention siding with Equestria's new ruler, I do have to ask how much you might mean that."

"Honestly, not much. Don't take that to mean I have any interest in fighting Faust either. I have plenty of my own problems to deal with without contributing to a war that benefits Saddle Arabia very little."

"What problems are these?" Cadence asked. "Is there anything we can help with?"

"I thought you already were, when you sent that deported criminal, Daring Do, back to my doorstep."

Twilight cleared her throat awkwardly, "Yeah, we had no idea she'd done that."

"I suspected not," Batal replied with a smile. "However, the problems she claimed to have been sent to fix are very real." Batal's expression turned sorrowful for a moment, then serious. "The Storm King's attack has had repercussions that we are still feeling even now. My Vizier, Hakim, held many magical artefacts on the grounds of his estate, and during the attack, some of the Storm King's agents broke in and stole something."

"What was it?" Twilight asked, trying her best to hide her awkwardness. There was no forgetting that she and Trixie had been two of those agents, even if unwittingly.

"I do not know, and neither do I care," said Batal. "Whatever prize the Storm King desired from there is long gone, along with everything else he pilfered. It's what happened afterwards that concerns me."

Twilight listened closely to what the Sultan said, ignoring the feeling that her heart was being crushed by it. Apparently, with the Vizier, Hakim, taken by the Storm King, his estate became poorly defended. Shortly after the attack, bandits had attacked the estate and made off with a large number of the artefacts from the now unsecured vault.

"What the purpose of most of these artefacts are I cannot tell you, but one or more has ended up in the hooves of a bandit named Jamal. Through it, he is amassing a small army that is growing day by day, and proclaims himself a Warlord. I fear that if he is not stopped soon, he could seriously threaten my country. As you can imagine, I cannot allow this to happen."

"We'll stop him," Twilight said quickly. Too quickly judging by the way Luna looked at her. "We'll get those artefacts back."

Batal smiled appreciatively at Twilight, although there was a hint of apology in it. "I'm glad to hear it, although you will have some competition. Amira did not return to here alone. With her came two ships worth of soldiers, whom she claims Faust has sent in good faith to help stabilise my country, although personally I cannot see it as much else than a threat. Amira has tasked them with reclaiming the artefacts in the hopes I would side with Faust."

"And would you, if they succeed?"

"Is that one of these trick questions?" Batal shrugged at Twilight's confusion, "I am not a fool, Princess. I have seen enough of Faust's actions to know that if I do not join her willingly, I will join her through conquest. The problem is that I know what route that takes us down. Those taken by the Storm King could end up being the lucky ones as Saddle Arabia is bled dry to fight Faust's war against the world."

"Join us then."

"And do the same, only the other way around?" Batal shook his head, "My interest is in keeping my ponies safe, and neither option given to me by you or Amira promises that."

"Actually," Cadence said before Twilight could speak, "ours might."

-0-0-0-

"Are you sure you really want to do this?" Twilight asked Sunset as they stood together on the steps leading out of the palace. "It's going to be dangerous."

"Will you stop talking to me like I'm made of glass? I know it's going to be dangerous. On the other hoof," Sunset smirked at Twilight, "stealing magical artefacts is a specialty of mine."

"Oh yeah, that game of piggy in the middle we played with my crown was really well executed by you. Well done."

"That's not what I meant, and you know it!"

"Then there's the thing where you could've just stolen the crown from Principal Celestia, but didn't. Could've saved yourself a lot of effort there."

"Are you actually telling me how I could've won better?"

"That's right." Twilight grinned and nudged Sunset on the side, "You want to know the best part? As soon as you and your army of teenage zombies got through the portal, we would've-"

"Wiped the floor with me, I know. I'm fairly certain we've had this conversation before."

"It does sound familiar." Twilight sat and sighed in the direction of the setting sun, "I hope this works out."

"Will it though? The Sultan doesn't sound keen on picking any side in this."

"I'd rather keep him neutral than have him side with Faust. He did seem interested in our proposition though. Even if we don't get any soldiers off him, supplies will be needed."

Sunset shrugged, "I've never led an army before, so I'll have to take your word for anything you say about that." Sunset looked up at the sound of hooves behind her, expecting one of the princesses. She was surprised to find Amira behind them. "Can we... help you?"

"I have a question for you, if you'll indulge me. Why do you keep fighting? Equestria is lost, so why not accept that?"

"You mean you genuinely don't know?" Twilight said back, her voice little more than a growl. "Has Faust not told you of her plans to conquer the world, then force it to conform to her image of what it should be?"

"Is that image so terrible? It could be the beginning of a glorious new age for this world."

"She wants to turn you all into dumb animals!" Twilight shouted. "She wants us to be no smarter than the average bunny rabbit. To eat, breed, and serve as nourishment for predators."

Twilight was expecting, and hoping, that Amira would be shocked, surprised, and maybe even appalled. She wasn't prepared for amused, but that was what she got as Amira tittered at her.

"Lady Faust was right, you are insane. Maybe even dangerously so. There is no possible way that any of what you had just said could be true."

"You won't be saying that when it is. You won't be saying anything at all!"

"Of course, Princess, as you say."

Twilight sat hard and fumed as Amira turned and walked away, laughing to herself. It wasn't until Sunset poked her that she realised that she'd been staring after the pink mare. "I get the feeling she knew what I'd say, and she did that just to get a rise out of me."

"And? Come on Twilight, you have to admit that it does sound pretty insane saying it to somepony like that. Try not to let it get to you. Especially when you know she's probably been brain washed by Faust anyway."

"I know."

"You know, but do you truly realise?" a voice asked from the shadows.

"And what cryptic bullshit is that supposed to be?" Twilight asked as the thestral form of Nightmare stepped into the light. "Or were you just saying because you thought it sounded good?"

"More the latter, but I do have a point to it," Nightmare said as she sat down next to Twilight. "Ponies are going to be willing to believe in Faust, even without the magical brainwashing."

"And how could you know that?"

"Do you have any idea how many cults there have been over the centuries, devoted to Nightmare Moon?"

"Five, possibly six, but two of them are widely believed to be different iterations of the same cult."

"That's right," Nightmare said with false cheer. She'd been hoping there was more. "Now ask yourself, why are there any cults at all? I was- I mean, Nightmare Moon was around for only a short time before her banishment, and yet even centuries later ponies were willing to look to her for the promise of better times. Why?"

"Because they're dangerously insane?" Sunset answered, making Twilight cringe as she unthinkingly echoed Amira's words from earlier.

"Perhaps, but that's not why. Come on ladies, try a little harder."

"Because they have issues with Celestia?"

Nightmare rolled her eyes, "Trust the sun pony to not get this. Come on Twilight, use that fancy brain of yours."

"Because they want something different, and they believe that Nightmare Moon could give them what they want."

"Hmmph, a partial answer at least. Many ponies are just attracted to power enough to start a cult over it. But you are right enough though. Faust is offering the vision of a better world, and a lot of ponies are going to believe in that, brainwashing or not. What they're being offered is a lie of course, but that hardly matters."

"So basically you're pointing out the reason that the yaks have joined her," Twilight said blithely. "I suppose it's not too much of a stretch to think others would do the same."

"You can put it like that if you want, but you know the yaks joined her because of their beliefs." Nightmare pouted at Twilight, "Spoilsport."

"Mmhmm," Twilight hummed, not entirely interested. If ponies, or others, wanted to believe in Faust, that was their business. To be honest, she just felt exhausted to her very bones over the whole thing. "We'll be heading out in the morning, so we'd better get some rest. Has Trixie already gone to our room?"

"Are you asking me?" Nightmare asked after a moment. "Why would I know?"

"You knew where we were."

"Only because I followed that other mare here. I was merely curious about where she was going. I had no idea you were here too."

"That's a weird thing to do," Sunset said bluntly.

"I may have forgotten a few social cues over the millennium I spent on the moon. For example, I'm only just getting the hang of not destroying ponies that insult me."

"Point taken," Sunset snickered. "So where's Luna?"

"Going to find the Sultan's harem with Trixie to prove it exists. Rainbow might have gone too."

"So you knew exactly where Trixie was," Twilight deadpanned.

"I did, but I was trying to make the point that it's not my job to know where she is."

Twilight hauled herself to her hooves, "Nightmare, just... ugh, I don't even know. Let's go find them before they get into trouble."

"Why would they get into trouble?" Sunset asked, trotting after Twilight.

"Two of them won't, but Rainbow's in estrus. Pretty sure being around that kind of thing is not going to help her."

"Ooh..."

-0-0-0-

"This is an absolute disgrace- Nay, a travesty is what it is. Walking through this harem used to be a hazardous proposition back in the day, due to the floor being littered with ponies in the throes of ecstasy!" Luna pointed to the lone mare in the corner reading a book, "What is this rubbish?"

"The erotic adventures of Popinjay," the bespectacled mare answered helpfully.

"I wasn't talking about the book! Where are the concubines of exquisite beauty? And the handsome stallions who were very well endowed? It doesn't even smell of sex in here!"

"That's probably a good thing," Trixie said, glancing at Rainbow, who was at least pretending to look around the spacious room with interest, and paying particular attention to its many, many cushions. There was no missing that her rear legs were being held tightly together.

"This is hardly a good thing," Luna growled. "The things that used to happen here are legendary! They used to sing songs about it! They used to sing those songs here, and I'm pretty sure one of them was about me."

"And you're proud of that?"

Luna froze at Trixie's question, "...No? Okay, maybe a little because that was a most memorable of night's. And day's."

"You can't be serious."

"When the bards sing songs of your sexual prowess, Trixie, you might be a little proud of it too."

Trixie decided to stop talking as it seemed the easiest way to contain her... disgust wasn't the right word, but the end result was close enough. It didn't help that Trixie kept getting images of Luna romping with a room full of beautiful mares and well endowed stallions. "Stop that," she said, seeing Luna's horn lit up, delivering those images. "I'm pretty sure there's laws against things like that."

"Not in Saddle Arabia."

There was a commotion at the door as Twilight and Sunset galloped into the room, "Don't do it, Rainbow!"

Rainbow looked around in surprise at her name being blurted out. "Don't do what? There's nopony in here to do! I mean... uh... hi."

"Oh." Twilight slowed to a trot, her eyes lingering for a moment on the mare in the corner still reading her book. "I thought you'd gone to the harem."

"This is the harem!" Luna cried.

"Really? Why would you even come here?" Twilight folded her ears back as Sunset sniggered behind her, "You know what I meant."

"This may come as a surprise to you," Luna said directly to Twilight, "but recent events have left me a little stressed. A chance to unwind would be most welcome. I surely don't have to explain why Rainbow's here, although why Trixie is here I cannot tell."

"Curiosity mostly," Trixie sniffed. "If somepony asks you if you want to see the world's largest harem, the least you can do is have a look."

"Quite," Luna deadpanned. She sighed, and started dragging herself back towards the exit. "It feels as if the colours of the world are absent," she lamented, before leaving.

"This has been... strange," stated Trixie. "Just to warn you, I might be having some funky dreams tonight, thanks to Luna just molesting my brain. Try to ignore any sounds I might make."

"Good to know." Twilight laid a hoof on Rainbow's back as she continued to stare at the empty harem, and jumped in surprise as the blue pegasus sat hard. "Rainbow?"

"I'm fine," Rainbow squeaked.

"Yeah, right. It's no secret that pegasi get it the worst out of the three tribes. I think it's about time I introduced you to some spells which might potentially help."

Rainbow looked around in surprise, "Uh, I'm not sure I'm comfortable doing that kind of thing with you, Twilight, no offence."

"What? Oh stars, Rainbow, ew! I'm talking about supressing spells, not whatever you just thought of."

"Oh. Wait, why haven't you brought this up sooner? I've been... wanting it for days!"

"Because I use the meds like everypony else during my time. There's an issue with the spells that you won't be thanking me for."

"I don't care, just do it!"

Twilight shrugged, "Alright. Sunset, could you do me a favour and make me a ice pack? We're going to need it."

"What do you need an ice pack for?" Rainbow enquired cautiously.

"I don't, but you will."

-0-0-0-

It was while Rainbow considered the ramifications of having sex with an ice pack that she may have worked out what the issue with the suppressing spell was. She did wonder why Twilight had also secured her to the bed by her one ankle, and put a sound proof bubble around it. That all made sense too, now.

-0-0-0-

Twilight didn't even look up from her breakfast or the map before her as Rainbow walked in and flapped a wing in her direction, messing up her mane. "Sleep well?"

"No, and you know I didn't."

"Do you at least feel better?"

"Yes, which is why I'm not hitting you with lightning instead. That was the fucking worst, Twilight!"

"Hence why I tend to not do it."

"At least you have medications for that time now," said Luna. "Before such things, well, there's a reason why sex isn't very taboo in the pony nations."

"I'm done talking about it," Rainbow sat at a chair and grabbed a piece of fruit, viciously tearing a chunk out of it and chewing sullenly for several seconds before speaking again. "What's the plan?"

Twilight brushed her mane back into place and turned the map towards Rainbow. "The Sultan was kind enough to point us in the direction of the warlord, who is here." Twilight highlighted a point of the map to the northwest of where they were now. "Currently, Faust's forces are making their way there, and have a three day head start, and might even be there already. Thankfully we can save a lot of time by flying."

"Okay, good, but what if they've already beaten this warlord?"

"Maybe they have, in which case we'll have to think of something else. I'm going to say that's unlikely though. They'd set up camp, and perform some scouting runs first to determine their opposition's strength and numbers, bearing in mind there's probably only a few hundred Mareitanians to begin with."

"Basically she's saying we should go there and see it for ourselves," Trixie explained helpfully.

Twilight eyed Trixie, "In essence, yes, but with more depth and complexity than the heathen suggests."

"Neat. So when are we leaving?"

"As soon as we're all ready," Twilight answered, sweeping her gaze over the rest of the ponies around the table. "Cadence will be staying here though, to try and counter Amira as much as she can."

"Not that there should be much to counter," said Cadence. "She's already made her plans clear enough. I'm not sure what else she possibly has to offer."

"You might be surprised," Luna told Cadence. "I do have one question though. Should we succeed in our endeavour over the next couple of days, what would we be doing with the artefacts? I don't know about you, but giving them to the Sultan feels like a bad idea."

"I'm afraid that's up to the Sultan," said Twilight. "If he wants them, we have very little choice but to give them to him if we want him to join our alliance. Hopefully he'll be happy to let us dispose of them."

Trixie snickered at Twilight, "So you do remember what optimism sounds like."

Twilight stared flatly at Trixie, then stuck her tongue out at her. "Moving along, I just want to point out that I'm fine with leaving Saddle Arabia neutral. Any outcome where they don't join Faust is a positive for us, even if we don't get anything out of it directly."

Luna nodded her head at Twilight, "Agreed, just as I wish to make clear that we cannot afford to lose this race we appear to be in. If the Mareitanians claim the prize first, we will take it off them through force, and if necessary, remove all witnesses of us doing so. I know that sounds brutal, but as Twilight said, a neutral Saddle Arabia is better than one on Faust's side."

"And they're Mareitanians," said Rainbow, "so who fucking cares?"

Sunset held up a hoof, "I care. I'd rather not get involved in a slaughter on my first battle, or whatever you want to call this."

"Great," Lightning sighed, "a newb."

"I could kick your ass," Sunset said confidently.

"Oh yeah? Maybe we'll have to see about that."

"No you won't," Twilight said, cutting in to the conversation. "Like myself, Sunset was an apprentice of Celestia, and is perfectly capable of holding her own."

"Exactly."

"All the same Sunset, I'd appreciate it if you stayed close to me, Trixie, or Luna. A battle is a terrible place to learn that you have a serious aversion to seeing ponies killed."

Sunset lost some of her confidence, "R-right, yeah, I'll-ah, do that."

Twilight smiled at Sunset, glad that she was taking it seriously, instead of being full of bluster about it, only to embarrass herself later, and maybe get herself killed. "If that's everything, we should get a move on. I'd rather do this before the Mareitanians do."

-0-0-0-

Cadence waved after the others as they departed, feeling quite the fool. Once again they were throwing themselves into danger, and once again she was staying on the side-lines. Not that she didn't have reasons, she knew, but she also knew it wasn't right. She was an alicorn and a princess, it was her place to defend her country and its ponies.

"I still have a duty here," Cadence told herself. Somepony had to try and mitigate the damage that Amira might cause by throwing doubt onto the princesses, or whatever she might do. In all honesty, she might do nothing. What could she do? Cadence certainly couldn't think of anything much.

Cadence made her way back into the palace, Flurry flying close behind as they made their towards the throne room where Cadence expected to find both the Sultan and Amira. The only way to really find anything out was to spend as much time around the both of them as possible.

The throne room was filled with the quiet hum of conversation as the various petitioners for the day gathered to ask something of their Sultan. Cadence hung on around the edge of the room, not wanting to disturb the proceedings if she could help it, although she remained ready to interrupt should she have to.

It was several minutes before Amira entered the room, and was spotted immediately by the tall mare, who went in the opposite direction to where Cadence was, her nose raised, like it wasn't already a full head above Cadence's anyway. It'd been a while since Cadence had felt small, but standing in a room full Saddle Arabians left her feeling like a foal.

Time passed with nothing happening, save for Flurry catching some attention from a group of mares. Cadence kept an eye on them as they cooed at Flurry in their native tongue, but most of her attention was going into feeling worried. Surely something should've happened by now? Unless the Sultan enjoyed keeping his subjects waiting, he should be here.

"Excuse me?" Cadence said, hoping somepony was listening. "Does anypony here speak Equestrian? Somepony other than Amira."

One of the mares fussing over Flurry looked up as Cadence spoke. "I speak Equestrian, Princess, but perhaps not very well."

Cadence offered the mare a smile, "That's fine, so long as we can understand each other well enough. I was hoping you could tell me what's happening. Where's the Sultan?"

"Late, as usual. It is nothing to be worrying about."

"Oh, thank goodness." Cadence looked over the pale blue mare. She was a little shorter than the others in the room, and her violet mane seemed out of place amongst the softer colours most Saddle Arabians were born with. Cadence suspected she might have had an Equestrian somewhere in her heritage. "Sorry, I'm being rude. I'm Cadence."

"I am Sahar, Princess. I am honoured to meet you, and your little one."

"Thank you. Um, if you don't mind my asking, but are you fully Saddle Arabian?" Cadence blushed, realising that she could've asked that a lot better. "Sorry, I'm being rude again."

"It is no problem. My great grandfather was Equestrian explorer, here in Saddle Arabia, where he met my great grandmother on one of his adventures." Sahar smiled awkwardly, "I guess you could tell from how short I am."

Cadence looked up at the mare, "It was a clue, yes. You're still a lot taller than me though."

"Equestrian's do seem to have the market on being small and cute."

"A shame really since we were aiming for big and tough." Cadence smiled, feeling more at ease as Sahar giggled. "I don't suppose you could tell me how this is supposed to work, could you?"

"Is it not done like this in Equestria?"

"Usually the ruler comes in before the petitioners, and then they come in one at a time, rather than keep them all waiting here in the same place."

"I must admit, your way does sound more productive. Here though, we all wait, catch up on talk, and hope that Sultan has enough time for us."

"Oh. So... what brings you here?"

"I'm petitioning to have the Sultan remove his soldiers from my family's land. At this point they are more hindrance than help when we are trying to farm. It was bad enough that our farm was in the path of the Storm King, and he took some of our workers, but now I have soldiers cluttering up the place instead, getting in the way and disrupting us when we work."

"Aren't they supposed to be protecting you?"

"From something that is no longer here?" Sahar shrugged, "That is no excuse for getting in the way, not when there are genuine threats to be taken care of in this Warlord Jamal I have been hearing about."

"Hopefully that'll be taken care of soon."

Sahar raised an eyebrow at Cadence, "Do you know something about this? Is that why you are here, to stop him?"

"Um... not me as such, but we have ponies working to put him to a stop."

"Then you are here to petition the Sultan as well?"

"Not quite. I'm here to keep an eye on her," Cadence said, gesturing with her head towards Amira, although the confused look Sahar gave her probably meant it was a bit too vague. "The ambassador."

"Ah, her, the Sultan's sister-in-law. I am not sure what to make of her since she came here saying Saddle Arabia should join Faust. She has not the right."

"Sister-in-law? I'd almost forgotten about that."

"She is the sister of one of the Sultan's wives. It was also her sister that was taken by the Storm King. I think she wants Faust to stop Storm King to get her sister back, but the price of that is to have Saddle Arabia ally with Faust."

"And what makes you say that?"

"I've worked it out."

"And what do you think Saddle Arabia should do?"

Sahar laughed at Cadence, "Funny question really. We either side with Equestria, or we side with Equestria. One wants us to fight in a war, and the other wants us to fight in a war. I think we should fight our own wars, and forget everypony else's."

Cadence didn't have an answer for that. All it came down to in that situation was which side of Equestria had the better benefits package. The one hoping to save the world for the mutual benefit of all, or the one that wants to turn everyone into primitives. Too bad that side didn't advertise their end goal a bit more.

"Ah," Sahar said as the doors to the left of the throne opened, "here he comes."

Cadence watched quietly as the Sultan entered the room and sat in his throne. The crowd bowed in greeting, which Cadence quickly followed, then retrieved her child as the crowd surged forwards.

The Sultan raised his hooves and said something in his native tongue, causing the crowd to back up a little. Without a language she could understand, Cadence quickly found herself lost, and quickly sought Sahar back out. "What's he saying?"

"He apologises for being late, and asks that we continue to be patient as we start our petitions."

"Oh, okay." Cadence was fine with that, since it wasn't something too important. She looked back as Flurry's weight settled on her back, then went back to keeping an eye on Amira. What she found concerned her, but not for reasons she expected. Amira looked worried. Sick with it even. Cadence couldn't even begin to guess why. Surely her being there couldn't be the cause, could it?

Cadence decided to be patient, rather than risk a confrontation by being nosey. Unfortunately that meant standing around as the Sultan worked his way through the crowd one by one. Eventually he came to Sahar.

"Wish me luck!"

"Good luck," Cadence said, a bit distracted. She watched patiently as Sahar made her request, then felt her heart ache as it was rejected. Or at least that's what she thought until Sahar perked back up a bit. After another minute of talking, Sahar bowed, then walked back to Cadence.

"He did not accept my request, but, he has given me permission to make use of the soldiers to aid in the harvest, so that they are at least kept busy. Not what I wanted, but I think it benefits me more than not."

"Good! That's good."

"Would you like me to stay here as a translator until they are done?"

"Oh would you?" Cadence gushed in relief. "I had no idea what I was going to do after you left."

"It is my pleasure, really. Uh-oh."

"What do you mean 'uh-oh?'" Cadence looked over as Sahar pointed into the crowd, where Amira was making her way to the front. "Uh-oh."

"My Sultan," Sahar translated as Amira bowed and spoke. "I have heard that the other princesses have gone to fight the warlord. Do you not trust that the soldiers my lady sent in good faith can carry out the mission?"

Cadence was surprised as the Sultan glanced over at her and sighed. "That is not my concern," he said in perfect Equestrian, likely for Cadence's benefit. "My concern is that it gets done, and the princesses will significantly increase the odds of Jamal being stopped."

"But I promised it would-" Amira started to say, also in Equestrian, until the Sultan stopped her.

"You were supposed to be my ambassador to Equestria, and you respected my orders. How is it now that you are Equestria's ambassador to me, hmm? There is a gap there where I can't for the life of me work out how you came to be here, trying to tell me I should ally with Faust."

"M-my Sultan," Amira stammered, "I am just doing what I think is best for our country.

"What you are doing is being a borderline traitor. I have listened to your words, and I am giving you a chance for your Lady to prove herself, but at no point have I already pledged us to her. The princesses also have the right to prove themselves, and frankly, if the eight of them succeed where the three hundred soldiers you brought to my country uninvited do not, I see no reason to back your Lady in the slightest."

Amira bit her bottom lip, but stood her ground. "Then perhaps, if it were to please you and encourage you towards the right choice, I would offer myself to you, as your wife. I know I am not my sister, but in her absence, I would do all I can to make you happy."

Cadence was stunned, as apparently was most of the other ponies around her as Sahar swapped her translation skills around for their benefit. But more than stunned, Cadence was sickened to her very soul at the idea that Amira would sell herself like this just to get the Sultan to back an allegiance with Faust.

"Do you have a counter offer?"

"Huh?" Cadence blinked a few times as the Sultan spoke to her. "Excuse me?"

"Amira has made a most interesting offer, and I was wondering if you had anything you wish to offer instead?"

"U-uh... I'm already married, and- and I can't speak for the other ponies with me, although I doubt they'll say yes."

"There is one you can speak for. Your child is not promised to another, surely?"

"What- But- What? She's a foal! You can't marry a foal!"

"No, but she will not always be a foal. One day she will bloom into a beautiful mare like her mother. A marriage between myself and a princess of Equestria would do much to strengthen our countries' bonds."

"Your Majesty," Amira protested, "you cannot be serious! Princess Cadence is at least right that her child is too young to be promised in such a way!"

"Not if all parties agree. How about it, Princess?"

Cadence's head spun from the wrongness of all she was hearing. What Amira had offered to the Sultan was already an affront to all she was as the Princess of Love, but an arranged marriage involving a foal was practically anathema on top of how morally and ethically messed up it was. And to think that the Sultan expected her to condemn Flurry, her own daughter, to such a thing when she came of age was horrific to the point of absurdity.

Cadence took Flurry and held her protectively to her chest, "No, absolutely not. I would never force an arranged marriage onto any foal, let alone my own."

"Really? I thought such things were all the rage amongst your upper classes?"

"I can assure you they are illegal, and every precaution is taken against such things. The answer is no, and will always be no."

If the Sultan was disappointed, or angered, he didn't show it. In fact, there was even a mischievous twinkle in his eye as he looked at Cadence.

"Ah you Equestrians, you never disappoint."

Cadence was dumbfounded by that little statement. Completely so. "Excuse me?"

"If you'd accepted my proposal, I would have told you to leave right then and there. I have no desire to wed your daughter at any age, and I'm sure she wouldn't wish to marry a stallion much older than herself that she barely knows. While I am sure your daughter will be a sight to behold when she comes of age, I am not so cruel. It would also destroy the line of succession here by making an immortal my queen, but that is a minor consideration."

"Oh," Cadence said slowly, the mental gymnastics required to understand what was happening eluding her for the time being. "What of Amira's proposal?"

"I'd happily accept, but again I am not so cruel. This time because her marriage to me would make no difference to my decisions, and as my wife she would have no ability to object without considerable backlash upon herself. She would gain nothing. That said," the Sultan looked down sternly at Amira, "Do not attempt to buy my decisions again, ever. Is that clear?"

Amira bowed, her head low to hide a face written with both shame and relief. "Yes, my Sultan."

"Good. You are dismissed. Altaalaa!"

Cadence waited, unsure what was happening until another petitioner stepped up. She kept watching Amira though, as the mare turned and slunk away. "Sahar?"

"Uh, yes Princess?"

"Thank you so much for your help."

Sahar curtsied to Cadence, "It was both my pleasure and honour."

Cadence smiled at Sahar, then quickly followed after Amira, hoping to ask what that was about. Amira hadn't got far, walking at a snails' pace as she was, so Cadence trotted up behind her and fell into step with her.

"What do you want?" Amira asked coldly, her words tinged with a sullen anger.

"Why would you do that? Why sell yourself in marriage just to get Saddle Arabia to side with Faust?"

"Because after you arrived I have nothing left to offer."

"But your forces could still succeed at stopping Jamal." Cadence blanched as Amira raised an eyebrow at her, "I'm not saying I want that to happen. Far from it. It doesn't mean you need to offer yourself as a bribe though."

Amira shook her head and kept walking, "What chance do my forces have compared to yours. Princess Luna could probably succeed alone, never mind with the aid of Princess Twilight, two unicorns, three Wonderbolts, and a thestral. A bribe is all I had left."

"That doesn't make them worth three hundred soldiers though. It also doesn't answer my question." Cadence lit her horn to scan Amira. As she expected, she found no trace of Faust's mind control. The way Amira acted made it seem like there was none. "What did Faust offer you to make you so determined to get Saddle Arabia, your home country, to join her cause?"

Amira stopped like she was really considering the question, then sighed. "You have a family, Princess. What wouldn't you do if they were in danger? What wouldn't you offer to get them back if they were taken?"

"So this really is about your sister," Cadence said quietly. "You really believe Faust is the best chance you have at getting her back?"

"I do."

"Even though the cost of that is your country?"

"I am no fool, Princess, nor am I being controlled as I'm sure you just found out. I had the implant much like everypony else in Equestria did."

"I don't understand."

"Faust will come for Saddle Arabia, and will conquer it much as she did Equestria, except much quicker and easier since we have less defence against her armies as you did. Not to mention her new allies in the yaks and kirin."

"Kirin?"

Amira blinked, aware that she might've just seriously fucked up. "You weren't aware?"

"No, not in the slightest."

"Oh." Amira made an anxious face, "Well, you didn't hear it from me, okay? Anyway, my point is that Saddle Arabia would've fallen to Faust's forces, and fallen hard. When she came to me to offer a choice to convince Saddle Arabia to join peacefully, I had to consider it. When she told me that she knew of my sister, and that she would return her to me in exchange for the Sultan's loyalty, what choice did I have? My sister back and my country safe for such a small price."

"So you do not truly believe in what Faust is doing then? You made it seem as though you did when you confronted Twilight last night."

Amira shrugged, "I was attempting to undermine her confidence, but what she said was so preposterous that I couldn't even hope to get anywhere. Honestly though, part of me was genuinely curious about why you still fight."

"As insane as it sounds, what Twilight said is true, and we can prove it with a bit of effort."

Amira calmly looked Cadence in the eye, like she was weighing her up. "That won't be necessary, because you won't change my mind. My baby sister is in chains, and I will do anything to get her back."

"Then perhaps I could offer you an alternative, if you're willing to listen."

Author's Note

Not even related. I just think it's adorable.

20. Unconventional treasure hunting

"Gosh, it's so convenient that we have an actual reason to be here and doing this now, instead of doing this to soothe your overblown sense of guilt."

Twilight looked sideways at Trixie, who'd said that with such a straight face that Twilight wasn't quite sure how to take it. As a nice middle ground, she grunted and went back to spying on the Mareitanians' encampment.

"Since you were involved as well," Luna said to Trixie, "I fail to see why you wouldn't also be a little bit guilty."

"Because it wasn't my idea to work with the pony leading an army of... whatever those things were. That was all Twilight."

"But you would've broken into the Vizier's vault anyway, and it's that part that's caused this. The attack would've happened with or without you."

Trixie shrugged, "Eh, details. Besides, we're fixing this now, aren't we? Who cares about how guilty I'm supposed to feel?"

"I can tell by your persistence in not referring to yourself in the third person that you must feel something negative about what you did."

Trixie sighed at Luna, "Don't try and get clever at me. Instead, put some thought into what we're up against."

"Except we're not up against the Mareitanians this time. Not exactly. Twilight?"

"A couple dozen yaks, and mixed infantry," said Twilight. "Not sure how much of a difference the yaks will make since I've never fought one. Can't imagine it's much fun though."

"Indeed not." A faraway look in Luna's eyes told them enough about what she thought of it. "So much smashing, and that was just a sparring session." Luna shuddered and returned to reality, "Just try to avoid their horns. And hooves. Just...just try to avoid them altogether."

"I'm guessing they're not immune to magic?"

"Not in the literal sense," Luna replied slowly. "Just don't expect your weaker spells to do much."

Trixie leant over to Sunset, "Regretting this yet?"

"Some, yes. I'll be fine though. I'll just stick close to you guys, and it'll all be fine."

"And the part where you might have to kill?"

"I'm trying to not think about it."

Trixie nodded vaguely, "Best way."

"Here comes the others," said Luna, spotting the four dots in the sky to the east of them. "Hopefully they have good news." Luna pouted as Trixie sniggered at her, "Well they might." Luna ignored the laughter as Nightmare and the Wonderbolts came in to land. "How did it go?"

"Uh..." Rainbow said awkwardly as Nightmare smirked. "It's not great."

"Not great how?"

"There's at least two thousand of them, if not more," Nightmare purred. "A challenge even for us. How those ignorant little Mareitanians down there hope to defeat them is beyond me. Unless they have reinforcements coming, or maybe even Celestia, they stand no chance."

"So this warlord Jamal has been recruiting well," Luna murmured. "Was there any sign of Daring Do, or the artefacts she's looking for?"

"Not that we could see," Lightning answered quickly as Nightmare shrugged. "But I was wondering... what if this warlord has an artefact that does what Faust did in Mareitania? What if they're controlling these ponies, making them follow him?"

"That would be a reason for Faust to have more of an interest in this place," said Sunset. "If the artefact can force a pony to obey, even when they have an implant..."

"A devastating proposition," Luna agreed. "However, let's work with facts rather than base our plans on something that might not even exist."

"Riiight, that sounds like a good idea. What's the plan?"

"I'm going to talk to this Jamal," said Twilight.

"What?!" the rest all shouted at once.

"You cannot be serious," said Luna. "Why would you even think to do such a thing?"

Twilight stood and dusted herself off, turning her back on the bluff that overlooked the Mareitanians encampment. "The eight of us aren't going to be beating two thousand or more ponies. Even with Cadence that still wouldn't happen. For that little extra bit of fun, those down there also know that they can't beat Jamal's army, meaning they're as stuck as we are."

"And how does that equate to you talking to Jamal?" Luna asked incredulously.

"Because he doesn't know we're here, so he wouldn't know why I'm coming to him. Hopefully I can get him talking enough to let slip as to how he's done all this-"

"If it isn't blatantly obvious anyway," Trixie added.

Twilight nodded towards Trixie, "What she said. At the very least I might be able to grab the artefacts and teleport away."

"And what if the artefacts and Jamal's rise to power aren't actually connected?" Nightmare asked. "We said we'd stop Jamal. We assumed we could do that by taking his power away, but that might not be the case. What then?"

"Then? Then we think of a new plan." Twilight smiled as the others groaned, "Relax, we have Princess Luna and Nightmare with us, and it gets awfully dark in the desert at night. I'm sure that's something we can work with."

"You're an idiot," Nightmare growled. "Perhaps it best you go to Jamal just to spare us your ridiculous plans."

"Consider it done."

-0-0-0-

"What the hell was I thinking?" Twilight asked herself as she flew over the small plateau nestled between two mountains that acted as Jamal's base. As Nightmare had said, there were at least a couple thousand ponies here, and a large number of them were watching her as she flew in.

At the furthest point of the plateau, away from the entrance, was a tent. It wasn't the biggest tent, but it was the nicest, and was the furthest away from any land based attacks that might occur. The entire place wasn't bad to Twilight's thinking, being relatively easy to defend from the ground. In a country with typically flew airborne individuals, she supposed ground attacks were always going to be your main concern.

Twilight came in low to land, being extremely mindful of the large number of weapons pointed at her as she landed a couple dozen meters away from the tent. She stood still, keeping her wings spread in an attempt to show that she wasn't hiding any weapons or anything. Obviously that wouldn't work in a country more familiar with magic, but Twilight hoped it would work here.

Twilight pressed a hoof into the hot earth, spending a moment to gather herself to speak with the heavily armed ponies around her. Every single one of them seemed like a normal pony, insofar as she could tell with Saddle Arabians. There were no visual signs of mind control, or similar methods of control, but that didn't mean much since such things tended to be subtle anyway. Unsure of what else to do, Twilight took a deep breath and spoke, and hoped to hell that they could understand her.

"Hello everypony, my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I'm here because I wish to speak with your leader. I am unarmed and wish no harm upon her." Twilight smiled at the ponies around her, but it slipped off as their expressions hadn't changed from before she started talking. "And none of you understand me. Great."

"I do," a stallion said in a deep, gravelly voice. He stepped towards Twilight, tucking a spear into the holder on his side. He was a dark brown, with a nearly black mane that matched the eye-patch over his left eye. From the amount of scars around it, Twilight could tell it had to have been a nasty wound. "Why do you want to see our leader?"

"To speak with them of course."

"Did that spineless Sultan send you?"

"No, I'm here of my own volition." Twilight made a face at the blank expression the stallion adopted. "My own free will," she clarified. "Please, I just wish to talk to them, then go on my way."

"Very well, but you will be watched."

"Thank you." Twilight relaxed as the stallion said something to the others to make them lower their weapons. He led her into the tent, holding the flap open for her, then standing just inside as Twilight walked up to the pile of cushions in the middle, wondering why nopony in Saddle Arabia seemed to have a proper chair.

The rest of the tent was filled with assorted pieces of treasure, ranging from gold and jewels to luxurious silks that Rarity would've had a fit over. None of them seemed particularly noteworthy though, and none of them seemed to be held separately like you'd expect magical artefacts to be.

"Admiring my treasures are we?"

Twilight forced her attention back to the cushions, and the white pony sat atop them. The voice had been obviously, and perhaps even abundantly female, which caught Twilight off-guard since she'd been expecting a stallion.

"Sorry, but you do have quite a lot of treasure in here. It's a little eye-catching. Uh... I'm looking for Jamal?"

The white mare raised herself a little to fix an eye on Twilight. The other was obscured by her also white mane. "You're speaking to her."

"Right, guess you aren't a stallion..." Twilight trailed off, her mouth hanging open as Jamal sat up and spread the broadest pair of wings Twilight had ever seen, other than Celestia's, and these possibly beat those. "You have wings."

"And you sound surprised," Jamal said back bemusedly. "I suppose it's only fair that you are. It isn't exactly common for a Saddle Arabian to have wings."

"You can say that again." Twilight cocked her head slightly as she noticed a small, golden circlet adorned with pale blue stones on Jamal's head. Since she wasn't wearing anything else, which was odd in Saddle Arabia, it made the circlet all the more obvious. Maybe that was the point. "You seem to have come a long way from being a bandit lord."

"Enough to warrant the attention of an Equestrian princess, apparently, although I suppose that's no longer technically true since Faust took Equestria over. Now you're just a pony with power and a false title."

"And is that better or worse than assuming a title for yourself, Warlord? Since you aren't currently at war, calling yourself a Warlord seems a bit redundant."

"You will show respect!" the stallion shouted, making Twilight jump as she'd forgotten he was there.

"Enough, Ramah. I insulted her, she insulted me, which I think is only fair." Jamal smiled at Twilight, "So what does bring you here? I would've thought you were far to busy to be bothering with the likes of me."

"And typically you'd be right, but I'm hoping to recruit Saddle Arabia into an alliance made to stop Faust from conquering the world. The Sultan has refused, and is even being tempted towards joining Faust, but isn't doing either because he is trying to secure his country from the Storm King, and from you. The Storm King I can understand, but you are a mystery. What do you want, and why?"

"So the Sultan did send you," Ramah growled, brandishing his spear like he was ready to attack. It was while he was doing that that Twilight saw how ornate his spear was, and how it didn't follow typical Saddle Arabian design philosophies. That wasn't proof that it was one of the artefacts, but it was enough to make her suspicious.

"Not exactly," Twilight said after a second. "He's asked me to reclaim the artefacts that you stole from his Vizier's estate. He thinks you're using them to amass this army, but I know magic well enough to know that's unlikely."

Jamal smirked and gestured for Ramah to lower his spear again. "You would be correct in that assumption. Most of what we stole is worthless to us anyway, since we are not unicorns, and the kind of magic you describe sounds like a unicorn would be required. If you want to know how I am amassing this army, look no further than the Sultan himself."

"I think that's going to require a little more explaining."

Jamal nodded and returned to her seat, making herself comfortable before speaking again. "Ever since the Storm King attacked, he has kept this country under military law. His army is everywhere, watching and interfering. It's almost as bad as being under hostile occupation! Ponies are flocking to anything that gets them out from under the hoof of the Sultan and his army."

Twilight nodded slowly with understanding, "I imagine the bandit life got difficult once the army was everywhere."

"It's bigger than that! It's about being free! Something I'm sure you can sympathise with."

"And if I were to ask the ponies here, they'd tell me the same thing? Or are they just following you because ponies are suckers for following the unusual?" Twilight spread her own wings, "Getting these qualified me to be a princess, so I can only imagine something similar happening with you."

"Except my wings didn't suddenly appear."

"So you say." Twilight breathed in deep, and summarised what she'd learnt in her head. Basically, Jamal was building an army, to counter what she considered to be the Sultan's aggressive use of military law. At the same time, she wasn't using magic to do that, but was doing it through the surprising fact that she was a Saddle Arabian pegasus.

It sounded like total rubbish, but Twilight wasn't about to say that out loud.

"You doubt me?" Jamal asked, sitting up and flapping her wings once in a show of dominance. Sadly for her, it only added to Twilight's suspicions because her wings produced no wind that Twilight could feel.

"How about a race?" Twilight asked jokingly. "You might have the bigger wings, but I bet I'm faster."

"I have no such time for trivialities. If you have what you wanted to know, you may leave."

"And you're fine with me leaving?"

Jamal snorted a single laugh, "I am no fool. Trying to capture and contain an alicorn is far beyond us, so I will let you go in the hopes that you tell the Sultan that I am not forcing anypony here to serve me. They are here because of him!"

"And I'll do just that." Twilight bowed respectfully to Jamal, although it wasn't returned. "Ooh, almost forgot. Have you seen an Equestrian pegasus around here? Sort of a mustard yellow colour, with a grey striped mane and tail? Goes by the name Daring Do?"

"The thief," Ramah spat. A split second later Jamal sighed and gave Twilight the impression that she was displeased with his outburst.

"She has been here, yes," she admitted. "She was told, in no uncertain terms, that she would be killed if she came back. We haven't seen her since."

Twilight knew Jamal was lying. She didn't know why she knew, but something just felt wrong about what Jamal said. It was probably the part where Daring Do never gave up, despite the odds stacked against her. She couldn't actually say that though.

"Okay. I'm only asking because we're looking for her as well. You're not the only ones she's tried to steal off." Twilight bowed again, "Good day."

-0-0-0-

"A pegasus?" Luna hummed thoughtfully, "It's not unheard of, but is usually the result of an Equestrian pegasus breeding with a Saddle Arabian. Even then, they usually couldn't fly. At least not for long."

"I don't think her wings are real though. She flapped them, but there was no wind. I'm pretty sure she can't fly either, but judging by what you just said, that doesn't really prove anything."

Luna sat back, holding her mane aside as as sharp wind threatened to blow it into her face. "No, but historically, Saddle Arabian pegasi have become rich and successful simply by being what they are. With the help of magic, she could create quite a following."

"Except there is no magic," said Twilight. "Jamal admitted to having the artefacts, but said that they couldn't use them without their own magic. Her guard had a spear that I thought might've been one of the artefacts, and she was wearing a circlet that might be another, but that was all I saw right there."

"That's no reason to believe there aren't others, or that they aren't being used." Luna grunted as another gust of wind threatened to blow her mane into her face. Nightmare was having a similar problem. "Where has this accursed wind come from?"

Rainbow held up a hoof, "Uh, quick question. Is there such a thing as an artefact that can control the winds? I'm only asking, because there's a sand storm blowing in, and it looks like a really big pegasus."

"What?" All of them looked in the direction Rainbow was facing, towards where Jamal's encampment was. As she said, a massive sand storm was blowing in, and riding it, like a surfer at the crest of a wave, was a giant pegasus made of sand, with its wings stretched out. Twilight didn't need to guess to tell it looked almost exactly like Jamal.

"It's coming right for us!" Sunset shouted as the wind picked up.

Luna disagreed. "No, it's heading for the Mareitanians. Jamal must know that they're here, and why."

Trixie threw her front legs up, "Who fucking cares? We need to find shelter!"

Down in the valley below, shields sprang up over the Mareitanians camp. Whether that would be enough to protect them was unknown, but their own safety came before that of the Mareitanians. All of them looked around, desperately finding something that would protect them.

"There!" Vapor shouted, pointing back towards the direction the storm was coming from. A dark crevice in a rock outcrop was there, and depending on how large it was, could provide at least some protection against the storm.

All of them ran for the crevice, entirely beneath the storm's notice as it loomed large over them. They hadn't made it halfway when the storm swept over them, blinding them and obscuring their destination. Sand scoured their hides for a few seconds until a silver shield covered them, protecting them from the sand, but not sparing them from the howl of the wind as it fought to reach them.

"I get the feeling she lied to you about the unicorn thing!" Trixie shouted at Twilight over the wailing.

"Or maybe she has a unicorn!" Twilight shouted back. "I don't know! Luna, can you still find where we're going?"

"So long as I don't lose the ability to walk in a straight line, yes. Follow me." Luna started walking in the direction of the crevice, the shield moving with her, forcing the others to keep up.

"Why don't we just stay under here?" Rainbow asked.

"Because we don't know how long this storm will take to pass, if Jamal even wants it to," Twilight answered. "I can't believe I was stupid enough to believe her when she said she couldn't use what she'd stolen."

"You're going the wrong way," Nightmare said to Luna as Twilight kicked herself.

"No I am not."

"Yes you are." Nightmare pointed a hoof slightly to the left, "That way."

"And what makes your sense of direction any better than mine?"

"I'm used to navigating places where everything looks the same."

"That should have absolutely no bearing on this situation!"

"Maybe it shouldn't, but it doesn't change the fact that you're still going the wrong way."

"Fine!" Luna changed her direction to that which Nightmare had pointed in. "Now we're all going in the wrong direction!"

Wordlessly, Twilight aimed them at a point between the two directions they'd picked, where the crevice was barely visible through the blowing sands.

"Well I could've been right," Nightmare said defensively, while Luna locked her lips tightly shut.

Now that they were closer, they could see the crevice was much larger than they had at first thought, but then narrowed into a cave that led down into the ground. They all hurried in, escaping the ravages of the storm.

"Ugh, really? Do you have to?" Nightmare whined as those that could lit their horns in the darkness. The cave went on underground, and given the lack of choice in direction, they followed the path.

"So," Trixie said with a brittle cheer that made it clear she was one piece of bad news away from a cursing fit, "what are we supposed to do now? Apart from wait out the storm I mean. Just what are you expecting us to do against a pony that can conjure sand storms?"

Twilight shrugged at Trixie, "Who's to say she conjured it? She might only be controlling a pre-existing one. They aren't uncommon out here."

"Even so, who knows what else she can do? And why does all the weirdest stuff have to happen in Saddle Arabia? I'm almost afraid of what we might find in Zebrica at this rate." Trixie twitched her ears and laid them flat as the sound of crying echoed through the cave. "Please just let that be the wind."

"You know for a fact that wasn't the wind," said Sunset.

"Fine, just let it be something that doesn't want to eat, possess, or... do something worse to me." Trixie started counting down from five in her head, and only made it to two before Rainbow suggested going to investigate. "Y'know, I had a long debate about going to Ponyville all those years ago. 'There are more lucrative places to go' I told myself, but noooo, I had to go to Ponyville and have my life irrevocably changed forever. Idiot."

"Quit whining and come on," Twilight told Trixie as they continued following the cave towards the source of the sound.

Trixie growled at Twilight, "Don't you even remember the last time we entered a cave in Saddle Arabia? It sucked!"

"This time will be different," Twilight replied primly.

"We're heading towards the sound of crying! How are you figuring that as being better?"

"I hear water too," Nightmare interrupted. She walked a few more steps, then cursed as something crunched beneath her hoof. "And there's bones too. Quite a lot of them."

"See? Trixie is totally right!"

"H-hello? Is s-s-somepony there?" a raspy voice called out. "Hello? Please..."

"That sounds like Daring Do," Rainbow gasped, rushing ahead, only to stop a second later when she remembered she couldn't see without the others. "Come on, hurry up!"

"Daring Do, trapped in a cave," Trixie deadpanned as they hurried on. "How original."

After a few more turns, the cave opened up, and was lit from a fissure in the ceiling through which some sand was drifting as the storm outside raged on. Water was also dripping in through crack in the ceiling, and splashing through a cage suspended in its path towards a small pool. A cage containing Daring Do.

"Daring!" Rainbow shouted, darting up to the cage. "Are you alright, Daring?"

Daring sighed with relief, and rested her head against the side of the cage. "Thank goodness. Please, get me out of here."

"Okay, hold on." Rainbow drew one of her blades, and brought it down hard on the padlock securing the cage, again and again until she successfully broke the lock.

"You know we could've done that in a fraction of the time," Trixie whispered to Twilight.

"Shh, let Rainbow have her moment," Twilight whispered back as Rainbow pulled the cage open and carried Daring down to the ground. Unusually for her, she was naked, and covered in cuts and bruises that were plainly visible in the patches where her coat was missing. Her wings were also a mess, although getting dry would fix some of that.

"Thanks," Daring rasped as Rainbow set her down. She tried to stand, but only lasted seconds before collapsing onto the ground in a heap. "I just- I just need to rest."

"What happened to you?" Rainbow asked. "Why'd you come here without telling us?"

"You all have plenty to do. I thought I could fix this without you. I was wrong." Daring pushed herself up so she could lean on her elbow, "I'm guessing since you're here that you're involved as well?"

"You could say that," said Twilight. "We need to stop Jamal to possibly get the Sultan on our side. The Mareitanians are trying to do the same."

"Great, so I did all this for nothing."

Luna crouched down next to Daring, "Not unless you have something useful to tell us. Like how she's controlling this storm, for example."

"I don't know. She has so many things now, like that circlet that gives her appearance of having wings-"

"I knew it!"

"-and some kind of sceptre, and a spear. I wasn't there long enough to see all that they had before I got captured."

"When were you captured?" Rainbow asked quietly.

"A week ago, I think? The days all blurred into one after a while. I don't suppose you have something to eat, do you?"

Twilight gestured for Sunset to give her something, then pulled Luna aside for a quiet word. Nightmare joined her before she could say anything, obviously feeling like she should be involved, and was soon followed by Trixie. Twilight rolled her eyes at both of them, but didn't tell them to go.

"We're not exactly learning much of use," Twilight said after a moment. "It is pretty clear though, from what those bandits did to Daring, that they are not as nice as they make out to be."

"Is mind control back on the table?" Nightmare asked.

"I don't think so, otherwise they would probably have tried to control Daring." Twilight glanced at the bedraggled pegasus as Sunset dried her off while she attempted to eat something. "I think Jamal was honest in saying that her followers are normal ponies escaping the Sultan's overbearing military."

Luna nodded in agreement, "I think that we're also missing something else. If Jamal is such a threat, why didn't the Sultan act sooner? It couldn't possibly be because Jamal has those artefacts. I get the feeling that he tried to stop her, and failed miserably."

"Understandable, really," Trixie sniffed. "I wonder how the Mareitanians are doing? Putting shields up like that, it seemed like it wasn't the first storm they'd been through."

"But they haven't acted themselves," Nightmare said, continuing Trixie's thought. "Either they're aware they can't win against Jamal's army, and don't know what to do, or they're waiting for something."

Luna hummed thoughtfully, "It seems odd to me now, learning what we have, that the Sultan asked us specifically to return the artefacts. Not to stop Jamal, but to return these objects of power. I rather suspect that he wishes them for himself."

Trixie sighed explosively, "Of course he fucking does. Just what we needed, another maniacal bastard to deal with."

"Not necessarily," Twilight said. "He wants the strength to defend his people from threats, and what Jamal has gives him that strength, or so he thinks. We all know that could go one of two ways, and I'd rather not see the option where he goes mad with the power granted to him."

"So what do we do?" Trixie asked. "Personally I think we shouldn't give him jack, but that's possibly just my opinion."

"Or we give him the useless artefacts," Nightmare suggested. "I think we have more use for the good ones than he does."

"Only if we need them," Luna said sternly. "Let's not mess about with things that don't need to be messed about with."

Twilight shrugged, not disagreeing with any of them. There was one point that she felt definitely had to be made though. "I think the most important thing is to not let them end up in Faust's hooves. The last thing she needs is more power, even if she only gives them to her servants."

"Most certainly," Luna said while the others voiced their agreement. "I'd rather they be destroyed than let that happen. Unfortunately our ability to act is hampered until the storm passes. Once it does though, we should be ready to move. We should all get what rest we can until then."

Twilight looked back over her shoulder, seeing that Daring had already fallen asleep while Rainbow removed her shirt and pith helmet from the skeleton they'd apparently been used to dress. Lightning and Vapor were talking quietly, and Sunset was keeping Daring warm.

"I don't think being well rested is going to help anything. We're massively outnumbered, and don't know exactly what we're up against. What we need is a plan."

-0-0-0-

The storm raged on for hours, and all through the night until the early hours of the morning. When it finally died down a went quiet, Twilight dared to head outside and look, finding that the sky was clear, the air still, and the sand piled up everywhere. All in all, it was a good sign that they should get a move on.

"Are you sure I can't do anything?" Daring asked as the rest of them got ready to put their plan into action.

"You're not well enough," Twilight said firmly. "When we have all the artefacts we'll come back for you."

"This sucks."

Rainbow grinned at Daring, "Don't worry, we'll get those artefacts back."

Daring shrugged at Rainbow, "I'm not worried, I just feel like a failure. I get the feeling I should just stay away from Saddle Arabia. This place is nothing but bad luck for me."

Twilight sipped from her canteen, her mind running over the plans they'd formulated the previous even. It was a simple plan, that relied heavily on magic and flying, but it should hold up well enough for them to steal the artefacts. Luna, Nightmare, Trixie, Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor were to create a distraction at the front of the camp, basically by attacking them, leaving herself and Sunset to sneak in through the back and steal the artefacts, and maybe eliminate Jamal. There was both a lot, yet little that should go wrong.

"We should get a move on," Twilight said once those ponies that owned armour had got it on. "The earlier we attack, the less prepared they'll be."

"Thank goodness for their lack of strict military regimen," Luna joked. "Not that we're much better I suppose." Luna jumped sideways as a large, dark metal, twin headed battle-axe appeared in the air beside her. The large grin Nightmare wore was evidence enough as to who it belonged to. "Whenever did you get that thing?"

"I found it in the Retreat, although I have no idea why it was there. I decided to enchant it and make it mine." Nightmare slowly swung the axe a couple of times, "I called it Ebony, because all magical weapons need a name."

"Told you!" Trixie said loudly to Twilight.

Luna sighed softly, "And now I miss my glaives more than ever. Why a battle-axe though? Is it not rather unwieldy?"

Nightmare swung the axe again, "Light as a feather. At least it is in my magic. The fact is, Luna, it isn't a weapon you would use."

"And that I suppose was the point." Luna shied away as the blades of the axe caught fire, "Just try not to hit any of us with that thing."

"Keep your distance from me and it won't be an issue."

"Okay!" Twilight half-shouted, taking the building tension and killing it before it killed something else. "If we're all ready, I think we should get this show on the road. Rainbow, take Lightning and Vapor, and see that there are no surprises we need to worry about. The rest of us will approach from the ground until we need to split up."

Rainbow saluted, and flew off with the other two Wonderbolts, leaving the rest of them to start trotting towards Jamal's encampment. A minute later, the three pegasi came back.

"What is it?" Twilight asked with a groan. They hadn't even started yet, so it was definitely too soon for things to be going wrong.

"It's the Mareitanians," Rainbow said, sounding unsure like she couldn't believe what she'd seen. "There's like, way more of them, and they kinda look like ponies, but aren't... y'know?"

"Uh, no, I don't." Twilight looked back and forth between the directions the two camps lay in, and breathed out hard in aggravation. There was only really one thing to do, and that was check out what the Mareitanians were up to. "Let's go."

It was only a short trot back to the bluff overlooking the Mareitanians camp, which was in a dreadful state after the storm. Not that it mattered much compared to the portal through which the pony-like creatures were coming, wearing silvery armour over their heads and bodies. Each of them was carrying a bow, a quiver full of arrows, and a short, curved sword that complemented the blade on their helms that ran up the front of their unusual single horn that curved backwards.

"What are those?" Lightning asked. "I've never seen anything like them."

"I have," said Luna. "It seems Faust has made another ally in the kirin."

Twilight was surprised, and yet she was also hurt that her first encounter with kirin would be on the opposite sides of a war. It really wasn't fair. Some of the others didn't share her feelings on it though, not by a long way.

"Kirin?" Trixie snickered, "What the fuck's a kirin?"

"They're sort of a cross between dragons and deer," Twilight explained. "You can't see it under their armour, but they have scales covering their back and parts of their head. Then they have lion manes, and only grow hair on the bottom of their tails, and have cloven hooves. Then... there's the horn, antler, thing."

"I remember reading that they can do magic," Sunset said as she peered at the kirin. "I'm really not sure about what kind of level they could do it to though."

"It is uncertain," said Luna. "It is theorised that they are just as capable as unicorns at magic, but their society favours attunement with nature, so the teachings of high magic really aren't their priority. Unfortunately for us, their warriors have spent centuries defending their homes against all threats, and are very skilled with both bows and blades."

Trixie huffed and flicked the sand with her hoof, "And now Faust has an army of them. Great."

"Hardly," Luna responded. "Kirin aren't the most prolific of peoples, and have only ever maintained small numbers, so as to not strain their environment for resources. I'd say Faust has a couple of thousand of them fighting for her at most."

"Oh, well that's good."

Luna squinted suspiciously at Trixie, "I did mention the part where they're superlative warriors, did I not?"

"Alright, so it's bad then. Isn't it? You're just confusing me now."

The portal snapped shut as Trixie spoke, and everything was quiet for a moment as the lines of kirin stood rigidly to attention. At most there could only have been four hundred of them, meaning someone had to be confident that this number, plus those Mareitanians already here, could succeed against Jamal's forces. After a minute, they started marching towards Jamal's encampment.

"Okay," Twilight said with false cheer, "the plan's fucked. New plan is do whatever it takes to get those artefacts."

-0-0-0-

The battle began as soon as the Mareitanian forces reached the encampment. There was a short ramp to ascend which provided the best defence for the bandit army, but that was far from adequate to even slow the Mareitanians down, let alone stop them.

"We're going to have to do this quick," Twilight said as shields protecting the Mareitanians started moving up the ramp, covered by arrow fire from some of the kirin, who were proving every bit as skilled as Luna had said. After a few minutes none of the bandits dared to show themselves.

"Head straight for the tent at the rear," Luna instructed. "We'll keep you clear while you and Sunset search for the artefacts."

"Got it!" Twilight dove down for the tent where she'd encountered Jamal the previous day. There were plenty of Saddle Arabians there, nervously watching the battle in the distance. They were totally unprepared for three alicorns, three pegasi, and two unicorns to attack from above. They were quickly taken care of.

Twilight stuck her head in through the tent, and cursed as she found it was empty, completely and utterly. Not even a single coin or gem was left behind. "There's nothing here!"

"Nothing? What do you mean noth-" Luna stopped as she looked into the tent. "Oh, that's what you mean. I guess this means she was ready for us."

"So what do we do now?"

"The only thing you can do. Search for them. You and Sunset find Jamal and the artefacts, and the rest of us will do whatever we can to buy you time, even if it means fighting alongside these bandits. I'm sure they wouldn't mind the help."

Twilight nodded quickly as the battle truly began. The Mareitanians had reached the top of the ramp, and the Saddle Arabians were nowhere near enough to slow them down, not without help. "Alright, do whatever you have to. Oh, and Nightmare, disguise yourself as me so the Mareitanians don't learn about you if they don't have to."

"Short-arse mode activated!" Nightmare cheered as she altered her appearance to that of Twilight's. "Don't worry, I'll try to make you look good."

"Uh, appreciated," Twilight said a little hesitantly, as she really didn't care. It was weird enough talking to herself in such a way without worrying about her image being tarnished worse than it already was.

"Do not tarry," Luna reminded them. "This battle is already lost, so time is already short. Search quickly, and good luck."

"You too."

Luna watched for a moment as Twilight and Sunset dashed away, then turned to the rest of them. "Let me start by saying this is going to be a bloody mess, in case that were a surprise to you."

Trixie held a hoof in the air, "Yeah, I have an allergy to sharp metal, and have a sick note from my doctor that exempts me from stressful activities. I should probably just stay back."

"And Trixie will be sticking with Nightmare and myself."

"I'm not Nightmare, I'm Twilight Sparkle! I love books, and friends, and books about friends, which is why I'm so tragically single, because I instantly friend zone everypony I meet! I'm also dependant on high stakes drama like this to stop myself from remembering that I'm an emotional wreck of a pony!" Nightmare grinned as the others glowered at her, "What? Too realistic? I could try making it a bit sassier."

Luna closed her eyes and forced herself to ignore that. "Rainbow, you and the other Wonderbolts need to stay high to avoid the kirins' arrows. Use your lightning strikes, drop things on them, even spit on them, but do not get close."

"Right, so stay out of the way and do nothing." Rainbow gave Luna a mock salute, "Shouldn't be too hard."

"I mean it. Nightmare, are you ready?"

Nightmare summoned her axe and made a few experimental swings with it. "I am so ready."

"Trixie."

Trixie stamped her hoof into the dry, sandy ground as she breathed in deeply a couple of times. After a moment she nodded. "I'm ready."

"Good, to battle then." Luna started running towards the battle as the Wonderbolts flew up, Trixie keeping close while Nightmare flew ahead. Some of the bandits saw their coming as a crack of thunder echoed around the mountains. Luna just knocked them aside with her magic, hoping that they would take the hint she was on their side for the moment when they saw her attacking the Mareitanians.

Arrows thudded into the ground as the kirin fired blindly over the line of yaks that acted as the front line of the Mareitanians assault. Luna knew that if they really wanted to make a difference, that line needed to be broken. She picked out a yak that was slightly further forwards than the others, and was about to attack when Nightmare sped towards it, landed at speed, and skidded in a circle that brought her axe around in an upward stroke that cleanly severed the head of the yak.

Luna frowned as the yak's head rolled to a stop against her hooves, and looked up in time to catch Nightmare winking at her. Clearly somepony wanted to make a competition out of this, and while Luna was tempted, she had to maintain an appearance of being most level-headed out of the two of them.

A blast of pink magic from Luna's left brought her back to the moment as Trixie tried to fire around the bulk of the fallen yak at the ponies and kirin behind. It seems they had the Mareitanians attention at least, because in seconds they'd made themselves the focus of the battle as the Mareitanians tried to take them down.

Luna jumped back as a yak reared up to try and crush her, and blasted it with her magic, knocking it over backwards onto the pony behind. Arrows started to fly towards her, and she was forced shield herself. Unfortunately that gave the yaks a chance to surge towards her, which they gladly took. One of them fell as Nightmare shimmered into existence next to it, slammed her axe down on its neck, then vanished again. Another went flying and caught fire as lightning struck it.

Luna set her hooves and grunted as magic surged through her horn into a beam that pierced through a yak lengthways. Their charge towards her faltered, and she started to push them back, only to meet some kirin that pranced through the gap in the yak line, nimbly dodging around the bodies of the fallen, and the blades of the bandits.

A small shield formed in front of Luna, which she used to block the arrows coming towards her as the kirin released their bows. She ran towards them, but stopped as a cry from Trixie reached her ears. A kirin had pinned her down, and was trying to force a blade down on her neck that Trixie was holding back with her armoured hooves. Luna went to help, but needn't have worried as Trixie blasted the kirin point blank in the face.

"If these bastards were watching my back, that wouldn't have happened," Trixie spat, as Luna expanded her shield to cover both of them. Trixie gave the Saddle Arabian bandits a filthy glare as she got back to her hooves.

"I know." Luna picked up the kirin's sword and twirled the thin, curvy blade around a couple of times. It was nice, but it wasn't her glaives. "Trixie-"

"Yeah, yeah, we gotta win the fight, I know. I'll use dark magic if I have to."

"I was going to say that we need to fall back slowly, let the bandits take the brunt of the attack until they start to fall apart."

"Ah, so we're not caring if they die." Trixie nodded, then raised her head, drawing dark tendrils out of the ground that wrapped around a kirin, quickly crushing the life from her as she struggled. "Where the fuck is Nightmare?"

"Right here," Nightmare purred from behind them, still in her guise of Twilight. Blood dripped from her axe that she had slung over her shoulder. "That's five yaks dead by the way."

"There's more than yaks here," Trixie pointed out.

"I know, but the yaks are the biggest. Come on, we've got this."

Luna rolled her eyes, then readied her shield and blade as the Mareitanians pushed forwards some more. Magic poured forth from Trixie, while Nightmare threw herself back into the fray where nopony dared to get too close to her and her battle-axe. Luna slammed her shield into the face of an earth pony, stunning him enough to run him through. Yes they might have the Mareitanians stuck here, but everywhere else was rapidly falling apart as the bandits crumbled under the assault.

Luna hoped Twilight didn't take too long.

-0-0-0-

"This has to be it," Sunset said excitedly as she raced along a narrow path into the mountains. She'd spotted it hidden behind some boulders while she and Twilight frantically searched for Jamal and the artefacts, and quickly decided that it had to lead somewhere good.

Twilight wasn't inclined to disagree with Sunset's assertions that this had to be it, if only because it stood as good a chance of being what they were looking for as not. She did change her tune a little more when the path turned into a cave, then changed it completely when they ran into a big stone door that was shut tight.

"Told you," Sunset said smugly.

"Great! Now how do we get in?"

"Ooh-ooh-ooh! I know this one! Uh, open sesame!" The door remain still. "Okay, open ses-a-me! Open ses-a-me! Open ses-a-me! Open ses-"

"I think we've established that 'open sesame' isn't going to work." As Twilight spoke, the doors cracked open a couple of inches. "That doesn't prove anything," Twilight insisted as Sunset grinned smugly. She went to peek through the gap, and maybe force it open a bit wider, when sand started pouring through the gap, starting at the bottom of the door, then going higher until it suddenly stopped, leaving a pile of sand outside the door.

"Uh-huh," Twilight said slowly.

"I'll probably never have reason to say this again, but does that sand look a little malevolent to you?"

"Sunset, that's ridic- Oh crap." Twilight backed away as the sand started moving, forming a fist that was raised into the air and slammed down where Twilight had been standing. "Great! Malevolent sand, of course. How could I not see that coming?"

Both of them kept backing away as the sand pulled itself into a bipedal form that walked on short legs with a hunch so that its knuckles were dragging on the ground. A single, baleful red eye glared at them from where its neck would've been if it had one.

"What is that thing?" Sunset asked as the thing started stomping towards them.

"Isn't it obvious? It's a sand monster! A monster made of sand. A sand monster..." Twilight nodded slowly to herself, "Yep."

"And how do we stop it?"

"Have you tried insulting its hair?"

"Twilight!"

"Alright, fine." Twilight fired a blast of magic at the monster, hitting it on the left shoulder, and blowing its left arm into nothing. Twilight knew better than to celebrate that easy a victory, and felt rather vindicated as the arm started to reform. "Right, sooo... any ideas?"

"Run?"

"Apart from that one."

"Then... no. Wait!" Sunset blasted the glowing red eye of the monster, and the entire thing collapsed to the ground. Sunset was about to start celebrating when it started to pull itself back together. "Yeah, that did seem a bit easy."

Twilight closed her eyes and felt for traces of magic in the air. What she found was that the monster was held together entirely by magic, and that magic originated from within the cave.

"This thing's being made by something in the cave. Keep this thing distracted while I go take care of it."

"What? How? There was too many... things in that sentence!"

"I don't know, just keep blowing it up. Maybe try turning it into glass if you're feeling adventurous."

"Fine." Sunset caught the fist of the monster as it tried to pound her into the ground, and pushed an intense amount of heat into it, melting the sand into a solid mass that glowed incandescently. She then cooled it off rapidly, and shattered the rough glass. The monster didn't make so much as a squeak as that happened, and quickly repaired the damage by absorbing more sand into itself.

Sunset really hoped that Twilight didn't take too long, while Twilight herself hoped that she didn't mess up a blind teleport like she was about to attempt.

Twilight closed her eyes and teleported forwards, and gasped with relief as all she did was drop a few inches to the floor. She opened her eyes and squeaked she saw the tip of a spear mere centimetres from the end of her nose.

"You have ruined everything!" Ramah growled at Twilight as she backed off a step.

"Actually, the army out there attacking yours is nothing to do with me. I'm just attempting to capitalise on the moment." Behind Ramah was Jamal, sat with her eyes closed and her hooves held out in front of her. Between her hooves floated the whirling components of one of the artefacts, held together with glowing strings of what looked like glowing sand. Clearly that was what the sand monster outside was being controlled with.

Ramah edged his spear towards Twilight, clearly sensing her intent. "You will not reach her."

"Oh give up already," Twilight sighed. She blasted her magic point blank at Ramah, and was highly surprised when he appeared to her left half a second later, the only proof of his moving being a series of rapidly fading afterimages.

Twilight teleported away as the spear was thrust at where her chest would've been a split second earlier, and barely got a chance to orientate herself before Ramah was on her again, swinging his spear level with her neck. Twilight dropped, feeling a sting from her right ear as its tip was removed, and placed a shield over herself. It was of considerable relief to her that the shield actually blocked the spear.

Twilight rapidly expanded her shield, turning it into a shockwave that should've send Ramah flying, but he jumped up a pile of treasure, and ran up the side of the cave, apparently going fast enough to forget that gravity applied to him as well. He back flipped off the wall straight towards Twilight, who had been so mesmerized watching the afterimages of his movements that she almost forgot to teleport away.

Swordy appeared as she rematerialized on the opposite side of the room, and she swung him towards Ramah, who deftly jumped over the stroke. Twilight followed it up with a series of quick jabs that Ramah easily dodged around using the power of his spear, his afterimages wearing the most infuriatingly cocky grin she'd ever seen.

She did learn something though. When he went to attack her, he because solid again. Whatever power that allowed him to easily dodge everything Twilight threw at him, also stopped him from attacking her. It was going to be risky, but she could work with that.

A burst of magical fire forced Ramah away, and he dashed around the attack. Twilight followed him as best she could, and when she felt he was about to attack her, brought Swordy up to block the spear before the spear was even really there.
Metal clashed against metal as the spear met Swordy, and the look of shock on Ramah's face was absolutely priceless. Clearly he'd not been defeated since acquiring the spear, and Twilight was more than happy to fix that. The fact that so much depended on her beating him was also very relevant.

It was also rather gratifying to see that Swordy had cut a gouge into the spear. Whoever had enchanted it had neglected to make it strong enough to survive against an obviously superior weapon.

Ramah yanked back on the spear, freeing it from the lock, and ran back around the room in an attempt to have Twilight lose track of him. She didn't, not even slightly, and when he leapt off a pile of treasure right at her he fucked up good, because you can't run on thin air, no matter how fast you are. Ramah must've figured that out too, and as he was impaled on the outstretched blade of Swordy, his afterimages were a horrifying display of agony.

Twilight gently lowered the gasping Ramah, and returned Swordy to the ether rather than painfully pull it out. In Twilight's mind, which drifted far too much into fantasy at times, she felt that there should be a touching moment of respect between the two warriors as one defeated the other, but Ramah was just a bandit who tried to kill her, and she hated seeing the fear in his eye, so turned away until he expired.

"Ramah's dead, Jamal," Twilight said to the other pony in the cave. "If you give up now, I promise the same won't happen to you." Twilight waited for a response, but as Jamal remained unmoving, she figured that she wasn't really entirely in the room. Sunset was also out there still fighting that sand monster, so Twilight should probably get on with stopping her.

The spear was plucked from Ramah's stiffening hold, and Twilight hummed appreciatively at the rush of power it gave her. She felt stronger, faster, and like nopony could beat her. As proven, that wasn't necessarily true, so she ignored the feeling as best she could as she did something that really shouldn't be done. She thrust the spear into the nexus of magic held between Jamal's hooves.

Jamal screamed as she was pulled back to herself, and she sat in a panic, unsure of what to do as the spear glowed red, then white with heat. Twilight was smart enough to get away, and dived for cover as the spear exploded, destroying whatever it was that Jamal had been using.

Twilight waited until it stopped raining bits of metal before daring to move, and gagged at the smell of burning hair, some of which was her own. She returned to where Jamal had been, finding the mare slumped over backwards as her chest rattled with each hard fought for breath. The only problem Twilight could see with that was that Jamal had no visible injuries.

"Why do ponies like you keep trying?" Twilight asked, not really expecting an answer. Using her magic, she removed the circlet from Jamal's head, breaking the illusion. The wings vanished, and the white of her coat faded to a washed out grey that was covered in scars. There were also quite a few wounds from the exploding spear that were oozing blood over Jamal's chest. It seemed as though Jamal had lived an interesting life for the middle aged mare she was.

"Are you satisfied now?" Jamal gurgled through a mouth filled with rotting and missing teeth as her breathing became more laboured. Twilight surmised that one of her lungs had been punctured.

"Satisfied with what? That I beat you?" Twilight shrugged, neither satisfied or unsatisfied.

"That you've seen the real me."

"Ah," Twilight nodded with understanding, "Jamal means beauty in your language, doesn't it? I can see why you'd want to recapture that." Twilight smiled sadly as Jamal choked on her own blood, struggling to hold on to life. Twilight stabbed a spike of magic through her heart to spare her a prolonged and unpleasant death. "Too bad you were obsessed with only your exterior."

"Twilight?"

Twilight jolted as Sunset said her name, having forgot she was still outside. Twilight wrenched the doors open, letting Sunset into the cave while also letting her see the lump of half molten glass that was the remains of the construct Sunset had been keeping busy.

"Mission accomplished?" Sunset asked, the uncertain note of her voice not quite masking the discomfort she had at seeing the two bodies.

"Not yet. Start looking for every magical thing in this room you can find. I doubt we have much time until the Mareitanians break through, so we best do this quickly."

-0-0-0-

Trixie ducked behind a tent, using it to obscure the kirin's vision of her. Those scaly bastards were proving just as deadly with their bows as Luna had said, and Trixie was losing count of the number of times her armour had saved her life. That luck wouldn't hold forever though, and Trixie doubted that whatever interest her dark magic held in her, it wouldn't save her life a second time.

Trixie kept running, dodging from cover to cover, but more and more it seemed like the Mareitanians were everywhere, like now as she ran into an Adept that immediately fired her magic at Trixie. Trixie yelped and shut her eyes, and gasped when there was no pain. She cracked her eyes open, finding a pink shield between herself and the Adept. Even though she'd made a dozen similar shields over the last ten minutes, it still amazed her every time. She just wished she could be more sure it would actually happen.

The ground rumbled, and Trixie leapt aside as a yak ran straight through the tent, trampling the Adept, and giving Trixie only a few seconds to think of what to do as it untangled the tent from its horns. Trixie did the only thing it felt like she knew how to do. She'd gotten herself separated from Luna and Nightmare, so there was no help coming there, and her dark magic was screaming at her to use it to defend herself. Sometimes it sounded like it might have a point, as was definitely the case when being faced down by a rampaging yak.

Dark spears of crystal burst up out of the ground under the yak, killing it quickly as Trixie gave in to the suggestion. As usual it felt both terrible and wonderful to use dark magic, and as she watched the yak gently sliding down the spears under its own weight, she knew that as much as she fought it at times, she would always give in when she had to, because part of her would always want to, even though a lot of her didn't. Twilight had said to not fear it after all, even if she was being a jerk at the time.

"I feel like I have this conversation with myself far too often."

"This way!"

"Aw crap." Trixie quickly hid behind the yak as the voices reached her. She quietly hoped that it was some kirin coming for her, just to give her a chance to get back at them, but it was ponies heading her way. They stopped at the sight of the yak, and some of them started backing away like they knew what had happened to it. A wry smile creeping onto her face, Trixie walked out into their view.

"Well come on then, if you think you're hard enough."

Two of the ponies turned tail and ran, leaving the others milling in confusion. A trio of kirin ran up, their bows ready to protect their new allies, which only really gave the ponies a chance to run as the first kirin was caught up in dark tendril that tossed it away like a foal with an unwanted toy. The second ran into a spear of crystal that burst out of the ground in line with her neck, and the third, the third was struck by lightning from above. Trixie might have screamed, but the volume of the thunder left her unsure.

"Trixie! What the hell are you..." Lightning trailed off as she saw the yak, and swallowed nervously. "Twilight and Sunset have what we're here for and we're all looking for you! You need to get out of here before you're overrun!"

"I'm already a little overrun if you haven't noticed! Where are they?"

"This way!"

Trixie started running as Lightning flew towards the rear of the plateau, feeling like every Mareitanian, yak, and kirin was on her heels. Errant blasts of magic, and the occasional arrow flew towards her, and more than once she felt an impact on her armour as she ran.

Trixie saw the others up ahead, and also saw the magic building up on the horns of the three alicorns. She dived with a scream, and buried her head under her legs as a barrage of magic zoomed over her, making the hair on her back tingle.
The barrage quickly, and Trixie risked looking back to find a dozen dead ponies, yaks, and kirin behind her. Apparently that feeling of being pursued was closer to reality than she thought. Trixie looked forwards again at the sound of hooves, and accepted the hoof offered to her by Twilight to help her up.

"Are you alright, Trixie?"

"Oh, tip top," Trixie said absently as she brushed herself off. She stopped as she saw the way Twilight was looking at her, and could tell Twilight knew she'd used dark magic. Rather than berate her, or be all annoyingly sympathetic, Twilight just gave her a small nod.

"It's time for us to leave," Luna said as she supported a wounded Nightmare, who was grinning massively for some reason Trixie was sure she didn't want to know about. The Mareitanians were preparing to attack them, so there was no time to ask questions as the horns of Twilight and Luna lit up, taking them back to the safety of the cave Daring was left in.

"You're back!" Daring shouted, jumping up as they appeared. "Did you get them?"

"We did," said Twilight, dropping a sack of stuff onto the floor. "Unfortunately, some of this is quite dangerous stuff in the wrong hooves, which I really don't think the Sultan needs to get hold of. We're going to pick out the benign things, give them to the Sultan, while you and Nightmare head back to the Retreat with the rest."

"We can't let the Mareitanians get back to Ammare before us," Luna said as Twilight starting sorting through the sack. "They will likely try to bend the ear of the Sultan with their victory over the bandits. And by bend the ear, I mean scare him witless with their domination of a force twice their size, and with similar capabilities to his own army. Hopefully Cadence has pulled something off in our absence that will help considerably."

"Do you really think that would convince the Sultan to join Faust?" Rainbow asked.

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Frankly, I'd rather not take the risk. The appearance of those kirin has changed the game even further, and I do not wish it to be changed more by having the Sultan side with Faust as well. It is imperative that he at the very least remain neutral."

Twilight grinned up at Rainbow, although it wasn't a particularly nice grin. "As you can see, we're aiming high with this one."

"Oh. Well we better at least get a thank you."

Author's Note

I've decided that kirin are pretty much elves, because why not. I'm also really pressed for posting time, and I know there are things I could improve, but paying for quality you are not.

21. The long con

"I think we might have made a mistake with this," Twilight said as they neared the end of their journey back to Ammare. "The Mareitanians know we've taken the artefacts, and soon they'll know that we're negotiating an alliance with the Sultan, right?"

Luna nodded, following Twilight's words easily, but not quite getting where she was going. "I fail to see the problem."

"Our alliance with the griffons is more or less a secret. Our alliance with Saddle Arabia won't be. What's to stop Faust invading as soon as she finds out they didn't side with her? Especially since she had to have been planning an invasion anyway if negotiations failed. It also means Faust might find out what we're up to."

"Ah." Luna thought about that for a few seconds, and announced, "I think we've made a mistake. As proven by that little skirmish, Saddle Arabia would stand no chance against Faust's army. If anything, she presents better odds on getting back those ponies the Storm King stole than we currently do, so why side with us when not doing so could be so much better? At least in the short term."

"I was more concerned about Faust finding out what we're up to," said Twilight, "but yeah, that too."

"Are you two saying we might've cocked this up despite getting those artefacts back?" Trixie asked, holding her mane down against the wind as she stuck her head out of Twilight's saddle bag. "Did we do all this for almost nothing? Did I dark magic for nothing?"

"Not for nothing," Luna told her. "The most dangerous of those artefacts are now away from hooves that might misuse them-"

"Ah," Trixie nodded in understanding, "so it's not misusing when we're the ones using them."

Luna gave Trixie a sharp glare, then continued. "More importantly, Faust won't be able to use them against us. That alone makes this whole thing worth it."

Sunset poked her head out of Twilight's other saddle bag, "But we've still made a mess of the political part of this. Mostly by forgetting that Faust is a massive cunt who solves problems by invading countries."

"Succinctly put, but no less true for it." Luna sighed and let her hooves hang for a moment, "Why did it have to be politics? Celestia was the diplomat, not I. Too bad she'd be negotiating for the wrong ponies now."

Twilight, and most of the others, gave Luna a sideways look at her flippant attitude about her sister. "Okay, but we still have Cadence, and while she might not be Celestia, she's still better than us. Hopefully she's made some headway while we've been gone."

"Or something bad has happened to her," said Trixie.

Twilight's faced darkened. "It better not have. If something's happened to my niece, I'm not above doing what it takes to get her back."

-0-0-0-

Thankfully Cadence was one of the first to greet them on their return, along with Flurry. Amira was visible in the distance, but Twilight couldn't read her expression in the slightest, and the mare walked away after a few seconds in any case.

"Did you do it then?" Cadence enquired as soon as they'd landed on the steps of the palace. "Did you stop Jamal?"

"We did," Luna confirmed. At Cadence's enquiring look, she gave a small nod, hoping Cadence would pick up on that she mean Jamal had been taken care of permanently. "We may have a problem though, and it might result in Faust invading Saddle Arabia."

"Ah, yes, the thing where Faust would invade anyway if Saddle Arabia failed to join her cause." Cadence smiled at her fellow princesses, "We might've worked that one out already."

"We?" Twilight asked. "Do you mean you and the Sultan?"

"I mean we," Cadence replied primly, not so much dodging the question, but putting up a brick wall between it and herself. "I've been asked to bring you to the Sultan as soon as you returned- Hang on, where's Nightmare?"

"Returning to the Retreat with Daring Do and the more dangerous artefacts," Luna said quietly. "I felt they'd be safest in our hooves."

"I also destroyed a couple of them," Twilight said cheerily. "I don't recommend standing too close when that sort of thing happens."

"Right, um... okay. Do you at least have something to present to the Sultan?"

Luna waved Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor forward, each of them carrying a small bag containing a few of the artefacts. A precaution in case something had happened on the journey back, like an attack by two angry alicorns, or something else with wings.

"We have enough to make him think we've brought them all back. Nothing too dangerous as far as we've been able to work out, and we doubt most would work for a being without magic anyway."

Cadence sighed, a little displeased at the deception, but fully accepting of their reasons. "I suppose they are better off where they can't be misused." Cadence made a face as Trixie started to snigger, "What?"

"Ignore her," said Twilight. "Should we go see the Sultan now?"

Cadence nodded and the way, keeping her head high as she walked. Twilight was left wondering what she was doing when it became clear she was putting on a show of confidence. A show that said 'look how easily we got these artefacts back, and ended a threat to your country, when the Mareitanians couldn't do it with an army.' The fact that the Mareitanians could've done it if they'd not been there was irrelevant.

"What are the odds of this going wrong?" Rainbow whispered into Twilight's ear as they walked. "I mean, y'know, violence wise."

"Why are you asking me that?"

"Because I'm carrying a bag full of things I don't understand, and I don't want them to explode if I'm hit by something while holding them!"

"Do you realise how ridiculous that is?"

"I'm being serious, Twilight!"

"So am I. Nopony is going to hit you, and nothing is going to explode."

"And now something is definitely going to explode," said Trixie.

"What am I, some kind of situational weathervane? Except the opposite of what I say will happen happens?" Twilight pouted as Trixie shrugged, "Why I do I even bother questioning you sometimes? Fucking hell. Everything is going to be fine."

"And that right there is what we in the business call famous last w-"

"Trixie, I swear, if you finish that sentence, I will hurt you in ways you've never even considered before."

"Oh yeah?" Trixie smiled, "Care to give me an example."

"Alright then." Twilight theatrically cleared her throat before fixing a cool gaze on Trixie. "...Yeah I got nothing. I would say you're fat, but you already know that."

"What? I'm not fat! Rainbow, am I fat?"

"Uh... I don't know. What's fat for a unicorn? I mean it wouldn't make much difference, but if you were a pegasus you'd probably be flying a little slower than the rest of us."

"What! That's preposterous! The Great and Powerful Trixie would be at the head of the pack! Or is it flock? Do pegasi flock? Or do they herd? You'd think this'd be something you would know."

Twilight grinned at Trixie, "And thus my torture is complete. I made you think too much about something you don't know the answer to."

"Yeah... Trixie isn't a mirror, so stop thinking what applies for you applies for me."

Sunset burst out laughing, but quickly smothered it as Twilight glared at her. "Sorry Twilight, but that was pretty quick. For Trixie."

"And now I'm actually insulted," Trixie grumped. "I suppose one of you had to succeed eventually."

"If you're all done bickering?" Luna said sternly. "We want to make this look good for the crowd in here, so I want you all looking, and acting serious."

"Only acting huh? Trixie can do that."

"I mean it, Trixie."

"And I accept that you do."

Luna grumbled to herself, knowing they'd be there all day if she kept pushing, and still wouldn't achieve what she wanted.
Cadence opened the doors to the throne room, and strode in, stopping just before the throne to bow to the Sultan. "Your Majesty, I am delighted to inform you that Jamal has been taken of, uh, permanently, and your champions have returned with the artefacts he stole."

"Uh, she, actually," Twilight corrected. "Jamal was a mare."

"She was? Oh." Cadence went blank for a second, then carried on. "The artefacts she stole... then."

Batal clapped his hooves vigorously, "Wonderful news! I knew that you wouldn't disappoint me." He stood and left his throne to walk down to the princesses, and bowed deeply before them. "You have my gratitude. Now tell me, how was Jamal controlling the ponies that followed her?"

"She... wasn't," Twilight said awkwardly. "Instead she convinced them that she was something worth following." Twilight retrieved the circlet Jamal had worn from the bag Vapor was carrying, "She was using this to change her appearance, and to give herself the illusion of having wings. Observe."

Twilight placed the circlet on the nearest pony without wings, which just so happened to be Trixie. Instantly her appearance became more refined, her coat shone, and her mane near glowed with vibrancy. Most importantly though, it gave her a pair of blue wings that rivalled Luna's for size.

Trixie fluttered her eyelashes at the Sultan, "I'm the prettiest, prettiest princess, oh yes I am!"

Twilight snatched the circlet back, not that it diminished Trixie's smirk in the slightest. "Apparently the few pegasi born here hold a special place in your society, which Jamal was able to exploit into convincing others to follow her."

Batal nodded thoughtfully, "I see. Perhaps it is for the best that she no longer be a problem. More importantly though, you have upheld your agreement to retrieve the artefacts and stop Jamal, so I am now willing to listen to your proposal. Perhaps we should speak somewhere more private though. Please, follow me."

Twilight shrugged at Luna, who seemed a bit confused about the pace of things herself, but both of them followed Cadence as she confidently trotted after the Sultan. They made their way to the same private audience chamber, where Amira was sat waiting.

"What is she doing here?" Luna demanded to know, lowering her head slightly like she were preparing to attack.

"You'll see," Cadence said, offering no explanation.

Batal took his seat at the head of the table, and gestured with a hoof at the seats. "Please, sit, we have much to discuss."

Twilight hesitantly took the seat next to Cadence, wishing she knew what was going on. She knew that Cadence must've been in discussions with Batal, but the presence of Amira was throwing an unexpected kink into things that she didn't like.

"So was the real reason those ponies followed Jamal because they perceive me as having a strangle hold on my country?" Batal asked, seeming to have no illusions as to why ponies would betray him like they did.

"You're aware?" Luna said, surprised at the blunt nature with which the Sultan spoke.

"Of course I am. Day by day I get more complaints about the very method through which Saddle Arabia is protected, and day by day I am inclined to doubt more and more. It has been months since the Storm King's attack, with no sign of them since, so am I being overbearing by having my country so well protected? Or am I inviting them to attack again the moment I let down my guard? It is a question that has been plaguing me for some time."

"There's nothing wrong with being prepared," said Luna. "Not when your concerns are legitimate. Frankly I wish we'd been a lot more prepared when Faust invaded."

"Although, I think your soldiers aren't fulfilling their function as intended," Twilight interjected. "The impression I got from Jamal was that your soldiers are taking the opportunity to interfere in your subjects lives more than they should. That is going to create friction. I think you'd be better off pulling your army out of patrolling every inch of the country, and maybe just secure your southern border. That is where the attack came from."

"Yes, but they have airships, so they can attack anywhere, while I have no means with which to stop those airships."

"You're also spreading your army too thin, so if they do attack, your military won't be as effective as you need it to be."

"I know," Batal admitted, halting the rising tensions. "That is why I listened when Amira came with a promise from Faust to stop the Storm King and get our ponies back."

Twilight jumped on the opening given to her. "But you didn't take up her offer? Why?"

"The same Faust that launched an unprovoked attack on Equestria? The same Faust that you said seeks to take over the world?" Batal laughed once at Twilight, "No, I can't imagine a reason to refuse that."

"And do you believe us as well now?" Luna asked Amira, who had been silent the entire time she was there.

"While I'm still doubtful of what Princess Twilight claims Faust's goal is, I have been reminded enough of what Faust has done so far, and informed that she is currently utilising slave labour herself. That is reason enough to think she wouldn't care about rescuing those the Storm King took. She would only seek to use our country to further her goals, and while I question what you say those goals are, I do believe that they are in noponies best interest, save Faust's."

Twilight bit back on her sarcastic reply, which might have cost her the tip of her tongue if she'd bit any harder. Amira was on their side, or so it seemed, which was good enough for now.

"I'm glad you're on board then," Twilight said in an over the top pleasant tone. "Since you're here, I'm guessing you're involved in what happens next?"

"She is," said Batal. "In the act of showing her interest in allying with us, Faust has put us in a most unpleasant position where we can either choose to join her, or be forced to. Since she asked in the first place, which is a miracle in itself, I was tempted to take her up on her offer, as it seemed the path that would result in the least deaths of my subjects. Then you turned up and offered an alternative with your alliance."

"I can't promise that joining would mean the return of your ponies," Twilight said quickly, her guilt over that spilling forth. "It would go far to prevent the loss of more though, and if the Storm King did attack... that would be entirely his loss when the might of at least three nations come to say hello."

"You promised to get my ponies back," Batal said accusingly, having not forgotten Twilight's promise.

"And I will, but I can't guarantee that the alliance will be involved. If I have to do it myself, I will."

"That is still far beyond us," Luna interrupted, hoping to stop Twilight before she promised something more she couldn't keep. "For now our primary focus is stopping Faust. Are you saying you're willing to join our alliance to do so?"

"Here, in private, yes." Batal gave Luna an apologetic smile, "Unfortunately I cannot say such in public as yet. As soon as Faust finds out we're against her, we become next in line for an invasion. That is why we have a different plan."

"We're hoping to basically bog down the entire process in politics and negotiation," said Cadence. "The Sultan here will express interest in joining Faust, even though that's obviously not true, but won't fully support Faust's war until his demands are met. Namely the return of his ponies from the Storm King."

"So if she does get them back, it's a win-win for us," Twilight mused. "Faust's forces are divided further, slowing her down, and the Storm King is weakened as well. If the Storm King could be provoked into a full attack on Equestria, they could do serious damage to each other. Damage we could easily capitalise on."

"Or," said Luna, "Faust doesn't do that, grows impatient with the negotiations, and invades Saddle Arabia anyway. I doubt you have plans to resist if that happens."

Batal released a long, slow breath, confirming for Luna what she suspected before he even said so. "I could not seriously hope to resist an invasion. Fighting back would only result in a minor pyrrhic victory for you by destroying most of the soldiers she could take for herself. That is a loss of life I cannot condone. That's why we're going to try and fool Faust by sending her a small contingent of soldiers while negotiations go on. Enough to make Faust think that I support her, but not enough to make any real difference."

"But they could end up getting killed," said Twilight, pointing out the major flaw in that plan.

"Potentially, but these soldiers won't be the most effective fighting force for Faust. They will be picked for their loyalty to Saddle Arabia, and will in fact sabotage what they safely can while failing to fight effectively. Then, with Faust thinking I'm on her side, her focus will move to Zebrica, where she has already sent a vanguard-"

"What!?" Twilight yelled. If she'd been drinking then, it would've painted the walls with water. "When did that happen?"

"At the same time as Faust's forces arrived here," said Amira. "Six ships of soldiers sailed out of Baltimare a couple of weeks ago. Two stopped here with myself, while four more continued to Zebrica."

"So that's where they went," Twilight sighed, lowering her head until her chin rested on the table. "I guess I'll have to tell Fleur about where those ships went once we get back to the Retreat. For fuck sake." Twilight stopped as she saw the others were looking at her, "Sorry. Continue."

Batal watched Twilight for a few seconds more before cautiously speaking again. "As I was saying, Faust's attention will be on Zebrica, which is good for us because we maintain a good relation with the zebras. I will send them a message explaining the situation here, and informing them that my soldiers are largely for show, and won't make any real efforts to harm them. Hopefully the zebras will return the favour and spare my soldiers where they can."

"Okay, good." Twilight went quiet for a couple of seconds as she tried to poke holes in that plan. Besides the ones where it relies on the good will of Faust to not say 'fuck it' and invade. "There's still the problem that a lot of Faust's soldiers saw us here. She's going to suspect something."

"We know," said Cadence. "That's why we're going to have to put on a bit of a show."

"What kind of show?"

"That we'll leave as a surprise," Batal told her. "We want your reactions to be genuine. All I ask is that you not kill or seriously injure any of my guards."

"I get the feeling we're not going to like this," said Trixie.

-0-0-0-

"This is stupid," Lightning groaned. "We've made it through battles, and all kinds of stuff, but here I am, almost sick with worry over what's going to happen next! Couldn't they just tell us what they're planning?"

"You mean you can't work it out?" Vapor asked.

"I have some suspicions, and the fact that we're flying around out here waiting for the Mareitanians to turn up confirms most of them, but I still want to know."

"Do you at least know why we're doing all this?"

Lightning playfully hit Vapor on the shoulder, "I'm not an idiot. It's a big trick to make the Mareitanians think the Sultan is siding with them, even though we're the ones that got those artefacts back. It's not hard."

"Thank you, Squadron Leader Exposition," Rainbow said sarcastically.

"Shouldn't that be Captain Exposition?" Vapor asked with a smirk.

"Not yet it isn't."

"Thanks guys," Lightning said, totally deadpan. "Also way to remind me of my failures as a leader."

Rainbow coughed awkwardly, "Sorry. See anything yet?"

"Not yet," Vapor replied. "Hopefully our first sign of them isn't an arrow in the chest from one of those kirin. I mean, we're not exactly big targets, and they were pretty close a lot of the time. Those guys are really good archers."

"Just what we needed," Lightning sighed. "Guys, do you ever wonder how the Captain and the rest of them are doing? Are they even still alive? Or were they executed for being too dangerous?"

Rainbow looked sideways at Lightning, "Why would you even think of stuff like that? They're fine."

"But we don't actually know."

"Assuming the worst isn't going to help."

"So we just don't think about it at all? Is that what we do?" Lightning let her legs hang as she flew, then shook her head a moment later. "Nope, that ain't working for me."

"Why are you even bringing this up now?" Vapor asked.

"Because Princess Twilight got to find out that her friends are okay, so why can't we?"

Rainbow held up a hoof, ready to make the point that Twilight's friends were also her friends, but decided to let it slide this time. "Honestly, Lightning, I don't think anything bad would've happened to them. They were probably taken prisoner with the rest of the soldiers, and are probably in Ponyville. And before you ask, no, I don't think they would've been killed for being too dangerous. They are still heroes of the rebellion in Mareitania after all. That should protect them a bit."

"I guess. I just started thinking about it after Twilight found out about her friends, and I hate not knowing what happened to ours. Do you think we could maybe take a trip to Ponyville to find out if they're there?"

"This already sounds like a dangerous idea," Vapor muttered. "I think you should just leave it."

"Oh come on Vapor, don't you want to know?"

"Sure I do, but not enough to take that kind of risk. I've already lost Sky, and I'd rather keep the rest of my friends breathing if I can, thank you very much. I didn't let myself get tortured for the fun of it, y'know?"

"Right," said Lightning, knowing that by Vapor bringing that up, she'd already lost the argument. There are some things you just didn't argue against. Not without looking like a massive jerk, and Vapor didn't need that.

"We haven't really talked about that much," Rainbow said quietly to Vapor. "I mean, we don't have to if you don't want to, and we're so happy you survived, but it never seems to be brought up. Don't you want to talk about what happened?"

"What's to talk about? I got stupid, and got caught. End of."

Lightning shared a look with Rainbow, "But he tortured you. Doesn't that bother you?"

"Bother me? Why should it bother me that I wake feeling that bastard's claws all over me? Does it bother me that my eye randomly hurts sometimes? An eye I shouldn't even have right now?"

"Does it bother you that you were denied your chance to be with Sky?" Lightning asked.

Rainbow's jaw dropped, stunned that Lightning would ask such a thing. Apparently, Vapor was equally stunned by the question, although it wore off fast enough for her to smack Lightning across the face hard enough to hurt even though she was wearing her muzzleguard.

"You fucking bitch! You think I did that just so I could be with Sky again? Seriously!"

Lightning pulled her muzzleguard off and rubbed her nose, scrunching it up to get the feeling back into it. "Ever since Sky died, you've been way more reckless, and I'm sorry Vapor, but I can only interpret that as not wanting to live any more."

"So what if I didn't? I refused to talk because I was protecting you and Rainbow! If I had to see you two die in an ambush caused by me telling that fucking griffon you were there, I-" Vapor cut herself off, unsure of what she would do, but sure enough that she doubted she would've lived long enough afterwards to worry about it much.

Shame coloured Lightning's face, "I'm sorry Vapor, I just- I'm worried about you. You went through being tortured, and you've not even spoken about it. I kinda thought it was because you were hiding the fact that you-"

"Thought I was finally going to be with Sky? Sky's dead, Lightning, and yeah, I think about him every day, and miss him so much it hurts to even breathe some times. I also know this is going to sound crazy, but I know how disappointed he'd be if I took the easy way out and left you guys, so I'm not going to."

Rainbow cleared her throat noisily to get their attention, "I'm going to suggest that getting tortured to death is hardly the easy way out. If anything, Sky should be proud of you for not giving in."

"I know, and if I died then, I was okay with that. I didn't though, and I'm okay with that too. And yes I have the occasional nightmare about it, but they never last very long. Do you want to know why?"

"I'm going to say because Luna stops them," said Rainbow.

Vapor closed her mouth with a click, and breathed out through her nose. "That probably makes more sense than what I was going to say. Anyway, my point is that I'm okay, and I'm not looking to leave you guys if I can help it. I don't even remember that much about what happened if I'm honest. Now can we please stop questioning my mental health? I had enough of that after Sky died."

"You got it," Lightning said quickly. "On the other hoof though, please talk to us about things occasionally. We're your friends, and we worry about you."

"I'll try."

"Thank you." Lightning returned her full attention to scanning the countryside, then sighed with frustration a few seconds later. "Where the hell are those Mareitanians?"

"Taking their sweet time," Rainbow said in full agreement. "Do you think they're still searching for the artefacts?"

Vapor pointed a hoof below them, "Or the main bulk of them are taking a bit longer while some runners go on ahead. Look."

Both Rainbow and Lightning looked down, spotting a group of seven, three ponies and four kirin, trotting swiftly towards Ammare.

Rainbow cursed under her breath, "I guess that's on us for getting distracted while on duty. I'm going to say they definitely spotted us as well. Come on!"

"I'm still in charge!" Lightning whined, chasing after Rainbow as she raced to the palace. "Rainbow!"

-0-0-0-

All of them jumped as Rainbow slammed open the doors to the throne room, and ran in. "They sent runners ahead! Three ponies and four kirin. They're almost here!"

"I guess your time is running out to present me with an agreeable proposition," Batal said to Cadence, the pink alicorn frowning with worry, and passing a glance back at her fellow princesses behind her, as well as Trixie and Sunset. Across from Cadence, Amira smiled confidently.

"Your Majesty," Cadence said breathlessly, "I know that you want us to promise the same or better than what Faust has, but we are simply not in a position to promise that right now."

"While Faust is," Amira interrupted. "My Sultan, I realise the princesses stopped Jamal, and recovered what she'd stolen, but what they are offering is a feeble promise compared to the return of our ponies, and security from the possibility of further attacks from the Storm King. Joining Faust is obviously the better option."

Cadence took a step forward, her stance growing more pleading. "Equestria and Saddle Arabia have been friends for a long time, and while Equestria may no longer be under our control, you know we wouldn't make a promise we couldn't keep. Help us against Faust, and you will-"

Boom! The doors to the throne room slammed open once again, permitting entrance to those seven beings that Rainbow had said was coming. They trotted into the room, then stopped as they saw the princesses, quickly preparing their weapons and horns to attack. The Equestrian party quickly followed suit.

"Stop!" The shout easily cut over the hum of magic and creak of bows, and was most surprisingly the voice of Amira. "Lower your weapons, now!"

The lead unicorn, which a few of them recognised as Wick, a unicorn from the rebellion, stared at Amira in shock. "Are you serious? Those are the princesses!"

"And you are in the Sultan's palace in what is currently a neutral country. You will not attack them, and they will not attack you."

"Except that they already have attacked us," Wick retorted. "We were going to stop Jamal, and reclaim those artefacts as requested, when they attacked us. Actually, worse than that! They joined forces with Jamal's servants to hold us off while they robbed the artefacts for themselves!"

"I beg your pardon?" Cadence said at the accusation. She gestured at the bags containing the artefacts next to her, "I think you'll find the artefacts are right here, safely delivered as promised."

Wick's head whipped around to Amira, who sighed at him. "The princesses also wish to make an alliance with Saddle Arabia, and were given the same task as you were. What I didn't realise was that they would sink so low as to attack you on neutral ground, while distracted!"

"They didn't seem to have any issues with attacking us back," Twilight protested.

"So you admit that you attacked them?"

Twilight let her mouth hang open, fully aware that she'd totally walked into that one. Hopefully this made the act more convincing, if it was still an act any more. There was a lot of trust being tested here. Unestablished trust.

"We did what we felt was necessary," Luna said calmly as Twilight backed away a step. "As Princess Twilight said, you showed little hesitation in attacking us, and gave us little choice but to join forces with those bandits on the battlefield while we hunted for Jamal and the artefacts."

"That's bullshit!" Wick shouted. "They-"

"Captain Wick!" Amira stared down the unicorn for a moment, "You will stand down and lower your weapons in the presence of the Sultan, as the princesses already have."

There was a tense moment as Wick eyed the three alicorns in the room, but eventually he dismissed his magic and signalled for the others to do the same, and for the kirin to lower their bows. "Apologies, Ambassador."

"So," Trixie said once there were no weapons pointed at her, "Captain huh? When did that happen?"

"I was promoted after distinguishing myself in the battle to take Canterlot. The battle which Equestria lost resoundingly, by the way, and ended the war."

"Yeah... I didn't want to talk to you anyway."

"Apologies for the interruption, your Majesty," Amira said to the Sultan, offering him a small curtsey. "As I was hoping to say, if you join Faust you will not only ge-"

"That's enough," the Sultan interrupted, "thank you Ambassador. While I am not fully convinced by what Faust is offering, I am convinced enough of one thing." The Sultan stood and walked down to Cadence, "Saddle Arabia will not be allying itself with you."

"What?" Cadence blurted, her eyes going wide. "Why not?"

"Because you came here, to my neutral country, and attacked the Mareitanians on neutral ground to further your own goals. I'm sorry, princesses, but I will not be associated with those who would carry out such a cowardly and despicable act. Furthermore, you aligned yourself with an enemy of mine just to fight an enemy of yours. Clearly your loyalties are flexible if you can so easily do such a thing."

"But, your Majesty-" Cadence started to say, and either she was a superb actor, or not acting at all, because to the ears of the others she sounded quite genuinely worried at this point.

"Enough! While I am far from solidifying an alliance with the Lady Faust, I will never, ever, consider allying myself with you. In fact, since you are wanted ponies in Equestria, what better way to prove my desire to work with Faust than to deliver you to her as a show of good will? Guards, seize the princesses!"

The Sultan's guards jumped into action, surrounding the Equestrians on all sides. Cadence continued to plead with the Sultan to give them a chance, but to no avail as the circle around them grew tighter. It was around that point that it became clear that it was time to leave.

Twilight charged her horn with a teleportation spell that would take them outside the palace and give them a convincing chance at appearing to run away. Instead, all that happened as she raised her horn to discharge the spell, was that she got a sharp pain in her head as the spell fizzled out.

"Uh... okay?" Twilight looked over at the Mareitanians as a the kirin joined the guards, and saw that Wick was casting a spell that appeared to be casting off waves of magic that she was willing to bet was the reason her spell had failed. Apparently the Mareitanians had learnt a new trick.

"Is it time for that old favourite of ours?" Trixie asked. "Running away with our tails between our legs?"

"You could say that," Twilight muttered. She reared up and shoved away one of the guards with her magic, sending him flying and making a gap in their line. "Run!"

"Don't kill them!" Cadence shouted as the others started shoving the guards away to flee, except the Wonderbolts, who had zipped away as soon as Twilight said to run.

"Does that include Wick?" Twilight asked with a grunt. She might've followed up on it had the other two unicorns with him not seen fit to protect him behind a shield. It certainly didn't include the kirin as they released the arrows in their bows. Twilight caught them with a shield and fired her magic back one of the kirin in return, killing them. As soon as that happened, the guards suddenly seemed a lot more aware of what they were up against, and that the ponies half their size were probably at least twice as deadly as themselves.

Luna took advantage of that hesitation and smacked the legs out from under the guards standing between them and the way out, and dragged open the doors as hard and fast as she could before running out through them, the rest of them close behind her. She put a shield over the doorway to cover their retreat as the remaining kirin readied their bows to fire again, then put her full effort into running.

There were still plenty of guards outside of the throne room as well, having been drawn to the shouts of their Sultan. That was more unfortunate for them than the other way around, because now Twilight was moving, she wasn't going to stop just for ponies waving pointy bits of metal in her face. Ponies were sent flying in all directions as she ploughed straight through them, tossing them aside when she could, or just knocking them down and going straight over them when she couldn't.

They skidded to a halt just in front of their way to freedom as a guard, twice the size of the others, blocked the palace entrance, brandishing a scimitar roughly the same size as the average dinner table, and started twirling it around himself in a display of intimidation that might've worked against literally anyone else.

Twilight ensured his short journey down the palace steps at least had a soft landing in one of the shallow pools of the water gardens, even if the journey, and its source of propulsion, must've broken at least one or two bones.

"Come on!" Rainbow shouted from above, waving for the rest of them to join her in the air. "There's more guards coming, and I can see the Mareitanian army in the distance!"

"I really hope this was all part of your plan," Luna said to Cadence as they took off, with Twilight dragging Trixie and Sunset behind her.

"I really hope so too," Cadence said back. "Otherwise I've just made a huge mistake."

"You can say that again," Twilight growled at the pink mare. "The Sultan I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt, but telling Amira what we're doing with the griffons? That has the potential to really bite us in the ass."

"I've known Amira for years," Cadence said in her defence. "I don't think that she would lie to me about her intentions. She's always been an honest mare."

"Ah well, here's hoping she lies to the ponies we want her to lie to then. Otherwise we're screwed, and the Sultan is screwed as well."

"You really don't trust anypony, do you?" Cadence half shouted. "You don't even trust me with this plan!"

"I trust plenty of ponies," Twilight replied, a lot more calmly than she wanted to. "I trust you too, but I don't know Amira anywhere near enough to trust her with our plans to stop Faust."

"We have no choice but to wait and see now," Luna said to both of them, calmly taking the middle ground of the argument. "If Amira betrays our trust, we shall deal with it. If not, then we may have an ally in Saddle Arabia when the time comes."

"Besides," Trixie interjected, "if she does betray us, it'll still mean that the Sultan will want Faust to hold up her end of the deal to get his ponies back. That still works for us."

"Fine," Twilight said begrudgingly, although she hadn't changed her opinion in the slightest. "What's done is done. All we can do now is head for Zebrica, and hope that they're at least happy to see us. And if we aren't ready after that, I don't think we ever will be."

-0-0-0-

The retreat was quiet when they returned, and while that wasn't exactly unusual, there should've been at least a few more people around. There was no sign of Nightmare, Daring Do, Mayfly, or Ember, and Moondancer was conspicuous in her absence, as she would normally be in the observation area.

"Starsy?" Twilight asked out loud. She waited a moment for his illusionary body to form, then asked "Where is everyone? Has something happened?"

"Something has indeed happened, although I can't say with any certainty as to how good or bad that something is."

"How delightfully cryptic," Trixie snarked. "Care to elaborate?"

"Ooh, no, I don't think I will now. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise after all. Head through the portal back to Equestria, and you will find out what this is all about."

"Oh come on! You can't just-" Trixie pouted as the illusion of Starsy faded away, "Apparently you can. Asshole."

"I can still hear you."

"Ass-hole," Trixie repeated slowly and loudly.

"Charming."

"Let's just go and find out what this is about," Twilight said to Trixie, turning and walking back to the portal chamber. "Hopefully this really is good news, because bad news might get blasted in the face."

"That surely depends upon the messenger," said Luna.

"Perhaps."

Night was starting to fall in Equestria as they stepped through the portal into Starlight's village, although it was still plenty light enough to see without difficulty. Nothing seemed particularly amiss either as they walked up out of the tunnel where the mirror was hidden, so long as you ignored Mayfly, who was sat just inside the house, next to the doorway with her back to the wall, her face written in abject terror and misery.

Sunset pushed forwards, trotting quickly up to Mayfly. "Are you alright? What's wrong? Has something happened?"

"I- I- She- I-" Mayfly stammered, stopping herself to try and get the words together.

"Come on Mayfly," Sunset said patiently, "deep breaths, and try to speak slower."

Mayfly nodded and drew in a few breaths before finally managing to squeak out a couple of frightened syllables. "She's here!"

"Who is?" Twilight asked, as the list for who 'she' might be had more than a few candidates.

"The Queen!"

Twilight's first instinct was to assume Mayfly meant Faust, but only held onto that thought for half a second because if it was Faust, Mayfly would probably be too dead to tell them anything. She also wouldn't call Faust 'the Queen.' There was only one being that Mayfly would give that name to.

Twilight dashed out of the house, quickly followed by the others, then skidded to a halt after barely a dozen paces as she found the source of Mayfly's fears sitting calmly on the dry, packed earth of the village, surrounded by Nightmare, Ember, and Daring Do, while Moondancer was sat a few meters away, looking as terrified as Mayfly was. It really was none other than Queen Chrysalis, who looked and smiled nastily at them as they stared at her.

"And the guests of honour have finally arrived. I was wondering how much longer these four could stomach standing here, eyeballing me before you would turn up."

"What are you doing here?" Cadence asked with a growl.

"Other than looking for your little group of oddities?" Chrysalis replied, giving both Nightmare and Ember a sideways glance. "The dark one is a particular mystery."

Luna stomped a hoof at the changeling queen, her expression alone saying that she wasn't in the mood for games. "Answer the question."

"I do believe I already have. I am actually looking for you."

"Why?"

"To offer you my help."

"Your help?" Luna laughed. "Why would you offer to help us, even if we wanted it?"

"Because... I need your help."

22. Strange bedfellows

All of them stared at the changeling queen, individually trying to work out how she was trying to trick them, and each of them positive that she was. The fact that she was sat here, totally undisguised, saying to their faces that she needed help was irrelevant.

"How could you, Queen Chrysalis of the changelings, possibly need our help?" Luna asked, her tone of voice making it very clear that she thought Chrysalis was yanking their collective legs. "Speak."

"Is Faust attacking you?" Cadence also enquired. "We know you built defences in case she did."

"No, she isn't attacking us," Chrysalis said with a small shake of her head, "but at this rate I'm sure she wouldn't need to."

"Why?"

"Because we're dying," Chrysalis said calmly. Far more calmly than you'd expect, considering what she just said.

"This is ridiculous," Luna grunted. "If you seriously expect us to believe that, you are sorely mistaken. Be gone from here, and do not return."

"Wait," Cadence said, before Chrysalis could so much as protest or comply. "Why are you dying? If you aren't under attack, is it a disease, or something else?"

"Starvation," Twilight stated, adding herself back into the discussion. She gestured a hoof towards Chrysalis, hoping to point out her figure that was looking considerably more gaunt than usual, and that her chitin had lost its lustre. "There's not enough love for them to survive on any more."

"Not even close," Chrysalis sighed. "I'm going to sound rather cheesy here, but what Equestria has been through has broken the country's heart. You used to be so lovey-dovey it was almost sickening, if not rather nourishing. We got by surviving on what scraps we could get, but now that eternal wellspring of love has dried up it seems. Were I in any other position I wouldn't actually care, but since we feed off that love it's become a bit of an issue."

"So you've come crawling to us," Luna growled.

"Actually I flew here, but I'll let a few bug related insults slide for now."

"Why don't we just kill her and end the problem?" Nightmare suggested. "Don't tell me it hasn't crossed at least some of your minds," she added as the others looked sideways at her.

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow at the dark mare, a tiny smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "And here I thought you'd be all about second chances, considering what you are, Nightmare Moon. Funny though, I always thought you and Luna were the same pony."

"Ooh... we so don't have time to go into that now," Nightmare retorted. "Not that I particularly want to tell you anyway. Come on guys, I'll make it quick and relatively painless, and that's the end of the changeling threat forever. We could even find the pink one and have a party about it if you want?"

"Is that really what you ponies have become? Just murder your problems away?" Chrysalis scoffed at the ponies before her, "Oh how the righteous have fallen. I suppose I might as well make it quick here, rather than slowly starve to death, watching my children slowly wither and die."

"Except you don't have to," said Twilight. "We've already solved the problem. Rather than taking and hoarding love, changelings need to share it." Twilight's face went stiff as Chrysalis started to laugh at her, "I'm being serious."

"And it is absolutely adorable, but no, what you're saying is ridiculous."

"You think that now," Twilight replied smugly, like she was about to play her trump card. "Mayfly, could you come here please?" She lost some of her smugness as nothing happened. "Mayfly?"

"I'm not coming out."

"But you have to! We can prove to Chrysalis that there's a better way for changelings to live. One that doesn't involve abducting ponies and stealing love."

"The abducting part's my favourite," Chrysalis whispered aside to Nightmare.

"I'm still really close to just blowing your head off," Nightmare whispered back.

"My, you are a touchy one."

"Mayfly!" Twilight lightly stomped a hoof as she tried to reign in her frustration. "Please? I promise we won't let her do anything to you. If she does, we'll let Nightmare have her way."

Chrysalis swallowed as Nightmare grinned with the permission that gave her.

"Come on, Mayfly, please?"

"No!"

"And I'm done waiting," said Trixie, lighting her horn to drag Mayfly out of the house, squealing and fighting, and dumped her to the ground in front of Chrysalis.

Mayfly gulped as she looked up at her Queen, then practically ground her nose into the dirt as she cowered in a bow. "Greetings... mother."

Chrysalis leaned forwards, sniffing at her wayward daughter and narrowing her eyes. "So it really is you, even though you look ridiculous and stink of pony. What have you done to yourself?"

"Your Majesty, I-"

"I should've killed you when I had the chance, traitor."

"Hey!" Sunset shoved Chrysalis back and placed herself between the two changelings. "You don't get to speak to her like that!"

"Sunset," Twilight said weakly as Chrysalis bared her fangs, "I really don't think that's going to achieve what you want."

"We'll just see if it doesn't." Sunset turned her glare up into Chrysalis' eyes, "You cast her out as an exile, which means you don't get to be angry and upset when she does things differently to you. She decided to share her love, and now she's no longer starved for it. If you did the same, you wouldn't be either."

"You're lucky I don't have the energy to do much more than give you angry looks." Chrysalis closed her eyes and breathed out slowly, "Whatever it is that Mayfly has done to herself, I can assure you I won't be doing the same."

"Then how about you stop wasting our time and tell us what you want," Luna said to Chrysalis. "Are you hoping that you can negotiate with us now that Celestia is absent? Is that it?"

"Quite the opposite, actually. Celestia I know, and Celestia I can predict, while all of you are practically unknown's to me. Except maybe you, dear Cadence. You I got to know quite well in the lead up to a certain ill-fated royal wedding."

"Clearly not that well," Twilight smirked, "since I could tell you weren't the Cadence I knew from the very beginning."

"Yes, well- Eep!" Chrysalis ducked as Flurry sneezed, firing a beam of raw energy that hit the side of a house behind her, melting a hole in it. She slowly raised herself back up as it became clear it wasn't going to happen again. "Gesundheit," she muttered, lighting her own horn to point Flurry away from her.

"Don't you touch her!" Cadence snarled, shocking Chrysalis into letting go. "How about you get on and tell us what you want, or get out of here."

Chrysalis waited a moment as she watched Mayfly crawl away to the apparent safety that cowering behind Sunset provided. "Very well. As I said, my changelings are starving, and will start to die from that soon. The only way I can see to fix that is to return Equestria to the way it was."

"And not to conquer it yourself?" Luna asked, her eyebrow raised as she peered at Chrysalis. "Or has what happened been a lesson in what would occur if Equestria fell beneath your perforated hoof?"

"Call it what you want," Chrysalis snapped, irritated at being interrupted. "If you really want to know what this is, it's a last ditch effort by a desperate queen to save her people. I know you're building an alliance with the griffons to stop Faust, and I wish to join it."

Twilight snorted into laughter, "Hah, good one. Now tell us the full extent of what you really want."

"I just did."

"No, no you did not. Do you seriously expect us to believe you'll help us without getting something back? The survival of your changelings is your primary concern, perhaps, but I very much doubt you'll go quietly back to the Badlands afterwards. Tell us what you're really after."

Chrysalis glowered at Twilight, but the lack of a denial confirmed that Chrysalis did have more to ask for. "Fine. I want the right for my people to live in Equestria as equals to ponies."

"Uh-huh. What else?"

"And as their queen, I would be held as equal to the princesses-"

"Absolutely not," said Luna.

Chrysalis snorted and turned her head to Luna, "And why is that?"

"Firstly, because you do not deserve to held as equal to the princesses. In your history, you have abducted ponies, terrorized the country, and attempted more than once to take the leadership of Equestria out, all of which culminated in a failed invasion a mere three, three and a half years ago. Secondly, you don't need to be in a position where you have the potential to be nothing but trouble."

"Then how am I supposed to lead my people if I am not equal to you?"

"Assuming we even agree to this, you can still lead your people, so long as you accept that they live in Equestria under Equestrian laws. You will be invited to consult us and advise us as the Queen of the changelings, and an... ally, but will otherwise defer to us, although we will do our best to accommodate the needs of your changelings as you present them to us."

Chrysalis nodded slowly as she took that in, "Does that mean you're at least considering my proposition?" she asked, a rare note of hope in her voice.

"Oh, not in the slightest."

Cadence cleared her throat noisily, making Luna groan. "This is not for you to decide alone."

"And I suppose you want to give her a chance?" Luna said sarcastically. "Even after what she did to you? And Shining?"

Cadence opened her mouth to speak, then closed it as she looked up at Chrysalis. "Nightmare, could you make sure she stays put, please? I wish to have a private discussion with my fellow princesses."

"And that doesn't include me? I'm wounded." Nightmare smiled at the way Luna looked at her, "Joking, I'm joking. Apparently we don't share a sense of humour."

"Thank goodness." Luna stalked after Twilight and Cadence until they were far enough away to not be overheard, "Let's hear it then, your great plan to undermine me."

"It's not undermining you if it isn't just your decision," Cadence said patiently. "And yes, I am saying we give her a chance because while I have absolutely no love for Chrysalis, I also know what her changelings can become. They don't deserve to die because of our issues with Chrysalis."

"And what of her sudden yet inevitable betrayal? You know there'll be one."

"Then what better way to keep an eye on her is there than this?" Cadence smiled at Luna as her face went slightly slack, "What do you think, Twilight?"

"I agree with you. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."

Luna snorted with mirth, "Considering the context of what we're doing, you must realise that's a load of rubbish. Unless of course you're suggesting we go and become chummy with Faust?"

"Oh please, Faust makes Chrysalis look like a joke. You have to admit this benefits us though. Another ally with an army, and a way of keeping an eye on Chrysalis. If we can make her changelings feel at home here in Equestria, we might write her off being a threat ever again."

Luna closed her eyes and sighed, horribly aware that she wasn't getting her way on this. The worst part was that if Celestia had been here, the proper Celestia, she'd probably have agreed with the other two.

"This is a fool's errand, trusting a snake like Chrysalis to come into our home. Do you really believe this is the best course, Twilight?"

"Honestly, no, I'd rather keep Chrysalis as far away from us as we can, but we can't condemn the entire changeling race because of our dislike of Chrysalis. Mayfly and Thorax already prove that there's a better way for them. One which can totally undermine Chrysalis until she's nothing more than the figurehead of a race she no longer rules."

"Ah, and your scheming is revealed."

"My scheming was always there," Twilight said primly. "I just wrapped it up in better words for you."

"I must confess that you do make a interesting case. I still think this is a terrible idea of course, and shall be ready with an 'I told you so' when she betrays us. Otherwise it's you two against me, so Chrysalis is to be given a chance."

The three princesses broke up their huddle and returned to the others to deliver their verdict. Judging by the happy little grin Nightmare wore, she had at least already decided what the conclusion would be.

"What's it going to be? A quick death? A sloowww death? Maybe an amusing death? Or are we being stupid enough to give this thing a chance?"

"The latter," Luna sighed. She plodded over to Chrysalis as Nightmare groaned, and stood in front of her. "Congratulations, you're being given an opportunity to prove you're more than just tyrannical parasite. Pray you do not squander this chance."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means," Twilight said with a nasty grin, "fuck this up on purpose, and we'll fuck you up on purpose."

Chrysalis didn't snarl back a reply as Twilight had expected. Instead she sat there solemnly, looking like she'd just realised she'd made a Discord's bargain. It could've easily been an act since that would be a very changeling thing to do, but the lack of a reaction was more convincing than anything Chrysalis could've said.

"That said," Twilight continued, throwing Chrysalis a bone, "keep your word and help us get rid of Faust, and perhaps we might see our way to letting bygones be bygones."

"I am in no position to deceive you. Well, not more than I am at this very moment, because there is something I must ask of you that I didn't before."

Luna rolled her eyes up to the sky and sighed, "And it begins. What do you want?"

"Food. As in love. Stopping Faust will solve the long term problem, but right now my children are still starving, and won't be able to do anything to help you without sustenance." Chrysalis shrugged helplessly, "Don't tell me you didn't see this coming."

"Not as such," said Luna. "You're also out of luck, because there is no way Cadence will be setting hoof anywhere near your hive."

"Which is exactly what I expected you to say. Unfortunately for you, you're going to have to put a little trust in me, because the only way I can do this is to have the Princess of Love there infuse me with as much of her energy as possible, which I will then take back to my hive to share to my children."

"Get out," Luna spat, not even bothering to consider it.

Cadence groaned at Luna, "Don't be so quick to dismiss her like that."

"Can't you see what she's trying to do? As soon as she has your power she's going to use it against us!"

"To the point that she can beat all of us? Or Faust?" Cadence smiled patiently at Luna, "I think you're overreacting a bit."

"If it helps," Chrysalis interjected, "if you do this for me I have some information for you that you'll want. I was saving it as a bargaining chip, but it seems that two of you are at least willing to listen to me."

"And now she's doing this!" Luna covered her eyes, feeling like the only pony on a sinking ship that knew what water looked like. "You're starting to see my point, aren't you Twilight?"

"I didn't fail to see it in the first place, but yeah, I am a bit suspicious now. I hate to say it though, any information we can get is helpful, and the changelings aren't going to be much use to us being half starved." Twilight shrugged at Luna, "The choice to do this is also Cadence's at the end of the day. Cadence?"

Cadence stepped towards Chrysalis, taking a deep breath to steady herself as an aura of the purest love she could muster started to form around not only her horn, but her entire being. It grew, increasing in brightness and intensity, to the point that the others had to look away until the light died down. When they looked back, a flaming pink heart hovered in front of Cadence.

"Well?" Cadence said to Chrysalis. "What are you waiting for?"

Chrysalis licked her lips nervously, eyeing the flaming heart of pure love. "I must confess that I've actually been feeding off the love you and your infant exude since you got here, so I'm not what you would call hungry right now. Perhaps I could have a doggy bag?"

"This is what you wanted, isn't it?"

"I'm not sure I could contain that much energy at once..."

"Really? Because there's plenty more where this came from." Cadence smirked at Chrysalis, "Thinking you fed off the wrong pony back before my wedding? Or are you wondering what might've been if only you'd asked this of me sooner?"

Chrysalis didn't answer. She didn't dare to. Instead she opened her mouth and started inhaling wisps of the love that the heart contained, but she knew that she was merely nibbling around the edges of what was in essence an entire banquet that could feed her hive for months with leftovers.

The effect it had on her physically was also quickly noticeable. Her chitin quickly regained its shine, and she filled back out where she'd gone thin with hunger. A few seconds later her belly started to bulge, and she gave up trying to consume what Cadence had gifted to her.

"It's too much. Too much by far."

"Well?" Cadence asked as the changeling queen licked her lips, "how do you feel?"

"Powerful, like I could take on the world. Not that I have any intention of doing so," Chrysalis amended quickly. "What I have will be more than enough to get my hive ready."

"That's good." Cadence dismissed the heart, letting its accumulated energy dissipate into the air, much to the horror of Chrysalis.

"What are you doing!?"

Cadence gave Chrysalis a sideways smile, "There's plenty more where that came from. Now about that information you said you had for us? Unless this was all a trick to get me to feed your hive for a while?"

"No trick." Chrysalis raised herself up to her full height, appearing more like the queen that she always carried herself as. It'd look better if her belly wasn't bulging the way it was. "You're aware of those steam powered metal beasts the Mareitanians use in their army?"

"The steam tanks?" said Twilight. "Yes, we're aware."

"I thought you might be. There's a place near Appleloosa where they've set up what I can only assume to be a place where they're testing new weapons, and I do mean assume. It's not like I have any need for such things in my army."

"And they're building tanks there?" asked Luna.

"Not quite. My scouts tell me they have only one of those things, but it's different to the ones the Mareitanians fielded previously. Honestly I have no idea myself, but I suspect you might. They also brought it in by train, so it must've been built elsewhere."

Twilight licked her lips nervously as she shared a look with Luna, "Do you have a precise location for this place?"

"Go west from the pass through the Macintosh hills. It should be a few miles into the desert from there."

"And it isn't a trap set up by yourself?" Nightmare asked suspiciously. She was answered by a sharp glare. "I'm just saying, don't do anything we can make you regret."

"I can tell we're going to be the greatest of friends, you and I," Chrysalis said pleasantly. "So long as we don't kill each other in the near future. Now then, if there was nothing else to discuss, I should be returning to my hive-"

"Hold on," Twilight said to Chrysalis before running back to the portal. She returned a few minutes later, during which a lot of awkwardness happened in the form of looks and silence. Twilight held a smooth, round stone in her magic, adorned with a single rune cut into its surface. "We'll be in touch."

"So you're not going to tell me where to send my army?"

"Not until the time is right. However, I might request your aid in destroying that weapons facility you told us about."

Chrysalis gingerly took the speaker stone in her magic, "Very well. I will tell you now though, do not expect me to be at your beck and call at all times. I will decide what I do and do not help you with, so do not attempt to test my patience by asking for banal favours."

"Of course, your Majesty." Twilight gave Chrysalis a half-assed curtsey, "Have a safe trip back to your hive." Chrysalis didn't return the curtsey, or give a farewell at all. She lurched into the air, her wings working hard to carry her extra weight, and flew south. The hum of her wings could be heard for some time.

"Why the fuck are we even considering working with that piece of filth?" Nightmare asked angrily once Chrysalis was gone. "I mean, seriously, why?"

"Because," Twilight noisily cleared her throat, "when the changelings are living in Equestria, we're going to do our best to befriend them, convert them to Mayfly's and Thorax's way of thinking, and basically steal Chrysalis' hive from under her while reminding her that this was her idea in the first place, so she can't even complain. There might be some civil unrest for a while as the schism between the converted and unconverted changelings is being formed, but that shouldn't be anything we can't handle."

"Oh." Nightmare blinked a few times in slow succession. "I'm not even sure what to make of that. It's like good intentions wrapped up in an evil plot."

"I know! I also know we're going to have to be really careful how we do it."

"There is one concern I have," Luna said to Twilight, interrupting the younger alicorn's gloating. "What's going to happen to her place in things if you go ahead with your plans to replace us with democracy? You'd be opening a door to Chrysalis having more power than us. She could even run to be leader if she wished."

"And there's nothing stopping you from running either. Besides, what ponies in their right minds would vote for Chrysalis? She'd had to have done a lot to earn their trust to do that. By that point she might even deserve to lead for a while." Twilight smiled as Luna spluttered incoherently, "That was a joke by the way."

"I should hope so." Luna sighed and rubbed a hoof back through her mane, "I feel a little overloaded after all this. What happened in Saddle Arabia was enough to occupy my attention without whatever it is that just really happened."

"Which might turn out to be a massive mistake," said Trixie. "You all know it, I'm just saying it."

"It will," said Mayfly. "Maybe not now, but it will. Queen isn't going to let go of her hive easily, so your plan might create more trouble than it's worth."

"Eh, we'll see. The worst I can see happening is that Chrysalis has to be forcibly removed from Equestria, which may or may not involve some of her changelings choosing to go with her. Then we're back to square one with her being a bad guy again." Twilight shrugged, "In which case she helped us get Equestria back, which is as much as you can ask for really. Maybe her fear of Cadence will keep her in line."

"I really doubt she's scared of me," said Cadence. "Even if she is, there's no need for her to be."

Twilight patted Cadence on the back, "Sure, sure. Anyway, I think we've earned ourselves some rest. I'm going to tell Fleur what going on, and I'm going to leave it to her to sort out the new tank thing. Then we'll see if Chrysalis means what she said by getting her to help them destroy it."

-0-0-0-

It was quite some time after Fleur had gone below deck to converse with Twilight that Shining decided to go and see where she was, mostly because the longer she was gone, the worse he expected the news to be, and his paranoia didn't like that one bit.

He found Fleur face down on her bed, closely contemplating her pillow, the speaker stone still beside her. If she had even realised he was there, she made no move to acknowledge it, even when he sat down on the side of the bed next to her.

"That bad huh?"

Fleur turned her head to the side, freeing her mouth to speak. "It's that bad. We might have an allegiance with Saddle Arabia, or they might've allied with Faust. Twilight genuinely isn't sure at this point."

"Oookay... that still doesn't explain why you're here like this."

"Those boats we saw were carrying an invasion vanguard to Zebrica, while some went to Saddle Arabia with the ambassador Amira to try to convince the Sultan to side with Faust, hence the uncertainty. Fuck knows what they're doing in Zebrica as well."

"Oh, that's not good."

"The kirin have allied with Faust as well, whatever the fuck a kirin is."

"Ah, that is also bad."

"While we possibly have a new ally as well."

"That's good!"

"It's Chrysalis and the changelings."

"That's... I want to say bad, but I'm not sure at this point. I mean it's good for the short term, but probably very much less so in the long term, because it's Chrysalis. What was Twilight thinking allying with her?"

"Twilight knew you'd say that, which is why she wanted me to emphasise that it was also Cadence's idea, because she knew you wouldn't argue with that as much."

"...Damn it."

Fleur laughed and rolled over to face Shining, "Nice to see she knows you so well. Anyway, Chrysalis gave us some information about a weapons testing facility in the Appleloosan desert where they seem to be testing a new tank. Twilight wants us to investigate, and if possible, destroy it, and she wants Chrysalis to help us."

"And what's stopping the princesses flying down and taking care of it themselves?"

"Twilight wants this to be a test for Chrysalis. If Chrysalis is surrounded by alicorns she'll behave, but with us she might not. If she does as we ask, perhaps she might be serious about her desire to ally with Equestria."

"Twilight does remember what that thing did to me, right?" Shining shuddered as memories of his wedding flittered through his mind, "I don't exactly have fond memories of Chrysalis. In fact, I wish she were dead to be frank. I certainly don't want her around me."

"I'm afraid it's tough on that one, and I know you'll refuse to stay behind if she's with us, so you're just going to have to put up with it."

"This is the worst idea Twilight's had yet."

"And that particular bar is already pretty high." Fleur hauled herself up off her bed and stretched her stiffness away. "I'm really starting to wonder how this will go. The war I mean. Both Faust and us have accumulated a serious military force now, and I don't see how that's any better than what it was before. Griffons, changelings, kirin, Saddle Arabians, zebra... all of them to fight this war. It's turning into madness."

"And yet, if we don't fight, it's war anyway. Faust is going to keep doing what she's doing, and it's up to everyone that can to stop her."

"It's going to be chaos." Fleur smiled sadly, "I guess we better get the others organised, and maybe figure out a way to get to Appleloosa."

-0-0-0-

The flap of massive wings was the only sound for the miles and miles they flew to Appleloosa. To creatures that fly, there was really no other way to travel, but to the half dozen ponies clinging onto the back of the roc that Thorax had turned into, the ground was always going to be the safer option. Maybe if he'd managed to turn into a full sized roc it'd be a bit more comfortable, but apparently that was beyond him.

There was a sharp whistle from above, and Fleur managed to find the courage to lift her face up from Thorax's feathery back to see Shadow looping in towards them, back from scouting ahead.

"There's definitely something there," Shadow said, hovering just above them as between Fleur, Shining Armour, Bon Bon, Crème, and most surprisingly Honeydew, there wasn't any room to land. "It looks like they've been having fun too, considering the amount of blast craters there are around the place."

"Remind me again why we're the ones taking care of this?"

Fleur ignored Shining, who had been whining about their trip for a while. "What's security like there?"

"Nothing too intense. They've put a fence up around where they set up camp, but that's about it. Otherwise it's just a bunch of tents. I'd say there's about thirty ponies there in all. Nothing else. No yaks, kirin, or anything that isn't a pony. You might want to consider landing soon though, because you're not too far away and I don't think they're going to miss the giant bird."

"Alright. Thorax, take us down."

Thorax started his descent, slowly spiralling around until he reached the ground. The sun was starting to set, casting everything into shadows, even in the still boiling desert. Fleur gasped as she slid off Thorax's back, touching her hooves onto the hot ground and jogging on the spot for a moment until she got used to it.

"I've been here seconds and I already hate this place." Fleur stood aside and looked around as the others disembarked from Thorax, allowing the changeling to return to normal. There honestly wasn't much to see. Just rocks, and sand, and anything that dared to live in the arid landscape. "Where now, Shadow?"

"We're not too far away," the thestral said. She started flying in a direction, waving the others after her. "We should try and get a better look at what we're dealing with first, before we head in."

"And could we do that in a way that doesn't lead us through a bunch of potentially unexploded ordinance?" Bon Bon asked, giving Shadow a look.

"Huh? Oh, right, yeah, I forgot about that." Shadow turned around on the spot a few times before settling on a direction. "This should take us to the rear of their compound where they hopefully haven't left a bunch of stuff that could go boom buried in the ground. The view won't be as good though."

"I'm sure we'll live with it," Bon Bon snickered as she and the others started walking after the thestral.

"Something about this smells wrong," Crème said after a minute of walking. They'd come close to a crater, and as soon as they did Crème had started to smell something off. The crater didn't smell like normal explosives, but had an odour similar to the residue from destructive spells. "I need to check this out."

Bon Bon grabbed Crème, stopping her as she headed right for the crater. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Checking this crater out. I have a hunch about these explosives they're testing, and I don't like it." Crème shrugged off Bon Bon's hoof and continued into the crater. "I'll be fine, honestly."

"I am not dragging your heavy ass around if you lose your legs."

Crème stopped on the edge of the crater and sniffed. "Look on the bright side, I'll be a lot lighter without legs." She took a tentative step into the blackened crater, then another, then went quicker until she reached the bottom.

Her hooves tingled as they touched the ground, even through her suit, and the crater was still warm it was that saturated with magic. Crème sniffed at the ground, wrinkling her nose at the indescribable smell.

"Well?" Bon Bon asked. "Find anything?"

"This crater's full of magic residue. I think they're lacing their explosives with magic, or something along those lines. I can't be sure until I see what made this."

Fleur walked up to the edge of the crater. She'd been able to smell something was off, but had dismissed it as unimportant since she had no idea what it was. Now she was glad one of them had picked up on it. "Are you absolutely sure about this?"

"I'm sure." Crème picked up a hooffull of dirt and tossed it into the air. The dust shimmered and glittered as it drifted back to the ground. "Positive even."

"Great, just what we need." Fleur rubbed the spot under her eyes and sighed, "Honeydew, do you think the tanks you designed could fire magic laced munitions?"

"That depends on the method of delivery. If they were using bombs, I'd say yes, but I'm not seeing a lot of shrapnel out here. It is dark though, so I could be missing it."

"What could they be using if they aren't using bombs?" Fleur had been expecting it, but she still huffed when Honeydew said she didn't know. "I guess we'll put that on the list of things to be discovered. Let's get moving, and hopefully have this all figured out in time for breakfast."

-0-0-0-

The compound, if the patch of desert with a few tents set up could really be called that, was quiet. There were a few lights set up, but most of it was in darkness. Outside of that area they had no idea what was going on, and only had Shadow's word on it that there were a few patrols wandering around, near invisible in the dark to those without night vision.

The patrols were irrelevant though, as the main prize was currently hidden under a sheet that did nothing to hide the shape of the tank beneath, although that shape was different to what they all remembered a tank to be. It was shorter in height, yet wider, providing a more stable platform.

"How could they fit the boiler into something that low?" Honeydew asked out loud. "I investigated trying to lower the profile of the tanks back when I was designing them for... Faust, but it simply wasn't possible."

"Apparently it is," said Fleur.

"No, it wasn't. I tried dozens of designs, and none of them worked. It literally wasn't possible. That tank is either destined to fail, or it's-"

"Driven by something other than steam?" Crème asked, thinking she knew where Honeydew was going with that. "Your designs were limited by it being steam powered, but here in Equestria..." Crème left the sentence open. She knew how Honeydew felt about arcane engines.

"I might not know much about arcane engines, but even I know that to move a thing like that would take some serious power. The engine on the boat is already half the size of that thing down there, and that's just turning a propeller! Using one to power that thing shouldn't be possible."

"You're saying that a lot today," said Shadow.

"Well it shouldn't be!"

"Lower the volume," Bon Bon scolded, making it clear that she would make Honeydew lower it if she had to.

"Sorry, I'm sorry. It's just... I already hated tanks, but if my designs have gone into the creation of something even more dangerous... I hate to even think about it."

"Then don't," Shadow cheerfully told her, grinning at the glare the yellow pony gave her.

"When are we going in for a closer look?" Bon Bon asked Fleur. By we she meant Crème and herself, and hoped Fleur would pick up on that.

"I'm not sure. I think we might have unwittingly stumbled upon a golden opportunity here, and I'd rather not fuck it up and waste it."

"You sound like you have a plan."

"I might indeed."

-0-0-0-

Bon Bon kept her hooves as light as possible, trying to make little to no noise on ground that enjoyed crunching at every step. Even though there appeared to be nothing or nopony around, she still didn't want to risk getting caught. If Fleur's plan was to go off without a hitch, this had to be done perfectly. No more screw ups.

The tents were barely meters in front of her now, and the sound of snoring was more than enough to tell her which ones to avoid. She might've felt sorry for the ponies working the night patrol, trying to sleep in the oppressive heat during the day while a bunch of ponies tested explosives right next to them, but right now their probable tiredness worked well in her favour.

Bon Bon skipped past the tents with ponies sleeping in them, and moved onto what seemed to be the smallest tent on site. The flaps on the tent weren't even secured, not that it would've made much difference if they were, so Bon Bon slipped in to find that she was exactly where she needed to be.

Boards had been set up in the tent, covered in detailed plans of the weapon they'd been testing here. Everything she could want to know about it was within her reach, but there was only one part she needed, according to Crème, and that was the engine schematics.

Bon Bon plucked a small torch from her gear, and held it in her teeth, hoping nopony would notice the small amount of light as she searched for what she needed. What she needed was actually right in front of her, spread out on the angled desk, but that going missing would be noticed straight away. What she needed was a relatively up to date copy of it, and that would likely found in the rolled up papers stored around the tent.

It took several minutes of searching, and she almost passed it, but she did find a copy of the engine schematics in a tube. She took it out and unrolled it, checking it against the more recent version for anything majorly different. Some changes had been made, so Bon Bon found a scrap of paper and pencil, and sketched out the different bits including what was written, hoping the unicorns could make sense of it, because it meant relatively little to her.

When she was done, Bon Bon put everything back into its place, except the bit she was stealing, and ducked out of the tent, finding the way was still clear for her. Quiet talking could be heard nearby, but so long as they were talking to each other, they wouldn't be listening out for her, so she slipped away back towards where the others were waiting.

"Mission success," Bon Bon reported happily, passing the scroll over to Crème, who quickly started going over it using the light from her horn. "Nopony saw me, and hopefully they won't notice that's missing until it's well past too late."

"Nice work," said Fleur. "What do you think Crème?"

"It's definitely an arcane engine, but what they've done to make it small enough to fit in that tank, yet still powerful enough to power it, shouldn't be possible. It should tear itself apart like this, but it doesn't." Crème scratched at the side of her head, bewildered by what she was looking at. "Give me a minute to try and work this out."

Fleur nodded and waited quietly, watching the camp as she listened to some whispering going on behind her between Honeydew and Thorax. It was hardly a surprise when both came up to her a minute later.

"Do you have a minute?" Honeydew asked, sitting next to Fleur. "We have some concerns."

"About Chrysalis? About what she might do to Thorax when she sees him?"

"I'm not really sure she should see me at all," Thorax murmured nervously. "If she sees me looking like her... replacement, she'll kill me."

"No she won't. If she wants this alliance to work, she won't do anything to risk harming that, including anything she might do to you. Besides, do you really want to spend the rest of your life running from her?"

"...No," Thorax admitted slowly. "Honestly, I just want us to, well, not necessarily get along, but at least not be at each others' throats. I don't think I could fight her if it comes to it."

"Why not? You're a lot stronger now. Sure Chrysalis has centuries of experience, but you have... moxie, and moxie counts for a lot in these situations." Fleur laughed at herself, "Sorry guys, I wish I had more I could say on this, but honestly, this is something you and chrysalis are going to have to sort out between yourselves. Equestria is plenty big enough for the both of you."

"And what if she tries to hurt Honeydew?"

Fleur shrugged helplessly, "That's still up to you. If you two want to go hide until our business with Chrysalis is over, that's fine. This is never going to end until you face her though. She met Mayfly and didn't kill her, so maybe you'll be fine too."

"Maybe you should challenge her instead," Bon Bon suggested. "If you make it look like you're not willing to take her shit, maybe she'll back off."

"I'm going to say that I probably know my mother better than you," Thorax sighed.

"Oh shit."

All of them looked over as Crème cursed, staring at the blueprints like they'd just insulted her mother. "Is there a problem?" Fleur asked.

"Apart from the insanity that this engine is?" Crème turned the plans towards them so they could see. "Basically, this engine is stupidly inefficient, but they use that to their advantage. All the randomly thrown off magic is caught and fed through a bunch of spells that force the engine to hold together, and the harder that engine works, the more magic is thrown out, the more magic is fed through those spells, the stronger those spells become. It's basically forcing itself to stay together, and it works."

"But surely it would run out of..." Honeydew rolled a hoof, having no idea what to call what the engine ran on, "magic juice?"

"You'd think that, but it generates an at extra two thirds of what it uses at any one time, and that extra is fed back into the engine to keep it going for longer, while some is sent off somewhere else. Yeah it runs out, but if it starts out on a full charge, you can probably get a few hours use without difficulty."

Fleur was shocked, and maybe even a little appalled. She was certainly rather disquieted by the whole thing. "How the hell did the Mareitanians come up with this?"

"They didn't," said Crème. "It was being researched in Manehatten university, but it was little more than a theory when the war started. Since this blueprint has Equestrian marks on it, I guess they kept going, and now Faust's gotten her hooves on it."

"Greeaaat. Couldn't they have burnt their research instead of letting the maniac get it?"

"You said some of the excess magic gets funnelled off somewhere else," said Shining, having been quietly listening to Crème's explanation. "Could it be used as a weapon? Or rather as ammo for a weapon?"

"I don't think so. It's just raw magic, so you'd have to put it through a process that could turn it into a spell to use it. Why? Are you-" Crème stopped, remembering the crater from before, and the magic residue that filled it. "No fucking way. That's- That's... impossible! Magic based weaponry! That's never been done before!"

"Who said it had to be just weapons?" said Shining. "They could create shield emitters and all kinds of things."

Crème whined in the back of her throat, "Something like that could be unstoppable."

"So we need to stop it here," said Fleur. "Can you sabotage that engine?"

"Easily," Crème nodded, "but to sabotage it in way that makes it look like sabotage rather than an explosion caused by catastrophic failure, that's a bit harder. If you want to get the Shades here to investigate, it has to look convincing. I might have to talk to someone that knows a lot more about magic than me."

"Maybe I could be of assistance?"

All if them froze at the sibilant voice behind them. Shining even whimpered. All of them turned around slowly to find a patch of dark that was towering over them and grinning as it peered at them with slitted green eyes.

"Princess Twilight sends her regards."

Author's Note

Does anyone else here miss sleep? I miss sleep.

23. Honest intent, dubious execution

There was a strangled cry from Shining as he quickly crawled away, making less progress with his flailing movements than if he'd calmly stood up and walked away. He'd been preparing himself to confront Chrysalis since learning he might have to be around her, but having her suddenly appear out of the darkness wasn't something he could ever be ready for. He also wasn't ready when the darkness looked at him with dozens of pearly blue eyes.

"Ah, I see dear Shining does remember me," Chrysalis said with mock warmness as Shining froze and whimpered at the wall of changelings around them. "How could he not? Not after all the wonderful time we spent together as a couple."

Fleur stood, fighting to keep the tremor out of her voice as she confronted the changeling queen. It was hard to when she had to look up as far as she did. "We weren't expecting you so soon."

"I didn't think you were, but apparently when Princess Twilight asks you to jump, you're required to ask how high." Chrysalis' eyes roved over the rest of them, stopping only briefly on Thorax as she hissed at him. "So this is the merry troupe sent to destroy that thing down there? I had expected the princesses to give this their more... personal attention."

Bon Bon stood as well, giving the changeling queen a steely look as she made it clear that she was armed. "Apparently they wanted to see how well you play with others."

"Oh please, I wouldn't ask you how nicely you can play with your food." There was a green flash as Chrysalis transformed into Cadence, "Isn't that right darling?" The innocent tone of her voice made Fleur's skin crawl.

"Don't you dare wear her face again you bitch!" Shining growled, seeing Chrysalis as Cadence riling him up enough to forget his terror.

Chrysalis smiled toothily as she transformed back into her usual form, "And so the shining knight was roused from his stupor. That wasn't too difficult."

"You've got us surrounded," Bon Bon said, waving her hoof at the dozens of changelings surrounding them. "How about you just get on and tell us what you're planning to do?"

"What I'm planning to do is help you, no matter how much you might insist you don't need or want it. Princess Twilight seems to have set this up to test me, and I intend to pass if it means your princesses accepting I was honest in my assertions to them. Equestria needs to be restored for the survival of my changelings, so that's what I'm going to do. Even the traitor there gets a pass because of it."

"There's always some kind of trick with you," Shining snarled. "As soon as you think we're not watching you, you'll try something."

"Well that depends, doesn't it."

"On what?"

"On how well you can play with me and my children. If we're going to be part of Equestria, all of you little ponies will have to get used to us. Or does the 'magic of friendship' only apply to the cute, fluffy creatures of this world?"

Shining snorted, trying to contain his anger as it was his very wife that allowed this opportunity to happen. How much he wished it wasn't so didn't matter. "You couldn't care less about being friends. You benefit from this, and that is your only concern."

"My concern is my hive and its survival," Chrysalis snapped, baring her fangs. "Helping you furthers that goal in several ways." Chrysalis pulled her head back and turned her snarl into a cruel smile, "Besides, you know what they say. The enemy of an enemy-"

"Does not automatically make a friend."

"It does when my choice is either you, or extinction, whether by starvation or genocide at the hooves of Faust and her puppets. One of which I do believe is Celestia herself, whom I know will certainly bring myself to Faust's attention at some point. Face it, Shining Armour, right now we're all stuck with each other at least until Faust is gone, which is the main goal here, is it not?"

"Guys! Guys! I think I saw a changeli-" Shadow rapidly beat her wings to stop herself in mid-air as she rushed towards them, feeling rather stupid. "Nevermind, I guess you already know. How long have they been here?"

"Long enough," Shining growled. "If you're really here to help us, prove it," he said to Chrysalis. "We need a way to sabotage that tank, but we need someone skilled in magic to do so, which you claim to be."

Chrysalis held her tongue for a moment, then smiled. Shining wanted to call it a nasty, or cruel smile, but all Chrysalis' smiles looked that way. He doubted she even knew what a genuine smile was, not without it being fuelled by malicious glee rather than actual joy.

"Very well, what do you need?"

"What do you know about arcane engines?" Crème asked, turning the blueprints so that Chrysalis could see them.

"Not a thing, other than they're pony inventions I have no use for. By the way, I know what you and the cream pony are, and I'm giving you a pass as well, even after all you've done to my hive."

"You mean in our efforts to stop you harming Equestria?" Bon Bon said, feeling considerably less cowed by Chrysalis than Crème was. "If Smile hadn't been disbanded, we might've stopped your invasion of Canterlot as well. Funny, isn't it, the way you took advantage of that little situation?"

"Oh, I like you, and I can't wait for all the unsubtle threats you're bound to give me over the coming hours. My ovipositor is positively dripping with anticipation." Chrysalis chuckled at Bon Bon's discomfort, "I do so love it when the ponies talk dirty to me."

"Just tell us what we need to know."

"Then how about you tell me what you need me to tell you."

"We need a way to sabotage this engine that will result in its destruction, but will also definitely look like sabotage. We want this to be investigated by the Shades."

"Ooh," Chrysalis tittered joyfully, "I sense some scheming going on. Why do you want this to be investigated by the Shades, hmm?"

"So we can kill them," said Bon Bon. "I take it that's not a problem for you?"

"Already you know me so well. I'll admit I am surprised though. Aren't you going to insist on finding a peaceful solution first?"

"No."

Chrysalis waited for more to be said, but nothing else was. "I see. Far be it from me to argue with you then. So how do you intend for the engine to be sabotaged so that it looks deliberate?"

Crème pointed to the diagram of the arcane engine, at the three rotating rings of metal and crystal that made up its core, and the containment spells that held it together. She explained how the harder the engine was driven, the stronger that containment was, and was faintly impressed that Chrysalis didn't once stop her to ask anything.

"I want a spell that can latch onto the spell matrix along with the others, and increase in power as they do. I don't mind what that spell is, but it can't result in an explosion, or anything that would appear as a malfunction or accident. If the remains of the enchantment we use could easily be found on the matrix afterwards, all the better."

All of them waited with baited breath as Chrysalis studied the diagrams with an intensity they hadn't expected. It left some of them with the uneasy feeling that Chrysalis had just learnt exactly how the engine worked to the point that she could build one herself.

"I think I know the perfect spell."

-0-0-0-

For something as large as Chrysalis was, her ability to sneak was second only to, well, other changelings, and only then because they were smaller. More than once Crème lost track of the changeling queen as they made their way down to the camp, and each of those times resulted in a small heart attack as she found Chrysalis practically looking over her shoulder like she'd been there the entire time.

"Remember, no getting seen, and no deaths either. They can't know we were here. At least, not until we've sabotaged the tank, but even then."

"Very well," Chrysalis said evenly, giving no sign of arguing, which surprised Crème immensely. "Is that why it's just you and me? Coming here like I can be trusted with you alone? I'm flattered."

"Don't be." Crème swivelled her ears about as she tried to listen for any patrols coming. "Do you hear anypony coming?"

"There are thirty-five ponies on this site, twenty-three of which are sleeping. None of the remaining twelve are currently near us." Chrysalis looked innocent as Crème turned her gaze upon the changeling queen, "Yes?"

"That's a useful... skill."

"It does indeed have its uses." There was a quick flash of green as Chrysalis disguised herself as a rather nondescript unicorn that appeared as mostly grey. "Shall we?"

Crème nodded and led the way out of their cover, quickly crossing the distance to where the tank was parked, covered by a tarpaulin. Quickly checking it was still clear, Crème lifted the tarpaulin off the rear, uncovering what she hoped was the access to the engine. Opening the rear panel, she was rewarded by the sight of the dormant engine, as well as a terrible stench of ozone.

"Ugh, that is foul," Crème said wafting the smell away with a hoof. "To think this is the pinnacle of magical engineering."

"I'm curious," Chrysalis said as she peered into the engine compartment. "How could these simpleton Mareitanians build this so quickly? They've barely had long enough to give Equestria with that new ruler smell, let alone find the kinds of pony that could build something like this."

"My guess, ponies on our side- Well, not ours I suppose. I mean Equestrian researchers must've been building this, and maybe even almost finished it, but too late for the war. Then the idiots failed to destroy it and the blueprints once Faust took over."

"Ponies do have this strange tendency towards attachment, even for things like this. Maybe they refused to kill their baby."

"Uh-huh," Crème said noncommittally, since Chrysalis was probably right. She was also losing interest in talking to Chrysalis like the changeling queen didn't want to abduct her and drain her of love. It took quite a bit to trust and respect Thorax, but Chrysalis, she'd have to work twice as hard to earn half as much respect, and even then Crème would be a long way from trusting her. "Can you sabotage this or not?"

"I can, but I'll need a bit of time. Do try to protect me if anypony comes poking around. Getting stabbed in my rear would be a little distracting."

Crème nodded vaguely and turned around as Chrysalis started working, humming a little ditty to herself that Crème hoped to hell wouldn't draw any attention. Things really were quiet though, and it left her wondering just why this was being tested out here with relatively little protection. Was Faust so confident in Equestria's security now that she deemed more guards unnecessary, or was she stretching herself thin as she started to move her conquest onto other countries? Either way it seemed like a mistake.

"Are you done yet?" Crème asked after a couple of minutes.

"Don't rush me, pony, unless of course you don't want me to do this perfectly? It doesn't help that I'm trying to do this in the dark."

Crème sighed, and decided to let Chrysalis be until she was ready. The problem was, the longer this took, the higher their chances of getting spotted. It was a considerable mercy that the guards were too busy keeping an eye out for threats from beyond to bother looking back at their own camp very often.

"There, all done."

"And you're positive this will work?"

"Absolutely. Now stop questioning me. I take issue with being questioned. And if you must insist on questioning me, at least do me the courtesy of calling me your Majesty."

"Fine, your Majesty." Crème stuck her head into the engine compartment to see what Chrysalis had done, and while she had probably done something, Crème had no idea what, or even where to look for it. Hopefully they didn't make thorough checks before firing this thing up, because finding the new addition to the spell matrix would make this a mission rather more difficult.

"If you're done inspecting my work, pony, we should be getting out of here."

"I have a name, your Majesty."

"I am fully aware, but I find the fact that you're named after food too ironic to find serious, considering my primary source of nourishment. I also bet all your colt friends have had such fun saying they ate a Crème Bruleé the previous night."

Crème blushed, and immediately hated herself for doing so as she knew not even the dark could hide it from an empath like Chrysalis. "I hate you."

"I know you do."

Crème closed the engine compartment back up and pulled the tarpaulin back into place. It seemed like the scene was set for the next day now, so all they had to do was get out of there without alerting anypony. Frankly, it was embarrassing how easy that was.

-0-0-0-

Fleur didn't sleep. Not because she didn't want to, even with Chrysalis and goodness knows how many changelings lurking around, but because they neglected to really bring anything to sleep on, and the desert was cold at night.
Fortunately this left her in a good position to see the camp in the distance come to life, and by the time she'd quietly woke up those that had managed to sleep, nothing much had happened really. Still, it had to eventually, and they'd be ready and watching when it did.

An hour later, after watching two dozen ponies enjoy breakfast, of which none of their observers were jealous in the slightest, honestly, the tank was uncovered. Fleur waited, bouncing in anticipation as a couple of ponies climbed inside. "Here we go..." she said keenly, making Chrysalis snort.

When the tank started up with a distant rumble, spitting out a cloud of pink smoke from its exhaust on the rear, and nothing else happened, all of them turned to look at Chrysalis.

"What?"

Fleur narrowed her eyes at Chrysalis, "Why is it still working?"

"Because it's meant to?" Chrysalis gasped fakely and held a holed hoof to her chest, "I'm sorry, was it meant to stop working immediately, instead of when the engine is pushed over a certain threshold where the spell I added can do a proper job? My mistake entirely it seems."

Fleur closed her eyes and sighed through her nose, "You could just say 'wait and see.'"

"While you sully my good name with accusations?" Chrysalis laughed at the ponies sceptical expressions," Oh come along now, I had one job, and I definitely did it. Just wait, and see."

"You're impossible."

"Not impossible. Just... difficult."

Fleur rolled her eyes and resumed watching as the tank, totally unchecked, moved out into the surrounding area, taking position at the edge of the field of craters it had made. A few seconds later the rumble of its engine increased, and several gems set into its body lit up, projecting a series of shields over the entire tank. Apart from the pink colour, it was rather reminiscent of a tortoise shell.

"Magic weapons and a shield system," Shining said in awe. "If we'd got our hooves on just a few of these tanks, it could've changed the course of the war quite significantly."

"It still could if this isn't destroyed," said Bon Bon. "Even the princesses would struggle to destroy that."

"At least until we develop a spell or weapon capable of piercing shields easily," Crème added. "Then they respond with making bigger, tougher shields, and the process goes on."

Fleur shook her head at Crème, "Don't even say that. The last thing we need is the Mareitanians starting an arms race in which we have no runners."

As they were watching, the tank lowered its shields, repositioned itself, then raised the shield again. "Seems like it can't move and have shields at the same time," Shining observed. "That's at least one weakness. A small one, admittedly."

"I wonder how thick the armour is on that," Honeydew pondered out loud. "I get the feeling that it's thinner than on the steam tanks if the arcane engine provides less power for movement."

"Then surely shields would mean there's even less power for moving?" Fleur waited for an answer, but only got a shrug from the yellow mare.

"Maybe that's why they can't move and have shields at the same time. Maybe it's easier to have shields because they're a direct use of magic, rather than a conversion of arcane energy to kinetic energy." Honeydew blushed even though nopony had given her a reason to do so. "I mean it's terrible. Rabble-rabble, steam power, yeah..."

"What are they doing now?" Shining asked as a section of the shield in line with the barrel of the turret faded away. "Are they going to fire and use shields at the same time?"

Fleur saw the flesh tighten around Chrysalis' eyes, and a tiny smirk creep onto her lips. Clearly something was supposed to happen now, so Fleur stayed quiet and watched. She wasn't disappointed.

The rumble of the tank increased in tempo, followed quickly by a terrible squealing that lasted all of two seconds before a disc of pink magic bloomed from the rear of the tank, cleanly cutting the end off, digging a gouge into the ground, and bisecting the one unfortunate pony that happened to be standing nearby, before dying away to nothing like it had never been there.

"That'll do it," Crème said after a short, stunned silence.

"Wait for it," Chrysalis told the others around her, craning her neck forwards in eager anticipation. As soon as she said it, a burst of pink shot up from the gap between the two sections of tank, and exploded into fireworks that eventually settled into a goofy image of Princess Luna surrounded by the words 'Princesses rool, Faust drools!' It lingered for a good ten seconds before fading away.

Chrysalis smacked her hoof against the ground as she laughed, "That couldn't have been more perfect, even if it pained me to have to write that. If that doesn't make it look like sabotage, nothing will."

"I suppose not," Fleur said with careful deliberation. "I guess that means the stage is set now. All we have to do is wait for some Shades to turn up."

-0-0-0-

Six hours passed before any Shades arrived. Understandable considering the distances involved, but no less annoying for it. That annoyance was forgotten in the face of the mere half a dozen Shades that turned up, none of which were their vaunted leader Black Rose. Maybe Crème had got her in Fillydelphia after all.

"Luna damn it," Fleur cursed quietly. "How is this getting so little attention? Surely the discovery and destruction of a new, top secret weapon like this is worth more than six Shades?"

"Six less Shades is still six less Shades," Bon Bon said consolingly. "I'm guessing they've been moved onto other matters, probably in Zebrica, or some other country. Maybe there's other things going on in Equestria for all we know."

"Maybe," Fleur conceded.

"You're overestimating Faust," Chrysalis said, adding her own opinion to the mix. "She wouldn't care about a machine like this. At best it was a useful new tool in her repertoire, and at worst something she can easily do without."

"She's right," Honeydew agreed. "Faust never showed any interest in the tanks I built. It was always the Council pushing me to design them, and get them built. Without the Council to take care of these things, they're likely to fall beneath Faust's notice."

"Surely Snowbright would care?" Fleur muttered. Were things really progressing elsewhere to the point that there weren't enough ponies to spare for things like this? Or maybe that wasn't the case as a changeling flew up to Chrysalis.

"My Queen, we have spotted soldiers coming this way from the train tracks. They came on a separate transport, and have brought weapons with them."

"How many?" Chrysalis asked, sounding more serious than she had the entire time she'd been there.

"This one is uncertain, but maybe a hundred."

"What weapons are they bringing?" Fleur asked the changeling, only to get a blank look until Chrysalis told them to answer the question.

"Tubes on stands with many nets."

"Net launchers," Shining hummed. "Seems like they're preparing for an attack from Luna and her thestrals."

"It would make the most sense." Fleur went quiet for a moment as she considered the possibilities. "Maybe we should give them one. Your Majesty, how well can your changelings see in the dark?"

"Well enough," Chrysalis answered, sounding pleased. "Naturally I'll have to imitate Princess Luna if we're to pull this off."

"And Thorax can be Twilight."

Chrysalis hissed with disgust, "That weakling is barely capable of impersonating Princess Cadence. In fact I'd say he's barely capable of imitating her foal. There's no chance he could display the same prowess on the battlefield as the real Princess Twilight."

"That almost sounded like a complement towards Twilight," Fleur snickered.

"More an observation. I know what she's capable of, and it's considerably more than that traitor is!"

"We don't need him to fight well," Fleur explained. "We only need him to make sure Twilight is seen here. Can you do that, Thorax?" Thorax nodded once, entirely without confidence. Beside him, Honeydew looked sick with worry. "Then it's decided. I'm sure I don't need to remind you of what will happen if anything happens to him, your Majesty."

"Many things can happen on the field of battle, Director."

"And many of those things won't be happening today, even if it involves you going out of your way to keep him safe."

"I do not take orders from you!"

Fleur shrugged at Chrysalis, "If you want this alliance to work, right now you do. I'm sure Twilight must've made it clear to you what would happen if you tried to harm or kill Thorax and Mayfly."

Chrysalis growled in the back of her throat, "Maybe I should've made it clear that an agreement to not kill these traitors was not a sign of being willing to work alongside them. One of my changelings will be more than capable of impersonating Princess Twilight."

"Except they won't," Thorax stated, surprising all of them. "They aren't powerful enough, but I might be."

Fleur clapped her hooves together, "Then it's decided," she said quickly before Chrysalis could argue further. "We'll wait until nightfall, then attack. If the soldiers try to escape, so be it, but the Shades mustn't be allowed to, and neither can the researchers until we know if there are more tanks and blueprints elsewhere. Is that clear?" Fleur waited until she had at least a nod of acknowledgement from everyone there. "Good. Now we wait. Some more. So much fucking waiting."

-0-0-0-

"Is it not enough for you to even exist near me? Must you sit there making googly eyes with that blasted pony as well?"

"You've been feeding off us for the last ten minutes."

"That is far beside the point." Chrysalis stood tall, looking down on Thorax. "Don't think I haven't worked out what you are. You're meant to be a replacement for me, with your antlers and your magic. I'm telling you now, that will not be happening."

"Good, because I don't want to take the hive from you. All I want to show you is that there's a better way to live that doesn't involve sucking the love out of others."

"And fall in love with the lesser species instead? Don't be ridiculous."

"You really think of us as a lesser species?" Honeydew asked, barely able to keep a quiver of fear out of her voice. Having met Chrysalis, she now fully understood why Thorax was afraid of her.

"You and every other species out there. You're all soft, and weak, and you would seek to make us soft and weak just like you."

"Is that why you made an alliance with the ponies then?" Honeydew asked. "Because we're weaker than you?" Honeydew bit her lip as Thorax sucked in a terrified breath, "Um..."

"You-You- You dare insinuate that I need our alliance to survive? That I need you ponies?"

"Uh..." Honeydew didn't know what to do or say to get out of this, and Thorax didn't seem to know either. Chrysalis looked like she was about to kill them, and it might've been that which drove something to go click in her mind, and push even harder. "Yeah, that is what I'm saying. You came to us, which means you need us, and even though you know it's true, you wouldn't dare say it because it means you admitting to not being the stronger species."

Chrysalis lost it, and she knew she did, just as she knew she was throwing away the alliance she'd actively asked for because of an insult. She didn't care. No pony had the right to say what the one in front of her did, and that pony was going to die for it.

Chrysalis was surprised when a short few seconds after she lit her horn to attack, she was face down in the dirt with the weight of Thorax on top of her. What had happened during those few seconds would always be a mystery to her.

"You would dare strike your queen?" Chrysalis hissed, a curious heat in her forehead that felt like a mild magic burn.

"You would throw away the survival of our entire hive because of a few words?" Thorax asked back. "Do their lives mean so little compared to whatever bit of pride you have left after having to beg the princesses to join their alliance?"

"I did not beg!"

"Having to ask the princesses for help? You might as well have as far you're concerned."

Chrysalis snarled and tried to move, but a flare of magic above her made it feel like she was trying to push an elephant off her back. She tried to shape shift instead, but nothing happened. She was entirely at the mercy of Thorax, and for some reason, the thought terrified her as much as it enraged her.

"Admit you need the ponies."

"I don't need the ponies!"

"Admit that until Princess Cadence supplied you with love, you were on the verge of starving. Even now, most of the hive is still recovering, and too weak to be here."

"I didn't need her love!"

"Then why can I feel it all over you?"

"I don't need her love! It was for the hive!"

"I thought you were the hive!"

"I- I-" Chrysalis let out a bitter sigh, "Fine, you've got me there. What do you want from me?"

"I want you to admit that we're no stronger than the ponies are, and that we need others to survive, whether we wish it was that way or not. On the other hoof, you could share your love and never have to feed on it again, like me, and like Mayfly."

"Never!"

"Then admit you need others."

Chrysalis bit her tongue, stubbornly refusing to say what Thorax wanted her to. It wasn't even about getting him off her at this point, but to say she needed others was no better than admitting to weakness... no matter how true it was.

Chrysalis flinched as that thought entered her head and stubbornly refused to leave. She could wrap her thoughts up in fantasies of conquest, where she and her changelings would never want again, but the fact of the matter was that without the love of others, they'd die. Was that not part of why she offered her aid to Equestria? To restore her hive's source of sustenance? She didn't have to care for the ponies, but she did need them.

"We need others to survive." Chrysalis said it so quietly that she wasn't entirely sure she'd said it at all, but as the weight moved from her back, she knew she'd just lost a very important battle. The thing was, she didn't feel bad for losing it. At least, not to the point that she felt defeated by the admission. She was still enraged beyond belief by what Thorax had done, but with that small window of denial removed, she felt, well, angry, but also slightly better.

"I don't know when, or how, but you will pay for that," Chrysalis threatened, but it was obvious even to her that her heart wasn't in it.

"If you were so determined to stop me, you would've ordered your changelings to attack," Thorax told her.

Chrysalis scowled at the changelings around her, making them flinch with fear. How had it gotten to the point that they needed an order to defend their queen? Why hadn't she ordered them to attack? Would they have obeyed? Or were they watching to see if she could defend her place as queen of the hive? If they were, she was in a rather embarrassing position where she'd just lost without losing, as she was still very much the queen. Or was she?

"By the way, if you so much as threaten to put a hair out of place on Honeydew's head, I will stop you."

Chrysalis looked at Thorax, totally unsure of what to think now. She'd just lost a fight to one of her children, and every instinct she had was telling her it was time to retire and join the other queens in the font back at the hive. Obviously that wasn't going to happen, but the idea still nagged at her.

"It's almost time for the attack," said Thorax. "We should get ready."

Chrysalis pushed all her useless thoughts away to the darkest recesses of her mind, where they could stay, along with the undeniable feeling that something fundamental about her rule had just changed. Right now she had ponies to kill, which at least promised to make her feel better.

With a flare on her magic, Chrysalis vanished, replaced with a perfect replication of Princess Luna. More flares of magic lit up the area as her changelings, hers, transformed into thestrals. A second later Thorax joined them by wearing the image of Princess Twilight.

"You heard the Director, kill the soldiers and the ones in black, and capture the rest. No mercy."

-0-0-0-

Fleur looked up as a twig snapped beneath a hoof, and sighed with relief that it was only Honeydew returning from where the changelings had hidden themselves. "Are they ready?"

"They are," Honeydew replied slowly.

"Is something wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I might've insulted Chrysalis a little, and then she tried to kill me, but Thorax defended me by attacking Chrysalis. He won, easily. Now I think I might've broken the changelings a little bit."

"I leave you alone for five minutes," Fleur joked weakly, unsure of the point Honeydew was trying to make. "As long as they can still carry out their mission, we can worry about other stuff later."

"Right, of course. Where are the others?"

"Getting into position." Fleur picked up the monocular that Bon Bon had lent her, and used it to watch the Mareitanians as they worked around the tank. They'd set up a ring of floodlights, illuminating the area, and then they had the intelligence to set up a ring of floodlights facing outwards so they could see anything coming for them. They were acting like they expected an attack, which was fair, but it left Fleur with the feeling that she was missing something. Still, no risk, no reward.

"Any sign of Celestia or Faust?"

And that might be what she was missing Fleur realised. They'd made it clear Luna was involved in this, even though she wasn't, so this was bound to gain the attention of one or both of the two alicorns.

"Fleur."

Fleur shook her head like she was in a daze, "No, nothing like that."

"Okay. Uh, I have a question. Do changelings stay transformed when they die? Or do they change back? Because if they change back, we might have a problem with this plan."

"And you're bringing this up now?" Fleur grimaced as Honeydew shrugged. "Great. All we can hope is that this goes perfectly then. Shouldn't be too much to ask for."

"Yeah, um... yeah." Honeydew blinked as the lights facing outwards started going out one by one, suggesting that they'd been broken rather than switched off. "Is that supposed to be happening?"

"It is," Fleur replied. She knew that right now, Shining, Bon Bon, and Crème, with the use of small stones and a singular crossbow for Bon Bon, were the ones destroying those lights. As soon as the outer lights were gone the changelings would have a safer time attacking.

As she spoke, two beams of magic, one a vivid green, and the other a fair imitation of Twilight's, speared down from the darkened sky, quickly taking out more of the lights. As they did, the soldiers started to fire their weapons in a panic, probably hitting nothing, and making them very unprepared for when the thestral disguised changelings swept in to attack.

The lights started going out very quickly once the changelings got inside the ring, and as Fleur stopped to let her eyes adjust, all she could hear were the very frightened sounding shouts of the soldiers.

-0-0-0-

"That was too close," said Shining, his face barely above the ground after diving for cover as the soldiers started firing wildly at anything and everything. One of the nets had barely missed him as he dropped, and while he doubted it would've killed him, getting hit by a chain net at high speed was going to hurt, no matter what you did.

"I can't see shit now," Crème complained as the last of the lights was extinguished. "How are we supposed to find those Shades and research ponies if we can't see?"

"I guess we'll have to trust the changelings to do that," Bon Bon replied, although she felt stupid saying it. She knew that if more than one of the researchers didn't die, or if one or more of the Shades didn't escape, it'd be a fricking Hearthswarming miracle. "Actually, when is Hearthswarming? This whole endless summer thing has me confused."

Crème raised an eyebrow at Bon Bon, "What?"

"Right, yeah, not important. Let's get to the tent with the blueprints."

With a nod, the three ponies started running for the tents while the changelings kept the soldiers busy. That wasn't to say it was plain sailing the entire way, but between the three of them there was little they couldn't deal with as they made it to the tent and went inside.

"About time I got some help."

"From us? Good luck," Bon Bon said to the Shade, who only just started to turn around before she put him down for good. As she quickly cleaned her blade, the other two piled up the documents, and with a spark set fire to the heap, destroying what they hoped were the total plans for the new tank, although that seemed unlikely.

"Okay, one Shade down, and the blueprints destroyed. That's most of our mission done. Let's get out there and make sure none of the other Shades get away."

"If I were to guess, I'd say they're watching the researchers," said Crème. "Probably nearby, unless they try to do a runner."

"Then we better find them before that happens. Let's try the other tents first." As the other tents were literally meters away, it didn't exactly take long to reach them. They entered the largest one first, and was quickly met by the sight of a half dozen ponies trying to hide behind one another.

"Relax, we're not going to hur-" Bon Bon jumped back as a flash of steel caught her eye, and narrowly missed a blade that cut through the air where her neck had been. She ducked low and spun into a kick that lifted the Shade into the air a few inches, then continued the spin to bring her blade to bear, jamming it up under her opponent's chin and extending the blade. In the second that took, a shield from Shining caught the trio of blades the Shade hiding amongst the researchers had thrown with her magic.

"Why can't you ever just give up!?" the unicorn screeched, preparing more knives to throw. Even then she still had half a dozen more strapped onto her armour.

"Why couldn't you have just stayed at home?" Crème asked back, snatching the ballistic knives out of the air, giving Bon Bon a small window to dive into a roll that got her close to the Shade. She brought she blade up to stab the unicorn, but jerked as her weapon was stopped dead, and grunted in pain as it was twisted, threatening to break her leg while the unicorn pulled out more knives to finish Bon Bon off. Half a second later she was blinking blood out of her eyes as the left side of the unicorn's head blew apart.

"Everypony stay calm," Shining barked as the remaining ponies started to freak out, which was a fair reaction to suddenly getting covered in blood. "Where are the rest of your team?"

"S-s-some of the Shades took them and ran," a mare said, feeling slightly braver than her fellows. "We were supposed to make you think we were the only ones here."

"I'm guessing you didn't agree with that?"

"Of course not! I don't want to die for these bastards! I don't even want to be here!"

"Good to know. Crème, secure these ponies while we go after the others. Which way did they go?"

"West, I think."

Shining nodded his thanks to the mare and set off with Bon Bon following after him. As soon as he worked out which way west was he started to gallop, quickly covering the distance. There were plenty of hoofprints to follow, so odds were good they were going the right way, and after a few minutes he could see the fleeing ponies in the distance. They didn't seem to be getting away very fast, probably due to a lack of fitness on the researchers part.

"I'll cut them off, you take out the one in the rear." Shining waited until he had a nod of confirmation from Bon Bon, then put on a burst of speed to close the distance completely. The Shades were keeping an eye on their rear though, and one of them had a crossbow if the way Bon Bon went down in a heap with an arrow sticking out of her side was any indication.

"Bon Bon!" Shining shouted, skidding to a halt. He turned back and put a shield over the both of them in case more arrows were coming. "Are you alright?"

Bon Bon grunted, pressing a bloody hoof to the wound on her chest. "I'll live. Armour took the worst of it. Go! Get those Shades!"

"Right." Shining left the shield to protect Bon Bon, and went back to chasing after the Shades and their charges. He kept a shield in front of him as he ran, which likely saved his life more than once as the arrows fired at him bounced off. He'd almost reached them when a dark shape flew over, and he relaxed, thinking it was Princess Luna. He then did the opposite as he remembered who it really was.

A wall of green flames spread in a u-shape around the fleeing ponies, cutting them off. As that happened, Shining charged in, taking out the Shade at the rear with the crossbow while he was distracted. The two Shades in the front jumped through the flames to attack Chrysalis, which proved to be a terrible mistake on their part, charged up as she still was on the love that Cadence had provided her.

A single, overwhelming burst of magic cut down the right Shade, which gave the other some serious doubts, and she started to run, putting her in a direct line with the researchers as she attacked. Shining barely got a shield up in time to protect them as a burst of magic from Chrysalis hurtled towards them.

"You aren't supposed to hurt these ponies!" Shining yelled as he lowered the shield.

"Oops," said Chrysalis, not really caring in the slightest. "Still, those Shades are gone, which I thought was the main point." Chrysalis walked through the flames to Shining, totally unscathed. "Don't tell me you're planning something with these ponies?"

"Some, if not all of them, are here against their will. That alone is reason enough to not kill them."

"Oh Shining, you were so very well named, weren't you? Save these ponies, save those ponies, I'm such a goody-goody hero."

"Princess Luna," Shining growled, hoping to remind Chrysalis of who she was supposed to be.

"Hmm? Oh, right, ahem. Verily yon shining knight in armour hath saved these goodly ponies from... yadda-yadda-yadda, old speak, huzzah. Stop expecting me to care, because it can't be healthy to live with that much disappointment in your life."

"Your Majesty, please don't kill these ponies."

"Am I killing them now? No, no I am n- Aah!" Chrysalis screamed as an arrow thudded into her chest. She staggered to the side, then stopped herself and pulled the arrow out with her teeth, snapping it in half with her usual animalistic teeth as green blood dribbled out of the wound. "I thought you killed that one!"

Shining yanked the crossbow out of the magic of the unicorn mare that had shot both Bon Bon and Chrysalis. She was bleeding heavily from a wound to her side, but otherwise seemed like she might survive.

"Must I do everything myself here?" Chrysalis growled, her pain spilling into her words. "Out of my way!"

"Wait, she might have information we need."

"She shot me! It's going to leave a mark and everyth- Don't you dare," Chrysalis said quickly as the researchers started to look like they were about to run. "I got shot to keep you alive, and you better start acting like you appreciate it."

Shining hauled the Shade upright in front of him, keeping ready to flick her horn if she showed any sign of casting a spell. "Where were you taking these ponies?"

"Away from you, numb-nuts," the Shade hissed. Her wound mightn't be deadly yet, but it was obviously causing her a significant amount of pain.

"Where were you taking them?"

"Canterlot you fucking idiot! Where else would I fucking take them!"

"You're asking the wrong question."

Shining looked up as Bon Bon limped closer, "What would you ask then?"

"Where Shades are concerned? The only question that matters. How's Black Rose?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because that wound must've been ugly. Hurt quite a bit I imagine."

"Not as much as you will once she gets her hooves on- Ack!" The Shade struggled, then went limp as Bon Bon stabbed her in the chest. Shining held on to the body for a moment, then dropped it.

"What the hell, Bon Bon! We could've gotten more out of her than that! You didn't need to kill her either!"

"We now know Black Rose is alive, which is all we need out of her." Bon Bon gestured at the researchers with her still extended blade, then pointed back towards their camp. "I'm not in the mood for any shit, so get moving in a nice orderly fashion, and we'll all get along fine."

Shining sat in a stunned silence for a moment as the researchers started walking back to the camp, then turned to Chrysalis, who was licking her wound with an uncomfortably long tongue. Suspecting that he'd get no help there, he stood and started to walk after Bon Bon, only looking up when the sound of wings drew his attention.

"Most of the soldiers left have fled," Shadow said, her blades still out. "They broke pretty quick once the lights went out. Fleur's gathering the captives by the tank, and she wants you there as well."

"More than just the researchers have been captured?"

"Some of the soldiers did as well. Not sure what we're going to do with those since we can't exactly take prisoners."

Shining sighed sullenly, "Hopefully Fleur won't be taking advice from Bon Bon or Chrysalis on that one. I'm not in the mood to watch a mass execution." Shining looked up as Chrysalis flew overhead, "Hopefully Fleur will just let them go."

Barely two dozen soldiers had been taken captive as Shining found out once he made it to the tank. He thought there'd be more from what Shadow had said. They were being kept under close watch by a large number of the thestral disguised changelings, while Fleur was nearby, pacing back and forwards in front of the frightened researchers. Next to her, Crème was patching up Bon Bon, while Chrysalis sat nearby, scowling deeply as she did her best to stay away from Thorax.

"There you are," Fleur said as she noticed Shining arrive. "Good work on stopping those ponies escaping."

Shining shrugged, conveying that he didn't know what else he was supposed to do then. "Did Bon Bon tell you about Black Rose?"

"She did, which only makes it more annoying that she's not here. At the very least we should be glad Celestia or Faust wasn't here instead."

"And what about these ponies?" Shining asked, pointing at the researchers. "What's going to happen to them?"

"That's what I'm working on." Fleur winked at Shining, then turned back to the group of ponies. "Hooves up who didn't volunteer for this project."

To Shining's surprise, over half of the dozen ponies raised their hooves, although some more slowly followed them once they worked out the full implication of the question. On the opposite end of it, he wasn't surprised to see those that did were the ones left in the tent.

"Alright, you eight stand away from the rest," Fleur ordered, only moving those that had answered quick enough for her tastes. "The rest of you, why would you do this? Willingly work on something that would allow Faust to kill more ponies."

"Because the engine in this thing could've revolutionized the future," a stallion said, not even trying to hide his pride. "It is unfortunate that it had to be made like this, but once the war was over, this engine could be used to replace steam. Besides, Luna commissioned the creation of this weapon, so how is that any better?"

"Because it wouldn't involve us betraying our country!" a mare shouted from the other group. The same mare that had told Shining where the Shades were leading the escapees.

"This is still our country now!" the stalllion shouted back. "If Celestia has joined Faust, why shouldn't we? Luna is the one that's wrong, not Faust."

"That's Princess Luna to you," Chrysalis growled. "And quite frankly it shouldn't have to be explained how Faust is wrong, or that Celestia has betrayed her country by joining her."

"No, you've betrayed your country by attacking it!"

Chrysalis nodded slowly, "Ah, so you're that kind of idiot. Very well, far be it from me to fix your delusions."

"Y- You're the one that's deluded! Too stuck in the past to see where the future-" The stallion quickly stopped as Shadow held a blade up uncomfortably close to his neck.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't," the thestral growled. The stallion said nothing. "Good answer."

Fleur waited a moment to make sure Shadow wasn't actually going to kill him, then turned to the other group. "Do you know of anywhere else this kind of research is going on?"

"Like this? No," the mare said. "I can't say there aren't other projects being worked on, but if there are we know nothing about them."

"Okay, what about the blueprints for this tank? Are there others?"

"There are, in Canterlot, but there's nothing you can say or do to make me go back there now."

"Understandable. I don't think we'll be able to get our hooves on them either." Fleur tapped a hoof and hummed to herself, unsure of what to do next. They had nothing more to gain here, and it would soon be time to make themselves scarce. "We can't take this many prisoners. Any suggestions?" she asked aloud.

"Kill them," said Chrysalis.

Fleur hadn't even drawn the breath to tell Chrysalis to not be ridiculous when the changelings started to execute the soldiers. Within seconds they were all dead, their attempts at begging barely having time to escape their lips before they were cut down.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Fleur screamed at Chrysalis as Shining placed a shield over the researchers. "They were prisoners!"

"And? You have nowhere to keep them. Would you release them to Faust for her to turn them back on you once again? That's the sort of thing that costs victories, but I suppose I shouldn't have expected more from the ponies that lost their country."

"Are you going to kill the rest of them too?"

"I had planned on it," Chrysalis purred.

"But they're innocents!"

"This is war, Director, there are no innocents. Besides, how innocent could they be since they're building dangerous new weapons for Faust? You release them and they'll go straight back to doing it."

"Not all of them would."

"Perhaps not, but why take the risk?"

"As much as I don't want to take her side," Bon Bon spoke up, "the Princess does have a point. Some of them could go free, but those that volunteered could easily go back to Faust and work all the harder because to them we're dangerous."

"So... we kill them, is that what you're saying?"

"No, but I might suggest that there is somepony here is perfectly capable of keeping these ponies secure for a very long time if need be. It would even benefit her a little, and would ensure those ponies stay alive until the war is over."

Fleur knew what Bon Bon was getting at, and it involved these ponies being kept in big green pods in the changeling hive. What she didn't know if it was actually better than dying. Still, she didn't have a lot of options available.

"How about it?" she asked Chrysalis.

"I think that's a marvellous idea." Chrysalis clapped her hooves together and grinned widely. "They'll be quite safe there, nudge-nudge, wink-wink."

"Don't push it."

Chrysalis waved a hoof at some of her changelings as Shining reluctantly lowered his shield, "You know where to take them."

"Yes, my Queen."

"Oh come on!" Fleur dragged her hooves down her face and groaned, "You're not even trying to act now!" Fleur breathed in deeply, and gave her attention to their remaining captives. "I don't care where you go, but if you end up back in a place building weapons, I'm going to be pissed. If you're not sure where you can go, head to Baltimare and hide amongst the refugees there. Take what food and water you need for the journey, then you're on your own."

"Yes, of course. Thank you."

Fleur sat as the eight ponies hurried away. This had been the worst, but they did it. Chrysalis had done her best to be a pain in the ass the entire way, but she'd kept to her word, more or less, which meant she might continue to do so in the future.

"Soooo..." Chrysalis drawled, like she could hear Fleur's thoughts, "Did I do good?"

"You did the barest minimum of acceptable," Fleur answered bluntly. "I'll let the princesses know that you do seem willing to play along, even if you play along by a set of rules privy to only yourself."

"Excellent-"

"However, if you pull anything like that stunt you pulled with those soldiers, or even close to it, this allegiance is off. If you want to be part of Equestria, you have to play by our rules."

"Fine, but I have something to ask in return."

"And what would that be?"

Chrysalis pointed a hoof at Thorax, "Keep him as far away from me as possible."

Fleur was about to say she probably couldn't do that, but Chrysalis was already going, apparently uninterested in hearing anything she had to say on it. Fleur took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind, and feeling like she'd aged at least ten years.

"I bet I have some greys coming after this. Thorax, take us home, please? I need hugs from the filly."

-0-0-0-

The trip home had been uncomfortable, to say the least. Shining had argued with Fleur for half of it, thinking she'd been too lenient with Chrysalis after she murdered the prisoners. The other half had been a chilly silence that sucked any trace of joy away. Fleur hadn't really bothered to argue her side, because how could she? Shining was right, but at the same time Chrysalis was too. It was enough to give her a headache, but she was too tired to even care about that.

"What's that fire?"

Fleur's head jerked up as Shadow spoke, her eyes quickly picking out the dot of orange glowing in the distance, out at sea. Terror gripped her heart as she could only think of one thing that could be, and that was their boat.

"Get us down there, now!"

Thorax lurched as he dove for the boat, then levelled out into a slow glide as they got closer. It was their boat, although it was barely recognisable, aflame as it was. Every inch of it above the waterline burned brightly to the point the fire didn't seem natural. Nothing could've survived it.

Fleur sat there, her hooves over her mouth as tears streamed down her cheeks. She couldn't cry, or scream, or do anything. Her mind had simply froze, unable to process what she was looking at. None of them could.

"Take us to shore," Shining said weakly after they'd flew a dozen laps around the flaming wreckage.

"No!" Fleur screamed, and Shining had to grab hold of her as she tried to jump off. "Let go of me! She's in there! She's in there! She needs me!"

"She's gone, Fleur," Shining whispered, holding tightly onto Fleur as she continued to fight. "She's gone. They're all gone, all of them."

"It's not true! They could still be trapped below deck! We can't just leave them!"

"Nothing could've survived that. Nothing."

Fleur sobbed, knowing that Shining was right, no matter how much she wished it wasn't true. "I shouldn't have left her here. I should've kept her with me."

"I know," Shining murmured, his own eyes wet with tears for his parents. He rubbed a hoof down Thorax's back, "Take us to shore please, Thorax."

Thorax complied without a word or sound, heading for the nearest point of the shore. He almost fell out of the sky when a pony jumped on his back, sticking a hoof in the joint of his wing.

"Is that Rocky?" Crème exclaimed, pointing excitedly at a pony waving at them from the beach. "It is! It's Rocky! He's alright!"

Fleur looked up, her heart thumping in her throat as she dared to hope that the filly was alright. Three other adults joined Rocky, and she felt Shining gasp with relief as he saw two of them were his parents. A moment later Fleur cried with relief as she saw a smaller pony waving from Nightlight's back.

Fleur leapt off Thorax as soon as he landed, and jumped at the filly, knocking her and Nightlight into the sand as she laughed and cried, hugging the small pony fiercely. "I thought I'd lost you. I thought I'd never see you again."

"You have no idea how close to true that was," the filly said back. "If Rocky hadn't seen her before she reached us, we'd have still been on the boat when..." The filly pointed at the burning boat, unwilling to finish the sentence.

"Who's her?" asked Bon Bon.

"Celestia," said Rocky. "Came swooping down out of the sky and did... that!"

"Celestia?" Fleur looked down into the filly's eyes, and realised how damp she still was. The attack couldn't have been that long ago. "Why would Celestia attack us? Surely we're beneath her notice?"

"I'm wondering why she let us get away," said Twilight Velvet. "There's no way she could've missed us swimming for the shore."

"She could since I was trying to hide you," Flicker snorted.

Nightlight disagreed, "It felt to me like she waited for us to get clear. Celestia might not be on our side now, but I very much doubt she could bring herself to kill a child. This felt like a warning."

"A warning for what?" Fleur asked.

"That we're being hunted," Rocky told her, "and that there's nowhere we can hide."

Fleur pulled the filly in tighter and rested her chin on the filly's head. She was far from ready to let go yet, but she was still able to think perfectly well. "If Celestia wants to give us the message that there's nowhere to hide, she's failed, because frankly, I beg to differ. We can run and hide perfectly well."

Author's Note

Posting this when I need to get up for work in sixish hours, because fuck having control of your life when there's pony stuff to do.

24. Professional runners

"Picking up or dropping off?" Gloves asked, giving Shining pause as he tried to come up with an answer.

"Dropping off?" he hazarded.

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that. Of course, I was hoping you wouldn't say the other one either." Gloves swung the door to the New Hope Medical centre open to let Shining and the others in, "Come on then. I'm sure you have an interesting story about why you're here."

"Princess Celestia burnt our boat," Shining started to explain when the filly interrupted him.

"Now we're land hobos, instead of sea hobos."

"What's the difference?"

"Sea hobos have way better living conditions." The filly passed a disdainful eye over the cramped corridors of the hospital the refugees were using. "Waaayyy better."

"Sorry, no refunds, and you," Gloves pointed at Shadow, "how's your leg? Or lack thereof. You know what I mean."

"Well, as you may have observed, it's still missing. Infection's cleared up though, so thanks for that."

"No problem, and I heard about that thing with your people. For what it's worth, I'm sorry that you've lost your home."

Shadow shrugged lazily, "Eh, I think I'll give up on having one since I keep losing them. I'm kinda surprised you know about all that though."

Fleur cleared her throat, "Oh, I think the entirety of Equestria might've had some help finding out what Faust did. You just have to drop the right words onto the right ponies."

"Celestia went right to her defence though," said Gloves. "I'm sure if she'd asked nicely enough there'd have been mobs in the street hunting down thestrals. I don't know what Faust did to convince Celestia to join her, but it was definitely the right move where her public image is concerned."

Shining laughed, even though it wasn't really funny. "I'm guessing you didn't fall for it?"

"You guess correctly. Celestia went on about it being necessary to stop the terrorist actions of the pro-Luna, anti-Equestria Night Guard, but the story of her and an army going there to wipe the thestrals out completely got out first, so that's what I'm going to believe. You're just confirming it for me. Anyway, you said Celestia burnt your boat?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much the entire story," the filly snickered. "One moment we have ocean-bound luxury, the next everything's on fire. Then we came here."

"Where you won't be staying for long. If Celestia's taken enough of an interest in what you're doing to burn your boat, then I can imagine that they'll be hunting you down soon enough. I think it should be fairly obvious that we don't want or need that here, thank you very much."

"Just tonight. Maybe tomorrow as well," said Fleur. "We just need to work things out a little bit, then we'll be on our way."

"Ngh," Gloves grunted, not really pleased with the idea, but unwilling to turn away ponies in need. "I suppose we can do that. But at the first sign of trouble coming our way, you're gone, so don't get too comfortable."

Shining nodded in agreement, "Understood. We don't want to bring you trouble any more than you want us to."

"I'm glad we understand each other then. While you're here though, I'm hoping you could help us with something. We had an unusual individual turn up the other day, claiming to be searching for her people. Normally I'd be like 'sure, let's find your lost family,' but there's nothing else like her here, and she says she's looking for her people, not just her family. Not sure how you lose an entire tribe, or whatever, of people."

"I'm assuming she's not a pony if you're bringing it up like this," said Fleur.

"She says she's a kirin, whatever a kirin is. I mean, I do know because she's one, but I'd never even really heard of them before she turned up here." Gloves made a face as Shining, Fleur, and the rest of them shared little glances, "Are you even listening to me right now?"

Shining took Gloves aside to whisper into his ear, "I take it you're unaware that the kirin joined Faust?"

"They did? Damn. Hold on though, she doesn't know either since she's trying to find them. And don't tell me she's lying and here for you, because she got here well before you did."

"I know, but I'm just saying we can't be too careful."

"It could still be worth talking to her," Bon Bon piped up. "She might know something useful we could use."

"I suppose so." Shining breathed out hard as he quickly made his choice, "Alright, we'll talk to her. You, me, and Fleur. Could you find the others somewhere to bunk down, Gloves?"

"I'm sure we've a broom closet somewhere we could squeeze a dozen ponies into."

"Nuh-uh." The filly clung onto Fleur's leg, "I'm not going anywhere without Fleur until I'm positive nothing else is going to catch on fire."

Fleur breathed a laughed, too tired to even bother arguing. "Sure, why not? Nothing you've done has ever pissed anypony off, so you should be great at meeting this new, unknown individual."

"I'm being serious!"

"I know, and it's adorable. Buuuut... since you're an emotionally vulnerable teenager, I'll throw you a bone and allow you to come with."

"And... wow, fuck you Fleur. I still want to come see this whatever-the-hell-it-is though, so don't think you got rid of me that easily. Lead on, mister Gloves."

"It's Doctor Gloves, not that you'd care." Gloves led them deeper into the hospital, ending up in a waiting room in one of the wards where a bunch of older foals were gathered around the kirin in question, being regaled with stories and jokes. "Alright guys, I need to borrow our guest, so you all better get back to your caretakers."

"Aww," the foals all chimed together, giving Gloves a dose of puppy eyes.

"Don't try that crap on me. Now I mean it, vamoose!" Gloves waited, impatiently tapping a hoof on the floor until the grumbling mass of children had gone. "Sorry to ruin your fun Miss Autumn, but some of these ponies would like to talk with you."

"Ooh! Do you know where the kirin went? Tell me-Tell me-Tell me!"

"Uh..." Fleur went blank at the kirin, her excitable, puppyish attitude throwing her off. "We'd like to ask you a few questions first, if that's alright?"

"Oh, okay!" Autumn sat up and offered Fleur a hoof to shake, "I'm Autumn Blaze."

Fleur waited a tick before taking the hoof in her own, taking a moment to observe how it was cloven, but that sense of offness seemed to be part and parcel with the kirin. She was the right size and shape for a pony, but that's where the similarities ran out. The lustrous green scales covering her back and forehead, the strange tail that only grew hair on its end, the mane that went right down her chest, but mostly the large red horn that looked more like a smooth tree branch than anything else, all of it added up to something that clearly wasn't a pony.

"Hey, are you alright?" Autumn dipped her head into Fleur's view, "You've been shaking my hoof for like thirty seconds now."

Fleur quickly released Autumn's hoof like it had suddenly turned hot, "Oh, sorry, it's just that I've never seen a kirin before."

"Yeah, we tend to not get out much. Don't know why, because it's great out here! All you ponies have been so nice to me, and it's awesome having so many people to talk to."

"Didn't you have a lot of others to talk to back at home?" the filly asked.

"Not so much. As far as I could tell, I was the only kirin left that could actually talk, and I was sort of a little bit exiled for it."

"How did the others lose their voices?"

"They took them away themselves. I have a neat song explaining it all if you want to hear it?"

"We'll take the non-musical version, thank you," Fleur said quickly, making the filly grumble.

"Oh come on! I'll never get to sing that song. Anyway, the boring, music-less version is that kirin, when we get angry, tend to turn into niriks, where we basically turn black and catch fire. Not exactly ideal when we live in a forest. So, after some big thing where we all got angry over a lot of little things and pretty much destroyed our village, our leader decreed 'no more talking,' like that was the obvious solution. And after she said that we all went for a swim in the stream of silence, lost the ability to talk, and get angry, and then rebuilt our lives."

"But not you?"

"Yes me, for a while, but it was the absolute worst. Not being able to get my thoughts out there, I started to go a bit loopy, so when I found a cure I didn't hesitate in the slightest. Of course my fellow villagers weren't so keen, so I got kicked out."

"And how did that lead to you coming here?" asked Shining.

"Well... I went back to my village to get a few things I needed, and found it completely empty. Not a soul to be seen. Didn't even leave a note for me, which I thought was rude. Anyway, after searching around for a while getting super freaked out, I decided to try my luck in some of the other kirin villages, and while I did find some kirin, there was way less than I thought there should be."

"Couldn't the kirin there tell you what happened?"

"Uh... no, they couldn't talk either. Since their homes weren't charred in the slightest, I could only assume they did the same thing as my village."

Bon Bon raised an eyebrow at Autumn, "Couldn't you have asked them to put it in writing?"

"Pfft, I didn't have time for that! I had to find my people! So after exploring the other villages and getting nowhere, I came to Equestria, since the other direction involved a lot more swimming, and it seemed unlikely they went that way. After meeting some nice ponies, they told me the lost tended to come here, so that's what I did. No kirin here though, but I'd thought I'd hang around a while to spread some joy before moving on." Autumn held a hoof up to her mouth to whisper, "Between you and me, some of the ponies here seem really down."

"Can't imagine why," the filly deadpanned.

"Me either! Equestria's great! How could you be sad living here?"

"Still can't imagine why." The filly watched as Autumn lifted a glass of water to her mouth using magic, and saw some bands around her horn had lit up like a unicorns horn would. "You can do magic?"

"Yes and no. We can move things, but that's pretty much it." Autumn started moving the glass up and down, "Up, down, up, down, maybe around sometimes. I want to say we're a one trick pony, but it seems culturally insensitive to say that when I'm surrounded by actual ponies. Of course, that now means I've actually said it, so... oops?"

"Don't sweat it," Fleur told her. "Ponies tend to be pretty chill about casual racism, specism, and tribalism, considering how much we do it."

"That's an... odd thing to confess to."

"Call it more of an observation." Fleur quietly watched Autumn for a moment, the kirin politely sitting quietly as she did. The kirin seemed harmless enough, and didn't seem to know anything about the war, or what her people were doing, or what side they'd joined most importantly. Maybe she might even grant an insight into why the kirin would join Faust. There could even be potential to bring the kirin away from Faust if they were lucky.

"Why are we staring at each other?"

"Bon Bon, did you ever do anything with kirin when you were in Smile?"

"Not really. Their profile said that they weren't a threat to us so long as we didn't go too near their homes. Even then there'd be a stern warning to leave before any violence would be involved. I did read that they're very skilled with bows and blades though."

"And head-butting. We're really good at head-butting. I think that's why we put blades on our helmets."

"Including the kirin in your village?"

Autumn quickly shook her head, "Oh-no-no-no, my village was full of pacifists, y'know, when we weren't catching fire and trying to kill each other while burning everything down. We didn't really have any weapons scarier than a kitchen knife. The other villages though," Autumn levelled a hoof, "they were a bit more pushy about their privacy. They were all about the bows and swords and silly bladed helmet things."

"That's why Faust wanted them, I guess?" Shining supposed.

"Faust? Who's Faust?" Autumn gasped, "Did she kidnap my people?" A wisp of flame travelled up the length of Autumn's horn, then died off. "Because if she did, Imma gon' be so mad."

"Actually they joined her willingly in a military alliance."

"A military alliance?" Autumn sat hard and cocked her head, "Really? But why? As a rule, kirin tend not to concern ourselves with outsiders. Why would they join this Faust? Whoever that is?"

Fleur smiled sadly, "That's a bit of a story in itself."

"Could you maybe explain it with a song?" Autumn asked hopefully.

"I'm not sure I could cover it all with an hour long operatic piece, but I'll try to explain it all to you."

-0-0-0-

"Y'know, the more that happens in this war...thing, the longer it takes to explain," the filly whined as Fleur wrapped up her explanation. "I'm starting to think we should just make an informational pamphlet for these situations, and let whoever it is catch up in their own time."

Fleur gave the filly a look, then smiled gently at Autumn, who had gone quiet as she looked down at the floor. "As I said, there was a lot."

"You can say that again. No wonder my jokes had no effect on those crystal ponies."

"There's slightly more to it than that, but yeah, they aren't going to picked up by a funny story."

"I can't believe this. I can't believe the other kirin would join Faust when she's such a meanie." Autumn lowered her head into her hooves, "I've never been so disappointed to be a kirin."

"Eh, being something else ain't all it's cracked up to be either," the filly quipped.

Shining sat down beside Autumn and gave her an encouraging smile. "I'm sure your people had their reasons to do what they did, and we're hoping you might give us some clues as to what that is."

"Unless she's offered the other kirin a way to fix the whole nirik thing, I can't say I know. The thing is, a lot of kirin are into the whole living in harmony with nature thing. I can't help but feel that what you say Faust wants to do, some of them might agree with it."

"Even if they're included in it?"

"They probably haven't considered that, unless she purposely told them it wouldn't include them."

"You make it sound like kirin don't really like the rest of us," said Fleur.

"I'm not going to say they don't like you, but rather they don't agree with the way you live. Your cities, and your technology, and all that stuff that a lot of kirin find destructive to our world. Speaking of, that destruction could also make them want to fight so the war ends sooner and does less damage. Kirin hate conflict, mostly because of what it can make us into, so we tend to put a decisive end to it if we can."

"Hence taking away your voices and suppressing your emotions?"

"Yeah, just like that."

"Call me curious," Bon Bon said with a impish smile, "but I would've loved to have seen how negotiations went between Faust and the kirin when only Faust could talk."

"Well, each village leader would have to vote, and the whole process would've involved a lot of hastily scribbled notes." Autumn reached under her seat and pulled out a bag, then searched through it until she found a rolled up scroll. On it was a stiff looking image of the rest of Autumn's village.

"This is the last picture of my village. I brought it so I could show ponies what they look like, although, saying that they're kirin like me seems to work just fine." Autumn pointed the tip of a hoof to the tallest kirin, who stood a whole head above the others. "That's our leader, Rain Shine."

"Ah," the filly said as she viewed the image, nodding like she now understood, "you too pick your leaders based on how tall they are."

"Pfft, like there's any other way to pick who leads you."

"Then let me tell you a thing about lemurs."

"I could go for a lemur fact!"

Bon Bon huddled close to Fleur as the filly conveniently distracted Autumn, "Something tells me this overly chatty, pacifist, exiled kirin, is not really what we want to get the kirin away from Faust."

"I'm inclined to agree," said Shining. "Besides, I also think that's a little too ambitious for our current capabilities. We've just lost our safety zone, and are currently on the run as Shades are very probably hunting us."

"I know, I know." Fleur drummed a hoof on the floor, trying to figure out their options when they were so limited. As far as she could tell, they only had one. Good job she hadn't left the speaker stone on the boat while she was off in the desert with Chrysalis.

"I'm calling Twilight. Maybe she could have some ideas for us."

-0-0-0-

It was hours later, and almost exactly when Fleur had finally dropped off for a mid-afternoon nap, that Twilight burst into the waiting room, Swordy held high in her magic, and horn blazing with destructive magic.

"Where is it?! Where's the kirin?"

"Eep!" Autumn squealed as she dove behind her seat, putting it between her and Twilight.

"Don't think that chair's going to save you!"

"But it's all I have!" Autumn peeked up over the back of the seat, "If it makes you feel better I could try hiding in a different room entirely?"

"That won't be necessary," Fleur said as she walked up to Twilight and twanged her horn with a hoof, making her drop Swordy and lose the spell she had ready.

"Ow, Fleur, what the hell?"

"Don't give me that. If you'd had just listened for thirty seconds longer I'd have told you she was friendly, and wants to get her people away from Faust as much as we do. Honestly, you're worse than Trixie sometimes."

"Hey! I resemble that remark!"

"Oh good, two thirds of the gang are back together," Fleur said blithely. "This should solve all our problems, instead of making more." Fleur smiled patiently at Trixie as she pushed her way up and out of Twilight's bags, "Nice to see you, Trixie."

"I would say the feeling is mutual, but since you came flying straight out with insults, I think you can do one."

"Delighted." Fleur glanced back as the clatter of hooves reached her ears, and Gloves burst into the room, gasping for breath.

"I tried... to stop her... but she... ignored me! She has wings too! No idea how she... knew you were in here."

"Orthopaedics waiting room," said Twilight. "Fleur told me where she was, even if she only meant it as a joke. Fleur, who is this?"

"This is Doctor Rubber Gloves, de facto leader of the refugees here, and resident anarchist."

"How can he be an anarchist and the leader?"

"Yeah, I'm not actually an anarchist," said Gloves, having regained his breath enough to speak normally. "I just take issue with our current form of leadership, which is totally chosen by outside forces in a way that removed choice from the average pony on who leads them. Then there's the whole thing with most non-ponies barely even being recognised as second class citizens, and... you're a princess. Wait, you're Princess Twilight! Your brother said you might agree with me on some of my issues."

"Some, yes, but I'm mostly disgusted by the incompetency displayed by the princesses at times."

"But... you are a princess."

"I know! I can officially blame myself now! Isn't it great?"

"Uh... I'm just going to leave you to catch up. You know where to find me in the highly unlikely event that you actually need me."

"Thanks, Gloves." Fleur waved him off, then gave Twilight a funny look. "I'm pretty sure acting weird around one of the few ponies that might support your position isn't going to help."

Twilight shrugged, not really caring. "I have bigger concerns right now, such as the kirin in the room."

Autumn squeaked and dropped back down behind the seat, having been slowly rising from behind it. "Please don't kill and, or dismember me!"

"I'm not going to hurt you if you don't try anything."

"Speak for yourself," Trixie protested loudly. "That's a kirin, Twilight! I don't know if you've forgotten, but a large number of them tried to kill us very recently!"

Twilight sighed and pulled Trixie out of her bags, placing her on the floor and returning her to her proper size. "You aren't going to hurt her either. No buts!"

"Can I have an unless instead?"

"Alright, unless she tries to hurt any of us."

"Which won't happen," said Fleur. "Honestly you two, you're scaring someone who might help us."

"Alright, we're sorry."

"No we're not."

"Fine, I'm sorry." Twilight smiled apologetically at Autumn, "I promise we won't harm you-"

"Unless you give us a reason to."

Twilight narrowed her eyes at Trixie, then looked back to the kirin. "Could you come out from behind that chair please?"

"No, I think I'm good here, thanks."

"Alright then, if that's what you want. Fleur says you have an interest in getting the rest of the kirin away from Faust. Is that true?"

"Actually, I'm mostly just trying to find them, but yeah, I don't think that fighting for Faust is the right thing, and probably won't get them what they want. Getting angry sometimes, and turning into niriks, it's part of who we are."

"Wait-wait-wait, you turn into the niriks?"

"Yeah, if we get angry enough we tend to lose control and turn into a nirik until we calm down again."

"Oh." Twilight rubbed the back of her head in academic embarrassment, "Boy did I misinterpret that. I think everypony did. So you think Faust's offered to fix your nirik problem?"

"Maybe? I don't really know."

"Do kirin legends have a character like Faust in them? An ancient, unknown alicorn that vanished long ago? Or is there someone like her that's part of your religion?"

"Kirin don't really have a religion, so no. Our legends don't really have ponies in either. There's the chimera that cursed us with becoming niriks, but I really don't think that's the same thing."

Twilight sighed inwardly. There was only one chimera that she could think of in that context, and of course Discord had to be the one that made the kirin turn into niriks. Considering the way kirin looked though, it was definitely Discord that made them in the first place. The mishmash of different creature traits had to have been him. Either way it made little difference to the reasons the kirin joined Faust, unless Faust had promised them revenge on Discord, which was possible.

"So you really don't know why they'd join Faust?"

"Not for definite. It'd had to have been a pretty good offer to convince so many to leave their homes."

"Right." Honestly, Twilight could find nothing in this to build a plan on, which was all the reason she needed to give up trying for now. "Thanks for the insight, Autumn. Hopefully we can come up with a plan."

"Oh, no problem." Autumn came out from behind her seat and gave Twilight a shaky smile, "If I can help more, feel free to ask."

"I will certainly keep that in mind, thank you. Fleur, where's my brother and the rest of them?"

Fleur kicked the way out open with a back leg and held it there. "Follow me," she said, leading them away from the waiting room and Autumn. "Do you really think we could make a plan to get the kirin away from Faust?" she asked once they were out of hearing range.

"Maybe? The fact is we don't know why the kirin really joined her. We don't even know where they are right now. You've been attacked and lost your boat, the thestrals have had to leave Equestria, and then there's the Chrysalis thing... I'm not sure this is entirely worth chasing up if it gets us nowhere."

"You are going to try though, right?"

"Yes I'll try. I'm not about to advocate wiping out most of a species because I can't be bothered with not doing that. I'm just saying I'm not going to keep pushing and pushing if it isn't working. I could be saying the same about the yaks if I'm honest, but they seem even less likely to change their mind than the Mareitanians themselves are. Saying that, I have put a plan in motion to help with that."

"Which is working better than our plan to get to Zebrica," said Trixie.

"Why can't you get to Zebrica?"

"The portal there needs some maintenance," Twilight explained. "Luna's working on it now, so hopefully she'll have sorted it out by the time we get back."

"Oh. So what now?"

"Now I'm going to see my family, and see what we can do about your situation."

"You don't need to do anything," Fleur said firmly. "We have it well in hoof." She pouted as Trixie laughed at her.

"Oh yes, you are so very clearly on top of everything that Celestia sank your boat and forced you to hide amongst refugees. You'll have this war won in no time."

"Hey, we're trying."

"I didn't say you weren't trying. I was merely making light of the fact that you are so not on top of anything right now."

Fleur stopped at a door, and held a leg in front of it to block Trixie's path. "Look, I know we've had a setback, but we're determined to take out Black Rose and the Shades. We've taken out a lot of them so far, so it can't be much longer until we reach their leader."

"Uh-huh. Still not sure what you think doing all that is going to achieve, but you do you."

"You're an asshole, Trixie."

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know."

Fleur lowered her leg and let them enter the room. Like a shot, Nightlight, Twilight Velvet, and Shining ran over to Twilight, grabbing her in a group hug. Fleur left them to it, taking a moment to see who else was there, and finding that Shadow was the only one absent. Hopefully she was keeping an eye on things outside.

"I'm sorry you lost your boat," said Twilight.

"It doesn't matter," the filly said back, surprising her. "It was just a boat. The important thing is that we're all okay."

Twilight Velvet smiled at the filly, "Well said. Of course that still leaves the question of what we're supposed to be doing now."

Rocky smacked one hoof into another, "I say we strike back. Show them we aren't afraid, even if they have Celestia with them."

"And that would be suicide," said Flicker. "No thanks. We need to hide, and we need to regroup. We lost pretty much everything when we lost our boat. Weapons, armour, our healing thingy, all of it, except for what Bon Bon and Crème had on them. We'd have trouble upsetting a foal's birthday party right now, let alone tackle whatever it is you want us to do."

Crème nudged Rocky on the side, "She's right you know. If only we could get into the Smile armoury in Canterlot. Then we could have all the weapons we want."

"Out of the question," Bon Bon barked. "In fact, going to Canterlot is so far out of the question it's laughable. However, there is a place we can go that would have everything we need, and give us a place to lay low."

"Where's that?" asked Shining.

"Here. Guys, I'm not sure how to put this to you, but I really don't think we can keep going, or should. We've lost most or our stuff, our mobile base of operations, and if we keep going we're highly likely to lose our lives. I'm not even sure we're making that much of a difference, or have even slowed Faust down in the slightest. We keep going on like stopping the Shades will be some monumental tipping point, but for the number we've killed, there always seems to be more, and they always seem to be just as capable. It's pointless to keep trying."

"But think about what we just did," said Fleur. "We stopped the development of a dangerous, magic driven tank. That's more than nothing!"

"Yeah, except that Chrysalis brought us the intel, and she and her changelings were more than capable of destroying that tank without us. We might as well have been there as observers."

"She's right," Honeydew agreed. "You even bothered to bring me along because tanks were my creation, and I was still useless. In fact I almost goaded Chrysalis into killing Thorax and myself, which was probably not the best idea I've ever had. If Thorax hadn't been strong enough to stop her..."

"Woah-woah-woah," Twilight pushed herself out of the familial hug she was enjoying. "Chrysalis tried to kill you?"

"A little?" Honeydew flinched at the look Twilight gave her, "I mean it was partly my fault, so I don't think you can hold it against her, and Thorax beat her anyway-"

"Which explains why she was so determined for me to keep Thorax away from her," said Fleur. "At least that makes sense now."

"Oh for goodness sake..." Twilight sighed harshly, "Is this enough to end our allegiance over? I'm asking because this is unusual circumstances."

"She also executed two dozen captives," Shining added.

"Okay, so the deal is off. I should've known that she couldn't be trusted."

"I'm afraid I might've given her another chance." Fleur shrugged at Twilight, "I know neither of us would agree with it, but we had a take no prisoners rule back in Mareitania, until we took Whiplash at least. I'm afraid that rule might have some applications here as well."

Twilight breathed in slowly, then released it as one. "Damn it. I suppose the whole Thorax thing was mitigating circumstances as well, and since it was already bad enough for her, I'm not surprised she tried to attack after being goaded. Fine, she gets her last chance if you want to give it to her."

"There's still the matter of us apparently giving up," said Shining. "Are we really giving up now? Really? What do you think, Fleur?"

"Me? I don't particularly want to give up, but," Fleur gestured to Bon Bon, Crème, Rocky, and Flicker, "I'm not the one doing the dangerous work. If they want to stop, who am I to tell them no?"

"The leader?" said the filly.

"A leader that doesn't respect their followers isn't a leader for long. Do the rest of you agree with Bon Bon?"

"I don't want to say I do," said Rocky, "but it does feel like we're trying to bring down a castle using meringues and insults. Maybe she's right."

"I'm fine either way," said Crème. "I'd love nothing more than to bring Black Rose down, but I can't do that on my own."

"Flicker?" Fleur said to the dark unicorn as she sat unmoving, not giving her own opinion.

"Stopping the Shades is pretty much all I have, so no way in hell do I want to stop. If you stop, I'm gone."

"Fair enough." Fleur didn't bother asking the rest of them as she knew that Shining was unlikely to want to give up, while the rest of them were probably fine with doing so. It felt like the decision was hers after all, and while she knew Bon Bon was maybe right, she also knew the Shades weren't going to give up because they did.

"We aren't stopping," Fleur said after thinking about it for a while longer. "We can't. The Shades are after us now, along with plenty of others, and they aren't going to stop until we're dead or captured. The simple fact is that we can't stay here, so we're either going to have to live on the run, fighting for our lives, or we fight hard enough to make them think about not chasing us."

"What's our target," Bon Bon asked dispassionately, like she had just given up hope on getting out of this alive.

"The Shades headquarters in Canterlot."

"What?" Bon Bon said dumbly. "Are- Are you serious? That's suicide!"

"No, it isn't. I'm not saying it won't be dangerous either though, but we said we weren't going to hold back any more. How have we gone from that to giving up so soon?"

"But there's no way we could possibly do that!"

"Not right now, but we can do it." Fleur looked to Twilight, who had been sat quietly with an expression that travelled back and forth between shock and thoughtfulness. "When will you be ready to start making your moves against Faust?"

"Uh, do you mean when we're ready to start fighting back?" Twilight grimaced as Fleur nodded, "I don't know then. It could be weeks, a month, two months... it's hard to tell. Why're you asking anyway?"

"Because a strike against the Shades at the right time could be exactly the kind of chaos you need to make your initial strikes."

"I suppose that's true, but..." Twilight trailed off into her thoughts. An attack on the Shades like that would be the perfect accompaniment to launch a surprise attack.

"You know I'm right."

"I know," Twilight admitted. "I'm just not brave enough to say it out loud." Twilight glanced between her brother and parents, then Fleur and the filly. "I feel like I have a lot to lose if this goes wrong."

"Oh, yeah." Fleur cursed herself for not thinking of that sooner, but she knew it didn't change anything. The coming war would go much better if the Mareitanians' intelligence was blown sky high.

"Volunteers only then," Shining said while Fleur was distracted. "If you're willing to do this one last mission to destroy the Shades headquarters in Canterlot, and finish the task we set out to do, raise a hoof."

Shining raised his hoof, followed by Crème and Flicker. Nightlight and Twilight Velvet raised theirs shortly after, along with Rocky and Thorax. Honeydew anxiously chewed on the edge of her hoof for a second, then raised it. Pleased with what she was seeing, Fleur raised her hoof, and was surprised as the filly raised hers.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Do you really need me to answer that?"

"No, I suppose not," Fleur sighed. "So how about it, Bon Bon? Are you in?"

Bon Bon stared incredulously at the rest of them, then laughed and raised a hoof. "I guess I am. What's the plan, Ma'am?"

"Okay, first step is hiding for a while until the heat is off us. Then we're going to need some stuff, like weapons and explosives. Then we need to find a route into Canterlot, so that when Twilight says it's time, we're ready."

"So nothing too strenuous then."

Fleur lazily waved a hoof at Bon Bon, "There'll be more details when we need them." Fleur turned and grinned at Twilight, "They volunteered, so you can't blame me now."

"That really doesn't make me feel better, but since you're all so determined, far be it from me to even attempt to stop you. That still leaves the kirin situation though."

"Since Equestria declared war on Zebrica this morning, I think you'll find most of the kirin there."

Twilight jumped as whoever that was spoke, and her eyes landed on a pale maroon crystal pony that blended into the décor of the room. She was sat in the corner, and had gone completely unnoticed until she'd said something.

"Have you been there the entire time?"

"You're Paradise, aren't you?" Shining said as the mare nodded at Twilight.

"You remember me?"

"Yeah, you brought us to Gloves the last time we were here."

"I think you're missing the point," said Fleur. "What was that about war with Zebrica?"

"I was in town earlier, and there was a lot of ponies talking about Faust declaring war on Zebrica. If that's true, then the kirin will be there, and if you want Autumn to talk the kirin out of fighting, she needs to go there too." Paradise blushed as they all stared at her, "Sorry."

"Sorry for what?" blurted the filly. "Not telling us sooner?"

"Just... sorry."

"I'll give you sorry," the filly grumbled before looking to Twilight and Trixie. "I guess that's your cue to run off to Zebrica and save the day?"

"I guess it is." Twilight stood and stretched her wings, "Assuming we're not already too late. All of you take care, and try not to get caught or killed, well, ever."

"Princesses orders," Trixie said with a nod.

"Consider it official then," Shining laughed. "Come on, I'll show you out."

"Okay, give me a moment."

"Soooo..." Trixie said to Shining as Twilight hugged her parents, Fleur, and the filly goodbye, "are motivational speeches a specialty of yours?"

"Getting ponies to bravely go into situations that could easily kill them is part of the job, unfortunately."

"Well shit, nopony's ever given me a motivational speech. The most I get is a request from Twilight to not die. I feel like I'm missing out now." Trixie sidled a little closer to Shining, "Do you have any other ways to motivate ponies to do what you want? Maybe involving whips and chains?"

"Oh look, Twilight's done saying goodbye so we should get a move on now."

Trixie sniggered at Shining as he hurried off, leading Twilight out of the room. "You only had to say no. Bye Fleur, bye filly. Don't die."

"You either you crazy mare," the filly said back.

"I'm trying not to." Trixie gave them one last wave and trotted swiftly after Twilight and Shining, catching the end of a conversation.

"-Without them, we won't stand half as good a chance. We need their alchemy to overcome the Mareitanians magic."

"Help them save their country, and I'll bet the zebras will be more happy to give you what they want. Come on Twilight, you got this."

"I hope so. I really hope so."

Trixie stopped as they entered the waiting room where Autumn was, seeing no reason to follow them. She was mostly wondering why she'd even bothered to come since she'd done nothing of particular note, or anything if she was honest.

"I miss when there was only six of us. I felt more useful then." Trixie twitched her ear as a whistling sound reached her, and had barely a few seconds to think about it before Shadow came hurtling around the corner. Trixie ducked as Shadow pulled up right before trying to land, her single rear hoof not giving her what she needed to do so safely as it slipped from under her, sending her sprawling to the floor to slide to a stop.

"Nyaargh! Fuck having three legs!"

"What the hell's your rush, you crazy bat!"

Shadow looked up like she only just noticed she wasn't alone, "Trixie! Good! Celestia's just arrived at the station with a train load of soldiers, and is coming here right now!"

"Oh." Trixie blinked as an important memory crept into her head. Such as the one where Celestia wasn't on their side. "Oh shit!" Trixie practically kicked the door down, rushing into the waiting room. "Twilight! We have a problem!"

"I heard," Twilight said as she quickly helped Autumn pack her stuff. "Shining, go tell the others and get them out of here. Trixie, you're taking Autumn to the roof and waiting there. I'll pick you up once I'm done."

Trixie stepped aside to let Shining out, "And what are you hoping to do?"

"Me? What do you really think I'm going to do?"

-0-0-0-

Twilight stood alone in the road leading up to the New Hope Medical centre, a hundred yards in front of it. She'd spent the last couple of minutes listening to the sound of marching hooves, and growing impatient at the lack of speed displayed. When they finally made it to where she could see them she was relieved, even if it meant a full minute in a staring competition with Celestia.

Thankfully she'd predicted things well, and the Mareitanians didn't launch into an attack as soon as they saw her. She'd never expected Celestia to, but the soldiers were a bit harder to work out. Instead they stayed a dozen paces behind Celestia, even as she came to a stop in front of Twilight.

"I must confess that I wasn't expecting to see you here," said Celestia. "Not that I'm surprised either since you're friends with these terrorists."

"You're looking well," Twilight said politely, and she meant it. There wasn't a mark left over on Celestia from what had happened in Nostralis. "Shouldn't you be on your way to Zebrica though?"

"Don't try and distract me, Twilight, you know what and who I'm here for. After I destroyed their boat I knew they'd have to run somewhere. Since you're here as well, that only confirms our intelligence was correct. Now step aside, or I will force you to. Ideally though, you could surrender as well, even though I know you won't."

Twilight stomped a hoof as Celestia started to walk forwards, stopping her. "Don't do this, Celestia. This is a hospital sheltering refugees. Refugees from the war Faust started! Don't you dare attack them!"

"And why would you care?"

"Because I do! This image of me you have in your head isn't real. Faust planted it there to turn you against me!"

"You turned against me! You make these baseless accusations against my mother because you can't handle the guilt of your betrayal."

Twilight bit her tongue, knowing it was futile to argue, but also because she knew she was going to end up pushing Celestia to do something rash which could end up getting ponies killed. She didn't want that, and neither should Celestia.

"Who's right or wrong doesn't matter. What matters is that you aren't the kind of pony to attack defenceless refugees, even if you don't intend to hurt any of them. They will panic, and there will be deaths, accidental or otherwise. Don't do this."

Celestia turned her gaze up to the hospital for a while, then sighed. "I'm afraid I don't have a lot of choice, Twilight. Unless you go in there and bring those terrorists out, I will have no recourse but to go in after them."

"You know I can't do that." Not least because the others should be running from here as fast as they could go by now.

"Then I'm sorry, Twilight." Celestia lowered her horn to cast a spell, but Twilight had already teleported away to the roof of the hospital. With a flash of her horn a purple barrier sprang up over the hospital, blocking entry to Celestia and her forces.

"That didn't last very long," said Trixie.

"I'm surprised she was that talkative considering how well our last get together went. Did the others get out of here?"

"They should be at least a couple of miles away if they didn't slow down." Trixie raised an eyebrow as Celestia started to batter down the shield, "She has to know they're long gone by now, right?"

"Probably, but with no way to track them, all she can do is hope I was bluffing." Twilight looked between Trixie and the patiently waiting Autumn as she started charging her horn, following her beacon back to the Retreat. "Whatever, let's get out of here."

"Wait, I've never telep-"

-0-0-0-

Autumn staggered out of the teleport, fighting to keep the contents of her stomach as such. "Oh heavenly boughs, that was horrible." She wiped her mouth on her leg, even though she hadn't thrown up, then looked up into the eyes of two angry looking alicorns, another less angry alicorn, an alicorn foal, a dragon, a number of unicorns, and one strange looking bug pony thing. "Oh boy."

"Twilight, why have you brought a kirin here?" Luna asked coldly.

"She's looking for her people, and we're hoping she can convince the other kirin to break off their allegiance with Faust. She's really not the problem we have right now though."

"You mean it gets worse?"

"I'm not that bad," Autumn muttered. "I'm Autumn Blaze by the way, not that any of you probably care that much right now."

"Nice to meet you," said Cadence.

"Oh, thank you. Uh," Autumn pointed at Twilight, "you probably really should listen to her though."

"Celestia sunk Fleur's boat, thankfully not killing any of them, but they're on the run now. They're hoping that they can pull together for one last mission to take out the Shades headquarters in Canterlot, creating some confusion for when we attack, whenever that is."

"A capital idea, if they feel confident to do it. I'm afraid they might be waiting a while though."

"That's where things get worse. Faust's declared war on Zebrica. I have no idea on what basis, but I get the feeling she doesn't care about having a good reason. Whatever it is, we need to get to Zebrica now, before it's too late."

"Then it's a good job the portal is almost repaired."

"Good. Pack your things then, ladies, because we'll be leaving as soon as it is."

"Ladies?" Moondancer asked. "As in all of us?" She pointed a hoof at herself, "Including me?"

"Yes including you! We need your help to pick out the best crystals for the oubliette and armour."

"Right." Moondancer adjusted her glasses, somehow making the motion seem melancholy. "Joy."

Author's Note

Far too much talking in this chapter, or so it feels to me, but hey ho. But we now have one adorable kirin with us, and are off to Zebrica! Progress, am I right?

By the way, the lemur fact is that lemurs pick their leaders based on how bad they smell. The smelliest lemur gets to do the leading. Seems as good as any method of picking your leaders to me.

25. To Zebrica!

It was with great reverence that Luna placed the last of the gems into the frame of the mirror portal leading to Zebrica. She stepped back, nervously narrowing her eyes should the mirror explode into a hail of glass shards, but found her concerns were unfounded as the portal came to life with a sound not dissimilar to the piercing sound of a balloon being deflated, but in reverse.

"Well, that does appear to be it, the portal is now operational."

"And none too soon," said Twilight. "We really need to be getting on with this. I hate to think what the situation in Zebrica is if Faust's invading."

"Rushing in blindly isn't going to help anything either."

"I vote for rushing in blindly!" Trixie shouted from in the distance.

Luna's expression went flat, "I despise the echo in this room. Anyway, we won't even know where the portal will bring us to at this point, so-"

"You're advising caution?"

Luna nodded once, "Always."

"Surprised I am not." Twilight spent a moment studying the reflected image in the mirror, but couldn't really tell what it was. It was dark with streaks of light shining across it, and seemed to be showing no floor. "Let's not be reduced to a snail's pace though, because, y'know, war bad."

"Then let us see if our merry troupe is ready."

Both Luna and Twilight made for the observation area, which was abuzz with activity, and actual buzzing in Mayfly's case, as preparations were made to head on the next leg of their journey. The only ones that seemed to be ready were Ember, Nightmare, and Trixie, because Ember was bringing nothing, and the others tended to not worry beyond having food and water. Autumn Blaze, the kirin in the mix, also seemed to be ready, but she was just sat looking confused.

The rest at least did seem to be almost ready, with the massive exception being Moondancer, who was fretting over piles of notes as Sunset got her to try and stop freaking out.

"But what if I forget which crystals we need?"

"There are literally two types we need."

"But what if I don't get the right ones to successfully carry the binding spell? What if I forget the binding spell?"

"I have no idea why you think you need to remember it at this point."

"What if-"

"Nope. Moondancer, everything is going to be fine."

"Don't say that!" Trixie gasped. "Never assume anything is going to be fine."

"Alright, but something might go fine, and it might as well be this. You know what we need, so stop stressing." Sunset picked up a small case and opened it, showing a padded interior with six spaces cut into it. "We even have room for extras in the unlikely event that we don't pick the perfect ones."

"Right, right... you're right. But what if-"

"Damn it Moondancer," Trixie groaned, "pack your stuff!"

"I'm trying to!"

"You only own like one jumper and a pair of glasses!"

"Do you ever get the feeling that the fate of the world often ends up in the claws of the wrong people?" Ember said to Lightning, who was finishing up her own packing.

"You're the only one with claws here, so you tell me." Lightning deftly fastened her bags using the tips of her wings, "Also, fuck you, we're awesome."

"Heck yeah we are!" Rainbow said, flying down between them in an attempt to grab both of them around the shoulders. It failed spectacularly when she remembered the considerable difference in height and size between them, and also that hugging dragons wasn't a winning decision, so she gave up. "We're going to kick some Mareitanian ass right out of Zebrica!"

"And what are you basing that on? Our own amazing attempt to keep Equestria safe?"

Rainbow deflated at Lightning's words, "No... obviously not."

"The zebras don't even have an army."

"Alright, fine, don't mind me having some optimism."

"Consider it done."

Twilight sat, her own optimism flagging a little. How in the world they thought they were going to help the zebras fight off the invasion was ridiculous. Not to insult the zebras as they had some very skilled warriors, but they had no official army, and it was unlikely that their own addition would turn the tide. Maybe Zebrica would fall, just as Equestria did. Maybe it wouldn't matter, so long as they got what they needed from there.

Twilight pushed the thought away, refusing to let it bring her down. She had plenty of other stuff to worry about instead. "I forgot to ask, Ember, but did you bring that crystal back from High Rock?"

"I did, and I hid it on the roof of your castle, just like you asked." Ember folded her arms and smirked at Twilight, "Not sure it's going to do what you want though."

"If it can get the Mareitanians in Equestria to start questioning things, it helps. If not, well, we've not really lost anything either." Twilight shrugged at Ember, "The most it would ever do is give us a bit of an edge."

"Uh-huh, well, whatever. Are we ready to go now? All this hanging around is really not helping my cool."

"Almost," Sunset called from where she was quickly helping Moondancer finish packing. "A couple minutes and we'll be done."

"Good."

"Uh, I have a question."

Twilight looked over to where a hoof was being held up. It was noticeably cloven. "Yes, Autumn?"

"I still have no idea how to do that thing you're expecting me to do."

"We're only asking you to try."

"I don't even know how to do that! At the very most my village might listen, and that is a fairly significant might as it is. I really don't think I can do this."

"Which part of trying is confusing you?" asked Trixie. "Is it the part where we're only asking you to try?"

"Thousands of kirin are possibly going to die if I fail, so excuse me if I'm a little worked up about it!"

"Hey, it's cool, don't worry about it. You're talking to ponies that have got more ponies killed than there are kirin currently existing, so we know what you're talking about."

Autumn swallowed, a slightly disturbed expression on her face. "How does that help me to not worry about it?"

"Not sure." Trixie shrugged, "It sounded way better in my head. Maybe telling you that you won't be responsible for the deaths of those kirin if you fail would've been better? Oh well, too late now."

Twilight walked up to Trixie and placed a tip of a hoof on her lips. "For the love of Celes- Hmm, can't really say that any more. For the love of something, please shush."

"You can't contain me forever."

Twilight pushed Trixie away and turned to Autumn. "Look, I now this is a big thing to ask, but the kirin have thrown their lot in with Faust, which makes them an enemy for a lot of people. If they can't be talked out of changing their mind, then they face the possibility of being killed, but it won't be your fault in the slightest."

"It certainly won't feel that way."

"I know, I really do, but that's just how this goes, and there's not really anything that can be done about it."

"Perhaps if you could convince them that none of us are their enemies," Cadence said to the kirin, "they might at least decide to not fight quite so hard."

"Alright, I'll try." Autumn sat and held her head in her hooves. Twilight expected her to say more, but the kirin remained silent, so she gave her a small pat on the back, and moved on to gather her own belongings together.

"And I think we're done," Sunset announced. "Moondancer is officially ready to go."

"Excellent," Luna cheered. "In that case it is high time we departed." Picking up her own minimal belongings, Luna led the way to the portal, where Starsy's avatar was waiting for them. "Sorry to leave you on your own like this."

"I'll live. I'm actually here to give you a little piece of advice."

"And what might that be?"

"Don't screw this up. Really, seriously, do not screw this up."

"Highly motivational, thank you." Luna moved past Starsy, giving him a passing glare as she did, then started to go through the portal when her legs turned to jelly, and she fell over, smacking her head on the side of the portal. "Uunnghh... ow."

"Are you alright?" Cadence asked urgently, quickly trotting up to Luna to help her up. "What happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure. That was most peculiar." Luna pulled herself up with Cadence's proffered hoof, and cautiously poked her head through the mirror. A second later she sat fast enough to make a slapping sound against the ground as she pulled her head back through. "Ah, it appears as though the mirror is lay down flat."

Trixie snirked at Luna, "And how is that enough to make you fall over?"

"Gravity from two directions at once does tend to confuse one's sense of balance."

"Then maybe you just need a run up." Trixie backed up a little, then went into a gallop, flying through the mirror. In the reflection they could see Trixie flailing in the air before flopping unceremoniously back through the mirror and landing on the ground in a heap.

"Very well, Luna, you've made your point."

Twilight rolled her eyes, trying not to show how much she enjoyed that little display. She went up to the mirror, studied it for a moment, then crouched down onto her belly and crawled though, hooking her hooves over the edge of the mirror, and hanging on as the curiously nauseating effects of gravity in two directions made her stomach do a dance.

It appeared as though they were in a junk shop of some kind, as there were shelves covered in all kinds of stuff, ranging from pots, to tools, to abstract sculptures. That also led to her discovering that the portal was also on the top of a stack of other mirrors, and was immediately thankful it wasn't on the bottom.

Twilight started to haul herself through, her back hooves scraping on the floor of the portal chamber until enough of her was through to painfully flop to the ground on the other side, quickly securing the mirrors as the pile started to teeter over dangerously. As soon as she was able to she picked the mirror up and moved it to its proper orientation.

"Nicely, if inelegantly, done," Luna complimented as she came through the portal, looking around and sniffing at the musty air. "A junk trader, hmm? As good a place as any for the mirror to end up I suppose."

"Hopefully it's in Zebrica in that case," Twilight said back. "I'm not sure if I could contain myself if we're back in Saddle Arabia, or somewhere else entirely."

"Quite." Luna made room for the others to start coming in after her. "Nightmare, please disguise yourself. There's only room for one 'Nightwalker' in zebra culture, and I rather it be me."

"Well that's just selfish, especially since the name does sort of belong to me anyway."

"Nightmare..."

"Alright, fine." There was a shimmer, and a grey and blue maned unicorn stood where Nightmare had been. "Better?"

"Much. You'd better change as well, Mayfly," Luna added as the changeling came through the portal. She was pleased as Mayfly disguised herself without a fuss, even though it did make her wonder if Mayfly would be recognised as a changeling after changing like Thorax had.

"This is definitely Zebrica," Daring said as she came through the portal. "You can tell from the building. It does help that most of the stuff in here is zebra made too. Ooh, especially this." Daring scurried off to the corner of the room, and returned with a simple spear decorated with golden feathers placed around the head of the spear like the rays of the sun. "A genuine sunspear, or jua in zebrican. Used for ceremonies celebrating the sun."

"It looks a bit like Celestia's spear, Solaris," said Cadence. "Is that intentional? Do the zebras worship Celestia as the goddess of the sun, or something like that?"

"Once, yes," Luna said quietly, and maybe even a little bitterly. "These days she's just highly respected. Hopefully the Council of Elders won't treat that as significant in light of Faust's invasion of their country."

"Surely they would've been asked to ally with Faust before being invaded?" said Twilight, thinking that they would've at least been offered a similar deal to Saddle Arabia. "Since they haven't joined her, and they're now being invaded, I very much doubt they're interested in what Celestia has to say on anything."

"An astute point," Luna agreed, "but not one we can count on for anything more. Zebrica, while open to traders and travellers, has always refused a greater alliance, which means it's unlikely that we will get one, but forcing the Mareitanians and their allies from these lands would probably give us good odds at getting their aid."

"And why aren't we getting the griffons to help fight them off?" asked Trixie.

"Because zebras don't like griffons, and are highly likely to rebuff their aid, even when desperate. It's also important to note that the Emperor never said anything about helping anyone other than Equestria for now, and I'd rather not push him to fight here as well. Not until we are truly desperate."

"I'm sorry, all I heard then was blah blah blah politics."

Twilight chuckled at Trixie, "That is essentially what she said. Anyway, whatever the reasons, we would still have to-"
Twilight stopped as a door into the room opened, permitting entrance to a small, bespectacled, zebra stallion who was advancing in his years. He froze at the sight of the various ponies, one kirin, and one dragon in his store room, and while curious as to how they got in there without using the door, he started to back out slowly in fear when Twilight gave him her friendliest smile.

"Hi there! Sorry for barging in like this. I don't suppose this mirror is for sale, is it?"

-0-0-0-

Turns out that everything in the shop was for sale, but only if you have the right currency, which was something that they did not possess. Thankfully they had a rare, if slightly used kirin sword to barter with, and haggled the shopkeeper down to the sword, a hay and lettuce sandwich, and a kiss on the cheek from Cadence, although that was possibly given as a bonus out of appreciation. Either way it helped.

So, purchase held aloft in her magic, Twilight led the way out of the shop and into the Zebrican capital of Zanzebra, the white buildings of which shined so brightly that even Twilight felt the need to complain. Nightmare was practically blind.

"I hate the sun, I hate this city, I hate this country, and I hate the sun!"

"You said sun twice," Rainbow pointed out, only to get a pointed glare in return. "Okay, forget I said anything. Sheesh."

"Don't forget how hot it is here," said Trixie. "A little bit warmer and Moondancer might take off her jumper."

Nightmare gasped happily, "Strip! Strip! Stri- wait, Moondancer, ew no. Forget I said anything."

"Shouldn't you be enjoying the sights of Zanzebra?" Luna said to Nightmare as they continued their currently aimless journey. "It has been over a thousand years since we've been here after all."

"I know, but this place is killing my eyes to the point I can't see shit. Besides, we both know you enjoyed your visits to Ammare much more."

"True enough," Luna admitted sheepishly. "That wasn't to say it was the only place I enjoyed."

"If only you'd also enjoyed the company of non-equines like Celestia did."

"There was that gri-" Luna saw the looks she was getting from most of the others, and decided then and there that she was never going to let Nightmare steer a conversation again. "Moving along swiftly, where are we supposed to be heading?"

"To the Kumbi Mzee," said Daring, who had taken on the unofficial role of guide without being asked to, "and the Council of Elders. It's them you need to talk to if you hope to get anywhere here."

"And I'm aware of that much, but where is this Kumbi Mzee..?"

Daring pointed to the highest point of the city, which was visible from most places. On it was a large white building, round and simply constructed, but also quite large. "That is the Kumbi Mzee."

"I see. I suppose we should start heading there and announce our arrival."

"I dare say they already know. The arrival of a dozen ponies, three princesses, a kirin and a dragon, wouldn't have gone unnoticed by the Night Maidens. We're probably being followed right now."

"We are," Twilight confirmed. A zebra mare had been following them for the last few minutes, and while she could legitimately be going the same way they were, it seemed unlikely to her to just be a coincidence. "I assume we're just going to keep going to the Kumbi Mzee?"

"For now," said Luna. "I doubt they'll try anything if we go where they want us to, and I assume that's where they want us to go."

"Alright then. Hopefully we can find Seeker there to vouch for us."

"Seeker?" A smile crept on to Luna's lips, "I must admit I hadn't considered her being here. I wonder how she's doing these days?"

"Only one way to find out."

-0-0-0-

There were guards outside the Kumbi Mzee, wearing some sort of traditional garb consisting of red robes with feathers and grasses woven into it. You might almost think they were only ceremonial if you paid no attention to their extremely practical looking spears. That wasn't the main concern about them though. The biggest one was that they stepped aside to let them enter as they got closer.

"It would seem we're expected," said Luna as she walked past the guards without giving them a second glance. "I'm sure this can only be good news."

They stopped in a reception room. They could only assume it as such because there was a reception with a receptionist. Otherwise it just had some potted plants to liven the place up, and some of the masks the zebras tended to use for decoration. At least that's what Twilight remembered from Zecora's hut in the Everfree forest, but it had been a long time since she'd visited the zebra.

"Welcome ta Zanzebra," the receptionist said in good if heavily accented ponish. She stepped out from behind her desk to bow to the princesses, "I'm afraid de Council is in a meeting right now, but if you would like to wait I shall inform them of ya arrival. I have no doubt they would like to speak with ya as soon as possible."

"Yes, thank you," Cadence said, giving the zebra a small bow and a smile. "I wonder who authorised our entry if the Council is in a meeting?"

"I did." All of them turned to the speaker, finding a mare standing there. She was wearing bands of a dark metal around her neck, as well as a sash of black that went over her chest. "I am Tazama, Mistress of the Night Maidens. I believe I have some of you to thank for Mtafuta's safe return."

"It was no problem, really." Twilight smiled sadly, "I just wish we could've returned her in better condition."

"Considering what she went through, we count ourselves lucky she came back at all." Tazama dismissed the conversation with a wave of her hoof, "I very much doubt you came just to see Seeker though. We have heard from our friends in Saddle Arabia of your intentions, and have also received instructions as to their intentions. Both you and they are taking a risk."

Twilight, Cadence, and Luna all shared a quick glance, as they had been unsure of where Saddle Arabia's loyalties lay after their confusing departure from the country.

"So the Sultan is pretending to be in discussions with Faust to secure a proper allegiance, all while sending her some token soldiers as a show of good faith? Soldiers that are now here in Zebrica?" Twilight shrugged at Tazama as the mare raised an eyebrow at her questioning tone. "Our rejection from Ammare was convincing enough to make us unsure."

"That's what I was informed the situation was."

"Oh good," Twilight breathed with relief, "we don't have to worry about that at least. Well, unless they're deceiving you as well."

"I would not worry about that possibility." Tazama tapped a hoof on the floor, "Enough about that though- Is that a kirin?" Tazama narrowed her eyes at Autumn, "Why is she here? Are you not aware the kirin are fighting for Faust?"

"We are very aware," Luna answered quickly. "We're hoping that Autumn here will be able to convince the other kirin to abandon their alliance with Faust."

"I see." Tazama regarded Autumn coolly for a moment, then shrugged. "I can only wish her luck then. If she can remove the other kirin from the field, our job becomes much easier."

"Have the Mareitanians made much progress into Zebrica?" Luna asked, steering the conversation onto subjects she considered more useful.

"They were making progress even before Faust declared war on us," Tazama replied harshly, almost growling her words. "A beach head was established nearly a week before her declaration. Come with me and I will try to explain the situation."

"Very well. Twilight, Cadence, come with me. The rest of you stay here and try not to get into trouble."

"How hard are we expected to try?" Trixie asked, grinning widely.

"Enough so that you succeed, Trixie."

"Ugh, fine. You heard her ladies, no wrecking the joint."

Luna gave Trixie one last look, then followed after Tazama on a path that led through a curved hallway around what she could only assume was the chamber where the Council was meeting. When they took a doorway that led towards the middle of the building, and they didn't enter the Council Chambers, she was confused enough to ask about the layout.

"The Council meets on the upper floor, while down here is where we, the Night Maidens, are based. Since little more than birds fly in Zebrica, it was deemed safer to have us Night Maidens between them and trouble." Tazama stopped in a larger room, also round, where zebras were working at desks in one half of the room, while in the other a collection of zebras were sparring. Every single one of them was a mare.

"Do no stallions work here?" asked Cadence.

"We are called the Night Maidens for a reason," Tazama replied with a smile. "Although I suppose we are the Wasichana wa Usiku technically, but that's a mouthful even for us, so we tend to use the ponish translation. I realise it may come across as sexist, but that is the tradition. The stallions have their own organisation in the Rangi, but their job is less information focused than ours. We do often work together, as was the case with Seeker, Samsi, and Kipa went they journeyed to Mareitania."

"At your request?" Twilight said, sounding more accusing than she meant to, but unable to stop herself.

"Yes, at my request. Had I known the truth about Mareitania I wouldn't have, but that was rather the point of sending them."

"We would've done our best to inform you had you asked," said Luna.

Tazama went quiet, and for a moment Twilight thought that they'd pushed too hard, but was relieved when Tazama shrugged at them.

"Had I known. Now, come into my office so we can discuss events happening closer to home. Uncomfortably close."

The three princesses followed Tazama into an office off the main area, and sat down in front of a large desk that was scattered with papers, predominantly of which was a map. Zanzebra was located on the coast, and circled around fifty miles to the southeast was the Mareitanians' landing.

"As you can see, a few days march would easily see them in Zanzebra."

"What kind of numbers are we looking at here?" Twilight asked.

"Thousands. At least ten, and more are arriving all the time, either by boat or by magic. Another week and there could be twenty thousand, and there would be little we could do to stop them marching straight in here and taking the capital."

"That's... bad. Um..." Twilight bit her lips and hoped Luna would say something, but the elder alicorn seemed to have little to say on it herself, leaving Twilight to pick up the slack. "What would those forces consist of so far?"

"A few thousand yaks, a couple of thousand kirin, and the remainder ponies of various origination. Considering the army Faust invaded you with, I imagine the rest to arrive would be ponies if there's more coming."

"It would be unlike the Mareitanians to attack without unicorns," agreed Luna. "Have you not tried a pre-emptive attack against them?"

"The kirin have an effective kill zone around their encampment. Anything that enters dies pretty quick. The Rangi have been trying to sabotage what they can, but they are seriously outnumbered, and are at serious risk just trying to get close. All we can really do is hope the Saddle Arabians are doing what we were told they would be doing, and slowing them down. If they are even there yet, that is."

As far as Twilight could tell, things were pretty bleak for the zebras. Without a significant military force of their own to field against the Mareitanians, they would quickly be overrun. It would be just like the invasion of Equestria again, but with incredibly uneven forces, like the Mareitanian civil war'd had.

Twilight almost smacked herself for thinking like that. That wasn't the kind of comparison she needed to make at any time. Yes the Mareitanian forces arrayed against the zebra was analogous to the Duke's solely earth pony army against the rebellion's combined army of earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, but it was still different enough to not be compared in such a way. For starters, the zebra currently stood less of a chance than the Duchy had at its weakest.

"What about tanks?" Luna enquired as Twilight swam in her thoughts.

"None, but honestly, I don't think they need them with that many yaks on the field." Tazama sighed and traced a line on the map between the Mareitanians and Zanzebra, "I hate to be the one to say it, but whatever it is you might wish from us, I'm not sure we can give it to you with such an imminent threat upon us."

"Then it's a good job that we came to help you." Cadence smiled reassuringly at Tazama, "We aren't going to ask you for anything without offering something in return, even if it is to aid your warriors in the field."

"All of you?"

"Uh, not all of us, no. I'm not much of a fighter. But Princess Luna, and some of the others, would be more than happy to join the fight."

"Indeed," said Luna. "I'm not saying we can turn the tide in your favour, but we can certainly slow it down."

Tazama nodded slowly, appearing as though she was having a lot of ideas very quickly. "The Council would have to approve it, but I very much doubt they would refuse your aid. If you can slow the Mareitanians down, or even keep them contained, that would give us much more time to rally the tribes for war."

"We do have something to ask in return though," said Luna. "I'm sure you're at least semi aware of our efforts to stop Faust, including forming an alliance with the griffons, and hopefully the Saddle Arabians. However, there is something we will need from you if we want the griffons to be effective against the Mareitanians' unicorns. We need your skills in alchemy that can dull the effects of magic."

"That... is a lot to ask," Tazama said sternly. "Again the Council would have to authorise such a thing. Mostly because it's the griffons that would be using it. You are aware that the Empire and we are far from friends, yes?"

"We're not forcing you to work together, or to give your secrets away to them, but if we want to be more effective against the magic proponent of Faust's army, your alchemy is what can give us that advantage."

"That," Cadence said, taking over the conversation, "and we're hoping that our alliance will temper the griffons a bit. If Zebrica were to join as well, that could hopefully put an end to the tensions between you."

"I very much doubt that, but that is not what concerns me. My concern is keeping Zebrica free. If you can do that, I'm sure the Council will be more than willing to listen to any and all requests you might have. Hopefully they should be ready to see you by now."

-0-0-0-

Twilight hadn't expected it from the nominally friendly zebras, but the Council's chamber was quite intimidating. On top of it being quite dark, incense sticks positioned by one of the elders gave the air a thick haze, as well as a pleasant odour. This only gave the seven zebras sat around the room on raised platforms, an even less distinct presence in the room.

Petitioners were required to stand in the middle of the room, which was the finishing touch to the oppressive atmosphere because you could only see some of the seven elders at any one time. As they were led into the chamber, Twilight couldn't help but want to keep turning in circles to try and keep an eye on them. She settled on facing the opposite direction to Luna, so that between them they could see all of the zebras in there.

"Welcome ta Zebrica, princesses," one of the Council said in greeting. Twilight allowed herself to turn enough to see the stallion that had spoken. "I suspect this is far from a social visit though."

"You suspect correctly," Luna said back, giving the stallion a sad smile. "It also seems that we're not the first foreign visitors to your country this last week."

"No, you are not," said another councillor, a mare this time. "We know well enough that you oppose Faust, so tell us, have you come to repel her army from our country?"

"We would be glad to aid in the fight if you wish, and will do so with your permission." Luna raised her head a little, "We will even do so if you refuse our requests."

"Is this to do with your alliance with Saddle Arabia and the Empire?" asked the first stallion. "Would you also wish us to join, to fight against Faust?"

"You would be most welcome if you did want to join us," said Cadence, "and the offer is there to join our alliance, but we actually need other things from you, if you'll consider allowing us to have them."

"Speak then, and we shall see if we here can give what you need," said the elder that was sat by the incense. The rhyming tone of her voice and words made them suspect that she was a shaman, and likely the elder they needed to direct their plea for zebra alchemy to.

"We need access to the old mines beneath Mount Chembechembe."

"You would have to give us a very good reason to allow you in there." Twilight wasn't sure who had spoke that time. The chamber had a tendency to echo. "Disturbing that place could cause considerable damage."

"I though nopo- nozeb- no one lived near the mountain," said Twilight, "out of fear of what could happen."

"Even so," said the voice, which that time Twilight narrowed down to coming from a mare to her right. "Why do you need to go there."

"There are crystals that grow in the caves essential to our goal of stopping Faust, and they only form in there." Twilight shrugged at the elders, "If we could find them somewhere else we wouldn't be asking. We're aware of how potentially dangerous that place is."

"If they wish to stop our mutual foe, then into the caves we must let them go," the shaman said. Twilight wished she could put some names and faces to these zebra, but they seemed determined to hide who they were.

"Agreed," said the first stallion that had spoken. "We could eject her army from our country a hundred times, but until Faust is gone she will just keep trying."

There was a murmur of other agreements from around the room which could only be taken as a good sign. After a moment the stallion stomped his hoof, "Very well, the princesses shall have access to Mount Chembechembe. Now what else would you be asking of us?"

"Your alchemists and shaman can create substances which can provide an immunity against magic, allowing your warriors to survive otherwise deadly spells, and also give your weapons the ability to cut through shields. As you well know, Faust's army has quite a significant magical component, and your alchemy would give us a far better chance of countering that."

Twilight winced at the number of protests she heard, but was at least thankful that not all of the elders were doing so. What gave her the most hope was that the shaman was quiet, which hopefully meant she was at least thinking about it.

"They would give our secrets to the griffons," one of the elders, another male, said loud enough to be heard over the others. "Do you realise what that could to us? They are insulting us by even asking!"

"We're not asking you to share how you make it," Luna said calmly. "We're only asking you for the substance itself. Besides, what could the griffons really gain from learning how to make that one thing? Neither you nor they can use magic. We are the ones most at risk from any potential misuse of it."

"The princess speaks true," said the shaman, "gain nothing on us the griffons do. This suggestion of theirs has merit, and I for one would happily share it."

"Councillor Kifuniko, you support this preposterous idea?"

"I do indeed, Councillor Mareed, and with or without you I will give the ponies what they need."

"You can't do that! Tell her, Fumbo!"

The first stallion, whom they now knew to be named Fumbo, raised his hoof to stop Mareed speaking, "Princess Luna does raise a point in that the griffons possessing the Kuua is no threat to us, so if Councillor Kifuniko supports this idea, then I do as well. It is also beyond us to stop her. All those in favour of providing the Kuua to the ponies, speak now."

Having seven elders did make a lot of sense. Not because the number seven was significant in any way, but because it stopped any decisions getting stalemated by a tie. This was very convenient at this moment because three of the elders voted against giving them the Kuua, while four voted in favour of it.

"I pray we do not come to regret this," Mareed said as a final word. "Is there anything else you wish to steal from us?"

"We are not stealing anything," Luna said stiffly. "We are asking permission."

"Hmph, I see little difference in this case. Good day to you, princesses."

"Ignore him," Fumbo said as Mareed departed. "Mareed makes it his life's work to be difficult."

"His ability to give such sass suggests there is a mighty stick up his ass."

Fumbo rolled his eyes, "Thank you, Councillor Kifuniko."

Kifuniko chuckled as she jumped down from her platform, doing a forward somersault before landing with all the grace of a cat. "A pleasure to meet you, princesses, even in dire times as this."

She was joined a moment later by Fumbo, although he took the much more sedate route of using the steps next to his platform. He smiled warmly, wrinkling the greying stripes on his face. "We truly are grateful you are here. We were starting to worry."

Twilight took a moment to study the two zebras, mostly out of curiosity. Neither of them wore full clothes, although they did wear a sash similar to what Tazama wore, although in the much warmer colours of red and orange. They also wore the neck bands zebras favoured, but in gold. Kifuniko completed her outfit with feathers earrings. She also gave Twilight the impression if not being very old, despite being an elder.

"We are here to help," Cadence said as Twilight wrapped up her inspection. "It's just unfortunate that the kind of help we can give needs to be so violent."

"Not unfortunate for us at all," Fumbo laughed.

"We are glad you are here when our foe is so near. If fight you do, gladly I will share the Kuua with you. Even Mareed will agree to arm you against our true enemy."

"Where have the other elders gone?" Luna asked, noticing that the other five of the Council had left the room.

"We have much to do with little time for pleasantries, I'm afraid," Fumbo replied. "Never any time for tea either," he added with a shake of his head. "I take it that Mistress Tazama has already briefed you on the situation?"

"She gave us the basics," said Luna. "We will be heading to do what we can once we depart."

"The Rangi have an outpost nearby, from which they are coordinating their efforts. Mtafuta is also there, as she among us knows best how the Mareitanians fight."

"Great!" Twilight said excitedly. "It'll be nice to see her again."

"Not so fast, Twilight. You're heading to Mount Chembechembe with Moondancer and whoever you need." Luna bowed apologetically to the two elders, "Sorry, but regardless of the outcome here, we will still need the tools of Faust's downfall. I promise we'll do what we can to stop her army, but if she takes the field herself..."

Kifuniko nodded in understanding, "If Faust were to take the field, it would be wisdom to yield. When faced with such a powerful foe, we would not blame you if you go."

"Quite."

"We'll leave you to make your plans," Fumbo added, bowing quickly to the three princesses before departing with Kifuniko.

"So this is where we split up?" Cadence asked.

"It is. I would like to suggest that you got some experience fighting, but Flurry makes that difficult. Perhaps you should stay here and befriend the locals. Maybe tell them about the many benefits of joining our alliance."

"I'll do what I can."

"And what about me? Who am I going with besides Moondancer?"

Luna couldn't resist rolling her eyes, "No doubt you'll be taking Trixie with you, and likely Sunset."

"We don't know what we'll find there, true, so Trixie might be useful. I might also need Daring's help to find the place. I suppose I might as well take Mayfly while I'm at it."

"Very well, that leaves me Nightmare, Ember, Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor."

"Don't forget Autumn," Cadence reminded Luna. "She'll need to get in to the Mareitanians camp if she's to have a chance at convincing them to give up."

"Of course," Luna sighed, "how could I forget? Very well. Twilight, I would very much appreciate you and Trixie getting back to me as soon as you can, because no doubt I'll be needing your help."

"We'll be as quick as w can. Now then, if there's nothing else, let's get on with it."

Author's Note

And we're off to Zebrica, just in case the chapter name and chapter didn't give it away. Hoping to spend a bit more time here than in previous places, just for funzies.

26. Keep calm and kirin on

It wasn't too long a flight down to where the Mareitanians had set up their beachhead, which was convenient since most of them heading in that direction were capable of flying. So long as you ignored the kirin being carried in Luna's magic, her front legs held out to the side as she wooted and hollered with glee.

"This is so awesome!"

"Is her... enthusiasm going to last the whole way?" Ember grumbled, having grown sick of the shouting after the first five minutes.

"Aw c'mon," Rainbow said to the dragon, "this is probably the only time she'll ever get to fly, so why not let her enjoy it?"

"At least she's not singing about it," Lightning added.

"That can be arranged!"

"No!"

"Aww..." Autumn folded her legs in a huff, "Nobody ever lets me sing. It's not like I'm bad at singing either. Spoilsports."

Vapor raised a hoof, "I'd like to point out that I'm not opposed to you singing."

"You are? Great! That's two against the rest of you, which is almost like a majority!"

"Not even close," Lightning said, only to be ignored as Autumn sucked in a breath to start singing. She didn't even make it to the first syllable when teal magic clamped her mouth shut.

"Start singing," Nightmare warned the kirin, "and I'll do something to your voice that can't be fixed. Possibly something like ripping it out... with my teeth."

"And that proves me wrong," said Luna. "I already thought you were going too far, but no, you found a way to take it that little bit further."

"Shush you. Shouldn't you be busy pointing some intense stares at the horizon?"

"And what would that achieve?"

"Oh please, like you haven't already. You're even doing it now."

Luna blinked and pulled her gaze from the horizon to glare at Nightmare instead. "That proves nothing. I'm just keeping an eye on our destination."

"Intensely..."

Luna rolled her eyes, then smiled pleasantly at her counterpart. "How's the sun treating you, dearest Nightmare?"

"Awful. I hate it. It should go away so we can have an eternal night instead." Nightmare gasped and covered her mouth with her hooves, mostly to hide her grin. "Oopsie! Did I say that out loud? What I meant to say was that you should go fuck yourself. Can't imagine how I mixed those two up."

Luna sighed and went back to scanning the horizon-

"You're doing it again."

-Carefully ignoring all other distractions, no matter how annoying and insolent they might be. The fact was that she had every right to be concerned about where they were going. This was a war they were flying into. Maybe not one they recognised due to the current nature of it being rather one sided, but it was a war nonetheless. Concern was warranted, especially when the Mareitanian camp came into sight.

To say it sprawled didn't seem like the right word, but Luna was damned if she could think of anything else to describe it with right then. It seemed that the Mareitanians, having discovered plenty of land to use, had endeavoured to fill as much of it as possible, leaving gaps between tents that were wide enough to put an extra tent up in. Not that they were all tents by name. There were also yurts, which had to be the yaks', while the kirin probably had the constructs that appeared to be made of whatever grasses they could find.

There was also a trio of ships anchored nearby. Two of them were slightly out at sea, while another was moored to a makeshift jetty, unloading supplies for the invasion. An army that size had to be chewing through a considerable amount of food every day. More than what a mere three ships could keep supplied, meaning that there had to be more out there, travelling between Zebrica and Equestria.

"That's a lot of ponies," Rainbow said slowly like she was stunned. "Well, not just ponies I guess. Yaks, kirin... and whatever else Faust has convinced to fight for her."

"I sincerely hope there's nothing else down there," Luna said to Rainbow's comment. "We have more than enough to contend with as it is."

"Where do you want us to start?" Lightning asked, indicating she was ready for action.

"First we find the zebras stationed nearby. I'd rather find them than do something to push the Mareitanians into a retaliatory frame of mind."

"Like burning their ships?" Ember asked, a predatory grin showing her teeth to the world.

"I had considered such things, yes, but that'll have to be later, after we've received a full update on all that is happening here." Luna started flying towards a series of hills that lay adjacent to the direct route between where they were and Zanzebra. "Hopefully the zebras are still alive to give it to us."

From the air the zebras small encampment, consisting of a few huts, was relatively easy to find, located as it was in a flat area between two hilltops that was mostly invisible from the ground. All the same, Luna doubted the Mareitanians weren't aware of its existence. More likely was that they were ignoring it, making it look like it was beneath them. Luna would agree, but she was also going to make them regret that stance if she could.

Most of the zebras looked up as they arrived, but none of them did anything more about it. Even the unexpected arrival of an alicorn, a 'thestral,' three pegasi, and a dragon wasn't enough to ruffle them, but the sight of the kirin did at least raise a few eyebrows if not spears.

"There can't be more than fifty zebras here," said Nightmare. "Are we really supposed to hold back all those soldiers with this? Are they even trying to slow them down?"

"There used to be twice this number," a robed zebra said, walking up to them. She dropped into a quick bow, and gave Luna a tired smile, "It is good to see you again, Nightwalker."

Luna returned the smile, giving a small bow of her own. "And you, Seeker. If only we could ever see each other at calmer times."

"Good luck finding such tranquillity here. Since you are here though, I hope it's because you aim to aid us?"

"There's two reasons actually. The first is to aid you, while the second involves her." Luna gestured with a hoof towards Autumn, "We're hoping she can convince the kirin to give up fighting for Faust."

"I was wondering about the kirin." Seeker walked a lap around Autumn, humming as she inspected the kirin. "You might be interested in meeting with our prisoner then."

"A prisoner?" Luna said, her interest indeed piqued. "I assume you mean another kirin then?"

"That's right. She was part of a scouting party, and was wounded, so we took her prisoner. We haven't been able to get a word out of her so far-"

"Yeah, that's not surprising," said Autumn. "Most kirin gave up their voices a while ago, but I can get it back if you happen to have some foals' breath flowers?"

"Foals' breath?" Seeker glanced back at where a healer was treating some of the wounded they'd accrued over the last week, "Isn't that for respiratory ailments?"

"Respiratory, throat, voice," Autumn shrugged, "it's all connected. Get me some foals' breath, and I won't just get her to talk, I'll get her to siiiiinnnggg-"

"Except that would be highly unnecessary, wouldn't it?" Nightmare said, giving Autumn the eye. Autumn just sighed in response.

"Foals' breath isn't exactly native to Zebrica," Seeker said after a short silence, "but hopefully our healer might have an extract or something like that with them. I shall be right back."

"What is it with you and singing?" Nightmare hissed at Autumn once Seeker was gone. "I'd be more than happy to make it through today without you bursting into song."

"But why? Singing's fun! Maybe if you tried it you wouldn't be so grumpy all the time."

"It'll be a cold day in hell before that happens."

"The singing, or the not being grumpy?" Luna teased.

"That... was a low blow."

"And so very worth it. But enough about that. Autumn, I can't help but notice you've developed a cure for your peoples' silence."

"Yeah, I kinda had to think of one because being silent was driving me nuts."

"Does it fix your nirik problem?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Oh," Luna uttered, that slim hope getting crushed before it could take off. "I suppose that was a long shot though."

"I wasn't even trying to fix that. Becoming a nirik when we get angry is part of who we are. All we need to do is learn to control it a bit better so we don't cause so much damage, which I think is a bit more reasonable than trying to get rid of it entirely."

Luna couldn't argue with that, not with the end result of her own issues standing beside her. "Very well. Unfortunately that's not a very compelling argument for those of your people seeking to rid themselves of their curse."

"Neither is hiding from it, or siding with a big ole meanie like Faust in the hopes she can fix it."

"We still need proof of that. Hopefully the prisoner they have here can provide that." Luna looked up as Seeker returned, a small vial held in her mouth. "Did they have what we need?"

Seeker took the vial out of her mouth and held it up for Autumn to take, "Some, yes. She does ask that you use it as sparingly as possible though."

"I shouldn't need much. All I need now is a cup of water, and a kirin to give it to."

"Follow me."

Seeker led them to one of the huts in the encampment. There were two zebras standing guard outside it, although it seemed a bit unnecessary for guarding one wounded kirin. There wasn't any noise coming from within the hut, although that wasn't particularly surprising, and would've been more worrying if there was.

Inside was a lone sleeping roll containing a very bored looking kirin. She was mostly brown, save for the reddish hue of her mane, and was covered in bandages. Her horn was also painted in a green substance that was probably made to limit her magic.

"Fern Flare?" Autumn said slowly, like she was surprised to find a kirin she not only recognised, but actually knew. "Omigosh, Ferny! It's so good to see you!"

The other kirin jumped in surprise as Autumn shouted excitedly, and tried to scramble away until her wounds reminded her not to. Even in pain she was silent though, when she should really be at least groaning from the pain.

"Probably not a good idea to move, Ferny," Autumn said with a small smile. "Uh, hi, by the way. It's me, Autumn, that kirin you all left behind when you all went running off to help Faust fight this silly war? Remember me now?" Fern nodded, although she still seemed freaked out by Autumn being there. "Good."

"Here," Seeker said, passing a cup of water to Autumn, which the kirin gratefully took, tipping a few drops of the extract into it.

"Drink this," she said to Fern, holding the cup to her mouth since her horn was out of action. Fern looked like she was going to refuse to, but sighed and drank it down.

"I don't know what you think that's going to do," Fern muttered, only realising a second later that she'd said that out loud. "I'm talking. Why am I talking?" She started to breath heavily, her eyes going wide as her freak out escalated considerably. "What did you do to me?!"

"Well, y'see, these zebra need to talk to you, and so does Princess Luna-"

"Princess Luna? The pony princess? What is that monster doing here? Is she going to torture me?"

"Far from it," Luna said languidly from behind Autumn, entering into the hut along with the others. "I see Faust's lies about me have taken with the kirin well enough."

Fern screamed. What she was hoping to achieve with it was beyond them, because all it did was make them uncomfortable. They let her persist though, with not even Autumn attempting to stop her until her voice started to go hoarse, giving them a small clue as to why she was doing it.

"Tell me," Ember said to Nightmare as Fern took a moment to suck in some air, "is this better or worse than singing?"

"Honestly, it's hard to choose."

"And that's enough of that," Luna said, shutting Fern's mouth with a hoof. "Listen well, Fern Flare. I am not going to torture you, and much of what Faust has told you is likely a lie concocted to make me appear as the villain in all this. You would do well to ignore her."

"Then what do you want with me?" Fern asked with a whimper once Luna's hoof was removed.

"To ask you one thing. What did Faust promise the kirin to get you all to fight for her?"

"Yeah," said Autumn. "We don't hate ponies, or zebras, or... whatever she's supposed to be," Autumn gestured towards Ember.

"I'm a dragon you idiot!"

"But I thought dragons were supposed to be huge."

"I breath fire! I- Oh, forget it." Ember sighed and left the hut, "At least it's fair I had no idea what you were without someone telling me."

"Uh, yeah, okay, as I was saying, we don't hate any of the peoples of this world, so why are you helping Faust to attack them? It doesn't make sense!"

"She said she could fix our curse. If we helped her to fight, she'd take away what happens when we get angry." Fern narrowed her eyes at Autumn, "I'm not saying I agreed with that by the way, but Rain Shine, and all of the other village leaders thought it was worth it. Don't ask me why."

"Would it have something to do with Faust's goal?" Luna asked. "Autumn made it clear that most kirin do not approve of the way we live in Equestria, and not just ponies in Equestria either."

"I don't know about that. I don't know what Faust's goal is either, so I'm not sure what you mean."

"You know nothing of her intent to revert the world to a more basic state? To strip all creatures of their sapience? To force us to live as animals, in harmony with nature?"

"That doesn't sound so bad," Fern hazarded.

Luna leaned in closer, making Fern back away a little. "Do you think the kirin are excluded from that?"

"Uh..."

"What better way to cure you than to strip away your emotions? Your thoughts, and your feelings? The very things that cause you to become niriks? Is preventing your change worth that cost?"

"Can- Can she do that? Really?"

"We're not sure," Luna answered, straightening back up. "We do know she has every intention to try though. The point is though, that she promised you nothing, and your people fight and die for something that would only hurt them in the end."

"I- I- I don't believe you! Why should I? You're just trying to turn me against her! Against the only one that can save us from our curse!"

"The only one that can save us from our curse is us!" Autumn shouted. "Faust can't wave her horn and make it go away, because if she was so benevolent, she would've done it already! Instead she's keeping you all on a string with a promise she can't keep, all so you keep on fighting for her!"

"Uh, Autumn?"

"What?" Autumn blinked as she caught a reflection of herself in Fern's eyes. Her coat had turned black, and a purplish flame covered much of her body. "Oh bother." Autumn drew in a breath to steady herself, and gradually the flames dissipated, and her coat returned to its proper white and green colouration. "Sorry, I guess I still need to work on my self control a bit. Still, nothing's on fire, so no harm no foul."

"How did you do that?" Fern asked, sounding more than a little bewildered. "How did you control the nirik?"

"By not letting my anger take over me. Uh, more than it did anyway. Look, we're always going to be niriks, but by bottling our feelings up until we explode, and by not accepting that it's okay to get angry sometimes, we're always going to live in fear of it. That's how we fix our curse, by controlling it, not by hoping for some miracle cure from a pony that only wants to use us."

"I don't know..." Fern yelped as Autumn's eyebrows caught fire, "but I'm willing to have a go and learn!"

"Good." Autumn patted out her eyebrow fire, "Does that mean you'll help me convince the other kirin to abandon their alliance with Faust?"

"If I can. I mean, we might not hate ponies, or whatever, but it's not like most kirin care about them either. I don't think we would've helped Faust if she didn't have something to offer us."

"Right, I forgot we're a bunch of isolationist jerks." Autumn rubbed a hoof up the scales between her eyes, "Great."

"What about the yaks and ponies? Are we trying to get them to leave Faust as well?"

"The ponies are magically influenced by Faust," Luna told Fern, "and the yaks consider her as a god, and treat her with the reverence of the truly devoted. Trying to convince either of those groups to leave Faust will likely result in your untimely deaths, so I strongly advise against it."

"Oh, okay." Fern went quiet and tapped the tips of her hooves together, "Are we supposed to be going now? It's that I'm not good at waiting. I get all antsy, and then I start talking and can't stop, which I admit is a problem I haven't had for a while due to the whole silence thing, and I am telling you now that I do not miss this in the slightest."

"Are we really trusting this thing to do what we want?" Nightmare whispered into Luna's ear. "I have the strangest suspicion that she's saying what she thinks we want to hear so she can get back to her people."

"I know, but what choice do we really have? We're not doing this on the expectation that it'll actually work. We're merely hoping it will."

"I know that, but..." Nightmare stopped speaking, unsure of what to put as her argument. This would either work, or simply wouldn't. At the very least it might get the kirin thinking enough to cast doubt on their own actions. "Fine, whatever, let's just let them go so we can get on with more important things."

"Not that I needed your permission." Luna turned to Seeker, "Do you accept this plan?"

"I too doubt that it will succeed, but apart from giving away the location of our base here, we have little to lose in letting her go. Unless of course she happens to know what the strategy our enemy is using happens to be?"

Fern Flare quickly shook her head, "I don't know. None of us do. I do know General Snowbright is getting impatient though, and wants to get started. Maybe they're waiting for something?"

Ember snorted a laugh, raising an eyebrow at Fern. "You're asking us?"

"Oh, right, uh... I guess you wouldn't know."

"Maybe they're waiting for Celestia to get here," said Rainbow. "That'd be my guess at least."

"And possibly a good one too," Luna said to the blue pegasus. "I suppose we shall find out in due time. If you have no more objections, Seeker, can we release the kirin and guide her towards the Mareitanian encampment? Blindfolded, if necessary?"

"Very well. I'll inform the Rangi of the plan, and see to it your kirin are safely delivered."

"Thank you." Luna waited until Seeker was gone, then nodded her head at the three Wonderbolts. "Shadow them from above, and make sure the zebras don't just kill them as soon as they think it's safe to do so."

"Would the zebras really do that?" Vapor asked, sharing a worried glance with her teammates.

"I doubt it, but this is war, and war makes people do strange things. I'd rather not risk the zebras taking revenge on these two. Of course, while you're out there I'd also like a full aerial recon of the Mareitanians, if you'd be so kind?"

Lightning gave Luna a crisp salute, "We'll get it done ma'am."

"Excellent, thank you."

The three Wonderbolts departed, and a few minutes later Seeker returned with a couple of stallions who got Fern up and blindfolded her before leading both her and Autumn out of the zebras encampment, and towards the Mareitanian one which was visible in the distance. Luna waited, watching them go and giving a quick glance up to find the Wonderbolts flying high above.

"I suspect you would like a briefing of the situation?" Seeker asked while she watched them fly away.

"You've been ordered to observe the Mareitanians and sabotage what you can to slow their advance, with little mention as to how powerless you are to do that. You've lost half your party tackling scouts, while the main bulk of their forces have done very little to warrant any action on your part. All to keep them busy and stationary while the tribes rally their warriors for war, which doesn't really seem to work on an exact timetable in the slightest." Luna gave Seeker a taut smile, "Apologies if I missed anything."

"No, you have summed up the situation quite well. Except the part where we might accidentally push the Mareitanians into premature action, before we're ready to fight back. That part is rather the double edged sword for us. Do nothing so the Mareitanians are more prepared, or push them into starting their attack before we are ready."

"Quite the difficult situation. Perhaps we'll have to see what can be done about it."

-0-0-0-

"This hurts so bad."

"Just keep walking, Ferny."

"I am, but seriously, every step hurts. If I trip over because I'm blindfolded, I think I might have to curl up and cry for a while."

Autumn sighed inwardly, then sparked her horn up to guide Fern as best she could, thankful that the zebras hadn't felt the need to blindfold her as well, although it would've been fairly pointless since she knew where their encampment was anyway. Honestly, she felt like there was too much trust being put in her. Sure the ponies didn't actually expect her to succeed, but they had relatively little reason to trust her enough to try either. It didn't really make much sense to her, but here she was, so try she would.

After several more minutes of walking the lead zebra called for them to stop. He whipped off Fern's blindfold, and slipped a bundle off his back that clanked when it landed. That done, he and his companion headed back the way they came, leaving the two kirin alone.

"Huh, rude much?" Autumn flipped the bundle open with the tip of a hoof while Fern blinked rapidly in the sunlight. It contained the weapons and armour of a kirin, or more specifically the kirin next to her. "Oh come on."

"What?"

"You've really been using this stuff?"

"Huh?" Fern blinked some more, then squinted at what Autumn was talking about. "Oh, that. What? Did you expect me to fight using angry looks?"

"I didn't expect you to fight at all! Or any of us! Sure the other kirin I can see doing this, but not us! We were always so peaceful. We even let outsiders into our village sometimes. We didn't even have weapons!"

"And? Times change, Autumn, or did you forget what happened when things weren't so peaceful? We almost burnt our forest down during that, so why is it so hard to imagine that we wanted a cure for our curse?"

"At the cost of becoming killers? I'd rather live my life in silence than do what you're all doing! Especially since you aren't even going to get what you want in the end anyway."

"You don't know that. What those ponies said back there was crazy, and you know it." Fern picked up the cloth her gear was in and spat onto it to start rubbing the gunk off her horn. "If you'd heard even half the stuff those ponies have done, you'd agree with me."

"And what have they done that's so terrible? Was it the overly aggressive way they tried to desperately defend their home from Faust?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"You're not even trying to make me understand! Or- Wait, is this to do with you not agreeing with how the ponies live?"

"It's only a matter of time," Fern said in a low voice. "Sure they weren't doing too much damage before the war, but they devastated so much fighting a war they couldn't win. If they get Equestria back it's only going to get worse, and they are going to tip the balance of this world. Will you think they're so harmless when the very earth beneath our hooves is dead?"

"So it's better that they die? They have a right to live on this world, and a right to how they choose to do it. This 'balance' that the elders go on about is wrong! For all the things that the ponies and others do, nothing seems to change. The world still lives."

Fern threw the cloth back to the ground, her horn now clean enough for her to pick up her gear using magic. "It won't always be fine, Autumn, and with Faust we have a chance to stop the damage before it kills us all. Is that not worth it?"

"No! It isn't!" Autumn grunted as she caught fire, but she quickly stopped it.

"And this is why we had to be silent!" Fern shouted as Autumn slowly sucked in a breath. "As soon as I get back to the village I'm going straight back into the stream of silence."

"I thought the idea was that Faust cured you by that point?"

"Maybe she will, maybe she won't. The important thing is our world will survive. Now are you coming with me or not? Or are you going to crawl back to the ponies who only want to use you?"

"I'll come, but I am not happy about this. Besides, you've used me to escape the zebras, so don't you act like you're better than them."

"It would hardly be an act. Now come on, and for the love of nature, don't you dare say a word to anyone, ever."

Autumn kept her head down as she sullenly walked after Fern, more out of shame for how wrong her people could be at times. The ponies weren't that bad, and neither were the zebras, griffons, or any of them. They certainly weren't any worse than the war mongering Mareitanians, who were causing far more damage than they were fixing, yet they were somehow acceptable allies.

She knew that her plan had failed, falling flat on its face before it could even start running, but she knew the princesses were right, and while she mightn't be able to convince the other kirin to not fight, perhaps there was something else she could do instead.

Autumn kept quiet and stayed behind Fern as they made their way into the camp. There were kirin standing guard, but all they did was give Fern a quiet nod as she walked up, given that they couldn't do anything else. Autumn wasn't so lucky though as the guards blocked her path. She just tried to act as surprised as she could.

"Why you not letting kirin in?" a nearby yak asked, right before grunting dismissively. "Nevermind, don't bother trying to mime it out for me again. She kirin, so let kirin in."

Autumn smiled as the kirin guards stood aside, even if with considerable reluctance. Of course it probably meant the yaks couldn't really tell two similarly coloured kirin apart, which displayed a real lack of effort on their part, but she was willing to take it for now since that's the entire reason she got in.

Fern was waiting for Autumn to catch up, even if she'd made no attempt to help her get into the camp, and led the way onwards. More and more Autumn started to recognise the kirin around her from her village, which meant they had to be sticking together even here, which also meant that...

Rain Shine's lofty gaze pinned Autumn to the ground as the two kirin came face to face, and she grinned nervously as Rain Shine had to know that she wasn't as silent as she making out to be. After a few seconds, Rain Shine pointed at Autumn, then gestured around the rest of the camp while using her most questioning look, which probably meant she wanted to know why Autumn was there. Autumn went to reply, but found she had no idea how to without using her words.

Fern came to her rescue by pointing at Autumn and tracing a cross over her throat. Presumably that meant she'd given up her voice again, which judging by rather expressionless stare Rain Shine was giving her was regarded as a good thing. Autumn was far from agreeing with that, but since it probably meant she wouldn't be exiled from the camp she went along with it and stared blankly back.

Autumn jumped as Fern tapped her on the shoulder, and thankfully managed to not scream, because that would've blown this from the get-go. Fern motioned for her to follow, so giving Rain Shine one last blank look she did, all the way to a tent that was thankfully empty, allowing them to at least whisper to each other.

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" Autumn whispered harshly once they were inside. "If I hadn't stopped myself from screaming, this would've been a disaster."

"Hey, I'm trying to get you a place back with your people, so a little appreciation would be nice since I'm really sticking my neck out for you. Especially after you gave me my voice back without even asking me if I wanted it."

"Alright, I'm sorry. Thank you." Autumn sat and looked around the tent for a moment while Fern dropped her stuff and lay down with a pained grunt. "Uh, what's supposed to be happening now?"

"Now we get some rest, and later I'll tell the others how you found me wounded in the savannah, and patched me up before bringing me here."

"You're going to explain that... using hoof gestures?"

"I didn't say it was going to be a quick explanation, did I?"

"Are you also going to explain how I happened to be in the Zebrican savannah? Or are we going to hope they don't ask?"

"What do you think?"

"That if they do ask you're going to try and make me explain it."

"That is absolutely correct. Now lie down and get some rest."

"Yeah, I'm not really in a resting mood. Do you mind if I go and have a look around the camp? I want to get a better look at those huge yaks."

Fern closed her eyes and sighed, "Okay, but you won't get much of a welcome there, and don't do anything that could get you into trouble, and most definitely remember to not say a word."

"My lips are sealed."

"Alright then, don't be gone too long."

"Yes mom." Autumn ducked out of the tent before Fern could say anything back, and most certainly before she could ask why Autumn wasn't leaving her bags behind. There was things in those bags which other kirin didn't need to know about.

Autumn nodded and smiled at the few kirin that looked her way, and while some were suspicious of her being here, most seemed rather indifferent, a symptom of giving up their emotions no doubt. Since when was becoming apathetic to everything ever considered a good idea? More to the point, why did they have a stream of silence anyway?

Autumn stopped her idle thoughts from going too wild, because she knew she'd only end up humming absent-mindedly if she wasn't careful, which would more than likely give the game away. She had a job to do after all, and getting caught out wasn't part of that.

The kirin part of the camp wasn't as big as the others, so it didn't take her long to leave it in favour of investigating where the yaks lived. Strangely she received an even greater amount of indifference here than with the kirin. It wasn't like she was so small the yaks couldn't see her, but all the same she kept having to dodge out of their way to avoid being trampled.

"This boring! Why we wait so long? Zebras not ready, so we should attack now!"

"Patience, Prince Rutherford. The time is coming soon enough. Once Princess Celestia arrives-"

"Why pony princess so important? Is she going to bring us victory if zebras fight back?"

Autumn pressed herself against the side of a yurt as one of the two voices within released an effeminate sigh.

"I don't have all the answers, Your Highness. If you wish you can go see General Snowbright, and he might be able to explain the delay in the attack. If not, all I can ask is that you be patient."

"Yak no want to be patient, but if Nirmata wills it, so shall it be."

"Of course, Prince Rutherford, if you'll excuse me."

Autumn went quiet as a pony left the yurt, muttering to herself about the yaks, and how impatient they were, and how bad they smelled, and how could the Lady have possibly chosen them for allies, and how the kirin at least acknowledged you, even if it was with creepy silent stares.

"Friction between the yaks and others huh? Oops, that was out loud. So was that." Autumn clamped her mouth shut and worked on keeping her thoughts inside her head. It was a good thought she had though, because if there was issues with the yaks... Autumn didn't know, but others smarter than her might have some ideas.

"What kirin doing in yak camp?"

Autumn squeaked and looked up to see a large, shaggy yak looking at her. His fancy-ish clothes, and ornate horn decorations marked him as being more important than the others, and-

Autumn cringed as she realised he was probably the prince she heard talking.

"Get back to kirin camp where kirin belong," the yak said brusquely before stomping out of his yurt and lumbering away in the direction of where the ships were. Autumn quickly reasoned that this could be where she might find this General Snowbright that was mentioned, so resolved to follow him.

As she hoped, her tailing of the prince proved fruitful as he led her to a large tent in the pony dominated section of the encampment, although there was a few yaks and kirin dotted around the place. Still, a large tent had to contain something important, so while the prince entered through the front, she darted around the back, her keen ears working to pick up every word that was said.

"Prince Rutherford," a male voice said wearily, "How nice to see you again, for the third time today."

"If pony start attack you wouldn't see me so much. Be too busy smashing enemies of Nirmata. Why we still here? You said yesterday that we would be going by now. The longer we wait, the-"

"Stronger a resistance the zebras can put up, I'm aware. Very, very aware, but I've been ordered to hold here for the arrival of Princess Celestia, and I'm not about to refuse a direct order from Lady Faust herself, even if it disadvantages us. She must consider the payoff of waiting to be worth it."

"Unless other princess ponies here, I don't see why we need her."

"We cannot discount that being the case, Prince Rutherford. As was discovered in Saddle Arabia, not even a yak can stand up to an alicorn. If Faust, or the Shades, has received information about the deposed princesses being here, we must be careful."

"Fine." There was a crash, and the sound of wood splintering as a floorboard was stamped on. "We wait."

"I'm glad you agree."

"By the way, there was a kirin wandering around yak camp earlier. Only yaks and guests allowed in yak camp. Make sure it not happen again."

"Of course. Good day Prince Rutherford."

The sound of heavy hoofsteps accompanied the departure of Prince Rutherford, but Autumn decided to stay where she was for the time being. It was a worthwhile decision too, as a moment later the male spoke again.

"Fucking yaks. I don't want to question our Lady's wisdom, but why the hell did she have to recruit other species to her cause? Those yaks are way more trouble than they're worth."

"Ah, c'mon Snowbright, least those kirin are decent fighters. Put most of ours to shame."

"Yeah, but the way they stare and never make a sound is so Lady damned creepy. I mean, even when they're in pain they don't make a noise. Gives me the willies. By the way, Wick, are we supposed to care if the kirin go into the yak camp?"

"Uh, no, Snowbright, I don't believe we are. Yaks come in our camp all the bloody time, so why should they get to decide that 'yak camp for yaks only.'"

Snowbright chuckled at Wick's impression, "Nice. Still, if they want to go in the front, that's their business. One more dead yak is one less dead pony as far as I'm concerned."

"You said it. Besides, when is Princess Celestia supposed to be arriving?"

"Pfft, heck if I know, but chances are she'll be arriving with the last of our reinforcements, so probably tomorrow. Then we can finally get this show on the road."

Autumn bit her lip at that piece of news, but kept listening. Nothing of use was said though, so she decided to stop pushing her luck and leave. Not least because she now had a timetable, and it was not very long. It was time to put her very flimsy, if not downright stupid plan into action.

-0-0-0-

Autumn decided to wait until nightfall to work on her plan as it turns out that doing things in the dark was considerably easier if you were trying to be sneaky about it. That, and a rumbling belly had suggested that maybe a break and some food wasn't such a bad idea, although trying to not make conversation with the other kirin as she ate had been a strain on her that she never would've thought could exist.

Eventually though it came time to get stuff done, because it was honestly getting to the point of now or never if Celestia was going to be arriving in the morning. She did wonder whether she should sneak out of camp to warn the Princess that the army would start moving at that point, but had decided against it since she mightn't be able to get back in.

Autumn stopped and sighed, trying to push her errant thoughts to the back of her mind. She knew she was only putting off what she had to do, because she didn't want to do it. Getting exiled from the village was bad enough, but what she was going to do now would probably get her exiled from kirin lands forever. Assuming they didn't just kill her that was.

"Urgh, shut up brain! I'm trying to work here!"

Autumn gasped as she realised she'd said that out loud, and decided to hurry on to her destination, keeping low to avoid detection, because things would go a lot worse for her if she was caught.

The supply area was quiet at night, with just a few ponies hanging around, guarding the place with highly disinterested looks. If Autumn were to guess, they were probably wondering what they were protecting the supplies from. The answer would be something like her, but she didn't feel the need to tell them that.

Three large carts parked side by side held the large, wooden water tanks she was looking for, containing the water supply for the entire army. There was nothing labelling whether there were separate carts for each species there, so she had no choice but to spike the contents of each one. Honestly though, for anyone not a kirin the worst that might happen was that their throat felt better, which was hardly terrible.

Autumn hung around for a while, waiting to see how attentive the guards were, and what their patrols might be. None of them seemed to be watching too hard, and all of them ran off after a few minutes anyway, so using the opportunity she ran over to the carts and prepared to make some kirin very annoyed. Possibly with positive results. She sure hoped so anyway.

Autumn flipped her bags open using her magic, and rummaged around until she found the vial of foals' breath extract that the zebras had never actually asked to have back, leaving Autumn to stash it away with the feeling it would probably come in useful. As she poured a third of it into the first tank and stirred it in, she felt pleased to have been right.

The first tank done, Autumn hopped over to the second to repeat the process, then again for the third, still feeling rather pleased with herself. If the kirin could all talk, they were likely to want to avoid conflict in the hopes of not becoming niriks. Faust was bound to send them home if they refused to fight, at least until they all went through the stream of silence again. Even better would be if they asked Faust for the cure to continue fighting, only to find that she was lying to them the entire time about it. Then they definitely wouldn't help her.

"I am a genius," Autumn complimented herself as she poured the last of the extract into the third tank, shaking the bottle to get the last few drips out. "Not that any kirin would ever appreciate that," she added with a bitter note as she stirred the extract into the water.

Tucking the empty bottle back into her bag, Autumn sighed at a job well done. It was only then that she paid any attention to the commotion in the distance. She couldn't make out any individual words, but she found she didn't need to as she turned to face the direction it was coming from.

A bright orange glow filled the sky, coming from the ships nearby, each of which was burning brightly. As she watched, a stream of purple flame came from an invisible point in the darkness, adding to the already roaring fire on the ship currently moored to the jetty.

"Oh, wow. I guess Fern never actually told anyone that Princess Luna was here, or that she has a dragon with her. That's true dedication to maintaining our lie." Autumn nodded to herself, totally unsure of what she should be doing, but coming to the conclusion that whatever it is that she should or shouldn't be doing, she probably should or shouldn't be doing it on top of the water supply where kirin might be suspicious of seeing her right before they started talking again. At the very least it wouldn't connect her to the burning ships.

"Time to go," she told herself. She jumped down to the ground, landing in a crouch and slipping away back to the kirins camp, and into the tent where Fern was sat looking like she was having a crisis on conscience.

"There you are! Do you have any idea what's happening out there?"

"Yeah, the ships are on fire-"

"And who do you think's doing that?"

"I'm going to say the dragon. Probably, definitely, the dragon." Autumn shrugged, "Too bad we couldn't warn anyone here without giving away that you can talk, or were captured by zebras, or without telling them that-"

"Shut up!"

Autumn rolled her eyes but did as she was told as Fern held her head in her hooves and freaked out. At the very least she wasn't blaming Autumn for what had happened, which Autumn was more than fine with.

"We're so fucked!"

"Uh! Language, Ferny! I don't know why you're freaking out so much. All we have to do is maintain our lie, and we're fine. There's no way they can connect a dragon attack to us, and even if they do, all we have to do is give the ponies dumb, silent stares until they give up trying to ask us about it."

"You are really missing the point here!"

"Actually I think you are, but far be it from me to be right about anything, ever. Quite frankly, telling the ponies here that Princess Luna is in Zebrica seems a bit redundant now since her dragon just singlehoofedly... clawedly? Whatever, since her dragon just announced her arrival in grand style by incinerating all their ships. Telling them after that will only get us into trouble, and nothing else."

"Urgh, I wish you weren't right. I'm never sticking my neck out for you ever again!"

"You'd still be the zebras prisoner without me, and this would've happened anyway, so don't blame me. And don't get angry either, because you know what'll happen."

"Yeah, no thanks to you."

"And yet, all the same, you're welcome!" Autumn gave Fern a big smile, which the other kirin failed to reciprocate in the slightest. "Anyway, do you want to go watch the fires? They're quite pretty when it's not your home that's burning."

"Autumn, get the hell out of here."

-0-0-0-

"Nicely done, Ember," Luna congratulated the dragoness as she returned to the zebras hidden camp. "I assume they didn't see what hit them?"

"I think we can safely assume they know it was a dragon," Ember replied, her teeth shining in the light from the distant fires. "At any rate, I think they know that it wasn't the zebras, so they'll more than likely blame us eventually."

"Good." Luna watched the fires for a few moments, the flames reflecting in her eyes. "If this goes well we can win half this battle before it even begins."

"Yeah... since when are we that lucky?"

"Shush thine tongue, Nightmare."

Author's Note

Kirin adventures! Mostly for variety and fun.

27. Dig for victory

"More warriors," Mayfly said as she pointed to a large number of zebra jogging west. All of them were armed, and all of them moved with a purpose. That purpose being war.

"It won't be enough," Trixie sighed. "Spears and fancy body paint against what Faust can throw at them? They might as well fall on their spears now and save themselves the effort of running there."

"How curiously defeatist," Sunset snickered. "One might think you're giving up."

"Hardly," Trixie said back. "I'm just pointing out that the only advantage the zebras could hope to have is numbers, and I doubt they even have that. You agree with me, don't you Twilight?"

Twilight didn't answer, not immediately. She was trying to sum up in her head the zebras chances of successfully repelling the Mareitanians from Zebrica. Before Twilight and the others arrived they probably wouldn't have succeeded, but between that, and their martial skills, and the kuua giving them an advantage, the answer was still a maybe. It was possible though.

"Twi-light," Trixie sang, "are you listen-ing?"

"Yes, I'm listening, and I think the zebras stand a chance, and they'll stand a better one the sooner we get back to help. Are we nearly there, Daring?"

Daring pointed a hoof at a lone mountain in the distance. "That's Mount Chembechembe, so we're not far away. I'm not going to recommend rushing in though."

"Why not?"

"Because while no zebras live around there, there are other things to watch out for."

"Like?"

"Like the Grootslang."

"Now you're just making shit up," Trixie laughed. Her laughter slowed as Daring stared at her flatly, but she still maintained a smug grin. "Alright then, little Miss serious, what's a Grootslang?"

"It's a zebra legend, but basically it's a giant snake, roughly thirty meters long, or thereabouts, and kinda has a bit of a thing for diamonds, and gems, and... cr-"

"Crystals. You're going to say crystals, aren't you." Twilight groaned as Daring nodded, "And why has this not been brought up before now?"

"Because I figured that it wouldn't matter too much. Between you and three unicorns, I thought it wouldn't be too much of a problem."

"Except," Moondancer said sharply as she stuck her head out of Twilight's saddlebag, quickly regretting it as she held her mane down with a hoof, "there's a big magical deadzone around the mountain, so three unicorns and an alicorn aren't going to have any magic at all. I'm not even sure you can even fly there."

"Oh great!" Twilight shouted, throwing her hooves up. "And when were you planning on telling us about that?"

"I didn't think it mattered much until I found out there might be a giant snake there!"

"Uh-huh, and is there anything else that anyone would like to share? Some useful information that might aid our way?"

"There's a big swamp around the mountain," Daring said sheepishly. "Probably full of all kinds of nasties, like poisonous snakes, deadly spiders, disease carrying insects..."

"Is there anything in there that isn't dangerous?" asked Sunset.

"Uh, only if it's wandered in there by accident. It's pretty much like the Everfree forest, but way worse."

Twilight closed her eyes and drew in a cleansing breath that did nothing to calm her down in the slightest. A little bit of information sharing would've been great in the period prior to when they flew out here beyond the reach of anyone that could give them any help in the slightest.

"I thought this was supposed to be the easy job," she muttered a moment later. Mount Chembechembe was close enough now for them to see the swamp that filled the basin that the mountain sat in, surrounding it in a few mile wide belt of greenery. "I'm really starting to appreciate why the zebras avoid this place."

"My wings are starting to feel heavy," Mayfly said as she started to wobble through the air. "Should we land?"

"Yeah, alright. Better not get too close in case I can't get these three back to size."

"Yeah, I'd rather not stay bite-size, thank you very much," said Trixie. "If we weren't going into a swamp I'd be very tempted to put my armour on, but I don't think making myself extra sinky would help either."

They landed on the edge of the basin that denoted where the swamp ended and the savannah began, although the fact that they were on a ledge looking down on even the tallest tree in the swamp might've had something to do with why the swamp hadn't expanded further. It simply couldn't.

Twilight quickly returned Trixie, Sunset, and Moondancer to their proper sizes, although she could feel the strain on her horn as she did. She couldn't figure out why there was a deadzone here, at the sight of a leaking ley line. In her head there should be a ridiculous amount of magic going on here. She quickly got her answer though.

"What's all these standing stones about?" Trixie asked, pointing and then trotting to a monolith about two dozen meters away to their right. There was another a similar distance away to their left, while beyond at regular intervals were even more of the standing stones. "Are they magical? I'm only asking because this deadzone feels familiar, like the one in the badlands."

"It would make sense to try and neutralise the magic in the area," said Daring. "Perhaps not the ley line itself, but enough to keep its effects contained to one small area."

"Otherwise they'd have raw magic crystalizing all over the place here," Sunset said, agreeing with Daring's theory. "I imagine it doesn't affect the zebras, so they thought nothing of erecting it. Too bad it makes things suck for us."

Twilight followed Trixie and ran her hoof over the surface of the monolith. If it was partly responsible for the deadzone, she had no idea, at least not until she moved around to the side facing the mountain. She staggered as her magic suddenly vanished, and it took her several seconds to recover. "Woah."

"Yeah, that's not great," said Trixie as she did the same. "At least whoever put this up was nice enough to make it only face inward." Trixie ran her hoof over the inside of the monolith, tracing it over ancient runes that had eroded over the long years it had stood here, although that hadn't diminished their effectiveness apparently. "Yeah, how long are we going to procrastinate for?"

"Just long enough to work out what we're doing," Twilight told her as she walked back out of the circle. Summoning Swordy, she held out in her magic until he was inside the ring of standing stones, where her magic immediately gave up and dropped him. On the plus side though, Swordy's internal magic didn't seem to be effected to any significant degree. Twilight had been worried the deadzone would damage him, which would've been annoying as she expected the sword would come in useful.

"Twilight, what are you doing?" Sunset asked the alicorn as she started rooting around for rocks and bits of grass.

"Making a scabbard so I don't have to carry Swordy in my mouth the entire way."

"Out of rocks?" Sunset shielded her eyes as a bright infusion of magic blinded her, and as she looked back Twilight was strapping a scabbard to her side. "I guess I stand corrected."

Twilight slid Swordy into the scabbard, and adjusted it so that she could reach the handle with her mouth as that was the only way she'd be able to use him for the time being. Saying that, she really hoped that she didn't need a sword for anything worse than cutting through vines.

"Alright, everypony get a drink and let your canteens refill, then we're going in.

-0-0-0-

"Oh my god, this'd be so much easier if I was still a human," Sunset lamented as they climbed, slid, and occasionally fell down the steep decline into the swamp.

"What's a human?" Daring asked.

"Who's your god?" Moondancer also asked.

"Nevermind," Sunset sighed, unwilling to go there right now. "My point is that ponies and climbing aren't really compatible. If we were meant to climb we'd look more like monkeys."

"Just like if we were meant to fly we'd look more like birds?" Trixie said dreamily.

Sunset glanced at Twilight and Daring, then decided to say nothing as she had nothing to really say to that. Her hooves were already sliding enough without extra distractions making it worse. Wet moss covered rock really did go out of its way to kill you at times, as Daring was about to prove.

Daring stumbled as her hoof slipped from under her, the moss peeling away from the rock like the skin off a banana. Her heart jumping into her mouth, Daring did the first thing her instincts told her to, which was to use her wings as she overbalanced. For obvious reasons that weren't funny even in hindsight, that didn't work.

All of them shouted as Daring fell, and a scream echoed over the treetops as she plunged down through the canopy, three unicorns and an alicorn giving themselves headaches as they tried to catch her using magic.

A stunned silence fell over the group as they watched the spot that Daring had fallen through, none of them able to comprehend the speed that had happened at. In the blink of an eye Daring was gone, swallowed by the swamp.

"I'm okay!"

"Oh thank fuck for that!" Trixie gasped. "I was holding my breath until I heard her hit the ground. I was starting to wonder why it was taking so long."

"You really are all heart, aren't you?" Twilight said to Trixie before trying to see where Daring was. "Where are you?"

"Some vines caught me," came the reply. "I'm kinda stuck though, and- Ah! Yep, definitely hurt something."

"Okay, try not to move and we'll come get you!"

"Really not a problem."

"I swear that pegasus is the worst adventurer I've ever heard of," Trixie snickered as the group resumed their descent to the canopy. "She gets caught, or captured, or injured at highly frequent intervals. I'm amazed she's still alive at times."

"I can hear you you know! Come down here and say that to my face!"

"Alright, but I think I'm going to try a safer way down!" Trixie grinned as Daring cursed at her, "We're doing so well you guys. Barely fifteen minutes in and we've had only one pony almost die, one pony get stuck somewhere, and one pony get injured."

"That was all the same pony," Moondancer pointed out.

"I know! Go team!"

Twilight went ahead of the others, Mayfly being the only one to keep up with her as the changeling seemed to have very little issue with climbing, even here where her magic didn't work. The canopy was right below her now, with the branches touching the cliff well enough for her to take a running jump onto a branch strong enough to hold her, her wings giving her enough of a boost to make the distance.

She could see Daring not too far away, tangled in a mass of the vines that covered much of the trees up where they were. There wasn't much of a path to Daring either, not without effort. That in mind, she was about to call back to the others to continue down when she looked down herself, finding the ground to actually be mostly murky looking water. It was also quite far below her. These trees were actually quite tall.

"How are we going to get to mountain if we can't walk?" Mayfly asked, making Twilight jump as she had no idea the changeling was right behind her. "Can we go through trees?"

"I don't know." Twilight bounced on the branch, checking how sturdy it was, and if it could hold all their combined weight. By her guess, it could, but that seemed like the kind of thing that would lead to branches breaking and dumping them in the water. Goodness knows what deadly creatures was lurking in that stuff.

"Get the others here while I go get Daring."

"Okay."

Twilight trotted along the branch to the trunk, then jumped to the next branch pointing towards the tangled pegasus, stopping for only a moment to regain her balance. There was no way they could do this all the way to the mountain, even if there was a convenient path along the branches. Naming no names, but certain bespectacled ponies just weren't fit enough, ignoring the fact that Twilight didn't exactly feel confident enough to say she could go the entire way herself.

"A tropical swamp," Twilight sighed. "Why did it have to be a tropical fucking swamp?"

"What else was you expecting?" Daring asked, Twilight being close enough for her to hear that.

"A nice open plain that led to the very foot of the mountain, like what would've made sense considering Zebrica's climate. Instead we get a deadly swamp, full of deadly things, up to and potentially including a giant deadly snake, and I feel like maybe if I'd been told about any of this before we left Zanzebra I might've been able to prepare a little for it."

Daring held her hooves up in submission, "Alright, I'm sorry I forgot to tell you these things. Didn't you think to do a little research on this place first?"

"Oh, I normally would, but I've been rather busy." Twilight reached the end of a vine holding Daring, and pulled Swordy out, cutting the vine in one motion before putting him back. "You might want to hold onto something."

"You could've given me a little warning!" Daring's expression went sheepish at the way Twilight was looking at her, "Right, gotcha, lesson learned."

"Uh-huh." Twilight continued along her branch, cutting the vines holding Daring, who was acting more and more alarmed as she went on, but didn't say anything even as Twilight came to the last vine on her branch that was now supporting a lot of the weight. She cut it.

"Aieee!" Daring shouted as she and the mass of vines swung away from Twilight, her eyes tightly shut as visions of falling to her death filled her mind. Only when the swinging stop did she look again to find herself hanging inches over a broad branch. "Oh. Did you plan that?"

"Me? Plan something?" Twilight dismissively waved a hoof at Daring, "Perish the thought."

Daring gave Twilight an incredulous look, then sat and held out her left wing, wincing at the motion. "Why is it always the wings? Guess it doesn't matter since we can't fly here, but it still hurts."

"Broken?"

"No, just battered and bruised." Daring folded her wing back in and pulled herself onto her hooves. "Maybe it's time I retired. I just don't seem to have what it takes any more."

"Normally I'd argue with you, and tell you a whole bunch of stuff that would largely centre around you being capable of doing anything you set your mind to, but I'd mostly be saying so that my favourite book series didn't end. These days, where I barely get a chance to read anything, and retiring sounds great, I'm just going to say you do what you feel is best, although you're still more than capable of going on adventures."

"I don't know. I'll think about it more once the world's actually been saved. I can keep going 'til then."

"Good to hear." Twilight quickly checked on the others, finding that Mayfly had gotten them into the tree without anything going wrong, which was about as much as you could hope to ask for. "Come on, Daring," Twilight swung her hoof in a little pump, "adventure awaits!"

Daring laughed at the hammy delivery of a catchphrase she had used in her earlier books. "While I'm sure you might consider gruesome death an adventure, I'm not so keen on the concept."

"Alright then, how about I tell you to get moving before something eats you?"

"Works for me." Daring ran and jumped, scrambling onto the same branch as Twilight, then jumped to the next, leaving Twilight to catch up on the way back to the others, two of which were fussing over Daring while Trixie at least refrained from insulting or laughing at her. Mayfly was currently nowhere to be seen, which was what Twilight asked about first.

"She's scouting ahead for a decent path," said Trixie. "Since the concept of falling off stuff seems foreign to her, I thought it was a good idea."

"Then it doesn't occur to you that a decent path to her might still be impossible for us?"

Trixie shrugged, "Still a good idea."

"Yeah, it is." Twilight patted Trixie on the head, "Good girl."

"Never do that again, or I will push you off this branch." Trixie ran her eye over Twilight's strong alicorn body, "Although I'll probably end up pushing myself off. Pretty sure my point would still be made though."

"Please don't make me have to save you from yourself." Twilight looked up as she saw Sunset carefully walk over to them, "Yes, Sunset? I get the feeling you've come to tell me this was a bad idea."

"Then I have literally nothing else to say, other than to ask if that tarantula in your mane is there for a reason?"

Twilight jolted, quickly running a hoof through her mane and dislodging a massive black tarantula out of it, screaming as she sent it flying away to land in the water below with a plap! She then felt a little, teeny tiny bit guilty. "I'd have just lost so many filly scout points with Fluttershy if she was here. Why the fuck didn't you tell me it was there, Trixie?"

"In Trixie's defence, I'm a massive asshole, which is all the reason I needed to say nothing. Believe me though, it was really hard to keep a straight face through that, so you should be at least a little impressed with me."

"And for some reason I am, but really not for the reason you think."

"I'll take it!"

Twilight closed her eyes and breathed in slowly. Unfortunately Trixie was still there when she reopened them, but Mayfly could be seen making her return, so that was something at least. "Can we get out of here, Mayfly?"

"We can. Seems we possibly picked wettest spot to come in. There's solid land a couple hundred meters away, towards the mountain."

"Thank goodness," Twilight said with relief. "Is there more good news?"

"Only if you consider that good news," Mayfly replied, pointing a hoof behind them at the large snake slowly making its way through the branches towards them, looking directly at Daring. It was, thankfully, still some distance away.

"If that isn't the Grootslang," said Trixie, "I'm not sure I want to see the size of what is."

"Oh that's nowhere near the size of the Grootslang," Daring informed Trixie as she calmly watched the snake inch its way towards her.

"I was afraid you'd say that."

"Do you think it can smell my injuries?" Daring asked, curious as to why the snake seemed to ignore the others in favour of her.

Twilight eyed the snake for a moment, weighing up whether it was worth the risk of killing it, and deciding that live and let live was probably the best way to go about this. "Probably," she answered Daring, feeling she had to. "Mayfly? That path?"

"This way."

All of them followed after Mayfly, carefully making their way through the branches of the trees, using the occasional vine tied onto a higher branch by Mayfly to bridge the larger gaps. Fortunately nothing went wrong with that either, and they were soon above solid, if not actually dry, ground.

"That's great and all," said Trixie as she looked down at the ground, "but how do we get down there?"

"If this was a comedy, I'd probably be kicking you off the branch right now," Twilight joked, her smile growing as Trixie scowled at her.

"Unfortunately, this is reality, and I'd rather not die falling out of a tree. Now seriously, how do we get down?"

"Gravity is still very much an option, just so you know." Twilight stopped and searched around for a way down, taking note that Mayfly was already crawling down the tree trunk. All Twilight could find was more vines, which did technically count as a way down if she tied one around a trunk and rappelled down it, which she started to do.

"I'm not doing that," Moondancer said as soon as Twilight made her plan known. "I'm surprised I've made it this far without falling, so I'm definitely not doing that."

"Alright then," Trixie said as she laid a companionable hoof on Moondancer's shoulder, "you watch the tree and make sure nopony steals it while we go ahead."

"Funny. No way are you leaving me here."

"So you won't go down, but you won't stay here either?" Trixie raised an eyebrow as Moondancer slowly yet firmly shook her head. "Riiiight... Twilight?"

"Just get down the vine, Trixie, please?"

"You got it boss." Trixie took the vine in her hooves and used it to brace her back legs on the tree trunk to start walking backwards down it, then jumping down the last bit that the vine didn't reach, and sinking up to her knees in mud. "Aw, what the fuck! Why didn't you say it was like this down here?" she asked Mayfly, who was standing on the surface of the mud with little difficulty.

"Maybe you're just fat?"

"Ouch. Put your fangs away, Mayfly."

"Um... how? They're attached to my face."

"Nevermind…"

"I'll go next," Sunset offered back up in the tree, doing as Trixie had done, but a good bit slower. After that Daring went, leaving Twilight with Moondancer.

"Can't you tie the vine around my chest and lower me down?" Moondancer asked meekly. "I'm not strong enough to do that."

"The vine doesn't reach the ground as it is, so you'd only wind up stuck, dangling above the ground. Look, I'll go down before you, and stay right below, so if you do run into trouble I'll be there to help, okay?"

Moondancer looked down at the others far below, seriously doubting she could do it, and if she were given another choice she wouldn't. That choice was missing though, so with a small sigh she nodded.

"Alright, give me a moment, then follow me down."

Twilight started her descent on the vine, stopping when Moondancer started to get onto it, giving her a few words of encouragement. If she were honest with herself though, this was far more of an annoyance than she wanted to deal with. None of the others had bitched about this, so why did Moondancer feel the need. Still, at least she was doing it now, even if it was pretty slow.

A loud crash from somewhere else echoed through the trees. Moondancer screamed and latched onto the vine tightly, and screamed some more as a tremor shook the tree. More crashes and tremors followed, each one seeming closer than the last, when suddenly they stopped altogether. Twilight was about to risk continuing down when Moondancer screamed again.

"I'm slipping! I'm slipping!"

To Moondancer's credit, she was actually slipping, rather than just freaking out. This did mean that she was falling towards Twilight, who knew she had no real chance of stopping Moondancer, so once she was close enough, Twilight pulled herself up sharply, giving her the momentum to let go and grab Moondancer around the chest, then push away from the tree so they didn't land on the roots.

Twilight's back impacted onto the mud with a wet slap, and as soft as the mud might've been compared to anything else, it still hurt, and would've without the added weight of Moondancer as well. Twilight lay still for a moment, her eyes closed against the pain, even as Moondancer was pulled off her by the others.

"Y'alright there, Twilight?" Trixie asked, poking the purple alicorn on the chest with a short stick. "Are you dead?"

Twilight slowly opened her eyes, and carefully shifted all her limbs. She was pleased to find she could still feel them. "Are you okay, Moondancer?" she asked, mostly to distract herself.

"Are you crazy?" Moondancer shrieked. "You pulled me out of the tree! I though the idea was to stop me falling, not make it worse!"

"But you aren't hurt though?"

"No, but I'm covered in mud now." Moondancer sighed and rubbed her eyes, pushing her glasses up until they were almost falling off. It was a small miracle they hadn't already. "Thanks, I guess."

"You're welcome." Twilight tried to pull herself up, but gave up after a second as it hurt a bit too much, and the mud didn't appear to want to let her go just yet. Standing could wait a little longer.

"Did anyone see what made all that noise?" Sunset asked.

"Grootslang," Trixie said with a firm nod. "Definitely the Grootslang."

"That same one you don't really believe exists?" Daring said flatly.

"At no point did I say it didn't exist. I said you were making the name up, because it is by all accounts a stupid sounding name. What's it matter anyway? It's gone now."

Twilight laughed once, "Did you just hear yourself?"

"I didn't say it wouldn't come back." Trixie offered a hoof to Twilight, which the alicorn took to pull herself out of the mud with a wet schlurp. Mud caked her back and wings in a thick layer that slowly oozed off with considerable shaking. "Are you hurt?"

"Let's just say that if I wasn't already purple, I soon would be." Twilight adjusted Swordy's scabbard as she'd just landed on it. That was the part that hurt the most. "Let's keep moving. The more distance we put between us and whatever made that noise, the better."

-0-0-0-

Twilight didn't know whether to classify their current environment as a swamp or a jungle, mostly because it had elements of both things in it. The wet bogginess said swamp, but the flora and fauna suggested jungle, and for a significant part it reminded her of the bayou by Neigh Orleans in Mareitania. Whichever one it was, it contained enough hazards to keep them on the tips of their hooves, as proven when a large centipede scuttled across Sunset's hooves.

"Yah!" Sunset squeaked, jumping back. "Why is this place trying to freak me out so much? I'm walking here!" she shouted after the invertebrate.

"I miss Equestria," Moondancer whispered, her eyes a little vacant after walking into a spider web strong enough to stop her, traces of which was still in her mane, and on her jumper. If Twilight had been a little slower with Swordy... it didn't bear thinking about. "Things didn't try to eat me in Equestria."

Twilight and Trixie shared a look, as both had seen plenty of pony eating monsters in their time, one as a scholar and hero, and the other as a travelling magician whose journeys had given her quite the education in where to never set hoof if you wanted to keep said hoof.

"Look on the bright side," Sunset said, giving Moondancer a friendly nudge.

A beat passed, and Moondancer found herself wondering where the second half of that sentence was. "What bright side?"

"I don't know, I'm still trying to think of it," Sunset confessed. "I suppose at the very least we're all still alive."

"The uplifting power of positive thinking," Trixie said sarcastically.

"What would you say then?"

"Me? I'm not the one suggesting we look on the bright side of things. The only silver linings I tend to see are the ones with razor sharp edges."

"That doesn't even make sense."

"You don't make sense!"

"Oookay... how about we just agree to disagree?"

"Deal." Trixie stopped as they came up to a stretch of water shimmered brightly, even though there wasn't any visible sun. As pretty as it was though, there was the issue that it blocked their path. "Oh great, more obstacles."

"Relax," Daring said, pointing to the right where a tree had fallen over the pool, "we can cross over there."

"I knew that. Trixie was just testing you."

"And lucky me, I passed," Daring deadpanned. A quick trot brought them over to the tree, and Daring made her way onto it first to test it. Like much else in the swamp, it was slick with moss, and quite rotten which suggested it had been there for a while. It was strong enough to get them across though, which Daring did, followed by Mayfly, Trixie, Moondancer, and Sunset, with Twilight bringing up the rear.

Twilight stopped as the shimmering lights caught her eye, and she could've sworn they moved. Weirdly enough it seemed like they were coming from beneath the water.

"Nope. Investigating things like this leads to ponies getting killed," Twilight said to herself. She was about to carry on when the lights shifted, and two shiny orbs opened near the surface and looked right at her. "Oh shit. Run!"

Twilight didn't even have time to make good on her word as the water burst up to meet her in a blinding spray that obscured whatever it was attacking her, although it didn't take a great deal of imagination to make a guess. The tree trunk bucked as something hit it from beneath, and Twilight was tossed up into the air, screaming the entire way. Flailing wildly, she managed to catch hold of something to stop herself falling back down, although that didn't stop her from looking.

A massive snake rose up out of the water, huge in terms of length, but also in girth, being at least twice as wide as Twilight was herself. Its skin shone with a faint light from the crystals that encrusted it from head to end, and in its mouth were fangs comparable to Swordy in size.

Quite frankly, if that wasn't the Grootslang, nothing was.

Twilight yelled as her grip shifted, and she looked to see that she hadn't caught hold of a branch or vine, but another snake, also quite large, but nowhere near what was currently below her, which was coiling up to strike with its maw open directly below her. "What's with all the fucking snakes!?"

Twilight swung on the snake, probably upsetting it quite a lot, but not as much as the Grootslang did when it sprang up and bit down on the coils that Twilight had been holding onto. Not that Twilight cared. She hadn't got very far when the Grootslang struck, and was headbutted with enough force to send her flying through the air into the water.

Twilight surfaced, shaking water out of her eyes. The Grootslang had lost her for a moment, so she struck out for the nearest shore, considering her chances of survival much better on solid land. She glanced at the giant snake as she struggled up through the mud, and felt sickened by the length of incomplete snake hanging from its mouth. Even worse was when she realised she'd swam to the side of the pool away from the mountain, back the way they'd come from.

"Twilight!"

The sound of her name being shouted drew Twilight to her friends, who were stood on the opposite bank, helplessly watching what was happening. They were currently safe though, and would remain so as long as the Grootslang was too busy with her to worry about them.

"Go! Get to the mountain!"

"But Twilight-"

"Don't fucking argue with me, Trixie! Run! I'll catch up!" Or die trying, Twilight thought to herself. She could see the others hesitating, but they knew better than to wait around.

"Hey, you!" Twilight shouted up at the Grootslang, which was finishing its impromptu meal of smaller snake, "If you wanna eat, you gotta catch me! Come on big boy!"

Twilight turned and ran into the jungle, and with a hiss the Grootslang followed her, shaking the ground with its movements. Movements that were much going much faster than Twilight was over the wet, greasy ground.

"This is so much worse than the tatzlwurm!" Twilight cried as she ran and slid through the dense foliage. At least the ground had been nicer to run on, and she'd had magic to fight back with. Here she had nothing except a sword she had to hold in her mouth, which was hardly ideal. It was a very sharp sword though...

Twilight slid to a stop and turned to face the Grootslang. She pulled Swordy out in one smooth motion, then started to charge at it, hoping to catch it by surprise, which she did to a certain extent as it quickly reared up and snapped at her, missing her completely to crash into the mud. Twilight took the opportunity to slash at the nearest bit of snake to her, but was rather disappointed when Swordy bounced off the crystals embedded into the snake's skin.

The Grootslang twisted towards her, knocking Twilight and sending sprawling. Swordy bounced out of her mouth, and Twilight was forced to quickly scoop him back up along with a mouthful of mud as she resumed fleeing for her life. Clearly trying to fight the Grootslang head on was not a viable tactic.

At the very least she had confused the Grootslang with her doomed to failure attack enough to get a headstart, and made use of it to try and get back on track towards the mountain. The Grootslang was still in pursuit though, and as Twilight found the pool again it was almost on her heels.

Twilight did briefly consider the tactic she'd used with the tatzlwurm, where she let it swallow her, then cut it down from the inside, but she had magic to help her survive that, and even then it'd been a close thing. Now, with no magic, and a snake's tendency to crush things to death before eating them, it probably wasn't the best idea.

She did however spot a small tunnel formed out of some foliage hanging over a hollowed out tree trunk. If she could goad the Grootslang through it, perhaps there was something she could do to put it off its pursuit.

"Come on you bastard!" Twilight shouted, standing in the entrance of the short tunnel. She ran through as the Grootslang caught up to her, and got Swordy ready to strike at one of the few vulnerable spots she hoped the snake had. Its eyes.
Sadly her opportunity was stolen as the Grootslang went straight over the mass, and tried to block off Twilight's exit, meaning it was at least clever enough for some strategic planning, which was extremely worrying. Twilight doubled back as soon as she saw her way become blocked, and barely made it out before the Grootslang worked out she'd done so.

Twilight swore around the hilt of Swordy in her mouth, really wondering how the hell she was going to get out of this. It was stronger than her, faster, and dangerously smart, while she had some ingenuity and a very sharp sword which was barely a toothpick to something that big. Her only option really was to hide somewhere it couldn't go, and the only option she could see there was in the mountain.

Twilight kept running around the pool, which thankfully the Grootslang wasn't smart enough to cross to try and cut her off. She did eventually find the end, and ran around it to start sprinting for the mountain, and although the terrain wasn't much easier than it was before, there were less trees, giving Twilight a straighter run to build some distance between her and the thing chasing her. That distance grew further when she jumped between two trees growing next to each other in a v. The Grootslang followed her, but got itself stuck.

Twilight's heart raced with relief as she saw the others up ahead, although there was far from enough time for a reunion as the Grootslang wasn't going to stay stuck for long. "What are you all doing here?" Twilight shouted as she got closer, finding the other fussing around what appeared to be a giant gem encrusted piece of parchment. It took her far too long to work out it was the shed skin of the Grootslang.

"Twilight!" Sunset shouted with relief, "You're alright!"

"For now, but we need to get into the mountain where hopefully it can't follow us."

"That's what we're trying to do, but this thing is in the way."

Twilight tried to see what Sunset was on about, and saw a crevice behind the skin. Perhaps there was a way in there.

"Alright," Twilight said as the splintering of wood from the jungle indicated the Grootslang was probably free, "take a hold and pull on three." Twilight clamped onto the skin with her teeth, quickly lamenting having the hard, rubbery, and most importantly foul tasting substance in her mouth. "Un! Twho! Phee"

Working together they moved the skin enough to uncover the crevice, and once there was enough room they let go. A quick glance confirmed the Grootslang was coming right for them, so Twilight quickly ushered the others in, and had barely made it in herself when the Grootslang reached them.

Although not large, the crevice was still big enough for the Grootslang to push its head in as it fought to not let its target escape. It thrashed hard, smashing chunks of rock off the edges to make the entrance bigger. Twilight fought to get away, but past the initial opening the crevice turned quite narrow, and the others were struggling to get away fast enough for Twilight to escape its range.
Desperate enough to try anything, Twilight freed Swordy and attacked, her opportunity to hit its weak spot wide open. She plunged Swordy into the Grootslang's left eye, hoping the blade would reach its brain and kill it, but as the Grootslang screamed and failed to die, she knew that wasn't to be.

The Grootslang pulled backwards, knocking Twilight into the wall and stunning her into releasing her grip on Swordy. She tried to grab him back, but the agonised movements of the Grootslang kept Swordy out of her reach, and when it finally managed to pull its head free entirely, he was gone.

Twilight jumped away as the damaged crevice collapsed, plunging them into near darkness save for a thin sliver of light from the top of the rubble. Twilight coughed as the dust cleared, and could see there wasn't an easy way out there.

"Shit-shit-shit!"

"What? What is it?" Trixie asked as Twilight continued cursing, her voice coming from the narrow gap the others had crawled into.

"I've lost Swordy! He's stuck in the eye of that bastard Grootslang! I can't believe it. Fuck!" Twilight stomped her hooves, impotently displaying her anger like a child.

"Can't you summon him back once we're out of here?"

"Not when he's still in the deadzone. Urgh, I can't believe this."

"It's just a sword," Moondancer said from past Trixie.

"It's not just a sword. That was Swordy McSwordface, the Magnificent, the blade that got me through a fair few battles in Mareitania, and is also the sword that killed me, which I admit sounds weird, but it's still my sword."

"Wow... almost sounds like you care about that sword more than all of us being alive."

"Of course I don't, but it's still fucking annoying. We're also trapped in here, so unless that tunnel goes somewhere, we're screwed."

"Actually it does go somewhere," Daring said from even further away. "It gets pretty tight, then opens up. I think we might've found part of the old mines down here."

Twilight positioned herself to see up the tunnel, and could see Daring illuminated by a lighter held in her hoof. The tunnel did seem to carry on, but it was hard to see much past where Daring was. Still, it was the only viable route they had now.

"Alright, keep going, and we'll see where it goes. This doesn't feel like a proper entrance, so there might be another one somewhere."

Twilight squeezed in after the others, into what was a claustrophobes' nightmare. There was only just enough room to get through, and even then the stone walls tended to scrape along your sides. It got even narrower towards the end before it opened up again, and as the largest pony there, Twilight had to work the hardest to get through. She did though, eventually, flopping to the ground on the other side.

"I don't suppose any of you have your magic going?" Daring asked of them. "This lighter won't last for long."

"I got nothing," said Sunset as she tried to create even a spark with her horn. "Anypony else?" The other three ponies with horns shook their heads, "I guess we just have to hope the lighter lasts then."

"Yeah, that's not happening," Daring muttered. "We better not waste any time then. Come on."

Gems glittered in the walls as they walked, laying bare what it had been that the zebras sought down here when they mined this place. Looking at it now, you wouldn't think that they had abandoned all that long ago, rather than centuries past, it was that well preserved. There were still even rudimentary mining tools scattered about the place, although that did suggest that this place had been abandoned in a hurry when it happened.

"What are the odds on this place being haunted?" Trixie asked after a few minutes into their exploration. "This place feels perfect for spooky things to happen in."

"Trixie," Twilight sighed, "just don't even."

All of them ducked as a wail echoed through the mines, sounding exactly like what none of them wanted to hear.

"Well, great," Twilight said flatly, "the mine's haunted. Congratulations, Trixie, you got your wish. Now what are you going to do with it?"

"I don't know. I'm probably going to be all like 'piss off ghost,' then go about my business. What else am I expected to do? Fight it?"

"Now that would be all kinds of hilarious," Sunset laughed. She stopped as a deeper wail sent shivers down her spine. "Okay, maybe not."

"You guys are all being ridiculous," Moondancer sniffed. "Have none of you considered that the Grootslang might live in these mines, and that it's making these noises after getting stabbed in the eye?"

"I think I prefer the ghosts," Trixie said after a short, contemplative silence. "Great. What are the odds that thing is exactly where we need to go?"

Sunset smiled and shrugged helplessly, "Practically guaranteed."

A bit more walking brought them to a nexus, with several other paths branching off it. There were also scratches on the floor, all of which followed the same, well worn path. None of them needed to ask why that was, as all of them knew the answer was to do with the giant snake they were avoiding.

"So, avoiding the obvious answer," said Daring as she quickly cast her gaze over their options, "which way do you think we should go?"

Twilight pointed a hoof down the path that the Grootslang used. "It goes down, which feels like a good place to find ley lines, and I can feel magic coming from down there. There's also an increased number in the quantity of crystals in the walls, which is another clue. It just also happens to smell like death down there, and is quite possibly the Grootslang's den."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I have a Grootslang to kill. If you'll all excuse me." Twilight started heading down the slope to the Grootslang's den, and probable source of everything they needed. There was only one way this could end, and that was with the Grootslang dead.

Okay, there might be two if you called getting eaten an option.

Wisps of stray magic tickled Twilight's horn as she went deeper, and after a few minutes she lit up her horn. Either the output of magic down here was enough to overpower the wards outside the crater, or the wards' effects couldn't penetrate the mountain this far. Whichever the reason, it certainly helped.

"Twilight! Wait up!"

Twilight stopped, expecting Trixie to catch up with her since it was Trixie that spoke. She was only half right though, as both Trixie and Sunset were running after her. None of the others were though, which wasn't all that surprising.

"We thought we'd come and help," Sunset said with a confident smile.

"Couldn't let you get all the glory."

"I'm not sure what glory you're expecting to find in this, Trixie, but I'll give you a pat on the back if it makes you feel better. Now shush. If we can sneak up on it, all the better for us."

Both unicorns nodded as they followed Twilight's lead, all of them trying to walk as softly as possible to stop their hooves echoing on the stone floor. A bright glow filled the passage before them, removing the need for their horns to light the way.

The tunnel opened out into a large, circular chamber, which didn't appear to have been mined out, as what little of the walls could be seen beneath the layer of crystals appeared to be quite smooth, and rather like it had been molten at one point. The source of that was in the middle of the room, contained within a pillar of crystal that glowed with a bright white light. You couldn't see the ley line itself, but the crystals containing it were impressive enough.

The most important feature of the room was loosely coiled around that pillar though, whining and writhing as it fruitlessly tried in vain to remove the sword from its eye by rubbing it on the ground. This was only making a considerably bigger mess of the wound, and yet was still not enough to kill it.

"Protect the pillar," Twilight whispered to Trixie and Sunset. "If it smashes that thing we're done for."

Both unicorns nodded and moved away from Twilight in preparation to shield the pillar should they need to. That left Twilight on her own to confront the Grootslang. She stopped as her hoof stuck to a patch of blood on the floor, and made her think for a moment. If the Grootslang was smart enough to try and trick her, was it smart enough to know she won the fight, and that she wasn't worth the effort of attacking again? Could it be encouraged to leave them alone?

Probably not, but considering how hard the thing was to kill, perhaps it was worth trying.

"Hey!" Twilight shouted, getting the Grootslang's attention. It stopped what it was doing to focus its one good eye on herself, although even then it couldn't resist turning its head to keep rubbing Swordy against the floor.

Twilight summoned Swordy back to herself, removing it from the wound, and held it up in front of the snake so that it could see she'd removed it. She then stepped aside in the hopes that the Grootslang would go for the exit and leave. It didn't even look at it, instead keeping its eye fixed on Twilight.

"Go for the door you big dumb snake. Choose to live, please?"

"You know it's probably going to protect its den," Trixie said from the side of the room.

"Shut up, Trixie! Don't give it ideas!"

"It's going to attack you!"

Twilight growled as she could see Trixie was right. The Grootslang was curling itself back to strike, apparently oblivious to the danger it was in. The thing was that Twilight didn't really want to kill it. She'd hurt it, which should've been enough of a lesson, but as far as the Grootslang was concerned that wasn't enough.

Twilight teleported as the snake sprung for her, then blasted it with her magic from the air to keep its attention on her, barely even realising she was flying as she did it. Her magic did nothing to the crystals on the Grootslang's skin, instead being either absorbed by the crystals, or dissipated by them. At the very least Twilight could now see why Starsy suggested these crystals to make armour.

The Grootslang coiled tighter around the pillar, either unaware of what breaking it would do, or not caring if it meant they all died. Either way a shield of both pink and red covered it before it could do any damage, although it soon faded from contact with the crystals on the snake's hide.

Twilight swore loudly, and flew in close to kick the Grootslang on the side of its head. It forgot whatever else it was doing in favour of snapping its fangs at Twilight, who made an important discovery. Firing magic into its mouth hurt it. Also its underbelly wasn't covered in the magic proof crystals. Both of those were significant.

"Trixie! Big crystal spike under its chin! I'll shout when!"

Twilight didn't, and couldn't, check whether Trixie heard her, so had to act as though she had. The Grootslang was coiling up defensively now, like it knew it was losing, so Twilight kept hammering away at it, blasting its wounded eye and into its mouth when the opportunity arose.

The Grootslang was acting sluggish now, Twilight's attacks taking its toll, even if the damage was minimal. It was totally unprepared for when Twilight teleported above its head and poured every bit of magic into herself that she could.

"Now, Trixie!"

Twilight pushed down on the Grootslang's head as hard as she could, while from the other direction a spike of dark crystal speared up from the ground, stabbing the snake's head just behind its chin, and doing what Swordy could not.

Twilight tumbled to the ground as the head jerked to a stop, which was just as well as the tip of the spire would've got her as well if she'd stayed where she was. It still wasn't over though as the Grootslang twitched, trashing around and threatening to destroy the pillar. Again and again they put up shields to protect it, until eventually the Grootslang went still.

"Fucking hell," Twilight swore tiredly, sitting hard to try and catch her breath. "Stupid snake. Sunset, could you go get the others please?"

"Uh, sure, back in a mo."

"Alright, so, I have an idea," Trixie said as Sunset trotted out of the chamber. "What if we... skin the snake and use its skin to make the armour. It's covered in those crystals we want, so it'd be perfect."

"Seriously, Trixie? Ew. Okay, first off that's disgusting. Secondly, it's going to be really hard to skin that massive fucking snake when none of us know how. Thirdly, it's going to be really hard transporting a skin that weighs tons when we can't use magic outside of here, and fourth, we have no idea how to make it into actual leather. or whatever, so just no."

"Fine, be like that. I thought it was a good idea."

"Yeah, but you would."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

Twilight just shrugged, then sat quietly enjoying the rather invigorating feeling of being bathed in magic. It was rather like sitting out in the sun. More to the point though, her fancy alicorn healing worked fine here, whereas she suspected the deadzone outside affected it to the point it was pretty much like regular healing.

"Guess you showed that snake who's boss," Daring said as she entered the chamber with Mayfly and Moondancer, who went straight over to the pillar, her eyes wide with awe.

"Not really," said Twilight. "Now it doesn't know anything. It's just dead. Anyway," Twilight flapped a hoof at Moondancer, "what do we need?"

Moondancer ceased her examination long enough to speak, "We need three of the highest quality crystals we can get from the pillar over here for the oubliette, which is why we're taking six, and as many of the other crystals as we can carry. Unfortunately we didn't actually think to bring a cart, so we'll have to load our bags and hope we have enough. Sunset and I will take care of the pillar, while the rest of you take care of the other stuff."

"And how will we know if we have the right kind of crystals?" Trixie asked.

"Try to pick them up in your magic, and if you can't, they're fine," Moondancer replied like it was obvious.

"I knew that."

"You and Twilight will have to check them for Daring and Mayfly."

"Well pshah, obviously."

"Then get to it."

"You're not my boss."

Twilight stood and pulled Trixie after her as she pulled a couple of sacks out of her bags, "I'm not your boss either, but come on, we got stuff to do."

-0-0-0-

"You know, I can really appreciate why the zebras fear this place. The sheer amount of energy coming from this thing is staggering." Sunset gently pressed a hoof to the crystalline pillar, finding it warm to the touch. "No wonder the Grootslang was drawn to it."

"I'm surprised there wasn't more things living here," Moondancer said back. "Worse things."

"Worse than that?" Sunset looked over at the body of the Grootslang, "Really?"

"Maybe the snake ate them. I don't know. Anyway, stop thinking about that and start looking for those crystals."

Alright, alright." Sunset scanned her magic over the pillar, searching for the perfect gems, wishing they had an expert on such things. The Rarity she knew back on Earth had an eye for such things, so it wasn't too farfetched to imagine the pony Rarity did as well. It was just too bad she was still a prisoner, leaving Sunset to try and make up for an innate lack of skill with gems.

An even number of facets, a regular shape, no inclusions, whatever they looked like, and no larger than the size of her hoof. It also had to be pure enough to hold any enchantment. That's what Starsy's instructions had been at least, with an amendment that you could tell the purity just by feeling it. Saying that was a lot easier than doing it when you're standing next to a giant pillar of crystals radiating pure magic.

"I got one!"

Apparently it wasn't impossible though.

"What do you think?" Moondancer said, holding a white, glowing gem up in her magic for Sunset to see. It certainly looked the part, and when Sunset took it in her magic it certainly felt decent, giving her a nice reference for what to look for herself.

"Nice work." Sunset opened the padded case they had for holding the crystals and placed the gem in one of the slots. "Five more to go and we're golden."

Sunset resumed scanning, and soon found a gem that felt almost exactly like the one Moondancer had found. She gently teased it out, and turned it in her magic, counting over the facets for an even number, and trying to find any of those mysterious inclusions. It seemed to be good on both those counts, so into the case it went, soon followed by another from Moondancer.

That was merely a good start though, as for every good gem they found, a half dozen improper ones were found that simply didn't fit the bill. Odd numbers of facets, flaws, or just not feeling right, all were reasons to discard them.

"Okay, two more," Moondancer said, placing another into the case.

"You are so much better at this than me."

"Maybe my side just has the better crystals. Who knows what miniscule conditions can alter how these crystals form."

"Yeah, I guess. Ooh, I think I have one." Sunset pulled a gem free, and was about to check it when the sounds of splintering brought her attention back to the pillar. Cracks were spider webbing through the pillar, and with a small cry she grabbed them with her magic and held them. Thankfully they stopped spreading, but that was only one upside in a big problem.

"Are you alright?" Moondancer asked, sounding worried.

"Yes!" Sunset said a little too quickly. She cleared her throat of the awkwardness and gave Moondancer a smile. "Yes, I'm fine, I just almost dropped the crystal." A quick scan confirmed it was good, so she put it in the case. "Now we just need one more."

"Okay, keep looking then."

"Will do!" Sunset gave Moondancer another smile to reassure her, then turned her gaze back to the pillar. The cracks hadn't spread any further, thankfully, but there was no way to restore them either. Sunset didn't know what to do.

"We've gathered up as many crystals as we can carry," Twilight said, walking up behind Sunset. She stopped as she saw Sunset's red magic wrapped around part of the pillar, maintained by the pony sullenly looking up at it. "What are you doing, Sunset?"

"Oh, uh, nothing, just scanning the pillar for the last crystal we need."

"No you're not, you're holding the pillar! Sunset, did you... did you damage the pillar?"

Sunset winced guiltily, but decided it wasn't worth trying to lie about it. The others would still find out about it eventually. "It cracked when I pulled a crystal free. I did the only thing I could think of to stop it killing us all."

"But- But... don't you realise what that means?" Twilight asked, her voice catching as she tried to speak. The feeling only grew worse as Sunset nodded slowly.

"It means I can't let go, because as soon as I do, boom." Sunset shrugged helplessly, and gave Twilight a tiny shrug. "Oops?"

"Oops? Oops? Sunset! That- That means you're going to-" Twilight couldn't even bring herself to say it. Tears ran down her cheeks as the others gathered around, all of them appearing as horrified, if not as visibly upset. "Sunset..."

"I know-"

"Why didn't you say anything, Sunset?" Moondancer cut in.

"Because you had a job to do, and I didn't want to worry you while you worked." Tears finally spilled down Sunset's cheeks as the gravity of the situation finally set in to her mind. "I'm sorry, Moondancer."

Moondancer hugged Sunset fiercely, sobbing her heart out. "But I don't want you to go! You're one of the only friends I have! I don't want to lose you!"

Sunset hugged back, sobbing just as hard. "I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!"

Twilight straightened up and brushed her tears away. Maybe Sunset didn't have to die, not if there was somepony that could take her place. "I'll stay and hold the pillar."

Sunset jerked at the suggestion, "Twilight, you can't! Even if you could safely take over holding the pillar from me, Equestria still needs you!"

"I can't die. Not permanently at least. Equestria can survive without me for a while."

"No, it can't. Without you we mightn't be able to stop Faust! What if you don't come back at all? The whole world could be doomed if you stay here instead of me, and I can't let that happen!"

"But-"

"No buts, Twilight, you're too important."

"But I don't want you to die," Twilight choked as her tears started to fall again. "Sunset, please..."

"I'm sorry, Twilight, but the world needs you far more than it needs me, and there's no way I could ask anypony else to pay for my mistake. Besides, Moondancer is needed to make the oubliette, and Trixie is a far better fighter than I could ever hope to be. I'm the only one that can do this."

"She's right, Twilight," Trixie said softly.

Twilight couldn't say anything else. There was nothing else to say. Sunset was going to die, and there was nothing she could do about it. She watched, whimpering with tears as Daring and Mayfly hugged Sunset goodbye, both of them openly crying. Trixie was next.

"I'm sorry, Sunset."

"Don't be, Trixie. It's hardly your fault."

"I know, but I'm still sorry." Trixie offered Sunset a wan smile, "I always figured I'd be the first to go. Guess you won that one."

"I guess I had to be first at something," Sunset joked weakly. She tugged Trixie a little tighter, "Don't give up, Trixie, and don't let the darkness win. I believe in you."

"At least one of us does." Trixie sniffed as a tear finally crept down her cheek, "Goodbye, Sunset."

"Goodbye, Trixie."

Moondancer practically shoved Trixie out of the way to latch on to Sunset, "I don't want you to go! Please, Sunset, don't do this!"

"You know I can't do that."

"Then let Twilight take your place!" Moondancer looked over at Twilight, "Please, Twilight, take her place, I'm begging you!"
"You know she can't do that either," Sunset said gently as Twilight hung her head and choked out a sob. Sunset nuzzled Moondancer on the cheek, "I will always be your friend, Moondancer, never forget that."

"I'm not leaving you. If you die, I die with you."

"Moondancer, no, you can't do that!"

"Don't tell me what I can't do!"

"Then I'm sorry I have to do this." Sunset looked pleadingly at Trixie, who nodded, knowing what she wanted. She lit her horn, peeling Moondancer's limbs from around Sunset, and carrying her away."

"No!" Moondancer screamed. "Put me down! Sunset!"

"I'm sorry, Moondancer. Bye."

"Sunset!"

Moondancer's screams echoed around the mines for some time, even after Daring and Mayfly departed with the crystals, leaving Twilight as the last one with Sunset.

"This shouldn't be happening," Twilight said so weakly she was hardly sure she said it at all.

"I know." Sunset rubbed her eyes and sniffed, "Twilight, I- I want to thank you, for everything. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be who I am now. I'd still be angry, and alone, and-"

"Alive?"

"If you could call that living. You gave me the chance I needed to become a better person, and I will always be thankful for that. Thank you, Twilight, thank you so much."

Both of them embraced again for what they knew would be the last time, and they did their best to make it count, but Twilight knew she couldn't stay forever, even though she wanted to more than anything.

"I'll miss you."

"I know. Twilight, could you tell the girls what happened, and that I'm sorry, and that I love them so much. And thank them, for also giving me a chance I didn't deserve."

"I will."

"Good, thank you." Sunset squeezed a little tighter for a moment, then released to hold Twilight at legs' length, "You're a good pony at heart, Twilight. Please, don't ever forget that."

"I'll try."

"That's all I ask. Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle."

"Goodbye, Sunset Shimmer."

Turning away and leaving was the hardest thing Twilight'd ever had to do, and she must've glanced back to see Sunset giving her a gentle smile over a dozen times before her friend was out of sight. Then she ran, not stopping for anything, because as soon as she did she knew she'd only end up going back.

-0-0-0-

Sunset sighed in the quiet loneliness, not wanting to count down the minutes between her and the end she so desperately didn't want. There was nothing for it though but to wait and give the others enough time to get away. She couldn't do that forever though. Her magic was already tiring.

Perhaps the worst thing nagging at her right then was the one pony she couldn't apologise to for more than just this. Princess Celestia deserved masses of apologies for the way she'd acted at times, but that would never happen now.

More minutes passed, and Sunset was having to fight to maintain her magic now. She did entertain the thought of letting go slowly in the hopes that the pillar would hold together long enough for her to escape, but as her grip weakened the cracks started to spread further, and she'd rather not give herself false hope.

"I guess this is it then," Sunset said as her magic faltered. "Good luck stopping Faust, and I wish I could've been there with you." Sunset took a deep breath and prepared herself as best she could. Not that there was any preparing herself for this, but she'd rather die standing tall than cowering and afraid.

"Goodbye everyone," she said, and squeezed, shattering the pillar.

-0-0-0-

Twilight had barely made it up the slope out of the crater when the ground bucked hard enough to send her flying. She landed hard and barely had enough wits left to drag the others to her and put the strongest shield over them that she could muster to protect them from falling debris. There wasn't as much as she thought there would be, and none of it was the boulder sized chunks she was expecting. All the same she kept the shield up until everything had settled enough to make her think it was over.

The top of the mountain was gone, and through the dust a wavering beam of ethereal light was reaching for the heavens, shimmering with all the colours of the rainbow. In any other situation it would be beautiful, but that meant nothing now because all it meant was Sunset Shimmer was gone, vaporised in an accident that should never have happened.

Twilight watched the lights blankly, her mind empty of everything except the pain she felt, and the only distraction she got from that was when Moondancer, screaming and crying, launched herself at Twilight, knocking her to the ground to hit her again and again.

"You killed her! You killed her you bitch! You fucking killed her!"

Twilight didn't have it in her to deny it, or fight back, and left it to the others to drag Moondancer off. Twilight was the reason Sunset was dead, because she was the one that asked Sunset to get involved. Sunset's death was entirely her fault. Moondancer was entirely right to hate her, but she could never hate her as much as Twilight hated herself.

The worst part was that the Harmony map had tried to warn her of this by excluding Sunset's cutie mark from the collection surrounding Canterlot, the last time she'd seen it. She'd been warned this would happen, and she'd chosen to ignore it, and had done nothing to try and prevent it. She really was just scum.

Author's Note

Alright, so, Sunset's dead-

-and I deserve that. (I doubt she'd ever want to marry me now. I've crushed my own delusions like a fool.)

Figured not everyone could get to die in a blaze of glory, and Sunset gets to be the first major character to go out in this book (if I remember correctly). Sadly, she won't be the last. Maybe if I hadn't overloaded myself with characters things could've been different. (I'm a terrible human being.)

28. Kirining on like nothing's wrong

Luna braced herself and didn't move until the tremors stopped. They'd barely been enough to rattle the table, and the zebras around her had stopped only for a moment before carrying on, suggesting that it was maybe a common thing to occur in Zebrica. Luna wanted to disagree, and so did the others.

"I'm having visions of a mountain in rubble," Nightmare said after a short moment. "Hopefully that's just entirely my imagination."

"Do you want us to fly up and have a look?" Rainbow asked, only to get a shake of the head from Luna.

"We have plenty to do here, and we have no idea if that connects back to Twilight. Hopefully they're all fine, having completed their task."

"Alright, fine, but what else have we got to do? Ember burned their ships, and Autumn is doing whatever it is she's doing, so what else is there?"

"We have a battle coming, and we must be prepared. Trust that our friends are doing their job, Rainbow, even if we haven't known some of them very long."

"That is a lot easier to say than it is to do. Who knows what Autumn's getting up to?"

-0-0-0-

Autumn bolted upright, her eyes slowly swivelling side to side as she tried to work out just what the hell all that shaking was that woke her up. It only just felt like she'd gotten to sleep as well after all that'd happened the previous night. The sight of those ships burning wasn't something she'd forget in a hurry, as pretty as it was. Anything burning tended to stick with her.

Autumn rolled onto her hooves and stood, hoping to go and find out what was going on. She hadn't even made it out of the tent when Fern Flare entered, her eyes narrowed and her expression cold.

"What did you do?"

"You mean the shaking? How could you blame that on me?"

"Not that. I don't care about that. What I care about is that there are kirin talking. Quite a few of them, and I know it's your fault."

"Really? Awesome!" Autumn pushed past Fern to go outside, hoping to see kirin joyfully expressing themselves with their rediscovered voices. What she got to see was a lot of worried looking kirin wearing furtive expressions as they still failed to talk to each other. "Oh for goodness sake."

"You've gone too far, Autumn, too far! I'm going to have to tell Rain Shine what you did."

"I see no conceivable way in which that could possibly end well for me. Please don't."

"Well what did you expect was going to happen? We all gave up our voices for a reason, and you know that! Why are you forcing us to have them back?"

Autumn stepped back as Fern started to smoke, "You need to calm down. Control it, like we should always have."

Fern's eyebrows caught fire, but that only drew the attention of other kirin, so with a deep breath she managed to rein her anger in. "This is why we didn't talk."

"But that was the wrong thing to do!" Autumn pleaded. "You controlled it right then, and if you can't, go somewhere quiet and vent for a while until you feel better. We can't give up our joy to lose our anger. Rainbow's can't shine if you don't let it rain."

Fern shuddered, her expression growing darker. "You need to excuse me," she said before turning and walking away somewhere else.

"See? That's the right idea! You're doing great!" Autumn smiled after Fern, confident that if she could do it, then the others could as well. Still, none of the other kirin seemed happy about talking in the slightest, so maybe a slight miscalculation had been made on the positives Autumn was sure this would initially bring. She had certainly miscalculated on how much suspicion would immediately fall on her since Rain Shine was walking right towards her.

"I need to talk to you," the tall grey kirin said coldly.

"About what?" Autumn asked, totally failing to remember to keep up her façade of silence.

"About the fact that I can talk to you, and you to me. Come."

Autumn lowered her head, but acquiesced to following Rain Shine to the largest tent in the kirin section of the camp. To her severe discomfort, the leaders of the dozen or so other kirin villages were there, and none of them seemed particularly happy.

"Ooh, I feel really short here," Autumn said awkwardly as all the village leaders stood at least a head taller than her, even when sat down.

"What do you know about the kirin talking?" Rain Shine asked once she'd retaken her place with the other leaders.

"Me? Not a thing. Why do you think I would know?"

"Because you refused to stay silent back home, and in case you forgot, you were exiled for it. Now you not only managed to find us here, but the very next day most of us are talking, and I can't help but feel that you are responsible."

"Hey, I'm as surprised as you all are. Besides, maybe if you'd have been considerate enough to tell me where you were all going, maybe I wouldn't have come looking for you."

"Stop trying to change the subject," one of the other leaders said, a male in shades of orange and brown. "Are you, or are you not responsible for this catastrophe?"

"What will happen if I am?"

"You will be executed for crimes against kirin kind."

"Then no, no I am not." Autumn smiled at the stallion, but it soon wilted under the weight of his accusing stare. "I don't suppose it isn't too late to say sorry, is it?"

"Guards, seize her."

"You will do no such thing," Rain Shine said as two guards by the door took hold of Autumn. "She is one of my kirin, and I shall be the one to decide her punishment."

"Except her crimes are against all kirin."

"That still doesn't mean that you alone get to decide her punishment! I know for a fact that all of you here can currently talk, except Brew Bud who's been imbibing the wine he stole from the yaks since last night, and cannot currently stand up without assistance!"

The kirin in question raised his hoof in a silent cheer, and promptly fell over.

"Why are none of the rest of you lending your voices to this discussion?" Rain Shine continued, "While you, Leaf Fall, are not sentencing her to death, not when the simple cure for us is to walk through the stream of silence again!"

"And what if we do? Would this Autumn Blaze not try again? And again? The only way to stop her is to end her."

"You will do no such thing!" Rain Shine shouted, her voice picking up an otherworldly tone as parts of her caught fire while black swirled around her coat like ink in water.

"Rain Shine, control yourself!"

"You do not rule all the kirin, you smug prick!"

All of the leaders dived for cover as Rain Shine went full nirik and dove for Leaf Fall, who countered it with his own rage. The two niriks fought in the centre of a building inferno that started to consume the tent. The leaders fled, and Autumn was about to follow them when she remembered Brew Bud passed out on the floor, and with magic and considerable effort, dragged him out after her just as the tent caught fire completely. He thanked her by wetting himself.

"You're... welcome?" Autumn stepped away as the spreading puddle threatened to wet her hooves, then turned her full attention to the fight as the tent, or what was left of it, collapsed in flames.

"Autumn."

Autumn winced and turned to face Fern, who was standing right behind her. "In my defence, I had no idea this would happen. In my greater defence, they're not strictly fighting because of me either. I'm just the catalyst for dragging out bigger issues."

Fern looked around Autumn to where Rain Shine and Leaf Fall were viciously kicking and biting each other. "Is that so? Autumn, are you starting to realise what you might've done?"

"I'm started to realise kirin have all the impulse control of children, if that's the same as what you're talking about?"

"It really isn't. You're an idiot, Autumn, you really are."

Autumn sat and pulled her mane down over her eyes with a sigh, "I know."

"What is going on here?"

Both of them looked around to find General Snowbright and a dozen other ponies had run up to investigate the fire. All of them went a little blank as they saw the two niriks still fighting.

"Are they on fire?"

"It's a long story," Autumn said to Snowbright, making him jump sideways with fright.

"Holy shit, you can talk!"

"Most of us can, now. As I said, it's a long story. Ooorrr... I could explain it in song if you want?"

"No thank you."

"Oh come on!"

"I think they're stopping," Fern said as the flames started to die down. A minute later the two leaders staggered out, both of them battered and bleeding, and both of them looking ashamed.

"What is the meaning of this?" Snowbright asked the two of them once they had made their way up to him.

"A mere disagreement," Leaf Fall said, raising his head to appear a bit more confident.

"A mere disagreement? Really? In my experience, mere disagreements don't cause property damage! The entire camp could've been on fire if this spread!"

Rain Shine hung her head, "Apologies, General. We shall endeavour to make sure this does not happen again."

"Good. Now explain something else to me. How are you talking? Could you always do that? Because that would've been really useful before now."

"We have been sabotaged by one of our own who seeks to see us all become the monsters you just witnessed us being," Leaf Fall said to Snowbright. He pointed at Autumn, "That one there did it, to be precise."

Snowbright raised an eyebrow at Autumn as she grinned nervously, "Yeah, she seems real malicious. Seriously though, is this going to become a problem? We're expecting Princess Celestia today, and we can't have half the camp in flames, especially after losing three ships to Luna's damned dragon!"

"It shan't be a problem."

"Glad to hear it." Snowbright cast one final glance over the smouldering remains of the tent, "I would deem it a small favour if you got this mess cleaned up."

The two leaders bowed until Snowbright was gone, although their serene image cracked a little once he was gone. "Where is the damn-fooled kirin that made this happen?" Leaf Fall asked with a calmness that did little to hide his anger.

"Right here," Autumn replied, raising a hoof.

"Your leader, Rain Shine, has... convinced me that your life be spared, but do not mistake that as thinking you are off the hook. Until we decide your punishment you are not to leave this camp. Am I understood?"

"Yessir!"

"Perhaps you can begin with cleaning up this mess," said Rain Shine, pointing to the smouldering ruin. "You can help her, Fern Flare."

"What? What did I do?"

"You brought her in here and lied about her, so I think you did plenty."

-0-0-0-

"This is all your fault," Fern grumbled as she shovelled ashes into the bucket Autumn was holding.

"So you keep telling me."

"And it doesn't get any less true every time I do. You messed up really bad, and since I keep seeing more and more kirin talking, you're still messing up."

"Really? Huh. Guess they haven't worked out I put it in the water then."

"You did wh-" Fern stopped and sighed, "Forget it. It's too late now, and it's not like we have an abundance of water to replace it all with." Fern poked at the ground with her spade and growled out a sigh, "I really hope that fight between Rain Shine and Leaf Fall showed you how bad this could get."

"Yes, I know, thank you," Autumn said exasperatedly. "I really don't see why it's so hard to not get over the top angry about things. There has to be something we can do to help?"

"No! Absolutely not! I think you've done enough helping already. You're better off keeping your head down before you find it getting removed."

"Uh-huh," Autumn said noncommittally. Truthfully she'd already made a plan, and it involved asking Princess Celestia to intervene with her mother and ask for the kirin cure. Her failure to produce anything would surely be the last straw for many of the kirin here. They'd definitely want to go home after that.

"You already have a plan, don't you?"

"What? No! What gives you that idea?"

"The fact that you're not asking me for one. Or at least not asking me what I think of your idea, because you're afraid I'll rubbish it, or tell Rain Shine, or do something to stop you going through with it. Which I would, by the way, so if you do have a plan, I'm begging you to please not go through with it."

"Well that's fine," Autumn said haughtily, "because I don't have one."

"That's funny, because I can see you're lying."

"See! This is what I missed when we couldn't talk! Just conversations, and laughter, and a bit of friendly ribbing! The silence was torturous!"

"And I see that crushing the hopes and dreams of our entire people is worth getting that back for."

Autumn quietly regarded Fern for a moment, then sat and groaned loudly. "Fine, so maybe I do have an idea, or maybe I don't, but if it makes you feel better I will run any ideas I have past Rain Shine for what she thinks first. Don't haggle me to go any lower than that, because I just won't do it."

"And do you absolutely promise to talk with Rain Shine first?"

Autumn saluted Fern, "Kirin Scouts honour." The best part of all of this was that it worked into her plan even better than not doing it. "I am so clever."

"Excuse me?"

"Whoops! Didn't mean to say that out loud!" Autumn quickly scooped the remaining ashes into her bucket using her magic, then dropped it in the middle of the burnt square left behind from the fire. "I'mgoingtoseeRainShinenow,'kaythanksbye!"

"Autumn!" Fern shouted as Autumn sprinted away. "Autumn! Get back here!" Fern sighed as she was ignored, "I swear, if you do something to make this worse, I'm going to make you eat this bucket of ash. Including the bucket."

-0-0-0-

The village leaders had relocated themselves to a new tent when Autumn found them, except for Brew Bud who was sleeping outside in a heap. Thankfully Autumn was spared having to go in as Rain Shine walked out.

"I hope you're here because that mess has been cleaned up?" Rain Shine said as she stopped due to Autumn blocking her way.

"Uh, yes, yes it has, but that isn't really why I'm here."

"Then what is it?"

"I was hoping to ask you something, actually. That General Snowbright said that Princess Celestia is coming here today, and you know how she's like the daughter of that Lady Faust character?"

"I am highly aware, yes. What's your point?"

"I was wondering if you could talk to her about what Faust promised you? Maybe if she gave you what she promised, you could all avoid turning into niriks? It certainly wouldn't hurt to ask, would it? I'd certainly feel a lot better about it if you would, as would a lot of other kirin I imagine."

"And why does it concern you? You're the one that made this problem in the first place, and you haven't even told us why?"

Autumn slowly raised her pointed hoof, "You haven't actually asked me until now."

"Then consider this a question."

"Alrighty, well, I was hoping that by getting you all to talk I could show you that we don't have to let our anger control us, and that we don't need a cure from Faust, and that we certainly don't need to go to war to get it. If she was that nice, why didn't she just give us all the cure in the first place? Surely you can't agree with the kirin fighting?"

"I'll admit that I always had my doubts, but the destruction we could spare our forests by ridding ourselves of our curse seems worth it."

"Is it though? Compared to the destruction this war could cause? Is this really what we're about?"

Rain Shine looked about for a moment, then ushered Autumn away from the tent, a furtive expression on her face. "You are far from the only one with doubts, but you must understand that this war is only a temporary thing, whereas our cure, our future, is forever."

"Is it worth all the dead kirin? There's not that many of us to start with."

"They died for the future of the kirin," Rain Shine said with a sad smile, although it was hard to tell who she was convincing as she said it.

"You don't agree with this, do you?"

"I used to, but now I can feel again, no thanks to you, I must admit that this feels... wrong."

"Then maybe it would be best to ask Princess Celestia to intervene on her mother's behalf for the cure? We'd all be far safer to be around if she fixed our curse, and we would definitely owe her for it, rather than fight in the hopes that she might be able to fix us."

Rain Shine nodded thoughtfully, "You are quite right, Autumn. We were foolish to agree to this without proof that she could cure us. I must admit, displeased though I am by your actions, I do feel myself thinking clearer without my emotions being clouded. I shall talk to Celestia when I am able, and see if we can't bring a little hope to our people."

Autumn bowed to Rain Shine, and smiled as she departed because things couldn't be going better. The kirin would feel betrayed by the lack of an actual cure, and would surely return home. All they had to wait for now was the arrival of Celestia, and it would all come together.

Autumn sniffed the air as the smell of smoke tickled her nostrils. "That can't be good."

She followed the smoke to an argument going on between a kirin and a yak. Nothing actually appeared to be on fire, yet, but since the argument was ongoing, and the kirin smoking, things probably wouldn't get much better.

"Stop treating us like we're not even here! The amount of times I've almost been trampled by yaks not looking where they're going is ridiculous."

"You smaller than us," the yak said back with a distinctly female tone, "you should get out of yaks' way."

"Why? What makes you so much more important than us that you don't even have to bother not accidentally killing your allies. I was in Saddle Arabia, and I saw yaks kill more than a few of the ponies there by accident. Or was it an accident? Are you so caught up in being Faust's chosen that you think we're all beneath you? Do you even care that you'd killed some of us smaller folk by accident? Do you even care that a lot of us hate you for it?"

"Yaks no care if you hate them, just as yaks don't care if you get in yaks' way. Me done talking about this."

"Well I'm not!" The kirin blocked the yaks path as she tried to leave, but was shoved aside by a hoof as the yak carried on. The kirin watched in shock for a second before turning black and fiery, and unleashing an unholy roar as she launched herself at the yak. The hairy yak that caught fire quite easily.

Autumn held a hoof up to the side of her head and looked the other direction as she walked away, leaving the burning yak and screaming kirin to sort out their differences between themselves as some yaks, ponies, and kirin piled in to separate the two.

"I really hope Celestia gets here soon."

-0-0-0-

It was a couple more hours until the sight of sails came into view, which was a relief because the number of incidents involving niriks was starting to slowly increase as tensions rose.

Autumn decided to wait on the dock just behind Rain Shine, impatiently jogging on the spot as the ship pulled in and Celestia disembarked to a greeting from a displeased Snowbright, who was, in his own words, starting to lose his shit over this.

Celestia turned to the kirin party, who had the decency to at least appear embarrassed by what had happened. "We are sorry," Rain Shine said, surprising Celestia since the last time she'd seen them they'd been silent to a kirin. "We've had some developments that are proving difficult to adjust to."

"Difficult?" Prince Rutherford roared. "You burn yaks' yurts, you burn yaks' food, and you burn yaks! That is more than being difficult!"

"And I'm sorry, Prince Rutherford." Rain Shine looked pleadingly to Celestia, "After being isolated for so long we're finding it difficult to work alongside others, and now that we can talk and feel again, we're letting our anger get the better of us at times."

"I see." Celestia smiled softly, "I wish I could help you all, but I'm afraid we have other issues. The traitors, Luna and Twilight are here with their allies, and our priorities lie with them and the zebras. If you can control your people until then-"

"I don't think we can." Rain Shine smiled apologetically at Celestia for interrupting. "If we cannot control ourselves, we could be a danger to all here. I was hoping you might approach your mother to ask her for the cure to our curse? I realise it would be premature on our agreement to give it to us now, but I'm afraid that without it we present a danger."

"Oh, I see. I'm afraid the only one that can cure you is my mother, and she is not here-"

"Then can you at least tell us what the cure is?" Autumn asked brazenly, taking the opportunity while it was in front of her. "Just knowing would put a lot of minds at ease."

"I'm afraid I don't know, my little p- kirin. My mother has not seen fit to share that information with me."

"Because there isn't a cure, is there?"

Celestia straightened up to gaze down at the kirin questioning her. "What would make you think we would promise something we couldn't actually give you?"

"The fact that Faust made us work for the cure, rather than give it to us and ask us to fight in return. When the war is won, and the kirin likely reduced in number, it'll be too late for us when she tells us there's not actually a cure. We'll have fought for nothing, and would be too weak to do anything about it."

Rutherford stamped a hoof at Autumn, who retreated a little behind Rain Shine. He was far from the only one appearing upset by her accusations. "You dare question Nirmata?"

"Please," Celestia said soothingly, "there's no need to get upset. She's rightfully concerned about her people. Let me assure you though, there is a cure."

"How can you be sure if you don't know what it is? Unless you're lying, and you do know, but if you are, why? Aren't we going to like the cure?"

There was a small twitch in Celestia's composure as more and more kirin started whispering to each other. Whoever this kirin was, she was far too inquisitive, and had backed Celestia into a corner. Whatever she did now would be questioned and doubted, leaving her with only one option as she saw it. The truth.

"Very well, I shall be honest with you. Yes there is a cure, but not as you would like it. The cure is for future generations. Through magic, my mother would make it so that your children, and children's children would be free of the curse. Unfortunately it is not something that can be done to you, but it can be achieved through you. You kirin alive now are going to be the last generation of kirin afflicted with the curse, while all future kirin would be free of it. Is that not worth fighting for?"

Autumn remained resolute as a susurrus of fresh whispers spread through the kirin. Frankly the whole thing sounded like an exaggeration to her, and like another false promise designed to buy the kirins' loyalty. It was of some relief to her that a decent number of the whispers she heard matched that, although a great many more didn't. It also did nothing to stop the kirin becoming niriks right now.

"Now that's taken care of," Snowbright cut in, "let's get to the command tent so I can give you a briefing of the situation, Princess."

"Lead on, General Snowbright."

With a final smile, Celestia was led away in the company of Snowbright, Prince Rutherford, and the kirin leaders, leaving plenty of others behind while the ship was unloaded, bringing more pony soldiers, as well as supplies. Autumn stood there for a while until a sharp poke on her side caught her attention.

"Are you satisfied now?" Fern asked angrily. "Because I'm not. I felt better thinking there was a cure for us as well."

"You don't really believe any of that, do you?"

"I don't know what to believe any more, but I do know who to blame for that, Autumn."

Autumn held up a hoof as Fern walked away, then let it drop slowly. At the very least she could be happy that Fern was controlling her anger over this.

-0-0-0-

"With our boats burnt our ability to receive supplies is limited, the zebras are gathering their forces as we speak, and any element of surprise we might've had is gone," Snowbright half shouted, his frustrations boiling over. "Now this kirin thing is just the cherry on the icing of a very big cake made of shit."

"Mind your tone, General," Celestia said icily.

"Begging your pardon, Princess, but my plan to attack Zanzebra as soon as we had the numbers was vetoed in favour of making a spectacle involving yourself. A decision that might well cost us dearly if we have to fight our way through every zebra in this blasted country to get there!"

Autumn idly picked some dirt out of the cleft of her hoof as she waited for Celestia to reply. So far listening at the tent hadn't provided much of use to her, but as she had no other ideas to go on she kept at it.

"Can we still do it?" Celestia asked after several long seconds.

"Against these primitives, sure, but the arrival of the other three princesses does make things interesting. Not to be rude, Princess, but you can't stand against all of them together. Not to mention Trixie Lulamoon, or their dragon."

"I realise that. I would also remind you to not underestimate the zebras. Their weapons are just as deadly as yours."

"They lack magic, so I'm not particularly worried."

"They lack magic as you understand it. Again I will remind you to not underestimate them."

"As you wish," Snowbright said with a hint of sigh. "What do you think we should do?"

"Are the zebras still unprepared for an attack?"

"As far as we can tell."

"Then we should attack now while they're still unprepared, and before Luna has more time to plan against us. Prince Rutherford, esteemed leaders of the kirin, prepare your forces to march on Zanzebra."

"Finally!" Rutherford cheered. "Time to show zebras what yaks are made of!"

"Blood and guts, like the rest of us," said a voice Autumn didn't recognise, but figured was one of the other kirin leaders. "Remind your yaks that there are others on the battlefield before you charge in blindly and trample half of us to death."

"Stay out of yaks way, and no problem."

"That is not a solution!"

"She is right, Prince Rutherford," Celestia said in an attempt to defuse the situation before it literally caught fire. "I know you and your yaks wish to prove themselves, but that cannot come at the expense of your allies. Accidents can and will happen, but the blatant disregard your yaks showed for your pony and kirin allies in Saddle Arabia was beyond the pale. Do not make it so that my mother regrets letting you fight for her."

"Nngh, very well, I will tell yaks to be careful of ponies and kirin."

"That's all we ask. Now go, prepare your peoples to depart for Zanzebra. We leave at sun rise."

Autumn cursed inside her head as the tent emptied, and was about to leave herself when she heard hoofsteps pacing about on the thin wooden flooring.

"You have more to say, Princess?"

"There have been problems back in Equestria. The experimental tank was destroyed by Luna, and the ponies that built it have gone missing. Then when I went to apprehend General Shining Armour and Director Fleur, Twilight Sparkle was there already, and distracted me long enough for them to escape. How do they seem to be everywhere? How have they gotten to Zebrica before me?"

"Does it matter?"

"Not terribly, but it vexes me how they do it. An army couldn't stop you when you invaded Equestria, and yet a hooffull of individuals somehow manage to hurt us again and again without fear of what we might do to them. This isn't a state of affairs that can continue."

"I agree," Snowbright said smoothly. "A victory here would do a lot of good for morale, which is why we can't afford for Luna, Twilight, and whoever else to stop us. Perhaps if Lady Faust were to join us?"

"My mother is busy with important work," Celestia told Snowbright, but the way she said it suggested she wasn't very happy about it. "I don't know entirely what she's doing in the Everfree Castle, but it seems to be occupying more and more of her time of late."

"And what if we lose here?"

Celestia didn't answer for a while, although the pacing continued. Several seconds must've passed before she spoke again.

"You had best hope that we don't."

-0-0-0-

The choice lay before Autumn to sneak out of the camp and warn Princess Luna about the oncoming attack, or to stay where she was until the completion of her task. One of those options was a lot easier than the other, but since Luna was probably already aware of the Mareitanians preparing to move, the first option was already rendered pointless.

Of course there was the massive, overwhelming problem that Autumn didn't know what to do, in the slightest, at all. Her master plan to get the kirin talking had run up against the issue where she hadn't known what to do past that point, and now it was actually past that point she was stumped.

Worst of all was that hadn't gotten to sing even once. Okay, maybe it wasn't the worst part, but it was definitely in the top five.

"What if Celestia is telling the truth?" Autumn asked herself out loud, the idea popping into her head as she watched the sun setting. She'd wanted to believe that Princess Luna was being honest in saying that there was no cure for the kirin, but what if she was wrong? Sure there was the issue where there was no way to fix the kirin now, but future generations would be free from becoming niriks.

"What if they're both right? Celestia's cure is what Luna says Faust will do. That would still be bad."

Autumn rolled onto her back and groaned, "Why is this so hard? What if... what if... what if someone came along and finished my sentences with actual ideas? Why is convincing the kirin to go home so hard?"

"Because you're going about this all wrong."

Autumn's head shot up, trying to see who it was that spoke. A moment later her hoof crept into her view.

"Hey," it said.

"You almost gave me a heart attack, for crying out loud."

"Sorry."

"Why do you look like that anyway? Don't you normally have a horn and, you know, eyes?"

"We're in hostile territory, so I'm travelling in disguise."

"Ah," Autumn nodded thoughtfully, "good thinking. So what do you mean that I'm going about this all wrong?"

"Well, think about it. Trying to convince the kirin hasn't gotten you anywhere, so how about you try to convince the yaks and ponies that they don't want the kirin to fight with them?"

"And why should I listen to you? You don't even have a brain."

"Oh yeah?" Autumn's hoof sniffed haughtily, "Well at least I don't talk to my hoof."

"Because you'd only be talking to yourself, hey hey!" Autumn shared a quick laugh with her hoof. "Seriously though, I do find your suggestion quite intriguing. Please, tell me more."

"Alright, well, tensions are already running pretty high between the kirin and yaks, and there's probably something similar going on between the yaks and ponies. All you need to do is make that worse, to the point that the yaks demand that the kirin not be allowed to fight with them. Seeing as how there are more yaks than kirin, and you're going to upset the ponies as well, they'll have no choice but to send the kirin home."

"That is pretty devious. I don't know though, you have been a pretty bad influence on me in the past..."

"Do-it do-it do-it!"

"Okay, you've convinced me. But if this goes wrong I'm blaming you."

"Fair deal."

"So how am I going to do this?"

"That's easy. Go piss some yaks off, and be sure to get really angry while you're doing it."

-0-0-0-

The yak camp was in full swing with packing up their stuff, although it was quite amusing how Celestia expected them to use this stuff, and yet still be ready to go for dawn. Autumn suspected that it was because saying 'at dawn' was a lot more dramatic than saying 'after breakfast.'

So far very little attention had been given to her as she wandered around the camp, and Autumn was beginning to think that yak prince, whatever his name was, had convinced his yaks that having others around wasn't the end of the world. That was a problem, but one that could be solved by trying a little harder.

"Hey yaks! What's that awful smell? Is it you?"

Autumn cringed at the sudden amount of attention that brought to her, but since that might've been the idea all along, she pressed on with whatever the hell it was she thought she was doing.

"Honestly, you smell so bad I can't tell if your mothers gave birth to you, or pooped you out! Is that why you're all so angry all the time? Because you have to smell each other?" Autumn pinched her nose and stepped back as a yak stomped up to her, "Not too close please."

"Why you here insulting yaks in yak camp?"

"This is your camp? I thought these were just big piles of dung!" Autumn grinned as the yak scowled at her, "You seem upset. I would ask if you want to talk about it, but that would make me subject to your breath, and I don't hate myself nearly enough for that."

The yak bellowed at Autumn, and charged at her. Autumn in turn leapt up onto the yak's forehead and bounced clean over him. "Ewwww! Your smell is on my hooves now!"

"Get her!"

Autumn held her breath and pushed her rage to the surface in a burst of purple flame that stalled the yaks for a moment. She inspected her burning hoof, then slowly and intently pressed it to the side of the yurt closest to her, sending it up in flames.

"You know, I bet it wouldn't have gone up so quick if it wasn't saturated from your massive yak farts!"

Autumn turned and ran as the yaks all went for her, and bounced around causing merry destruction wherever she went. She wouldn't dare to say it out loud, and certainly not to another kirin, but being able to burn all this stuff on purpose was extremely cathartic.

Eventually her pursuit dropped off as the yaks put their efforts into extinguishing the fires, although there was still plenty chasing her. That was totally fine as she was now in the pony part of the camp, with lots of ponies around. Putting out her own flames, she sucked in a breath.

"Some crazy kirin just set fire to the yak camp!" Autumn shouted as loud as she could. "You should go help them!"

Having alerted the ponies, many of which were actually running to help, Autumn disappeared into the crowd to lose the yaks following her. She hung around a bit, waiting for the yaks to give up trying to find her, then calmly walked away back to the kirin camp. Not without setting fire to a few things on the way of course.

It was pretty quiet in the kirin camp, although there was quite a bit of concern over what was happening in the other parts of the camp. Autumn walked amongst it all, trying her level best to keep a smug smile off her lips, even as she subtly suggested to a few kirin that didn't recognise her that everything was fine, and that they shouldn't worry about it. That of course only made it better when a large number of yaks turned up accusing the kirin of starting the fires.

"I can assure you we did no such thing," Rain Shine assured Prince Rutherford. "The last thing we want to do is cause any harm or damage to you or the ponies."

"Yaks all saw kirin do it! Said we all smelled, then set fire to everything!"

"You're just accusing us because you hate us! You hate everything that isn't a yak!" Autumn shouted, taking care to do it from behind some other kirin. To her dark delight a fair number of kirin agreed with her quite loudly. This couldn't have been going better.

"You dare accuse yaks of lying?"

"Yeah!" Autumn shouted back, having moved elsewhere in the crowd to throw off suspicion. "What are you going to do? Smash us?"

"Will whoever is doing that please stop!" Rain Shine snapped back towards where Autumn was. A quick burst of fire from her had the yaks backing off, although you could see in their eyes that their conviction was strengthened by it.

"Even you can't control yourself," Prince Rutherford accused Rain Shine. "Kirin too dangerous to be here!"

"Bingo," Autumn said to herself. Her smile only grew as General Snowbright came up, looking rather displeased.

"Where's the kirin that set fire to our camp?" he asked Rain Shine.

"General Snowbright, are you accusing us of starting fires as well?"

"It's not accusing when it's true. One of your kirin was seen coming out of the yak camp, reported it being on fire, then set our camp on fire while we were helping the yaks. I demand an explanation!"

"Our kirin have all been here! You know we don't enter your camps unless we have to!"

"You couldn't even avoid burning part of your own camp down earlier!"

Autumn bounced with giddy anticipation as the other kirin leaders joined the argument. The way this was going, it only had to be a matter of time before the kirin threw in the towel and went home. No phoney-baloney cure had to be worth putting up with this.

"Stop lying," Snowbright said sternly. "I'm already planning to discuss your future with us with Lady Faust once we get back to Equestria, so I highly recommend you don't make it worse on yourselves by lying to us!"

"We're not... lying!" Rain Shine roared. Flame spread over her as her coat turned black, and all Autumn found herself able to do was watch dumbstruck as she went to attack Snowbright, only to get smacked away by Prince Rutherford, which only angered more kirin into losing their cool and attacking.

"Uh, guys? This isn't- This isn't what I meant-"

The ponies and yaks fought back. Of course they fought back, which only pushed more kirin over the edge into niriks. If there was anything with more destructive capability than a couple thousand kirin going nirik in a small, highly flammable space, Autumn had yet to see it, and really, really hoped she never did.

Autumn sat in the middle of the unfolding disaster and pulled her mane over her eyes, "Ooh, I am so exiled after this."

"You got that right."

"Fern?"

Fern Flare gave Autumn a small smile, "Hey."

"Why aren't you going nirik like the others?"

Fern shrugged, "Guess I'm just not angry enough. To be honest, I haven't had so much fun in years."

"So... did I do good?"

Fern shook her head as she observed the army of niriks attacking the ponies and yaks while setting fire to everything. "Not even close, but for what its worth, I do believe you when it comes to Faust's cure. Not that it probably matters any more, but I'll do my best to convince Rain Shine of that."

"Don't you need help for that?"

"Not from you. If you stay here, eventually all those niriks are going to remember the one that led them to this point, and that would be you."

"Right."

"I really suggest you get out of here, and I really suggest you leave it for a good long time before coming anywhere near the village again."

"Yeah." Autumn sighed as a burning yak barrelled past them, "That's probably a good idea. Bye Fern. Thanks for believing me. Oh, and try and get the others to learn a bit about anger management. Just throwing yourselves back into the stream of silence isn't going to help."

"I'll try. Now seriously, go."

Autumn nodded listlessly, taking one last moment to enjoy being with her people, even if they weren't at their best right now. Then she turned and ran as fast as she could into the savannah in the dark, back towards where she remembered the zebras having their camp. She didn't stop until the night suddenly became solid enough for her to bump in to.

"Ow," Autumn muttered, rubbing her horn. She looked up to find the night watching her with two turquoise cats eyes that reflected the fires burning in the camp. Below those eyes were some fangs that glinted brightly.

"All going according to plan I see."

Autumn covered her eyes with her hooves and groaned loudly just as a blazing ball of light lit up the sky like the sun.

"Ugh, and there's Celestia," Nightmare sighed, shielding her eyes from the light. A few moments later a large number of niriks could be seen fleeing from the camp into the savannah.

"Seems like I missed out on some fun. Oh well, I guess we better be getting back to camp."

-0-0-0-

"So it can be safely assumed that the kirin will no longer be fighting with the Mareitanians?" Luna said to Autumn as the kirin stared out over the savannah towards the enemy encampment. She frowned as she got no answer, "Autumn?"

"Hmm? Oh, sorry, I was just reflecting on how badly I screwed that up."

"You achieved your goal, did you not?"

"Not like that! I wanted to convince them to stop fighting! Not get them to-" Autumn waved at the still smoking remains of the Mareitanian camp, "-that! Oh, why did I listen to my hoof? He always has the worst ideas."

Luna and Nightmare shared a look. "At least this works well into our favour," said Nightmare.

"Indeed." Luna looked up as leathery wings flapped overhead, signalling the return of Ember. "How does it look over there?"

"From my point of view, pretty good. Half of their camp is in ruins, and there wasn't a kirin to be seen, so mission accomplished." Ember patted Autumn on the back, "Good job."

"I can never go home again."

"Yeah, well..." Ember shrugged, having nothing to say about that. "Too bad we don't actually have an army to attack with right now, because we could've finished them off."

"Unfortunately not," said Luna, "but we will, soon."

Author's Note

I tried to put a song in, but I just couldn't come up with anything I liked. Still a fun chapter to write though.

No chapter next week because of reasons. Those reasons being that I had a week off work and have done zero writing. Seems like a good reason to me.

29. They don't come back

Cadence padded softly into the chamber of the Kumbi Mzee where Trixie was sat at one end of the room, watching Twilight at the other. She didn't want to disturb them, least of all Twilight, but time wasn't waiting for anything, let alone the shattered emotions of a distraught alicorn.

"Moondancer's away through the portal," she said in a low voice to Trixie, "and Daring is escorting Mayfly to Equestria with the rest of the crystals."

"Who'd have thought you couldn't take those magically inert crystals through the portal?" Trixie said back, her words sounding a little flat.

"Quite." Cadence sat next to Trixie, taking Flurry into her hooves. The infant could sense that something was wrong, but luckily she couldn't work out what it was beyond it made everypony sad. She didn't know Sunset was gone. Maybe she never really would.

"She's still staring at that book," Trixie said to fill the silence. "It's been hours now. She doesn't eat, she barely drinks, and I think she's too scared to sleep because of what her dreams might be. She's hardly even said a word since it happened."

Cadence nodded limply. Her own attempts at comforting Twilight had been rebuffed, so she'd taken the time to offer what comfort she could to Moondancer and Mayfly, whom Sunset had also been close to. Trixie too lay in that category, but the unicorn seemed to be coping well enough with the loss to at least function, unlike others.

"I don't know what to do," Trixie whispered.

"I would say to give her time, but that is something we don't possess a great amount of. But we'll give her what little we have."

-0-0-0-

If Twilight didn't think too hard, it was almost like Sunset wasn't dead. The words on pages like these had been Twilight's main contact with Sunset for quite some time, and as she read over the messages here it was like Sunset was still alive. If only that were true though.

None of the messages in this particular book were actually to her, as it mostly consisted of messages between Sunset and her friends back on the other world. Casual little exchanges that confirmed that despite the vast, trans-dimensional distances between them, Sunset and those girls were still very much friends. It broke Twilight's heart to think that she had to end all that and tell them what had happened. Her heart was already broken enough.

She'd been trying to do it for a while now, but had found it incredibly hard to do. Whatever she put in these pages, there was no taking it back. It would go straight to its counterpart, and once that was done...

Twilight sighed softly, frustration at herself growing within her. She should've died with Sunset, to save herself from feeling like this. Even better would be if she'd died instead of Sunset, because her ticket had a return. Sunset's was just one way.

Twilight turned the page to what was supposed to be a blank, empty piece of paper. It wasn't though, as written in the middle was three words that were torturously familiar. She is ours, Twilight read, chills running down her spine hard enough to make her shiver. She blinked, her stomach doing a flip, but when Twilight opened her eyes again the words were gone, leaving nothing but a terrible sense of foreboding behind.

Twilight flipped the pages back and forth, trying to find some proof that what she'd seen was real, that it wasn't just the result of her tired, fragile psyche. Maybe what she wanted most was the hope it gave her, because if those things that haunted Trixie had Sunset, maybe she wasn't really gone. Maybe she could come back. Maybe-

Twilight stopped cold. She knew what she was doing, and what she was doing was denying what had happened. Denial was one of the main stages of grief after all, and this line of thought she was throwing herself down couldn't have been less of a case of denial if she tried. Perhaps that was why it'd been so hard to write to Sunset's friends about her demise. As soon as she did that, it became the irrefutable truth.

Twilight rubbed her eyes as tears snaked down her cheeks. The last thing she needed to do was send Sunset's friends some tearstains, because that would definitely alert them to something going on. She needed to pull herself together and tell them what happened.

Twilight looked back down at the page and shrieked, tossing the book away at what she saw. Trixie and Cadence were there in an instant, holding her and comforting her as she cried and gibbered wordlessly, asking her what had happened, but getting nothing back as she continued to cry and wail, the thought of what she'd seen in the book stuck in her mind. That single word written in Sunset's writing, HELP.

-0-0-0-

"This will help to soothe ya nerves," the zebra said, passing Twilight a cup of something that steamed. It smelled like tea, but the addition of some other scents informed her it was something more. She sipped at it, appreciating its subtle flavours of various spices.

Twilight sighed, feeling the knot in her chest unravel just a little. Whatever was in the tea was working, or at least the motion of drinking it helped if nothing else, so she gave the zebra a small nod and a shaky smile until the zebra had gone.
Cadence and Trixie were still nearby, watching her like they were scared she was going to have another breakdown. Seeing Twilight acting like that had rattled them both, and even now neither of them had knew what had caused it.

"I'm sorry," Twilight said after a while.

"It's alright, Twilight, really," Cadence said comfortingly. "You just scared us. Do you think you can tell us why you did that?"

The book was still where Twilight had thrown it, the pages to the ground. She turned it over, and just as she predicted, the page was empty once again. She wasn't sure if it was a relief or not that the word was gone. Getting freaked out over something tangible was a lot easier than telling ponies you were losing your mind.

"I don't know," she lied. "I think my mind's playing tricks on me."

"So you're not going to tell us then?" Trixie said, the edge to her words telling Twilight she was annoyed. Twilight was about to shake her head, but stopped herself before she did. If there was one pony that she could tell, it was Trixie.

"I saw messages in the book, two of them. The first one said 'she is ours.'" Twilight glanced at Trixie to see the reaction it got from her. The slightly vacant stare told Twilight everything.

"What was the second?" Cadence asked.

Tears welled up in Twilight's eyes as her throat constricted, fighting against her saying the word. "Help," she said at last, her voice breaking. "It said help, in Sunset's own writing." Twilight lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut tight, "I'm losing my mind."

"And you're sure it wasn't real?" Trixie asked shakily.

"There's nothing there now!" Twilight yelled. She looked down, ashamed of her outburst, but didn't apologise.

"I can see there's nothing there now," Trixie said patiently, rubbing a hoof up and down Twilight's back, "but both of us know there's possibly more to this. Why would your own mind put Sunset in a position where she'd suffer like that?"

"Because it would mean she isn't gone."

"Oh." Trixie stopped rubbing Twilight's back and sighed. "I get it. You want to put her in a place you can get her back from."

"I don't want to do anything! I mean, yes I want her back, but I'm not going to trick myself into thinking that she could either. Sunset's dead, and- and-"

"She's not coming back," Trixie finished for her. "Why do I get the feeling that if Sunset had died in a fight you'd be coping with this better?"

"It shouldn't have happened. She shouldn't have died in a stupid accident like that."

"I get that, but-" Trixie waved a hoof vaguely, "I don't know. You saw how I dealt with finding out about my parents. I'm probably the last pony to be giving advice on losing ponies."

"I wish I could help more as well," said Cadence. "I've never really lost anypony though, and I was too young to remember my real parents. I don't even know their names, or what they look like, let alone what happened to them."

"You're an orphan?" Trixie asked, surprised by the revelation. In her mind, Cadence was too perfect to have come from anywhere but a perfect family.

"Found by my adoptive parents in a forest," Cadence said with a half smile. "At the very least I'm proof enough that anypony from any background can achieve anything. Sunset was the same, from my understanding."

"She wasn't an orphan," Twilight said flatly. "I'm pretty sure she abandoned her parents when Celestia took her as her student."

"Her parents were wastrels in a loveless marriage, and had a child neither particularly bothered with. I'm not surprised she cut them out of her life when she could." Cadence shrugged at Twilight's questioning look, "We mightn't have been friends back then, but that didn't mean I knew nothing about her."

"Do you think her parents would care if they found out she's gone?"

"I honestly don't know, Twilight. I'd like to think they would, but I'm pretty sure I'd only be kidding myself."

"Oh." Twilight picked the journal up in her magic, and placed it back in her hooves, only to snap it shut after a moment. "I don't know how I'm supposed to tell them. Sunset's friends, I mean. Telling them like this seems horribly impersonal. Maybe I'll tell them in person when I can."

"That does sound best," Cadence agreed, "but it might not be something you can do soon. I'm not sure her friends would appreciate you not telling them for so long after it happened."

"I know, but I can't even begin to think of the words I need to say it, and I want to do it right." Twilight stroked a hoof down the cover of the journal and sighed, "I'll do it soon, when I've had time to think about it."

"I'm going to hold you to that."

"How's Moondancer?"

Cadence blew her cheeks out, not entirely certain of how to reply to that. "Devastated, to say the least. I did want her to stay longer, but she was determined to go."

"To get away from me?"

Cadence answered with a small nod.

"I don't blame her."

"Sunset's death wasn't your fault, Twilight," Cadence scolded. "You can't keep blaming yourself for an accident."

"I can when it's my fault Sunset was there in the first place." Twilight stopped Cadence before she could say anything else, "I'm not in the mood to have it repeated to me how it wasn't my fault. You could tell me a million times, and I'd still think the same." Twilight quickly glanced out of the wooden slats that made up a window, seeing it was getting dark outside. "It's late, and I'm exhausted. I'll see you all in the morning."

-0-0-0-

Sleep would not come easy, and if Twilight weren't so drained from all that had happened, she might not have gone looking for it at all. Hours must've passed as Twilight stared up at the wooden ceiling of the small room the zebras had provided her, hours she spent thinking about Sunset.

Was Sunset frightened as she faced her end? It was silly to think she wouldn't have been, but Twilight knew Sunset to not be the kind of pony to take death lying down. It must've been lonely though, sitting there on her own, waiting for the end to come. When Twilight had died, Trixie had been with her, and that had been bad enough. She couldn't think of many things worse than dying alone, even though that was exactly what Sunset been forced to do.

Twilight rolled over as a chill hit her. A chill in a room that wasn't cold. She tensed up as a sickening sense of dread bubbled around her stomach, and she found herself rolling back over to look at the journal. A subtle purple glow suffused the area around it as it projected an aura that seemed to drain the warmth out of everything.

Twilight could feel unseen eyes on her as she crept out of bed towards the journal, and she had to fight herself to get closer, because a large part of her wanted to run and not stop until she was in the next country over. Her skin tingled from the cold as the walls became alive with shadows, and with great reluctance she reached out a hoof to open the journal, and...

Twilight gasped as the cold vanished along with the purple glow and shadows. The page was of course empty, as she'd suspected it would be the entire time. The entire thing was just another trick of her mind.

"What is wrong with me?" Twilight whimpered to her herself as she let the journal fall back shut. She sat staring at it for several seconds, then hiccupped as fresh tears slipped down her cheeks. Was the guilt so much that she had to invent this fantasy so she felt better about herself? To give her an unobtainable goal of getting Sunset back from somewhere just so she could live with letting her friend die?

"This is ridiculous," Twilight muttered, wiping her tears away. She turned and went to go back to bed, wanting nothing more than to be left alone until morning. Even if she had to hide under the covers from the soft red glow that returned the moment she got back into bed.

-0-0-0-

Through the inexorable progress of time, morning came around, even though it felt like an age since Twilight had gone to bed. Trixie was the only one around as she returned to the chamber they had occupied the previous night, two trays of food with her. There was no sign of Cadence, so Twilight asked where she was.

"Meeting with some of the elders, as far as I know. She's trying to push for at least an informal alliance, but the zebras don't seem interested in anything while the Mareitanians are here."

"Okay. Anything from Luna?"

"Nothing yet, so I'm hoping no news is good news." Trixie looked at Twilight with concern, "Did you get any sleep at all last night?"

Twilight shook her head, not even bothering to say it. She looked at the tray of oats and fruit that had been provided for her, but the thought of eating turned her stomach. Even so, she forced herself to eat at least some of it.

"Did you see more messages?"

"Not quite." Twilight tried to explain what she had experienced, but the words faltered in her mouth. It all seemed too real to be a product of her mind, and yet there was no explanation she could give beyond it being that. Saying it to somepony else only reinforced how ridiculous it was.

"Twilight?"

"Forget it, Trixie, I was just playing more tricks on myself."

"If you say so," Trixie said uncertainly. "I know it seems a bit soon, but when are we heading out to Luna? I mean we don't have to rush if you're not up to it, but-"

"We'll head out today. I could use the distraction." Twilight forced herself to eat another mouthful of food, "We can't slow down now, not when we're so close to really turning this whole thing around, to start taking the fight back to Faust."

"Twilight, don't do what I did."

"Do what?"

Trixie put her food down to look Twilight in the eye with her full attention. "Throw yourself into the fight to distract yourself from the pain of your loss."

"That's different, and you know it. You wanted revenge, and had somepony to get revenge on. Me? I have a mountain to get revenge on, and Sunset already did most of the work on that herself."

"And what about revenge on yourself? Making yourself suffer as some kind of punishment for Sunset's death."

"And how could I possibly make myself feel worse than I already do?" Twilight asked angrily.

"I'm sure you'd find a way."

Twilight fell silent, unsure if she was angry at Trixie for thinking she'd do that, or angry at herself for it maybe being true. After a moment she pushed her breakfast away, "Fuck you, Trixie."

"Hey, now we're talking!"

Twilight snorted with half-hearted mirth, "I'm going to find Cadence and tell her we're leaving soon."

"Uh-huh, I guess I'll go get my stuff ready." Trixie wolfed down the rest of her breakfast and jogged out past Twilight towards their rooms, skipping straight past her own to enter Twilights'. Frankly, she found it odd that what Twilight was seeing was somehow confined to a book, and wanted to investigate for herself while Twilight was occupied. The book in question was on a small chest of drawers, not appearing to be sinister in the slightest.

"Alright book, tell me your secrets." To the five senses, the book was about as ordinary as a book could get. A cover, pages, glue... totally normal. Her magic sense told an additional story as the book blazed with power, but Trixie knew that much already due to it being a magical book. There was nothing here she could find out that she didn't already know.

Trixie opened the book to the last used page, then turned it to the next blank one, where Twilight claimed to have seen those messages. It was still empty, like Trixie knew it would be, but that wasn't what she was looking for. Too much of what Twilight described felt like dark magic, and while Twilight wanted to dismiss it as her mind playing tricks, Trixie wasn't so certain.

Dark magic rippled along the length of Trixie's horn, and although she had no wish to use it for something like this, Twilight Sparkle was worth the cost. She willed the magic to find any traces of dark magic within the journal, but after several seconds of having a headache build up behind her horn, the magic did nothing, and turned up even less. Apart from being a bridge between worlds, the journal was more or less normal.

"Damn it," Trixie cursed, irritably drumming her hoof on the floor as she tried to think of something else. "If you're there, Sunset Shimmer, feel free to give me a sign. Something. Anything!"

Trixie shook her head as nothing happened, "I thought not." Trixie turned to leave, absentmindedly flipping the journal shut with her magic. She froze as the moment it slammed shut she heard a short, cut-off scream, but heard from over a vast distance. She swivelled her ears, listening hard for anything more, but all she heard was silence. Dismissing it, Trixie went to pack her things.

"Maybe Twilight isn't the only one going nuts."

-0-0-0-

"What is that?" Twilight asked, entirely rhetorically since Trixie couldn't exactly see much from inside her usual spot of Twilight's saddlebag.

"What's what?" Trixie asked back, sticking her head out of the bag to see what Twilight was talking about. She quickly discovered that Twilight was referring to the large plume of smoke rising from the remains of the Mareitanians' camp. "Huh. Looks like things are going well here."

"Maybe," was all Twilight was going to say on it before starting the descent to the ground. She was intercepted halfway down by a jubilant looking Rainbow.

"Hey! Glad you could make it!" Rainbow slowed as she saw the way Twilight looked, "Is something wrong? Did the mission not go well?"

"No, we got everything we needed," Twilight said, looking away.

"Then... I don't get it, why are you looking like that?" Rainbow frowned as Twilight refused to look her in the eye. "Seriously, you're starting to weird me out now."

"We lost Sunset," Trixie explained, making Twilight cringe.

"Lost? As in..?" Rainbow felt her heart sink as Twilight sniffed, "Oh damn, I am so sorry Twilight. That's-" Rainbow shook her head. She'd lost ponies before, but to say that she knew how much it sucked seemed like the wrong thing to say. The problem was that she didn't know what else to say either.

"Where's Luna?"

"She's down at our camp. Come on, I'll take you to her."

Twilight nodded her thanks and followed silently as she prepared for what was about to come. That being a bunch of people giving her sympathy, and saying how sorry they were for her loss. She'd always wondered where the phrase 'I'm sorry for your loss' came from, and what it actually meant, because firstly, what have they got to apologise for? And secondly, the one that died lost the most in this situation, so why give the sympathy to the living? It was also going to be hard to avoid sarcasm when asked 'how did it happen?' Sunset went through a transitional period where she went from being alive, to being very dead. How else did it happen? Getting atomised probably helped.

Twilight almost crashed into the ground she was so caught up in her thinking, and narrowly staggered to a halt before she could trip over. Rainbow gave her a sympathetic look that only annoyed her more. She didn't want sympathy. She wanted someone to yell at her.

Twilight spent the time getting Trixie back to her proper size as Rainbow whispered a quick conversation with Luna. By the time they were done, Twilight had nothing to do but stand where she was and wait for Luna to come over to her.

"My sympathies, Twilight. How did it happen?"

Twilight clenched, all over, but managed to refrain from screaming 'she died!' in Luna's face. "The crystal pillar containing the ley line cracked, and she held it together to stop it killing us all. Unfortunately there was no way for her to get out because of the deadzone around the place."

"I see. Truly a noble sacrifice for her friends then."

Twilight nodded slowly, at least not hating the way that sounded. "It was. If it wasn't for this stupid war I could've stayed there. I could've come back, and she could've lived."

"I know, Twilight, I know. That is what makes it a noble sacrifice. Equestria, the world, and all of us owe her much for making it."

Twilight breathed out hard, fighting the impulse to tell Luna to fuck off. She knew it was silly to get angry over what was just Luna's way of talking, but Equestria and the world aren't what Sunset made the sacrifice for. It just worked in Equestria and the world's favour.

"What's the situation here?" she asked instead.

"Interesting to say the least."

"That seems cryptic," said Trixie. "From that, I'm going to assume you didn't set fire to their camp?"

"You assume correctly. Autumn Blaze's attempts to get the kirin away from Faust resulted in that marvellous piece of destruction, and also had the unexpected benefit of actually succeeding. The kirin haven't joined us, or gone home, but are no longer welcome to fight with the Mareitanians. Good enough for me, frankly. They're currently scattered around the savannah."

"And Autumn?"

"Here," came Autumn's miserable voice from the shade of a hut. "I'm probably not welcome in kirin lands after what happened, so I'm just going to keep hiding with you guys until it's safe for me to be seen in public. I'm sorry for your loss by the way. Sunset seemed like a nice pony."

"Thanks," said Twilight. Somehow it didn't sound so bad coming from a near stranger like Autumn. "So what's happening now?"

"We're setting up for an attack in the only bottleneck between here and Zanzebra. Reinforcements are starting to arrive, so we're hoping that we can hold them there. Ember also has something planned that might help. Hopefully she isn't wrong, because even without the kirin, this battle could go either way."

"And you're still here because..?"

"Because Ember and the other Wonderbolts have it all well in hoof while we remain here to observe the Mareitanians."

"Wouldn't you be better off at the bottleneck, planning the attack?"

"In a manner of speaking, I am."

Twilight quickly looked about for the one pony that wasn't there, which told her as much as she needed to know. "You're putting Nightmare in charge? Really?"

"Only for the planning aspect, since she and I do think alike at times. Besides, she's been good to her word so far, so I think she deserves a little trust."

"That's..." Twilight pursed her lips as she sought the best word to use, "brave of you."

"Are you saying you don't trust her?"

"Not at all. I do trust, but I hadn't expected that much from you yet."

Luna shrugged, not sure of what else to say on it. "All we need to do now is wait until the Mareitanians are moving."

"And when do you think that might be?"

"That... is hard to tell."

-0-0-0-

Luna had at least been right about that. Rainbow had been for several scouting missions at high altitude over the Mareitanians ruined camp, and each time she came back with nothing new to say beyond the Mareitanians were still salvaging what they could in preparation to eventually make a move. She couldn't even tell that much once it got dark.

Unfortunately this gave Twilight plenty of time alone in the company of her thoughts. Thoughts that ever so easily drifted back to Sunset without something to distract her. There was no particular aim to her thoughts, other than to just feel bad, so all she was really doing was going over memories she had of the unicorn, and the smaller details in them like her laugh, her smile, that smirk she got when she knew something you didn't. All the things that Twilight would never get to see again.

A presence grew in Twilight's mind, almost as if summoned by her thoughts, and she felt herself once more drawn to Sunset's journal. She didn't even know why this time because it wasn't actually doing anything. There was no glow, no sense of dread... nothing, save herself being drawn back to it because she, what? Expected it to do something just because she was currently thinking of Sunset?

"Sunset's dead," Twilight scolded herself, hiding her face behind her legs. "Stop pretending otherwise. Stop pretending that failing to tell her friends somehow makes it less true."

Twilight plucked the journal from her bags, and dropped it into her hooves. A moment later a pot of ink and a quill followed it, settling down beside her as she opened the journal to the first blank page. Thankfully there was still nothing to see.

"How do I even write this?" Twilight asked herself. "Dear Sunset's friends, I have some bad news? I regret to inform you?" Twilight sighed at herself, "Guess what? You'll never believe what happened to Sunset the other day!" Twilight somehow managed to hate herself a little more for even thinking of that one, let alone say it out loud. "Urgh! This is so hard!"

"Then why don't you write out a few practice letters first?"

Twilight jumped at Rainbow's voice, then stilled as she considered it. Then she got suspicious at the source of such wisdom, but kept that thought to herself. "That's not a bad idea," Twilight said to the silhouette of Rainbow framed by the doorway.

Rainbow walked closer until she was illuminated by Twilight's magic. "Anything I can do to help?"

Twilight smiled faintly. Rainbow had remembered what not to ask her, unless it was a genuine question. Either way she appreciated the gesture, even if she couldn't accept it. "No thanks. This is something I need to do myself, if I can."

"If you insist. Just don't forget that we are all here if you need us. You aren't alone."

"I know." Twilight wanted to say something more, but hesitated as she worked out how to say it. "D- Do the Wonderbolts get taught on how to cope with losing friends?"

"What? Uh, no, not really." Rainbow rubbed a hoof through her mane, "I don't know, actually. We were all so busy during the war that there wasn't a lot of time to think about it. It's only when we lost Sky Stinger that it all really hit home, y'know? Even then, he and Vapor were best friends, and she had feelings for him, so its easy to say she lost the most out of all of us."

"How did she cope?"

"Not great, at first. She still misses him like crazy now. I think that our mission keeps her focussed enough to not dwell on it too much, but once that's over..." Rainbow rubbed one leg up and down the other, "I'm worried it'll hit her. Hard."

"I know that feeling. You saw what I was like after I came back from Mareitania. Without something to keep me occupied, to keep pushing for, I fell apart."

"And we didn't help," Rainbow said guiltily. "I promise that won't happen again though."

"I know, but I won't be the only one though. We're all going to need each other after this."

"Yeah." Rainbow stood quietly for a moment, remembering things and ponies she hadn't thought of for a while. "Why are you asking me anyway? You've lost ponies before, haven't you?"

"Yeah, but nopony I've really been close to, like you guys, or Trixie, Fleur, or any of them. Sunset was the first, and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about it. Sometimes it hurts so bad I can't breathe, yet at other times its just a bit of background noise while I'm dealing with other stuff. Is that normal?"

"Heck if I know. I freaked out enough over the thought of losing Pinkie, even though that didn't happen. I don't know what I'd do if I lost any of you. How does Celestia feel about Sunset being gone? They were like you and Celestia were, once."

Twilight looked Rainbow in the eyes until the pegasus remembered something important. After a few seconds Rainbow cursed.

"Sorry, I just find it hard thinking of Celestia as a bad guy, even if it isn't her fault. I guess Celestia doesn't know about Sunset."

"I doubt she does."

"Yeah, I'm just talking shit now." Rainbow sighed and rubbed her face with a hoof, "I should probably go and hit the hay. G'night, Twilight."

"Goodnight, Rainbow."

Twilight sat unmoving for a while after Rainbow had gone, her quill poised and ready to go, but her mind was no longer on that. Of course Celestia didn't know about Sunset. How could she? But that still begged the question of if she would even care that Sunset had died. They'd once been as close as Celestia had been to Twilight, Rainbow had said, so did Celestia at least deserve to be told?

"What are you thinking, Twilight?" Twilight said to herself as the dangerous idea stuck in her mind. She couldn't possibly go to Celestia just to tell her about Sunset. She couldn't go there to tell her anything really. After their last meeting, that bridge was more than likely burnt to a crisp. Even so, it still felt like Celestia deserved to know.

"For fuck sake," Twilight cursed to herself as her mind became made up. "What the hell do I think I'm doing?"

Twilight quickly cast her eyes about as she tried to see if there was anything she would need to take, but there was nothing she could possibly need, so she stole out into the night.

The camp was quiet, save for those few zebras still awake as they stood guard, but none of them paid her any notice as she walked past them. Clearly they weren't interested with interfering in alicorn business, which Twilight was more than grateful for as she spread her wings and flew away towards the Mareitanian's camp.

Unlike the small, quiet, zebra camp, the huge Mareitanian camp was still quite busy. By Twilight's reckoning it couldn't have been much longer before they were ready to make their move towards Zanzebra. Whatever Luna and Nightmare were cooking up had better be good to stop this force, because by Twilight's estimation, there was maybe around twelve thousand soldiers here now. Maybe a few less. At any rate it was clear that they'd at least received a set back after the kirin debacle.

Twilight landed a short distance from the camp, and walked as nonthreateningly as she could towards it. Apparently that made little difference to the ponies standing guard as they fired on her immediately, forcing her to defend herself with a shield.

"I'm here to talk!" Twilight shouted over the sound of magic and arrows striking her shield, which was being hit hard enough to cause her concern. "I'm not here to fight!"

She had to shout it several times, as well as maintain her stance of not fighting back as she stood in the open, before the barrage ceased. After that it was several long seconds before anything was said to her.

"We don't want to talk to you!"

"Well I'm not here to talk to you! I'm here to talk with Princess Celestia! I have news for her. News she needs to hear."

"We don't believe you!"

"I don't care if you believe me! I came here alone, and I couldn't possibly fight all of you to be a threat, so either go get Celestia, or I'll find a different way to get to her!"

There was a short moment of discussion among the guards, not that Twilight could see it very well as lights were shone on her, blinding her, but one of the guards did run off after a moment. It was while he was gone that Twilight gave a short laugh at herself. How many times had she stormed in somewhere dangerous, demanding to talk to somepony? It probably wasn't that many, but it felt like a lot.

After a few minutes one of the lights grew brighter, and it took Twilight too long to realise that it wasn't a light at all, but a bolt of golden magic that was hurtling towards her. Twilight had barely leapt out of the way when it went through where she'd been standing, and the power of the blast sent her flying head over hooves through the air. At least until gravity brought her into a violent landing a couple of seconds later.

She was barely given time to recover before Celestia attacked again, channelling her magic through Solaris, which itself was a burning white line in the night. Clearly Celestia wasn't best pleased to have Twilight here. The blasts came thick and fast, and Twilight scrambled to either dodge or deflect all of them.

"I'm here to talk, Celestia!" Twilight shouted as she tried to fend off the onslaught. "Stop attacking me!"

"There is nothing you could possibly have to say that I want to listen to!" Celestia retorted, landing on the field with a snap of her wings. "Unless you're here to surrender, that is?"

"No, that's not why I'm here!"

"Then be gone or die!"

Twilight yelped as a particularly powerful blast of magic hurtled towards her, and she wrapped a shield around herself as there was no way to dodge in time. Unbearable heat took her breath away as the spell hit, and she could smell her hair burning as her skin prickled. She screamed, and collapsed onto one knee.

"I guess you've chosen death," Celestia said as Twilight's shield dissipated. She pointed Solaris as Twilight's head as she neared the prone alicorn, and was about to finish her off when Twilight looked her in the eyes and yelled as loud as she could.

"Sunset's dead!"

Celestia held, her brow furrowing slightly at Twilight's words. "What did you say?"

"I said, Sunset's dead. I came here to tell you because I thought you'd want to know."

"That another traitor is dead? That is good news." Celestia readied a spell on the tip of Solaris, "Soon it'll be two."

"Don't you even care?" Twilight asked in astonishment. "Sunset Shimmer was your student once! You loved her! Doesn't it bother you that she's dead?"

"Why should I care? She betrayed me when she joined you in your hopeless crusade against my mother, and as far as I'm concerned she died the moment she did that, so no, I don't care."

"You're lying."

"Is that so? And what makes you say that?"

"Because you're crying."

Celestia paused, then slowly raised a hoof to her cheek, finding tears there. She stared at the dampness on her hoof for a moment, even as more tears fell from eyes that held only anger. She wiped them away, but they kept coming.

"W-what is this? What did you do to me?"

"I didn't do anything! This is you, Celestia, the real you. The you that Faust did her best to destroy and hide away."

Twilight watched eagerly as Celestia's expression slipped back and forth between anger and grief. It was only for a moment though as the fake Celestia, Faust's Celestia, grunted in pain and squeezed one eye shut under a hoof. "What did you do to me!?"

"This is you, Celestia! You can fight her! You can-"

"Silence!" Celestia swung Solaris wildly, unleashing a wave of magic that Twilight only just fended off with a shield. "Kill her!"

Twilight struggled to stand, her raw, burnt skin feeling too small for her. She wouldn't give up without a fight if it came to it, and had every intention of teleporting away before it did. Something beat her to it though as a silvery orb enveloped her, and in the blink of an eye she was back in the zebra camp, where she collapsed to the ground in pain and relief.

"What you did was incredibly foolish."

Twilight looked back around to find Luna standing over her. The dark alicorn seemed angry, yet also thoughtful enough that the yelling that Twilight felt she deserved was held back.

"How did you know I was there?"

"I followed you the moment you left here. I was curious to see what you were doing, and decided to not interfere until I had to." Luna's expression softened, "Did you really do all that to inform Celestia of Sunset?"

"She deserved to know."

"I shall not disagree with you on that, but you had to realise there were very few ways that would end well."

"I don't care. I needed to tell her." Twilight gasped as cooling magic soothed her burns, and she felt her pain lessen. "If you were there, you saw what happened to Celestia. You saw her fighting herself. The real Celestia is still in there, Luna!"

"We can't say that for certain. Yes she had a strong reaction to news that would've upset the true Celestia, but don't delude yourself into thinking we can save her like that."

"What are you saying? Don't you want your sister back?"

"More than anything," Luna said, stomping a hoof lightly, "but that is not something I hope to get while Faust has such a tight grip on her mind. If I start thinking Celestia can come back before Faust is stopped, I'll start making plans based on that happening, out of hope that Celestia could help us. Obviously I can't allow that to happen, for all our sakes."

Twilight conceded the point, weak as it sounded to her. If she was honest though, she suspected Luna was really just doing her best to not think about her sister at all. She couldn't really blame her if that was the case.

"That said," Luna continued, "if such strong emotions can pierce through the veil Faust has placed over Celestia's mind, perhaps there might be a way to bring her back after all."

"You have an idea?"

"I might, but it may require us to be in the right place at the right time to make sure it works. I shall have to think upon it further."

-0-0-0-

Celestia staggered into the command tent, a dozen ponies fussing around her that were quickly and loudly ordered to leave her alone. Tears were still falling from her eyes, even the one she was covering, and she didn't know why. Sunset betrayed her and turned against her, so why was part of her in pieces over her death?

And why did her left eye feel so weird, like she wasn't in control of it?

"Princess Celestia?"

"What!?" Celestia snarled, turning to face the newcomer. She forced herself to calm down as she saw it was General Snowbright. "What do you want?"

"I'm just checking you're okay." Snowbright cocked his head at the tearful yet livid Celestia, "Are you okay?"

Celestia wiped her tears away from her right eye and tried with limited success to compose herself. "I'm fine."

"Of course you are," Snowbright said hesitantly. "Did Twilight do something to your eye?"

"I'm not sure." Celestia reluctantly uncovered her left eye, "How does it look?"

"It seems perfectly fine to me."

Celestia sighed at herself. Of course her eye was fine. Why would she think it wasn't? That still didn't explain her tears though. Did the death of Sunset Shimmer really bother her that much? She wouldn't think so, but even now part of her still wanted to cry. Most of her wanted to think of other things though.

"How much longer until we're ready to go?"

"Without further reinforcements or fresh supplies?" Snowbright shrugged at Celestia, "If I could I'd recommend staying right where we are, but if Luna's dragon burns more ships, we'd only be wasting what supplies we have by staying. I think our greatest hope is to take Zanzebra and the Council of Elders quickly, before we can't do it at all."

"That won't be as easy as you make it sound if Luna is leading the fight."

Snowbright nodded, "I know, but I'm not being given a lot of choices here. We can't retreat, we can't really wait, so all we can do is advance and hope our numbers mean something."

"Very well." Celestia rubbed her left eye as her tears finally stopped. "We march as soon as we are able. Faust willing it will be to victory."

Author's Note

Started writing this back over Halloween, which might've influenced me towards a more spooky theme. Chances are I'll fail to maintain it. That said, this chapter does feel like one of the better written ones I've done. Not for the content, but for the way it was written. Guess I can't really be the judge of that though.

30. The first try

The call that the Mareitanians were moving came far too early for Twilight's tastes. She had recovered quite a bit since the previous night, but still wasn't one hundred percent, or even near enough to fight effectively. Her feathers were still a bit frazzled as well, so flying might even be an issue at this point.

Trixie had of course called her an idiot, which was more than justified considering how it ended, but Twilight had felt a little better for letting Celestia know about Sunset, which would be more than worth the burns it earned her. Sunset's journal hadn't disturbed her once all night.

Twilight struggled to her hooves. Her skin still felt too tight on her back, and lowering her wings made it feel worse. She squeezed her eyes shut in pain and soon gave up trying to stand as a agonised scream slipped through her lips. Perhaps she was nowhere near as healed as she thought she was.

"You should really not be moving," Trixie's voice informed her from the direction of the door. "Really, really not."

"How bad is it?"

"Second degree burns, which are hardly the worst, but do tend to hurt when covering most of your body. Luna says the magic from Solaris tends to mess with an alicorns' healing for a little bit, which is why it's not healing as quick as you'd like."

Twilight sighed as the pain in her back settled, "That's just great, and is exactly what I need. I suppose I should be thankful I slept okay through most of it."

"No spooky visions?"

"No, nothing like that. I don't even know what those were supposed to be."

Trixie walked around the hut to where Twilight could see her, and sat on the ground in front of her. "Have you considered the possibility that there might be more to what you're seeing?"

"Meaning?"

"Well, I checked the journal, and couldn't find any sign of anything, but that doesn't mean there isn't something going on. What if what you're seeing is actually real?"

"If that was true, why do the messages keep fading? And why am I the only one seeing them?"

"I don't know! I'm just saying this because you said you saw the same message about Sunset that you saw for me. What if there is actually something to that?"

Twilight exhaled harshly, thinking she knew where Trixie was going with this. If those creatures had Sunset, and she could come back, it stood to reason that Trixie could too. There was just one problem with that theory.

"Trixie, the message for you was carved into a solid oak table, and was not some 'blink and you miss it' thing that only I seem to be able to see. This is just my mind trying to come up with a way of saving Sunset, instead of accepting that she's dead. Look," Twilight picked the journal out of her bags and dumped it in front of Trixie on its last used page, "totally empty of spooky messages."

"I can see that. What I was going to get at was that you and Sunset have a connection through the Elements. What if that's why you're the only one that can see them?"

"Don't do this to me, Trixie. Don't start giving me false hope."

"But-"

"No, Trixie, don't. I don't need you to feed a delusion I'm currently feeding to myself. I know why you're asking, and the answer is irrelevant since I'm not letting you die."

"I didn't realise I was that transparent. You must see where I'm coming from though?"

Twilight nodded softly, "I do. I would also remind you that those things kept you alive, so you dying probably holds no benefit to them. They aren't going to get you if you die. Not that I'm letting that happen. Have you been practicing your shields?"

"I have." A pink shield popped up in front of Trixie, between herself and Twilight. "I'm still not sure I trust them though. That little voice in my head keeps telling me that my magic is weak in comparison to dark magic, so why use it? Why defend yourself when you could just turn your enemy into a puddle of goo?"

"Because that's not how this works."

"I know that, but... but... mnah."

"What about light magic?"

"I have to be in the right frame of mind for that, and even then it's extremely hit and miss." Trixie shrugged, "Thankfully I don't have a practical use for it, so I'm not too bothered."

"Alright, I'll give you that one, although I will suggest you practice it just to counter the effects of dark magic on you. The shields, however, are definitely going to be useful today. Or whenever it is that we end up fighting this battle."

"Probably." Trixie hesitated for a moment, then shrugged to herself. "Twilight, I have a question. How did Celestia kick your ass so easily?"

Twilight rolled her eyes, "I was wondering when I'd be asked that."

"Well yeah, of course you would. You beat Celestia into a draw at Nostralis-"

"Not that you were around to see it."

"-So how did she beat you so easily last night?"

"Because, one: I wasn't expecting it, and two: she was pissed, and when she's pissed, Solaris is, frankly, terrifying. Whoever gave Celestia the idea of tying that weapon to her emotions should've been slapped. Hard, and repeatedly."

"I see. I guess we're leaving Celestia to Luna then?"

"I was going to suggest Luna and myself, but you can certainly stay out of it if you wish. Just don't run away this time."

"I won't, unless I really have to." Trixie smiled at Twilight, keeping to herself that she knew why Twilight was so concerned about this. The thought of losing somepony else she cared about was never too far from any of their thoughts really. Trixie was just lucky enough to have a short list with more than one immortal on it. "By the way, I also have a jar of herby smelling goop I'm supposed to slather all over you."

"And you've been waiting until now to tell me because..?"

"I dunno, it just... didn't feel appropriate to walk in and start lubing you up, y'know?"

Twilight closed her eyes and grumbled to herself for a few seconds. "Are you going to get started?" she asked after she was done. Trixie answered by upending the jar over her.

"If you insist," she said with a cheeky smile.

-0-0-0-

An entire half hour after what had felt to be some overly and uncomfortably sensual massaging, Twilight had been able to stand. Shortly after that she was able to walk. As soon as that was possible she decided that while the sky was traditionally the limit, it could wait for now. Walking was fine so long as it allowed her to maintain a little distance between herself and Trixie.

"I don't know what you're so upset about. I didn't go that low, and I was told to cover as much of you as possible."

Twilight glared sharply at Trixie. She knew the unicorn had only been putting on a show of enjoying it, but being told her flanks were so well toned while they were being massaged by none other than Trixie Lulamoon, who had settled on speaking in a hammy impression of the spa twins for some reason, was more than she needed in her life at any moment, let alone this one.

"You should take it as a compliment."

"Not another word," Twilight growled. She packed her things away, and flipped the still open journal shut, and almost screamed as the voice of Sunset screamed at her in despair. She only just managed to bite her tongue, but the way Trixie was looking at her suggested she wasn't entirely successful in hiding the rest of her reaction, like the wide eyes, or the heavy breathing...

"What is it, Twilight?"

"It's nothing. I just-" Twilight shook her head, "Forget it."

"The journal did something, didn't it?"

"I said forget it!" Twilight half shouted. She didn't mean to, but with Trixie being so insistent, and her heart pounding, it was hard not to.

"Alright, alright," Trixie said, figuratively and literally backing off. "Are you hungry? Or would you rather head out and see what's going on?"

"If the Mareitanians really are making their move, I really feel like I should be appraised of the situation." Twilight picked up the journal and grunted under her breath as it hovered in her magic, totally inert. She shoved it into her bags and staggered outside, her skin feeling a little more pliable with each step she took.

The zebras were working at a fevered pace, packing up everything they could in preparation to move out. The only ones not moving were Luna and Autumn as they stood next to a cart, while Rainbow was nowhere to be seen. Over the hustle and bustle, a faint rumble could be heard. To Twilight it sounded far too much like the aftershocks of a certain mountain exploding, driving her stomach to tie itself in knots. Knowing it was really the sound of an army on the march did little to help.

"Mobile once again I see," Luna commented as she saw Twilight slowly walk towards her. "In fair time too. As you might have noticed, the Mareitanians are on the move."

"Are they going where you thought they would?"

"Indeed they are, which bodes well I feel. However, there is one small setback in that there is little chance of us being able to fly east without being spotted, so they will know we've been watching them."

"Fly east?" Twilight looked around at the twenty or so zebras that were rushing around in their preparations. "You can't mean that you're going to fly all of these zebras to the ambush, surely?"

"No, only you, I, Trixie, and Autumn will be flying anywhere. Rainbow has already gone ahead to warn the others. The zebras here will be sabotaging what remains of the Mareitanians' camp so they have nothing to retreat to. Then they will head down the coast to Zanzebra, using a shorter yet more perilous route better suited to smaller groups. They have a task, Twilight, just as we do."

"Right, sorry, I just thought every hoof was needed on the battlefield."

"Ideally, but we can't neglect other things for the sake of the battle alone. If the Mareitanians find whatever supplies remaining in their camp destroyed, with no chance to resupply, it makes them more likely to surrender should they attempt to retreat back here."

"So this is war planning Luna style," Trixie said with a smile. "Seeing as how out of the two of you, Twilight managed to take a country starting with nothing but hopes, and you lost a country with nothing but your army and superior resources, maybe you should consider Twilight's concerns, if and when she has them?"

Luna narrowed her eyes at Trixie, "Had anypony other than you said that, Trixie Lulamoon, I may have thrown them off the hill. As it stands, the only reason I haven't is because Twilight is standing right there."

"Twilight is the best safety net."

"Quite. Now, Twilight, unless you do have some actual concerns, can I assume you're onboard with this plan?"

"I barely know what the plan is, but sure."

"Excellent. In that case we should probably be away. Goodness knows what the others will get up to if they see the Mareitanians coming and panic. Get in the cart, and we'll be on our way."

Twilight complied, gingerly climbing into the cart with Autumn as Trixie ran back to grab their belongings. She couldn't explain it, but Twilight's chest ached with worry over what was to come, and it wasn't just because she had no real idea what was coming. Whatever it was, she knew it was going to be bad.

Those thoughts only seemed to grow once they took off, and they could all see the marching Mareitanians stretching out below them. Twelve thousand ponies and yaks, against sparse and scattered zebra tribes. Logically there could be only one way the battle could go, but here they were attempting to defy that.

"Did anyone keep track of the kirin?" Twilight asked after a couple of minutes of observing. "I'm only asking because they could still potentially be a threat to us. No offence, Autumn."

"Some taken," Autumn sighed back. "I'm hoping they've at least decided that the Mareitanians aren't worth fighting for. Considering how things went with them though, you should probably ignore what I think."

"Could they still attack us?"

"Sure they could. I just don't want them to." Autumn gave a tiny shrug, "Maybe they're stuck wondering how they're going to get home more than anything else. I don't know. Maybe through some small miracle they'll swap allegiances and help us, although that sounds incredibly naïve, even to my incredibly naïve ears."

"That would be absolutely wonderful," Trixie snickered, "but yeah, let's be realistic and assume that we'll be attacked by a tiny horde of kirin at some point."

"A tiny horde of flaming kirin," Autumn corrected.

"Sounds like a party."

"You guys must have some weird parties in Equestria."

-0-0-0-

Just over an hour's worth of flight brought them to the short canyon where the attempt to slow the Mareitanians would happen. Therefore it was of considerable concern when they found nothing and nopony there. That concern only grew the longer they went on seeing nothing.

"I already regret putting Nightmare in charge," Luna sighed. "There's supposed to be an army here, and an ambush, and other things that might slow the Mareitanians down just a hair. Instead I'm left with nothing but a sinking feeling."

"Perhaps there's more to this than you think," said Twilight. "Fly down through the valley."

"You suspect something?" Luna asked as she started their descent.

"No, but if they aren't in the valley, they might be at the other end of it."

"But the point was to stop them getting into the valley! Not to try to stop them at the other end!"

"Luna," Twilight said softly, "have a little faith."

"Ugh, fine, but the plan better be brilliant for me to accept it."

They flew through the canyon, keeping low. It was only a short canyon through a range of hills that could be circumvented, but only by adding a lot of extra distance. Seeing as how the Mareitanians probably considered the zebras to be savages, it only made a certain kind of sense that they would take the direct route to Zanzebra, rather than be cautious. Of course that wasn't saying they wouldn't go the long way, but that's all they really had to go on.

At the end of the canyon, on the once again open plain beyond it, they found their army standing around doing very little. Luna growled under her breath at the sight, and dove a little too sharply to land quicker, almost tipping the others out of the cart. She pulled up short as she found a pink alicorn there, instead of who she expected.

"Cadence? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, well, I was hoping I could negotiate with the Mareitanians, and maybe we could all braid each others manes, and tell each other stories around the campfire, and really try to make friends with them. Try to make an understanding between us. Then if that didn't work, I plan to kill them all."

Luna nodded as understanding dawned, "Wearing the guise of the most innocent amongst us, are we?"

"I thought it would save confusion when two Luna's, or Twilight's end up on the battlefield." Nightmare smirked in a very un-Cadence like manner, "Presenting Celestia with herself would be an interesting mindfuck for her though."

"Cadence," Luna said firmly, "Why are all your forces stood around here? Why aren't you preparing for the arrival of the Mareitanians?"

"Because your plan was terrible, no offense." Nightmare waved a hoof towards the far end of the canyon, "If I was marching an army towards Zanzebra right now, the far end of this canyon is exactly where I would expect to be held off. Since I know there's another way around, I'd be going 'golly-gee, that looks like a terrible way to go, what with all those zebras defending it! Maybe we should try a different route with less pinch points?' And then I'd do just that, and reach Zanzebra."

Luna sighed inwardly, then outwardly, then inwardly again. "What's your plan then?"

Nightmare pointed a hoof at the army of zebras behind her, "This army here? It's not real. Not all of it at least. Most of the real army is setting up ambushes on the longer route around."

Luna raised a hoof to her eyes and hid behind it for a few seconds, "I never realised I was such an idiot, in so many ways. Do you really think the Mareitanians are going to take the longer route because they see the main bulk of the zebra forces here? A force considerably smaller than their own? They would attack!"

"I know!" Nightmare's smile turned nasty, "I'm counting on it."

"I don't know what this plan is," Trixie said, "but for some reason I am loving it."

"I suppose it's too much to hope that you would tell us what this plan is?" Luna asked Nightmare.

"And ruin the fun? You'll find out in good time."

"Give it a chance," Twilight said to Luna. "I also have a good feeling about this."

"You're all insane," Luna muttered. "Very well, it seems I shall have to settle for piecing the plan together through observation."

"You do that," Nightmare said with a smile, giving Luna a wave as she stalked off grumbling. The smile turned sympathetic as she turned it onto Twilight, "Rainbow told us about Sunset. That... a shame."

"None of the traditional sympathy then?"

Nightmare shook her head, her smile growing again, "Not my style. Anyway, now that grumps is gone, do you want to know the plan?"

-0-0-0-

Poor aerial reconnaissance. That was a large part of Nightmare's plan. A very large part. It wasn't a bad part either, because if Celestia didn't do it, none of the Mareitanians would, simply because they couldn't. Even then Celestia would probably keep her distance enough to not notice the zebra army was actually an illusion.

The only problem was that they were there, Twilight, Luna, and 'Cadence.' It was a problem because alicorns tended to be quite the deterrent. They doubted that the entire Mareitanian army would divert to the long route because of them, but it was still a risk. Hopefully the chance of crushing the zebra army here and now would be too good a temptation to avoid doing, even if it meant fighting through the canyon. Mareitanians had experience fighting those kinds of battles after all.

That battle was still a while off as yet, giving them time to relax a bit. Twilight and Trixie spent it practicing Trixie's magic, although Twilight was a bit distracted at times with her skin peeling off in chunks. It was beyond ugly, but it did at least feel a lot better.

"Don't wear yourself out too much," Twilight warned Trixie. "You know what'll happen if you do."

"Yeah-yeah, I know. Hit me."

Twilight fired a blast of magic at Trixie that the unicorn blocked with a shield, just as she did every blast that followed, feeling more confident about her shields with every blow taken. She shrank the shield down to a smaller disc, and attempted to deflect the blasts back towards Twilight. That had less success, but it was something she could work on.

"Magic armour, magic shields... all I need is a magic sword and I'm good to go."

"Swordy still has notches from your attempts to use him before you gave him to me."

"And? I just want to look cool, not actually fight with it."

Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile. Truthfully though, she was thankful to Trixie for providing such a good distraction, from the impending battle, Sunset, and her peeling. She wished it could go on for longer, but in her mind she could feel the Mareitanians getting closer. The time was coming for the first battle to keep Zebrica free.

"How about, once the war is over," Twilight said as she peeled a particularly large piece of skin off her side, "we go to a country purely to relax and enjoy the culture? I'm kinda annoyed that all our travelling is necessitated by stopping Faust. I'd quite like to go to a country and not end up in a fight."

"And I'm sure you'd spend half your time being paranoid that nothing had gone wrong yet."

"At first, maybe," Twilight said defensively. "I'm sure I'd get used to it... after a month or two."

"A month or two? How long are you planning on going?"

Twilight hesitated to answer, because she wanted to say 'long enough,' but that sounded to her exactly how it probably would've sounded to Trixie, like she didn't plan on going back to Equestria at all. That wasn't true, and yet...

"Twilight?"

"Sorry, I'm just thinking. Once the war's over, and we can rebuild Equestria, I can get the ball rolling on how Equestria is governed. If Equestria votes to be ruled by democracy, I'll suddenly have so much free time."

"And in the far more likely event, to me at least, that Equestria votes to keep the princesses? No offence."

"Then I abdicate, and still end up with free time."

"Oh good," Trixie laughed bitterly, "lots of time for you to dwell on everything."

Twilight sighed a laugh, "You're not wrong, but I would have to get professional help. Considering the amount of ponies affected by all that's happened, therapy is going to be in high demand for a while. The main point is that I would have the time to travel, and do things I never could as a princess."

"And what about certain promises you made to the Sultan?"

"Oh, yeah. Good job you reminded me."

"Then there's the Storm King, which is kinda the same thing, and then there's the whole... me thing."

"And I'm sure there's probably going to be some other kind of crisis after that, and then another, and another, and I'll have to help because I don't feel like I can refuse, because I can make a difference, and I know it. That's my life now. I'm merely a solver of problems, big and small." Twilight smiled as Trixie snickered, "What about you? What do you want?"

"Me? And here I thought I'd be helping you with all of that, because that's my life now. I've gone from being the star of the show to being the beautiful assistant, and I'm actually okay with that. The only thing I'd be happy to get rid of is this feeling I have now, waiting on the edge of a battle that's coming. I'd rather we just get on with it, y'know?"

"That shouldn't be a problem for much longer."

"No, but it will definitely put a damper on that reunion with Seeker."

"I'm pretty sure Zebrica being invaded is the main damper here. I'd also like to point out that I'm not the star of the show, and you are not my beautiful assistant. I'd say we're probably more of a double act."

Trixie nodded slowly and smiled, "Yeah, that works for me." Trixie stopped nodding and squinted upwards as she noticed something in the sky, "Either that's one heck of a big bird, or Celestia is giving us a good eyeing up."

Twilight followed Trixie's gaze upwards to what she was looking at, seeing the same winged being hanging in the sky in the distance. "Hopefully this flimsy illusion of an army works then."

"I think it being flimsy is part of it. Currently it looks like we're trying to scare them into taking the long route, while in reality making it seem like we don't actually have an army, thus drawing the Mareitanians this way."

Twilight blinked once, then twice. "Oh. I was under the impression this was meant to seem genuine." Twilight looked over to where 'Cadence' was quickly discussing something with some zebras, "I suppose being devious is in her nature."

"Like wheels within wheels. Whichever reason the Mareitanians choose to come through here for, the point is that they do. I suppose us hiding until they went through anyway would have the same effect, but... meh," Trixie shrugged.

"I don't know. Seeing nothing at the most obvious place to stop my invasion would make me suspicious enough to be very careful." Twilight glanced over at the empty canyon, "Celestia would probably do something to test whether the canyon was really empty if she had reason to suspect it was a trap. Instead she can see us here in plain view, where she can let overconfidence overrule her rationality a little."

"So the point is to never be an enemy of Nightmare?"

"My biggest curveballs are when I do something straightforward," Nightmare said as she sauntered up to them. "The Mareitanians are a few miles out, so you might want to get yourselves ready. That means stop pulling your skin off. You're just costing yourself that tiny bit of extra protection."

"I'm sure looking like someone tried to flay me and stopped halfway is more protection than the skin would ever be."

"You do seem to be quite the horror show. Start screaming like a banshee, and none of this could possibly go wrong."

-0-0-0-

They could see the Mareitanians now, having taken the bait, hook, line, and sinker. They weren't rushing into the canyon like idiots, which was pretty easy to predict, but had instead stopped to reorganise their forces. It seemed they were taking the tried and tested 'advance slowly with shields' method, which was also easy to predict. The fact that Nightmare didn't seem bothered in the slightest by it showed that this was well within her expectations.

"How can they not see this is a trap?" Luna asked out loud, disbelief evident on her face and in her words. "Even if it deliberately doesn't look like one, it still so very obviously is."

Nightmare glanced sideways at Luna, then returned her gaze to straight forward, a faint smile on her lips. "Come on Celestia, do the thing. I know you want to."

"Do what thing?"

Nightmare didn't reply, not until after a wave of golden magic swept up the canyon, followed by several more. "That thing. She's scanned the canyon, discovered no magical traps, no explosives, or any hidden zebras, so she should be thinking that it's quite safe to come up here and attack now."

Now Twilight was worried, "You mean there isn't any explosives or spell traps set up in the canyon?"

"That is correct."

"Um..." Twilight shared a look with Luna and Trixie, "I don't want to sound like I'm doubting you, but you never said any of what's happening is part of your plan. I don't suppose you want to tell us what the plan actually is?"

"Hmm... nah, I want to keep it interesting for you. I will tell you a fun fact though. Did you know that dragon magic is nearly untraceable by magic, unless you're looking specifically for it? I certainly didn't until Ember and I worked it out. Neat, huh?"

"I'd love to see whatever process led to you discovering that," Trixie quipped.

"It is quite the amusing anecdote. The fact is that dragon magic works at a much lower thaumic frequency than most other magic, and you can't scan for it and other magic using the same spell."

"This still doesn't tell us what you have planned," Luna said slowly.

"But I've given you a clue, surely?"

Luna grunted, but said nothing more.

"Here they come," Nightmare said a few minutes later as the Mareitanians started to pass into the canyon. She was bouncing on the tips of her hooves, which looked far more appropriate when she was disguised as Cadence than if she looked like she normally did.

Luna pawed at the ground as Trixie jammed her helmet on her head, and Twilight summoned Swordy for her own preparation. Then tears sprung up in her eyes as she heard begging. Begging that sounded just like Sunset, and like she didn't want something to happen. Was it her subconscious begging her to not fight, and using Sunset's voice to give it a greater impact? It was a dick move if it was, and made no sense since this was hardly the first battle she'd been in. Far from it. Twilight rubbed her tears away and forced herself to focus on what was in front of her.

As expected, the Mareitanians were advancing slowly behind shields, fully ready to be attacked by either magic or arrows. A fair assumption on their part, but for those that didn't happen to be fully in the know, the sight was getting increasingly worrying.

"Adepts in front, then some yaks to take over once they reach us. These Mareitanians are almost pathetic in their predictability. Oh well. Keep your eyes on the skies, ladies."

As Nightmare spoke, a tortured whine reached their ears, like the air itself was screaming with the passage of something moving faster than it should. A distant spec in the sky was rapidly growing closer, and resolved into the shape of Ember as she dove straight for the canyon.

Two flaming orbs flew from Ember as she pulled up, impacting against the sides of the canyon at the far end. Flaming lines traced around a concentrated spot, before settling into a rumbling explosion that shook the ground as it tore the sides of the canyon down, right across the Mareitanian army. Two more orbs followed at the nearer end of the canyon, collapsing the sides to box a portion of the Mareitanian army in.

"Perfection," Nightmare purred as Ember came in to land, bending one knee to slam a fist into the ground. "Excellent work, Ember. Of course, that now means it's time for part two of my plan." Nightmare turned to Luna, "I have six hundred zebras armed with bows, ready to attack at my signal. Should I do it?"

"What? Why are you asking me?"

"Because this is going to be a massacre, and I know how this game works. If I order the attack, I get accused of slaughtering those ponies in a brutal attack. If you do it, it gets called war, and no one bats an eyelash. That's why the choice is entirely yours. You could not give the order and let the Mareitanians unblock the other end to get their comrades back, then take the long way to Zanzebra, or you can order the zebras to attack, massacring those ponies and yaks trapped in the canyon, and we really hurt them."

"You must be joking!" Luna looked back and forth between the canyon and Nightmare, "What kind of choice is this supposed to be?"

"Clock's ticking, Luna."

Luna stuttered with the agony of indecision, her fury at Nightmare growing along with a cold understanding of how her mind worked. The fact was that any attack like this was going to be a massacre, whoever ordered it, including herself. Nightmare's persecution complex was the only thing preventing her from making the choice herself.

"Order the attack," Luna snarled. "Twilight, with me. We're going to keep Celestia busy while Nightmare, Trixie, and Ember do their best to keep the Mareitanians from putting shields up. Move!"

The three alicorns tore into the air, Nightmare screaming "Mgomo! Mgomo!" as loud as she could, signalling the zebras to attack, although the didn't immediately since they were further from the edges of the canyon than Twilight would've thought they'd be. It was probably to avoid Celestia spotting or detecting them.

The Mareitanians were still in chaos as they flew upwards, and had yet to come across a sensible plan of action. The barriers at both ends of the short canyon were too high to climb over without difficulty, and the Mareitanians on the other side could do little to help bar remove the obstacles, which would be far too late to help.

In other words it was a decently thought out attack. Too bad it was ending in a slaughter, but they had relatively little choice if they didn't want those trapped getting freed again.

"There!" Luna said, pointing a hoof at Celestia as she powered up into the air. Luna fired a single blast of magic that Celestia easily dodged, but was never meant to do more than get her attention. The white alicorn seemed positively pissed at what had happened, which was fair, but it was also putting a very ugly expression on Celestia's face that would never have been there before Faust did whatever she done to her.

No words were exchanged before the three alicorns clashed. Solaris flashed through the air, a burning streak of white heat that you felt before you saw. That weapon alone proved more of a danger than Celestia herself. One lucky strike, and either one of them could end up as little more than a puff of ashes, drifting in the wind.

"Not even a hello for your little sister?" Luna asked, her voice hard with emotion. The lack of words seemed to be affecting her more than it did Twilight, but that was understandable. The idea that they weren't even worth Celestia's scorn might've upset Twilight too, had the previous night not taught her that Celestia was no longer interested in speaking.

Twilight caught Solaris with Swordy as the blazing spear cut through the air in a strike that would've bisected Luna if she hadn't stopped it. Luna was too close to Celestia, seeming to want to engage her hoof to hoof. If she'd still had her glaives that might've worked, but without them it was suicide. Twilight pushed Solaris back, and dragged Luna away.

"Don't be an idiot, Luna!"

"She's cracking," Luna said, waving a hoof at Celestia as the alicorn in question charged an attack on her horn, firing right at them, but hitting nothing as they dodged. "She isn't even Celestia any more."

"Maybe, maybe not, but getting yourself killed isn't going to prove anything!" Twilight fired a bolt of magic at Celestia, that she batted aside with Solaris. "Come on, we need to push her back."

"Very well. Together then."

Both Twilight and Luna fired a beam of magic at Celestia, which she was forced to shield herself from. That alone was a struggle for her. There was no way she could fight off both Luna and Twilight, and all of them knew it. That didn't stop her from trying though.

-0-0-0-

Trixie poured her magic into the Mareitanians shield, not even caring at this point that said magic was more of the dark variety. Even with both Nightmare and Ember pounding on the shield with magic and dragon fire, they weren't getting through.

"Damn it!" Trixie screamed, her frustration spilling into her magic with a surge of power that was still proved to be fruitless. The zebra were in position now, but were unable to attack with the shield up. Something needed to happen soon, or this was all for nothing.

Trixie stopped casting, and assessed the situation, her bottom lip jutting out in thought. The shield was being cast in sections, as it always was, maintained by a number of Adepts. Take some of those adepts out and the shield grew holes, and as a result of that it destabilised. But the only way to remove some of those Adepts was to be inside the shield...

"Oh... fuck me, I can't believe I'm about to do this."

Trixie took a deep breath, her mind racing over the lessons Twilight had given. She'd never successfully done what she was about to attempt, but if there was to be a first time for it, it might as well be now, doing something incredibly stupid.
The ponies were in the shield were watching her when she opened her eyes again, and she was actually thankful that they hadn't attacked her since she was stood on top of the barrier blocking them in, unmoving, with her eyes closed. She literally couldn't have been an easier target. Maybe what stopped them was that many of them knew who she was, and knew firsthoof what she'd done during the Mareitanian civil war. She wouldn't want to risk an opening and letting her in if she could help it either. Unfortunately for them she wasn't going to give them that choice.

Trixie winked at her observers, then cast the spell she'd been letting build on her horn. In the blink of an eye, and a flash, she moved from just outside the shield, to just inside it.

"Hah! It worked!" Trixie cried in jubilation. She only just got a shield up before the first arrow hit her. She fired her magic in a straight beam, blasting back an Adept, then another, hiding behind her shield whenever she could as the slow realisation crept up on her that she was naked. Her armour hadn't come with her.

"Fuck! Fuck-fuck-fuck-fuuuuck!" Trixie screamed, blasting wildly as the Mareitanians came around to the idea of attacking her as one. She summoned her helmet, smacking it across the side of the head of a pony that got too close, and jamming it on her head.

More bits of armour appeared, being used as impromptu weapons as Trixie desperately tried to hold back the soldiers attacking her. She'd barely gotten half of it on when a glancing blow sliced a bloody line across her midsection. Trixie fell, her magic instinctively cocooning her in a shell of dark crystals.

"Ah, fucking... stupid plan!" Trixie scolded herself as she pressed a hoof to the injury. It was bleeding quite heavily, if the blood running around her hoof was any sign. Weirdly, it didn't hurt as much as she thought it would, although adrenaline would probably be to blame for that.

"This used to be so easy back in Mareitania," Trixie grunted to herself as she summoned the rest of her armour and assembled it around her. "It was just earth ponies. Earth ponies didn't magic at you." Trixie folded her ears back and sighed as the ponies outside pounded on her shell. "But no, now we have to fight unicorns, and the only way to fight them is to magic back even harder." Trixie stood as her horn bubbled with dark magic, "Much harder."

The shell exploded into razor sharp shards that viciously cut down the ponies around her, giving her a wide space in which to start pushing forwards. Blasts of dark magic cut into the Mareitanian ranks, cutting down pony after pony. The shield above her started to destabilise as the number of Adepts supporting it shrank, and with one solid blast upwards, she was able to destroy a section of it altogether, giving the others an opening to get in. Not that it meant Trixie could stop.

The Mareitanians surged towards her, determined to stop her doing more damage, and rushed her faster than she could reasonably expect to stop them. She took down as many as she could, including a couple of yaks, but it was only seconds before they got to her, and it was game over.

"No!" Trixie cried, tears filling her eyes as the fear of death finally hit her. She was knocked over as a pony charged her from the side, her armour saving her from his weapon, but by the time she'd tossed him off, the rest had reached her.

Magic bloomed around her, but not her own. The ponies around her were pushed back as Nightmare, still disguised as Cadence, gracefully descended through the hole that Trixie had made. She came to a stop right above Trixie, looking every inch like a pink guardian angel, a gentle, peaceful smile upon her face, that was reflected in the blade of her battle-axe.

"Nice work, Trixie," Nightmare said, right before swinging the axe around in a stroke that decapitated two ponies, breaking the spell she seemed to have over them. A blue shape darted in through the hole behind her, and breathed a wave of flame down on the ponies and yaks. "Try not to die while we get the shield down."

"Sure thing," Trixie said weakly as Nightmare darted away, laughing happily as she swung her axe. Trixie tried to stand, but her back legs had no strength to them, so decided to stay where she was in the hopes that nothing killed her before she bled to death.

-0-0-0-

An audible pop and a rush of warm air from below signalled the fall of the shield. Twilight grinned unpleasantly as Celestia stared downwards, dumbstruck as the zebra archers on the sides of the canyon were finally able to start firing. Screams could be heard from below, echoing off the rocky walls.

"You're slaughtering them!" Celestia screeched, her eyes slightly wild from witnessing the carnage the zebras were unloading on the trapped ponies and yaks.

"You've presented us with little choice," Luna growled. "Faust presented us with little choice. Why can't you see she's the one propagating all these deaths? She's the one responsible for all of this!"

"You have no right to even say her name, you monster!"

A thin beam of white hot magic burst from Solaris, puncturing through Luna's hastily erected shield and gouging a chunk of flesh out of Luna's left cutie mark. Twilight caught Luna as she fell, and she could hear the wound sizzling for several seconds as Luna pulled herself back together enough to fly under her own power.

Celestia laughed at the show, a crazed edge to it that shouldn't be there. She stopped suddenly, and clasped a hoof over her left eye as she squeezed both eyes shut. Twilight wasn't sure what to make of it, a feeling that doubled when Celestia reopened her eyes. Her left one was completely normal, but her right, which she hadn't covered, was a darker purple and slitted. Celestia blinked again, and it was gone.

"This battle is over," Luna told her sister, her voice tight with pain. Her wound was still smoking. "Take your army and go."

Celestia snorted, stunning both Luna and Twilight as a wave of flame drifted down her mane and tail. "This isn't over until I say it is!"

Twilight and Luna split up as Celestia fired a beam of fiery magic at them. They both looped around to attack, and were both surprised to find Celestia wasn't where they thought she'd be. She was diving towards the canyon, or more specifically for the zebras.

"I think there's something wrong with your sister!" Twilight shouted at Luna as they both dove downwards after Celestia, who was leaving a trail of flame in her wake.

"You think? I'll stop her, you attack her from behind!"

"Got it!" Twilight kept flying as Luna teleported ahead of Celestia, shielding herself as she prevented her sister from incinerating the zebras. Twilight kept going, a spell ready to hit Celestia when she stopped dead in the air, a fiery aura of magic holding her in place.

"Don't think me so simple, Twilight Sparkle!" Celestia shouted. She pointed Solaris at Twilight, ready to end her, then got blasted sideways by the pink alicorn that flew onto the scene.

"Been waiting a while to do that," Nightmare said with a grin. She blasted Celestia again, hitting her down to the ground where Ember was waiting. Before Celestia could recover, Ember breathed a stream of flame onto her. Twilight had to hold Luna back as she instinctively went to help her sister.

"Stop!" she screamed. "Stop burning her!"

Ember complied, and the flames quickly died down to show that Celestia hiding within a shield, drawing the fire into Solaris. After a moment, she swung the spear at Ember, firing a miniature sun at the dragon, knocking her out of the sky. Ember just about caught herself on her wings before landing roughly.

"That's not possible," Twilight said dumbly. "That shouldn't be possible! That's dragon fire!"

"Apparently it's possible," Luna said, not believing it herself. "Attack her, now. She can't hope to beat all three of us."

All three alicorns attacked Celestia, who didn't try to fight it. Instead she teleported away, reappearing above the rest of her army as it started to move away, knowing this fight had been lost. It was heading north, taking the long route to Zanzebra.

Luna watched resolutely for a moment as her sister stared at them over the distance, and didn't break her gaze until Celestia did and flew down to the ground. Only then did Luna release a cry and almost fall to the ground. Both Twilight and Nightmare caught her and carried her down.

"This wound's still burning," Nightmare said of Luna's injury as they landed. It was still smoking, and inside it embers of incinerated flesh were glowing. It must've been pure agony, and she marvelled at Luna's ability to hide that pain, because she was pretty sure she couldn't.

"We need to cut the burning stuff out," Twilight told Nightmare. "Quickly, before it spreads too far and we have to take her leg off."

"I know, I can take care of it. Trixie's hurt down there, so you might want to go take care of her. You might want to check on Ember on your way."

Twilight gave Nightmare a quick nod, then flew away, leaving her and Luna alone. She quickly inspected the wound, and concluded Twilight was right. If that ember, or whatever it was, reached the bone, the entire leg would have to come off to stop it spreading all around her body. Or so she thought. It was anypony's guess what it would actually do, and she knew she could easily be wrong.

"Why'd you do it?" Luna asked, not bothering to look at Nightmare. "Why make me give the order?"

"I already told you. If you do it, it's perfectly fine if you give it because you're a princess, but if I do it, I'm just Nightmare Moon being a monster."

"The only ones here that know who you really are, are myself, Twilight, Trixie, Ember, and the kirin. For all others, you are Princess Cadence."

"That's not the point."

"Twilight, Trixie, and I have all done things in war, and given orders resulting in the deaths of many, so we are hardly going to judge you."

"That's still not the point!"

"Then what is? This was your plan, so even if I gave the order, it doesn't really absolve you of anything." Luna finally looked back and smiled weakly at Nightmare, "The fact that you're worried about being seen as a monster means you aren't one."

"I just-" Nightmare huffed, "I just know what ponies are going to see when they look at me, and... I don't want them to be right."

Luna nodded in understanding, "So it's about how you see yourself. You do remember the thing with the Tantabus, yes? How I tormented myself with nightmares to punish myself?"

"How could I forget?"

"Do you remember how wrong I was?"

"Oh I definitely remember that."

"Good, because that means that what I'm about to do will make more sense." Luna reached back and pulled Nightmare into a hug that the currently pink alicorn tried to wriggle out of. "I'm sorry for placing all these worries upon you, and I wish I could do something about it. Can you forgive me?"

Nightmare stopped struggling and sighed, "I suppose so."

"Thank you. Now can you do something about this wound? It hurts like you would not believe."

"Alright." Nightmare picked up her axe, Ebony, and cleaned the blade off before placing it on the edge of the wound. "I just want you to know I take no pleasure from this at all, and that it's going to hurt. A lot."

"I know, I-"

-0-0-0-

Twilight had left a bruised, battered, and frankly pissed off Ember sitting on a pile of dirt, nursing a stomach ache from eating too many fire rubies to boost her fire, when the second most agonised scream she'd heard from Luna that day echoed through the canyon.

"Oooh, that sounded bad," she muttered, before hurrying along to find Trixie. The zebras had moved into the canyon to round up the survivors, and to put down any that still had some fight in them. By Twilight's guess there were maybe four hundred still living, out of around two thousand. She didn't want to think about it too hard.

The ring of crystals at the one end of the canyon seemed like the best place to start, although finding that Trixie had once again resorted to dark magic for no reason when she could be using a shield did annoy her a little. She tapped a hoof on a crystal, "Trixie? Are you in there? The battle's over now."

The crystals sunk slowly into the ground, uncovering an injured Trixie that was still holding her midsection. The fact that she was laying in a puddle of her own blood was disconcerting to say the least, and Twilight sucked in a sharp breath of fear as Trixie wasn't moving. Then her eye rolled to look at Twilight.

"Hey."

"Oh thank goodness," Twilight breathed, "I thought-" Twilight shook her head, no longer wanting the thought anywhere near her. "How bad is it?"

"My nose itches, but I'm too weak to scratch it. It's the fucking worst."

"Okay, um, hold on while I-"

"Did we win?"

"This battle, yeah. It's far from over though, and I think Celestia might have lost her mind a little, so who knows how things will go from here?"

"Cool. Now patch me up so we can get to the next fight."

Author's Note

This was the chapter I was working on when I had my week off, and lost the thread a bit. I get the feeling it kinda shows. But battles, a crazy Celestia, and... other stuff. All good fun.

32. A matter of management

"This has been long overdue."

"Indeed."

Twilight grinned at the zebra in front of her, but made no move to hug her, or even touch her. She knew Seeker wouldn't appreciate it, if her memory of the mare was still accurate. "It's good to see you, Seeker."

"And you, Twilight Sparkle." Seeker glanced down for a second, then back up to offer Twilight a sympathetic smile. "I heard you lost one of your friends at Mount Chembechembe. I am sorry."

"Uh, thanks," Twilight said dumbly, caught off guard at the sudden mention of Sunset. All of a sudden she could feel the journal like an itch in the back of her mind the moment she thought of the amber unicorn again, and felt guilty that her thoughts had drifted far enough away to almost forget that she was no longer among them.

Seeker frowned as Twilight said nothing more, having been expecting at least a sigh. "Forgive me for asking, Twilight, but are you well?"

Twilight ignored the question and stared at the wall of the chamber they were in, the very one in the Kumbi Mzee where she'd been brought after returning from Mount Chembechembe. The very one where she'd imagined the message from Sunset in the journal. She really hadn't needed the reminder about Sunset, or the unwanted distraction it provided her.

"Twilight?"

"So, what have you been doing since getting back here from Mareitania?" Twilight asked, forcing the conversation away from places she didn't want it to go.

Seeker's lips went flat as Twilight hadn't merely dodged the question, but grabbed it by the throat and threatened it to dare speak again. She knew the pain of loss though, and knew how fresh it still was for Twilight, so decided to leave it.
"Surprisingly little. Thanks to what was done to my stripes I was unable to return to most of my former duties." Seeker tugged at the hem of her robe, "A shame, but it isn't something I can change. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the loss of my stripes does not hinder my ability to fight, so I have maintained being able to do so, even if put on desk duties. Convenient considering the threat we now face."

"Yeah."

Seeker waited a beat for Twilight to say more, but there wasn't any. "With Celestia's weapon destroyed, perhaps this fight might go better in our favour."

"I hope so. If we can start pushing back here in Zebrica, then we should stand a chance in Equestria. We almost have everything we need to end this."

"You speak of the Kuua?" Seeker asked, getting a nod from Twilight. "If it weren't you asking, I would have significant doubts about giving the Kuua to the griffons. It feels to me as though you are giving the griffons the tools of your own downfall."

"If that's true, the griffons will come to regret it. Compared to Faust, the griffons feel extremely surmountable."

"True," Seeker laughed. "Very true. But it is another cost you would have to pay, and you grew tired of war some time ago."

"I know, which is why I would probably pay the Emperor a very personal visit if he betrayed our trust like that, and have some very strong words with him."

"To put the fear of alicorns into him?"

"Fear can be a powerful motivator."

"Is that really something Twilight Sparkle would do?"

"If it spared us another war with more death, it is."

Seeker nodded slowly, satisfied with the answer. "And if he didn't listen?"

"Hopefully his heir would. Princess Clarissa isn't the sort to make needless war, and even if the Emperor were to start thinking Equestria might be better off in his claws, she would hopefully talk him down. Part of that's why I think Zebrica would be better off joining our security pact. The Emperor wouldn't really consider attacking another member. Not without considerable difficulties."

"Not least because being surrounded by a series of united nations would be enough to give even the mighty griffons pause?"

A smile tugged at the corners of Twilight's mouth, "Now you're getting it. Unfortunately, I doubt your Elders would go for even a loose alliance if it meant even the slightest loss of independence. Which it wouldn't, I feel I should point out."

"We've been sharing intelligence with the Saddle Arabians for a great many years. If you were to ask some of the Elders, even that is too much of a dependence upon others. Zebrica should stand tall and free, according to them."

"And yet they have few problems with us princesses coming here and fighting for them, or even with putting us in charge of the defence of their country. Rather hypocritical, don't you think?"

This time it was Seeker's turn to stay silent.

"It seems as though Elder Kifuniko is the only one really thinking clearly on the matter."

"Ah, but she is young and idealistic, while the others are old and stuck in their ways."

"And why is an Elder so young?"

"Because the shamans act as a separate tribe with tribes, so to speak, and choose their Elder based on their merits, rather than on how greyed their stripes are. You'd almost call it sensible."

Twilight smiled at the joke, but it died quickly. Although the topic had quickly moved on from Sunset, she was still finding the conversation exhausting. She wanted to be happy to see Seeker, but the reasons she was there sucked all the joy from it. Thankfully Cadence came to her rescue when she entered the room.

"Sorry to disturb you but the Council wants to see us, including you, Seeker."

"No doubt they wish to dismiss our plans as too risky," said Seeker. "Amusing then that we have little choice but to exercise risk at this point."

"You must admit they have a point," Cadence said back. "Drawing the Mareitanians into the city could do considerable damage."

"Fighting a losing battle outside it could do more."

"That's... not for me to say."

"I know, but if I can get Mistress Tazama on our side, they should listen. Or at least they should listen more." Seeker stood and offered a hoof to Twilight, pulling the mare to her own hooves. "When the enemy is at your gates there will always be risk involved."

-0-0-0-

"Your plan is untenable," were the first words Twilight heard as they entered the Council chamber. They were directed at Luna, who was stood as patiently as she could be with one injured leg. "The idea is to keep the Mareitanians out of the city!"

"The point was to remove the Mareitanians from the country, if I remember correctly," Luna said back. She glanced at Twilight as she heard them entering the chamber, then looked back to the Elders. "I believe this plan presents your best chance of that happening."

"And I believe it presents the best chance of us losing!" the Elder Mareed half shouted back, to the agreement of some of the other Elders.

"That's always a possibility, no matter what we try," Luna replied calmly.

"Would you be willing to risk so much if these were Equestrian soldiers you were using to fight this battle?" a different, female Elder asked. Twilight wished that she'd taken the time to learn their names. "Or pony civilians you were putting at risk?"

"There is always risk in war. Your warriors should know what is expected of them as much as any Equestrian soldier. The protection of their homeland is worth a little risk."

"And what of you, Princess Twilight, Princess Cadence? Do you agree with Princess Luna's proposed plan?"

"I won't deny that I have some concerns," Cadence admitted, "but I would have some regardless of what the plan is, so I'm not the pony you should be asking."

"I support this plan," Twilight said once Cadence went quiet, even though she wasn't fully aware of what the plan entailed. She could guess enough of it. "Your zebras would be decimated on an open battlefield, Kuua or no Kuua. Drawing the Mareitanians into an enclosed space that your zebras know a lot better, and that can hide your numbers while decreasing the Mareitanians ability to fight to their own strengths, is the only realistic way you have of winning this battle."

Seeker took a step forward, "I too support this plan. You ordered me to lead the fight against the Mareitanian invaders, so believe me when I say this plan will work far better than facing the Mareitanians on the open savannah. Mistress Tazama, how much time do we have until the Mareitanians reach the city?"

Tazama raised an eyebrow at the question, and the rather coarse manner in which it was asked by a subordinate. "They are six, maybe seven hours out, although I doubt we should expect an attack right away. My assessment is that they would wait an hour's distance away for an overnight rest, then attack. We could make an attack on them then."

"They would be expecting it," Luna told her. "I would only be tempted to try such an attack with a flight of my thestrals at my side. Even then I would still expect losses. It'd be a suicide mission for your zebras."

"So you would let them attack us while well rested?"

"It's not ideal, but them thinking that we were too afraid to attack during a time when they were vulnerable only adds to the illusion we wish to bestow upon them of not having the numbers to resist."

"And should they not fall for it?" Elder Fumbo asked. "Yours is an audacious plan, princesses, but it is heavily dependent on the Mareitanians entering the city as you want them to. You cannot guarantee they will do that."

Luna shrugged at the Elders, "Perhaps not, but I strongly believe they will. My sister is not currently in a state of mind for enacting patience. We have shamed her twice, and the Mareitanians once, not including the loss of their kirin. I suspect they will not hesitate for long, if at all."

"And if they do? If they decide to siege the city?"

Luna smirked. She didn't mean to in this company, but it happened anyway. "If they want the city, they'll have to. Even if they don't, that's fine, it'll still keep them distracted and unable to aid Faust when it matters. If anything, keeping this army here would aid the war against Faust as much as defeating them."

"You are adamant, aren't you," Fumbo said with a shake of his head. "Mistress Tazama, your thoughts?"

"We do not have a better plan," Tazama said simply. "They are not lying when they say a fight on the savannah will see us destroyed. The Kuua would lessen the impact of their magic, but not to the degree where it would be an even fight. As long as their Adepts have range, they can hurt us. Enclosed spaces would even the fight. I'm also of the impression yaks do not fight well in small spaces."

Fumbo thanked Tazama, then stood silently save for a tapping of his hoof for several long seconds. "This is a decision that could make or break our country. If we lose this battle, Zebrica falls."

"Zebrica would rise again," Luna said confidently. "Our course to defeat Faust is set, so even if Zebrica were to fall this day, it would only be temporary."

"Why not surrender then?" Mareed asked. "Save our warriors from dying in a battle where the outcome is irrelevant? Would that not be the more sensible course of action?"

Twilight held her breath. She hadn't even considered that, and even though she would happily avoid fighting now, the outcome of a surrender could be so much worse in the long run. Thankfully Luna could see that too, and had the words to argue against it.

"And allow Faust to bring her soldiers back to Equestria? While allowing her to forcibly conscript your zebras to her cause? We would then have no choice but to fight them in such a case, and with those numbers we may even lose the war. That would serve none of us. At least let your warriors fight to protect their homeland, rather than die unwillingly serving Faust."

Mareed sneered at Luna, "I was under the impression it wouldn't matter."

"It does if you're willing to give her back not just her army, but yours with it."

Fumbo banged a hoof on the wooden floor of his stand, "Enough, Mareed. She does raise a valid point. We are here to vote though, so vote we will. All those in favour of surrendering, raise your hoof."

Twilight fought to hide her smile as only Mareed raised his hoof. Mareed himself seemed disgusted with the others for being so willing to fight. Out of the corner of her eye she caught Seeker and Tazama sharing a look and a nod, which she hoped to mean Mareed would be closely watched for any treachery he might be planning.

"Those in favour of following the princesses plan, raise your hoof."

Fumbo raised his hoof, as did Kifuniko, and one other. After a couple of seconds a fourth joined them, then a fifth, putting the majority in the favour of Luna's plan.

"It is decided then, the fate of Zebrica lies in your hooves, princesses."

-0-0-0-

"I have to ask," Twilight said she, Luna, and Cadence departed the Kumbi Mzee along with Trixie, Ember, a grey unicorn that actually Nightmare, and the Wonderbolts, "can this plan actually work? I'm only asking because I feel like it should've been explained to me before I had to go in there extolling its many virtues."

Luna gave Twilight a sideways look, "Of course it can work. And it will work, mostly because of the Kuua."

Twilight groaned up at the sky, "I knew it. I knew this plan would depend on something like that. The Mareitanians won easily in Canterlot, and this fight isn't much different. At best we're only making it even."

"And what would you like me to say?"

"That this won't end up like Vanhoover," Rainbow said before Twilight could speak. "Every time we've tried something like this, it doesn't work."

"Truer than I'd like to admit. But all of those fights have had the Mareitanian Adepts clustered up at range where they're most effective. Between the Kuua, and the enclosed spaces, and the absence of Faust, I'm confident the zebras can prevail."

"If the Mareitanians were composed of just unicorns, sure, but they aren't. There are plenty of earth ponies and yaks there as well."

"If you think this plan will fail, why did you not bring it up sooner?" Luna glanced around the others, only getting silence from them. "If we didn't have the Kuua, and if they had siege weapons, this plan wouldn't work. With the Kuua, and without them having siege weapons to turn on the city, I am confident it can."

"It'll be hard for me to fight in the city," Ember lamented. "This place does look flammable."

"And what about Celestia?" Cadence asked. "She's capable of doing quite a bit of damage on her own, even if she has lost Solaris."

"I realise, which is why you will stay with the Council, to protect them in a place we can hide them. Celestia will probably go straight for the Kumbi Mzee once her forces start entering the city. Twilight and I shall face her there while the rest of you will aid the zebras."

"This city isn't exactly ideal for us either," Lightning pointed out. "We could easily get caught in these tight spaces."

"If you're having that much difficulty, pull out. The Adepts are likely to be shielding wherever they can, so using lightning against those shields would be enough. Just wait for us to engage Celestia before you try that though, because that is attention you won't be able to handle."

"I think I should fight."

All of them stopped to look at Cadence after she spoke, save Trixie, who burst out laughing instead.

"What? You're expecting me to fight when we retake Equestria, so why can I not fight now? I need to learn."

"Do you trust any zebras here to protect Flurry while you are fighting?" Luna asked. "You know she has no place in a battle."

"So that's it? I become a mother and suddenly I can't do anything?"

"Do you wish to fight?"

"No! Of course I don't! But what I want doesn't seem to have mattered for a long time now!" Cadence glowered at an unapologetic Luna for a long moment before continuing in a calmer voice. "If I don't learn to fight, I'm going to be no use to you when I really need to fight."

"She's not wrong," said Twilight. "I'm sure Moondancer, Daring, and Mayfly can watch Flurry during the battle if Cadence takes her back to the retreat. If you and her face Celestia, I can help the zebras."

"Very well," Luna said begrudgingly, her tone of voice alone saying that she thought this was a bad idea. "Since Cadence will be needed to fight Faust, fighting Celestia will be good practice."

"Assuming she aims to engage you," said Trixie, speaking her first actual words since leaving the Kumbi Mzee. "After beating her twice already, I'm thinking she'll try her best to not fight you alone if she can avoid it."

"Then we shall join the battle until she feels she has no choice. Her failure to distract us will only damage her forces chance at victory."

Trixie rolled her eyes at Luna, "You mean that victory that will probably only be a pyrrhic victory for either side at best? Don't act like at least one of us wouldn't work that out."

Luna didn't say anything for a while, and they were almost to the edge of the city nearest where the zebra army was encamped before she did.

"Can you at least agree that the zebras surrendering presents a potentially worse outcome than all the others?"

"Sure," Trixie said, readily agreeing. "The problem is that I was under the impression that we would be making our move against Faust in a matter of weeks. There's no way Faust could secure the entirety of Zebrica and have them fighting for her in that time, meaning they could surrender. Or... order them to carry out a guerilla campaign, keeping Faust's army here bogged down while we do what we do. If we're lucky, she might send more soldiers here to help, making our job easier."

Luna's jaw hung open, only closing it when she tried to splutter a sentence, failed, then tried again. "Why didn't you mention any of that before?"

"Because I wasn't invited to the meeting with the Council?" Trixie said haughtily. "If I was I might've."

"Of course." Luna thought about it, but ultimately ended up dismissing the idea with a shake of her head. "If the zebras lose the city, they effectively lose the country, and the Mareitanians could hold the city hostage against any attacks. While I'm sure that wouldn't matter too much given our end objective, the zebras are unlikely to accept being used like that. They want to keep their city and country."

"So suicide plan it is then," Trixie sighed. "Armour don't fail me now."

-0-0-0-

Twilight was learning quite a bit about certain aspects of zebra culture. Or at least the parts of it revolving around warfare. Each town and village was required to provide warriors in times of need, which this certainly was, and each warband was led by the village's best warrior. Considering the varying sizes of zebra settlements, a warband could consist of anything from fifty to well over a thousand warriors, and yet each Kiongozi wa Vita, or War Leader, was of equal rank regardless of how many warriors they led. Naturally this led to some friction, but Twilight could understand it to a point.

If a settlement sending a thousand warriors lose half their number, the settlement could still prosper with its five hundred remaining warriors. However, a settlement sending fifty warriors faced a more uncertain future if they lost even half their number. Because of that, each warband was viewed as being equal, even if vastly different in size. The sacrifice of each settlement was ostensibly the same, so the importance of each one was also the same.

That bit Twilight could understand, and even appreciate. The problems arose when not every War Leader also appreciated it. The ones leading larger warbands did not consider the importance of a smaller settlement as being the same, even though the loss of even a hundred zebras could theoretically mean the slow death of an entire village. Those villages had sent warriors anyway, even if it meant their ends, so Twilight was more inclined to side with them. Even then she could still possibly argue that a zebra leading a thousand warriors might have a little more to say on matters than one leading much less, but they were all viewed as equal, and that was that.

Of course it got worse still, if having thirty seven different War Leaders wasn't bad enough. Overarching command usually fell to the Rangi, or Night Maidens, or the Council's chosen leader, but this time it had fallen into the lap of the princesses, who weren't even zebras. Quite a few of the War Leaders didn't like that. A lot of them also didn't like Luna's plan, considering it cowardly and dishonourable, not that many could express that directly as out of the thirty seven War Leaders, four spoke ponish. Seeker, and those four, were translating as fast as they could for the others, but they seemed more frazzled by the dissenting voices than Luna did, who could only stand there waiting politely for the translated words of a lot of angry zebras.

"I was under the impression that there were only, like, seven tribes in Zebrica," Trixie said as she, Twilight, Cadence, and Nightmare observed events. "I don't get why the Council doesn't lead this so there are less leaders."

"Each tribe can consist of several settlements," Cadence told her. "Tribal identity is important to the zebras, but it's not totally rigid in some respects. A settlement can have members of all of the tribes living there, like Zanzebra, so for one of the Council to take command of zebras from one of the other tribes would be massively frowned upon. That's why its fairly decided that the strongest warrior lead each warband."

"But that leads to crap like this, where they're arguing amongst themselves more than anything else. It's ridiculous! And grossly inefficient."

"I had no problems leading them," said Nightmare. "I'm also sure my tactics were just as dishonourable as Luna's."

"The forces you led mostly consisted of Zanzebran warriors, and other larger settlements, who, and I hate to say this, tend to be better educated, not as traditional, and far less..."

"Racist?" said Twilight.

"I was going to say isolationist," Cadence replied primly, "but... yes. I don't see why; we're all equines after all. My point is those zebras would have far less of an issue being led by a princess." Cadence eyed Nightmare, "Including me it seems."

"Alright, but that doesn't explain why they all followed my lead like they did, even on a 'dishonourable' plan."

"The four that can speak ponish are the War Leaders for almost half of the warriors here. Zebras from Zanzebra alone make up a third of the warriors here in total, with three large settlements nearby making up another quarter. Thirty four of those War Leaders lead zebras that count as less than half of the warriors here."

Trixie rolled her eyes and laughed, "That's just stupid. I get the feeling that if I asked why it's like this, the answer would be 'tradition.'"

"And you would be right."

Twilight smiled sideways at Cadence, "I see you've been busy learning things."

"I've heard a lot of it being discussed in the Council. I brought up some of your concerns myself, which was when I learnt it was 'tradition.'" Cadence sighed as the argument in front of them seemed to escalate, "Seems the tradition of following the Council's chosen Njaa isn't being observed particularly well today."

"And how does Luna fix that?" Twilight asked.

"Traditionally," Nightmare answered with a grin.

"And what does that mean?"

"What do you think?"

"Oh," Twilight said after a moment of thought. If this was going to be solved, it could only be solved with violence, the traditional way. "I hope she doesn't hurt them too much."

-0-0-0-

Luna waited as a circle was drawn in the dirt. That was going to be their arena, which she wasn't allowed to leave until all those that wanted to had gotten their chance to take the role of leader from her.

Apparently some of them were dumb enough to try.

Admittedly she was being denied the use of her wings and horn, and her injured leg put her at a reasonable disadvantage, but she was still confident she could prevail with relative ease since they would be coming at her one at a time.

Once the circle was drawn she stepped into it, an easy smile on her face which she was sure was infuriating her opponents. One of them seemed to be frothing at the mouth and barely holding himself back, so naturally he was first. The stallion strutted into the ring, posturing for the crowd and saying a lot of stuff that Luna had no hope of understanding. She waited for him to stop, then looked to Seeker for a translation.

"I'm... not going to give you a direct translation, but he says this Equestrian... harlot, has no right to come here and tell us what to do. Zebrica is for zebras to protect, not ponies."

Luna raised an eyebrow at Seeker, "He called me a whore, didn't he?"

"I... maybe... yes?"

"Tell him something good back, maybe about the size of his penis."

Seeker snorted and rolled her eyes, then rattled off something quickly in zebra. Luna wondered what she'd said as the stallion went stiff and wide eyed, then howled with rage. Some of the ponish speaking zebras behind him were grinning with amusement, and it seemed to be at Luna's expense. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him that you laid with both his mother and father, and that you're sorry he inherited his father's tiny stallionhood." Seeker smirked at Luna, "Don't ask me to make up your trash talk."

"No, that's perfectly acceptable. In fact, ask him if his mother is still around, because she was superb in the bedroom."

"I'm not going to do that."

"Why not?"

"Because, Nightwalker, I suspect there weren't any zebras on the moon for you to actually do any of this stuff with, since that's where you were when he was born, and I'm far from the only one to know that."

"Alas no, there was no company on the moon, and serving oneself with hooves covered in moon dust was the absolute worst."

Seeker squirmed in disgust, "Please stop talking and fight him so we can get this over with."

"Very well." Luna gestured with a hoof for him to come at her, hoping that at least didn't require a translation. Since he did just that, it was clear it didn't. She ducked low as he ran at her, then punched upwards when he was close enough, launching him into the air. With a strong roundhouse to follow up, she punched him clear out of the ring to land in a pile on his head.

"He was the best warrior of his village?" Luna said as the stallion struggled to breath. She worried that she might've hit him too hard, but decided to not worry about it over much as he finally sucked in a breath.

"I suspect he underestimated the strength of an alicorn."

"That was silly of him."

Seeker eyed Luna with disapproval, "Must you enjoy this so? This is supposed to be serious!"

"Remind me again what I did with his parents?"

Seeker blushed a little at having been caught out, and waved for the next challenger to enter the ring. Surprisingly there was one less now. Clearly they'd taken the opportunity to sneak away while everyone else was distracted.

The next challenger, also a stallion, entered with considerably more grace than the last one, and bowed before Luna. Luna returned it, glad to be fighting a more level-headed opponent, but also disappointed that there wasn't more trash talk. The shrug she got from Seeker about his quiet entrance lead her to suspect this was going to be it.

Luna signalled for the fight to start. The stallion, still in his calm demeanour, walked up to Luna to stand in front of her. Too curious to do anything to attack, Luna cocked her head a little as their staring match continued. She was totally unprepared for when he suddenly hit her on the chest with a speed she wouldn't have suspected.

"Ow," Luna said dumbly, taking a defensive stance as the stallion shook some life back into his hoof. Then he bowed and left the ring, leaving Luna even more curious than she was before. Did he do that purely to brag that he once struck a princess and lived to tell the tale? It was weird, whatever it was. Still, she couldn't help but smile at the strange stallion.

Seeker called for the next challenger, and even in a different language Luna could tell it was a bit weak. Unlike her next opponent. This stallion was musclebound in a serious way, and gave the appearance of having worked to be that way every day of his life. That was unfortunate, because Luna could tell he was going to be a grappler, and would try to use his strength to force her out of the ring when her onet leg probably wasn't up to that particular challenge.

Luna waited as the stallion flexed at the crowd. He appeared to love the attention, which was a great shame since he looked more like a stripy sack full of beach balls than an actual zebra. If anyone liked the way he looked, Luna seriously had to wonder why.

Seeker signalled for the fight to start, and the lumpen mass of muscle turned to face Luna. With a self satisfied nod, she concluded that yes, he was going to grapple her, and that she was going to lose if she went along with that. Instead she was going to go for a weak spot shared amongst many. Punching him in the face as hard as she could.

The stallion ran in low, further confirming Luna's theory. She wasn't going to match it, so stayed upright to deliver the blow she hoped would win this. Hopefully it worked, otherwise she'd just cost herself the leadership of this army to a silly looking lump of meat. She snapped her hoof out as he got close, and with a sound similar to two halves of a coconut being banged together at ridiculously high speeds, hit the zebra right between the eyes, then stepped back as he collapsed to the ground.

"It feels like you have little regard for how this is really meant to go," Seeker said to Luna as the latter dumped the stallion outside the circle. "You could at least have made a bit of a show."

"We have a massive army breathing down our necks, and you want me to make this waste of time take even longer?"

"An extra few minutes isn't going to hurt. Besides, do not think your next opponent will go down so easy."

"And why, pray tell, is that?"

"You'll see." Seeker bowed deeply to the remaining challenger, who happened to be the only mare who had stepped up. Words were exchanged in the zebras native tongue, but Luna was aware enough to pick up the respect in them. She started to suspect her final challenger was a member, or at least former member, of the Night Maidens.

"It is an honour to make your acquaintance," the mare said as she stepped into the ring. She did appear to be older, but not too old, and had the dark rings around her neck that Mistress Tazama had been wearing. That, and the respect Seeker showed, led Luna into thinking that this was the former Mistress of the Night Maidens. She could be wrong, but rather suspected she wasn't.

"And a pleasure to make yours," Luna returned, showing no surprise that this mare could speak ponish. If anything it helped confirm her suspicions. "So you wish to take command from me, hmm?"

The mare smiled, "Actually my motives are far less sinister. I am quite aware of how skilled an alicorn is with magic, but I am curious to see whether you have comparable skills in hoof to hoof combat. Plus the chance to fight one of Equestria's princesses?" The mare smiled, "How could I pass up that opportunity?"

"This is boring!" Nightmare shouted from amongst the spectators. "I am bored. I am not getting less bored. Get on with this so we can get back to the war!"

"What is your name?" Luna asked, ignoring Nightmare.

"I am Mistress Mjuzi." The mare smiled at Luna, "We keep our title, even after retirement."

"I see." The fact that this retired zebra managed to be the strongest warrior out of whoever she led here was impressive to Luna, and left her with the feeling this wasn't going to go how she expected or wanted. Winning this fight against such an opponent would at least hopefully quell any further naysayers.

"Begin."

As soon as Seeker said the word Luna found herself under attack. She blocked the first blow with a leg, but the Mistress was quickly sidestepping to deliver another, then another, with a speed that Luna couldn't quite follow. The hits, although strong, weren't enough to topple her, although it left Luna feeling like a dumb and lumbering beast under attack from a pack of wolves. Each individual strike would do little, but enough of them would wear her down.

Luna jumped away, leaving the Mistress to punch empty air as Luna gathered her wits. She hit out at the zebra, finding her hoof getting easily deflected to the side, and again. She spun, and tried to kick the mare, but had that idea ruined as the Mistress ducked under her and punched her in the gut, winding her for a moment as she rolled to the side to escape, covering herself in dust. Aside from her hooves, the Mistress was still aggravatingly clean. It was then that Luna noticed the hoofprints on her own hide where she'd been hit. There was quite a few of them.

"You're too stiff, Princess. Loosen up and stop fighting like a wrestler."

Luna rolled her eyes at the advice from her opponent, even if she knew it was true to a degree. She was being too rigid, which was unhelpful against a fast opponent like she had now. She had to be faster herself.

Luna ran forwards, hoping a more aggressive tact would throw the Mistress off. She threw a hoof towards the zebra, using her strength to power through the attempt to block it, and ended up knocking the zebra to the ground. The Mistress rolled and sprang back to her hooves, and returned the attack by striking Luna just below the horn.

Stars blossomed in Luna's vision as a sharp and insistent whining filled her eyes. That had hurt, and worst of all it left her vulnerable to a follow up attack. An attack that never came. When Luna's vision cleared, Mistress Mjuzi was stood in front of her, smiling softly. Luna knew then that she was being toyed with.

"I thought alicorns were supposed to be tough!" Nightmare jeered. "You're making us look bad!"

Once again Luna ignored her counterpart. She needed to ignore all distractions if she was going to win this. She waited this time, studying her opponent for any obvious weaknesses, not that she'd really displayed any so far. Her advancing years didn't seem to make a difference, and her skills at fighting were excellent, so... Luna had nothing and she knew it. At the same time, she wasn't as good at fighting unarmed, and had a glaring weakness in her leg that the Mistress had made no attempt to exploit.

"You're really bad at this," Nightmare interjected, ironically helping Luna to make a decision.

"I forfeit," Luna said after a moment. "Without flight or magic I can't beat you, not while also injured. Command of this army is now yours if you want it, Mistress Mjuzi."

The Mistress seemed shocked for a moment, then grinned at Luna. "Is that so?"

"It is."

"Then my first act as Njaa of this army is to appoint Princess Luna as tactics adviser."

Luna blinked dumbly, "Excuse me?"

"I never had issues with your leadership, or your proposed plan. I was only interested in the opportunity to spar with a princess. Your decision to forfeit was an unexpected move, and probably a wise one."

Luna shrugged, "If I'd been allowed to us my magic..."

"I would likely have lost, yes."

"Do you not have to now accept any challengers?"

"If any would dare."

Luna cast a glance at Twilight and Nightmare, getting an indifferent shrug from the former, and a look of disappointment from the latter. Trixie seemed rather indifferent herself, while Cadence seemed more anxious than anything. She supposed that as long as the plan remained unchanged they saw no reason to rock the boat. Plus the other War Leaders might be more inclined to listen to a zebra, so it might even have some advantages.

"It seems you have none," Luna said after a moment.

"Good. When are your pegasi due to return from scouting?"

"One will return as soon as the Mareitanians are two hours trot away. Then another at one hour to report whether the Mareitanians are stopping to rest or not. After that they will take it in turns to watch for movement."

"Good. That is good. I take it you are to face Princess Celestia?"

"Myself and Princess Cadence, yes. My other companions will join your zebras in fighting the Mareitanians and yaks."

Mistress Mjuzi nodded thoughtfully, then started barking orders in zebra faster than Luna could ever hope to understand. Zebras started running off to fill those orders, leaving Luna to wonder what was going on until the Mistress spoke to her again.

"I've ordered some of our warriors to start evacuating civilians out of the north of the city so that they will not be in the way when the fighting heads that way. Do you believe the Mareitanians will fall for being drawn into the city?"

"I do," Luna confirmed, "if we make it convincing. We will have to put up a fight first, and let them think they have beaten us into fleeing." Luna lowered her head, "There will have to be losses for that to happen."

"I agree," the Mistress said solemnly. "Explain your full plan to me, and we shall see what we can do to minimise them."

-0-0-0-

"This is weird," Trixie said to Twilight an hour or two later. "I'm too used to having you or Luna in charge. I can't believe Luna forfeited."

"She was at a disadvantage," Twilight said back. "Fighting could've reopened her wounds, or led to different injuries when she needs to be fit enough to fight Celestia. I know it sounds like a dubious decision, but it seems to have been the right one. Mistress Mjuzi has done nothing to change the plan at all."

"It's still pathetic," Nightmare growled, jabbing a stick into the fire they were sat around, earning herself an angry glare from the zebra using it to cook. "I can't believe she did that."

"It was a tactical choice," said Twilight. "If one of the others had won, we'd probably be charging at the Mareitanians right now, screaming as loud as we could to try and scare them. To be honest, if one of the others had won, I'd have stepped up to challenge them."

"But not this Mistress?"

Twilight shook her head, "She's a Night Maiden, so I like to think she plays to win, rather than to satisfy some misplaced sense of honour on the battlefield. She's adopted Luna's tactic, and quelled the dissent from those not wanting to be led by a pony princess. Honestly, giving up was the smartest thing Luna could have done."

"Still annoying," Nightmare grumbled.

"You'll live."

Silence, or at least as near as you could get when surrounded by thousands of zebras, fell onto the group. The coming battle occupied much of their thoughts, and there was nothing much to really say about it. For Twilight and Trixie, this battle was the largest they'd been in since the end of the Mareitanian civil war, and the taking of Stalliongrad. Sitting around waiting for the battle to start was something they were uncomfortably used to. Arguably, since she had all of Luna's memories, Nightmare had even more experience with this than they did.

It took Twilight a while to work out what the difference was. They weren't in charge. Yes they'd already recognised that, but it took a bit longer to really understand what that meant. They weren't privy to the planning, or involved in the preparations. They were literally waiting there with all the other soldiers, no more important to events than the zebras around them.

It was quite strange.

After a while the sound of music started up as the sun started to dip below the horizon. Drums and other basic instruments started hammering out a tune, and around it the zebras started dancing around a fire, with some of the braver ones jumping over it, shouting in zebra.

Twilight started as a bowl of food was held under her nose, then accepted it with a smile for the zebra that had given it to her. She had no idea what was going on, but sat there with Trixie stuffing her face on one side of her, and Nightmare bobbing her head along to the beat on the other, it was in its way quite enjoyable. Perhaps that was rather the point, to have one last good time with those you might never get to do so with again. Since most of the other fires had their own little party going on around it, Twilight felt inclined to think she was right.

Once Twilight was done eating, her bowl was taken away to be reused for those that hadn't eaten before. Most of the dancers stopped to enjoy their fill, and while they ate a lone mare stood by the fire, a pole in her hooves that she poked into the fire, first one end, then the other, until both ends were alight.

A slower beat started now as the mare started twirling the flaming baton around her hoof, starting a slow that soon had her rearing up onto her back hooves as she gyrated with the music, spinning the baton around and around. Twilight wondered if there was some greater significance to the dance. The mare was quite beautiful by zebra standards, and even some pony standards, and her slow dance was quite sensual in its way. It didn't seem right to just call it 'a dance.'
All the same, in the dark the dance was mesmerising as the two flames left trails in the air, which left Twilight quite unprepared for when a hoof tapped her on the shoulder, and a short, sharp scream escaped her before she could slam a hoof over it.

"Sorry," Seeker apologised. "I hadn't realised you were so engrossed. The wajane ngoma is quite the beautiful dance."

"The what?"

"The wajane ngoma. The widow's dance. Its from one of our legends. Two great warriors fell in love on the battlefield, both paragons of strength and beauty, and both loved to dance. Many lusted after them, but they only had eyes for each other. They married, of course, and had many children, but as is the way of warriors, her husband was killed in battle."

"His widow was distraught, but resolved to live on for their children, rather than seek a faster way to reunite with her love. She still loved to dance though, and often would, but her beauty attracted too many stallions, and she sought to keep herself unsullied for her husband when they met again in the afterlife. To keep those stallions at bay while she danced, she set the ends of her spear alight, and created the dance you see now to keep them away."

"That's nice and all," Trixie said, having been listening, "or rather tragic I suppose, but I fail to see the significance of performing the dance right before a battle."

Seeker half smiled, "It used to be tradition that any zebra that wed was wed for life, even if their partner died. They were forbidden from remarrying, or even laying with another, to keep themself pure for their departed. This dance was used to remind our warriors that should they fall their loves would wait for them, and it is still danced now even when that tradition is all but gone." Seeker snorted with mirth, "Let's not also ignore the fact that its quite pleasant to watch, and the dancer quite beautiful."

"Thank you for telling us that," Twilight said earnestly.

"You're welcome, but it is far from the only reason I'm here, unfortunately. The second of your Wonderbolts has returned, reporting that the Mareitanians have set up camp a short distance from here. It seems Luna's prediction was right."

"They tend to be. Should we get ready in case they attack tonight?"

"We would have plenty of warning if they try that, and we would be more than ready. For now we should let our drums cry our defiance, and let them know that Zebrica will never bow to their tyranny. Zebrica milele! Zebrica forever!"

The shout was taken up by the other zebras until it echoed across the savannah where even the Mareitanians might have heard it. Twilight smiled at the sentiment, but in the back of her mind she could only remind herself that nothing lasted forever.

Author's Note

Not sure where I was going with this chapter, but it was a thing that happened, and is a pleasant piece of calm before it all kicks off, with bits of zebra culture thrown in for funzies.

33. Earning your stripes

Morning came, riding on the coattails of an all too short night. Anticipation of the coming fight had stopped Twilight from sleeping for more than a few hours, and in turn that far reduced the shock when the call went out that the Mareitanians were on the move.

"Really looking to make a full day of it, aren't they?" Trixie grumbled as she sipped from her canteen. "I think having Celestia with them must be reason why they're all about doing things 'at dawn.' It's stupid, and annoying."

"I'm pretty sure the temperature is also a factor," Twilight said with a smile. "Doing things before it gets too hot has always been a thing in Zebrica. And Saddle Arabia. And anywhere where it gets really hot during the day."

"And because our stupid sun horse princess advocates getting up at dawn. Do you remember those old motivational posters about it?"

"I'm surprised you do. They were made decades before either of us were born."

"And? I'm not ignorant, Twilight. How do you know about them?"

"The Royal Guard kept some in their barracks, which led me to finding out about the rest of them. My favourite was always the one with Celestia wearing a headscarf and flexing leg with the message saying 'working hard from dawn til dusk.'"

"Why did they even make those posters?"

Twilight shrugged, "It was a drive to boost productivity in our factories as the railways were set up, creating a massive surge in our economy. Better trade links in Equestria led to greater trade to outside Equestria, and so on and so forth. It wasn't sustainable at that rate, and led to a minor depression a few years later. Celestia tried to keep the economy stable after that, rather than push it to heights it can't stay at."

"And now she's doing her best to tear that world down."

Twilight nodded sadly. She wanted to say Celestia was doing it against her will, but it seemed pretty redundant to say it. Celestia was willingly doing everything she was doing right now, even if she wasn't aware of the drastic changes she'd endured to make her do so. The old Celestia would be horrified by everything she'd done.

"By the way, I'm calling dibs on Snowbright."

Twilight was caught off-guard by the statement, and it took her a while to even dumbly ask what Trixie was talking about.

"Snowbright. I'm calling dibs on him, to kill him. And don't say that we're going to capture him, because he's too dangerous to capture."

"Okay, fine, but you're not going to kill him if he surrenders."

Trixie rolled her eyes, "Fiiine... although that is heavily dependant on him doing so. I was under the impression he didn't know what surrendering was."

Twilight shrugged at that, then decided to ignore that to ask something else. "Why do you want to kill him? I'm pretty sure both Luna and myself have far greater reasons to want to kill him than you do."

"Probably, but I'm still calling dibs. That shitbag has it coming to him."

"Well, no, I don't care if you call dibs, because I'd rather take him alive if we can."

"I knew you were going to say that. What possible reason do you have to want him alive?"

Twilight wanted to say that it was the right thing to do, but frankly nopony would care if he died today. There might even be celebrations amongst certain circles if he did. Twilight wasn't sure why she wanted him alive, but she could at least give a reason.

"Faust isn't going to be around to pay for what she did. She gets a nice life in the oubliette. Somepony is going to have to take the blame, and Snowbright is chief among them to me. The Viscount is another if he's still alive at this point. We can't point a hoof at the entirety of Mareitania and expect justice to happen, but we can point it at those that triggered it all."

"Including Daybreak?"

Twilight hesitated, then nodded once. It was unfair to be sure, but his attempts to stop what was happening would matter greatly in his defence. The point was that there were a lot of ponies that would want somepony to blame, and those three, along with the rest of Mareitania's former leaders, were the only ones available.

"Is Celestia going to have to be involved in that?"

Twilight winced at that suggestion, and bit her lip as she thought quickly. Celestia was an unwilling victim in this, as far as they knew, but she had done too much to be absolved of all blame, mind manipulation or not. If the old Celestia could be brought back, perhaps something could be done, but if not it seemed likely she would have her portion of the blame.

"Twilight?"

"We're getting ahead of ourselves," Twilight muttered. "Our current job is to keep Zebrica free. Then we can work on retaking Equestria, stopping Faust, and then blaming the appropriate ponies. Fuck knows what we're going to do about the yaks. We're probably going to have problems with them for a very long time."

"You're talking about future problems again."

Twilight wished that was entirely true. "The yaks are also a current problem."

"Alright, I'll give you that much." Trixie stopped talking as a zebra with two large clay pots strapped over her back walked towards them. She wasn't walking directly towards them, but did stop nearby to lower the pots to the ground. Twilight was about to ask what was going on when she saw other zebras will similar pots spreading out around the zebra army.

"This seems like it'll be important," Twilight said to Trixie. "Come on."

Both of them went over to the zebra, who saw their arrival even amongst the other zebras crowding around her, and smiled warmly at them. "Councillor Kifuniko bid me to say to you hello."

"You're a shaman?" Twilight asked the mare, getting a nod back. "So this must be the Kuua?"

"That it is, as you can see. Put some on and safer from magic you'll be."

"Pass," Trixie said quickly. "I'll be wearing my armour, thank you very much."

"Not all of us have armour," Twilight said brusquely. She peered at the brownish green paint-like substance, then watched as some of the zebras around her put some on in designs that appeared very much like tribal war paint. "You don't cover yourself completely?"

"For some reason that escapes even me, to cover yourself completely is unnecessary. The Kuua works even with minimal spread, so put some on so you won't wind up dead."

"And it won't affect my magic?"

The shaman opened her mouth to answer, then shrugged. "That I cannot say, but choose whether to wear some quickly because we don't have all day."

"A simple 'I don't know' would've sufficed," Trixie grumbled. "Maybe it'll be fine as long as you don't put any on your horn?"

"Maybe." Twilight tried to scoop some up with her magic but failed, much to her embarrassment as some of the zebras sniggered at her. Instead she used her hoof, finding the Kuua to be quite chilly to the touch, but not unpleasant. She was reminded of Sunset's attempt to wear the anti magic armour, and worried that putting the Kuua on would be similar, but there was only one way to be sure. At the very least it would be nice to be distracted from the reminder of Sunset she just gave herself.

"Want some help?" Trixie asked as Twilight tried to work out where to start. All the zebras had paired up to help each other, so clearly this was a fairly common issue.

"If you don't mind. I also think you should put some on, even under your armour. It would hardly hurt," Twilight added as Trixie started to protest.

"Let's see how it affects you first," Trixie said as she started painting the Kuua onto Twilight's back with a hoof, the perfect design in mind for the situation.

-0-0-0-

"Half an hour," Luna repeated as she helped Rainbow with her own coating of Kuua, the pegasus returning with Vapor to report the Mareitanians progress. Vapor herself was getting helped by Cadence. "That hardly seems like enough time."

"They're not hanging around," Rainbow told her. "You'd almost think they were desperate for this to be over one way or another."

"There is only one way I wish for this to be over in, and that is in victory. I'll happily put off a defeat."

"Amen to that," Rainbow agreed, painting some of the Kuua around her eyes, then making some lighting bolts down her cheeks. "This is the weirdest preparation for a battle I've ever done. I kinda like it. Hopefully it still works under our armour."

"It will," Mistress Mjuzi assured her. "I've given the order for our warriors to hide in the city. All that remains is to draw the Mareitanians in."

"And that must be paid for in blood," Luna said quietly, earning herself an pained look from Cadence. "Hopefully the share of it shall be equal between us and them."

"Our warriors will do their part," Mjuzi stated with a small nod.

"And we shall do ours," Luna said back. If she were honest with herself, she wasn't sure. Both herself and Nightmare had spent many hours trying to teach Cadence how to fight, far from where the zebras could see them, and although she had picked it up well quite well, she was far from making up for the millennia and a half of experience Celestia had over her.

"Off topic, but where are Twilight and Trixie?" Vapor asked. "Shouldn't they be here with you?"

"They seem to have chosen to stay amongst the zebra warriors." Luna breathed in deeply and sighed, "I couldn't say why. Perhaps they wish to try and lessen the blow there, which I am more than happy to let them do, so long as they remember to fall back when required."

There was little more to say or do after that, at least until Lightning Dust returned with the fifteen minute warning. Luna spent the time adorning herself and Cadence with the Kuua for whatever advantage it might give them over Celestia.
They had barely finished when Lightning Dust returned, giving them the final warning before the Mareitanians reached them. It seemed a bit redundant in the end as from the top of the small rise they occupied they could see the Mareitanians well enough, their armour shining in the morning sun. Cut in half as it was, the Zebra army seemed pitiful in comparison.

"I think they plan to attack as soon as they get here," Lightning told them as her body was quickly smothered with Kuua. "They're heading right for you at any rate."

"Then there is hope that they are totally unaware of our greater plan." Luna grinned with relief, "Perhaps we might pull this off. Mistress Mjuzi, the field is yours."

-0-0-0-

The zebras started forming lines as commands issued in the zebra tongue echoed across the land. Twilight and Trixie had no chance of following the commands themselves, but as they made their way towards the front the zebras around them seemed more than happy with their presence, making room for them, and for the grey, axe wielding unicorn that joined them.

"What are you doing here?" Twilight asked Nightmare as she sidled up beside them. "I thought you were with Luna."

"Luna hardly needs me to hold her hoof. I was supposed to be fighting in the city with you two, but since you're here, I decided I should be here too. Gives me a chance to work on my yak tally."

"Why aren't you wearing any Kuua?" Trixie asked. "I'll happily put some on you if you want?"

"First, that was creepy. Second, you gave Twilight zebra stripes in a way that's borderline racist, and third, that stuff would ruin my disguise, so I'd rather not do that."

"That would happen?"

"Yep. Apparently they use this Kuua stuff to test for changelings. It forces them to shed their disguises, so it would probably do the same to me. Besides, doesn't that stuff interfere with your magic?"

"Doesn't seem to so far."

"Have you tried teleporting with it?"

Twilight's eyes widened a little. She hadn't thought of that, and was now a little mortified that it never occurred to her that the Kuua would probably mess with teleportation in a serious way. A quick attempt, and failure, to teleport confirmed as much.

"Fuck. Fuck-fuck-fuck. I bet Luna and Cadence are wearing this stuff as well."

"At least I won't lose my armour this time," Trixie said like it was some kind of serious consolation for the four of them fucking up their ability to teleport out of danger. "Uh... you can still fly with it, right?"

Twilight flapped her wings, then performed a little loop-de-loop. "Flying is okay, because we'd be having to wash this stuff off me pretty quick if it wasn't. It's also lucky that I can still pick you up by your armour if I have to."

"You guys really didn't think this through," Nightmare snickered. "You know it's a good day when I'm being the sensible one."

"Makes me think we're doomed," Trixie laughed. "I mean, look at all those ponies and yaks, and here we are fighting them using an army of zebras armed with fancy paint and pointy sticks."

"Trixie," Twilight growled, letting the tone do the talking for her.

"Fine. Spears. Pointy wooden spears."

"That is not what I meant!"

"I know, but I enjoy frustrating you."

Twilight shook her head, hoping the motion would somehow stop Trixie from trying to annoy her further. It seemed to work as neither she nor Nightmare said anything more, at least until a chanting started amongst the zebras as they banged their spears on the ground.

"Kifo huja, kifo huja, kifo huja kwako! Kifo huja, kifo huja, kifo huja kwako!"

"I wonder what they're saying," Trixie asked loud enough to be heard over the chanting. "No doubt it's meant to unnerve the enemy, but I severely doubt the Mareitanians know what they're saying if we don't."

"Celestia might," said Twilight.

"Death comes, death comes, death comes to you." Nightmare shrugged at the both of them, "I know some zebra. Sue me."

"Hopefully this is more foreboding than it is ironic then," Trixie commented. "I can imagine the zebras' shock when it turns out that death came for them instead."

Nightmare sniggered at Trixie, "Is this your idea of a pep talk?"

"Not quite. Normally I'd shout 'last one to get their throat cut is a rotten egg,' but most of these zebra wouldn't understand me anyway."

Nightmare laughed, "Trixie, it is going to be an absolute honour watching you die stupidly on the battlefield."

Trixie looked sideways at Twilight for a reaction to that, because even she thought it was too soon to be saying that kind of thing after losing Sunset. Twilight seemed to hiding it though, with the only sign of her getting annoyed being a tightening of the skin around her eyes.

"And that's the end of that discussion," Trixie muttered. The Mareitanians weren't far away now, spreading out to flank the zebras, so it would've ended soon anyway. "Wish us luck, guys," she said as she placed her helm on her head.

Shields started springing up as the Mareitanians came into what they considered to the range of the zebra archers. Twilight would've done the same, but she decided to not tread on the zebras hooves like that. They believed the Kuua would protect them from magic, so she would too. Of course arrows were a different matter, but the Mareitanians couldn't fire any with their shields up anyway.

"Come on you bastards," Nightmare growled as she twirled her axe lengthways, "stop fucking around and attack us."

"Who said anything about waiting for them to attack us?" Twilight said to Nightmare, a hint of a grin on her face. Almost as if they had been waiting for her word, the call to attack sounded with the blowing of a horn. Twilight charged forward with the zebras, leaving a temporarily stunned Trixie and Nightmare behind for a moment.

The zebra crashed against the shields the Mareitanians had raised, much to the amused confusion of those within it. The amusement soon fled as the zebras started to attack the shield with their weapons. Weapons coated in Kuua. Even to Twilight's surprise the spears were cutting through the shield, making small holes that were quickly forced wider. Entire sections of the shield were soon collapsing as the zebras pushed themselves through the gaps.

Twilight joined as the Mareitanians gave up on the shield entirely to focus on attacking. Arrows started to fly from both sides as the zebras met a line of yaks that seemed to be considerably more unyielding than the shield had been. Zebras were being gored by horns, and trampled by hooves, and for a short while the attack faltered. A break had to be made in the yaks' line, and Twilight would make it.

A powerful blast of magic leapt off Twilight's horn, hurtling towards a yak that Twilight considered to be the largest of them. It was about to strike when a shield caught the blast. A shield conjured by none other than Nightmare.

"What the fuck are you doing!?"

"Mine!" Nightmare shouted back, laughing merrily as she ran up to the yak, dodged his horns, and split his head with her axe.

Twilight blinked, dumbfounded, then shook it off to run screaming towards the yaks as the zebras surged towards the opening. Swordy appeared, striking out with lightning speed to widen the gap even further. She leapt over the bodies of the yaks to find even more yaks, although they were too busy keeping clear of the axe wielding Nightmare. They never saw Twilight coming until one of them found two of his legs missing.

Zebras followed after Twilight, trying to overwhelm the yaks through numbers, dragging them down and killing them, or bracing their spears on the ground if they charged. It was working, but the rate of attrition was far too high. For every yak that fell, at least one zebra fell with them. The exchange of arrows and magic was also becoming rather one sided in favour of the Mareitanians.

Three booms of thunder echoed around the savannah as the Wonderbolts joined the fight with their lightning. It was then that Twilight saw Celestia for the briefest moment, taking off to confront the three pegasi. Twilight near shrieked in panic at the thought of the alicorn going after Rainbow and her friends, but to her great relief, Luna and Cadence were there to protect them.

"Twilight!"

Twilight jumped at the sound of Trixie shouting her name, and turned just in time to see the yak charging at her for a split second before her senses were overwhelmed by being struck with its horns.

Twilight landed hard, tumbling over and over until the body of a fallen zebra stopped her. She heard a scream, although that might've been herself, then it stopped. A moment later a hoof was offered, and Twilight used it to pull herself up.

"Your problem," said Trixie, her armour spattered with blood, "is that you're too easily distracted."

Twilight looked back over Trixie to the yak that hit her. It was dead in a way that Twilight could only describe as being classic Trixie.

"Come on, we're almost through the yaks. We can start hitting the ponies after that."

Nodding dumbly, her head still spinning, Twilight followed after Trixie.

-0-0-0-

Cadence did at least deserve some credit. True she hadn't once made a single attempt at attacking, but her shields were both quick and strong. While she hadn't struck an enemy once, not once had an enemy struck them, which served Luna just as well, and the Wonderbolts had to at least be thankful after Celestia tried to incinerate them.

Luna smiled as Cadence saved her from another attack from Celestia. She wasn't too proud to admit that she was enjoying the aggravation Cadence was causing Celestia more than she probably should. Each blocked attack had Celestia howling with rage. That sound of that was slightly less enjoyable.

Luna couldn't even begin to guess what was going on in Celestia's head. She appeared to look the same, except for cutting down her bulky suit of armour into something that looked more like what Luna had worn as Nightmare Moon. Her behaviour was something else though. If Luna were to guess, the fake personality Faust had given Celestia had split. Most of the time she appears as she would normally, but when confronted with Luna, or Twilight, or anypony against her mother, she turns into a raging, equicidal maniac.

The joke Luna had made about Celestia's 'fiery temper' really hadn't helped.

Waves of flame rolled through the skies over the battle, all emanating from Celestia. The Wonderbolts had retreated at Luna's order, because this was quickly becoming something that they shouldn't even be near, let alone part of.

"What is she trying to do?" Cadence asked, her chest aching from breathing in the uncomfortably warm air. "Is she trying to cook us?"

"We all know that wouldn't work. Not outside like this. Just keep your eyes on her."

Cadence did so, all while maintaining a shield that saved both her and Luna from the flames. As Luna had said to, she kept an eye on Celestia, watching as she suddenly reversed the flow of the flames, drawing them into a massive fireball that she lobbed at the two alicorns.

It was to little avail though, as between them Luna and Cadence held it off. They hadn't accounted for the distraction it provided though as Celestia followed in the wake of the fireball, teleporting behind them and attacking as soon as it had weakened their shield.

Cadence screamed as Celestia's magic burned a line down her back, and the shock alone almost knocked her out of the sky. Luna was quickly to her side, fending Celestia off to give Cadence a little time to recover. Cadence screamed again for good measure as it felt like somepony had poured molten metal over her.

"Fight, Cadence! We won't beat her using nothing but shields!"

Cadence nodded shakily, gasping in lungful's of air as her words failed her. She'd gotten a taste of what real pain was, and she had no desire to experience it again.

Cadence turned and fired a beam of magic at Celestia, the elder alicorn holding it back with a shield as Luna flew around to attack her from the other side. Celestia couldn't hold back the power of both of them, so teleported up to escape, then flew back down directly towards Cadence.

Cadence froze for a moment. She wanted to teleport, but couldn't, and was afraid that Celestia would attack her from behind again if she used a shield. Thankfully Celestia became distracted by something below, giving Cadence a chance to simply fly away.

"Don't freeze," Luna scolded as they joined back up.

"If I didn't have this stupid Kuua on I could've teleported."

"That stupid Kuua saved your life. That burn on your back would've been a lot worse without it." Luna glanced down, trying to see what it was that had distracted Celestia, and supposed that it could only have been Ember breathing fire down on the enemy. The distraction didn't last long for any of them.

"Why must this go on?" Celestia suddenly asked out loud. "How many lives could be spared if you just gave up on this unwinnable war you insist on fighting?"

Luna raised an eyebrow at her sister, "You actually care about their lives?"

Celestia didn't answer immediately, like she was thinking about the question. "Of course I do. Each death here is one less soldier to create my Mother's vision."

"Then you really are lost. Each death on both sides would've horrified the Celestia I know and love, and not because she felt obliged to be horrified. Faust's turned you into a monster."

"Sometimes it takes a monster to stop a monster!" Celestia flew straight for Luna, a spell building on her horn that she unleashed once she was in range. Luna blocked the attack, and Cadence, feeling a little ignored, but mostly frightened, fired a beam of magic point blank at Celestia, knocking her off the course she was holding directly towards Luna.

"See? Just like that," Luna said, feeling a little proud of the pink princess. "If we watch each others' backs, she won't be able to beat us."

"I didn't mean to do that! It just happened!"

"Then let it keep happening!" Luna juked left as Celestia came back with a vengeance, dodging the magical projectiles her sister was firing with wild abandon. She turned back as she remembered that Cadence was still down there, then stopped, stunned as Cadence not only shielded herself, but then smacked Celestia with the shield. Luna used the opportunity to fire a beam of magic down at Celestia, knocking her into a freefall that it took several seconds to recover from. Recover she did though, flying straight back up at them to attack again.

"Why does she keep trying?" Cadence asked. "She can't win when she's outnumbered, so why does she keep trying?"

"The trick is to make it so you're not outnumbered. Take out one of us and the fight is so much better for her." Luna drifted to the side so she could see Cadence's back, and the angry red burn going up it. That was going to be a problem when the adrenaline wore off. "Try to trap her using your shields, then I'll take her out."

Cadence nodded, then flew down towards Celestia. Celestia fired a spell at her, but Cadence rolled to the side to evade it, the twisting of her back painfully pulling at the burn. Her horn lit up, placing a shield between Celestia and Luna as she flew down past, forcing Celestia to quickly stop or hit it. Another shield went up to stop Celestia from attacking her, while Celestia left her back exposed.

Magic tore into Celestia's back as Luna attacked, pushing her forward to also smack painfully against Cadence's shield. Luna pushed the attack, pinning Celestia against the shield until it shattered from the pressure, and Celestia dropped from the sky to land roughly on the battlefield.

Luna and Cadence followed her down, only to back up quickly as a burst of flame reduced some inquisitive zebras to charred husks. Celestia roared up into the sky on a trail of fire, weakened, bleeding, but still kicking.

"You think you can win here, but you can't! Even now your pitiful army breaks!"

That much was true at least. The zebras were doing better than Luna had expected, but that wasn't saying much since she hadn't expected them to do very well at all in this current battle. Luna looked back up at Celestia to deliver a retort, but her sister was already gone.

"I think this has gone on long enough," said Luna. "Cadence, head to the Kumbi Mzee and wait there. Maybe get something to treat that burn while you do. We'll start pulling back into the city, and see if we can't even this fight a little."

-0-0-0-

Even as she fought, Twilight found herself wondering how much of the Mareitanians military methods were her idea. The Adepts certainly were, while the arbalests with their crossbows were probably too standard an idea to claim credit for. The equipment they used was probably her idea though, with their focus on quality armour that could protect a pony from most things. What Twilight didn't remember was taking that idea and running wild with it, creating a branch of earth ponies whose thick armour was also a weapon. Somepony else had to have thought of that.

The idea wasn't without merit though, as Twilight had quickly found out as one of those Juggernauts came right at her, brushing off her magic until he was close enough for Twilight to pierce his armour with Swordy. For a moment Twilight had been genuinely concerned, which was a feeling that wasn't going anywhere as there were plenty more of the armoured bastards around.

Twilight braced herself as one came right for her, and tackled them to a standstill, much to the Juggernauts' surprise as they were stopped by a pony half their size. There wasn't much to see of the pony through the narrow slits they used to see through, but the sharp intake of breath Twilight heard suggested recognition on the Juggernauts' behalf. Twilight had no idea who they were, and as she stabbed Swordy up into their chest, she supposed she never would.

A loud clang of metal on metal told Twilight that Nightmare was still nearby, and that she found the Juggernauts to be far less interesting to fight than the yaks. All Twilight could sense of Trixie was a chilly feeling coming from nearby. She had tried to not use dark magic, but as the fight got heavier, she soon fell back into using it almost exclusively. Twilight had decided to merely sigh about it and move on.

Twilight pushed ever onwards, opening the gap they'd made in the Mareitanian lines wider and wider. The Juggernauts ran dry, and Twilight suddenly found herself face to face with an Adept, who instinctively fired their magic at her before Twilight had so much as a chance to think about putting up a shield.

Static tingled prickled Twilight's skin as the blast of magic washed over her. And that was it, there was no serious pain, no solid impact, nothing. A zebra jumped past her, going for an Adept. The Kuua she was daubed with glowed brightly as it absorbed the magic of a spell, but that was it. The zebra grunted with discomfort, then speared the Adept that attacked her.

"Holy shit, that stuff actually works."

They'd found a weak spot in the Adepts, whose magic could overwhelm the Kuua, but not fast enough to stop the flow of zebras. Twilight went with them, capitalising on the chaos to try and thin their numbers as much as she could.

"Rudisha! Rudisha!"

Twilight looked around as the zebras faltered, then started to pull back, wondering what was going on. "What are you all doing? We're winning!"

"Are you so sure about that?" Nightmare asked. "We might be winning here, but it might be going to shit everywhere else!"

"But-" Twilight cursed, fully aware that Nightmare was probably right. She fired a few blind blasts to deter those that wanted to follow her, then ran after the zebras, grabbing Trixie along the way. "Stick with the zebras, Nightmare! We'll find you in the city!"

"What are we going to be do-waahhh!" Trixie shouted as Twilight hauled her into the air by her armour. "Fucking hell, this is pinching me in all the worst ways."

Twilight ignored Trixie, her eyes fixated on the battle. As Nightmare had said, the battle had not progressed as well in other places. In other places they hadn't even made it past the yaks. If Twilight had kept going, eventually the Mareitanians would've surrounded them, and that would've been a death sentence for the zebras with her. Maybe Trixie too.

"I guess Luna took care of Celestia," Trixie said as Twilight continued to scan her eyes over the battlefield.

"For now. Even if Celestia died today, we lose this battle and she wins anyway."

"And there's the optimistic Twilight I know and know." Trixie looked down as a rush of heat buffeted Twilight and herself. Ember was attacking the Mareitanians, but only to try and give the zebras a better chance of fleeing. "Should we be helping her?"

"You carry on if you want," Twilight said to Trixie. "I'm trying to see if there are any pockets of zebras trapped."

"So you can, what? Teleport them out? Not if they're covered in Kuua you won't."

Twilight cursed under her breath, having forgotten about that. She was probably better off helping those that could get to the city. The Wonderbolts had the same idea as the roar of their thunder informed everyone for miles around that they were back. Swooping down, Twilight decided to help them.

Bolts of magic peppered the battlefield, but Twilight had to admit that even between Trixie and herself, they didn't compare to the devastation that Ember was unleashing. Swaths of flame consumed dozens of Mareitanians at a time, deterring them from chasing right after the zebras. She had to be careful to not overplay her claw though, because there were still plenty of ponies capable of attacking her.

"She's going to get herself killed doing that," Trixie said as several Adepts tried to hit the dragoness. She deftly evaded the spells, but she wouldn't be lucky every time, and dragon or not, a lucky hit could bring her down. "Do you think we should go stop her?"

"Probably." Twilight flew down and dropped Trixie amongst the retreating zebras, "Head into the city and try to catch up with Nightmare. I'll find you both when I can."

Twilight waited for a confirmation of any sort from Trixie, then quickly flew up towards Ember. With less zebras around she was quickly becoming the main target for a lot of Mareitanians. Both magic and arrows were attempting to batter her out of the sky, but so far she'd been lucky. Twilight didn't expect that luck to hold for much longer.

"Ember!" Twilight flew alongside the dragon, using her magic to deflect the magic and arrows that she felt came too close. "You need to fall back! You're going to get yourself killed!"

Ember shook her head, "I can't. I need to buy the zebras more time to escape."

"But the Mareitanians are supposed to chase us!"

"Not that fast!" Ember rolled left suddenly, leaving Twilight to wonder why when a bolt of magic whistled past the end of her wing, barely missing singeing her feathers. "You need to go."

Twilight scrunched her nose up, the decision made that Ember was going to go with her, like it or not. That decision was rather wasted when Luna joined them.

"What are you both doing? You need to fall back to the city!"

"That's what I was trying to say!"

"But the zebras aren't all away yet!"

Luna aimed a sympathetic smile at Ember, "You can't save them all, Ember. I wish we could, but we can't. We'll stop those giving chase, but we really do need to go."

It seemed like Ember was going to refuse to listen for a moment, but eventually gave them a sullen nod. It occurred then to Twilight that Ember hadn't really been in a battle like this before. She'd never had to cross that line of letting people die. This had to be a rough experience for her, which Twilight could sympathise with.

"Come on, we'll take down as many as we can while we go," Twilight offered. Ember readily agreed, so the three of them flew down together, making sure that any yaks and ponies tailing the zebras really regretted it.

-0-0-0-

"I really hate that dragon," Snowbright said as he watched the two princesses fly away with the object of his ire. "How are we even supposed to fight that?"

His question, while rhetorical, was also directed at Celestia while she had her wounds treated. He wasn't about to say it, but he was also annoyed that she had once again failed in her mission to defeat her sister. Yes he could understand that fighting more than one alicorn at a time was hardly easy, but it was literally the one task that Celestia was here for, other than convincing the zebras of the true path. Considering the fight they were putting up, she had already failed at that task.

"Without fliers, you can't. You might get lucky if you hit her wings, but that's the kind of chance we can't reply on. Besides, I wouldn't try too hard to kill her."

"Why not?"

"Because eventually her father would find out, and her father is maybe half the size of Canterlot. He could wipe out this army in minutes if he applied himself even a little."

Snowbright found himself shuddering at the thought of that. The only thing that could save them from that was Faust herself, but she was nowhere near here. "So you recommend leaving the dragon alone, despite how much damage she's done to our mission?"

"If capturing her was an option, I would do it in an instance!" Celestia snapped, her patience fraying. "As it is, I've gotten an extra alicorn to fight now because Cadence seems to have developed a spine! The dragon is not my concern. It is yours!"

Snowbright kept his mouth shut. Getting into an argument with Celestia was increasingly seeming like a terminal decision. Even here, under the sun of the Zebrican savannah, he could feel the heat coming off her. He was sweating buckets under his armour.

"Well?" Celestia asked after a few minutes, "What are they doing?"

"Retreating into the city. No doubt they wish to give us a hard time trying to take it. Clearly Twilight and Luna have forgotten that we have experience at this."

"And are you sure the obvious trap isn't in fact obvious?"

"I'm sure it is, but we outnumber them at what must currently be at least a three to one ratio. If we take it slow we'll root out every last one of them. All that leaves is for you to take care of your sister, Princess Cadence, and Twilight."

"What did you just call her?"

Snowbright cursed himself for the slip of his tongue. Faust had forbidden everypony from mentioning Celestia's relation to Luna, to help maintain the mental image she carried of Luna. He didn't know why, since Celestia was aware even now that they were technically sisters, but that is what they were all bidden to do.

"Apologies, Princess, I meant no disrespect."

"She is not my sister, and her existence is an insult to everything my Mother and I stand for."

Snowbright swallowed as the temperature crept up a few more degrees. The ponies treating Celestia seemed to be having trouble even being that close to her, let alone touching her. "It won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't." The temperature lowered again, much to all their relief, and Celestia stood to observe the city. If they still had ships they could attack from the harbour the city was built around, but alas that option was no longer open to them. They would have to take the city directly, fighting back whatever pitiful resistance the zebras that fled the battle could put up.

"Start preparations to enter the city. By the time the sun sets, Zanzebra, and Zebrica with it, shall belong to Faust."

"And if it doesn't?"

Celestia hummed, a cruel smile sneaking onto her lips. "Then I might have to see how flammable that city is."

Snowbright nodded, not looking to refuse in front of Celestia. In the depths of his mind though, he was wondering if Faust would still recognise the mare her daughter had become over the last week.

Author's Note

The battle begins!

34. City of death

It had gone quiet, which was what got to Twilight the most. They'd retreated with all speed to the city in the expectation that the Mareitanians would chase after them. They did, and were clearly planning to enter the city, but the clever buggers were taking their time to evenly distribute their forces to slowly and carefully invade. Unfortunately, until that happened, there was relatively little to do. At the very least it gave the zebras a chance to patch up those wounded still capable of fighting.

"If I'd known they were going to take so long I'd have brought snacks."

Twilight breathed a laugh, "You could eat at a time like this?"

"You couldn't?" Trixie said back.

"It's only been twenty minutes."

"Feels a lot longer than twenty minutes."

"True enough." Twilight looked down over the edge of the building whose roof they were stood on to watch the Mareitanians. The street below was empty, for the moment, but it didn't take much to imagine the crush of ponies, yaks, and zebras that would be there soon as they vied for survival and dominance.

"What do you think the odds are of us winning this?"

Twilight pulled back from the edge to give Trixie a sideways glance, "What kind of question to ask is that?"

"One that I feel deserves an answer."

"If we were on the other side of this, what do you think the answer would be?"

"That it'd hurt, but we'd get it done. That's how it always worked." Trixie bit down on her bottom lip as her concern grew, "I'm not sure I like being on this side at the moment."

"While I do agree with that, we also have to factor in the Kuua, zebra fighting methods, and that the Mareitanians don't know the city in the slightest. In Mareitania we had soldiers from all over, so there was always somepony who knew whatever city we were attacking."

"Hmm, perhaps. I'll reserve my judgement for when my body is strung up for the Mareitanians to gawp at."

"Oh great, more talk about how my friends are going to die. Delightful."

"Sorry Twi, but you know the whole morbid thing is our shtick."

Twilight smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I know. I just wish it didn't feel so portentous right now." Twilight lost her smile and sat with a sigh, "I wish Sunset was here. I wish Celestia was on our side. I wish we had a lot of things."

Trixie sat next to Twilight and leaned against her, hoping her armour conveyed some of the warmth the gesture was meant to show. "This is going to sound super sappy, but we have each other and the rest of our friends. Somehow, despite the long odds that were always against us, we're pulling this whole thing off, even if we lose here today."

"Faust could still win yet. We still have a lot to do, and a lot that could go wrong."

"We're supposed to be attempting optimism right now."

"Right, sorry, sorry." Twilight leaned back against Trixie and let the moment last as long as possible as the Mareitanians prepared their attack. There was apparently a saying in Zebrica that all roads led to Zanzebra. In Equestria, all roads led to Canterlot. Twilight did wonder if there was a version of that saying for every country, but right now the more important thing was that it was reasonably true for Zebrica. There were so many roads and entrances into Zanzebra, a city without walls, that the Mareitanians were really having to split themselves up to cover them all. Hopefully that worked against them.

"Maybe we can actually do this."

Trixie leaned away to give Twilight a look of fake surprise, "Good heavens, is my attempt at positive thinking actually working?"

"Oh hell no, your armour is digging into my shoulder too much for that." Twilight smiled as Trixie sighed and stopped leaning against her. "I was just thinking that we might genuinely stand a chance at doing this."

"Took you long enough."

Twilight stood as the Mareitanians finally completed their preparations and started to advance on the city, "Come on Trixie, we have a battle to win."

Both of them went back inside and down to their ambush point, where Nightmare was waiting for them, the axe held in her magic presenting a grim image. "Does this mean they're coming?"

Twilight nodded, "It does."

Nightmare grinned, revealing teeth slightly too pointy for the unicorn she was supposed to be disguised as. "It's about time, I was starting to get bored. So are they coming Adept first, or yak first?"

"Yak first."

Nightmare held a hoof up to her mouth and smacked her lips. "Perfection," she purred. "I do so hope they remember to put up more of a fight this time. Their lives might just depend on it."

-0-0-0-

Cadence's back was a mess. That was all Luna really had to say about it. Give it a week and you'd hardly be able to tell it was there, speaking as she was as a pony with one of her cutie marks currently missing. Alicorns healed fast, and they healed everything. It was pretty convenient really. What was less convenient was the timing. Cadence was in a significant amount of pain, and her wound considerably lessened her ability to fight, so taking on Celestia again if she reared her metaphorically ugly head was an uncomfortable prospect.

"I hope Flurry's doing okay without me."

At least Cadence's priorities were no different to usual.

"No offence to Flurry, but I hope Daring, Mayfly, and Moondancer are okay without you. Flurry can be quite the hooffull, and I'm saying that as a mere observer."

"Aren't you supposed to be more concerned for your niece's wellbeing?"

"Dear Cadence, if I ever offer to foalsit, it's because she's reached an age where I deem her capable of caring for herself, like after she graduates from Canterlot University. As it stands, I feel sorry for anypony looking after her who isn't you. Especially when Flurry isn't used to being away from you for any length of time. I dread to think what trouble she might be causing them."

"You are not making me feel better!"

"I realise that, yes, and I'm sorry." Luna went quiet as a fresh application of salve was spread over Cadence's wound, and did her best to express sympathy as Cadence made it obvious that it hurt. In all honesty though, Luna'd had considerably more painful things done to her on purpose, so her inner monologue was busy telling Cadence to suck it up. Thankfully the arrival of Vapor Trail gave her an excuse to stop.

"They've started their advance, and will enter the city in a few minutes. We haven't seen Celestia with them, so I think she's hanging back for now."

"Then she hopes for us to get distracted with the battle before entering the city. Too bad for her she won't find the Council where she expects to. Thank you, Vapor. Return to the others and tell them to return here to relay our commander's orders to the front."

Vapor saluted and left, leaving Luna alone with Cadence and the zebra healer tending her. "Try not to linger here too long. When Celestia comes, we will need to be ready. Hopefully the Night Maidens have removed everything of import as I asked, because I do not expect this place to survive the fight."

"Where will you be?"

"I shall be with Mistress Mjuzi, seeing how she steers this battle. Hopefully this all works out how we hope."

"Okay. Be careful."

"Oh Cadence, you know I can't do that." Luna left, smiling at the sigh she heard from Cadence. It was hardly her fault that battles and being careful don't really work well together.

It was quiet outside the Kumbi Mzee, high on its hill, surrounded by the city on three of its sides, and the ocean to its south. The battle had not yet started, but when it did, there would be no silence to enjoy.

Mistress Mjuzi was outside the main entrance, leaning heavily on a table that held a single map of the city, covered in markers depicting her own forces as well as the Mareitanians', of which there was a greater number of markers. She'd split them up so that there was roughly an similar number of markers entering into the seven lanes of the city. Luckily for the defenders, none of those roads maintained a straight line through the city.

"Your pegasus has informed me they are coming."

Luna nodded, having already worked out that was how the Mistress knew the rough positioning of the Mareitanians. Maybe she knew the composition too, but lacked the markers to show it.

"They had little choice if you think about it," Luna said conversationally while Mistress Mjuzi brooded over her map. "They lack the supplies for a siege, and don't know the land anywhere near well enough to live off it. Show a yak a snowy mountain and they could make you a feast, but here even the grass would stump them. They have no choice but to end this quickly."

"Then let us hope that desperation doesn't sharpen their edges."

Luna silently agreed. Desperate people could do some amazing things when they lack any other choices. Ten thousand yaks and ponies against roughly nine thousand zebras, a quartet of alicorns, a trio of pegasi, a dragon, and Trixie, who was currently unique enough to get her own category. If Sunset were still alive to fight, they could've been lumped together as a pair of unicorns, which could lead on to the singular dragon, but her untimely death ruined that.

Luna mentally apologised to Sunset for even thinking of that. Anyway, bringing herself back to her own point, the Mareitanians already outnumbered them, and hardly needed the extra motivation of running out of supplies. In other circumstances Luna would've laughed at their lack of preparation to come to Zebrica, but right now it wasn't so funny.

"They are entering the city," Mistress Mjuzi said quietly.

Luna looked up as the flapping of wings told her the Wonderbolts had arrived. "Then let us end this, one way or the other."

-0-0-0-

There was a method to the coming battle, which was about as much at Twilight could say about it. The Mareitanians had to be drawn into the city before the ambushes started, because otherwise you were just getting yourselves wiped out a dozen zebras at a time. You had to wait for them to pass, and then attack in a way that splits the Mareitanians up into small groups that could be killed.

Of course that was easier said than done. The Mareitanians were moving in slowly, quickly searching the buildings as they went, looking for zebras. Thankfully the zebras weren't that dumb, and were hidden on rooftops, and in hidden alcoves, and anywhere that wasn't obvious. They were also hidden in the sewers, of which Zanzebra had quite an extensive amount, much to Twilight's surprise. Then she felt a little ashamed for assuming the zebras wouldn't be advanced enough to have them.

Some zebras had been discovered of course. It was only inevitable that some would, and it could only be hoped that they at least took some of their killers with them. The Mareitanians weren't being overly careful, but they weren't being sloppy either. They wouldn't miss everything.

What they did miss was the false wall that Twilight was standing behind as she watched the Mareitanians go past through the barely five pony wide street beyond. It had been a doorway, but a liberal application of magic had disguised it as a solid wall that she could see through. She eyed the Mareitanians with open disdain, noting how inattentive they became the further back from the front they were. They'd regret that.

"Y'know, I think I've worked out what made fighting in Mareitania easier," Trixie said as they waited for a distraction to begin attacking.

Twilight drew her eye from the street for a split second to look at Trixie, then returned it to watching the sewer grate in the middle of the road. "And what might that be?"

"The copious amounts of alcohol in my system. There weren't many days back then where I didn't have a belly half full of bourbon."

Twilight laughed quietly. The barrier would block some of the noise they were making, but there was no point in taking risks. "I suppose that would be a contributing factor, but I'm not exactly going to recommend it as something we should do now."

"Do zebras even drink bourbon anyway?" Trixie directed the question to Seeker, who was crouched ready to attack alongside a dozen other zebras.

"I'm not sure how to answer that question. If you were to put a bourbon in front of me, I could drink it, and feel rich doing it. Bourbon isn't produced in Zebrica, so tends to be a luxury imported item."

"So it's unlikely I could find some?" Trixie sighed as Seeker shook her head, "Not even if I asked whether you would kindly find me some?"

Seeker's demeanour turned cold, "I would not do so even if asked in that way, but I do instead feel a strange compulsion to hit you in the mouth hard enough to cost you some teeth."

"Ah, so that's how you decided to deal with that. Good choice."

"Will you shush?" Twilight chastised them. "Some of us are trying to get ready to attack."

"Better stop talking, Seeker, she's getting tetchy."

"Not that I needed it explained to me, but I really can see why some people find you incredibly annoying, Trixie."

"Shush! The both of you! For fuck sake."

To Twilight's relief the other two did go quiet, although Nightmare took over on their behalf by complaining that Twilight had let all the yaks past. Twilight didn't know why it was her fault, since she was also waiting for the signal to attack, but she was starting to share some of the sentiments about this taking too long. She kept watching the grate, but she was starting to think about starting the attack anyway.

Thankfully she didn't have to wait much longer as she saw the tip of a spear hovering just below the grate. She waved for the others to get ready, her eyes never leaving the spear, even as it jabbed up into the belly of a mare walking over the grate.

Twilight cringed as the mare screamed, then again as more screams came from other places. All around the city, both ponies and yaks were finding out that even the street below them wasn't safe to walk upon. Twilight had wanted to argue against it, but also agreed that it was an unfortunately effective start to the battle. One that could easily sway things in their favour.

Twilight waited a few seconds for confusion to stir through all of them in the street as some tried to help those that had been attacked. Others quickly searched around, trying to work out what had happened, and those were the first to fall as Twilight dropped the barrier and blasted the nearest ponies point blank with her magic.

Nightmare leapt over her into the street as she kept pouring spell after spell into the Mareitanians, none of them quite able to muster an adequate response to the sudden attack. Nightmare swung her axe around the opening Twilight had given her, brutally cutting down a Juggernaut as Trixie, Seeker, and the other zebras ran into the fray.

Twilight stayed where she was for the time being, using the slight height advantage the doorway gave her to rain magical destruction on the Mareitanians. Even in the short span of time since the attack began, bodies were already starting to pile up, although she doubted it would remain that way for much longer. Even in the chaos, a spear wielding pony thrust at one of the zebra, killing him with a high pitched nicker that was loud enough to be heard over the din of the battle. Twilight quickly avenged him, but as the Mareitanians started to rally, she doubted she could avenge all the zebras that would fall today.

Shields started to spring up further up the street as a group of Adepts decided to hang back and let the current skirmish die down before attacking again. Twilight couldn't let that happen, because as soon as they ran out of opponents, the Adepts had no reason to hold back from using their magic to whittle those zebras down. That might've worked if it was just zebras they were fighting.

"Trixie!" Twilight leapt out of the doorway, Swordy flashing side to side as ponies tried to intercept her. Trixie was quickly behind her, having picked up on Twilight's intent as soon as she saw the shields. Magic from both their horns battered the shields, tearing holes in it that they were quick to exploit by attacking the ponies hiding behind it, trying desperately to keep the shield up.

Two final bursts of magic tore the shield down, and Twilight leapt among the Adepts, her horn blazing with destructive spells as Swordy sliced through their thin armour like it was made of butter. Ponies tried to push past to flank her, but Trixie was with her, informing them it was a bad idea. Between them, they held off the Mareitanians while Nightmare led the Zebras after those that had already entered the city.

Trixie grunted with effort, and a wall of crystals filled the street, cutting the Mareitanians off from this avenue of attack. She slumped against the barrier, her chest heaving from the short burst of exertion.

"Haven't had to fight like that in a while," she puffed.

Twilight tapped the back of a hoof against the wall of crystals, then backed off at the sound of an impact from the other side. Then she turned around and really saw the trail of carnage that led them to this point. Sixty, seventy bodies, maybe even more, were strewn along the ground behind them. Most of them were dead, but some were only injured, including the mare that had suffered the first attack. Her screams had been exchanged for a frightened whimpering as she squeezed herself up to the side of a building.

"Twilight? Are you alright?"

Twilight blinked, her wits returning to her. "Yeah, sorry, I-um... it's been a while since I've really had to fight like this."

"So the coup in Griffonia, the battle in Saddle Arabia, and the thing in the canyon the other day didn't count?"

Twilight shook her head. Griffonia had been different as it was griffons they were fighting, which shouldn't make a difference, but it did. In Saddle Arabia she hadn't participated in the battle really, and the same again in the canyon where she'd been more engaged with Celestia. She hadn't really fought a battle like this since the end of the Mareitanian civil war.

"Are you about to have a breakdown on me?"

"Piss off, Trixie."

"I'll take that as a no," Trixie muttered as Twilight started walking towards the wounded mare. "What are you doing?" she asked as Twilight stopped in front of the crying mare, Swordy held limply beside her.

Twilight didn't know what she was doing. Logically, she was assessing the mare's wounds for survivability, and if she received help in the next couple of hours, she might survive. Putting aside the logic though, all Twilight was really doing was staring at the mare as she begged, again and again, saying "please" in the hopes that Twilight wouldn't kill her.

Trixie found herself conflicted as she watched. Previously she wouldn't have given a toss whether Twilight killed the mare or not, and might even have killed the mare herself. Now she found herself worried that Twilight was going to kill her, but she couldn't tell if it was out of pity for the mare, or concern for the effect it would have on Twilight. Then Trixie looked at the mare, and saw that she was a yellow unicorn with a amber coloured mane and blue eyes that weren't dissimilar to those of Sunset Shimmer. Now she understood what the problem was.

"Twilig-"

"I'm sorry," Twilight blurted, although who she was saying sorry to definitely wasn't the mare in front of her. "I-" Twilight's voiced broke, and she stood staring for a little bit before turning away with a shake of her head. "Let's go, Trixie. We- We have things to do."

"Don't have to tell me twice," Trixie said as she trotted after Twilight. She looked down at the mare as she passed, observing that she cringed in fear far more than she did for Twilight. Trixie could only suppose that she'd gained her reputation in Mareitania as a monster after all.

-0-0-0-

Mistress Mjuzi was running the Wonderbolts ragged with her constant orders. Luna was quite impressed with her ability to utilise them since it was unlikely she'd ever had to make use of pegasi messengers before. Now she had them flying back and forth delivering reports on the battle, giving orders to reinforce different area, providing warnings about an influx of Mareitanians, and whatever else she could think of. Luna found herself at a loss to do anything, which was fine by her.

It was quite interesting to watch as well. As far as she and the Mistress could tell, the Mareitanians still had no idea there were an extra six thousand zebra warriors within the city. They thought they were hunting down those that had fled, when in reality they were fighting a full scale battle in dozens of little segments. The Mareitanians were getting whittled away, but they had no real idea because no one of them could really see the full scale of what they were fighting. The only one of them that could was Celestia, and she was yet to show herself.

"We're still losing too many of our warriors," Mistress Mjuzi murmured as Lightning flew off with her latest orders. "At this rate we shall do little more than wipe each other out. If they realise what we've done and pull out we'll have no chance at defeating them."

"And they can put together a new plan that could defeat us, I know. News will soon reach General Snowbright of our deception, and he will likely order a full retreat. Even if he won this battle, wiping his own forces out doing so would hardly please Faust."

Mistress Mjuzi nodded, agreeing with Luna's assessment. "Then we can agree that the best course of action is to cut off the head of the snake?"

"If there were but one head, yes. Until we know where Celestia is, an attack on their chain of command could turn disastrous."

"Then I order you to find her."

"On my own?"

"A chance to face her alone would draw her out, wouldn't it?"

"...Yes?" Luna said hesitantly, really not liking the idea. "The idea was to not fight her alone though."

"Then that is a luxury you shall have to forego. If you can find and engage Celestia, I shall get orders to Princess Twilight to find and eliminate General Snowbright."

Luna made a face, as she had wanted to be the one to take care of Snowbright. Instead she had to fight her sister one on one once again. "As you wish, although don't be surprised to find Celestia coming for you the moment I leave here."

"I am not afraid to die."

"You'll be surprised how that opinion might change when you're looking death in the face."

"I can't help but find that hypocritical for an immortal to say."

Luna smiled at the Mistress, "It rather is, isn't it? Inform Cadence of the new plan, and that she should be ready if Celestia decides to attack here while I am away."

Luna spread her wings and took flight, finally giving herself a bird's eye view of the city. The battle was going much how it was described to her. Isolated skirmishes were happening throughout much of the city as the zebras fought fiercely to defend it, but the Mareitanians were still coming. Most of them were in the city by this point, but that was hardly any comfort to the zebras fighting below.

"Where are you, sister?" Luna asked, not really hoping for an answer, nor really getting one. Celestia really did seem to be absent from the battle. Why though? And what was she doing instead?

Luna intercepted Rainbow on her way back to the Kumbi Mzee, asking the pegasus if she'd spotted Celestia on her rounds. Rainbow shook her head, said she hadn't, and was about to go when she spotted smoke rising from the harbour.

"You think that might be her?"

"I'm willing to bet, yes. Head to the Mistress; she has some orders for you to deliver to Twilight once I have Celestia's attention."

Rainbow saluted and diverted away to the Kumbi Mzee while Luna raced for the harbour. As had been suspected, Celestia was there, and she was burning a large number of the boats moored in the bay. Apparently she wasn't allowing the possibility of escape by boat for anyone.

"Celestia! What are you doing?"

Celestia stopped what she was doing, the stream of fire she was directing at a boat dying down as she turned to face Luna. "I was waiting for you, actually. You've done well in planning this attack. Hiding so many zebras in the city was quite well thought out, even if it meant sacrificing a quarter of your forces to draw us in."

"If you're aware, why aren't you pulling out?"

"And leave our backs exposed for your zebra to fill with spears and arrows? Oh no, Luna, this battle has been forced to its conclusion now, whether in victory or defeat."

"That's ridiculous."

"I'm aware, which is why I'm going to give you an ultimatum. Order your zebras to stand down, or I burn the city to ashes, making your valiant defence of it, and the lives spent doing so, utterly worthless."

Luna crossed her legs over her chest and raised an eyebrow at Celestia as the slightly elder alicorn started to circle around Luna like a shark around its prey. "I fail to see how that gains you anything either. I also doubt you have the ability to carry out such a threat."

"A city built out of wood and clay in a hot, dry country like this?" Celestia gave Luna a predatory smile, "It couldn't be easier."

Luna said nothing to that, instead choosing to observe Celestia for a few seconds to see whether she was bluffing. Since the old Celestia would never have suggested such a thing, Luna could only feel like this new Celestia was telling her the truth. It was also the truth that a fire in Zanzebra could spread quite quickly with adequate motivation.

"I hope this silence is because you're thinking."

"If only your Mother could see you now. I have to wonder if she would approve of your dramatic shift in attitude?"

"Why wouldn't she?"

"Because after over a millennia of peace, in the space of a week you've become this. You've become unhinged, Celestia, in a way that Faust could never have predicted. Do you think she would approve of your decision to burn Zanzebra down just because you're losing?"

Celestia raised her head to look down on Luna, "My Mother would trust my judgement."

"Would she? She doesn't even trust you with raising the sun, which you have done for centuries upon centuries. How could she trust you to do anything when your reaction to loss is the wholesale slaughter of all?"

Celestia appeared to be a loss for words, and rubbed a hoof at her left eye. For a moment Luna was tempted to think she'd gotten through to her sister, but the sudden look of determination she developed told Luna otherwise.

"Fine, but there are other ways to secure your defeat."

"Such as?"

"Killing the Council. The loss of the zebras leaders would cause chaos. Zebrica will still crumble without them, even if you stop us here today."

"Your ability to negotiate would also be rendered null without them," Luna countered. "You need them alive."

"I only need one of them alive to do that."

Luna rolled her eyes and sighed, "So the Elder Mareed has sold out, has he? What was his reward to be? Sole rule of Zebrica as Faust's puppet?"

Celestia's face creased up in confusion, "Who's Mareed?"

Now it was Luna's turn to be confused. Mareed she could see turning traitor, but one of the other Elders was certainly a surprise. Unless of course Celestia was planning to kill them until one caved and gave her what she wanted. Either option seemed likely.

"Well if Mareed hasn't betrayed his country, I guess none of them would."

"Then they shall all die, and Zebrica will fall, only to be rebuilt as Mother wishes it to be." Celestia pumped her wings, racing upwards before Luna could even think of reacting. She was heading straight for the Kumbi Mzee, flames building around her as she made her intent to burn it clear. She fired a massive fireball at the building, but it never reached its destination as a shield cocooned the structure.

"Nicely done," Luna complemented Cadence, even though she couldn't see the pink alicorn. She raced after Celestia as she tried to batter down Cadence's shield, intent in the knowledge that the time for talking had passed.

-0-0-0-

Twilight raced up the street, a shield holding back the fire from the Mareitanians as she tried to close the gap between them and her zebras. The group had arrived while they were engaged with others, and there had been no cover until Twilight had made it. They'd lost several zebras in the time that took her.

Twilight crashed into the enemy, pushing them back and staggering them with her shield before shattering it with a pulse that knocked them back even further. Flashes of dark magic flew past her, piercing into the soldiers as she stabbed down with Swordy, pinning one to the floor while her magic cut down two others. Nightmare was there as well, leaping over the stricken zebras to go after a pair of yaks in her typical fashion. Since their bodies would block the street, it wasn't actually a bad idea.

A scattered shower of arrows and magic put Twilight back on the defensive, and she ducked around a corner while Trixie used the more open field of fire to her advantage. Nightmare appeared next to her in the flash of a teleport, and gave Twilight a wink, her axe running with gore.

"So what's your count?"

Twilight eyed Nightmare from the side, "I'm not counting. I'm not sure I could even if I wanted to."

"That's no fun. I'm up to sixty seven kills that I can definitely confirm, but I'm sure the number is probably a bit higher than that."

"Maybe if you spent less time going after the yaks?"

"No chance." Nightmare ducked her head as a powerful blast of magic shook their cover, raining dust upon them as Seeker led her zebras to attack the incoming Mareitanians. "Wait, you made it sound like sixty seven isn't that many."

Twilight decided to not say that she could kill dozens with a spell if she wanted to, because she didn't, and would only end up killing her allies as well if she did.

Twilight jumped aside as a burst of lilac flame erupted out of grate in the street beside her. "Ember! Wrong ponies!"

"Oops! Sorry Twilight!"

"Twilight!"

"Urgh, now what?" Twilight looked up as Rainbow zoomed in, then ducked as the crackle of static around Rainbow's wings led to a blast of lightning that slammed into the still advancing Mareitanians. A few seconds later Rainbow was sharing their cover as the fight raged on.

"Hey Twilight, I have orders for you from Mistress Mjuzi. Luna and Cadence have engaged Celestia, and while they're busy she wants you to go after General Snowbright."

"What? Are you kidding me? He's probably got dozens of ponies around him for protection!"

"I don't know," Nightmare grinned cheekily, "sounds like fun to me."

"Too bad, because you're staying here. If anypony's coming with me it's Trixie-"

"Aww..."

"-Not that taking her makes this any less of a terrible idea." Twilight groaned, letting her frustration out. She'd wanted to capture Snowbright and put him on trial, not kill him. Still, needs must. "Alright, fine, if it ends this I'll do it. Where is he?"

"Outside the city," Rainbow gestured northwards, "around thattaway. I'm sure you'll be able to find him."

"Yeah, probably. Trixie!" Twilight waved Trixie over, shifting along to make a bit more room in their little alcove of cover. "Did you hear? We're going to go stop Snowbright."

"We are? Hah! Sweet! Uh..." Trixie bit on her bottom lip, her expression turning uncertain, "You promise this won't end up like it did with Filigree?"

"That's why I'm taking you with me, to make sure I don't do something silly like talk too much."

"Oh good. Even knowing you're immortal now, the thought of watching you die again doesn't exactly fill me with joy."

"Didn't think it would." Twilight looked down her leg at the stripes of green Kuua covering it, wishing she had some easy way to wash it off quickly. "Come on Trixie, let's go. Try to keep Seeker and the other zebras alive, Nightmare."

Nightmare peeked around the corner, just in time to witness Seeker punch an earth pony in his helmeted head hard enough to knock him clean out. "That doesn't seem like it should be a problem."

Twilight took off and picked Trixie up around the chest using her legs to give her horn a short break. A few Mareitanians took pot shots at them as they flew up, but they were soon away, soaring over the city from where they could see the entire battle progressing.

"I suppose it does seem a bit odd why we had only ten zebras with us," Trixie commented as she saw thousands of zebras, ponies, and yaks fighting beneath them. "I guess they thought we could handle ourselves."

"Maybe," Twilight said noncommittally. She was too busy thinking that the battle was not going particularly well for either side. Something had to be done to end it, and if killing Snowbright was that thing, then so be it. If only the thought of that didn't feel her leaving sick.

"So... how close are you planning on getting to him?" Trixie asked sweetly as they slowly flew north. "Close enough to hold a conversation I presume? Instead of just killing him from up here."

"He's probably protected, so we'll have to get close."

"Mmhmm, now where's the other half of that answer?"

Twilight grunted, then laughed. "You know me so well. Trixie, Snowbright was our friend once. Yes he might've been a massive asshole at times, but that doesn't change the fact that we were on the same side fighting for the same things. Just killing him feels wrong on so many levels."

"Sometimes you are far too sentimental, but fine, I understand. I suppose I should be glad that I'm here to keep an eye on you this time."

"Exactly, now let's get this done."

Twilight picked up the pace, flying over the boundary of the city. It seemed to be fairly quiet outside the city, with most of the Mareitanians having entered to fight. Not all of them though. There was still a small cluster of ponies out here, and Twilight could only assume Snowbright was among them.

"Eight guards, four Adepts, four earth ponies?"

"If the others are just acting as runners, then yeah, I think so. I wonder how they got so many Adepts? Did they improve their training regimen so that weaker unicorns could be involved?"

"More volunteers to train would be my guess," said Trixie. "Anyway, focus. I'll take the four on the right, you take the four on the left, and Snowbright."

"Sounds good." Twilight flew a quick lap around the cluster, whom she could tell had spotted them. The four Adepts had shields up, while the four earth ponies got ready to fight. Snowbright simply watched them, his eyes resolute.

Twilight dived down, heading not towards her target, but towards the pair of runners dashing to the city to warn the soldiers there that their commander was under attack. They never even made it half way before they were cut down. Their warning stopped, Twilight slowed and dropped Trixie gently to the ground in front of the shield.

"Hello, Snowbright."

"Twilight. Trixie," Snowbright said in return, giving them each a small nod. "I suppose I should be grateful that you two came for me."

"I wouldn't be," Trixie growled. "I've a good mind to send you to bed with no dinner and a smacked bottom after all you've done."

"Not this time. Not again. There's no way I could go back to Faust after this." Snowbright laughed once and smirked at Twilight, "I guess I forgot who I was fighting against now you're back."

"Actually I've had relatively little to do with planning the defence here," Twilight informed Snowbright, getting a small kick out of watching his face drop. "This is pretty much all Luna's idea."

"Oh, well, I guess she's stepped up her game since you came back."

Twilight held Snowbright's gaze for a few seconds, then sighed. "Just surrender, Snowbright. I don't really want to do this, and I don't think you want this either. We'll take you prisoner, you won't have to face Faust, and you can-"

"Spend the rest of my days in an Equestrian prison?" Snowbright shook his head at Twilight, "No thanks. I'd rather die here, standing tall, than spend the rest of my life as a failure."

Twilight knew there was no point arguing. Snowbright had always been ready to die for what he believed in, and that attitude hadn't changed it seemed, even if he was maintaining it to escape Faust's wrath.

"Fine, have it your way." Twilight took a few steps back and charged her horn, with Trixie doing the same. They unleashed their spells simultaneously, quickly battering down the shield. The four earth ponies ran in quickly while the Adepts took a moment to recover, firing their crossbows.

Twilight caught the arrows and discarded them while the earth ponies drew their swords. She parried one blow with Swordy, following the move up with a thrust that sank her blade deep into the neck of the mare attacking her. A quick sidestep and a thrust with Swordy finished off the other earth pony stallion, just as Trixie finished off her two stallions and started on the Adepts.

Twilight deflected a blast of magic with a shield, and reacted with throwing a scoop of dirt into the eyes of the mare while the other mare turned and ran. Twilight let her go, then teleported the other Adept out over the bay somewhere, since there was no need for her to die. Some zebras would probably find her, and if she had sense she wouldn't fight back.

Twilight caught Snowbright as he charged at her with a sword in his mouth, pulling it out and tossing him away to land in a pile as Trixie finished off the two Adepts attacking her. Slowly and purposely she bent the sword into a coil, then dropped it to the ground.

"That was my favourite sword," Snowbright lamented. He pulled himself back to his hooves and dusted his armour down, taking his time just to annoy them. "So I have to fight you with my hooves and harsh language now? That hardly seems fair. It wasn't exactly a fair fight anyway, with you two against me."

"There is literally nothing stopping us from taking you prisoner," Trixie said to Snowbright, a bemused smile on her face. "We could toss you around all day like a cat with a toy if we wanted to."

"You sound so confident in your victory, but I'm telling you now, you have no chance of winning against Faust. Frankly I'd rather not be around when she finds me again after that."

"Do you even care about what she's trying to do?" Twilight asked, her voice taking on an incredulous note. "Do you know what her plan is for the end, to force us all into becoming mindless beasts? To go back to a more primitive way of life and be little more than food for predators? Are you aware of any of that in the slightest?"

"I've heard the rumours, and frankly some of the stories I've heard coming out of the Everfree castle might even confirm those rumours if they weren't so ridiculous. I have faith that Faust has the best interests of all of us at heart. Now stop talking and fight me!"

Twilight sighed as he went for her again, and smacked his legs out from under him so he landed painfully on his face.

"Twilight, just give him what he wants."

"An honourable death? I hate to say it, Trixie, but I don't really think there's anything honourable about this. What he's doing is just- it's just... suicide by... proxy!"

"That's not even the right term! Look, if you don't want to do it, I'll do it."

"I'd much rather Twilight do it, if I'm totally honest."

"Shut up!" they both shouted at Snowbright.

"Do you really think Snowbright should die?" Twilight asked Trixie, her own thoughts slowly coming around to agreeing, even though she didn't really want to.

"After all that cunt-bucket has done? Yes he deserves to die!"

"That's a fair, if unnecessarily vulgar, point." Twilight closed her eyes and sighed, wishing things hadn't happened like this, creating this bizarre situation she found herself trapped in. "Alright, I'll do it. Snowbright, go stand over there. On the count of three we fight."

Snowbright smiled, actually smiled, as he went to stand where Twilight had indicated. For her own part, Twilight dismissed Swordy, not out of a desire to give Snowbright a better chance, but because cutting him up was far from the plan.

"By your count, Trixie."

"By my- What? Oh for fuck sake, fine. This has turned real weird." Trixie raised a hoof and began to count down, totally contrary to what Twilight has said barely twenty seconds earlier. "Three, two, one, fight!"

Snowbright kicked up a cloud of dust as he charged at Twilight, but had barely made it halfway to her when her horn flashed, firing a single bolt of energy at him, hitting him in the chest. He fell, tumbling head over heels to a stop. He was already dead.

Twilight stared down at his body, her heart aching, although to what end she couldn't tell. Was it because of the fact that he died, or how? Was it because it was so unnecessary? That he could have lived if he wasn't such a stubborn ass? That seemed the most likely to her, although having to kill a friend turned enemy might've had something to do with it.

"Twilight?"

"I need to go help Luna stop Celestia. If we can beat her here, or at least get her to flee, we can end this battle with a win."

"Twilight."

"What?" Twilight snapped irritably, instantly turning apologetic for doing it, if not actually apologising.

"Nothing, just-" Trixie hugged Twilight around the neck quickly, then started trotting towards the city. "Take care, and I'll meet you at the Kumbi Mzee."

"Yeah." Twilight spent a few more seconds standing, staring at the body of Snowbright. Eventually she pulled herself away with a sigh and spread her wings to go fight Celestia, because fighting her former mentor, friend, and near second mother, would really round today out.

-0-0-0-

Luna's trip into the Kumbi Mzee, backwards through a wall at considerable speed, had not been pleasant. It was some considerable thing to have to be thankful that it wasn't worse, like with ending up impaled on a spar of wood, or more embarrassingly, one of the many potted plants dotted around the place.

Celestia drifted in through the hole Luna's passage had made, the heat coming from her igniting the wood of the building. She was almost completely gone now, and it was only the fact that her mane maintained its usual three colours that convinced Luna that Celestia hadn't been completely consumed by whatever entity now controlled her.

It was her eyes that caught the most attention though. They were slitted, which did have a part of Luna wondering if it was an effect of alicorns giving themselves to darkness, or was it something Celestia was doing to mock Luna with after her own fall to darkness. She literally couldn't tell, although she did remember later that this Celestia had no idea who Nightmare Moon was, so the mocking seemed unlikely. More to the point though, those eyes held no tears or confusion like they had previously. They held only hatred, and a calm certainty that conflicted with the actions of the pony they belonged to. Celestia had been anything but calm up until this point.

Celestia landed in front of Luna, the wooden floor igniting from the slightest touch of her hooves. "Do you give in yet? Or are you waiting for Cadence to come back from her swim in the ocean? I'm sure we could find something to do to pass the time until then."

Luna tried to stand, but fell back with a scream as agony seared her back right leg. Only then did she look back down and see the angle it was bent at.

"Aww, does little Woona have a boo-boo?"

"You talk as though we are actually sisters, sister."

"Oh don't delude yourself. I'm merely speaking to you as though you're a child, since that does seem to be what I'm fighting. Where's the Luna that had the confidence to try and overthrow me in years past?"

Luna fired a beam of magic, but not at Celestia. Instead she hit the support beams of the Kumbi Mzee, bringing it down on both their heads, but teleporting away before it could crush her. The rush of cool air outside, at least in comparison to that around Celestia, made her gasp as a portion of the Kumbi Mzee collapsed.

"Luna!"

Luna whipped around at the shout, and almost cried with relief that it was Twilight. Perhaps with the both of them, they could finally put Celestia down, or at least convince her to flee.

"Are you okay? Is your leg broken?"

"Twilight, there's no time. Celestia has almost cracked, and I can't fight her alone. Cadence is in the bay somewhere at the moment, and I'm not strong enough to face her alone. She is not holding back."

"But- She- I'm-" Twilight dismissed her less important questions with a shake of her head, "Where is she now?"

Luna pointed at the burning Kumbi Mzee. "In there," she said just as a fireball shattered part of the building, releasing a flaming Celestia from its confines. She climbed into the sky, flames trailing off her, then turned to attack them both.
They split up to evade the rain of fire flying towards them, and much to Twilight's lack of surprise Celestia followed after Luna. Twilight wasn't going to complain, and had spotted Cadence treading water below, so decided to trust that Luna would hold her sister off long enough for her to get Cadence back into the fight.

"Twilight!" Cadence shouted with relief as she spotted her sister in law flying towards her, "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Me too. I mean you too. Whatever." Twilight dragged the exhausted Cadence up out of the water using her magic, quickly drying her off well enough to fly. Beneath the coating water was a myriad of wounds that were seeping blood, as well as burns and bruises. How Cadence wasn't in agony from getting salt water in those wounds was a mystery to Twilight. "Can you still fight?"

"I- I think so. I don't think it'll matter though. Celestia, she's so much stronger now. I don't think we can beat her."

"Don't let that fool you, Cadence. She's burning through her magic faster than she can regenerate it. She'll wear herself out soon enough."

"I don't think so. The way she's going, she should've done that already. She's desperate to defeat us, and will use any advantage she can, even dark magic. The only way to stop her is to fight her into submission."

That made an unfortunate amount of sense to Twilight. The dark magic wouldn't make her more powerful, but it would sustain her enough to use the full extent of her power for longer. She wasn't holding back because she didn't have to worry about burning herself out. Literally.

"Come on, we still have to try."

Twilight flew up, Cadence following reluctantly behind her, to where Luna and Celestia were exchanging fire. It was clear from a distance that Luna was struggling, pain and exhaustion sapping her ability to face Celestia. Twilight flew straight up between them, shielding Luna while Cadence flew to support the elder alicorn.

"So once again I'm outnumbered," Celestia sneered, baring her slightly fanged teeth. "Of course I'd be more concerned if two of you weren't so weak and wounded."

Twilight rolled her eyes, her own interest in talking having been depleted with Snowbright. Instead she pumped her wings and flew straight for Celestia, dodging each attack that was directed at her, and banking to the side to fire at Celestia, hoping to draw her attention around and away from the other two.

It worked, for all of the few seconds to took for Luna to mess it up by attacking Celestia from behind. With a snarl, Celestia teleported in a puff of flame, reappearing above Luna and firing a blast of flame at her, striking Luna down into the flaming ruins of the Kumbi Mzee.

Cadence screamed after Luna, her horror at that giving Celestia a chance to attack the pink princess as well. Twilight shouted a warning, but Cadence was swallowed by the wave of flame Celestia shot at her, leaving nothing left.

"No!" Twilight screamed hoarsely, while even Celestia seemed surprised by what had happened. It was only when a beam of energy sliced through the flesh of her back that they both learned that Cadence wasn't as dead as they thought.

"How?" Twilight asked breathlessly as she re-joined her sister-in-law. "I thought she'd killed you!"

"Uh, no, I just teleported."

"But how? You were..." Twilight trailed off as she saw no trace of the Kuua on Cadence. She then looked down at the ocean, and it all made sense. "Seems Celestia did you a favour."

"It's more luck really. All I did was panic teleport. I'd forgotten the Kuua would stop that."

Twilight dragged Cadence down as Celestia unleashed her power of them again. She spotted Luna on the ground below, unmoving, and totally unsure whether she was alive or not. Either way it seemed unlikely she had much to contribute to the fight now.

"You go right, I go left," Twilight instructed. "Just keep attacking her. Don't give her a chance to focus on either of us long enough to do any damage."

Cadence nodded and banked right, firing a beam of magic at Celestia while Twilight went left and did the same. Celestia shielded herself, then flew up to try and get a height advantage, but both of them followed after her, keeping up their withering fire to try and bring her protection down.

Cadence was the first to slip up as Celestia teleported, failing to see where the white alicorn had gone. Too late she found out it was to behind her, and even diving as fast as she could, the tips of her wings caught the edge of a fire blast. She was still flying, trailing smoke as she did, but without the full extent of her wings her mobility would be hampered.

Twilight flew in as fast as she could to try and drag Celestia's attention away from Cadence, giving everything she had to attack Celestia. Celestia teleported again, and Twilight rolled into an evasive manoeuvre that she hoped would take her away from wherever Celestia reappeared. Since Celestia teleported after Cadence, it was a move that did nothing to help her.

Cadence teleported again, hoping to evade Celestia with magic as she couldn't do it with flight, and got far enough away to get back to Twilight's side, although they had to quickly part ways again as Celestia ported herself between them. Twilight twisted in midair, firing an orb of magic at Celestia that struck, gouging a wound into her side.

"GrraAAGh!" Celestia roared. "Why must I be constantly bitten into defeat by insects?"

A giant sphere of flame burst from Celestia, spreading rapidly in all directions. Cadence teleported out of range, but Twilight didn't have that option. She shielded herself, barely holding back the attack, but failed to hold back the next as Celestia sped towards her, launching spell after spell at Twilight, battering her shield down then teleporting close.

Twilight readied an attack on her horn, but found herself forced into a battle of will as Celestia countered it with a pulse of magic that would prevent Twilight from releasing her spell as long as she kept it up. It also kept Celestia from casting, but with Celestia so close Twilight didn't take the time to fight it. Instead she swung a hoof at Celestia as hard as she could. It was like punching iron, and when Celestia's fangs clamped down on her leg, it was far too late to correct her mistake.

Twilight screamed as Celestia's teeth sank through her flesh to the bone, a burning hot pain to accompany the feeling of her flesh tearing. That pain only grew as Celestia shook her leg like a dog with a toy, and Twilight found herself too stunned when Celestia let go to remember to fly. It was only Cadence catching her that kept her from joining Luna on the ground.

Twilight screamed again, the pain only seeming to grow as blood ran down her leg from the seared and torn up flesh. She couldn't even imagine how Luna had been able to not only hide the pain after being attacked by Solaris, but to carry on fighting with it as well? It seemed impossible.

"Hold on Twilight! Just hold on!"

Twilight answered with another cry as Cadence dragged her through a series of manoeuvres that was meant to evade Celestia, but with her damaged wings, and the extra weight of Twilight, she barely managed to change their trajectory at all. It was only Twilight coming back to her senses enough to try and put a shield up that spared Cadence from the full brunt of the attack Celestia directed at them, and they were forced into a crash landing by the ruins of the Kumbi Mzee.
Twilight writhed in agony as the impact battered her wound, and Cadence wasn't much better as she tried to get back up, but couldn't. She collapsed, shaking her head slowly. She was spent, and they both knew it.

"Truly this is a glorious day," Celestia sang as she flew down towards them. "My enemies lay broken before me, and I am victorious."

"And it only took a descent into madness and dark magic to achieve it. Even so you've still lost this battle." Twilight started to crawl over towards Cadence, when Celestia stomped her hoof down next to her. She summoned Swordy, forcing Celestia to quickly back off, but not without injury as the blade skimmed over her chest.

Celestia clamped a hoof to the wound as it bled, growling audibly as she glared at Twilight. "This battle is irrelevant. Defeating you three is more than worth the cost."

Twilight brandished Swordy towards Celestia as she tried to protect Cadence. "If you want me, you'll have to kill me."

"You say that like it should bother me."

Twilight yelped and put up a shield to cover herself and Cadence as Celestia drew in a breath and breathed fire over them. Twilight squirmed beneath the shield as the heat reached her, crying harder and harder the hotter it got. Thankfully the assault lasted barely seconds as something blue tackled Celestia away.

Twilight dropped the shield, gasping for cooler air. As soon as she was able she looked over to where Celestia had been knocked, and was shocked to see Ember grappling with the alicorn, her back claws slicing at the flesh of Celestia's belly as she gripped Celestia's horn to stop her from teleporting.

Celestia screamed as Ember poured fire over her, but retaliated by biting down on one of Ember's arms, forcing her to release her horn. Ember let go of Celestia completely, but only to jump up in a different grip on Celestia's back to avoid her fangs as she continued raking her claws over Celestia, drawing blood with every cut.

Celestia slammed her head back, reaching with her horn to stab Ember in the side. Ember roared in pain, but didn't let go. She clawed at Celestia's face until she found purchase, hooking two of her claws into Celestia's nostrils, and pulling, her sharp digits tearing through the flesh of Celestia's nose, then sank her teeth into the back of Celestia's neck.

Celestia fell to the ground, wailing and thrashing in agony, the flesh around her nose flapping disconcertingly as she tried anything to shake Ember off. Ember refused to give in though, and again breathed fire over Celestia, burning her again and again, the alicorn powerless to do anything to stop it until Ember let go, the pain of her injuries making it too hard to hang on. As soon as she did, Celestia vanished, and from the power put into the teleport, she'd gone a very long way away.

Twilight slumped back, dropping Swordy to the ground as relief washed over her. It was no secret to say that they'd very nearly lost everything here, and if it hadn't been for Ember they may have.

Twilight rolled over onto her hooves, keeping her injured leg up. The pain wasn't so bad now, but the blood still dripping from it and pooling on the floor was uncomfortable to look at. She quickly checked Cadence, finding her alive and awake, but shaking with shock from her wounds.

Twilight jumped at the sound of fire, and quickly turned to find Ember breathing a flame into her claw. She let it burn for a moment, then pressed it to the wound on her side, her mouth open in a silent scream as she seared the wound shut, then did the same for the one on her arm. The only thing that drew Twilight from watching was the sound of hooves.

"Thank fuck I found you!" Trixie said as she ran up to Twilight. "When I saw you and Cadence go down, I thought it was all over."

Twilight looked over at Ember as the dragoness sat hunched over, her face drawn with pain. "It almost was. How's the battle going?"

"It's not going great. Without Snowbright to organise them, the Mareitanians are falling apart, and we've taken the west side of the city. The problem is we've taken too many casualties to finish them off, and if they rally and decide to attack, I don't think we can hold them off."

"Without Snowbright and Celestia, they're fucked, although they may not realise that themselves yet. They can't contact Faust themselves, so they're trapped here unless Celestia can get help to them from wherever she is. If she even cares. Maybe they might surrender."

"I doubt it. Not when they still outnumber us. And there's also the problem that a lot of the city is on fire. I don't know what Celestia was doing, but it did some damage, and it's only getting worse. If it spreads we'll have to evacuate the city."

Twilight swore. Even if they've won, all they might have got is a city of bodies and ash if they can't put the fires out and extricate the Mareitanians. They needed help, but there was only one place she could think to get it off, and the zebras weren't going to like it.

"Trixie, go find Rainbow. I have a job for her."

Author's Note

Posting this at 1.30 in the morning when I have to get up for work in six hours, but fuck it, it's the (politically correct) holidays. Hope you all have a merry whatever it is you celebrate, even if some of your plans are, like mine, to be unable to stand up without assistance by roughly 6.00pm on the day itself.

P.s. All this crimbo shiz is really ill conducive to writing like I normally do, so I doubt there will be a chapter next week. If that happens, I hope you all have a happy new year too. Unlike me, who will be one of the poor sods working that night. Can't win them all. Peace.

35. gtfo

Councillor Fumbo had shot down the idea immediately, as had most of the others. Kifuniko merely looked thoughtful, while Mareed was actually being helpful by saying that it hardly mattered at this point, and that they should accept that the princesses had no interest in their agency as the leaders of their country at that point.

Of course this was all a moot point when a couple hundred griffons were already flying over the city, doing their best to extinguish the fires, and another three thousand were reinforcing the zebras keeping the surviving Mareitanians in the east of the city, where a nervous peace had somehow happened. Neither side had started another attack yet, but at the same time, neither side seemed willing to talk either. It was awkward as hell, but it was an awkward that everyone was living through, so therefore acceptable.

There might've been an unexpected casualty though, and that was Twilight's ears as the Elders' displeasure was poured into them at volumes normally reserved for large explosions and sonic rainbooms. It was unfair that Twilight had to be the one dealing with this now, just because Luna and Cadence were only inches above taking a dirt nap.

"What did you honestly expect me to do?" Twilight asked once the voices subsided, along with some of the ringing in her ears. "The Mareitanians still outnumber your warriors and hold almost a third of the city. Without reinforcements to hold them back they could still win this. What they plan to do afterwards with General Snowbright dead and Celestia gone is anyone's guess, but the important part is that they would hold the city, even if only just."

"But why griffons?" Fumbo whined breathlessly.

Twilight glanced over at Commander Lurin out of the corner of her eye, pleased at the level of grace he was displaying. "There was no one else to ask, and even if there was, they wouldn't be able to get here anywhere near as fast. Not without the portal we could use in the Eyrie. Zanzebra could've both burnt down and been conquered by the time anyone else got here."

"And how long before the griffons are taking the flesh and blood of our people as payment for their protection?" Mareed growled.

"Even if that were to be a thing, the streets are literally littered with corpses," Twilight said tiredly, not even meaning it the slightest, but feeling too petty to stop herself, even if she was insulting the griffons by saying it. It'd been a long day. "Still reasonably fresh too."

"We've brought our own rations," Commander Lurin said, giving Twilight a pointed look. "There is nothing you need to offer us, aside from the promise that these Mareitanians and yaks will not be returning to Equestria to reinforce it against our own incursion, whenever that happens. It is only the Emperor's interest in winning the greater war against Faust that made him agree to this at all. We will happily leave again once your city is secure."

"If Zebrica lives another day, I am happy to have things this way," Kifuniko said, in what Twilight reasonably hoped to be support of having the griffons here. "If the griffons help to keep us free, perhaps future peace between us could be?"

"...Perhaps," Fumbo conceded after a few seconds. "You have our blessing to end this how you wish, Princess Twilight."

Twilight bowed to the Elders, grateful for their permission since it meant she wouldn't have to explain why she carried on doing what she wanted to anyway. That done she turned and began limping her way through the evacuated zebras occupying the dockside warehouse, many of which were watching Lurin as he followed after her.

"We would not eat the bodies of the fallen," he said coldly as they emerged into the late afternoon sun.

"Sorry, that supposed to be a- Sorry. I've had a heck of a day."

"Which I can appreciate, but please try not to say things like that. They really don't help, especially since there has been a shameful grain of truth to them, in the past."

"Oh?"

"Rations haven't always lasted a battle during the winter months," Lurin offered as explanation. "Anyway, let us return to more important things. For starters, you still need to tell me why you didn't ask for our aid before the attack?"

"Because the zebras wouldn't have accepted it. I'm not sure they really want to now, but with the casualties they took, they don't have much choice."

"That was a poor tactical choice."

"It was the only option we had, and I couldn't make the choice for them. I think fighting an enemy like they have now has opened their eyes a bit, and made them realise just how behind they are in terms of military strength compared to Mareitania, or even yourselves. They might not be so shy about asking for help in the future."

"Any thoughts on them joining the Union?"

Twilight shook her head, "You'll have to ask Cadence about that, once she's able to speak. On which note, I'm going to go see if her and Luna are alright. As for you, Mistress Mjuzi is in charge, and is working on keeping the Mareitanians contained. You'll find her in the bazaar. If they do attack, let me know."

"Of course, Princess."

Lurin bowed deeply, then leapt into the sky, leaving Twilight to close her eyes and sigh deeply for several seconds.

"Fuck my life. Just... fuck it. Rest when you're dead they say. Well joke's on me, assholes."

Twilight continued her journey, slowly making her way to another large warehouse that was being used as an impromptu hospital. Wounded spilled out of its doors, some of which weren't even warriors but civilians that had been caught up in the fires. There were also Mareitanians here, disarmed and restrained, but being treated nonetheless. That at least brought a smile to Twilight.

She made her way through the masses of wounded to the rear of the building, where Cadence and Luna were being kept in a small office, separate to the rest, simply because seeing them so wounded might be demoralising for the zebras, while making the Mareitanians insufferably smug, even though they'd technically lost at this point, and the princesses would recover in time.

"Any change?" Twilight asked Trixie, who had been given the dubious honour of guarding the two princesses. An honour she'd spent relaxing with her hooves kicked up on a desk while eating grapes.

"Nothing yet. How's your leg?"

Twilight glanced down at her leg, and the nasty looking bite mark on it. It wasn't bleeding any more, and didn't feel quite so bad as when she'd been given it, but really was an ugly wound.

"It's fine," Twilight lied. "But what about yourself?"

"Me? What about me? I'm not injured."

"I'm talking about that," Twilight said, pointing to the tip of Trixie's horn, where a hint of discolouration had set in. "Don't tell me you hadn't noticed?"

"Not really. I mean, it's just the tip, right? Just the tip isn't too bad."

"Phrasing," Cadence mumbled.

"Did you even use your shields once in the battle?"

"Umm..."

Twilight rolled her eyes and sat. She wasn't going to lecture Trixie, or even mention it any further, but Luna damn it the mare could be dense at times, and Twilight wanted to make sure Trixie knew that much through her expression alone.

"What? It's just... how I fight, okay? We don't all get the benefits of surviving things like you can, so we do what we have to, to make sure we both win and survive."

"Not saying a word."

"You hardly need to. I can feel the disapproval radiating off you. Just don't make the mistake of thinking I'm happy about it either. It still feels like I'm being watched when I use dark magic, and I'm still scared of what might happen, but I... can't stop. Not when I'm having to fight like this at least."

"I know, Trixie, I know." Twilight ran a hoof through her mane, finding it to be matted with blood, sweat, and ash. She absently wiped her hoof on her chest afterwards, but that was hardly better. "Have you seen Ember? I never thanked her after she saved us from Celestia."

"She's flying around, doing dragon-y things. I think she's waiting for the Mareitanians to do something, just so this can really be over. If this takes too long, Faust can send reinforcements, or even come herself. Then we'd really be fucked."

"I know, but armies aren't what's going to stop her."

"Nope. What's going to stop her is something that might not even work, and hasn't even been made yet because we're dicking around here instead. Not that you're rushing back to the retreat either. Not with Moondancer there."

Twilight winced at the mention of Moondancer, "Can you blame me?"

"Not really, but you can't avoid her forever."

"Shouldn't be a problem after Faust is defeated, because I very much doubt she'd want to see me ever again. It'd probably be for the best if she didn't."

Trixie half grinned at Twilight, "And what happened to friendship being magic?"

"Simple. We aren't friends. Far from it, for her part. There's probably nothing I could do to convince her to not hate me, let alone be friends."

"Oh come on, you're the Princess of Friendship! I'm sure you can think of something to bring her around."

"Not every friendship can be saved, Trixie. Some problems really can't be reconciled. Any chance I had of becoming friends with Moondancer again died with... died." Twilight stroked her mane again, regretting it just as much as the first time, but it served as a decent distraction from having to say Sunset and died in the same sentence.

"So you're admitting defeat?"

"I'm facing facts."

"Alright," Trixie shrugged, "far be it from me to argue. More than I already have at least. So what now? Are we really just going to wait around for something to happen? Or are you doing something to convince the Mareitanians to surrender?"

"The Mareitanians might, but I don't think the yaks would, and while the yaks won't, the Mareitanians won't. Otherwise this'd be a lot easier."

"I'm guessing there's considerably more honour fighting and dying for Faust than there is in surrender?"

"Something like that," Twilight sighed. "Unfortunately that attitude is going to get all the ponies with them killed."

"So long as you remember it's their fault, and not yours."

"Actually, I was hoping for Luna's input, but I don't think I'm getting it." Twilight scanned over the mass of cuts, burns, bruises, and broken bones that was Luna. It might've been a mercy if she had died this time. Cadence wasn't much better, except the bruising was much more visible under her pink coat. "I'd like to think she'd advocate getting them out of the city before they become too entrenched. They have to know we have griffons with us as well now, so they must know they can't win. I suppose it depends who the line of command has fallen to. If it's Prince Rutherford in charge, I think it says a lot for him that they haven't attacked yet."

"Does that mean negotiating isn't going to be happening?"

"If it is, it's probably going to be him asking us to surrender," Twilight said, getting a laugh out of Trixie. "I would say something about blind devotion being bad, but having three princesses in one room probably sucks the fun out of it."

"I like to think we inspire loyalty, not blind devotion," Cadence croaked.

"Cadence! You're awake!"

"I spoke earlier, if you'd been listening."

"Oh." Twilight blushed a little with embarrassment, "Sorry. So I'm guessing you heard all of that?"

"I did." Cadence tried to move her head to look at them, but soon gave up on that idea. "All I can really say is that I agree with your assessment if Prince Rutherford is in charge. He doesn't seem like the type that could live with the shame of surrendering, so he won't. I guess only the word of Faust herself could stop him. Of course this all depends on if he's in charge or not."

Twilight leaned forwards to bury her face in her hooves and groan, "Can't this be over now? I really, really need this to be over now."

"It's not over until the fattest yak sings," Trixie said, popping another grape into her mouth. "Even then you might have an issue."

"Won't I just. Guess I better get on with it then." Twilight stood and gave Cadence a quick nuzzle, "Get well soon, okay?"

"I'll try."

Giving Trixie a nod, Twilight walked back out of the office into the mass of injured zebras and those few ponies that had been brought in. Twilight walked slowly, not that she had much choice, taking her time to study each of the ponies. After a minute or two she found what she was looking for, the one that had given her pause earlier for looking like Sunset. Strangely, the resemblance was less without her armour, with her coat lighter than Sunset's, contrasting more with her darker, streak free mane. The Sunflower cutie mark was appropriate though.

Twilight knew she'd stared too long when the mare caught her and met her gaze. She still seemed wary of Twilight, but not to the point of fear like she was before. Giving her a smile, Twilight broke the staring match and walked away, feeling strangely thankful that the mare had survived.

-0-0-0-

"Don't tell me you hate griffons as well," Twilight said as soon as she noticed the way Seeker was staring at her.

"No, but you must realise that there was going to be a problem when you asked them to help?"

"There's only a problem if one gets made. The griffons will stay in line and do their job, so if the zebras do as well, everything will be absolutely fine."

Seeker gestured over her back to where the daggers Mistress Mjuzi was staring at Lurin were being met with cool indifference. "Does that look fine? It doesn't to me. She was in charge of the Night Maidens when the incident happened."

"I take it by incident you mean-"

"When one of my fellow zebras was taken by a griffon hunting party and devoured, yes! Starting a war between Zebrica and Griffonia that was triggered without the permission, or even knowledge of the Council, and could've spelled destruction for Zebrica had the Emperor not found the whole thing funny!"

"...Right, so there might be some small issues, but I don't think it quite necessitates every single zebra hating griffons."

"If that was the only instance of griffons wronging us, then I'd agree, but the wrongs levied against us go back for centuries!"

"And now they're helping you protect your country from another invader!" Twilight shouted, losing her patience. "The griffons spent centuries trying to force ponies out of Equestria, and have hated ponies quite a lot ever since! But here we are doing our best to get along against a common enemy. Perhaps zebras could manage to do the same until at least the end of the week? Please?"

Seeker didn't answer, instead turning to Mistress Mjuzi for her opinion. An opinion that seemed to involve a lot of sighing and groaning, but ultimately ended in a nod for Twilight, and the offer of a hoof to shake for Lurin.

"If the choice is between working together and dying, then I choose to work together."

"A fine choice," Lurin agreed. "Perhaps now we can get down to business, and you tell me what the Mareitanians are up to?"

"I wish I knew." Mistress Mjuzi waved for them to join her next to a map of the city, and circled a hoof around the north eastern section of it. "We estimate there to be around five thousand Mareitanians and yaks left alive and free in the city. Other than that though, we have no idea if they plan to attack, surrender, or hold what they have until help arrives, if it does."

"I'm afraid that help would have to come in the form of Faust," Twilight told them. "If she'll bring more soldiers with her, attempt to fight us us with whatever soldiers she has left here, or evacuate the survivors, I couldn't say, but two of those options means the end of a free Zanzebra."

"Is she truly so fearsome?" the Mistress asked, the hint of a tremor in her words.

"She is. We're seeking every advantage against her we can, but after fighting Celestia and almost losing, fighting Faust seems considerably more daunting. If she attacks here today, we'll have no choice but to escape so that we can fight her another day."

"The same goes for us griffons," Lurin added. "There's no point in weakening ourselves before the invasion of Equestria for nothing, so-

"I prefer to call it the liberation of Equestria," Twilight muttered.

"-You would be best off surrendering to minimise your casualties," Lurin finished.

The Mistress nodded in agreement, "And which option do you think Faust would take?"

"I'm afraid our logic and her logic probably don't match up," said Twilight. "If I were to make the choice, and had the power she does to back it up, I'd bring in more soldiers from Equestria to finish this battle in my favour." Twilight stopped as she thought a little more about it," But at the same time, I now know my enemies aren't as weak as I thought, so maybe I would evacuate the soldiers to reinforce my defences back at home, rather than take Zebrica and weaken those defences conducting an occupation. Zebrica isn't going anywhere after all, and you wouldn't resist a second, more devastating invasion, and wouldn't be backed up by alicorns and a dragon."

"I concur," Lurin said. "Which is why we should attack, and eliminate those soldiers from being even worth the effort of saving."

Twilight didn't like what this meant, as they were siding with eliminating a large number of people. Admittedly those people had attacked them, and hadn't surrendered as yet, but it was still a poor decision to have to make. Thankfully the decision wasn't hers to make. "The choice is yours, Mistress Mjuzi."

Mistress Mjuzi laughed bitterly, aiming it at herself. "And to think I fought for the chance to lead this. What a fool. I've been presented with three scenarios, two of which could mean our end, while the third means using the last of our strength to end this occupation, only to have nothing to resist the next with if it comes. It saddens me that destroying ourselves to defeat them might be the best option we have. Tell me, Commander, how do your soldiers feel about fighting indoors?"

"They would do their duty, although I do fully understand that making ourselves so visible was a mistake. If we still had the element of surprise, the battle would go much smoother."

"You could share the Kuua with them," Twilight suggested, "since they'll be using it anyway in the future."

"That would be best," Mjuzi agreed. "Very well, prepare your griffons, Commander, and we shall see if we can't make these invaders regret trying to keep what isn't theirs."

-0-0-0-

Twilight tested her leg. The injury on it had only been sustained a few hours ago, and while the pain had subsided it still felt like it wasn't going to heal. There was no proof that it wasn't healing, and Twilight knew the reasons for thinking so lay entirely in her head, but the simple fact of the matter was that she had things to do, and the injury was in her way.

"Legs and wings," Twilight said to herself. "Why is it always the legs and wings?"

"Because you're fifty percent legs and wings?" Nightmare said back. "The fact is that leg and wing injuries tend to be more noticeable because they ruin your mobility."

"I've had three legs before now, so I can handle it."

"Doesn't mean it isn't annoying."

Twilight didn't argue with that, because it was undeniably true. Instead she adjusted the binding she'd wrapped around it to stop it looking like she'd been ravaged by a bear, and sat back to watch as the griffons flew in a few dozen at a time to apply the Kuua to themselves. Apart from that, the bazaar seemed quiet.

"Maybe you should fight from the air if it's that much of a problem."

Twilight rolled her eyes at the suggestion, "You know as well as I do that this battle is going to take us indoors. I've already subtly kept Rainbow and the others from it, so I can hardly exempt myself as well."

"Moonbutt and Lovebutt are getting a free pass after fighting Celestia, so why aren't you?"

Twilight laughed through her nose at the nicknames, but also at the idea of not fighting. She wasn't sure she could actually sit back and not fight. The idea felt like too foreign a concept to even begin getting her head around.

"You know I can't do that."

"I know you won't do that, which isn't the same thing."

Twilight turned slightly to face the grey unicorn that was Nightmare, sat leaning against a wall with her axe leaning next to her. "There's nothing making you fight, and I refuse to believe you're doing it purely to fight yaks. Really not sure why you're so into that anyway."

"Fighting and dominating things larger than myself? Call it a complex if you want. As for why I'm fighting at all, you know I have a vested interest in seeing Faust defeated. She made me, so I have plenty of reason to suspect that she can maybe unmake me. That, and you just kind of assumed my help."

"Actually I'm pretty sure you offered it."

"Really? That doesn't sound like me."

Twilight rolled her eyes again, a playful smile creeping over her face. Bizarre as it felt to say, she was feeling strangely relaxed here, even though she was injured, and preparing for another attack.

She was about to comment on it when Commander Lurin starting hollering orders to his griffons. That had to mean that the griffons were all daubed with Kuua, and that also meant it was time to get things started. Several griffons were taking off with the vats of Kuua, transporting them to Griffonia the old fashioned way since it couldn't be teleported.

Twilight wandered over to Commander Lurin and Mistress Mjuzi, "Is it time?"

"Almost," the Mistress replied. "I've taken the liberty of setting up some contingency plans in the event that Faust should arrive with another army. Mistress Tazama would take the Council somewhere hidden outside of the city, along with the rest of the Night Maidens, and there are evacuation plans for civilians, should we need it."

"I've also given my griffons orders to retreat back to Griffonia should any of that come to pass," Lurin added quickly, before Twilight could say anything. "I will not see their lives wasted fighting something they cannot beat."

"Oh no, I agree. I'm starting to think I should've spent this time getting Luna and Cadence to safety. Uh..." Twilight stopped and looked blankly, suddenly extremely aware that she had no idea what alias Nightmare was going as. Rather than look like a twit by asking, Twilight barrelled on and hoped no one noticed, and that Nightmare didn't call her on it. "If things don't go as we hope, can you get to Luna and Cadence and get them through the portal?"

Nightmare shrugged, "Sure, but we have a small problem with you and Trixie since you can't go through the portal wearing the Kuua. You might want to wash that stuff off."

Twilight looked down at herself and groaned. She was starting to wish she'd never put this bloody stuff on. Can't teleport, can't go through portals... the irritations never seemed to end.

"Good call." Twilight shouted an instruction at Trixie to wash the Kuua off, growing insistent as Trixie stared at her like she'd grown an extra horn. Trixie eventually complied, seeming no less confused, while Twilight started to wash the Kuua off herself.

"Will you be joining us on the front?" Lurin asked once Twilight was done.

"That's the plan. I'd be happier if Luna was here as well, but between Trixie, myself, and-" Twilight cursed herself as she still didn't know Nightmare's nom de guerre. "-the grey one," she said lamely, "we should be just fine."

"Very well. We shall attack at your signal."

Twilight nodded and waited for Lurin to depart, then waited more as Trixie finished replacing her armour after washing the Kuua off. "Time to go," she said to both Trixie and Nightmare. "The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can get on to making the oubliette and ending this war."

"Was that optimism?" Trixie asked teasingly. "That sounded like optimism."

"Sounded more like practicality to me," said Nightmare.

-0-0-0-

The Mareitanians had done their best to barricade the various routes into the part of the city they held, hoping to cover what their shields could not. Piled up bits of wood and carts and whatever else they could find wasn't that much of a deterrent though, not if you could fly, or had magic.

Twilight spent a moment planning her attack. There were two overturned carts blocking the street, piled up with whatever those behind it could find. It wouldn't take a particularly complex amount of spell work to reduce it to splinters, but the Mareitanians had to have planned for that, wherever she decided to breach their defences.

Twilight decided to just go with it. If she got the spell to destroy the barricade ready, told Trixie to signal the attack, then got Nightmare to shield them from the initial counterattack from the Mareitanians, they should be just fine.

"Alright," she said, forming the equivalent of a battering ram on her horn. "Trixie, on my mark, launch a flare. Nightmare, once the barricade is down, shield us from their first volley. Okay?" Twilight waited until she had at least a nod from both of them. "Right... go!"

Twilight released the spell on her horn as Trixie fired a flare into the sky. The calls of griffons could be heard briefly before the roiling mass of telekinetic energy slammed into the barricade, smashing it apart. A shield from Nightmare sprung up as the Mareitanians returned fire, protecting them from the first rain of arrows. The magic coming from the Adepts would be continuous though, so there was nothing for it but to run in.

Twilight went first, a shield protecting her as she sprinted for the line of Mareitanians. She didn't stop as she reached them, instead using the shield to barge into their midst, and expanding it in a burst of energy that sent the ponies nearest to her tumbling away.

The rest of them had run up in that time, and bursts of magic from Trixie and Nightmare cut even deeper into the gap Twilight had forced. Things got even better when the griffons arrived. They swooped down, either firing the crossbows held in their claws, or directly tackling ponies, knocking them down and finishing them off with spears and swords. A group of griffons swarmed a yak, stabbing it repeatedly until it was brought down, unable to do much about its winged attackers.

Just that initial attack had the Mareitanians reeling. They tried to hold, trying to keep to the open so that their Adepts were more effective, but as the zebras started running into close range to join the attack, and with all but Twilight, Trixie, and Nightmare covered in Kuua, their advantage was quickly rendered null. Drawing swords, they started to pull back while the rest tried to hold, supported mostly by the yaks, who couldn't cope with being attacked from above.

Twilight darted forward, slamming Swordy hilt deep into the side of a yak as he bore down on a cluster of zebra. He didn't go down immediately, but as a griffon slammed into his side, opposite to the one Twilight was on, he fell, right over onto where Twilight was.

Twilight held the body in her magic, pulling Swordy free and walking away while directing a glare at the griffon, before letting the yak fall completely. She supposed she should expect things like that. The griffons weren't used to fighting alongside ground bound allies, so probably hadn't thought about how to fight without endangering them as well. She figured she ought to be thankful that the ones they were fighting were so distinctive from the zebras, as it would significantly lessen the chance of accidents.

Twilight twitched an ear as shouts to fall back started to come from the Mareitanian side of the battle. This was only one part of the fight, but hopefully the order to fall back also counted for the rest of the city, where Ember was leading an attack to the north, while the southern assault was having to make do being covered from above by Rainbow and the other Wonderbolts. The occasional roar of thunder gave Twilight hope that it was working for now.

The square emptied of enemy soldiers as they pulled back into the streets and buildings where the zebras would have a much harder time rooting them out. There was no missing the irony of the Mareitanians using the zebras own tactics against from, but given their predilection for shields, it would be so much harder to fight them.

"Nightmare, head south to reinforce their assault, because I don't want the Wonderbolts fighting indoors."

Nightmare nodded and ran off, leaving Twilight with a short moment of relative quiet before the second stage of their assault started. A second stage that promised to last a lot longer, and be a lot more painful, than the first.

"Standing in the open while distracting herself with thinking," Trixie sang. "Classic Twilight."

"There's not a whole lot to think about here."

"Exactly, so less thinking, more doing."

Twilight ignored Trixie and waited. Their attack had faltered, understandably so, because no one wanted to be the first to run into the narrow streets beyond the square, or into a building. It would be suicide. Unfortunately this kind of assault always had an undertone of suicide to it, so that was hardly avoidable. The least she could do was make herself the main target.

"Alright, Trixie, with me." Twilight made her way to the rear side of the square where the Mareitanians had retreated to, and swore she could feel at least a dozen crossbows and horns pointed at her out of various windows. She could actually see at least three.

Twilight ground a hoof, her leg aching like crazy now that she had the time to register the sensation. Running anywhere seemed like a bad idea with the injury slowing her down, so a slightly more cautious approach was needed. An approach that Trixie held no concern for as she smashed her way through a wall.

"What?" she asked when she saw the way Twilight was looking at her. "If you don't want to go up the main path, make a new one."

For the shortest moment, Twilight almost told Trixie to not be so daft. Almost. "Alright, if I draw their fire up the street, can you catch them by surprise by doing what you're doing?"

"That's the plan."

Twilight started creeping up the street, keeping a shield up as she went. Arrows pinged off the bubble, while the occasional bolt of magic made a far greater impact. She returned fire at those she could see attacking her, but there was nothing much really happening. Not until a yak smashed its way out through a door, tearing the frame off with its horns as it went straight for Twilight.

Twilight teleported to the side as the yak ran straight into the building opposite. A powerful beam of magic knocked it off its hooves, sending it flying up the street to crash through the wall of another building. Twilight could see the shocked expression of the ponies sheltering within.

For some reason that got the Mareitanians to act, and instead of holding off potshots, Twilight found herself at the center of a barrage of arrows and magic. A crunch from the building next door ended some of it as Trixie put an end to those ponies within, but it was hardly enough.

Twilight teleported her way into one of the buildings next to her, also filled with Mareitanians who seemed confused about where their target had gone to. It took them far too long to realise it was behind them, and when Twilight killed one with Swordy, the rest made a quick decision to exit into the street, choosing to try their odds with the griffons rather than keep fighting.

Twilight froze, the hairs on the back of her neck rising up as she felt something. She had no idea what it was, or where it was coming from, but she could feel it, like a change in the very texture of the air.

Twilight tried to shake the feeling off, but it persisted in taunting her even as she poked her head out of the door of the building. A half dozen ponies were laying dead in the street, along with a griffon, who had overplayed her claw in attacking them. Trixie was waving at her from the building opposite, which Twilight was about to return when a horn sounded from deep within the Mareitanians territory.

"They can't be falling back already, can they?" Twilight asked out loud as Trixie hopped out of her cover to fire her magic after the Mareitanians now in full retreat. Above them the griffons started to give chase, swooping down into the narrow streets to attack whatever they could get.

"I don't think so," said Trixie. "Not unless Ember or Nightmare did something really good."

"Maybe. Get to Mistress Mjuzi and tell her to hold her zebras back while I go to investigate."

Twilight took wing, quickly rising up above the city. Rainbow and her friends were also up there, having decided to find out themselves what was going on. Twilight was quickly spotted, and within a couple of seconds Rainbow was in her face, shouting.

"Faust's here!"

"Shit," Twilight said quietly as that thing they hoped wouldn't happen, happened. "Where is she?"

"She's over there," Rainbow pointed towards a cluster of houses around a small courtyard, which would be difficult to attack from the air. "I think she's making some kind of portal."

"What makes you think that?"

Rainbow flailed her hooves for a second, "It's a big swirly magic thing! What am I supposed to think it was? A giant laundry spell?"

"Okay, I'm sorry, just take me to it."

Twilight followed after Rainbow to where Lightning and Vapor were circling. They weren't directly above where Faust was, which was a sensible idea in Twilight's opinion, but they were at a point that gave them the best possible angle to see between the houses.

As Rainbow had said, there was a big swirly magic thing that did at least put Twilight in mind of a portal, except this one was slightly asymmetrical, and gave off wisps of magic that ran up the sides of the surrounding buildings. They weren't doing any damage, but they concerned Twilight all the same. That portal seemed to be far from stable, and the power coming off it suggested that it had enough power to reach the moon and back. Far more than it needed to reach Equestria.

As they watched, Faust stepped into view. Her horn glowed brightly, and the portal changed, growing more stable as ponies started running into it. Why had Faust needed to stabilise it to work? None of this was adding up, and the feeling Twilight had about it only got worse the longer she watched.

"Did you see her performing any kind of containment for that portal?" Twilight asked, an idea coming to her that filled her with dread.

"Not that we know what that would look like," Lightning said slowly, "but she had that thing going already by the time we got here. It was kind of smaller then though."

"So you didn't see her make any preparations?"

Lightning shook her head, "No, none."

"Get to Mistress Mjuzi and tell her to start evacuating the city, then tell the Commander to get his griffons to help, and then get out of here."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it! Rainbow, you get to Nightmare and tell her to take Luna and Cadence back to the Retreat. Vapor, find Trixie and tell her to get to the Retreat as well, then tell Ember to do the same. I'm-"

"Twilight!" Rainbow shouted, stopping Twilight dead in her tracks. "What is happening?"

Twilight thrust a hoof towards the portal, "That is an overpowered, unstable, portal with zero containment to control it. While Faust is holding it it's fine, but once she stops, and if she doesn't close it, it will draw in every bit of magic around, growing in power until it collapses. When it does it'll expel every bit of power it has in a wave of destruction that could, and probably will, wipe Zanzebra off the face of the world!"

Rainbow's jaw hung open, but she quickly pulled it shut with a click. "Right, so we should probably go tell them to start evacuating the city."

"Yes! Thank you!"

Twilight growled as the three pegasi flew off, then went back to observing the portal. Ponies and yaks were still passing through it, and Twilight almost regretted giving the order to hang back. There were far larger priorities though, and she supposed that giving a quick explanation to the Wonderbolts would at least stop everyone standing around asking why they're evacuating.

-0-0-0-

Lightning stood, watching the blank faces of all those that knew about as much about magic as she did. It was nice of Twilight to take the ten necessary seconds needed to explain that much, but it was the kind of explanation that needed a background in magic to really understand the implications of. Lightning had simplified it for herself to the point that there was a bad portal that was going to go boom and take the city with it.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Evacuate the city!"

"Is there time?" Mistress Mjuzi asked. "How long will we have before the port collapses after Faust stops holding it? Hours? Minutes? Seconds?"

"I don't know, but the fact that Twilight said to evacuate rather than run for our lives makes me think we have a bit of time. Time that you're wasting!"

"Right, of course. Mtafuta! Mlinzi! Get to the Council and get them out of here! Pascha, get to the triage and tell them to start moving those they can. Leave those that can't move for the griffons to transport. With your permission of course, Commander Lurin."

"I'll take care of all the wounded if you concentrate on getting the civilians out," Lurin offered, getting a sharp nod from Mjuzi. He quickly took off, quickly delivering orders to his soldiers via screeches and roars. The sound sent chills down Lightning's back.

"Go with him. Make sure your princesses get out safely."

It took Lightning a moment to realise that those words had been directed at her, and she gave the Mistress a salute as Trixie ran past, following Twilight's order for her to the letter. Maybe even screaming a little as she did. Vapor arrived seconds later, and Lightning grabbed her, dragging her along towards where the princesses were.

"Why would Faust do this?" Vapor asked. "This is insane even for her! Is this because of what happened to Celestia?"

"Think about it, Vapor, all the princesses are here, as well as the rest of us. We beat Celestia, just, and near defeated her army. If she could take all of us out in one go, do you think she'd hesitate long to do it? She might hate herself for it, but she'd probably guarantee her victory by doing so."

"That's- That's- I don't even have words for that!"

"I know, now go find Ember and tell her to go get out of here!"

Lightning watched for less than a second as Vapor sped off, then flew for the hospital as fast as she could. Everything was in a mess of barely organised chaos when she got there, and even though the griffons were there to help it wasn't hard to see the fear they instilled in a lot of the zebras as they grabbed stretchers to carry the most injured to safety.

Lightning weaved through them as quickly as she could to reach the back room where Luna and Cadence were. A grey unicorn was there already, and Lightning almost attacked until she remembered it was Nightmare, and not a Mareitanian.

"You!" Nightmare said, choosing to ignore that Lightning had started going for her blades. "Help support Cadence while I carry Luna. She can walk with help."

"There's no chance we can walk out there," Lightning said quickly. "There's barely room to stand. Why didn't you just bring the mirror here?"

Nightmare went quiet for a moment. "I'd be less insulted if you were a unicorn telling me that, rather than a pegasus."

"Nightmare!"

Nightmare pointed her horn at the wall and blew a sizable hole in it, then heaved Luna off her bed and onto her back, stopping with a growl as Luna's legs dragged on the ground. "Fuck it," she said, returning to her usual form and the height it gave her. "Come on."

"Should you really be seen like that?" Cadence asked.

"Does it really matter right now? Zanzebra is about to explode, and I don't want to be in it when that happens! I doubt you do either." Nightmare stepped out through the hole, manoeuvring carefully to not catch Luna on the edge, then stopped as a large number of zebras stared at her. "What?" she asked. "Do I have something in my teeth?"

Zebras started screaming and running, which was totally fine since that's what they were supposed to be doing in the first place. They also gave her a wide berth, which was useful as they made their way to the warehouse the Council had been in, as that's where the portal to the Retreat had been put.

"Need a claw?"

All of them, except the still unconscious Luna, looked up to see Ember above them, flying in the company of Rainbow and Vapor. She landed next to Cadence and took over from Lightning, who had been struggling against the larger mare.

"Not tempted to go tackle Faust?" Nightmare asked with a grin.

"After what I did to her daughter? Heck no. I'm fine with getting out of here."

With the extra escort of a dragon, they made quick time to the portal, quickly passing through to the relative safety it offered. Luna was quickly dragged through to the observation area and dumped, much to the surprise of Moondancer, Mayfly, and Daring. Flurry just burbled happily because her mother was back.

Daring was the first to recover, "What the hell happened?"

"Bad things, and good things," Nightmare said back, turning Luna onto her side and arranging her into something that looked reasonably comfortable. "Currently Zanzebra is set to explode, so we decided it'd be safer here."

"What is that supposed to mean? Where's Twilight? And Trixie, for that matter."

"And what about the portal?" Starsy enquired. "I hope you didn't leave it somewhere it could be destroyed."

"Ah," Nightmare said. "Uh, Rainbow, could you-"

"On it!"

Rainbow raced back out through the portal, and grabbed it in her legs to carry. She made for the exit, but stopped as she heard her name being shouted.

"Don't take the fucking portal away!"

Rainbow looped and flew back towards Trixie, lowering the portal in her hooves so its bottom was nearly touching the ground. "Jump!"

"What?"

"Jump!"

With a cry Trixie jumped in through the portal, and Rainbow lifted it back up close to her and made for the sky, heading in the direction the evacuees were fleeing. There was still too many in the city, and Rainbow hoped they had the time to escape. The glow in the distance suggested otherwise.

-0-0-0-

Twilight had been able to do little more than watch while Faust was there. The soldiers were still running out of the surrounding city, but what had once been a flow was now little more than a trickle. The time was coming that Faust would leave, triggering the collapse of the portal, if that was her plan.

Twilight could tell the evacuation was in progress, and Faust had to know it too. This was a city with tens, maybe even hundreds of thousands of zebras living in it. They simply couldn't all get out that fast. Twilight couldn't for the life of her figure out how Faust could bring herself to do this. Was an attempt to kill Luna, Cadence, and herself worth it in Faust's mind? Or was this an unwanted byproduct of a hastily slapped together portal made to save her soldiers?

Twilight kept watching as the last of the soldiers fled through the portal, but where there might have been elation at them being gone, Twilight only felt sick. Faust would leave now, and without her to hold the portal it would start to decay.
Twilight froze like a deer in lamplight as Faust looked straight at her with an expression that lay somewhere between sorrow and determination. She held it for a couple of seconds, then walked through the portal. As soon as she was gone the portal started to distort.

Twilight appeared in front of the portal with a flash, her magic quickly probing it to see how it worked, and how she could fix it. If she could fix it that was. The power it exuded was beyond what Twilight could hope to control, and was yet another example of Faust's outdated methods, using raw power to compensate for a lack of finesse.

Twilight backed up a step as a bolt of pure energy struck a wall, making the part it hit vanish. Or so Twilight thought, but she quickly changed her mind as a chunk of half molten masonry tumbled out of the portal's mouth. From that Twilight could only conclude that the connection to the portal at the other end had been severed, leaving the portal here trying to connect with something else.

Twilight put aside her fear and continued probing the portal, barely even shrieking as it spat out half the remains of a well cooked pony at her. To be honest she wasn't really learning anything. She barely even recognised the magic it was comprised of, let alone found any answers. It was too powerful for her to control, too unrecognisable for her to figure out how to close, and too unstable to stop drawing in magic. There might be something she could do though. If she could bleed the power off it faster than it was drawing it in, she could shrink the portal, slow its degradation, and lessen the damage when it collapsed.

Twilight swallowed and delved her magic into the swirling mass of near pure energy before her, hoping to peel energy off it like it were wood on a lathe. A fountain of energy fountained off its edge, drifting gently into the air with an almost ephemeral quality that was beautiful up until you saw whatever it touched get turned to molten slag.

Twilight tried again, trying to direct the energy upwards, but it seemed determined to ground itself on something, and was probably less harmful doing so. That meant little to Twilight though, who felt like little more than a gnat in front of a blowtorch as the portal energy burned through masonry like it was tissue paper. If she got this wrong, there wouldn't be enough of her left to fill a matchbox.

Time seemed to lose meaning as Twilight kept working at it, but she was aware enough to know that time had to be running out. The portal was little more than a lopsided tear now, smaller than when it started, but still sucking in power faster as it neared collapse faster than Twilight could leech it off. All she could do now was hope that she'd done enough for the zebras, the griffons, and her friends to get away.

She held it a bit longer anyway, even as the portal started spitting out more detritus at her, still trying to form a connection with something as it died, gurgling like the plughole of gods. It was definitely time to go though, before Twilight ran out of even the few seconds she needed to fly away.

Twilight teleported up, and spent only a second or two observing the portal as it began the final stages of its collapse into a single point of energy that would then explode into something powerful enough to level a mountain if put inside one. And Faust used it to teleport soldiers. It'd be funny if it weren't so terrifying.

Twilight flew as fast as she could, knowing that she should've left sooner. The portal was drawing power rapidly now, as well as everything else it could, right up until Twilight felt herself go motionless, her flight negated by the draw of the portal. It only lasted a second, then a burst of energy flung her through the air, away from the rising bubble of destruction as the magic of the portal was released in one.

Twilight screamed as she lost a battle with gravity, and as she shielded herself to crash through the side of a building. Struggling to remain conscious after the impact, she could only hope that she'd been thrown far enough away to avoid destruction. As agony burned away her consciousness and her vision blacked out, she had the unsettling feeling she really wasn't.

Author's Note

And how do we start the new year? With spells of mass destruction. How else? Hopefully we should be back to uninterrupted updates now, so keep watching this space.

~~Totally failed to think of a chapter name this time.~~

36. Half the pieces

Twilight sucked in a deep breath, then coughed as she inhaled a mix of sand and air. An oppressive heat surrounded her on all sides, and even with her eyes closed, a bright light hurt her eyes.

Despite all this, none of it came as a surprise considering that she'd just been dead. She wasn't sure how she became dead, beyond the obvious of being slammed through a building at high speed, but she was pretty certain that she had been, even though what happened last time she'd died hadn't happened this time. That was odd, as was this entire line of thought, but it was all she had to cling to right now. Apart from that, all she had to do now was hope it wasn't the fires of hell she was waking up to.

"Trixie?"

"Getting some rest I'm afraid."

"Luna?"

"Yes, it is me." Luna smiled at Twilight as the smaller alicorn fluttered her eyes open, "Welcome back to the Circen desert."

So that explained the crazy heat at least. Nothing else, but it was a start. "What happened? Is everyone alright?"

"We are all fine, thanks to you. Unfortunately a near third of Zanzebra was destroyed in the explosion, but lives claimed by it were next to zero thanks to you holding the portal from collapse for so long. Indeed, I believe we can reduce the number of casualties by one now you are back with us."

Twilight closed her eyes again and sighed. She supposed she should be happy that she saved as much of Zanzebra as she did, but hearing that a third of a city had been destroyed by a single spell didn't sound like a victory. It only sounded good when compared against the destruction of an entire city, and everyone in it.

"What's happening in Zanzebra now?"

"Clearing up so rebuilding can begin. Their fallen are being honoured, and there is much talk of improvements that can be made to the city considering how much of it is now a blank slate, so to speak. The important thing is that Zebrica remains free."

"For now," Twilight said glibly. She brushed a hoof over the sand weakly and sighed, "How long before Faust is creating portals like that in Equestria? Is she going to hold Equestria hostage using threats of wholesale destruction?"

"You know I can't answer that, Twilight. I'm surprised she did such a thing at all, or was even able to. Clearly the chance to destroy all of us was too good an opportunity for her to waste. Besides, you managed to reduce the damage caused by a significant amount alone. I doubt such would happen again if we were all there to do what you did."

The answer was surprisingly reassuring to Twilight. Maybe things would go better in such a situation so long as she wasn't alone. Maybe with help she could've reduced the power of the portal to the point it collapsed into little more than a puff of warm air.

"Did you encounter Faust or Celestia in the astral realm?"

Twilight paused, unsure about the sudden change of direction. "I don't think so. I don't really remember being there to be totally honest. I couldn't tell you if I was there at all."

"That is likely for the best. Now rouse yourself Twilight. Now that we have the crystals we can finally produce this oubliette, and finally put an end to Faust. Starsy is running over the final preparations for the spell, and with your help we should be able to complete it."

Twilight nodded, and began to attempt the surprisingly complex set of movements required to go from horizontal to vertical, and found them just as hard as she expected them to be. Thankfully Luna seemed to be patient enough to let her sort it out in her own time, although a little help would've been nice. It was hard to deny that compared to the last time she'd died, waking up nice and warm in a desert was hooves down a massive improvement over waking up covered in your blood, surrounded by bodies in a freezing cold morgue.

-0-0-0-

For the most part the others were glad to see her up and about again, although most of them were still unsure how to approach the whole 'waking up from the dead' thing. The notable exception to this was Moondancer, who did little more than scowl for a few seconds, then return to her book.

"Didn't I tell you to not die?" Trixie said to Twilight after a minute of waiting for the others to welcome her back. "Was that one little thing too much to ask?"

"Evidently so. I would say that I'd like to see you try to get away from that explosion, but I'd be lying because you wouldn't have got away, and you'd be dead. Permanently."

"Alright, fine, but could you have maybe done something to protect yourself? Or maybe not buried yourself in rubble? Spending almost two days looking for you in the rubble was excruciating, and then finding little more than a pile of mush wasn't great either. I'm glad the two days you've spent in the desert was worth it, but- But- I've really lost track of where I was going with this. Give me a moment."

Twilight was surprised at the span of time that had passed since the battle in Zanzebra. "Four days? I lost four days? Was I really that bad?"

"We didn't quite have to scrape you into a bucket," Luna said slowly, "but it wasn't much better."

Twilight's rear sank to the floor, her imagination giving her quite the horror show. She knew she'd left fleeing the collapsing portal too late, but she didn't think it'd be that bad. That said, she had sailed at some speed through a solid wall, and she'd only assumed she was passing out at the time...

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologise," Cadence said quickly. "What you did saved thousands of lives, as well as all of us. We're just glad you could come back from that."

While Twilight appreciated Cadence's words, the bitter snort from Moondancer had her pinning her ears back. "Not everypony agrees with that."

Trixie patted Twilight on the back, "Screw Moondancer. You're back, and you saved all those zebras, so definitely a net gain."

Twilight looked around the room at all of them, passing over them all until she landed on Ember, to whom they owed their lives too. It seemed like a good time to say that what was done was done, and that the zebras would recover. They needed to think on what was coming next, and that was finishing the oubliette, making their armour to fight Faust with, and freeing Equestria, Saddle Arabia, and Mareitania from Faust. They had what they needed, so it was time to get to work.

"Can we finish the oubliette now we have those crystals?"

"That's currently up for debate," said Starsy. "To contain a power like Faust's, the spell would have to be stronger than herself. I'm not currently convinced that even you four alicorns could make the spell strong enough."

"So we need something, or someone else to make it stronger?" Twilight asked, getting a nod from Starsy. "What about Discord?"

"Good heavens no," Starsy said quickly, almost unable to say the words fast enough. "Introducing his power to the spell has the potential to cause catastrophic problems with it. We need this to be guaranteed to work."

"Sooo... not Discord then." Twilight wracked her brain thinking of other options. She even tried to tap her hoof while doing so, but found herself unable to move with that degree of precision as yet. It was like being drunk, except totally sober and able to witness the horror of a body slowly coming back to life. Unnerving was perhaps a simpler thing to call it, even if it was a little underwhelming.

"I'm afraid the only thing I can think of with that kind of power is the Elements," said Luna. "Unfortunately we already know they won't work against Faust."

"Are you so certain of that?" Nightmare asked back. "They mightn't work directly against Faust, but all they're doing in this case is strengthening a spell using their raw power."

"My father did say the Tree of Harmony might be able to take indirect action against Faust," Ember added. "Would this count?"

All of them waited on Starsy for an answer, even though he was probably less knowledgeable on the Elements than others already in the room. He um'd and ah'd for some time before quietly declaring that he simply didn't know.

"It'd be a gamble to use the Elements. If the time comes to entrap Faust, and their strength was useless against her, then we might have blown our only chance."

"Let's not forget that four of the Bearers are currently imprisoned in Ponyville," Moondancer pointed out. "We'd have to free them before we could complete the oubliette, which is risky in itself."

"But not impossible," Luna countered. "We might have to change the order of our attack, but if we were to conduct a raid on Ponyville with the griffons before our main attack, we could do it. We could free them."

Nightmare shook her head at Luna's suggestion, "With Faust and Celestia free to stop us? Not likely. We'd have to plan something to distract them first, and it'd have to be something good."

"Or the attack on Ponyville isn't the only thing we push ahead of schedule," Rainbow said excitedly. "You want to find Celestia, right Luna? And do what you have to to get her away from Faust? What if you did that while the rest of us go after Ponyville?"

"Not on my own." Luna glanced towards Nightmare, "I was developing my own plan for that, but I would need the help of a certain other pony in this room. Unfortunately that still wouldn't be enough to distract both Faust and Celestia."

"Fleur has a plan to take out the Shades in Canterlot," Twilight told the others in the room. She hadn't thought about it much herself, and was rather ashamed of the lack of contact she had kept with Fleur, and Shining, and her parents. Perhaps she needed to fix that. "She said she was going to use it as a distraction for us when we were ready to attack, so this might be the perfect time for it to happen."

"This seems like overkill just to get your friends back. No offence," said Trixie. "Surely a stealth mission would be better so we can keep the element of surprise for our main attack?"

"Arguably, yes," Luna said thoughtfully. "It's also arguable that doing these things ahead of the main attack would give us a better chance to focus on the assault on Canterlot, rather than split it between other objectives. Separating Celestia from Faust before the assault would make things easier in my opinion."

"I agree with Luna," Twilight said to Trixie, giving her an apologetic smile. "With the griffons not having to split their attention between Canterlot and Ponyville, we stand a far better chance at getting the prisoners out. All of them. If Faust learns the Bearers are gone she might also increase security at Ponyville, making it harder to get the rest of the prisoners out. We already know she has the power to kill them all if she wanted."

Trixie held her hooves up in surrender, "Alright, alright, you've convinced me. It seems the decision has been made."

"Except it's not just our decision to make," Cadence interrupted. "If you want to plan this attack, you need to talk to the Emperor. Unfortunately you might also want to talk to Chrysalis as well, if she still wishes to join us."

"She has a point," Twilight said to Luna.

"There's also other preparations to be made," Starsy cut in. "You are yet to locate a crystal smith to forge your armour. I daresay you might want that before you tackle Faust."

Cadence nodded in agreement with Starsy, "I think I might know a few ponies who could help. Hopefully the crystal ponies are still in Baltimare."

"Then I shall approach the Emperor with our plans," Luna offered. "Perhaps we might have to arrange a meeting between us, him, and Chrysalis, if we are to properly plan this. Preferably on neutral territory."

"Perhaps Zebrica, if the zebras are willing?" Cadence asked questioningly. "Perhaps after what happened, and by having all of us there to plan the attack, they might be more willing to join us?"

"We can but ask," Luna conceded. "If only there was some way to get to the Sultan as well, to ask his intentions. I'm still not sure if I trust him to be on our side. Perhaps that can be your task when you are up to it, Twilight?"

Twilight nodded affirmatively, "I'll see what I can do. I might want to work out a better disguise though. Do you have anything that might help, Starsy."

"I'll have a look," Starsy said gruffly. "If you want disguises here though, you might want to take your changeling friend with you. Nightmare seems fairly good at it too."

"What are we supposed to do?" Rainbow asked, raising a hoof.

"You may accompany me to the Eyrie if you wish," said Luna. "Your presence, Ember, would also be appreciated."

Ember shrugged at Luna, "Sure, I guess?"

"Wait." Daring pointed a hoof around the room until it landed on herself, then Moondancer. "What are we supposed to be doing?"

"Moondancer will continue to assist me," Starsy told Daring. "I suspect there are still refinements to the spell that could be made. Perhaps Cadence would like your company?"

"Certainly," Cadence said with a smile. "I can't promise much excitement, but it'd be nice to have somepony to talk to. That can talk back at least." Cadence cooed at Flurry, "No offence, sweety."

Luna clapped her hooves together, "It seems we are decided then. Time will be getting on in a lot of places, so perhaps it would be prudent to wait until morning, and give Twilight more time to recover."

"I can use the time to contact Fleur and Chrysalis," Twilight said, "so that's not a problem."

"Very good then. Everyone rest up, because we have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow."

Luna drifted off out of the observation area, along with some of the others. The remainder returned to what they were doing before Twilight came back, leaving just one last pony to talk to.

"I like how nopony gave me a job," Trixie grumbled. "Either I'm expected to go with you by default, or I'm not exactly highly trusted."

"I'm sure they trust you just fine," Twilight reassured her. "Besides, where could I possibly go without you?"

"Wherever you've been for the last four days is one place."

"I- Yeah, alright, I'm sorry I left you again. I at least hope it wasn't as scary for you as last time?"

"I'd already stopped freaking out by the time we found you. I was starting to think you'd been vaporised, which was going to be a problem."

"Oh, well, I wasn't. How'd you find me, anyway?"

Trixie gestured with her head towards Ember, "Dragons have surprisingly good noses, apparently, although we had to use magic to narrow it down."

"I am so glad Ember agreed to come with us," Twilight laughed. She cocked her head and stopped laughing as Trixie's expression turned a little sorrowful. "What is it?"

"There's something else that happened while you were out, and I don't think you're going to like it." Trixie lit her horn and Sunset's journal floated in to Twilight's view. It was buzzing and flashing with a pale purple glow. "It started doing this yesterday. I didn't open it, it wasn't my place to, but Sunset's friends have to be wondering where she is by now."

Twilight took the book into her hooves and swallowed, finding herself afraid of what she might find, and also of the fact that time had run out for her to put off telling Sunset's friends about her death.

"Thank you, Trixie, I-um... need to be alone."

"Alright. I'll be nearby for hugs and comfort if you need me."

Twilight smiled her thanks, then took the journal up in her magic to walk unsteadily through the bookshelves to the private reading nook she liked, picking up a pot of ink and a quill along the way. She near fell onto a cushion, and set the book in front of her, and stared at the cover until she felt brave enough to open it.

Sunset, darling, how are you? I know it's only just been over a week, but it feels like forever since we've heard so much as a peep out of you. I know you must be busy, but we do worry about you so.

As for us, we're all doing well. There was an incident with a rather dubious theme park, and a magic phone which Applejack managed to sort out. She can be full of surprises that one. It bothered Twilight to no end finding out we were merely stuck in a room at the park, and not trapped in a phone in an endless white void. Again. I'm not saying it happens at an alarming frequency, but twice is too alarming by far. Once was more than enough.

Anyway, I digress. We would all love to hear back from you, so do write back soon.

Yours sincerely,

Rarity

To her own surprise, Twilight kept her tears at bay as she read, although her heart ached. She was going to have to tell them that Sunset was dead, and been for-

Had it only really been days? Or a week? It felt like far longer to Twilight, and it felt like all her grief had been pushed to the back of her mind so she could focus on other things. Even the fake messages from Sunset, or those things on the other side, had stopped because she didn't have time to dwell on it. Now she had no choice but to make that grief the very centre of her attention as she tried to tell Sunset's friends that Sunset wasn't coming back.

Rarity, it's Twilight. Pony Twilight, that is. Are you there? We need to talk.

Twilight waited, biting her lip and feeling increasingly sick as the minutes passed. If Rarity didn't reply now, they weren't going to really be able to talk until she got back from Saddle Arabia, which was far too long to leave this for.

Thankfully after another few minutes words started to appear on the page. Steeling herself, Twilight prepared for the worst conversation in writing she was likely to ever have.

Twilight? How unexpected to hear from you! Is everything okay? Has something happened to Sunset? Is she hurt?

You could say that, Twilight wrote, then immediately cursed herself for writing it, and for the sheer tactlessness it took to even think it, let alone actually write it down. Unfortunately there was no taking it back once it was in the journal.

I don't wish to sound demanding, darling, but if something's wrong, please tell me.

Twilight hesitated as her words failed her. Again and again she put her quill to the paper, and again and again she lifted it back off. She didn't know how to say what she wanted to, and was fairly certain there wasn't any good way to do it. Perhaps the best way was to be honest in this case.

I'm sorry, Rarity, but there's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to have to be straight. Sunset was killed in an accident over a week ago. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but it's been hard trying to grasp the idea of it myself, and I admit I was scared to tell you, because as soon as I did it meant I would have to face up to it as well. I'm sorry.

Twilight waited, and bit her lip as the wait went on, her chest growing tight and her eyes stinging with tears. It seemed she wasn't the only one crying either as dark splashes started to appear in the journal. Knowing Rarity it could only be mascara making those marks.

Scribbles started to appear on the page, single words that were crossed out as soon as they were written. Twilight felt guilty for dumping it on Rarity, but she knew herself well enough to know she'd feel guilty however gently she tried and failed to let Sunset's friends find out about Sunset's death.

Eventually the scribbles stopped, and Twilight was left wondering if Rarity had been unable to continue writing, or if she'd taken the time to tell her other friends. She was left to wonder for a few more minutes before a trio of words appeared.

I'm not dead!

Twilight blinked, and like that the words were gone, replaced with a single word, and a strange feeling of frustration. Twilight faced upwards, unwilling to look at the journal until she was sure her crazy was no longer going to present itself on paper in front of her. It took a minute, but she did manage to bring herself to look again.

How?

We were collecting crystals from an exposed ley line essential to our mission, but something went wrong. Something broke that could've killed us all if Sunset hadn't managed to stop it. Unfortunately this was only a temporary solution, because as soon as she let go the crystal pillar would explode again. She volunteered to stay behind and hold it until we could get to safety.

She saved us all.

Twilight didn't, and wouldn't ever say that Sunset was the one that caused the problem in the first place, because any of them there could've done it. Rarity and her friends didn't need to know that either, and Twilight was sure they, and herself, felt better thinking Sunset died a hero. That part was at least true to a fashion anyway, even if the truth was more that she refused to let anyone else die for her mistake.

I understand. It sounds so like Sunset to do something like that, to give of herself so nobody else has to. Thank you for telling me, Twilight. I realise this must be as hard for you to tell us as it is for us to find out. I'll inform the others of what has happened, and I hope that we'll at least see you again.

You will, Twilight wrote quickly, not caring if she was interrupting Rarity to do so. I owe that much to Sunset, and I wish I could've told you this in person as well. Unfortunately, coming to see you might not happen very soon because we still have a job to do. One that got harder without Sunset. Before I go though, Sunset wanted me to tell you that she's sorry, and that she loves you guys so much, and to thank you all for giving her a chance after everything she'd done.

Twilight closed her eyes as more mascara blobs appeared in the journal. She wanted this to be both over, yet never end. Part of her was ecstatic to be talking to Rarity, even if she was a human version in a different dimension. Talking about Sunset was hard though, as was making promises to visit that she might not be able to keep. For the most part though, talking about Sunset kept her alive, after a fashion, and ending that meant she was gone again.

It was a privilege, always. Thank you, Twilight, truly. The others will be here soon, so I'm afraid I shall have to go and tell them the bad news. Hopefully I can do it as well for them as you did for me. Farewell Twilight, but do stay in touch, and hopefully we'll see you sooner rather than later.

Rarity.

Twilight closed the journal, a lot gentler than she had for a while, then hugged it to her chest. Her tears were falling freely now, and she didn't care to stop them. She knew she needed to grieve, rather than push on through distraction after endless distraction, and now seemed as good a time as any to let it all out. So she did. It was only the sound of hooves on the wooden floor that brought her out of it long enough to acknowledge the world beyond.

"Would you like a hug?" Trixie asked, smiling as kindly as she could. She hated seeing Twilight like this, and when she got a shaky nod from Twilight, she was quick to sit beside the alicorn and embrace her as she continued to cry. "How did it go?"

"Okay, I guess," Twilight sniffled. "That wasn't the sort of thing you can put a metric for wellness to. It's never going to go that well, and anypony that says it did is probably pretty heartless."

"Okay... a yes, no, or even a shrug would've been answer enough."

Twilight closed her eyes and sighed, "Sorry."

"No need to apologise. I just hope you're at least half as upset as this if I die."

"Don't joke about that! I'd be devastated if I lost you. Makes me wonder why I keep putting you in danger."

"Because you like to keep me where you can see me?"

"Keeping you out of trouble by putting you in danger is hardly the solution to anything. Especially since it doesn't work." Twilight softly butted the side of her head against Trixie, "Use your damn shields."

"I know, but instinct is a bitch."

"You can still try though. Now could you do me a favour and fetch the speaker stones for Fleur and Chrysalis? I might as well get them up to date on things before trying to get some sleep."

-0-0-0-

Twilight awoke what felt like scant hours later to the sensation of her hooves being kicked. Not hard, but hard enough to convey that the kicker wishes the kickee to wake the hell up now, but preferably in a quiet manner. Twilight cracked an eye open, and was rather surprised to find it was Cadence.

"What is it?"

"Princess business," Cadence whispered back. "I'd rather not wake the others, so please try to stay quiet."

Twilight sighed but did as asked, getting herself up and following after Cadence as quietly as she could to the portal chamber, and kept following her through the portal to Equestria. Luna was already there in Starlight Glimmer's old village, as was Nightmare, but the most surprising individual present was Discord, who was staring pensively in the direction of Canterlot, even if though wasn't visible from where they were.

"Discord? What are you doing here?"

Discord turned and gave Twilight a broad smile, "Wonderful to see you, Twilight! I hope you found your time being dead restful."

"I didn't see you there."

"Indeed not, because you weren't there either. If you had been, both Faust and Celestia could've found you, and I wouldn't put it past Faust to find a way to trap you there. So I intervened, keeping you out of the astral realm while you got some well deserved rest."

"You can do that?"

"With a modicum of effort, yes, but I couldn't hold you like that forever. Keeping you out long enough for your body to patch itself up took a considerable amount out of me, and I'm not as limitless as I like to make out."

"Oh, well, thank you," Twilight said, and she meant it. However, that didn't excuse the fact that Discord had completely bailed on them the moment he'd found out that Faust was free, and while it may have made up for it a little, it still left a lot of making up to do. "Where have you been? Why did you run away?"

Discord sighed and turned back to watch Canterlot. "I am sorry, Twilight, truly, but I know you've discovered enough about mine and Faust's history to work out that I had my reasons. It's absolutely killed me to have to leave Fluttershy for so long."

The lack of his usual antics was convincing enough to make Twilight think he was being honest. After all, why lie when it was him that came to them? It still didn't go anywhere near far enough to explain why Discord had run away though, which is exactly what Twilight told Discord.

"I ran away for your protection."

"I find that unlikely."

Discord rolled his eyes, "Could you at least give me a chance to explain before dismissing me completely?"

Twilight looked up into Discord's mismatched eyes, cocking her head slightly. "From what I've come to understand, you and Faust are the embodiments of chaos and order, respectively, and I see no reason to think that she could be more powerful than you."

"Power has nothing to do with it. This is more about our natures, and how it affects the world around us, including you. You're using sense and logic to formulate a plan to stop Faust, but as soon as I get involved, that begins to break down. Just having me around you would begin to introduce variables that could undo your plan. I wouldn't be doing it on purpose, before you think that, but it's more a side effect of being who I am."

"So you're saying you ran away to stop you accidentally ruining our plans."

"That's one hundred percent accurate."

Twilight raised a lone eyebrow, "Sounds more like your scared of her to me."

Discord waved his paw dismissively, "I'm pretty sure it's healthy to have some concerns about the embodiment of your antithesis, but fine, you're not wrong. She could always beat me. She could never stop me, but for some reason I could never fathom, order could always trump chaos on a temporary basis. I know the dragons told you of what we got up to before they decided enough was enough."

"They did."

"Then you can work out that as soon as I get involved, her odds of beating you increase."

"That makes no sense."

Discord shrugged, "That's the truth of it though. However, just because I haven't been around doesn't mean I haven't been keeping an eye on things, and I wholeheartedly agree with your intended plan."

"Because it removes your greatest rival?" said Luna.

"That's the funny thing, if you could call it that. I'd quite happily go back to hammering away at Faust, if it weren't for the fact that the consequences for the world are far from something I desire. Our exchanges over the centuries were quite entertaining. However, I've learnt my lessons well, thank you very much, and don't wish for a repeat of a thousand years ago."

"Then what, Discord?" Luna growled. "Speak plainly, or leave us be to get on with things."

"Ugh, so impatient. Fine, Order isn't order any more. Order is her end goal, yes, but she is getting there in a far from orderly manner. War, death, destruction, brain washing, mind control, and all the other things she's doing. Does that sound like order to you?"

"Sounds like a party to me," Nightmare snickered.

"In her quest to bring order to this world, Order compromised herself. She always was dangerous, even though I rather irnonically got most of the blame for it, but now it's at levels that threaten everything."

"How is that ironic?" Twilight asked, since she knew enough of Faust's and Discord's history to see why it wasn't.

"It's ironic because your very existence is because of chaos." Discord folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at Twilight, "You all think that order is laws and rules, living wrapped in the safety of society and thinking that there are certain ways things have to happen, but you'd be wrong. What Faust wants to do, the plan, that is order. Eat, sleep, reproduce, rinse, repeat, and try not to get eaten by creatures doing the exact same thing, but from a more lofty link of the food chain. The lives you live now, with your intellects, your cities, your magic, and your insatiable need to either befriend or dominate those you're different to is complete and utter chaos, totally different to what order intended. I should know after all, I caused it."

Twilight blinked at that, and found it very hard to dispute. Very hard. Especially when it's the embodiment of chaos telling you. Thankfully Discord continued, meaning she could ignore it for now, right up until it kept her up at night as she tried to understand it at some point.

"Anyway," he said, following it up with a sigh, "Faust needs to be stopped, which is why I'm here now. I know what your plan is, but there's a problem with it that I'm sure you're already aware of, and it involves the Tree of Harmony."

"Starsy thinks that the Tree could act tangentially against Faust," said Twilight. "Enough to strengthen the spell to hold her."

"And do you trust that?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because the Tree of Harmony is still Faust's creation, and she might be able to undo its power from within her prison. This might also surprise you to learn, but you, Luna, Celestia, and even the happy accident here-

"Excuse me?" Nightmare growled, only to be ignored.

"-Are vulnerable while Faust has control of the Tree. If you really want this to work, the Tree needs something to finally free it from Faust, and to make it whole, like it always should have been."

"It needs you," Twilight said, getting a nod from Discord.

"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Cadence.

"Faust made the Tree of Harmony," Twilight began to explain, "but harmony is a balancing of order and chaos. Faust refused to let Discord near the Tree, so to make it work she had to synthesize her own chaos-"

"A mere imitation knockoff, I assure you," Discord said smugly.

"If we can introduce Discord's genuine chaos to the Tree of Harmony, it might give it what it needs to escape Faust's control, and make it effective against her."

"While also keeping it effective against me," Discord added quickly, giving Luna a pointed look, "if that's something you're worried about."

"Would that work?" Cadence asked Twilight. "It wouldn't harm the Tree? Or kill it? Or do something strange like create an extra set of Elements, like the Elements of Disharmony, or something along those lines?"

"I don't know," Twilight admitted. "Would anything like that happen?" she asked Discord.

"I very much doubt it. If the Tree were still in its infancy it might have some unusual side effects, but as a fully grown, big adult tree, I don't think so. Besides, we're not giving it anything it doesn't already have. It has chaos in it, just not the real deal."

Twilight pursed her lips, a growing concern prodding her mind. "If that's your plan, why not just do it before now? Why tell us? You know we were going to use the Elements anyway. In fact, we could have fixed this ages ago if you had!"

"No, you couldn't. If you blasted Faust with the Elements now, the best you might get is a reprieve, like what happened with me being trapped in stone, but Faust knows the magic of the Tree too well to be held for long. So here I am, supporting your plan, and telling you what I'm going to do. Because of you three," Discord stated, pointing simultaneously at Twilight, Luna, and Nightmare, growing an extra limb to do so. "Celestia too. The only one here that's safe is Cadence, because she's not bound to the Tree. At least nowhere near as significantly as the rest of you, so you and your squib are excused."

Cadence bristled at the term Discord used for her child, "Her name, is Flurry Heart."

"Yes, yes, and I'm sure no unkind ponies are ever going to call her Slurry Fart. Not once." Discord ignored Cadence as she huffed and puffed, "Anyway, as I was going to say, the reason I'm telling you is that since you're all connected to the Tree there might be a chance, however small, that what I'm planning to do may effect you as well. It might also affect the other Bearers, including Fluttershy, so don't think for a moment that I'm taking this lightly."

The three alicorns Discord pointed out gave each other nervous glances. "What kind of effects are we talking about?" Nightmare asked. "I'm only asking because I've had enough surprises over the last couple of years. I'm not sure I can handle more."

"I honestly don't know. It could turn the Bearers into alicorns, or it could strip you of your immortality, or just make you a few inches taller. It might in fact do nothing at all. I really don't know. It's up to you to decide though, whether you think the risk of side effects are worth it. Otherwise you're either going to have to make a new plan, or really hope the current one works, in which case I have to ask," Discord leaned forwards towards them, "are you feeling lucky, punks?"

Author's Note

I'm pretty sure that when I put this in here yesterday I had something clever I wanted to say in this little box. I'll be damned if I can remember what that was. Maybe I'll remember by next week.

37. Barely recognisable

"Are you alright, Princess?"

"Huh?" Cadence said dumbly, the first words spoken on hers and Daring Do's trip to Baltimare catching her off-guard, as wrapped up in her own thoughts as she'd been.

"I said, are you alright? You seem a bit out of it."

"Sorry, I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

"Nothing you need to worry yourself about." Cadence tried to say it pleasantly to ally any concerns Daring might have had, but she could tell from the look on the pegasus' face that she'd failed. To be fair, considering all that was going on, she'd be suspicious too if somepony said that to her.

Thankfully Daring didn't prod any further, for which Cadence was grateful, since she'd have to tell Daring to drop the issue otherwise. Less fortunate was that Daring went quiet, leaving Cadence to sink back into her thoughts. Thoughts which were not making her feel any better about things.

One of the reasons Cadence had wound up offering her services as babysitter to a certain Twilight Sparkle was that Celestia had pushed her into it. That wasn't to say she was adverse to the idea, but as a teenager Cadence didn't exactly have watching a foal as her highest priority, even if Twilight was a darling little thing. Celestia had been adamant though, and so it had happened. Like destiny. Like so many things tended to be.

The problem was that it did involve destiny. From the moment Twilight had become Celestia's protégé, Cadence had constantly heard about Twilight Sparkle's destiny, to the point that she was almost sick of it. She would never begrudge Twilight for that, but it had strained things with Celestia at times, especially after Sunset Shimmer's destiny had turned out very differently to what Celestia had said it would. Twilight needed to be different, even if it meant Cadence doing everything she could to steer Twilight in the right direction, while still wondering what her own purpose was in the grand scheme of things.

It had led to her meeting Shining Armour, so it had turned out pretty well for her in the end, but Cadence still found herself running into a problem, and the problem involved destiny, and what Discord had said the previous night. Celestia knew all about Twilight's destiny to become an alicorn, which always struck Cadence as odd as Celestia had been totally unprepared, and even surprised when Cadence became an alicorn. Celestia had also been just as surprised when Flurry was born an alicorn, so just how in the hell did she know from such a young age what Twilight would become?

The answer seemed to lead back to the Tree of Harmony. Celestia, Luna, Twilight, and even an anomaly like Nightmare were all bound to it in some way, as were the Bearers, so it wasn't beyond reason to think that might be how Celestia knew of Twilight's eventual ascension. But that left Cadence feeling wrong. She, and by extension Flurry, weren't bound to the Tree, and for a reason that Cadence knew to be foolish, it made her feel less significant.

Yes her destiny had become clearer once the Crystal Empire returned, and she found herself bound to it and the Crystal Heart, but that was in some regards a recent development. Until then Cadence spent years wondering what her destiny was, while hearing all about Twilight's. Now Discord saying she lacked the same connection to the Tree of Harmony maybe explained some of that. That didn't seem to make her feelings of exclusion that she'd had for years any less, and if anything those feelings had come back with a-vengeance.

No matter how welcoming Celestia had been, the surprise nature of her ascension, compared to Twilight's well planned out in advance ascension, made her feel like an accident, and a little unwanted at times. The rather cold reception she'd received from Sunset had only cemented that feeling. Now she was held separate from the other alicorns again, and it... burned at her, if she was honest with herself.

Cadence sighed and put it out of her mind as best she could. Getting angry over something that couldn't be controlled, and probably didn't even matter, wouldn't help at all. She couldn't blame Celestia, Luna, Twilight, or even the Tree's maker, for something they couldn't control either, so doing so was a waste of effort.

Besides, escaping any negative effects of Discord's plan was a definite upshot. If Flurry had been at risk she'd have refused to accept the plan point blank. As it was, she and Flurry were seemingly safe, so she'd left it to the others to decide. Either way, they could only hope the decision they made was the right one.

"Shouldn't we enter on hoof, Princess? We'd be a lot less likely to be spotted doing that."

Cadence hadn't even registered that they were that close to Baltimare, and cursed herself for getting so distracted. The plan had been to enter the city by hoof, so for Daring to remind her at this point already suggested it was almost getting too late to do so.

"Of course," Cadence replied, hoping to hide how scatterbrained she was feeling. "And please, call me Cadence. In fact, considering where we're going, I must insist on it." To be honest, using Cadence was probably too much of a giveaway, but Cadence didn't currently trust herself to remember to respond to anything that wasn't actually her name. Thankfully much of Equestria's citizens knew her as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, so Cadence would probably be fine.

They landed just outside the city, where Cadence quickly ran through the spells given to her to disguise her form. Her wings faded from sight, along with her real cutie mark, getting replaced with a less regal candy heart. Her coat paled to almost white, leaving it with the slightest hint of pink, while her mane and tail lost their pink hue, leaving them creamy yellow and purple. The only thing unchanged, apart from her height and horn, were her eyes. Purple eyes were common enough to pass without comment.

For her part, Daring ran a hoof through her mane and sighed, missing her pith helmet and shirt. It was irksome to think most ponies wouldn't recognise her without them.

"I'm starting to wish we'd arranged to have Shining meet us here," Cadence lamented as she tried to get her bearings. "At the very least he could tell us where to find the refugees."

"New Hope Medical Center. It's on the southwest of the city if I remember correctly." Daring smiled at Cadence's questioning expression, "It pays to know where the hospitals are in my line of work. Somepony has to fix the wings I seem to constantly break, or sprain, or whatever the hell it is I do to them."

"So the fastest way is through the city centre?"

"That's right, although I imagine it would be safer to avoid going through there."

"No- Well, yes, it would, but I want to see what Equestria has become without us. If things get bad I can teleport us to safety."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's not."

"Oh come on," Cadence started trotting towards the city center, a playful bounce in her step, "where's your sense of adventure?"

"Back in the Retreat, which is incidentally where you left your daughter in the care of Moondancer and an illusion. You should probably put more thought into getting back to her, rather than putting yourself in danger."

"You did say this was the quickest way to where we're going, didn't you? The sooner we get to where we're going, the sooner we can find those crystal smiths, and the sooner we can get back to the Retreat."

Daring grumbled, knowing this wasn't a fight she could win. She comforted herself in the knowledge that if things did go to shit, she could simply fly away. Not that she had designs on abandoning the princess, or their mission, but comfort was still comfort.

Within minutes of entering the city, they could tell things weren't as they seemed. Neither of them could quite put a hoof on why, but compared to the image of Baltimare given to them of a city on the verge of collapse, things seemed relatively normal. The streets were relatively clean, businesses were open, and ponies were going about their days like their city wasn't under occupation. It was a little off-putting.

"Seen enough yet?" Daring asked, her unease at what she was seeing making her want to get a move on more than ever. The return to normality really couldn't bode well, in her opinion. Are these ponies really going to want an army of griffons coming to liberate them?

"Relax, Daring. Are you usually so jumpy?"

"Aren't you?"

"No... why would you even say that?" Cadence asked, only to find she was talking to herself as Daring had stopped dead, falling behind a few meters. "What's wrong?"

"I finally know what's wrong with this place. Take a look at those three soldiers. Or more specifically," Daring pointed at a pale blue mare in uniform, "that one."

Cadence sighed, but decided to humour Daring as the mare had lived her entire life trusting her gut. The soldier pointed out to her didn't seem particularly special though, and Cadence felt like she'd seen enough soldiers lately to tell when something was wrong. Then Cadence looked again.

The mare's uniform, although the same colour and cut as a typical Mareitanian soldier's, was less armoured, but by intentional design rather than an effect of shortages. Were these soldiers of a new branch created to govern the streets of Equestria's cities? They didn't seem all that intimidating if they were, and the casual way the mare held her spear with her wing suggested that-

"Ooohhh..." Cadence said as she got it.

"Now are you seeing it? The Mareitanians don't have pegasi, so that could only be-"

"An Equestrian," Cadence said weakly. "We're oppressing ourselves now. Why though? Are all of them Equestrians?"

"Why don't you go ask?" Daring said, far from meaning it, which only made it so much worse when Cadence went to do exactly that. "I was kidding! Oh crap."

Cadence put on a smile as she trotted over to the the trio of... soldiers? Didn't seem right to call them such, but without anything else to name them as, Cadence stuck with it. They didn't see her coming until she was almost on them, which said a little too much of their effectiveness, and when they did they only returned the smile of what could be an incoming threat. Cadence might not know a massive amount about soldiering, but even she was a little embarrassed for them.

"Can we help you, miss?" a stallion asked, a rather nondescript brown earth pony.

"I-ah... I'm sorry to interrupt, but you don't look like the soldiers I'm used to seeing around here. I mean, one of you is a pegasus, and I didn't think that there were any Mareitanian pegasi."

The pegasus smiled at Cadence, "I guess you haven't been into town much lately?"

"It's been hard with the travel ban, but we couldn't put it off any longer."

"Understandable."

"Equestrian Guard?" Daring read off the badge the pegasus was wearing. "Is that new?"

"Mostly. We're the replacement for the city guard, except that we're part of a guard that protects all the cities."

"And you're okay with working for," Daring dropped her name to a whisper, "Faust?"

"Not all of us care about that," the remaining stallion said gruffly, an earth pony like the other, but in tones of red. "Some of us just want our city to get back to normal, so if that means doing this to make it happen, then so be it. It's not like we're joining up to go attack other countries."

"I'm pretty sure they wouldn't give you much choice if they asked you to."

"And maybe I don't like how many questions you two are asking. Maybe you'd best move along."

Cadence quickly apologised and dragged Daring away from the three guards, deciding there and then that getting to the New Hope Medical Center was probably better than getting into trouble.

"Lousy sellouts," Daring grumbled. "I can't believe they'd work for Faust."

"To try and get everything back to normal? I can. Especially if it pays well, because there are probably a lot of ponies out of work right now. It also allows Faust to regroup her army if she doesn't have to use them to occupy the cities."

"Greeeaaattt... just what we needed. Hopefully the loss of her ships doesn't mean she's about to attempt another invasion of Zebrica right now."

"I'm not sure that's our biggest concern," said Cadence. "If there's new equipment being made to arm our own ponies as guards, I'm wondering if this means Faust finally has Equestria's infrastructure up and running, along with all its factories and other methods of manufacture?"

"Does that really matter?"

"If it allows for the mass production of weapons, armour, and other unpleasant things, yes. I'm not sure what the griffons have entirely, but I get the feeling that they're not prepared for fighting tanks, or an army equipped with those net launchers."

Daring nodded along, her expression turning grim. "And here I thought we were winning after Zebrica. Guess I was getting way ahead of myself."

-0-0-0-

No further time was wasted getting to the medical center after that. Their desire to explore had been ruined by their findings, which instilled in them a sense of urgency like nothing else could have. If Equestrians could bring themselves to serve as their own oppressors, how long before they could bring themselves to become occupiers as well? Faust needed to be stopped, and soon.

To do that though, the four alicorns fighting Faust needed armour, and specifically armour made from magically inert crystals that they needed crystal pony smiths to forge. Hence why they needed to find the crystal ponies. That all contributed to their surprise when they flung open the doors to the medical center and found it empty. Or at least empty of refugees.

"What?" Cadence stated stupidly, her eyes bugging out at the lack of crystal ponies to be found. Instead there were only regular ponies, some in the kind of clothing associated with working in hospitals, and some with the kind of attitudes that belonged to patients.

"This looks like a hospital," Daring said slowly, like she was waiting for a punch line. "I mean it is a hospital, but I... don't understand. Where are all the refugees?"

Cadence didn't reply, and instead walked over to the reception where a kindly looking unicorn mare was sat watching them, a smile barely just hiding the tiredness in her eyes. Cadence regarded the sunshine yellow pony for a moment, then blurted out "Where are they?"

"I'm afraid you're going to have to be a little more specific, dear. Do you have a name for the pony you're looking for?"

"What? No, I- Ngh..." Cadence lifted a hoof to her face to cover her aggravation at what the mare thought she'd meant. Which was fair, considering that this was a hospital. "I mean I'm looking for the crystal ponies. This is the New Hope Medical Center, isn't it? I thought they were sheltering here?"

"They were removed weeks ago, I'm afraid. The Lady Faust desired for the hospital to reopen for the use of her soldiers, when necessary. We are still struggling for supplies after the refugees pilfered most of them, and parts of the building are still undergoing cleaning, but we are once again open to patients."

"Okay, that's nice, but where did they go?"

"I'm afraid I don't know, dear. They were gone before I came back, but maybe they were able to go home. Perhaps if you ask one of those new guards they could tell you. Now is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No, thank you." Cadence turned away from the reception and made for the exit, Daring following along limply behind her until they were outside. Cadence stopped walking and stood, staring blankly into the distance until she could think of what to do.

Daring stomped a hoof and growled, "How could she be so dull to think the crystal ponies have gone home? Newsflash, lady, the Crystal Empire is still a frozen waste."

"Is it though? I think it's well within Faust's power to stop it being so."

Daring raised an eyebrow at Cadence, "I can hear you saying the words, but I can't hear you believing them. Faust might have the power to restore the Empire, but I very much doubt she has the interest."

Cadence didn't agree. There seemed to be a drastic shift in the attitude of the ponies here, and while that could be attributed to ponies making do with the situation, it could also be an effect of what the Crystal Empire was literally built to do.

"You're seriously considering this, aren't you? Equestrians are immune to mind control now, so it can't be what you're thinking it is."

"The Empire doesn't use mind control to do what it does," Cadence said aggressively. "It spreads love and good will! It certainly doesn't make what we're seeing happen!"

Daring took a step back from the outburst, "Okay, so it's not the Empire. Of course that means ponies are all going along with this willingly, or at least because it's better than living in squalor, so there's... nothing good here for us at all really. So how do we find the crystal ponies?"

"I don't know! I didn't think fifty thousand ponies could just disappear, but here we are! I'm proven wrong, and we have no crystal ponies!"

"Cadence-"

"Don't talk to me like I'm overreacting! These are my people, Daring, the ponies I am supposed to protect! The ponies I have failed for far too long." Cadence's voice cracked with emotion, and she had to take a moment to compose herself. "I need to find them."

"I know, and we will, I prom-" Daring started as as the door behind them opened, and she had to stop herself from falling in a combat stance as the receptionist came out, a folded up piece of paper held in her magic.

"You dropped this on the way out, dear, and you might want to keep your voice down. You don't want to disturb our 'patients,' do you?"

"I didn't bring anything in with me," Cadence said. She frowned as Daring rolled her eyes and took the proffered paper between two feathers.

"Thanks," she said, waiting until the receptionist was gone again before rolling her eyes at Cadence again.

"What? I'm not kidding. I didn't take anything in with me."

Daring wordlessly unfolded the note and cleared her throat. "I can't talk about it around the soldiers because I'm not supposed to know," she read out loud enough for only Cadence to hear. "The crystal ponies have been taken back to the refugee camps by Appleloosa. Official word is that they've been taken north to a new home, but this is a lie. I hope this helps."

"Oh, well," Cadence cleared her throat in embarrassment, "how was I supposed to know that's what she was doing?" Cadence started trotting away from the hospital, at least recognising what the unicorn meant by not disturbing the 'patients.' "Why take the crystal ponies back to the refugee camps though? I thought that place was terrible?"

"The only answer we'll get is by going there. Come on." Daring set off on a determined trot for an alleyway, and unless anypony was looking for it closely, they wouldn't have paid much attention to the fact that while a unicorn and a pegasus walked in, it was two pegasi that flew out.

-0-0-0-

"I despise this place," Cadence said of the refugee camp as they circled it from above. "This is the kind of place where hope goes to die. How dare Faust force my ponies to come back here for no reason. It was bad enough that they ever had to come here in the first place."

"At least it's quiet here," Daring commented. "They'll be far from danger when the attack on, well, everywhere, starts."

Cadence sighed through her nose and nodded, unable to dispute that. "A small consolation, but a good one. It's also a small consolation that I see no soldiers down there, although I would be more worried about changelings if it weren't for the fact that we're now supposedly allied."

"At the other end of that though," Daring said slowly and thoughtfully, "the changelings probably knew about the crystal ponies being relocated here from the moment it happened. Funny how they made no attempt to tell us."

Cadence laughed unhappily, "You're expecting much of Chrysalis if you expect her to tell us anything of her own volition. I expect she already has her excuse lined up as to why she said nothing, if we were to ask her about it."

"I'm guessing you don't trust her either."

"I trust her to work in her own self interest, and it might actually be true that does fall in line with what we want. Beyond that though? No, I don't trust her, and I don't think we would ever be foolish enough to do so fully. Now come on, lets see if we can't find what we're looking for."

Spiralling down in a slow descent, they landed on the edge of the refugee camp, at what might generously be called an entrance if that was what you wanted to call the widest way in. Cadence stopped in shock at what she saw, her people living in squalor, filthy and defeated, more so than ever before. Cadence didn't think it was possible for her heart to break more over what had happened to her ponies, but it did, and silent tears slipped down her cheeks.

"Aww heck," Daring muttered at the display. "What the hell could these ponies have done to make Faust force them into this?"

"I don't know, but she will pay for it."

Daring raised an eyebrow at Cadence, seeing an edge there that she hadn't seen before. She supposed that seeing any ponies forced to live like this would galvanise all but the coldest hearts, but Cadence? Her heart was amongst the warmest, but at the same time, these were her ponies.

"Come on Daring, let's see if we can't do something to help."

"I don't think we can-" Daring let her argument die, finding it to be unworthy of being voiced. Cold practicality had its place, but right now that place wasn't here. With a nod she followed after Cadence up through the main thoroughfare of the camp, ignoring the dull gazes of the ponies watching them go.

"I hate to say it, but whoever tied the happiness of the crystal ponies to the Crystal Heart and the Empire was a total asshat."

"You mean Starswirl the Bearded? I'm sure Starsy would love to hear you say that."

Daring said nothing as she watched a dirt stained filly ask her mother for something to eat, only to get a hopeless sigh in return. "I'd love for him to tell me I'm wrong, and I'd love to hear his argument why."

Cadence already knew the argument why, but she couldn't deny that it had seemed unfair, even to her. It didn't matter now though, and until the Empire was restored there was relatively little that could be done to improve the happiness of the crystal ponies, save from drastically improving their living conditions.

It didn't take long for them to reach what seemed to be a common area in the middle of the camp. Both of them stood and looked around, hoping for some sign of what to do, and received it in the furious stomping of a brown and white stallion who really did not seemed pleased to see them.

"So what's this? Another day trip to see the poor refugees? To see how much better off than them you are? Get the fuck outta here!"

"Excuse me?" Cadence said, taken aback.

"I said get out of here! You aren't refugees, so you have no place here. Get lost, before I make you get lost."

"I think you'll find we are refugees," Cadence said calmly, saving herself from returning some of the stallions fury. "I lost my home the same way the rest of these ponies did."

"Pfft, you're no refugee. You're too clean, and you're no crystal pony either. If you're looking for a bed to sleep in, and some decent food, you're better off going somewhere where grass grows, solving both those problems."

"And why don't you do that?" asked Daring.

"Because we have to stay here by royal order of her big, fat, bitchiness, Queen Faust, all because we had the audacity to shelter a hooffull of fugitives for a single fucking night. It's a fucking punishment, and nothing else."

"You're Doctor Gloves, aren't you? My husband told me about you."

Gloves paused for a moment, having to quickly reassess what he was looking at. "And who might that husband be?"

"Shining Armour."

"Is that so? I do believe you're mistaken then, because Shining Armour is married to that fricking Princess Mi Amore Cade... oh hello." Gloves walked around Cadence, "You're a lot harder to recognise being a different colour and a pegasus."

"That was rather the idea."

"So Shining Armour told you about me, huh?"

Cadence laughed once, albeit not entirely happily. "That's right, and I must say you do raise some interesting points regarding the equality and welfare of non equines living in Equestria. I will definitely take a look into it, should I get the chance to."

"And what's stopping you? Wait, don't answer that." Gloves looked sideways at Daring, who gave him an easy grin, then went back to Cadence. "Not that I'm not saying I'm glad to see you, but why are you here?"

"You mean besides being the ruler of ninety nine percent of the ponies here?" Daring snickered.

"Travellers and refugees are subject to the laws and rule of the country they're in," Gloves said back. "Currently that means Faust. Cadence here is little more than the figurehead of a lost nation right now, no offence, so she doesn't technically rule anyone. So I'll ask again, besides checking up on how well these poor crystal ponies are suffering, what do you want?"

Cadence narrowed her eyes at Gloves, stinging at the blatant insult she was given. "Shining never mentioned that you were also a complete bastard."

"He's a busy stallion, so you can't expect him to remember everything. Now seriously, I have a lot to do, so tell me what you want, or be on your merry way."

"We need a crystalsmith. More than one, preferably."

"I... have no idea what that is."

Daring mimicked using a hammer with her hooves, "Think blacksmith, but with crystals, and less fire, and... not like a blacksmith at all really. I have no idea how they do it, but they do make the same sort of things. Or at least I hope they do? We need them to make armour."

"You really need to work on that analogy." Gloves tapped his hoof for a moment, then raised his head. "Paradise?"

"Yes?"

"Gyah!" Gloves leapt sideways as Paradise seemed to materialise next to him, even though she'd been there the entire time, if you'd looked hard enough. "What have I told you about doing that?"

"That a coronary would be inconvenient since you're the only functional doctor in the camp. You never actually told me to stop though."

"Because you already look like a puppy that's been kicked, damn it. Anyway, do you know where you can find a crystalsmith or two?"

Paradise focussed her two extremely pale blue eyes on Cadence, "Would you like me to bring you the Imperial Armourers, Princess?"

"The Imperial Armourers? They're here?" Cadence put a hoof to her face as she heard herself, "What am I saying? Of course they are. Where else would they be?"

"Prisoners in Ponyville," Paradise supplied helpfully, "like the surviving members of the Legion. They aren't though. They're here. Do you want me to bring them to you?"

"Yes! Please. That would be- That would be great, thank you, Paradise." Cadence smiled as Paradise hurried off at a sedate pace, then let it drop as she returned her attention to Gloves. "Are you even the slightest bit aware of the feelings she has for you?"

"I have my suspicions, but it's so hard for us mere mortals to tell when the pony in question looks so damn sad all the time. Besides," Gloves sniffed, "don't go thinking those feelings aren't being reciprocated in some form. Paradise is... well, she's pretty great."

Cadence was at least satisfied with the answer. In this state the crystal ponies were vulnerable, and easily manipulated. Not because they became more gullible, but simply because they didn't have it in them to fight back. King Sombra kept their spirits broken for a reason after all. She hated the idea of Gloves abusing what little trust Paradise had given him, and was pleased that didn't seem to be the case.

"So... Paradise might be gone for a while since this is a big camp, and nopony around here moves in a particular hurry, so would you like a drink? The water is clean, although the glass mightn't be, and you'll probably have to share."

Cadence gestured for Gloves to lead on, although it was barely a dozen meters to his tent, which so happened to be the medical tent as well. She sat on the edge of a cot and accepted the glass of water. As Gloves had said, the water was clean, but the glass left much to be desired.

"Is there enough water here?"

"We're getting shipments, which is enough to cover us if we forego certain luxuries like, say, washing, for example. Food too, although it's pretty basic fare. We aren't getting any other supplies though, so it's a good job I took what I could from the hospital. We're surviving."

Cadence bowed her head, feeling guilty for the state she'd been forced to leave her ponies in. "I can't wait for the day when all these can do so much more than just survive."

"I'm afraid that's all a lot of these ponies will be able to do until the Empire is restored. I really don't understand it. I've performed test after test, and besides some magical bull-shittery, there's really no physical cause for them all to be this way. To tie their mental wellbeing to the Empire, to things that can break and be destroyed, that's just pure cruelty in my book."

"That's something we have to deal with, I'm afraid. We can't take back something that was done over a thousand years ago."

"Did Sombra do something to make them this way?"

Cadence shook her head, a sigh of laughter escaping her. "Actually it was Starswirl the Bearded. He created the Empire, as in the structure itself, and attuned the crystal ponies to it. Firstly to save them from the encroaching frozen north, but also to make ponies in Equestria happier, to keep them getting along. I don't think he ever considered what would happen to the crystal ponies if you took that mechanism away from them."

"Something tells me that I wouldn't have liked to have been around a thousand years ago. Sombra, Discord, Nightmare Moon... sounds like a right hot mess." Gloves shivered at the thought, "Makes what's happening now seem bearable in comparison."

Cadence smiled lopsided at Gloves, "Have you not been paying attention for the last four, five years? The return of Nightmare Moon, the return of Discord, the return of Sombra, then Tirek, and some other, lesser things. Do none of those sound familiar?"

"Alright, you make a point."

"Then how about this? Faust is worse than all of them, because the things we used to stop all those other threats don't work against her. Not to mention her death toll is a lot higher than the others combined, and that none of the others really achieved their goals. Don't underestimate her."

"Alright, you've convinced me." Gloves nudged Daring, "Princesses, eh?" Daring decided not to rise to it. Not least because her own efforts to protect the world were quite lengthy, even if most of Equestria considered her feats to be fictional.

"So when are you planning on starting the cow and sheep revolution?" she asked instead.

"Only some time this side of never. Is that the impression Shining gave you? That I want to start a revolution? I'm pretty sure having a pony lead that would be the height of hypocrisy. I only want cows, sheep, and other sapient beings to have equal rights and representation in a country that was theirs before ponies stole it. Is that really too much to ask for?"

"No," Cadence said, "and now that I'm aware of the situation, I agree entirely."

"Not sure I do," said Daring. "I've met quite a few creatures in my travels, and I have to say that cows and sheep really aren't the most intelligent ones I've met, and have a terrible tendency to panic, as well as a habit of agreeing with everyone else around them because of their serious herd mentality. Equal rights, fine, but putting them into politics sounds like a disaster to me."

Gloves narrowed his eyes at Daring, "And I've already decided I don't like you. I'm not saying we put them in charge of the country. I'm saying we that we should at least give them a little representation in it."

Daring shrugged and shifted away, "I still don't think that's a good idea."

"Then it's a good job I'm not asking you!"

"Then maybe you should go ask Faust, and see how that pans out for you?"

"Daring, enough," Cadence scolded. "I hate to say it, but it doesn't matter either way until Equestria is freed from Faust. After that I will be more than happy to put a proposition forward regarding the equality and rights of all Equestria's inhabitants."

Gloves smiled and nodded, "That's all I ask. Well actually I'm asking for them to get those rights, not just for you to ask about getting them, but I'll settle for baby steps."

With Gloves' political agenda satisfied for now, the conversation died, save for a few observations on how hot it was. Cadence felt like she should be going out and seeing her ponies, and she knew that her being there wouldn't be unnoticed, but time wasn't on their side for her to go meet the entire camp. She couldn't see them in disguise either. It felt wrong, like she was too scared to show her real self. She didn't want her ponies thinking she was scared. Not now.

Thankfully they didn't have to wait much longer before Paradise returned with the Imperial Armourers, the ponies responsible for forging the armour that the Imperial Legion wore. Truthfully, Cadence couldn't think of anypony more qualified to create the armour they'd need to fight Faust, and she was glad they hadn't been captured with the Legion and imprisoned in Ponyville.

Cadence stood as the four ponies entered the tent, although Paradise slinked straight past her to sit next to Gloves. The remaining three stood, heads lowered, right in front of Cadence.

"You need us, Your Highness?" the lead pony said, a mare of silvery coat and copper mane. Scars crisscrossed her back, reminders of the brutal reign of King Sombra. A lot crystal ponies had some, but only a few had them to this degree, and only because they had a tendency to make themselves a target by trying to help and protect others. Cadence always felt like they should be proud of that much at least.

"Stout Heart, isn't it? I remember Shining mentioning you when it came time to refit the armour of the Crystal Guard."

Stout Heart bowed, along with the two others. "I'm honoured that you would know of me, since we haven't met in person."

"Please, don't bow. Not here." Cadence didn't say that she didn't deserve that kind of respect, and never really felt like she had, but right in the heart of the suffering the crystal ponies were enduring, she wanted to bow to them and beg for forgiveness. She would settle for acting as equals instead. "I need your skills. Equestria needs them."

Stout stood to attention, "What do you need?"

-0-0-0-

The crystals were where Mayfly and Daring had left them in the tunnel beneath Starlight Glimmer's village, which seemed to have become a bit of a dumping ground for things that couldn't go through the portal. Stout Heart was inspecting the crystals and discussing things with her cohorts. Cadence didn't follow it, and didn't really try to as she fussed over Flurry.

"How many suits of armour are we supposed to make with these, Princess?"

"Hmm?" Cadence blinked, caught unaware by the question, "What was that, sorry?"

"How many suits of armour are we supposed to make from this?"

"Four, if you can." Cadence suddenly felt concerned, "Is there not enough for that?"

"More than enough, Your Highness. We could probably make a dozen suits from what we have here. I'm just looking to clarify how many, because between yourself, Princess Luna, and Princess Twilight, that's only three suits. Who is the fourth for?"

"That's a... bit of a secret, but she'll use the exact same measurements as Luna, if that's what's worrying you."

"As you wish. I'm sure having spare will help since I've never even seen this type of crystal before, let alone worked with them." Stout held one up to the light to see through it, but the milky crystal stopped her doing so. "Where did you get these?"

"Zebrica, from an exposed ley line. Unfortunately there was an accident, and there's no way to get more. We also lost somepony gathering them. I'm afraid you'll need to do what you can with the crystals you have."

"That won't be a problem. We'll get started as soon as we have some tools."

"Tools?" Cadence asked, a sinking feeling settling on her. "Don't you have tools with you?"

Stout held her breath for a second, then sank as she let it out. "All our tools were left in the Crystal Empire during the evacuation. There wasn't time to get them, and there's no way of doing it now."

"Right, of course. What tools would you need?"

"A common set of glassblowing tools would work. I'll doubt they'll have the specialist tools we had to work with crystals, but we don't strictly need those. All we need then is a furnace, a glory hole, and an annealer."

Cadence swallowed, "A- a glory hole?"

"To reheat the crystals during production, to keep them malleable."

"Ooohhhh! Right, okay, that's a relief."

"Wait-wait-wait," Daring said as she held her hooves out in front of her while seeking clarification, "So basically you make your stuff like a glass blower would?"

"We use molds, but yes, that's how we do it, along with a little crystal pony magic."

Daring grimaced, "This could be a problem."

"You mean it is a problem," Cadence corrected. "Do you know of anywhere that might be willing to lend us their setup?" Daring shook her head and shrugged. "Damn. Perhaps we should return to the Retreat to think this over, and see if the others might have any ideas."

None of the others had returned in the short period that they'd spent in Starlight's village, meaning that the only ones they had to ask were Moondancer and Starsy, which was surprisingly fruitful as it turned out that Starswirl had kept and maintained both a forge and glassblowers equipment.

"Getting custom made alembics and other equipment used to be a nightmare over a thousand years ago, so I took to making my own" Starsy explained. "I mean Starswirl did, not myself, per se."

"Is it portable?" Daring asked.

"Only if you dismantle it and take it outside. I can't promise what kind of condition it's in as it hasn't been touched since Starswirl was last here. It's also not quite like other furnaces either."

"We'll risk it."

They were directed to a far corner of the library, where a narrow spiral staircase was hidden out of sight. Traversing it took them up above the library, where the temperature rapidly dropped to the point that ice started to coat the walls, and the roar of wind outside could be heard.

Cadence lit her horn to guide their way, and after a few more turns they found themselves in a large room that was full of benches and other tools, all coated in a layer of ice. On the left side of the room was a hulking forge, while the right was occupied by a sizeable furnace, with a smaller one beside it that Stout explained was an annealer. In the middle of the room was a chimney, providing direct access to the outside, and access for the elements to come in.

Cadence shivered, her teeth chattering. "Are the tools still okay?"

Stout tried to pick one up off a bench, but had to hit it first to free it from the ice, then hit it again to break the ice from it completely, revealing a large pliers. "They're a little rusty, but should be functional with some cleaning. I'm not sure about the furnace though."

"What's wrong with it?"

Stout waved a hoof at the furnace, unsure of what to make of the thing. "I have literally no idea where the fire even goes in there."

"Starsy did say it was different," Daring said. She broke some of the ice off the front of the furnace, uncovering a large gem with some engravings around it. "I'm guessing by that he meant it was powered by magic. If you'd do the honours, Princess."

Cadence directed her magic into the gem, which started to glow brightly. Within seconds the furnace started to steam, rapidly melting the ice covering it, and filling the room with a warmth that soon started to melt the ice covering everything else. That created another problem, but as the water started to collect in channels that took it away from the stairs to the library, it was clear that it was a problem Starswirl had accounted for.

There were three flashes in the room as Stout and her two companions brightened up, the furnace doing more than melting the ice. It also gave them a little hope, as well as Stout a broad grin. "That'll do nicely. Now all we need to do is get those crystals up here."

"I'm afraid that's not possible. They're magically inert, so we can't bring them through the portal," Cadence explained. "That's why we need to get this out to the crystals."

"Oh." Stout studied the furnace for a moment, then sighed. "That would've been easier before it was heated up to many hundreds of degrees. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to take it apart either. I'm no unicorn, so magic things are beyond me. I'm also fairly sure that this thing is probably rusted into a single piece by now. I'm amazed it still works, to be honest."

It was pretty clear to Cadence that getting it down those stairs was impossible too, which also left her wondering why Starswirl made the access to this room so awkward. The only other option was teleportation, but Cadence didn't trust herself to be able to do that. Not without help.

"I think that we'll have to wait for Luna or Twilight to come back before we can move this. For now we should clean these tools up and get as prepared as possible so that no time is wasted once we have the furnace where we need it to be."

Author's Note

I think the thing I was going to say last week was that some of the next few chapters were going to be shorter as I was trying to write them over the holiday. Seems less important to say this now at the end of this fairly average sized chapter, and seems unimportant at all really. Oh well.

38. Fine feathered friends

The Eyrie was just as impressive as ever. As Luna flew towards it she felt assured that the griffons were more than capable of holding up their end of the pact, which was what they needed more than anything. Reliable allies seemed to be difficult to find these days, and it seemed all the stranger that the griffons had come through for them more than their equine neighbours had. It wouldn't have been that long ago that such things would be imagined as impossible.

"So this is the Eyrie, huh?" Ember said as she studied the city. "It's bigger than my Dad described it. I suppose everything looks small to him though."

"I hope you'll remember that dragons rarely get a warm welcome anywhere in the world for those exact reasons," Luna said to Ember as they raced up the valley towards the castle. "They might be somewhat hostile to you, but I want you on your best behaviour regardless."

Angry eyes narrowed at Luna, "Excuse me? Did you really just talk to me like I'm a whelp? I am the Dragon Lord, Luna, and I do not need to be told how and when to behave."

"That wasn't my intention. My point was that even if they point a dozen spears at you, don't do anything back, unless they actually attack you. Even then, claws only, and try to not kill any of them."

"Yeah, let's just see how badly they want to kill me before I decide if I don't want to kill them."

Luna decided to leave the discussion at that, since it wasn't actually unreasonable. Hopefully it wouldn't be an issue at all, and the Emperor was aware that Ember, the Dragon Lord herself, was with them. Hopefully she'd be just as welcome as the rest of them. Assuming they still were, a treacherous part of Luna's mind said.

Perhaps the best, if strangest sign that they were welcome was the thestrals mixed in with the griffons guarding the castle, decked out in their Night Guard armour. Not a sight any of them expected, but as it led to a lack of hostilities, Luna was hardly going to complain. If the Emperor wanted to betray them, using thestrals was really not the way to go about it.

"Why are the Night Guard protecting this place?" Lightning asked, her eyes sweeping over both the thestrals and griffons.

"I do intend to ask," Luna said back, but truthfully she had no real objections. Griffonia was hosting the refugees from Nostralis after all, so if her Night Guard wanted to repay the favour by doing this, then so be it. The Emperor's guards were probably lacking after the coup anyway, so everyone benefitted.

It was a minute or two before someone came to greet them, and they were rather surprised to find it was Commander Lurin, who seemed a bit too high profile to be sent to do a butlers' job. He was at least familiar though, which helped.

"Good to see you so soon, Commander," Luna said in greeting, if a little stiffly. If she were honest, she still hadn't forgiven him for joining the Bloodfeathers in attacking Equestria. She doubted she ever would, but for now it was out of her hooves.

Lurin gave Luna a tiny bow, "You too, Princess. We were a little unsure if you were all still alive after we left you in Zebrica. We could see the flash from thirty miles away."

"We're all fine, now, thank you. I take it you got the Kuua back here in one piece?"

"We did indeed. All we need now is you to finish what you're doing, and we should all be ready to go."

"Actually, that's what we're here to discuss. We're almost ready, but there are some things that need to be done first, which involves a change to how our attack is going to work. We're planning to hold a summit on neutral territory to finalise our plans."

"Neutral territory?" Lurin raised an eyebrow like he found the idea strange, "Why not hold it here?"

"Because I'm hoping that by holding it on neutral territory, in Zebrica, it might convince them to consider joining the pact. A promise from the Emperor that he would uphold that, and end all aggressive overtures with the zebras, might be enough to convince them."

"And have you actually asked the zebras if you could do this? I doubt they'd willingly allow the Emperor into Zebrica. They had enough issues with us being there to help them."

"I haven't asked them yet, but I'm sure they'll see it my way. Apart from that, another reason I want it on neutral territory is because we're hoping to get a representative of the Saddle Arabians on board. I'm not sure how closely Faust is watching the Saddle Arabians, but if she were to catch wind of them coming here, she might get suspicious. A Saddle Arabian going to Zebrica, their long time friend and ally, would be less suspicious."

"I'm pretty sure any sign of them supporting the zebras at this time would be seen as suspicious. Unless you're going to lie and say the representative is travelling to Zebrica on a diplomatic mission to convince the zebras to join Faust I suppose."

Luna smirked at Lurin, "We have options. The final reason has to do with our most unusual ally."

"The changeling queen?" Lurin spat, not trying to hide his distaste over the changelings' inclusion in events.

"That's right. The zebras know ways to uncover changelings, so if she were to try something, not that I'm saying she would, the zebras would be better able to see through it. Or so I hope."

Lurin shook his head disbelievingly, "I still question the wisdom of allying with such creatures, and I certainly question your decision to allow them into your country afterwards."

"We have our motives. Now, can we see the Emperor, or is he busy?"

Lurin gestured for them all to follow him into the castle. Luna took her time, smiling at the thestrals guarding the place as she went, while part of her was seeing what damage still existed from the attempted coup. She failed to find any, making it seem like that unpleasant piece of the past had been washed away.

The Emperor was discussing things with some griffons as they arrived in the throne room, but they were quickly ushered away once he saw who had arrived. "Princess Luna," he said jovially, "welcome back to Griffonia. You too as well, Rainbow Dash, Lightning Dust, and..."

Vapor knelt before the Emperor, "Vapor Trail, your Majesty."

"I know your name, but last I saw of you, you were barely clinging to life and missing an eye after my son got his claws on you. Was that all a trick?"

"We're in possession of magic powered devices that can heal the most grievous injuries of any pony," Luna explained. "And I do mean pony, as that's all they work for. Cuts, scrapes, fatal wounds, and even missing limbs can be restored with it."

"Powerful magic indeed." The Emperor stood and made his way down to Vapor, extending a claw that she placed a hoof in for him to shake. "You have my thanks for the part you played in stopping the attempt against my life."

Vapor blushed, "Oh, you're welcome."

The Emperor then turned and extended the same claw to Ember, "Welcome to Griffonia, Dragon Lord."

"Uh, it's-uh... hi?" Ember stuttered back, having not expected to be welcomed in the slightest. "Sorry, I just wasn't expecting to be allowed in here, let alone treated nicely. Or for you to even really know who I am."

"I've been informed of who you are, and as long as you're here as a friend, you're welcome." The Emperor returned to his throne, with Luna taking note that he seemed to have slimmed down a bit from their last encounter. "So, what brings you to me today?"

"We're planning a summit to discuss our plans for the liberation of Equestria. We almost have everything we need to defeat Faust, but there's a small complication. We need things in Equestria that can't be obtained without your help."

"So you're planning to launch a strike before the main invasion?" the Emperor surmised.

"That's correct. We have several objectives to achieve during this strike, objectives that need to be completed if we are to succeed."

Hergest tapped his claws on the arm of his thrones, "So you're telling me that our success hinges on this initial strike going well?"

"That's right."

"Then it doesn't seem as if I have any grounds on which to object. When and where is this summit to be held?"

"Zebrica, and soon."

"Zebrica?" Hergest guffawed at the suggestion, "Since when have the zebras started agreeing to me entering their country? The only reason I could think of is if they plan to kill me while I'm there."

"They wouldn't dare. They can't afford a war with Griffonia at any time, let alone now, and they are fully aware of what you're doing to fight Faust. If they were to be so stupid, then perhaps they would deserve their defeat at your claws."

"Ah, buttering me up by speaking my language I see." Hergest chuckled at Luna, "You aren't wrong though. If you can agree to get the zebras to host me, then I shall gladly attend this summit, so long as you don't mind me keeping your Night Guard between me and any potential threats until then."

"It would seem as though I hardly get a choice at this point. You've already put them to work."

"They offered, and since I'm still short on guards, and their loyalty to you is quite famous, I figured I couldn't be safer since you very much need me alive."

Luna smiled at the Emperor's logic, "Very well, but I do hope you realise I'm going to want them back at some point?"

The Emperor grinned back at Luna, "Of course. Being guarded by ponies, even the most intimidating ones you have, doesn't exactly give the best impression anyway. No offence."

"Some taken."

"Now I must insist you stay for dinner. Fully suitable for ponies, I assure you. I might even find some gems for you, Dragon Lord Ember."

"Really? That'd be great!"

"Then it's agreed. Make yourself at home, ladies."

-0-0-0-

"I don't know why you told me they'd be hostile," Ember said as they waited around for dinner, enjoying the comforts of a sizeable lounge. "The Emperor's actually pretty cool."

"He has been quite accommodating," Luna agreed. "I'm surprised to be honest. It's not like the griffons don't have two fortresses bordering the Dragon Lands, equipped with weapons designed to kill dragons. Big dragons at that. I'm rather suspicious of how nice he was to you now."

"And it's because he has those fortresses that we haven't attempted to raid Griffonia in decades. The bones of their last kill still litter the ground in front of one of them."

"What kind of weapons are we talking about?" Rainbow asked. "Killing a fully grown dragon sounds impossible to me."

"Think ballista's, but big enough to fire an entire pine tree," Ember told her. "I honestly have no idea how those things can survive the strain needed to do that, but who cares because they work. We don't fly over Griffonia."

"But what if you went around the fortresses?" said Lightning.

"Honestly, I have no idea, but-" Ember stretched out on the pile of cushions she'd claimed, "-I have been assured that it's not really worth the trouble. Not to mention that if you piss the griffons off enough, they tend to start hunting you."

"They hunt dragons..." Rainbow said flatly. "Good luck to them."

"They don't go after the big ones. They go after the whelps and fledglings. The ones that they can kill." Ember hugged an arm around herself, "The ones like me. There was a big purge about five hundred years ago, and we're still recovering, all because a single dragon attacked a town east of here."

"I'm sure that's not the only reason," said Luna. "More likely was that attack being the last straw."

"Yeah, I guess. The point is that between that, and those fortresses, we leave Griffonia alone."

Luna hummed thoughtfully, "I'm sure this is all going to build up into some ulterior motive involving dragons. Hopefully he doesn't expect you to get your people to join the war, because we all know that's unlikely to happen."

"Too right. We have absolutely no reason to get involved, even if we really should." Ember made a face as she muttered to herself, "No good lazy lizards."

"Are we literally incapable of going places without something happening?" Lightning laughed. "Why can't it be, 'hey, we need you at a summit in Zebrica,' then he says 'okay,' and we all go on our merry ways?"

"You travel in the company of alicorns," said Luna, a cocky grin sneaking onto her lips. "We're barely capable of getting up in the morning without some disaster occurring. A day where nothing happens is more noteworthy than a day where lots happens."

A sharp rap at the door interrupted their laughter, and a thin faced, black feathered griffon poked his head in, informing them that dinner was ready. Hopping up from their seats they followed after him to the dining room, where the Emperor, his daughter Clarissa, and Commander Lurin were already seated.

"Please, make yourselves comfortable," Hergest said as Ember's eyes lit up at the small pile of gems on the table.

"Hey, you weren't kidding. It's been ages since I've had an emerald." Ember squinted suspiciously, "And there's absolutely no catch?"

"Only a small one." Hergest gestured to a guard in the corner, "Bring in the prisoner."

"Prisoner?" Ember asked, an emerald halfway to her mouth. "What prisoner?"

"What prisoner indeed?" Luna added, glancing at Clarissa to gauge her feelings on the matter, since she tended to not hide them so well as her father. Strangely, the young griffon didn't seem particularly worried, which only left Luna more uncertain.

"You'll see," Hergest said cryptically, helping himself to food as they waited. "By the way, those kirin you told me about crossed our Zebrican border yesterday. I had my concerns about allowing them into my country, but they agreed to be disarmed until they leave again, so I'll let them be for now. I'm curious what piece of diplomacy you pulled off to get them to leave Faust?"

"We asked nicely," Luna said tersely. "Mostly though, we had help off one of their number, who somehow managed to turn the rest of the Mareitanians against the kirin. I'm not sure of the full details, but the Mareitanians inability to conquer Zebrica was largely in thanks to the kirin all setting the Mareitanians camp alight, as well as getting themselves removed from Faust's service."

"That kirin must've done something good to get the Mareitanians to turn on their allies."

"She tried to help them in a good natured manner, to help them turn away from the war on their own. That didn't exactly happen, but what did worked so much better for us."

"Sounds like quite the adventure. I-" Hergest stopped as a door was opened, permitting entry to Captain Greywhisker, two other thestrals, and a small orange dragon with purple spines and two yellowed horns framing her head, who also happened to be in chains. Her struggles to break free only ceased when she saw Ember, and what little of her face that was visible behind her ceramic mask, mostly a pair of blue eyes, turned to fear when she saw Ember.

"What is this?!" Ember roared, slamming her claws down on the table. "What are you doing with one of my dragons? Why is she in chains?"

Luna moved to restrain Ember, but stopped as the dragoness held herself back from attacking, much to Luna's relief. That didn't mean things couldn't easily escalate further. "I really do suggest you explain yourself, Emperor."

"And I will, gladly." Hergest started buttering a roll, creating a short silence that emphasised the jangling of chains as the dragon continued to shake in fear. After a few seconds he stopped and pointed the knife at his prisoner, "That one was caught trying to sneak into my country past Fort Scalebane four days ago."

"What? Why?"

"I'm afraid that you'll have to ask her that, but all she kept saying to us was that she was 'double dragon dared' to do it, and that we should let her go because her mom was going to be so pissed."

Ember sat hard and covered her face with a claw, "Seriously? Okay, fine, so the stupid teenager is stupid, but that still doesn't explain why you put Smoulder in chains."

"Smoulder huh? Cute name." Hergest grinned at the glare Smoulder gave him, "The fact is that dragons have claws that can dig through rock and cut through armour, have teeth that can chew diamonds, can breathe fire, and can fly. It's quite difficult to keep a dragon prisoner, and quite a few of my griffons have been treated for burns because of her. More importantly though is that she's lucky to be alive."

"What? She's just some dumb kid! Why would you kill her?"

"It wouldn't be out of any malice towards her, but up until a few weeks ago I had a mandatory order to kill all dragons attempting to enter Griffonia. An order that has been in place for centuries. My decision to rescind that order, in lieu of yourself aiding us, saved Smoulder's life. That, or she was aware I had rescinded, and attempted to abuse that decision by entering my country."

"I didn't know!" Smoulder protested, her voice sounding tinny behind her mask. She started struggling to free herself again, "I swear I didn't know! Dragon Lord Ember, I-"

"Shut up!" Ember roared, stunning Smoulder into silence. "I am sick to death of dragons your age pulling off dumb shit and getting into trouble! What makes it worse is that these are also dragons my age! If I'd known being Dragon Lord was more like being a glorified child minder, I might not have fought so hard to win the title!"

"But Dragon Lord-"

"I said shut up!" Ember groaned loudly, leaning back in her chair before returning her attention back to Hergest. "What do you want with her now you have her?"

"What makes you think I want her?" Hergest said, surprising them all. "I was simply waiting for the opportunity to give her back once we finally met, since it was bound to happen sooner or later." Hergest ordered for the chains to be removed, "Assuming you can keep her under control, she's all yours."

Smoulder stood still as the chains were removed, rubbing her wrists as her wings were freed and the mask removed. Even then, completely freed, she made no attempt to move closer to Ember, until she was loudly ordered to do so.

Ember grabbed a chair and placed it next to her own, "Come here, sit down, shut up, and don't do anything!" Ember waited, arms crossed as Smoulder crept towards her to sit down. Her only move past that was to swat Smoulder's claw with her tail as she went for one of the gems. "Don't even think about it."

"But I'm hungry!"

"I swear to the ancestors, Smoulder, if you don't shut up I might kill you myself!" Ember stared Smoulder down, then sat and released some of her frustration with a huff. "Thanks for giving her back."

The Emperor inclined his head in a small bow, "No problem at all, but there is a point behind all this. Monitoring and guarding the borders with the Dragon Lands is, to be frank, a massive expenditure of resources. It's not something I will shy away from, but I despise that I'm constantly having to protect Griffonia from the threat of dragons. However, and I must thank my daughter for thinking of this, with you aiding the ponies, it's clear you don't fully favour the isolationism that every previous Dragon Lord has spouted, while letting their dragons go wherever they please."

Ember shrugged, "I'm not saying that's true, but me helping the ponies is mostly about me helping a friend. Nothing more. I'm starting to see that we do ourselves no favours being the way we are, but even as Dragon Lord, it's hard to change the mind of all the other dragons."

"So you're saying that if you were to tell the other dragons to leave us alone, they wouldn't, despite the fact that dragons no longer really attempt to cross our borders?"

Ember raised a claw, then let it hang there as her jaw flapped uselessly. "I have no idea what you're trying to say."

"I do believe he's trying to create a formal treaty," Luna helpfully told Ember, "where if dragons no longer invade griffon lands, griffons will no longer attempt to kill any dragons that do so, as evidenced by his decision to capture Smoulder here, rather than kill her outright."

"Exactly," the Emperor said, giving a nod of thanks to Luna. "Fort Scalebane, and Fort Firewall, do an excellent job of deterring dragons, so if they're already staying out, why not make an official agreement of it? That way no dragons would die needlessly, and I'll be able to free up a lot of resources and griffons that could be put onto other things, like certain upcoming wars against Faust's Equestria. What do you say?"

"I-uh... Luna?"

Luna smiled softly, trying to not come across as patronising, even though the concept wasn't that difficult, all things considered. "I think you should accept it. It'd take a little work on your part to keep your dragons from illegally crossing into Griffonia, but the payoff is no dragons would die for the silly reason of trying to do that."

"But I really don't think my dragons would accept that. They really don't like changing their mind on things."

Luna lost her smile, "Then perhaps you need think on this differently that you currently do. The only thing that'll change is that your dragons will no longer be subject to a death penalty just for flying too far north."

"Exactly," Hergest said, waving a claw at Luna. "I hate to say it, Dragon Lord Ember, but your dragons are increasingly becoming relics, refusing to change in a world that is leaving them behind. A refusal to acknowledge borders until enough of you have died is proof of that. Force them to change, and your people might finally be seen as more than terrible beasts that bring fire and destruction wherever they go."

"And we can do away with laws necessitating the killing of children?" Luna asked, giving the Emperor a foul look.

"Don't blame me for what needed to be done. If a youngling enters our country, a mother or father tends to come looking for it. You know what any parent will do if they think their child in danger, and with dragons, that could include wiping an entire city out, and then some. Stopping the child at the border prevents that. Besides, we do try to deter, rather than kill outright. Unfortunately, not all dragons pay attention to that."

"He's talking about me, isn't he?" Smoulder muttered, earning herself a quick reprisal around the back of the head from Ember. "Ow."

"So," Ember steepled her claws as she locked her gaze with the Emperor, "if I force my dragons to no longer fly into Griffonia on a whim, you're saying that you'll no longer kill them on sight? I still don't get what's stopping them from flying straight up here though."

"You are," Luna said, "by telling them not to, Dragon Lord."

"But dragons have always gone where they've pleased."

"Except Griffonia, where they will be killed, and they sort of accept that."

"So..?"

Hergest slammed his claw down on the table, "So do your job as a ruler, and rule them! The way you're talking, the position of Dragon Lord has no actual power if you can't stop your dragons doing one simple thing!"

Ember stood, smacking her chair over backwards. "Don't you dare talk to me like that! I don't know what you think you're trying to do, but I will not be yelled at!"

"He's trying to help you," Luna said calmly, hoping to defuse the situation again. "Are you aware of why Equestria allows the dragon migration through our skies when it happens?"

Using her tail, Ember flicked her chair back up and sat, but didn't once let her glare at Hergest abate. "I get the feeling the answer is because you can't stop us."

"Far from it. An agreement was made in the post exodus era, before my sister and I came to rule." Luna's eyes glazed a little, and a breath of laughter escaped her. "We thought the dragons were invading, and for their part, the dragons did plenty of damage. Our pegasus forces engaged them, and killed several before the Dragon Lord at the time demanded to know what was going on. Turns out that the dragons migrated that way every quarter century, and were just as confused by us being there as we were by them. In the end we agreed that if the dragons passed peaceably, we would make no effort to stop them."

"And it works," Ember murmured to herself. "If that works, perhaps this can too."

"And from that agreement, perhaps you can move on to being welcomed into Griffonia as visitors, rather than invaders. That's how Equestria does it."

Hergest choked mid-swallow as Luna said that, and rapidly banged his chest to clear it. "Let's not get carried away."

"Oh come on dad, the smaller ones aren't so bad." Clarissa flicked her eyes over towards Smoulder, "Some of them are actually alright, once you get to know them."

Luna raised her eyebrows in surprise as Smoulder shrunk down under the weight of the attention Ember was now giving her. "Well said, Princess Clarissa."

Hergest sighed, seeing the start of a battle he probably wouldn't win. "We'll have to see. For now we should work on getting the dragons to obey their Dragon Lord's word in not casually invading our country."

"I think I can do that," said Ember. "I also accept that if it doesn't work, you have every right to defend your borders like you always have."

"Agreed. All we need is a little time to get this into writing, and-"

"Actually," Ember interrupted, "do you mind if I write this up? Paper doesn't tend to last very long in the Dragon Lands."

"And how would you do it?"

"Do you have a stone slab we could use?"

-0-0-0-

Rainbow didn't know what she was looking at as she watched Ember create her... document, for lack of a more accurate word. She had blown a wisp of fire onto a claw, and was carving said flaming claw into the dinner tray sized stone slab, leaving a purple line behind it that didn't diminish in brightness, which at least informed her it was magic. That didn't make up for the fact that it was being written in a language she didn't know, and it certainly didn't come close to making up for how useless she'd felt so far being here. But that was hardly important.

"I don't get why you're doing this," Smoulder complained as Ember worked. "We're dragons! We don't need rules, and boundaries, and... whatever the hell it is you're doing now! We just take what we want!"

"Except you don't," Luna answered in Ember's stead, stopping in her production of a paper copy of the treaty, since that seemed more sensible for the griffon proponent of this agreement. "You don't go to Griffonia on pain of death, and you don't go to Saddle Arabia for similar reasons. Meanwhile, you're tolerated in Equestria and Zebrica so long as you behave, and those are the only two countries I can think of that do that. Protest all you want, but the fact is that you're not really welcomed anywhere, and are effectively prisoners in the Dragon Lands because of that."

"Except we aren't prisoners! We go where we want!"

"And then return home soon after because a mob wants your head, and that's if you're lucky, as you were. If you went places in peace, and didn't impose yourself in a way only thirty plus tonnes of dragon can, then you might find that you'd be more than welcome to travel where you want, within reason."

"Uh," Rainbow held up a hoof, "I thought this thing was about keeping dragons out of Griffonia? Was I wrong?"

"No, you're quite right, but it opens a path to dragons being permitted entry as guests, rather than intruders. This is basically enforcing that the dragons respect Griffonia's borders."

"But- But-" Smoulder stared at Ember in disbelief, "But Dragon Lord Ember! You can't be serious! We're dragons, we don't care about borders!"

"We'll see about that," Ember said, tracing her claw in a circle, then another. "If being forced is what dragons understand, then that's what I'll have to do. I'm done here, Luna, if you are?"

"All I need is yours and the Emperor's signature, and this is as good as done. I assume you need similar?"

"Something like that." Ember stood and slung the rectangle of stone under her arm. "Hopefully the Emperor isn't adverse to a little bit of pain."

Luna rolled up her own document and slid it into a tube for safekeeping, even though they were only going as far as the throne room. "I'm sure that depends on what you're calling a little bit?"

"A small prick of the claw, and maybe a slight burning sensation. Nothing really harmful, I can promise that much."

"Blood magic?"

"No, dragon magic. Using blood. There's a difference." Ember shrugged, not caring that Luna would still call that blood magic. "It'll be good, don't worry."

Still feeling a little unsure, but willing to trust Ember, they made their way to the throne room, dragging Smoulder along with them, even if the young dragon insisted that she neither wanted or needed to be there. Ember insisted, so that was that.

"Done so soon?" the Emperor asked, genuinely surprised as they entered the throne room. "I thought carving a document into solid stone would take a few days at least."

"Not for me," Ember said dismissively. "Besides, I was working on something a bit different, and runes are a lot easier to carve than your writing."

"Very well, shall we get started then?"

A table was quickly placed on the floor in front of the throne, and the two documents placed upon it. The Emperor quickly placed his signature on the paper one, although Ember was far less keen to do so.

"Can't you do it for me?" she asked Luna.

"No, I can't. It is rather the point that you do it."

"Oookay..." Ember picked up a quill between two claws, and quickly crushed it. "Yeah, I have no idea how to use this, or even write in your language. Could I just put a claw print on it, or something?"

Smoulder rolled her eyes at Ember, "How about a lip print since you're kissing so much griffon ass today?"

"And how about I use your blood instead, smartass?"

"I'm sure a claw print will suffice," Luna said, waiting until she got a nod of consent from the Emperor before painting ink over Ember's claw and pressing it to the treaty. That done, she scattered some drying dust over the document, rolled it up, then placed it back within its protective tube to present to the Emperor.

"You can't believe how relieved I am that you agreed to this," he said, passing the treaty over to another griffon who scurried away with it. "I suppose I need to sign yours now?"

"Yeah, but it'll be a bit different to how we signed yours, and it'll tell me that you mean this. Give me your claw."

"My claw? What do you- Aghh!" Hergest hissed as Ember sliced a small cut into the middle of his claw, then waved the Imperial Guard back as they came to protect their master. "A little warning might've been appreciated, Dragon Lord."

"And give you a chance to back out?" Ember grinned as she held Hergest's claw above the tablet, letting his blood drip down into the rightmost of the two circles she'd made. As it landed, it seeped into the stone and lit it up with a lavender glow that grew to fill the circle. Once it was full, Ember pressed the Emperor's claw onto it, holding it there as he grimaced from a burning sensation that only just fell short of being unbearable.

Hergest pulled his claw away the moment Ember released it, and cawed irritably as he held it up and flexed it. "I hope that had a purpose, Dragon Lord."

"It does," Ember responded as she cut her own claw and repeated what she'd done with the Emperor. The entire tablet lit up as she removed her claw, and after a few seconds a frenzied screaming could be heard from Smoulder as her scales lit up like a Hearthswarming tree and started to scratch vigorously at herself.

"Agh! What the hell! This fucking burns!"

Ember grinned as she stood over Smoulder, "Yeah it does, and it will continue to do so until a griffon gives you permission to be in Griffonia. Emperor, if you'd be so kind? Or don't be. Makes little difference to me."

Hergest took one look at the stricken Smoulder to decide that maybe he could cut the young dragon a little slack. "Smoulder, you have my full permission to be here."

All of a sudden the glow left Smoulder, and the itching stopped, although it took her a little longer to stop scratching. When she did, all she managed was to look up at Ember, her eyes full of betrayal.

"Why would you do that to us?"

Ember leaned in close to Smoulder, her grin growing more predatory. "Because I'm the fucking Dragon Lord, that's why. And before you think you now have free reign to be here, the moment you become unwelcome here, the burning comes back until you leave Griffonia. You might want to be on your best behaviour."

"I can't believe this."

"Most impressive," the Emperor complemented, "and more than worth the pain. So this will affect all dragons trying to enter Griffonia?"

"It will, and I doubt any will try to put up with it long enough to cause you any trouble."

"Excellent!" The Emperor clapped his claws together, then shook the injured one as he was reminded that it hurt. "With that done I can start transferring griffons out of Forts Scalebane and Firewall, and get them ready to assault Equestria."

"I would be happy to assist," Luna offered, and together she and the Emperor left, talking between each other.

Rainbow looked at her fellow Wonderbolts as Ember started into an argument with Smoulder, and saw in them the same thing she was experiencing. "So that really is it? No fighting? No drama? Nothing?"

"Is that really so bad?" a smiling Clarissa said as she walked up to them. "Not everything has to involve dramatic amounts of danger. There'll be plenty of that to come."

"Our previous experience of Griffonia says otherwise," said Lightning. "Last time there was a coup, and Vapor almost died, and plenty of other stuff. To go from that to being fairly useless is... weird, to say the least."

Vapor crossed her eyes a little and raised a hoof as she tried to think, "Weren't you the one bitching about always being in danger? Or something like that?"

"Maybe, but now its absence makes me suspicious. Anyway, is that, like, it now? A treaty has been made between dragons, and now all we have to do is get the Emperor to Zebrica to plan the attack on Equestria? As well as whoever else we'll have going?"

"That does seem to be it," Vapor agreed, nodding. "Almost like it was meant to be."

"I don't care if you don't like it!" Ember shouted loud enough to stop all other comversation. "I'm ordering you to go home and tell the other dragons what happened here, now!"

"Alright! Sheesh... quit acting like you didn't seriously fuck with our freedoms without asking any of us first."

"You can also consider getting over it an order too." Ember rolled her eyes and sighed as Smoulder flew away, grumbling loudly. "So what are you guys talking about?"

"About how this is really weird because nobody is actively trying to kill us right now," said Rainbow. "You'd think the creation of a lasting peace between dragons and griffons would be a bit more exciting."

"I know right?" Ember shrugged at all of them, "Whatever. Is anyone hungry? I'm hungry."

"So weird," Rainbow muttered.

Author's Note

Quickly skimmed through because I'm tired, so probably more full of errors that usual. Enjoy.

39. Seeking an audience

Now that she was here, none of this struck Twilight as being a particularly good idea. None of it. It was already a long stretch to think that trying to talk with the Sultan would achieve something, but to do it in a shaky disguise seemed unnecessarily dangerous. Perhaps that was a thought she should follow up on.

Mayfly, of course, looked the part. As a changeling her disguise couldn't have been more perfect, even if she went with her favoured colours of a white coat, and pale blue mane and tail, with similarly blue eyes. Nightmare too looked perfect as a very light grey and lilac maned mare. She had kept her eye colour though.

Then there was Twilight and Trixie, who appeared as taller versions of themselves. It did kind of work for Trixie, if you ignored the horn on her head, but Twilight still managed to look like herself to an uncanny degree, even without her horn or wings.

"That's just pathetic," was Nightmare's opinion of the both of them. "A Saddle Arabian with a horn is going to stick right out, literally, and you, Twilight, look like you spent an unfortunate amount of time being tortured in a rack. You won't be convincing anypony, either of you."

"What do you suggest then?" Twilight asked, blowing her mane out of her eyes, its length being a side effect of the spell she'd found to transform herself and Trixie into Saddle Arabians. She'd never thought she'd say this, but her sensible, straight cut fringe was betraying her.

"That you learn to transform like a true alicorn."

"You mean like you," Twilight deadpanned.

"You say that like I'm not great at transformations," Nightmare sniffed. "You'd think I have to be, considering the amount of time I spend hiding in disguise."

"And what about those of us that aren't alicorns?" Trixie asked, holding up a hoof like she were asking teacher a question.

"What about you?" Nightmare asked back innocently, hiding a grin.

"Don't be a jackass. How am I supposed to disguise myself if I'm not an alicorn?"

"With magic, obviously. And don't call me a jackass. I'm really not the kind of pony you call things like that."

Trixie grumbled loudly and walked away, kicking a few rocks and staring hard at the city of Ammare in the distance as Nightmare took on a role she'd never thought she would, that of being a teacher.

"You're aware of how transformation spells work, yes? Basically they're a specialised form of magical affliction, forcing your body to change in a way unnatural to its typical form."

"And you're already talking a load rubbish," Twilight sighed, "but I'll humour you for now. Although, perhaps instead of me standing here cringing at everything you get wrong, how about you tell me how you transform instead? Then I'll tell you how I can't do that, and then we can go about our day."

"And why can't you do it? You think this power is unique to me? Both Luna and Celestia can do it, although Celestia doesn't out of some refusal to be deceptive, or anypony but herself, or some other hippy crap reason. The point is, if we can do it, you can."

"Still doesn't help me though," Trixie muttered.

Nightmare shushed Trixie, "The adults are talking."

"Shove it up your ass, bootleg Luna."

"I'll help you with your disguise as soon as I can," Twilight offered as Nightmare stared daggers at Trixie, a slight twitch promising retribution if Trixie didn't fuck off really soon. "That being as soon as Nightmare gets on and tells me in an at least vaguely straightforward manner whatever it is that she's trying to tell me."

Nightmare rolled her eyes, "I'm about to reveal the secret to alicorn transformation, and this is the appreciation I get. Not sure I want to now."

"They stole the idea from changelings," Mayfly told them while Nightmare faked a sigh. "Changelings aren't very good at other magic, but are very malleable. Turns out that alicorns are sort of the same, but with using lots of magic to make the change, instead of natural ability."

Nightmare squinted suspiciously at Mayfly, "How do you know that?"

"Anything with a high magic to physical matter ratio can do it. But changelings did it first. Don't think I can't tell what you're doing when you transform," Mayfly said back to Nightmare.

"Okay, fine, but I bet you don't know exactly how you're doing it, which is why my sister and I-" Nightmare blinked at her slip, "I mean Celestia and Luna, can do things you can't."

"Such as turn your form into a ethereal puff of magic?" Twilight asked, sensing where that was going since it was Nightmare speaking.

"Exactly. You, as an alicorn, are magical enough to overpower your physical form to become anything you want. You want a wafty mane, go for it. You want to be taller than Celestia, the world is your low ceilinged oyster. You want to spend your days as a hybrid, biped, freak of nature pony minotaur thing, you're a weirdo, but you could do it.

Twilight removed her current disguise, returning back to what she'd spent the last three to four years looking like after sprouting wings. Apparently that was optional though, and she could in fact be anything she wanted to, so why-

"You're bullshitting me," Twilight realised. "If you can be anything you want, why be like you are most of the time? Why accept the changes that happened to you after you and Luna met in the dreamscape?"

"Because it's good to be yourself?" Nightmare said slowly, not sure what Twilight was getting at. "Not even a changeling can permanently transform themself, Twilight. Sometimes you need to spend time as what you truly are, so when I'm being me, that's because I want to be, and even need to be. Wait, were you about to accuse me of liking being myself?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it an accusation."

"You'd be right if you were though. I do like being me. Unfortunately the world doesn't seem to see it that way. Anyway, what I was going to say is that your- what do we call it? Second soul? -that thing, gets in the way by permanently trying to return yourself to your proper alicorn form, so it takes effort to maintain your transformation, which is why you can't stay permanently transformed. Kind of annoying, but rather useful if you accidentally turn yourself into a puddle of non-sentient goo."

"So there is a limitation."

"Not a huge one, but yes. It doesn't take a lot of effort of keep the transformation, but you will run out of steam, especially if you're using magic on other things as well. Anyway, that's enough talk, give it a try."

"What do you mean? You haven't told me how to do anything!"

"But I thought you'd gather from this that it's intuitive! Was that not obvious?"

Twilight held in a groan. Actually she held in a lot of things, but a groan was the first on the list. To think that she thought Nightmare was actually going to teach her how to do it. "Can't you at least give me a rundown on how you do it?"

"Well, I picture in my mind what I want to be... then I become it." Nightmare smiled helplessly, "Was that helpful? Please say it was."

"I really doubt she deserves to be told that," said Trixie.

"And she won't be." Twilight looked sideways at Nightmare as the mare pouted, then put her thoughts back into what she was doing. If she understood the point of this, her body was basically putty that could be moulded according to her magic. Or maybe that was the wrong way to take it, as the images in her head of her squeezing herself painfully into new shapes suggested.

"Y'know what? Screw it. I'm good at shrinking and invisibility spells, so that's what we'll do." Twilight pointed at Nightmare and Mayfly, "You two are going to have to take point on this. Try not to mess it up."

"Uh, what?"

"How's your Saddlan?"

"Better than yours."

"Good." Twilight patted Nightmare on the leg. She had been aiming for the top of her head, but that was currently out of range. "You're probably going to need it."

-0-0-0-

"I fail to see how bringing me is actually going to increase your chances," Mayfly whispered to Nightmare as they made their way into the city. She almost looked up to see if Twilight was still shadowing them, but since she was invisible, trying to spot her was pointless. "If anything I lower your chances."

"And don't I know it. Now shush, do you want to look like you don't belong here? I thought changelings were good at blending in?"

"Queen Chrysalis never let me perform infiltrations. She thought I'd mess them up. I suspect she might have been right."

"Oh, great, just what we need right now. Perhaps you should do your best to stay quiet and follow my lead. Any chance you could transform yourself into having no tongue? Just so there's no slip ups?"

"I'm not removing my tongue!"

"Just a thought," Nightmare sighed.

"Will you two stop arguing?" the voice of Twilight said from just above them, making them both jump. "At least try to act like you're meant to be here!"

"And you should shush since you're not supposed to be here at all," Nightmare said back. "Now be gone, djinn, before I taghalab you back to the alsuwq."

"Why are you taghalabing me back to the marketplace?"

"Marketplace? I thought I said ancestors! Oh, wait, no, that's aslaf. Hah, alsuwq, what was I thinking?"

"Twilight, this is not getting any less of a terrible idea," Trixie whispered loudly. "You seriously need to rethink this!"

"It'll be fine," Nightmare scoffed. "Besides, we're almost there, and you're going to have other concerns soon."

"Such as?"

Nightmare turned a sharp left, dragging Mayfly with her. Twilight tried to follow, but failed to register the bridge going over the street before hitting it. Nightmare smirked at the puff of dust that suddenly erupted from the street, and at the groans that accompanied it, then carried on their way to the Sultan's palace before Twilight could do anything to stop her.

As ever, there were two guards at the outer entrance to the palace, keeping a watchful eye for trouble, in whatever form it came as. That also included Nightmare and Mayfly, and only got worse as Nightmare tried to say that they wished to meet the Sultan, which took more a's than should feasibly fit in a sentence.

"Natamanaa 'an naraa Alsultan."

When the guards asked why, Nightmare was unable to answer why, with both language and reasoning being a barrier. She couldn't simply say that they wanted to talk to him about fighting Faust. She supposed that she would simply have to lie, and hope the guards bought it.

"Laqad saraq alhurras jz'ana min ukhti," she said as confidently. That confidence slowly died as they both looked at Mayfly, and her rather blank smile, then asked if it was her brain that was stolen. That stumped Nightmare for a moment as she ran back over what she'd said and worked out she'd said that guards had stolen part of her sister.

"Laqad 'akhadh alhurras jz'ana min ukhti," she corrected quickly. That was definitely what she needed to say, ha ha...

"Saddlan isn't your first language, is it?" the guard on the left asked. "That, or you really are accusing some of our number of a most heinous crime."

Nightmare winced, "Was it that obvious?"

"Accusing guards of 'taking part of your sister,' yeah, it was a little obvious. Besides, she doesn't look like much of a victim."

Nightmare had meant to say that the guards had taken something from her sister, not what that implied. Still, it was too late now, so she had to go on with the lie. "Uh, I meant soldiers, Mareitanian ones, and she's drugged up to the eyeballs. This also happened in Equestria, which is why we fled, and also why my Saddlan sucks, and hers is non-existent."

"They don't teach languages where I went to school," Mayfly mumbled.

The guard nodded slowly, "So you're from Equestria, huh? Couldn't the authorities there have done something about it?"

"The Mareitanians are untouchable, but the Sultan is now their ally, so I was hoping he could intervene on our behalf." Nightmare really hoped they would be let in soon, because this had suddenly got a lot more serious than she'd intended.

"I'm sure he'd love to, but the Sultan is very busy right now. Perhaps I could take you to someone that could help instead?"

Nightmare hid her grimace, since it was actually the Sultan she needed to see, but felt her ability to argue about this had already been lost, so accepted the offer.

It was only a few minutes later that she came to realise her mistake in doing so when she and Mayfly were directed into a cell at the point of a spear.

Nightmare hung her head in defeat. "Shit."

"This is entirely your fault."

"I'd liked to have seen you do better."

"I think I'd struggle to do worse."

That at least, Nightmare had to admit was true.

-0-0-0-

Twilight sat on the edge of a minaret, a hoof massaging her eyes, because one, her head hurt after flying into a bridge, and two, because Nightmare had gotten herself and Mayfly led straight to the palace dungeon. What Nightmare had done to make that happen she had no idea, save for a surety that it was probably pretty dumb.

"So what the heck are we supposed to do now?" Trixie asked into Twilight's ear, the shrunken mare holding onto Twilight's mane for support.

Twilight shrugged at the question. She was starting to wonder if they'd have been just as well off trying to see the Sultan as they were. It hardly seemed like the Mareitanians had a presence here, so unless the Sultan really had sided with Faust, she doubted anything particularly bad would have happened.

"You're doing that thinking silently thing again. You know I can't hear you when you do that."

"I was thinking you should shush while I try to make a plan."

"And I think you should chill and let Nightmare do her thing. They're eventually going to question the two of them, and that means that whatever Nightmare wants will get back to the right ponies. All we have to do is hope Nightmare doesn't do something dumb before then."

Trixie, to some degree, had a point. Twilight didn't particularly want to test that point since the Saddle Arabians might not ask their questions very nicely. Besides the possible issue of their disguises not holding up under torture if things went that far, Nightmare was sure to violently object to said torture, and those ponies probably had no idea they were holding an alicorn. Admittedly, there was a certain level of sadistic glee in imagining how they'd find out what she was, but since she was meant to be a secret, it definitely shouldn't be allowed to go that far.

"We have to get them out," Twilight said after a moment of thought. "Or at least we have to get to the Sultan to explain the situation first."

"Or maybe we can find them and keep an eye on them while we work out what's happening. Ooh! Or! Or... we do both! You go track down the Sultan, and I'll keep an eye on Nightmare and Mayfly. That should double our chances of success."

"I'm not sure I agree with your maths, but I don't disagree with your plan, much to my surprise. The invisibility spell should hold while we're apart, so there shouldn't be any problems there."

"Not that I can't do invisibility myself these days," Trixie said slowly.

"Exactly! So, yeah, let's go do that." Twilight leant forward, pushing off the minaret into a dive, then pulling up as Trixie screamed in her ear.

"You fucking psycho! I was barely holding on!"

Twilight giggled, knowing full well that she would never have let Trixie fall, then sped on for the short flight to palace. She looped around the entire building, trying to work out the best place to drop Trixie off, and eventually spotted it in the form of several barred windows set low to the ground.

"Alright, keep an eye on them for now, but don't do anything until it looks like it could turn bad, okay?"

"Sure, just- Hey!" Trixie shouted as Twilight took off again, "You can't leave me this size! Twilight! Twiiiiilight! Ffffffuuuuu-argh!" Trixie looked up at a tall blade of grass and growled, "I'm going to kill her. Twice!"

Trixie turned about on the spot, trying to work out what the heck she was supposed to do now, being the size of a kitten and all. She still had her magic, but the powers of growing and shrinking had evaded her for now.

"Screw it, I'll just find the two morons and get this over with."

A quick trot carried her over the few meters to the nearest barred window, the first in the row. It was empty upon inspection, as was the second, while the third contained a stick thin old stallion, cackling about a cave of wonders. Trixie ignored him and moved onto the forth, sticking her head in to find an argument under way.

"I'm just saying that trying to speak a language you don't know well makes you look more suspicious. It makes you look like you're trying too hard to fit in, which automatically makes you stand out. Adding to that a direct request to see the Sultan, and yeah, I'm not surprised we're here."

"Okay, you've told me this three times now. I don't remember disagreeing with it the first time, so why tell me twice more?"

"In the hopes you'd remember it." Mayfly sniffled sullenly while Nightmare pressed her head against the bars of their cell. "How do you know these languages anyway?"

"I honestly don't know. Sure I'd pick up some from experience, but I don't remember knowing as much as I do. I suppose I've just picked up more than I thought, or it's a useful side effect of being me."

"On top of the less useful ones, like your planning ability," said a third voice from above them.

Nightmare sighed into the bars of the cell, "It has the nasally whine of Trixie, and the slight cabbage-y odour of Trixie-"

"Trixie doesn't smell of cabbages!"

"-But I know that voice couldn't possible be Trixie's, because Trixie isn't here."

"Then prepare to be astounded, because Trixie is indeed here!"

"Where?" Mayfly enquired, searching about the cell. "Can smell you, but can't see you."

"I'm in the window, but I'm tiny and invisible, so you probably won't be seeing me at all." There was a noise that sounded distinctly like a rat making itself comfortable, "So, what went wrong?"

"Nothing went wrong," Nightmare growled in the direction Trixie was in. "This was my plan all along. Could you not tell from how successful it was?"

"Ah, then there's no point in me trying to bust you out then?"

Nightmare started to laugh, "I really don't think we need your help to do that. Both of us can still shape shift, and my magic hasn't been inhibited, so we're absolutely fine. Thanks for the concern though. Now where's Twilight if you're here?"

"Seeking an alternative means of completing the mission."

Nightmare rolled her eyes, "Really? Tsk, I ask you, where's the trust? The only reason we're still here is because I thought I'd see how far we could take this."

"I figured." Trixie leant back and made herself as comfortable as she could on the stone sill, her hooves crossed behind her head. "That's why I wasn't going to break you out. Not yet at least."

"So why are you here?"

"Observation."

"Sooo... you pretty much came to take the piss."

"Nnnn-yeah, pretty much. Try not to disappoint me."

"What if this does go bad?" Mayfly asked, a hint of genuine worry in her voice. "I'm not sure this one wouldn't break under torture. I'm not sure this one could stay disguised either."

"Oh please," Nightmare scoffed, "I doubt there's any torture these feeble mortals could come up with that could break me.

Trixie snickered at Nightmare, "False bravado much? Even alicorns feel pain."

"But we don't fear death, or losing bits, so we have little to gain by talking."

"Keep telling yourself that when you're being water boarded."

Nightmare turned a suspicious eye in Trixie's direction, not expecting to hear of such a thing from her. "How do you even know what that is?"

"Fleur told us." Trixie shuddered, "The worst part is we never even asked. Poor mare."

Nightmare grit her teeth and growled under her breath, "A thousand years on the moon couldn't break me. A few hours of waterboarding isn't going to come close."

"Really? A stiff lecture is enough to get my lip trembling."

"Then you're exactly as feeble as you're trying to make yourself sound. Now silence yourself, I think there's somepony coming."

Trixie obeyed, begrudgingly, but it was for the best as hoofsteps started to echo through the dungeon. Less than a minute later a single pony walked up to the cell, a pink mare with a long blue mane and tail, wearing the traditional garb of the Saddle Arabians. She stopped in front of the cell and eyed the two occupants for a moment before speaking.

"The guards that apprehended you tell me you're from Equestria. Is that true?"

"It is," Nightmare said comfortably, easily recognising the mare as Amira, the former ambassador to Equestria, and supposedly in on the deception they were pulling concerning Saddle Arabia's allegiance. "We come bearing a message from the Princess of Books and Wanton Slaughter, that-"

"From who?"

Nightmare sighed internally, "From Princess Twilight? Twilight Sparkle? The Princess of being too smart for her own good, and of saying she doesn't want to hurt anyone, then killing dozens in battle? Do I have to go on? Because I have quite a few to get through if I have to."

Amira made her face, nightmare's point well received. "No, I think I know who you mean. What's the message?"

"The message..." Nightmare poked her nose through the bars and looked around conspiratorially, "...is for the Sultan, so how about you take us to go see him?"

"And I'm supposed to simply take your word at this? I don't think so. Do you perhaps have some proof of your claim? Maybe a token of some kind?"

Nightmare winced, and only got a shrug from Mayfly when she glanced in the changeling's direction. She merely assumed unhelpfulness from Trixie, then thought about what to do to fix this. She did the first thing that popped into her head. She turned into Luna.

"Would this do?"

-0-0-0-

Twilight waited until it had grown a little darker before exploring any further around the vast palace. She assumed that the best place to catch the Sultan alone would be his bedroom, and had spent quite a bit of time narrowing her choices down to just a few rooms.

The smell of food wafting from either the kitchens or dining room informed her that the evening meal was under way, so she hoped that her patience would soon be rewarded by the Sultan retiring for the night. Then she could finally get in there and see where his loyalties truly lay. With any luck they were where she thought they were, but luck was a fickle thing at best these days.

More time passed, and Twilight's patience was rewarded with a glimpse of the Sultan trotting through his palace towards one of the rooms that Twilight has elected to maybe be his, and was gratified to find that her first choice was in fact the best one as he entered the room.

Using the curtains to conceal herself, despite being invisible, Twilight waited for the best moment, then froze as she heard a distinctly feminine giggling. It quickly passed, but Twilight worried that the Sultan wasn't alone, so waited more. When there were no more sounds, Twilight decided that the time was right, and entered the room, tiptoeing over the floor towards where the Sultan was sat in front of a dresser, leaning back on his hooves, his head raised with his eyes closed. Twilight found the pose odd, but persevered nonetheless.

"Ahem, excuse me, Your Majesty?" she said, ending the invisibility spell just in time for the Sultan to shout and fall backwards, revealing his sizable penis stuck in the mouth of a pretty young mare crouched under the dresser, who jerked her head up in surprise, unfortunately smacking it on the under side of the dresser, and even more unfortunately, biting down as she did.

Twilight flattened her ears as the Sultan howled and fell off his seat, and quickly averted her eyes from parts of his personage as she erected a bubble of silence to stop him getting the attention of the guards. That proved most fortunate because the mare scrabbled out from under the dresser and started calling for the guards quite loudly.

"Will you please stop shouting?" Twilight pleaded quietly. "I-I didn't mean to do this!" Twilight gasped and averted her gaze even more as the Sultan rolled towards her, confronting her with his length, and the circle of teeth marks three quarters of the way up it. An impressive distance considering... nothing that Twilight needed to consider as she tried to purge her brain of all her unnecessarily lewd thoughts. "Oh gosh, uh... could you- Could you put that away?"

"I can't turn it on and off like a switch!" the Sultan yelled at Twilight. "Fuck this hurts! What are you doing here anyway?!"

"I'm sorry! I thought you were alone! If I'd known you had... company, I would've waited!"

"Waited for what?" the mare asked, her expression becoming increasingly freaked out. "Do you know this mare?" she asked the Sultan.

Batal flopped a hoof towards Twilight, "Dearest, meet Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, and currently major invader of personal space. Twilight Sparkle, meet Sallima, my third wife."

"Uh, hi," Twilight said to the blue on blue mare, holding out a hoof to shake, only to get a blank stare in return. "Right. Look, I am so, so sorry about this. Are- Are you- Are you badly hurt?"

Batal narrowed his eyes at Twilight, then sat up some to look at his wife. "Are you alright, my dear?"

"I-I-I- Yes! Yes I'm okay. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bite you, but she shocked me, and I banged my head and-"

"Yes, I know, it's alright. Please, pull yourself together." Batal flopped back onto the floor and groaned, "Desert winds, Twilight, what are you doing here?"

"I certainly didn't come here to interrupt that! I thought you were alone."

"Yes, we are all aware of what just happened! Some of us intimately so. What I want to know was why you were sneaking into my chambers in the first place!"

"Looking for you," Twilight said sheepishly. "I wasn't sure what welcome I would get if I came to see you the normal way, so I thought I'd catch you in private. Clearly that wasn't my best idea, considering how caught in private you ended up being."

Batal groaned loudly, "Again with the referencing of what just happened. We know. I know. Now why were you looking for me specifically?"

"Sh-should I call the guards?" Sallima quavered.

"No dear, Twilight is, despite appearances, a friend."

Twilight was surprised at how relieved she was to hear that. "That's good to hear, because-"

The door slammed open, cutting off Twilight as a guard dashed into the Sultan's chambers. "Your Majesty! Changelings have infiltrated the-" The guard skidded to a stop and drew his weapon, pointing it at Twilight. "Burning sands, they're everywhere!"

"Oh, this is so not good," Twilight squeaked, backing off a few steps.

"Lower you weapon," the Sultan barked. "That is no changeling."

"How can you be certain, Your Majesty? She'd be in disguise if she was!"

"I'm pretty sure I wouldn't disguise myself as one of the four princesses of Equestria if I was seriously trying to sneak in here," Twilight said dryly. "I'd probably go for something more subtle, like a minotaur, or a rampaging dragon."

The guard flapped his chops, then looked to his Sultan. "Sire, we have two changelings in the dungeons, and can prove what they are. One of them transformed right in front of Grand Vizier Amira!"

Batal turned a suspicious look onto Twilight, "Now that is something to think about. Did you bring changelings into my palace?"

"Only one, but I have the strangest feeling she's not the one causing problems."

-0-0-0-

The amount of steel being pointed at her was enough to even give Nightmare pause, and she'd taken to brushing her rear against the back wall of the cell to stay out of range of it. That wasn't to say she was totally concerned, but multiple stab wounds did tend to slow you down.

"This is all one big misunderstanding. I'm not a changeling! Transforming isn't an ability exclusive to changelings! I am Princess Luna!"

"Silence, scum," one of the guards growled.

"And now with the insults."

"How about you sit down and wait for Twilight to sort this out?" Mayfly whispered to Nightmare. "Aggravating them and getting yourself killed would be far from helpful."

"So about as helpful as you and Trixie have been so far."

"You're not big into accepting blame, are you?" Trixie said, still invisible as she sat in the window, not caring that her voice was only adding to the confusion. "You just had to transform in front of a pony. You couldn't wait for a better solution to come up first, oh no."

"Will you shut up? Please? Your whining is hurting my ears."

"Maybe next time you'll exercise a little patience."

"I could demolish this room right now, with you inside it." Nightmare flinched as the weapons pointed at her got a little closer. "I'm not going to, but I could. I also enjoy how I haven't been inhibited as yet, but I'm sure that's just a small oversight on the part of all these lovely little guards."

"I'm sure that didn't sound like a threat in the slightest," Trixie laughed. "You really are determined to make this worse for yourself."

Nightmare silently acknowledged that she should maybe keep quiet now, before she ran out of blade free room to stand in. She was loathe to think it, let alone say it, but she hoped Twilight saved them soon.

Her silent prayer was answered a couple of minutes later as the Sultan walked in, utilising a curious gait that involved keeping his back legs spread further apart than they needed to be. Twilight followed right after him, her eyes meeting Nightmare's with amused disappointment, but also concern, which Nightmare had to assume was to do with her current choice of image.

"Stand down," Batal ordered, with the guards reluctantly obeying a few seconds later. "Princess Luna, are you harmed?"

"Only my pride, and my dignity, and maybe my sense of self importance as well. Nothing important."

"Very good." Batal waved to the guard holding the keys, "Let them out."

"Let them out? Forgive my bluntness, my Sultan, but both Princess Luna and Princess Twilight are both wanted by the Lady Faust. Should we not be apprehending them, rather than letting them out?"

Batal looked the guard in the eyes, making him swallow nervously. "Whose palace is this, in whose country?"

"Yours, my Sultan."

"And whom do you serve?"

"You, my Sultan."

"Correct. So if Lady Faust were here, would you obey me, or her?"

"If it meant my life, her."

Batal nodded and sighed through his nose, knowing that the guard spoke true. If Faust was here, he'd be obeying her wishes as well, so he could hardly blame others for thinking that way. They had every right to fear Faust, even if she hadn't given them a direct reason to do so.

"In her absence though, I do believe you obey me, so when I say to open that cell, I expect you to do it."

The guard nodded shakily, and spun through the keys in his hooves until he found the right one and unlocked the cell. Nightmare strode past him, somehow towering over him despite being a whole head shorter. Mayfly gave him a little smile instead, and stood meekly by Nightmare as the dark mare huffed in indignation.

"Is there somewhere quiet we can talk now that we're no longer held prisoner?"

The Sultan gave what he thought was Luna a half bow, "Of course, Princess Luna. Please, follow me."

Twilight reached out with her magic as they all started to file out, and found the still shrunken and invisible Trixie in the window of the cell. She quickly teleported Trixie to herself, feeling relieved as she felt the tiny mare's weight on her back.

"This was hilarious," Trixie whispered into Twilight's ear. "We should definitely do this again."

Twilight ignored her as she followed after Batal. He led them out of the dungeons and towards the private meeting rooms he kept near the throne room. Another quick order forced the guards that had followed them the entire way to disperse, finally leaving them alone to do what they'd meant to the entire time.

"Why is nothing ever simple when you mares are around?" Batal asked, wholly rhetorically as there was no answer he'd ever accept. "Couldn't you have sent a letter or something, instead of sneaking into my palace in the most farcical manner conceivable?"

"In my defence," Nightmare started, "that guard had very little reason to arrest us in the first place. I didn't realise that asking to see you was such a crime."

Batal groaned and sat in his chair, then grunted and subtly readjusted the way he sat. "You need to have an appointment usually, so two strangers asking to see me would be fairly suspicious, especially so late in the day."

"Well I know that now."

"So which one of you is the actual changeling?"

"There's no changelings here!" Mayfly squeaked, her breath catching in her chest.

"Said the changeling." Twilight gave Mayfly a reassuring smile, "It's alright, he knows. You can show him."

It took Mayfly a moment of nervous glances at the other occupants in the room, then reluctantly transformed back into her usual form. She swallowed, then leant back as Batal leaned forwards, despite there being several meters between them.

"I was under the impression that changelings were black, and had holes in their legs."

"Most do," Twilight confirmed, "but we've made a bit of a discovery where if a changeling gives love instead of stealing it, they become like Mayfly here."

"Fascinating. I imagine the Queen of the changelings is quite pleased with this."

Twilight burst out laughing, then stopped as she felt a little ashamed. "Quite the opposite actually, and she'd probably kill Mayfly here given the chance. Unfortunately for her, if she wishes to keep up our allegiance she can't touch Mayfly. Even if she doesn't, Mayfly is well protected."

"I see. Since when are you allied with the changelings?"

"Since after we last saw you, I think?" Twilight shrugged at Batal, "It's all a bit of a blur these days. Since our exit from here was convincing enough to make us wonder, allying with the changelings seemed like a good idea."

"Ah, yes. It appears my acting must've been pretty good to have fooled you as well. I can assure you that what we agreed on is still on the table, and is even stronger now than before considering Faust's actions both here and in Zebrica."

"You know about that?"

Batal nodded, "I found out only yesterday, and while I am glad I never had to fight Faust, I am disgusted that I'm forced to ally with a being that could murder an entire city. I'm just glad you were there to soften the blow, as it were."

"I tried. I wish I could've stopped it completely."

"Oh come on, you already died doing what you did."

Batal pursed his lips and blinked as the voice appeared to come from Twilight, but wasn't her voice, was addressed to her, and Twilight had her mouth shut as it was said. "Is there someone else here I should know about? The voice did sound familiar though..."

"One moment." Twilight returned Trixie to her proper size, and lifted the invisibility spell. "I'm sure you remember Trixie."

"She is quite hard to forget."

Trixie sank in her seat and pouted at the Sultan. "Thanks. Nice to see you too."

Twilight patted Trixie on the back, then leaned forwards to crossed her legs on the table. "Perhaps we should focus on business since I doubt we have all that much time to sit here and talk. You said Faust was up to something here in Saddle Arabia?"

"Not up to something, per se, but she demands supplies for her troops, demands that I send more of my soldiers to aid her, and has fulfilled none of what she promised us concerning the return of those taken by the Storm King. She barely treats her allies better than her enemies, and if it weren't for the fate of my soldiers already in Equestria, and the fear of her doing here what she did to Zanzebra, I would have ended our alliance already. To put it simply, she has us over a barrel."

"Good grief," said Nightmare. "How does such a pony demand loyalty if she gives nothing to deserve it? I almost feel like asking her for lessons." Nightmare shrugged as Twilight raised an eyebrow at her, "What?" Then she remembered she was supposed to be Luna, and wisely kept her mouth shut.

"So you're definitely on our side then?" Trixie asked.

"Where Faust is concerned, yes. Past that, we shall have to see. I think it's also past time you told me why you're all here. I very much doubt you came all this way to risk finding out whose side I'm on."

"That was just part one of the plan," said Twilight, a faint laugh coming out with her words. "Once we knew for certain where your loyalties were, we were going to invite you to a summit in Zebrica to discuss the invasion of Equestria."

"A summit? In Zebrica? With Griffons?" Batal regarded Twilight for several long seconds, "And the zebras agreed to this?"

"No, because we haven't asked, but we figured it was a good place on neutral ground where Faust probably hasn't got any eyes or ears. We also hoped having the summit there might be the last push needed to get the zebras on board." Twilight tapped her hooves together on the table, "We'll be asking them soon."

"I suggest you do. There is one small pro-"

"Sire!" Amira shouted as she smashed the door open, sprinting into the audience chamber. "The guards tell me you released the change... ling..." She blinked at all the ponies in the room, not realising that Mayfly was in fact a changeling. "Uh, did I miss something?"

"It was just the one changeling," Batal said cheerfully, "and she doesn't seem particularly threatening. Now please, shut the door and come join us."

"Wait, what? There's no-" Amira cocked her head at Mayfly, "That's a changeling? But I thought..."

Nightmare held out a hoof towards Amira, "Hi, I'm Princess Luna. I believe we met briefly when you screamed at me for being a changeling? Although I am fairly certain we've met before that."

Amira's face went flat, and she sat down beside the Sultan. "In my defence, you could have been a changeling, and the fact that one of you was only supports that."

"Yes, but you were wrong, so there."

"So," Twilight said brightly, "I hear you've been promoted to Grand Vizier! Congratulations."

"I'd rather have kept my old position," Amira said bitterly, giving the complete opposite reaction to what Twilight was expecting.

"It's for your protection," Batal said, sounding like it was far from the first time he'd had to explain that. "You know I don't want you anywhere near Faust. You can have your old job back once she's gone. Besides, you can still do your old job. The princesses were telling me that they're planning a summit for their alliance in Zebrica to discuss the invasion of Equestria. I'd like you to go and represent us."

Twilight raised her head in mild surprise, "You aren't coming yourself?"

"Too risky," Batal told her, shaking his head. "If Faust caught wind of me going to Zebrica, she'd know something was up. Amira however, she can pass considerably more unnoticed. Is that a problem?"

"No, not at all. As long as she's there that's fine."

Amira looked around the others, her brow creased with confusion. "So, wait, you're telling me that this entire thing with you all coming here, doing all of this, was simply to ask us to come to a summit in Zebrica?"

"We enjoy overkill," Nightmare purred.

"Apparently so. Well, I suppose all that's left is for me to say it'd be a delight and an honour to represent Saddle Arabia at this summit. When is it?"

"We'll let you know," said Twilight, adding that they'd send a simple message with the details. "We still have to clear it with the zebras first, so it could take a week or two to set up."

"And if the zebras refuse?"

"As I said, I'll let you know."

"Of course," Amira sighed. "Very well, I'll begin making preparations for my departure. I would suggest you do the same before the wrong ponies find out you're here."

"Agreed," said Twilight, even though it felt like she was being told to go away. "There is one thing before we do go though. Do you know any good blacksmiths? Or something along those lines at least? I have something that I'd like to have made, and I'll pay good money for it, and for you to bring it to the summit with you."

Author's Note

Sleep is for the weak, the sensible, and the well rested. The fuck do I keep doing this to myself? Lol

40. A big deal

Rather than fly all the way back to the portal in the Circen Desert, necessitating a two day flight, Twilight and her companions headed straight for Zebrica, since now they'd arranged to have everyone meet in the country, they should probably ask the permission of those whose country they want to hold it in. That had the distinction of being a big job since the zebras have a well documented history of despising the griffons, and of being fiercely neutral in conflicts.

Still, that was something for future Twilight to worry about. Right now she could enjoy the peace of soaring high in the air, dozens of meters above her troubles, with nary a care in the wor-

"Are we there yet? Seriously, all this flying around is getting boring."

Twilight sighed, her peaceful frame of mind creaking dangerously with the reintroduction of reality. "Does it look like we're there? I'm pretty sure if we were there we'd, y'know, be there. That doesn't appear to be the case."

Trixie blew a raspberry at Twilight, "Alright, sarcastic pants, I was only hoping for you to say that we're almost there, or that it'll be another hour, or that we haven't even left Saddle Arabia yet. How big is the stick shoved up your patootie today?"

Nightmare snorted with laughter, "Did you really just said patootie?"

"What's wrong with patootie?"

"Nothing, if you're five, or at least have the mental capacity of a five year old, which I suppose is close enough for you."

"Ah," Trixie nodded thoughtfully, "I see we're all being pleasant people today. How about you, Mayfly? What have you got in store for me?"

Mayfly stared at Trixie for several seconds longer than what is comfortable, then shrugged. "I'm not sure I yet see the purpose of insulting one's friends for entertainment value. I see even less value in insulting people like you."

"Ooh damn, that was harsh. Ouch, Mayfly, where did you learn to tear peoples hearts out like that?"

Mayfly beamed a smile at Trixie, "I've been practicing. Sunset often told me that 'banter' between friends is good, even when it becomes insulting, because said insults are still friendly."

Trixie growled quietly, "Ugh, I hate the word banter. The amount of ponies I've met that will act like complete twats to your face and blatantly insult you, then say 'it's just banter,' like that somehow exonerates them from being the massive cunts they clearly are, and that you're wrong for getting angry at them."

"But are they not now your friends for using the banter?"

"No, Mayfly, they are not."

"Oh." Mayfly drooped as she flew, "Still so much to learn."

Twilight kept her thoughts to herself, mostly because the moment she'd heard Sunset get mentioned it felt like her heart had tied itself in a knot. Trixie didn't seem to have noticed the wobble in her flight, thankfully, so Twilight carried on, staying quiet as she thought.

It was hard to overstate how much she missed Sunset, and yet there was also a note of guilt in that because Sunset spent so little time in her thoughts these days. There was simply too much to do, and Sunset was a distraction, as terrible as it was to say. There really wasn't room for her to be anywhere other than the back of Twilight's mind, apart from now. Thank goodness their flight didn't take them anywhere near the remains of Mount Chembechembe, because... Twilight didn't know, but she doubted it'd be pretty.

"Are you crying?"

Nightmare's question pierced right through the haze filling Twilight's head, and Twilight lifted a hoof to find that she did indeed have tears in her eyes. She wasn't full on crying, but it wasn't as though she could pretend it was something in her eye either.

"I'm sorry if mentioning Sunset upset you," said Mayfly.

"Don't be, because the alternative is never mentioning her at all, which is almost as bad as forgetting her." Twilight wiped her tears away, "I'm sorry, I just... we haven't exactly had time to process this, and I'm hardly the only one feeling her loss."

They flew on in silence after that, with even those typically incapable of saying nothing being quiet. The quiet continued until Zanzebra came into sight twenty minutes later, and it was broken by a gasp from Twilight, who hadn't seen the carnage wrought by the collapsing portal before, while Trixie and Nightmare had as they searched for her remains.

"Bad, isn't it," Trixie said in a low voice, completely failing to describe the utter carnage below. A whole third of the city was nothing but rubble, with nothing that could easily be recognised as a building left standing, as they were all knocked over, blown away from the crater at the epicentre where the portal had been.

"Makes you wonder what this would look like if you hadn't slowed the portal down," Nightmare said to Twilight after giving her a minute to take it in, having used the time to disguise herself as a thestral. "I'm not usually one to make a fuss like this, but you did well."

Twilight didn't agree so quickly, but only because it was hard to imagine it being worse than it was. This was already destruction on an unimaginable scale, so to increase that scale by two or three times was... equally unimaginable. She also doubted that how well she toned down the destruction mattered all that much to the zebras picking through the ruin of their lives. Far too many were down there, searching through the wreckage, seeking anything that was left. Twilight could only hope it wasn't the remains of loved ones they were looking for. The city had been evacuated, but- Twilight stopped that line of thought before she found herself sifting through the rubble as well.

"What if Faust starts doing this in other cities? She could basically hold the world hostage with this kind of power."

"All the more reason to fight then," Nightmare assured her. "I always thought your goal in this was to save lives?"

"Yes, but-"

"But what? You know what Faust intends to do, so stopping now because you're scared of this happening again isn't an option. Don't bother pretending that it is."

Twilight wished she could argue, but she knew it'd only be against herself. Seeing somewhere else suffer the same as this, or worse, was a strong reason to give up, but giving up would only lead to something even worse again. Were the lives saved really worth it if those lives became ruined in a different way later? Was losing your intellect, your very sense of self, akin to dying? It felt like it to Twilight. Nightmare was right, they had to push on.

"If only the ponies in Equestria could see this," Trixie said in a near whisper.

Twilight paused, the wheels in her head turning at Trixie's words. What if the ponies of Equestria did see this? Would it incite them against Faust, or cement them into a position of fear where they didn't dare move against her? Would it even encourage them to support her if it meant their safety? Food for thought perhaps, but probably something she should run by Luna and Cadence first.

Given a lack of context on where else to go, they flew towards the burnt out ruins of the Kumbi Mzee, hoping to find some kind of sign for where else to go. The Council of Elders were already there, surprisingly, but not nearly as surprisingly as Cadence and Luna being there, along with Ember and Flurry, not that Flurry went far without her mother.

"Ah, you arrived quicker than expected," Luna said as they came in to land. "I hope that means everything went well?"

"There were some hiccups," Twilight replied, her eyes flicking to Nightmare and Mayfly, "but things went well enough. The Sultan won't be attending, but Grand Vizier Amira will be here in his stead. Assuming they can come here at all, considering who else we're asking to come here."

"We were just discussing that with the Council," said Cadence. "They're holding a private meeting while they make up their minds. They're... not as resistant to the idea as we were afraid they might be."

"That's a relief. So how'd it go with you two? Are the griffons on board?"

Luna nodded happily, "They are, and there was a rather unexpected event where a formal treaty was made between the griffons and the dragons. Dragons will no longer illegally enter Griffonia, freeing up a large amount of resources for the upcoming invasion."

Twilight raised her eyebrows, surprised that such a thing could happen. "And you're sure the dragons will respect that?" she asked Ember.

"They will," Ember answered, smirking heavily. "I made sure of it. Let's just say that entering Griffonia will be an uncomfortable prospect for any dragon that tries it without permission."

Twilight nodded, not really sure what Ember meant by that, but fairly certain it was meant literally. "That's good. How about you, Cadence? Any luck?"

"Yeesss... I did find the crystal smiths we need, but there's some problems as well. First off, after your last visit to Baltimare, Faust has forcibly relocated the refugees to the Appleloosa desert."

Twilight winced guiltily. She'd hoped that the refugees would be left alone, but apparently that was too much to hope for. "Sorry."

"It's hardly your fault. They would've been moved at some point. I was just hoping that point would be after the war was over, when we could relocate them back to the Crystal Empire. There's nothing we can do about it now. The second piece of news is that Faust has recruited civilians to police the cities, freeing up her soldiers for more important tasks, like invading innocent countries, and defending Equestria."

"That's not good."

"No it isn't," Luna agreed. "I've tasked Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor with scouting Equestria for Faust's forces, to see where they're concentrated, and how numerous they are. Hopefully that can give us a better idea of things when it comes time to launch our attack."

"Here's hoping. Maybe they can find Celestia as well. I doubt Faust is very impressed with what her daughter has become."

"They won't find her if she's in Canterlot, or the Everfree castle. I told the Wonderbolts only to get close enough to get a vague estimate on numbers and position, nothing more. The last thing we need is for them to get captured, or worse."

Twilight nodded, fully agreeing with the 'worse' part, although getting captured would be pretty catastrophic if one of them talked. Twilight suspected they wouldn't, but a cautious relocating of the various portals would have to happen just in case. All they had to do now was get the zebras to at least agree to host the summit, and then do everything else, starting with her most recent idea.

"I was thinking as I flew here, due to an idea Trixie gave me, but what if we informed ponies of what happened here?"

"I'm pretty sure they already know," Luna said flatly.

"They know about the invasion, sure, and they might even know that Faust withdrew her forces, but I doubt anypony but Faust herself knows what she did here with the portal. Not even those she evacuated. I imagine it was only a portal to them."

"While that may be true," Luna said thoughtfully, "I'm not sure what telling them would achieve. I imagine it would only frighten ponies. To be honest, the whole idea frightens me. What if Faust teleported to Griffonia and created one of those portals in the Eyrie? It's bad enough thinking she could dump an army anywhere using that kind of magic, but an unstable portal bomb capable of this kind of destruction?"

"I don't think so," Twilight said back. "If she had the power to move entire armies using those portals, why require ships? Why not bring twenty thousand of her soldiers here in no time at all? There's a limitation to where she could put those portals, but I'm not sure what."

"What if it's to do with ley lines?" Cadence suggested. "That portal fed on an incredible amount of energy, even before it went out of control. There isn't enough background magic anywhere for that kind of thing to feed on, so maybe she can only cast it on, or near ley lines."

"There is one that runs right next to the city," said Luna. "There's also the one that goes to Mount Chembechembe not too far off, but probably too far for Faust's purposes. It does sound feasible, Twilight."

"Yeah, but that still doesn't tell us why she didn't portal her army closer to Zanzebra. Maybe she needs something, or someone, to anchor the portal at one end, like a unicorn."

"That does sound reasonable," said Luna. "I suppose the threat maybe isn't as bad as we first feared. The Eyrie is at least safe because no ley lines run near the place."

Cadence raised an eyebrow at Luna, "Just the Eyrie?"

"Ammare sits close to a ley line, but has the luxury of being allied with Faust, so they should be safe, and Zanzebra shouldn't be hit twice if there's nothing here to create an anchor."

Twilight nodded, liking what she was hearing so far. "Okay, that's good. What about Equestria?"

"Haven't you seen a ley line map of Equestria, Twilight?"

"Yes, but I didn't overlay it with a map of Equestria's cities. Mostly because I didn't need to."

"Ah, well, how to say this..."

Nightmare cut in, providing the answer Luna was so reluctant to give. "Essentially every city in Equestria sits on a ley line, with the Crystal Empire sitting on a couple, the Tree of Harmony sitting on a few minor ones, and then there's Canterlot, where pretty much every major ley line from around the world converges under the Canterhorn mountain. So, while I don't disagree with anything you said, if you were trying to make yourselves feel better," Nightmare started to clap slowly, "good job."

"Shouldn't you be resting up at the Retreat?" Luna muttered irritably.

"I could be, yes."

"Then please go before you get into trouble?"

Nightmare sniffed, raising her muzzle imperiously. "I see how it is, the adults are talking, and I'm barely a toddler to you lofty alicorns. Well I never."

"You're a toddler compared to anypony if you're using that logic. Otherwise, you're over a thousand years old, so start acting like it."

"Yes, mom."

"Don't call me that."

"This isn't just a phase!"

Luna covered her eyes with a hoof, "Please, just go."

"Sure. Are you coming, Mayfly? I doubt there's going to be anything interesting happening with all these boring old ponies here."

"Are you saying that because I'm only six?"

"I- Wait, you're six?"

Mayfly nodded, "Changelings grow up and mature much faster than ponies, to keep the hive well supplied with working bodies. Did you not know that?" Mayfly stopped and tapped a hoof to her chin, "I wonder if that would still be true for a child of an evolved changeling, like myself? So much to ponder."

"Do you want to ponder it at the Retreat?" Nightmare asked the changeling. "We could ponder it over cookies and milk while Starsy reads us a bedtime story?"

"But I'm not sleepy. Nor do I desire milk combined with cookies."

Nightmare rolled her eyes and spread her wings, "Come on, Mayfly, lets leave them to it. The fact is that I doubt they need us hanging around in the way while they plan the summit."

Twilight watched them go, while also secretly enjoying the look on Luna's face. It was a look Applejack and Rarity had often worn when dealing with their younger sisters. Strangely it wasn't something she'd ever seen her brother Shining do. Guess Twilight had been too good for him to need to. It wouldn't surprise her if she started to see it more these days instead.

"Confounded mare," Luna finally cursed once Nightmare and Mayfly were away. "What were we talking about before she interrupted?"

"About how Equestria was riddled with ley lines," Twilight answered helpfully, "and about how it'd be fucked if Faust decided to blow it all up."

"Right, yes. Perhaps it'd be best if we changed the subject. You were talking about an idea you had, I believe?"

"Right, yes." Twilight clapped her hooves together and pointed them at Luna, "I was wondering about the benefits of showing the destruction here to ponies back in Equestria, and I wanted yours, and especially Cadence's input on whether that'd be a good idea."

"Mine?" Cadence asked, pressing a hoof to her chest. "Why me?"

"Because you know ponies on a more fundamental basis than Luna and myself. Their thoughts, their feelings, and most importantly, how they might react to seeing-" Twilight gestured at the city, "-this. Would it scare them? Or would it push them to resist the rule of a pony that could cause this?"

"That's a tough question, Twilight. Even you should know that ponies are going to react in lots of different ways. If you're looking for an answer where there's a good chance it'll cause ponies to start fighting back, I'm afraid I can't give it to you, even if it would. Nopony can predict how an entire country's worth of ponies will react."

"Then what would you do? If you were a pony living your life in Equestria under Faust's rule, and I showed you a picture of this and told you that Faust had caused it, what would your reaction be?"

Cadence went quiet as she thought about it, giving it her full attention. Putting herself into the hooves of an average pony wasn't something she'd done in a long time, but all the same she tried to. If she saw a picture of the carnage wrought in Zanzebra, committed on a scale previously unseen, she'd probably be in denial. And if she could be convinced of the truth, she'd probably be scared. How does your average pony fight back against that?

Twilight's heart sank as Cadence gave her answer, but couldn't say that Cadence was wrong. Denial and fear would probably be her reactions, but she'd take that extra step in refusing to allow another atrocity like that to happen. Unfortunately, it was easy for her to do that, so her reaction probably wouldn't count.

"You're right, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking."

"But surely it doesn't matter if ponies get scared," said Trixie. "Shouldn't it matter that some of them fight back?"

"But how?" Luna asked Trixie. "Without guidance, without a plan, they could end up getting themselves and a lot of other ponies killed. I think it best that we not introduce any new factors into things, and proceed with our plan as we have made it. The last thing we need is a lot of scared and angry ponies confusing things, or even worse mistaking our allies for enemies. Faust's crimes shall have to be revealed afterwards."

"Eh, fine." Trixie shrugged at Twilight, getting a half-hearted one back. Both of them knew that Luna was probably right, and that showing ponies what could happen if they fought back was probably a terrible idea anyway. "So now what?"

"Now we wait for the Council," said Luna. "Goodness knows how long that will take."

-0-0-0-

All that there was to mark the spot where she'd died was a patch of dried blood. Not many ponies got to see the spot where they'd died, let alone multiple times, and Twilight had to admit that it was pretty anticlimactic. She'd saved most of the city from destruction, along with thousands of lives, and had given her own life in the process. All she had to show for that was a dried up patch of dirty blood that could honestly have belonged to anyone.

"Do you want to know how we found you?"

Twilight suspected it was by her magical signature, since it stood to reason that an immortal alicorn would retain their magic after death. She didn't say that though, because it allowed Trixie to keep talking, and maybe feel a little cleverer about something she never actually figured out herself. It also gave Twilight time to keep looking around.

Fragments of the lives the zebras lived here were strewn all around her. Bits of pottery, broken furniture, the masks they favoured, and far more littered the ground amidst the rubble. How did you recover from something like this? If she came back in a year, would it all be cleared up and rebuilt? Singing a song of silent defiance that no matter how much you destroy, we can and will rebuild, better than before. Or would it be left untouched, the task too much to bear?

Twilight told herself off for being silly. Of course the only option was to rebuild. Let the destruction here in the present stay in the past, remembered only in memory and history books. It didn't deserve anything more than that. Let that sad little patch of blood be washed away by a tide of hope, reconstruction, and zebras in hardhats.

"Did I say something funny?"

"Hmm?" Twilight noticed then that she was smiling, and was perfectly happy to be doing so. "Sorry, I was thinking about something. Do zebras need to wear high visibility clothing when they're already quite noticeable?"

"What? That has nothing at all to do with what I was talking about! Great, I must be bad at lectures if I can't even hold your attention on a subject involving magic."

"Sorry, Trixie, I'm just... I don't know, but I'm feeling a lot of whatever it is."

"That is so helpful, thank you." Trixie sighed and walked up to stand next to Twilight, spotting the end of a piece of cloth poking out of the rubble. She pulled it with her magic, tearing it off. She cursed, dropping the fragment of cloth. "So now what?"

"What do you mean? You know what happens now."

"So this doesn't change any of our plans?"

Twilight shook her head and shrugged, "I don't see why it should. Faust still needs to be stopped, no matter what she's apparently capable of."

"Yeah, but this is way beyond our normal scope of things. We've gone from slinging spells on a battlefield to spells that can destroy entire cities in seconds. That's... I don't even know how to describe it."

"Isn't that the idea though? We're fighting back better and harder than she thought possible, so her only option is to do something so terrible that it scares us out of fighting."

"I'm sure that was hardly her only option."

Twilight laughed once, wondering where her current attitude was coming from. She felt galvanised, for lack of a better word. "Alright, so maybe it's not her only option, but she can't only have been hoping to wipe us out in one move. She knew some, if not all of us would survive, so she had to make such a spectacle of it that we lost the will to fight."

Trixie kept her opinion to herself, fairly certain that Faust didn't need ridiculous city destroying spells to turn them all into bloody smudges. There was no point to giving up, but she'd be lying if she said she couldn't feel the noose around their necks.

"Where are you going?" she asked as Twilight started trotting away from her.

"To see the crater," Twilight replied. "I'm curious about what's left in it."

"Magical radiation probably."

"And? That's hardly dangerous."

"Not to you perhaps."

"It isn't dangerous to you either, but if you should sprout a second horn, or indeed wings, I'll let you know."

Trixie sighed through her nose, but dutifully followed after Twilight to the crater, approaching it with considerably more caution than the alicorn did. There was an unnatural warmth to the two dozen meter wide pit, as well as a fetid smell as an exposed sewer dribbled its contents into the hole.

"Fascinating. Complete displacement of the area around the portal. I wonder how that happened?"

"It's a portal," Trixie said dumbly. "It probably portalled it somewhere. Twilight, what are we doing here? You seem weirdly happy standing here in the middle of all this. Are you just trying to distract yourself from thinking about Sunset?"

Twilight turned her head away, to hide the fact that while she hadn't been doing this to avoid thinking about Sunset, even though it had been doing a marvellous job in that regard, but because she was definitely thinking about Sunset now, and it still sucked.

Twilight squeaked as she felt Trixie's legs wrap around her neck in a hug, but quickly leant into it. Hugs were always nice, even now.

"Bit for your thoughts? Is Sunset's journal still bothering you?"

"No, actually. It's like the less I think about her, the less her journal bothers me. The problem is that I don't want to think less about her. It just seems that the world wants to give me other things to think about instead, and I need to think about those things, but then I feel guilty, like I'm neglecting Sunset."

"So it's complicated then?"

"When isn't it?"

"Touché. Need any inspirational words?"

"Have any to spare?"

"Give me a minute." Trixie picked the roundest stone she could find out of the rubble, and set about carving a decent likeness of Sunset's cutie mark into its surface. It took a few minutes, but when she placed that stone on the top of a pile of others at the edge of the crater, it felt more than worth it. Sunset at least deserved at bit of effort out of her.

"To our friend, Sunset Shimmer, who gave her life to make sure we kept ours, which is a pretty awesome thing to do really. It takes a special kind of pony to do that, and I'm glad that she was one of them. Like, really, really glad."

Twilight smiled through her sadness. It was far from the ideal epitaph, but them being here, today and every day afterwards, was Sunset's achievement. Hopefully they could make her proud.

Twilight pressed her head against the side of Trixie's, letting her tears fall, but not out of sadness alone. She felt better, lighter, and happier that she could finally be sad about it, rather than occupied with other things.

"Thanks, Trixie."

"You're welcome," Trixie said with a small shrug. "I just hope the zebra that stone belongs to doesn't mind us nicking a part of their house or whatever."

Twilight snorted out a laugh, "Fuck that zebra, I think we, and Sunset, have earned it."

"Yeah, fuck that zebra." Trixie swung her head around to make sure that zebra wasn't standing behind them. They were safe. For now. "So, you weren't also cracking a little at seeing this and not quite being able to comprehend it while facing up to the fact that we somehow have to stop the pony that caused this?"

"Me? Noooo... no, not me, not in the slightest."

"Oh good, so I wasn't the only one."

-0-0-0-

They spent almost an hour staring out over the crater, witnessing the silent aftermath of the portal bomb, only occasionally punctuated by enquiries on whether magical radiation really wasn't harmless, and that Twilight was totally, one hundred percent sure it wasn't going to horribly mutate Trixie into an abomination.

Eventually, after several reassurances that they spent their entire lives being bathed in magical radiation from literally everywhere, including their own horns, without turning Trixie more freakish than she already was, they decided it was maybe time they returned to the Kumbi Mzee and learned of the Council's decision. So, Sunset's memorial stone in tow, they made their trek to the highest point of the city.

"I can honestly say this has been really surreal," Twilight commented as they left the destruction behind, entering the part of the city where the damage was nearly unnoticeable. "Horrible, but surreal."

"Yeah, because the abstract nature of it is what really sticks with you."

"You know what I mean."

"Of course I do. Doesn't make what you said any less dumb." Trixie stuck her tongue out at Twilight as the mare huffed at her. "Seriously though, you missed the weird glittery magic residue that fell from the sky for a couple of hours afterwards. That was surreal. If we weren't so busy trying to find you, I might have spent a bit of time watching that."

Twilight squinted sideways at Trixie, "You're making that up."

"I'm really not."

"But magic residue should only last a few seconds at most. To make it last hours, the source would hav- Right, city wrecking portal bomb conjured by the single most magical being we know of. Glad I stopped myself before I sounded too stupid."

"Me too. I enjoy having at least a modicum of respect for you." They turned up on to the path to the Kumbi Mzee, the road changing from packed dirt to stone paving. "What's going to happen if the Council refuses?"

"I don't know, but I really don't think they will. It doesn't take long to decide on a flat out refusal. There'll probably be some rules and conditions that we'll have to follow, but I very much doubt that's going to be a problem."

"Okay, but what if they really do refuse?"

"Then we'll probably go to Griffonia, because it's the safest place, even if the Saddle Arabians will moan about it, and the zebras won't come at all. I doubt Chrysalis will care in the slightest where we end up."

"That sounds so much easier than all this."

"That's because it would be, but neutral territory with an eye on getting the zebras to join the security pact was the idea."

At the top of the hill they found Luna and Cadence waiting almost exactly where they'd been over an hour earlier, except that they were now playing noughts and crosses in the ash strewn dirt. The sight was enough to give Twilight pause for a few seconds.

"Are they still talking about it?"

"Something else came up in the middle of their meeting," Cadence explained. "We've been told that they've made their decision, but Councillor Fumbo wants to tell us in person, along with Mistress Tazama."

"In other words," Luna sighed, "they're giving us the run around because they can, because they don't want to show that they feel like they owe us, and are willing to host the summit for that reason alone."

"Luna is of course exaggerating," said Cadence. "I'm sure it's something important involving the sheltering of a lot of zebras that have lost their homes. Or maybe the prisoners."

"Sure." Luna scratched a cross into the grid of their current game, and made a face as Cadence drew a circle, making three in a row on the left side. "I rather feel like I'm missing something here. I haven't won once."

"I could never beat her either," Twilight said with a laugh. "Not until I worked out that she somehow always manages to go first."

"Don't tell her my secret!" Cadence shouted, smiling as she did, and laughing as Luna groaned.

"The simplest thing, and I never considered it. I think that calls for a-" Luna stopped, spotting a trio of zebras starting up the hill of the Kumbi Mzee, catching Twilight out since she'd thought they were up here because the Council was inside, even if it was burnt out. She never said that it made no sense to her for them to do that. "It seems we might finally have our decision."

They waited for the three zebras to reach them, seeing that Councillor Kifuniko had joined them, much to Trixie's displeasure over having to work out more "pointless fucking rhymes." At the very least they didn't seem overly unhappy to see the three princesses, which was hopefully a good sign.

"Sorry for keeping you so long," Fumbo apologised. "We hadn't yet figured out where we were going to keep the prisoners since where we would normally put them is..." Fumbo waved at the destroyed section of the city, "quite. To make things worse, where we could put them instead is being used for the homeless." Fumbo sighed wearily, "So many things to think about."

Cadence gave him a sympathetic smile, "We know that feeling all too well. If you feel there's something we can help with while we're here, don't hesitate to ask."

Kifuniko nodded her appreciation, "That is a kind offer of you, but enough we feel you have to do. Anyway, we are not here to make a fuss, we are here to give the decision you wish from us."

Luna raised her head a little, "You have made a final decision then?"

"We have," Fumbo told her, "and we have agreed that you can host your summit here, but only if certain criteria are met."

Luna grinned as Twilight and Trixie bumped hooves, relieved that the Council had agreed. "I'm sure that shouldn't be a problem. What are these conditions?"

"They concern the delegates," said Mistress Tazama. "And I don't just mean the griffons. All of those you invited here will have to endure the same conditions, although there is one extra for your changeling allies, but only because the other parties literally cannot do what they can."

"That should please Chrysalis no end," Luna said evenly, although she could easily predict that going over with the changeling queen about as well as griffon cuisine at a foal's birthday party, despite not knowing what the request for the changelings was yet. "What are these conditions?"

"Mostly security concerns," said Mistress Tazama. "In fact, almost entirely security concerns. Each diplomatic party is allowed no more than a dozen armed guards, not including their retinue. Their very definitely unarmed retinue, although the griffons have a slight advantage there. We don't want armies marching into our country just for a meeting."

"Very reasonable," Luna said in agreement.

"They will also be subject to random searches, not just for weapons, but other things that they might be trying to take both in, and out of the country. While I would like to think the best of our coming visitors, we can't sit still and assume that none of them might have turned traitor, or have other intentions."

Luna made a face, but otherwise didn't fight it. Although she expected nothing from her fellow ponies, or from the griffons and changelings to be honest, the Saddle Arabians might have developed a loyalist following for Faust, so caution would be advisable. "As you wish."

"The delegates will also have to accept that we will be performing around the clock security measures, not just for our own sake, or yours, but for theirs as well. We have no idea who might try to sneak in to gather information, so it is best we take all care to prevent such things."

That at least seemed fairly standard for an event like this. Or at least it sounded like it to Luna, since an event like this hadn't ever really happened before. At least not since her return from the moon. Again she accepted the condition, but was starting to worry about what that extra condition for the changelings was if this kind of security was being carried out. If it was what she thought it would be, Chrysalis might end up walking out. Maybe that might be no bad thing in the long run, but it could mean the loss of an entire army of changelings.

"There were some other security concerns, but even I can see that having the griffons submit to having their claws cut is a terrible idea, diplomatically speaking, so we can ignore them. However, there is the matter of the changelings. We won't push that Queen Chrysalis be forced to wear a inhibitor ring, but we will require that her and her retinue wear Kuua at all times."

And there was the terrible idea that Luna knew Chrysalis would hate. The problem was that it wasn't actually a terrible idea at all. It was actually rather sensible. It was also something Chrysalis would vehemently reject.

"I'm sure she'll accept those terms," Cadence said, raising an eyebrow at Luna when she shot a look of surprise at the pink princess. "Are there any other matters?"

"Only that we keep the prisoners away and unaware of the summit, no. Not security related at least. If you accept those conditions, I'll depart to start putting them in place."

"Of course, Mistress Tazama, thank you."

"What are you doing?" Luna whispered out of the corner of her mouth. "You know Chrysalis will never accept having to wear the Kuua."

"That's why we don't tell her until the last minute, then sweeten the deal with a full belly, if you catch my meaning."

Luna rolled her eyes, but otherwise accepted that might work at placating the changeling queen. All the same, she prepared for the departure of their least desirable ally.

"There is a few other matters that will have to be addressed before the summit," Fumbo said once they were done talking. "First is that we have nowhere to hold it with the Kumbi Mzee burnt down."

"Can we get hold of a marquee?" asked Twilight. "That would do, wouldn't it?"

"And put it where?" Luna asked back.

Twilight pointed towards the ruined part of the city, "How about in there, to remind everyone what we're fighting for?"

"I'm sure that would do more to scare them off fighting," said Cadence.

"We agreed there are limitations to where Faust can use those portal bombs, so there's a decent degree of safety that we can tell our allies about. Holding it there should instead remind them of what we're fighting against, and why."

"It's also fairly unoccupied at the moment," Luna said in agreement. If we can clear a flat area for the marquee, it would do quite adequately."

Cadence shook her head, not agreeing with either of them, but she was entirely uninterested in fighting a two against one decision. Instead she turned back to Fumbo. "Was there anything else?"

"We have nowhere for your delegates to sleep, since that capacity also died with the Kumbi Mzee."

"I guess we'll need several tents then," said Twilight. Nice ones, with decent furnishings. We should probably keep those outside of the ruins though. Maybe create a small, fenced off compound?"

"I suppose something like that would have to suffice," said Luna.

"Then there's the problem that with all the homeless zebras we currently need to shelter and supply for, we have no food to offer your delegates."

Trixie barked a laugh, "Is having the summit here starting to sound like a really bad idea to anypony else?"

"Chrysalis and her changelings won't be a problem," Cadence said to Luna. "If we can get hold of some food, and ask that the delegates bring enough for themselves as well, I'm sure we'll manage."

Luna sighed, knowing this whole summit was probably going to be remembered as a bit of a laughing stock because of these issues. "It'll have to do. Please don't say that there's more," she said to Fumbo.

"Nothing to do with the summit, no. There is the small issue of the remains of one General Snowbright. We haven't buried him as yet, and I was wondering if you have anything in particular you wanted to do with him?"

"A friend once was General Snowbright," Kifuniko said with sympathy, "so to you we thought we'd give the choice to do by him right."

Twilight shrugged as Luna gave her a meaningful look. They hadn't talked about Snowbright as yet, and since he was the first one they intended to put on trial over this whole thing, that had ended with his death. "He lived with his soldiers, so I think it's only fair he stays with them now. It's not like we can return any of them home."

"Quite. Where can we find his body?"

"By the rest of them," Fumbo informed them. "Now, if there's nothing else we'll be on our way. We have a lot to do, as do you."

All of them made a quick farewell to the zebras, leaving them alone once more to face the daunting task of getting this all done. Before they could even work of figuring out where to start, Cadence stood and stretched her legs.

"I'll make a start on tracking down some appropriate accommodations for our guests. I'm sure Daring might have some ideas. You three should go say goodbye to Snowbright."

"I did that when I killed him," Twilight said in a tiny voice. It bothered her how much this bothered her when Snowbright had been an arsehole long before the events surrounding Faust. I suppose it wasn't too much to admit that for a while he'd been their arsehole.

"Come on, Twilight." Trixie nudged Twilight, then smiled at her. "I can see this being one of those things that eats at you if you don't do something about it. Are you coming, Luna?"

"Of course. I could hardly pass up the chance to say farewell to such an adversary."

"See? Luna gets it."

Twilight sighed, feeling heavy. She'd already cried over Sunset today, so the prospect of getting teary over Snowbright sounded absolutely exhausting. The others were right though, so she dragged herself up.

"Could you take this to the retreat?" she asked Cadence, passing the stone adorned with Sunset's cutie mark to her. "Please? Just put it somewhere safe for now."

"Of course," Cadence said, giving her younger sister-in-law a nuzzle. "I'll see you all soon."

-0-0-0-

It wasn't too far to where the fallen of Mareitania had been relocated, a few miles outside of the city in what was a mass grave. There were only a couple dozen zebras working on taking care of them, and Twilight was glad to see they were treating the bodies with respect, and were even writing down the names off the tags each of them wore, on top of collecting the spare.

"Ugh, that smell," Trixie said as they landed, getting dropped off by Twilight. "Hot weather and corpses really don't mix."

"Quite," Luna agreed, scrunching her nose against the odour. "I should not like to remain here longer than necessary, before the flies start to devour us as well."

Apparently getting as much respect off Luna and Trixie as the zebras were giving the dead wasn't happening. Not that she didn't agree with them, but she liked to think she had the tact to keep her inappropriate comments to herself.

They were directed by a kindly zebra to the remains of Snowbright, covered by a sheet that at least kept some of the flies off him. Only some. A swarm of the insects buzzed away from the body as he was uncovered.

"That's disgusting," Trixie said as the flies quickly returned. Her horn lit up in the uncomfortable colours of dark magic as an aura wrapped around the body, killing the flies as soon as it touched them. His remains free of infestation, she quickly wrapped the sheet tightly around him. "I don't remember this sort of thing being so grim in Mareitania."

"Colder weather, less flies," Twilight replied laconically. "We should probably get on and bury him." A quick check with her magic confirmed that one of his tags had already been taken, presumably by the zebras for record keeping.

Unsure of where to put him, they carried him to one of the larger trenches and placed him inside at the end, barely distinguishable from the other bodies with him. They all shared uneasy glances, their discomfort at leaving him in an unmarked mass grave obvious, and overriding Luna and Trixie's earlier attitude. Given the lack of practical options, they did nothing to change it.

"Well, so long y' bastard," Trixie said after a minute. "It was nice knowing you, right up until it stopped being so. Try not to conquer the afterlife."

"You were a worthy adversary," said Luna, her voice full of respect, "although I suspect your superior army may have had something to do with what successes you had in Equestria. So long."

Twilight took longer to think of what to say, and never really come up with anything. Snowbright had been both a friend and enemy, as well as a source of frustration, elation, anger, and comradeship. He'd helped them free Mareitania, then repaid all they did by stabbing them in the back. Twilight evened that out by killing him, even if she didn't really want to. There really wasn't much to say that could sum all that up, so Twilight took the simple approach.

"Bye."

Each of them kicked some dirt over his body, then left to go deal with the future, leaving Snowbright in the past where he belonged. The good parts, and the bad, all of them could stay there as far as they were concerned.

Author's Note

Posting this at an almost reasonable time while feeling almost reasonably well rested. Well, not absolutely knackered at least. What is this wizardry?

41. Meet the family

Twilight had forgotten what the mundanities of being a princess involved. Now she was fully reminded after a full week of slogging through organising the summit. Even with all the help, it had been a lot to do. Finding shelters, clearing the area for the meeting itself, finding enough supplies, organising security, and most importantly, not sacrificing what vestiges of sanity she had left upon an altar built of paperwork. That last part had been quite difficult, especially since the paperwork was a nice change of pace at first.

But, in the end, it had gotten done, and all that remained was to get the delegates here to so the summit could get under way. Hopefully that didn't involve more internal screaming than was necessary. She could dream.

For now though, she could do little more than pace and fret over why none of them had arrived yet. Sure, travelling across continents wasn't exactly a precise science where time was involved, but the time that they had been given to travel over didn't seem unreasonable to her.

She supposed she could be grateful that no new disaster had unfolded over the last week. Faust seemed to be quiet right now, which was a considerable mercy. Trying to get this organised while the Mareitanians marched on some other country would've been a nightmare.

A crunch and some slurping stopped Twilight in her tracks so she could turn her head to glare at Trixie, who had the balls to eat an apple so noisily in her vicinity. Trixie, for her part, grinned back, letting some of the juice dribble down her chin.

"Really, Trixie? Right here? Right now?"

Trixie swallowed quickly, "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise there was a restriction on when and where apples could be eaten. Last I checked, there wasn't."

"Oh, yes, an argument is exactly what I need right now. I'm so very glad you're here to provide me with one, right here at this very moment, thank you."

Trixie snorted a laugh and wiped the juice off her chin with the back of a hoof. "You know, you've gotten real sarcastic over the last week. I'm not sure I care for it."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Maybe if some smart arsed blue unicorn had given me a little more help over the last few days, I might be a little less inclined towards being sarcastic at said blue unicorn."

"I helped!"

"Oh sure, yeah, I remember." Twilight started counting off using different points of her hoof. "You tested the beds,-"

Trixie nodded, "Super comfortable."

"-You tested the food,-"

"Was, and still is, highly edible."

"-You tested the evening refreshments,-"

"Very refreshing."

"-And then threw up in a well, necessitating a very long, slow, and tedious purification process, at a time when water is at a premium, and I was already stressed."

"That could've gone better, I admit," Trixie said meekly. "In my defence, I... um... hmm, I don't really have a defence, do I?"

"No, you do not, which is why I would appreciate you trying to not annoy me right now when we're expecting some very important guests to plan the liberation of Equestria, our home."

"Only in a roundabout sense as far as I'm concerned. Home is where I lay my head down. See that rock? That's my pillow."

Twilight tried to find the rock Trixie was apparently pointing at, but found nothing. Groaning and pressing a hoof to her forehead, she narrowly stopped short of teleporting Trixie somewhere over the bay. "I'm going to pretend you're not here now, 'kay?"

"Okay, fine, I'll-"

"We have incoming!"

Twilight was immediately ready to fight, then stopped as the tone of voice Rainbow used didn't quite carry the urgency those words were usually said with. Trixie was the same, having dropped her apple to fight, and was now just as confused.

"Incoming what?" Twilight asked as Luna sprinted onto the scene, as ready for a fight as the rest of them.

"Saddle Arabians I think," said Rainbow. "Two carriages."

"Damn it, Rainbow, I thought we were under attack! Maybe you should say something else next time!"

Rainbow laughed as she flew in a lazy circle above them, "And miss the looks on your faces? Hah! Not likely. Anyway, they'll be here in, like, twenty minutes. Plenty of time to wipe your war faces back off."

"That's not funny!"

"Sure it isn't. See ya!"

Twilight groaned as Rainbow flew away to keep an eye on things with the other two Wonderbolts. Clearly this was one of those days where everyone was going to be a jerk. Hopefully that would at least be toned down a little around their guests.

"Shouldn't you be going to meet them?" Trixie asked, watching Twilight expectantly.

"Oh sure, I'll spend twenty minutes walking the fifteen steps required to do that. First though, I feel like I might want to go and scream into a pillow. Only for a second or two."

"Hey, whatever floats your boat. You might want to tone down the sarcasm though. You don't want to offend anyone."

Twilight growled, her head sinking lower. "You're so helpful, thank you."

Twilight took a minute to clear her head before taking the more than fifteen steps to get outside of the fenced compound they'd set up for the protection of their guests. Cadence was already there, along with Flurry and the Council of Elders, ready to greet the delegates since she was selected as being the friendliest face they had between them.

It took a while for the two carriages to arrive, pulled as they were by a pair of burly stallions each. Four guards sat on the front and rear of each carriage, and when they pulled up in front of the compound, the eight guards jumped off the carriages and lined up facing each other at the side of the second carriage.

The door opened and Amira stepped out, along with two hoofmaidens. She spent a moment squinting in the sun, then walked up to the greeting party and bowed, all of them bowing back.

"Welcome to Zanzebra," Cadence said in greeting, with Flurry burbling one as well, only adding to the non-threatening front that had them selected to make the greetings. "I hope your journey here was pleasant?"

"Pleasant enough, although," Amira glanced back at the stallions that had been doing the pulling, finding them flat out on the ground, "I dare say that others might disagree. Am I the first here?"

"You are."

"I see. In that case," Amira turned to the council and bowed again, "May I be the first to offer my condolences for the terrible atrocity that Faust committed here. I wish there was something I could offer to help, but with our unwanted alliance to Faust, I am unable to. I'm risking Saddle Arabia's safety just by being here."

"The thought is appreciated," Fumbo said politely.

"Hopefully we can come to an agreement on how to stop Faust once and for all," Amira continued. "Even if it risks all of our combined countries to even try."

Twilight winced at that, as saying such words would only put the zebras off from joining the security pact. That was pretty near the exact opposite of what they wanted to happen. Thankfully Cadence sensed that as well, and quickly moved to intervene.

"I'm sure you must all be weary from your travels, so if you'll follow me I'll show you where you'll be staying."

Twilight followed Amira with her eyes as the whole party followed after Cadence. She hated the way Amira talked about Faust, like she'd never once supported her cause, and had always believed that Faust had to be stopped. It was incredibly disingenuous, and did nothing to make Twilight trust the mare in the slightest. She wished the Sultan had been able to come. She trusted him. Now all she felt was that if there was a traitor in their midst, they were in the Saddle Arabian camp.

"Would you like me to keep an eye them?"

Twilight nodded to the offer Seeker had whispered into her ear, but she knew it would be fruitless. The traitor wouldn't blow their cover here, and wouldn't do anything to risk revealing themselves. It was when they got home again, away from any scrutiny that was the problem.

-0-0-0-

The next visitors didn't arrive for a few hours, in the middle of the afternoon, during the hottest part of the day. Whether that had been done for the benefit of them, or simply to annoy everyone else, Twilight couldn't quite tell, but fully suspected the latter.

The first sign that they were coming was an insistent hum that didn't seem to come from anywhere in particular. Twilight had put it down to insects buzzing around, then upgraded it to 'really big insects' as the sound got louder. It took a few minutes more to make the connection after that.

Twilight hurried out of her tent, followed by Trixie, and they both scanned the sky, along with several others, searching for the source of the buzzing. There was nothing they could see though, despite having worked out that the sound was coming from a south-easterly direction.

"Changelings can turn invisible, right?" Trixie said, squinting ever harder in the direction of the buzzing that was getting much louder now. "Right? I mean Mayfly could, so I guess the other changelings can too? I'm only asking because I'm expecting changelings to jump me at any moment, and I'm getting antsy."

"They can, although I don't see how knowing that is the slightest bit reassuring."

"Oh, it's not."

"Trust that confounded insect queen to perform the most unsettling entrance possible," Luna growled. "One would almost think she has forgotten what she's doing here to try and intimidate us like this."

"Or maybe I decided to not create a panic amongst the poor little zebras as I flew over."

There was a shimmer in the air a dozen meters above and in front of them, and Chrysalis came into sight, along with a dozen other changelings hovering around her.

"I try to be considerate, and this is the thanks I get." Chrysalis landed and narrowed her eyes at the collection of ponies and zebras on the ground in front of her. "Typical. And so soon after I deigned to answer your summons."

"It was a request, and you wanted this," Cadence reminded her. "At any rate, welcome to Zebrica, Queen Chrysalis."

Chrysalis rolled her eyes, "Yes, yes, nice to be here, despite a large part of the city being a massive hole in the ground. I suppose it's funny that I'm the only one here bringing myself into all this on purpose. Does that make me the most charitable one here?"

"If you weren't so determined to get something back, yes," said Luna. "The option to not starve to death can be quite the motivator."

"So long as you haven't forgotten the rest of our agreement."

"How could we possibly do that?" Luna held her gaze on Chrysalis for a few seconds, then stepped aside. "Please, come in so I can explain a few rules to you."

"Rules?" Chrysalis tutted and rolled her eyes again, "This should be good. Do I have to wear an inhibitor at all times? Or shall I merely be shackled in one place where you can keep an eye on me?"

"Neither of those, actually. All we ask is that you don't kidnap anyone-"

"Even if they deserve it? Those scientist types I was gifted have found their visit quite... restful, I assure you."

"No kidnapping anyone," Luna repeated a little louder, "and no cocoons, or other stuff like that in your tent because we have to give them back. You aren't to antagonise the other delegates here, and you are to remain within the compound unless escorted as part of your visit here. Those are rules that all the delegates are to adhere to before you think otherwise. However, at the request of the zebras, you are to be daubed with this at all times."

Chrysalis scowled at the large jar of green goop Luna pointed at that was sat in front of what she assumed was their tent. "And what is that?"

"This is Kuua, a substance that disrupts magic in all forms. With you, it should stop you from transforming your appearance, so that you can't slip out in disguise. All your changelings will have to wear it."

"You cannot possibly be serious," Chrysalis hissed. "You're forcing us to wear this... stuff?"

"We aren't forcing you," Cadence said from just behind Chrysalis. "However, if you don't the zebras will force you to leave, and without you here we can't include your changelings in our plans, and if we can't do that, our agreement is off. Surely that's worth having to wear this stuff for a couple of days while you're here?"

"I would've thought extortion to be beneath you, Princess Cadence."

"Since you said yourself that you were expecting inhibitors and shackles, surely having to wear something like this isn't too bad?"

Chrysalis softened her expression a little, "I suppose you could've done worse. Very well, but I will make it clear that this is under protest."

"Duly noted," Cadence said, failing to keep a smile off her face. "We appreciate your cooperation."

"I hope you do."

-0-0-0-

It wasn't much longer after the arrival of Chrysalis that the last of their guests arrived, in a far more obvious manner. In fact, it was near impossible to miss once it got close enough.

A large airship came over the horizon, followed by a noise that sounded like an army of changelings, deep, bass, and thrumming. They had no idea what was making that noise until the airship got closer, and they found out that the airship itself was the source of the noise. Four propellers were situated on both sides of the gondola, spinning rapidly as it thrust the airship on at speeds that Twilight had only seen once, in the airships of the Storm King that had attacked Saddle Arabia.

She really hoped that didn't mean what she thought it meant. That the griffons had collaborated with the Storm King to create a new line of airships. She'd have to ask. Before that point though, she could still put on her friendly face to greet the Emperor.

The airship came into land, being guided down the last bit by the crew, who pulled it down to the ground and secured it using really big pins. While that was going on, Twilight took the opportunity to get a good look at the ferocious griffon head on the prow of the blood red envelope. Very intimidating, and kinda stupid looking. As for the design, it seemed much like most airships, save for the propellers.

Once the airship was secured, a ramp was lowered from its side, allowing those on board to disembark. A half dozen guards went down first, lining up on both sides of the ramp as the Emperor descended, a broad grin on his beak.

"Good afternoon, Your Majesty," Luna said in greeting, having decided to take the lead from Cadence in this situation. "I see you brought a surprise with you."

"Do you like it?"

"It is quite the sight," Luna said, confident that it posed no real threat to her, and that she could bring it down in less than a minute if she wanted to. "Is this a new development of yours?"

"Indeed it is. We found a destroyed airship in the Talon mountains, bearing the mark of the Storm King. I have no idea what it was doing there, but judging from the wreckage, and all the frozen bodies within it, it was far from intentional. It might possibly have been blown there in the storm that ravaged the area from the south a few months back."

Luna looked back at Twilight for her reaction to seeing the Storm King be mentioned, but saw little, so carried on. "It seems the Storm King would have to be feeling brave indeed to risk travelling into Griffonia. Perhaps you were right about them getting blown off course."

"Either way, I'm glad they did. Within the wreckage they found an engine that runs on refined oil, and my engineers were able to duplicate it to create this." Hergest waved a claw at the airship, "They named it the 'Emperor's Reach,' which is a bit much even for me, but the point is that this might just revolutionise airship travel, as well as open other possibilities for the use of such an engine."

"I dare say it is quite the marvel," Luna agreed. "However, not to be rude, Your Majesty, but I must drag you away from your airship. Some people would like to meet you."

"Oh! Yes, of course. Apologies, Princess, but I do get rather excited over this new technology. Lead on."

Luna resisted the urge to roll her eyes and say something about typical males. Instead she led the Emperor over the short distance to where the Council of Elders were waiting with various degrees of hoping the griffons would just bugger off again. Since that wasn't going to happen, they bowed instead, with the Emperor having the good grace to return it.

"Welcome to Zebrica, Emperor Hergest," said Fumbo.

"It's a pleasure to be here. You have my sympathies about what happened here. No country should have to endure such an attack, let alone one on its civilian population."

"Thank you-"

"Which is why I've come with a gift of grain, and other types of foodstuffs, as well as an offer provide wood and other materials to help rebuild your city, if you're interested?"

"That would-" Fumbo stopped, shaking off all the pretences he was lumbered with. "Really? Why would you do that for us?"

"Because I wish to move on from the past. Mistakes were made by both sides, but we can't continue to let the past dictate our future. We're always going to be neighbours, so we might as well try to get along."

Fumbo turned to the rest of the Council, hoping for something from them, but they were just as confused as him, apart from Kifuniko, who had smoked something in preparation for meeting the Emperor, and was now smiling aimlessly at everything.

Given the lack of support or refusal from the rest of the Council, Fumbo turned back to the Emperor and bowed. "Thank you for the gift, Your Majesty. I will gladly discuss the materials for rebuilding with you, but I suspect your attention is needed elsewhere first."

"Oh please, don't fall for him trying to butter you up."

All of them turned to face Chrysalis as she eyed the Emperor from behind them. An action that was made slightly more intimidating by the Kuua she was daubed with. She, or one of her changelings under her command, had used the Kuua to create a skeletal design over her body, topped with a skull covering her face.

"The infamous Queen Chrysalis of the changelings," the Emperor said, another grin creeping onto his beak. "A pleasure to finally make your acquaintance."

"Hmm, I'm impressed, you weren't actually lying." Chrysalis walked through the Council, letting them part in front of her. Something that wouldn't be mistaken for anything other than a display of power. With a subtle nod, all three of the princesses moved to stand behind Chrysalis.

"Why would I lie? The things you've done are almost legends in their own right, not to mention your more recent exploits in trying to conquer Equestria. A miserable failure in the end, but a worthy attempt nonetheless."

Chrysalis bared her fangs and hissed, "Mind your tone, Emperor. I had succeeded, and would've continued to have if it wasn't for that ridiculous shield made of love." Chrysalis stiffened as Cadence cleared her throat behind her. "That's in the past now though," she continued, speaking through clenched teeth, "and I look forward to working with all of you towards a more 'amicable' future."

"As do I," the Emperor said smoothly, getting a growl out of Chrysalis as he hadn't been lying then either. She turned to leave, but found the three alicorns blocking her way. She waited for them to move, finally hissing a request for them to do so after several seconds.

"Say please," Cadence said, smiling sweetly at Chrysalis. Chrysalis rolled her eyes and walked around, having been fully reminded that she wasn't in charge here. That was the hope at least. It occurred to Twilight that covering Chrysalis in Kuua gave the changeling queen an advantage if it came to blows.

"I can see this is going to be more entertaining than I thought," the Emperor laughed once Chrysalis was gone. "Has the Saddle Arabian party not arrived yet?"

"They have," Cadence told him. "Would you like to meet them while your griffons get settled in to your accommodations?"

Hergest gestured with a claw towards the compound and bowed, "Lead on. I would prefer to meet all the parties involved before we begin our discussions."

"Is Clarissa not with you?" Twilight asked as they covered the short distance to where the Saddle Arabians were waiting.

"She is ruling in my stead while I am here. I have every confidence that she will perform her duties as well as, if not better than I could. I also trust that Commander Lurin and Captain Greywhisker will keep her perfectly safe."

"And you think she's ready for that kind of responsibility?"

"She is. She's wiser than her foolish griffon of a father, that's for sure. If she hadn't convinced me to give you a chance, the pact wouldn't exist, and Faust would face a far weaker opposition."

"Then at least her father is wise enough to listen to those wiser than he," said Luna. "That's a special kind of wisdom in itself."

Hergest chuckled, "That almost made me feel better." He slowed as he eyed the guards outside the Saddle Arabians tent, "That seems a bit much since we're all supposed to be friends here."

"Tell that to Chrysalis," Twilight muttered as Cadence entered the tent. A minute later she came back out, followed by Amira, who bowed before the Emperor.

"It is an honour to meet you, Your Imperial Majesty."

"We can leave the imperial out of it," Hergest said with amusement. "I've always felt like it's a mouthful to listen to, let alone say." He held out a claw, and after a second of hesitation Amira shook it. "It's nice to meet you, and like with the zebras I hope we can put all the unpleasantness of the past behind us."

Amira softened her expression, then smiled a little. "I'm sure we can. After all, there are far bigger things for us all to worry about now, instead of each other."

"Indeed. So," Hergest rubbed his claws together as he turned back to the Princesses, "what's the itinerary now that we're here?"

"Nothing for today," said Luna. "Today you can relax and maybe try to get to know each other, including the zebras. The Council has agreed to have three of their number here, so that they can decide the worth of joining the pact."

"Are they still indecisive about that?" Amira asked. "I spoke with Fumbo earlier, and he said he could see the benefits of joining."

"I can hardly judge them for being fiercely independent," said Hergest. "I already made my position clear on the open border policy, and that was after joining. I imagine the fact that Griffonia is in the pact puts them off?"

Luna didn't bother to lie about it, "A little, yes. I'm sure with further reassurance, and a good deal on materials to rebuild Zanzebra, they might put aside their dislike of griffons and join."

"If only they could see the benefits far outweigh any drawbacks," said Amira. "The Sultan looks forwards to the day when he can actually show his support."

"As do we." Luna offered the two delegates a quick bow, "If you'll excuse me, I have something I'd like to discuss with my fellow alicorns about tomorrow. Keep on mingling, and do your best to get to know each other." Luna pointed to a fifth tent in the compound, "You'll find refreshments in there, including chilled beverages. Enjoy."

"Shall we?" Hergest asked, getting a smile and nod from Amira before the two of them headed towards the three zebra Councillors to get them to join as well.

"If the Emperor keeps this up, he might just impress me," Luna said as she watched them go. "Too bad not all of them here are so keen." Luna started to walk towards the tent she shared with her fellow ponies, "Chrysalis seems determined to be a ass."

Twilight held open the flap of the tent for the others, dropping it and casting a bubble of silence spell once they were all inside. "I still don't trust Amira."

"And I doubt you ever will," said Cadence. "I've known her for a while though, and I do believe that she is truly on our side now."

"And? From what I saw in Ammare, the country thinks it's allied with Faust, with only a select few knowing the truth. Amira might be honest, but what if one of her party is actually here to spy on us. They could ruin everything."

"Then that is a risk we must take," Luna said firmly. "I doubt there'll be any problems if we don't tell them what our solution is for Faust specifically, or tell them about Discord, or my plan to face Celestia."

"We don't even know that," Cadence reminded Luna. "All we know is that it involves Nightmare in some capacity."

"You'll find out when the time is right. If we are being spied on by anyone, I'd rather not spill all our secrets in front of them."

"Then perhaps there's another way to work this all out," Twilight said as an idea came to her. "While Mayfly couldn't be here because of Chrysalis, Chrysalis herself is also an empath. She could find out if anyone here is lying about their allegiances."

Luna thought about it for a moment, and quickly saw the big problem with that plan. "An interesting idea, Twilight, but the problem is that it involves us trusting Chrysalis. I don't know about you, but I'm sure she is still as much of a snake as ever."

"A spy jeopardises her future in Equestria," said Cadence. "It's in her interest to see that there are none."

"And why are you so willing to give her the benefit of the doubt?"

Cadence shrugged, "Call it a good feeling."

Luna turned away from Cadence, groaning loudly as she made a full circle. "A good feeling? Cadence, are you insane? You want to trust Chrysalis based on a good feeling? I wouldn't trust her until she has at least proven herself a dozen times over-"

"And even then you'd still have your suspicions."

Luna grumbled to herself, feebly protesting that what Cadence said wasn't true, even though it entirely was. What better way for Chrysalis to hurt Equestria than by gaining its trust first?

"I'll go speak with Chrysalis and see if I can't convince her to help us out. She might even enjoy it."

"And I'm going to head to the refreshments tent and see that everything is going well in there," said Twilight. A small lie, since she was actually going to go and ask Amira about the request she'd made during her visit to Saddle Arabia.

Luna raised an eyebrow at the both of them, then shrugged. "I suppose I shall remain here and make sure everything is prepared for tomorrow."

-0-0-0-

Cadence didn't have a huge understanding of changeling biology. In fact she barely even had a minimal understanding, so she when she stood outside the changelings tent and could feel the anxiety coming from within, she had to wonder whether it was normal that she could feel that.

"Chrysalis? Sorry, Queen Chrysalis," Cadence corrected herself, remembering that she had a bit of a complex about titles.

"What do you want, Princess?"

Cadence made a face at the flap of the tent as it remained unopened. "I was hoping I could talk to you. Can I come in?"

"Can I stop you?"

Cadence hesitated, one hoof off the ground. "Um, if you want? I'm not going to force you to let me in if you don't want me there." Cadence pinned her ears back at the irritated groan from Chrysalis, then at the curse directed at all ponies. "I do need to talk to you though."

"Alright, yes, just come in already."

Cadence lifted the flap and walked in, then immediately stopped. Chrysalis was lounging on a bed that had been dragged to the middle of the tent, and was surrounded on all sides by her guard, making it clear that no one was to get close to her.

"Interesting set-up you have here," Cadence said cautiously.

"It keeps the riff-raff out. Almost. What do you want, Princess? I very much doubt that you've come just to say hello."

"I've come for a couple of reasons, the first of which is to ask why you're not making any attempt to get to know the others here?"

Chrysalis started to laugh, but stopped when she saw Cadence wasn't laughing as well. "Oh, you're being serious. Do you honestly expect me to try and befriend these creatures? I have as little interest in getting to know them as I do in getting to know you."

"I didn't say you have to be friends with them, but they are your allies, and if you're going to be part of Equestria, you will have to interact with them."

"To what end? If you remember correctly, it is you princesses that maintain the political power in Equestria, while I am to remain secondary as the queen of the changelings. Since none of you are going to be dying any time soon, my position is hardly going to advance from there, meaning you can go and play at politics while I get on with ruling my changelings."

"It's not just about that. Your changelings will be fighting alongside the griffons and others. How are they supposed to trust that you won't betray them if you scorn them here?"

"Because there is no purpose in me doing so. While Faust is free, I have no choice but to go along with your way of doing things. If that requires my changelings to fight alongside ponies and griffons, then so be it."

"And after Faust is dealt with?"

"Well that depends, doesn't it?" Chrysalis purred as she looked Cadence in the eyes. "Are you going to uphold your part of what we agreed? Or are you simply using my offer of fighting with you with no intention of allowing us to become part of Equestria?"

Cadence didn't immediately say that they'd do as they said they would. There was no point, as neither side really trusted the other in this situation. They expect Chrysalis to betray them, and Chrysalis expected them to refuse her changelings becoming part of Equestria. Cadence had no interest in deceiving Chrysalis, but saying so wouldn't change her mind, even if the changeling could read it.

"I think in this situation we're all going to have to have a little faith in each other. If we go around expecting deception on all sides, we aren't going to get anywhere."

"But faith is so hard to come by th-"

"Please don't," Cadence interrupted. "I did not put effort into saving your changelings from starving to death just to betray you later, and I know you're an empath and can tell if I'm lying or not. I can accept you'd be suspicious after a millennia of persecution, but can we for now assume that we're on the same page where trust is involved?"

Chrysalis shut her jaw with a click as Cadence spoke, then let a grin creep across it as she finished. "Goodness, such fire. Very well, let us assume that we're all singing from the same hymn sheet. That still doesn't mean that I'm going to attempt to get along with anyone here."

Cadence gave up, accepting that she would only end up chasing after her tail if she carried this on. "Fine, but could you at least attempt to be a little less hostile?"

"I can attempt it, certainly, but that courtesy is a two way street, and I'm already being treated with disrespect, having to wear this distasteful green paint just so the zebras feel better."

"And we appreciate you agreeing to wear it."

"Because you blackmailed me."

"Because we blackmailed you, yes."

Chrysalis grinned again, "I'm so glad we understand one another. Now what else was it you wanted?"

Cadence sighed, because she was about to throw everything she'd just said about trusting others into the trash. Not intentionally, but that was certainly how it was going to look.

"It involves your abilities as an empath."

"Does it now? How do you even know about that anyway?"

"Mayfly told us."

Chrysalis' grin snapped down into a frown. "I bet she did. Ugh, must those defects ruin everything?"

Cadence had an argument ready to defend Mayfly and Thorax, but decided to let it go. Since the 'defects,' as Chrysalis called them, were more biologically stable than the rest of the changelings, it only stood to reason that they'd have the last laugh.

"It's not my place to say," Cadence said instead. "It does give us an advantage though, in that you can catch lies as they're spoken."

Chrysalis laughed again, and banged a hoof down on the bed. It was not a pleasant laugh. "You want me to spy on the other delegates. Oo-hoo-hoo! This is too good! Especially after your little talk on trusting others."

"I realise, but this is less about spying, and more about making sure what we think is true actually is. You're aware of the current status of Saddle Arabia?"

"Allied with both you and Faust, with you secretly and Faust publicly. I'm aware. I suppose you want me to see which one of those is actually true?"

"We only want to be sure they're really with us."

Chrysalis nodded and grinned, but this time there was a touch of respect in it. "So you've learnt the first rule of espionage, to spy on your friends as much as your enemies."

"That's the first rule? I thought the first rule would be something about not getting caught."

"Well, if there were actual rules, I'm sure one of those would be rule one. All the same, I'm impressed. Perhaps you ponies aren't as insipid and naïve as you both look and act."

Cadence levelled a stare at Chrysalis, "I'm choosing to take that as a compliment."

"Don't let me tell you how to take it."

"So will you do it?"

"Certainly, but it's going to cost you something."

Cadence sighed internally. Of course it would. "Such as?"

Chrysalis leaned in closer and licked her lips, her expression hungry in a way that made Cadence very uncomfortable. "How about we start with dinner, then go from there?"

-0-0-0-

There weren't many in the refreshments tent. Just the Emperor, Amira, some of their guards, and Trixie, who was sat in the corner with a small glass of amber liquid held in her magic. Twilight was about to remind her to keep a clear head, but knowing Trixie it probably wouldn't work. Trixie could therefore be ignored for now.

Twilight went over to the zebra at the bar, whom she knew to be a Night Maiden since getting a zebra that wasn't busy reclaiming their home was an issue at the moment, and rightfully so. She asked for a cider, unfortunately not from Sweet Apple Acres, and drank it at the bar while she tried to listen in to the conversation between Amira and Hergest.

It was small talk mostly, with topics seeming to vary in subject, from what they were doing here, to the heat, and to Faust, but it was all very polite and unlikely to inflame any issues. That, Twilight supposed, was good, but was this really going to work if they couldn't bring up the hard subjects?

It was also kind of weird how different the Emperor acted when you got him away from his seat of power. He seemed less of an Emperor, and more like a wealthy, eccentric individual, acting like he was on vacation. He could talk endlessly about whatever was brought up, and seemed to be enjoying it, despite having to talk with an individual that not long ago he would've despised just for being a pony. Times really do change.

After a few minutes Twilight decided to go interrupt them, because she really wasn't getting anything of interest out of what she was hearing, and Trixie was starting to give her funny looks, probably because she was at the bar, rather than sat with Trixie. Trixie could portray offence easily, even across a room.

"Sorry to disturb you," Twilight said as she joined the Emperor and Vizier at their table. "I have something I need to ask you, Amira. Do you have the items I... requested, while I was in last in Ammare?"

"I do indeed, Princess, although to get it done in time cost considerably more than it usually would. However, the smith that made them hopes you'll be pleased with his work." Amira turned to one of her guards and said something in Saddlan, prompting him to bow and depart.

"And what are you two plotting?" Hergest asked, but not with any malice.

"You'll see," said Twilight.

"Any reason why you had whatever it is made in Saddle Arabia and not my country?"

"Apart from Saddle Arabians having a slightly better idea of how to make items for ponies, no, not really. The fact was that I was in Saddle Arabia, so it was more convenient to ask there."

"Sounds like pony favouritism to me," the Emperor sniffed. He winked a moment later to let Twilight know he was joking.

A minute or two passed through idle chatter as they waited for the guard to return. Again it was always on subjects unlikely to cause offence, but it could only be safer that way. Trixie continued to let Twilight know, through the medium of glaring, that her sitting with them was bullshit.

Eventually the guard returned, a flat, rectangular crate on his back that he slid onto the table. Twilight pulled the lid off, cracking the wood a little, and placed it to the side. The inside was filled with straw, but it was a second's work to brush that aside to find the real prizes, two glaives of silvery metal.

Twilight picked them both out of the crate, feeling their weight in her magic. They weren't too heavy, and were wonderfully balanced like she'd hoped they'd be. She'd designed them to be very slightly longer than Luna's old glaives, and to have less of a curve, so their weight was more centred, unlike the previous ones that were back heavy. They was finished off by two small crescent moons facing the opposite direction to the curve of the blades, their points acting as two smaller blades for stabbing things. A bit of a base way of describing it, but it was what it was.

Twilight smiled, impressed by what she was seeing, and ran a hoof over the designs on the weapons. The crescents had been given a rougher appearance, like the surface of the moon, while the blades had an artistic star design along their lengths, linked together by delicate lines that also looked like the patterns you'd find in frost.

"Very nice," Hergest complimented. "I didn't think pony smiths could do such fine work."

"Why not?" Amira asked, her voice sounding cold.

"Because how do you hold tools without, y'know," Hergest held up a claw, "these? I mean, unicorns, sure, they could probably do it best, but other ponies?" Hergest stopped and cleared his throat awkwardly as he noticed the looks he was getting off everyone, "I'll just accept that I was wrong."

"Magic does make engraving easier," Twilight offered as a compromise, although having magic didn't actually make you better in the long run. Skill did. She turned the blades over, finding their undersides blank like she'd asked, ready to receive the runes that would be used to enchant the blades.

"I'm guessing those are for Luna?" Trixie asked, having put aside her annoyance at Twilight to come look at the shiny things.

"Yes they are. She always seems so lost without them in battle. Hopefully this'll fix that."

Trixie snorted and pouted playfully, "You never get me anything."

"That bourbon you're drinking. You're welcome."

"Touché."

Author's Note

Step 1: Start writing a chapter with something in mind
Step 2: Add some stuff for padding
Step 3: Go flying off in some direction other than where you intended to go because fuck the police
Step 4: Remember you write this stuff for free so there is no profit

42. Decisions, decisions

At first Twilight had no idea what Luna made of the two glaives that she'd been presented with. She stared at them like she had no idea what they were, and Twilight felt a stab of disappointment that she might have offended Luna by daring to imitate her previous weapons. Then Luna had picked them up and cradled the blades in her magic like a pair of new-borns, her lips trembling with an emotion filled smile.

"They're beautiful."

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, glad that her gift hadn't offended Luna, or been rejected outright. She felt her own smile growing as Luna hefted the weapons, testing their weight and balance.

"Almost perfectly balanced," Luna said in wonderment, causing Twilight to fall into a frown.

"What do you mean by almost? I worked them out perfectly."

Luna winked at Twilight, "Gotcha. So it is you that designed these then?"

Twilight rolled her eyes, "Yeah, you got me. You always seem so lost without Artemis and Apollo, so I thought I'd design a new pair for you, and get them made. I know they aren't your old glaives, but I hope they're okay?"

"No, they aren't my old glaives. Artemis and Apollo will always have a special place in my heart because I had a hoof in making them myself, and enchanted them with my sister."

"Oh," Twilight said, going back to feeling like Luna was disappointed.

"These are special in a different way, designed especially for me by a very good friend, to bear into the battle to free Equestria. I'm already having some ideas on what I can do to improve the enchanting process, and I'll need yours, Cadence's, and Nightmare's help. Faust won't be breaking these."

Twilight brightened up again, but remained wary of her feelings flopping back and forth this time. "I'd be happy to help, and I'm sure the others will too. Do you have any ideas on what you'll call them?"

Luna held the blades by her sides, again testing their weight in her magic. They were completely identical, so she gave the left one a nick on the back of the blade to identify it as the left weapon. She knew it made no difference really, but she felt better that way, and it was easier to remember which was which for naming purposes.

"I think I do. Selene, and Nocturne. May they be as feared by our enemies as Artemis and Apollo were."

"Eh, I wouldn't go that far," Twilight laughed. "But you do like them?"

"Very much so, Twilight, thank you. I dare say these are already superior to my previous weapons for not having been made or enchanted by an amateurish yet enthusiastic young alicorn. The balancing of these says that much alone."

"Well, good, I'm glad you like them. I did originally have some romantic plan of finding the shards of your old weapons and reforging them, but quickly abandoned it due to how impossible it was."

"I doubt they would've turned out anywhere near as well as these did, so worry not." Luna spun the blades around her, giving them one last grin before returning them to the crate. "I almost feel like cancelling this whole event just so I can enchant them."

Twilight laughed once, "Probably not a good idea. I'm glad that I at least got to give them to you now. I was worried they wouldn't be ready in time for Amira to deliver them."

"Amira brought these? So they're made from Saddle Arabian steel, hmm?" Luna nodded with approval, "Very nice. When we're done enchanting them, these blades could survive within the heart of the sun."

"Hyperbole, but it's nice you think they'll be strong enough to survive at least survive a fight with Faust. Anyway, uh, if you want ours, and specifically Cadence's help to do that, we're going to need to find her."

"You haven't seen her?"

Twilight shook her head, "Not since last night, when she went to talk to... oh dear. Chrysalis wouldn't have, would she?"

"Hers will be the first blood these blades taste if she has," Luna promised, brushing past Twilight as she marched towards Chrysalis' tent. She threw open the flap with a dramatic flair, and stormed inside ready to yell when what she saw made her stop. Changelings were spread about sleeping on the floor, surrounding a bed upon which a fat bellied Chrysalis was spooning an uncomfortable looking Cadence, who was wide awake, and had been all night.

"This isn't what it looks like," Cadence said quickly. "Unless, of course, I do look like a walking, talking, snack buffet, in which case this is exactly what it looks like."

"Good grief."

Twilight pushed past Luna, her eyes wide with shock, and some betrayal. "Cadence! Did you- Did you... you know..."
"What? No!" Cadence said quickly, figuring out what Twilight was getting at. "I would never cheat on Shining! Especially not with Chrysalis, and especially not with mine and Shining's daughter in the room! And again I reiterate, not with Chrysalis!"

Twilight turned her head to see Flurry's crib in the corner, the foal herself still sleeping peacefully within. "Then what are you doing here?"

"Paying the price for Chrysalis to use her skill as an empath to see if our allies are being honest about their intentions. I wasn't having sex with her! I mean, ew!"

"Aww, but Cady, you and I could have such wonderful babies together after I lay a few dozen eggs inside you."

Cadence closed her eyes and shuddered as Chrysalis grinned at her. "My name is Cadence, and I already know that's not how you reproduce."

"You think that, but I have quite a variety of ways to reproduce. The problem is usually with finding a willing host that won't kill themself or try to cut the eggs out the moment they find out what's inside them."

Cadence pushed Chrysalis' leg off her and stood up to release a full body shudder. "Now you're just being absurd. And disgusting."

Chrysalis rolled onto her back and scratched her protruding belly. "Keep telling yourself that. Besides, reproducing with an alicorn is probably a terrible idea."

"So is reproducing with anyone, according to what Primus said about you," said Twilight. The hiss that name drew out of Chrysalis was more than worth it.

"I just had a wonderful night, so I would be most grateful if you could not ruin today so soon." Chrysalis rolled back onto her front and stood up into a stretch that lasted several seconds. "I take it that we're due to start this silly little meeting then?" she asked, smacking her lips with satisfaction.

"We'll be heading into the city soon," Luna said evenly. "Hopefully the importance of it won't pass you by without being noticed."

"Yes, yes, very important," Chrysalis scoffed, rolling her eyes before stepping down off the bed, her belly swinging disconcertingly. "Oof, clearly I need to lay off the late night snacks."

"I need a drink," Cadence muttered as she picked up Flurry, crib and all, departing without a second look.

"Do not make a habit of doing that," Luna said coldly once Cadence was gone. "We did not agree to anything just for you to use Cadence as a smorgasbord."

"Oh Luna, always so serious. I love that about you." She walked out of the tent, playfully flicking her tail at the two alicorns as she went.

Both Luna and Twilight watched Chrysalis leave, her changelings following after her a few seconds later. Neither of them knew what to make of what they'd just seen, and were tempted to forget it all if they could. They were fairly certain Cadence probably wanted to. That said, this bizarre situation did allow Twilight to make an observation.

"She didn't use our titles, and seemed nicer than usual. I wonder if that's due to being packed full of love? Maybe Cadence was onto something doing this."

"Whether she was or not doesn't matter, Cadence is not here as changeling food. If Chrysalis does that again, words will be had, and I doubt she will care for my method of delivering them."

Twilight stopped Luna as the blue alicorn went to leave, "Look, I'm no fan of Chrysalis myself, but we can't go around threatening her all the time. We need her, or at least her army, if we're going to pull this off. Unless she does something really terrible, I think we're going to have to give her a little breathing room to be herself."

"At the expense of Cadence?"

"If Cadence had refused, or tried to put up a fight, I'm sure we would have noticed. Last night was clearly willing, even if it wasn't something she really wanted to do."

Luna made a face after Chrysalis, then followed Cadence with her eyes as she entered the Equestrian tent to presumably get Flurry ready for the day. She knew Twilight was right, and damn it annoyed her.

"Fine, but you should know that Chrysalis is going to try and toe the line, no matter where you put it. We still need to be careful."

Twilight agreed, and nodded at Luna, but reserved her eye roll for when she was alone. Of course they needed to be careful with Chrysalis, but unfortunately that didn't really get to be a priority until Equestria was out of Faust's hooves.

-0-0-0-

"Good morning everyone," Twilight said politely to the various beings that had gathered in the middle of the compound. The Emperor, Grand Vizier, and Changeling Queen were all waiting both patiently and impatiently, for something to happen. They stood in little clusters with their guards stood to attention around them. Twilight wanted to call it a step back from the previous night, but wisely kept it to herself.

"Good morning," Amira said, while the Emperor gave her a nod. Chrysalis merely rolled her eyes, uninterested in exchanging pleasantries with any of them. "Are we almost ready to go?"

"Almost," Twilight replied. "Cadence is taking care of her foal, and Luna is fetching the Council. Once we're all here we can get moving."

"I still don't see why we couldn't hold the meeting here?" said Chrysalis. "What's so important about having it where you want to?"

"Because we feel you all need to see what Faust did here."

"I've already seen it." Chrysalis snorted dismissively, "An impressive piece of destruction, but I don't see it as anything more than that."

"So if that happened to your hive you wouldn't be bothered?"

"I'd either repair it, or make a new one. I'd hardly lament its loss too much. In fact there are some parts I'd happily be rid of."

"I am curious how Faust did it," the Emperor said, interrupting the both of them before it could turn nasty. "I saw the damage from the air, but I don't think I could comprehend half of what I was seeing."

"We'll explain what we can along the way, but the truth is that we have little more than conjecture to explain it with. We think we know how it works, and we think that it has limits, but where it can work..." Twilight shrugged, "you'll see for yourself. Bear in mind that what happened here wasn't able to explode at full power. If it had, there wouldn't be any city left."

Amira stared at Twilight with shocked disbelief, "And that's supposed to make us feel better?"

Twilight shrugged, "As I said, there might be limits, and I was able to reduce the power of the explosion by a significant degree on my own. If I'd had help we might've been able to stop it altogether. Now please, keep hold of your questions until we're under way."

It was a few more minutes until the rest arrived, with Cadence looking more than a little tired after her sleepless night. She eyed Chrysalis for a moment, then stood next to Twilight and remained silent for the time being. Luna arrived shortly afterwards with the three members of the Council chosen to participate in this event.

"Is everything in order?" she asked Twilight, who confirmed that it more or less was, although she didn't really know to be honest. Was there an order to this procession? Was she supposed to make one? Someone should have told her if she was.
Thankfully it seemed as though the order of things had already been decided as the princesses, the Emperor, Amira, Chrysalis, and the Council grouped up in the front, while their guards lined up behind them. The idea might've been that they walked as equals, but Twilight suspected that more than one individual there didn't agree with that.

They soon left the compound and made their way to the city boundary where Mistress' Tazama and Mjuzi were waiting. They led the way, with tactfully placed soldiers clearing the streets, and blocking side entrances to ensure a smooth journey through the city.

"I'm seeing a lot of blast marks on the buildings," Chrysalis observed as they went deeper into the city. "Their Adepts must have some terrible aim."

"They're better in open spaces," said Luna. "In fact, I'd say they're deadly in open spaces. In narrow streets fighting zebras wearing the same stuff you are, they're far less effective."

"But what about the rest of the burns?" Amira asked. "It seems as though parts of the city were on fire."

"That's because they were."

"The Mareitanians set the city on fire?"

Luna shook her head. "That was the work of Celestia," she said slowly, like she didn't want to say it at all. "Whatever Faust did to her to make her loyal has made her... unwell."

Chrysalis chortled happily, and for a moment it seemed like Luna was going to retaliate. "So you're telling me that poor, soft, Celestia has cracked and become a raging murderess? That is simply delicious."

"Don't write her off so soon," Luna warned. "I have a plan that I hope will bring her back."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then I will make a new plan," Luna said plainly. "And if that fails, I'll make another plan, and another, and another, until I find one that works."

"Oh please, you're just saying that because you can't put her out of her misery like the sad old dog she is."

"You may wish to watch your tongue," Luna said coldly. "It would be unfortunate if something were to-"

Twilight sharply elbowed Luna, making her stop. Not that she disagreed that Chrysalis was going too far, but there couldn't be any threats here, not in front of others still questioning what they were getting into if they signed up. Chrysalis wasn't helping in that regard either, but such things should be expected from her.

"Please behave yourself," Cadence said as Chrysalis chortled to herself over a victory that lay entirely inside her own head. "Antagonise us a little if you want, but at least put some thought into it."

Chrysalis quickly stopped laughing as she saw the insult in that, and was about to give her retort when the look in Cadence's eye made her stop. The promise of free food was a terrible thing to have to give up over a few oversensitive ponies with easily hurt feelings. The cold realisation that she was being manipulated through her appetite was even worse, but the full feeling in her belly nullified it a bit.

After a while they passed the edge of where the portal had destroyed, with the buildings getting more and more ruined the further they went in, until they were little more than lopsided heaps of rubble.

Hergest whistled through his beak, showing more through that sound than anything he could have said. The Council were quiet as they walked, their heads bowed, while Amira looked around with horror. To the surprise of none of them there, Chrysalis was grinning.

"Enough dancing around the issue," Hergest said as he tried to take it all in, "what caused this?"

"A portal bomb. It's..." Twilight went quiet as she tried to work out the best way to explain it. "It's a highly unstable and uncontrolled portal that when left to its own devices draws in every scrap of magic it can before eventually collapsing and expelling all that magic into a violent explosion capable of destroying cities."

"That's- Oh."

"That's all we can say for certain though. Faust, being as old as she is, and absent for a long time, uses some very old forms of magic that we don't even recognise, and has a tendency to overcompensate on weak spells by using her immense power to force them to work."

"So only she could conjure a portal like that?"

Twilight nodded, "As far as we can tell."

"That's a relief."

Twilight didn't know why that was such a relief to the Emperor, but suspected that it might be because he didn't like the idea of the princesses, and Equestria, having access to spells capable of such destruction. Armies meant little against that kind of power, and for the country with the biggest army that had to be concerning.

"To add to your relief," Twilight continued, "we currently think that there are limitations to where Faust can create these portals. Firstly we think she needs a unicorn to create an anchor point to create the portal, so if there's no pony that can do that, no portal. We also think that to feed the portal enough magic to even function, let alone feed, the portal has to be conjured on or near a ley line."

"And there's a ley line here?" Amira asked.

"It runs just past the city. As far as we've been able to work out, Ammare and the Eyrie are safe since there aren't any ley lines close enough. Unfortunately for you, Chrysalis, your hive is built right on one."

"I'm aware," Chrysalis said dismissively. "It powers the Font of Queens, which I'm sure you're aware I can happily live without. Besides, good luck to any pony getting in to create that anchor point."

Luna shook her head at Chrysalis, "What makes you think they'd need to be inside to destroy your hive? One of those portals outside it would be enough."

Chrysalis grunted, and said nothing more. None of them did for a moment as they let it all sink in. Twilight started to count down from ten in her head as she waited for the next question she thought might come, and only got to four before Amira asked it.

"What about Equestria? Surely there must be ley lines there?"

"Dozens," said Twilight. "Equestria is literally riddled with them. Canterlot alone sits on a point where several ley lines converge, while almost every major town and city is near one, if not directly over one."

"Surely Faust wouldn't destroy her own cities though, would she?"

"We don't know what Faust will or won't do," Luna answered before Twilight could. "We didn't think she'd do something like this, yet here we are, surrounded by so much rubble. We can't assume she wouldn't do it again."

"But we can't plan like she will," said Hergest. "She can hold the entirety of Equestria hostage with this power, so the only way we can win is to ignore that."

"Good grief," Chrysalis muttered. "I really get the feeling you're not thinking about this. The only reason Faust would create one of these bombs is if she was forced to the point of losing everything. and decided to burn it all rather than let Equestria slip out of her grasp. If she were to raze an entire city and its inhabitants before then, all she would really achieve is either turning the whole of Equestria against her, or make her rule impossible as every little pony panicked."

Luna smirked at Chrysalis, "Speaking from experience are we?"

"I don't know," Chrysalis said pointedly. "Are we?"

Luna had to laugh at that, "Touché."

The large, open sided tent was ready and waiting for them as they reached their destination a few dozen meters away from the epicentre of the destruction around them, the large crater having been untouched, save from being cordoned off. Chrysalis hummed with interest and trotted off to have a look, followed shortly by the other two delegates, while the Council members remained with the princesses in the tent.

"I do not see how you can possible place any trust in the Changeling Queen," Mareed said as he warily watched Chrysalis in the distance.

Luna glanced at him to see what his face was saying, and found him seeming more disgusted than anything. "We don't," she replied, her answer unchanged by what she saw. "What I do trust is that she currently needs us, and we get an army of changelings out of that."

"And what happens when she betrays you?"

"Then at least she isn't Faust."

"That seems extremely short sighted."

"Perhaps," Luna admitted with a shrug, "but my ability to make long term plans involving her is somewhat non-existent right now. Besides, with Cadence to feed her, I doubt Chrysalis would try anything too extreme until she was confident of surviving without her."

"I'm not a buffet!"

"I didn't say you were."

"Because I'm not!" Cadence seethed for a moment until Twilight nuzzled her into calming down. "I'll keep her and her hive fed as long as I need to, but there'll be no repeats of last night."

"Glad to hear it. Now where is Ember? I wanted her here for this."

"And I am," Ember said as she walked up covered in grey dust, and equally dusty Trixie held under her arm. "Someone decided to practice their teleporting, and got herself trapped in a basement, so I had to dig her out."

"Really?" Twilight said to Trixie, who was grinning sheepishly. "You couldn't teleport yourself back out?"

"It was kind of, maybe, just a little bit totally pitch black, and I was trapped in a small room, and I might have panicked a little bit."

"I found her by following the screams."

"I wasn't screaming!"

Ember rolled her eyes, "Fine, you were 'loudly protesting at the lack of light, now please get me out, I'm begging you, please don't leave me here.'"

"You didn't have to tell them that last bit!"

Twilight covered her embarrassment for Trixie with a hoof. "You have a horn for light, can teleport, and I've seen you lift some pretty big boulders with your magic. Why were you panicking? And why is Ember carrying you?"

"Because her legs were too shaky to walk."

Trixie glared up at Ember, which was hard to do when being held like that. "Will you stop? Please?" Trixie growled as Ember sniggered at her, then looked back to Twilight. "Yeah, I got nothing. I just panicked. I could've gotten myself out eventually."

Twilight hid her laugh, mostly being glad Trixie was okay. A quick spell cleaned the two of them, and Ember dropped Trixie, who only just managed to land without falling over.

"It's days like this that remind me why I hate everyone," Trixie grumbled. "Anyway, I see you all made it here, so I'm assuming that means things are almost ready to go?"

"Not without me you don't," Rainbow said as she came in to land. "Somepony has to tell you what the Mareitanians are up to right now."

"Right now, yet almost three days ago," Trixie said sweetly. "Very up to date."

"You're up to date!"

"What?"

"S-shut up." Rainbow took what she hoped was her place at the round table in the middle of the tent, and banged a hoof on it. "So we doing this thing or what?"

"Patience," Luna chided. "Let them see here what they need to. The meeting can begin when they're ready."

"Assuming they don't run a mile," said Trixie. "I feel like letting them see this isn't going to help."

"We'll see."

All of them took their places at the table while they waited for the others to finish looking around. Amira seemed shaken, while Hergest was more grim in his demeanour. Chrysalis, while not usually receiving high expectations on how she might feel about it, seemed more thoughtful than anything.

"Are we ready to begin?" Luna asked as the three sat down, their guards spreading out around the area, mostly to keep an eye on each other.

Amira glanced nervously between the others at the table, "Are you sure you can really stop Faust? If she can do this, and you lose, how long before she's wiping all of our countries off the map?"

"I believe you were briefed on what we believe Faust's long term plan to be? The devolution of all beings to a beast-like state?" Luna waited until she had some kind of confirmation from all of them before continuing. "I know I'm not one to speak, but I'd rather fight and maybe die than accept losing myself to mindlessness."

"But an immortal's view is always going to be a bit skewed in that regard," said Chrysalis. "I'm not saying you're completely wrong, but fear of dying isn't exactly something you have to live with."

"I realise that, but there are plenty here today willing to fight who aren't immortal. Rainbow, Trixie, Ember, all of our companions are willing to do what it takes. Some of them already have."

Chrysalis rolled a hoof, "That's great and all, but you still haven't answered the question. Can you stop Faust?"

"Yes, we're confident that we can, but we can't do it alone." Luna watched, waiting to see what the empath thought of her honesty. It was gratifying to see that Chrysalis wasn't going to dispute it. "With the strength of the griffons and changelings, the alchemy of the zebras, the opportunity for sabotage the Saddle Arabians give us, and our plan to stop Faust once and for all, I am confident she will be beaten."

"But what is this plan?" Hergest asked. "You've spoken plenty on it, but I don't think you've once told us what it is. It seems like something we should know."

"And you will." Luna clasped her hooves in front of herself as she silently observed the three representatives. "First though, I want to be sure that all of you really are on board. Emperor Hergest, does Griffonia truly stand with us?"

"We do. We will see this done, or we will fight to the last griffon to stop it."

Luna nodded in thanks, seeing the little eye roll Chrysalis made. Clearly he had meant it. "What about you, Grand Vizier Amira? Is Saddle Arabia with us? Are you?"

Amira took a moment to reply, swallowing hard a few times before she could say a single word. "The Sultan and I agree that Faust needs to be stopped. We don't have much to offer that could help you, but what soldiers we have in Equestria will aid you when the time comes."

"Thank you." Luna gave Chrysalis a questioning look, and got a nod out of her. Unless Amira was a good enough liar to fool an empath, Saddle Arabia was on their side. "What about you, Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings?"

Chrysalis shrugged, "As if I need to reiterate our deal. You scratch my back, I send you an army to scratch yours. At the very least we can agree that Faust needs to go bye-bye."

"And does that make her part of the pact?" Hergest asked Luna.

"It does. Our agreement involves the changelings becoming part of Equestria, so they will be subject to the security pact as well."

Hergest made a crawing sound, clearly not happy about that, but said nothing about it. Instead he waved a claw at the three zebras. "What about them? They're not in the pact, so why are they here? I know we have their anti magic stuff, but that doesn't put them as equals with us in our union. Especially when they're contributing nothing else."

"We have nothing more to contribute," said Fumbo. "Faust's invasion has done more than ravage this city. Our warriors have been depleted as well, meaning that all we can do is give you the means to strengthen yours."

"But if you could send soldiers, would you?"

Fumbo, Kifuniko, and Mareed all looked to each other. None of them did nothing more as without the opinion of the entire council there was little they could say other than their own opinions.

"So once again the zebras will bury their heads," Hergest sighed. "So typical. Princess Luna, if this is to continue, I really feel that they should be removed."

Luna knew it would probably come to this. That didn't mean she had planned for it, or even could make a plan, but it was what it was. They weren't part of the pact, so they were out.

"And what if we became part of the pact?" Mareed asked. "We still wouldn't have anything more to give, because we'd already have given it."

Hergest hesitated. He'd already inadvertently dismissed the lives given to defend Zebrica, and he wouldn't do so again. There was only one way out that he could see. "No, but we could extend our thanks to those that gave their lives in defence of our union."

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Fumbo said, turning to Mareed. "Are you saying you want to join the pact?"

"If none of us stood together now, Faust would defeat us all piecemeal. I'm not too proud to admit that I was wrong, and that joining the pact would make us both stronger and safer. Kifuniko was in favour of joining, as were Tiflou and Kanka, so with myself that's four against three if we held a vote."

Fumbo seemed surprised, and had to stare at Mareed for a moment. Given the presence of Changelings he felt it best to be careful. Kifuniko was clearly thinking the same thing as she spread a line of Kuua down Mareed's face. It did nothing.

"I hate to say it, but as you can see, this is the genuine Mareed, real as can be."

"Uh-huh," Mareed rubbed the Kuua with a hoof, only smudging it further across his face, "thanks for that. So what do you think, Fumbo. Does that pass for a provisional vote to join the pact?"

"Well, since I too would vote in favour of joining, yes. We'll have to hold a formal vote with the full council, but if things go the way we think," Fumbo turned to Luna, "we would be honoured to join the pact."

Luna clapped her hooves together, pleased with this development. It did mean another night of writing up a load of paperwork, but she could have help with that to make it quicker. "Good news indeed. Obviously we'll hold off on the formalities until we're sure, but until then you're welcome to join us at the table. Emperor?"

"Fine by me," he said with a shrug.

"I'm offended," Chrysalis said, only to be ignored. "I didn't even try to replace him with a changeling," she added in a mutter, then nudged Amira. "Do you think there are any actual spies here we need to worry about?"

"What? Why are you asking me? You're the changeling."

"Hmm, I suppose you're clean for now."

Amira blinked a few times, "What?"

"Never you mind."

Hergest cleared his throat, hoping to get everyone back on track, and away from looking pleased with themselves. "While you are now welcome to stay at the table on a provisional basis, pending the outcome of your formal vote, we are still here to plan the invasion of Equestria. I really feel like we should be getting on with that."

"Yes, indeed," said Luna. "Perhaps we should start with informing you that there will have to be two attacks at different times. There are things we need to do first if our attack at Canterlot is going to be successful. Prime among these is the retrieval of the Bearers of Harmony from Ponyville."

"I thought the Elements of Harmony wouldn't work against Faust," Chrysalis pointed out. "Was this your plan all along? Because that is a terrible plan if it is."

"We won't be using them directly against Faust," Twilight told her. "We need them to finish what we are going to be using against her, which is why we need to retrieve the Bearers before our attack on Faust. As for the Elements' effectiveness against Faust, we have another plan that we hope can fix that as well."

"I get the feeling going after the Bearers isn't the only part of your plan though, is it?" Hergest asked. "That doesn't sound like something you need an invasion for."

"The liberation of the other prisoners in Ponyville is also important," said Luna. "They are too easy a hostage to leave. We also have a plan to take care of Celestia, and eradicate Faust's intelligence network before our main attack on Canterlot. Then there's also the investigation of the Everfree castle, which we hope to do alongside taking care of Celestia."

"What's so important there?" Amira enquired politely, mostly just so she could feel like part of events.

"Before I... killed General Snowbright," Twilight said, fighting down a small hitch in her voice, "he told me there have been rumours coming out of the Everfree castle that have to do with Faust's long term plans. Even if that isn't true, we still feel that we should know what is going on there to have it be such a secret."

"Apart from the logistics of moving all those ponies from Ponyville, none of this sounds particularly difficult," said Hergest.

"Not until you find out what about it is difficult," Luna replied with a faint smile. "Rainbow, you're up."

"Right." Rainbow stood and picked up a pointer in her wing, using it to trace a circle around Canterlot. "Right now there are roughly ten to twelve thousand soldiers camped out around the Canterhorn, including the remaining yaks. Unfortunately this doesn't put them a huge distance away from Ponyville. Not close enough to stop us if we're quick, but definitely a problem if we aren't."

Rainbow moved her pointer towards Manehattan, then moved it down towards Baltimare. "The majority of Faust's army are stationed around these two cities, ten thousand each, possibly because they haven't moved after their ships were sunk, or because they're building more to attack here again. We honestly don't know, but there was loads of civilian activity around the Manehattan dry docks, so building new ships is definitely a thing they could be doing. We think there might be something similar going on in Baltimare. At the very least, that's a lot of soldiers available to move to defend Canterlot if they need it."

"That surely can't be all Faust's soldiers," said Chrysalis. "Thirty thousand? Even with her losses here, there's still a large number unaccounted for."

"Eh," Rainbow shrugged, "we couldn't get close enough to Canterlot to see what was going on in the city, but there should be some there, and some at Ponyville as well as others spread out keeping an eye on things, like the refugees, your changelings, and any other secret projects they might be working on. Then there's probably a bunch of wounded from the attack here. They're around, but we're just not a hundred percent on where."

Chrysalis snorted a laugh, "I'm sure that assumption won't lead to anything going wrong."

"Thank you, Rainbow Dash." Luna placed her hooves on the table and stood, "Obviously we can't allow those soldiers to move around and reinforce Ponyville, or anywhere. We will need to distract them, and keep them where they can't stop what we intend to do. If we can keep them in the east, then that's what we shall do."

"Are you talking about a diversionary attack?" Hergest asked. "I'm not sure we can do that as well. Not without serious losses."

"You can't, but-" Luna pointed at Chrysalis, "-she can. Changelings can blend in and hide with ease. Orchestrate a few larger attacks on soldiers, try to occupy parts of the city, and basically make it seem like you're attacking with a force larger than you actually have, and those soldiers will stay in the east. Maybe you can even attack in Fillydelphia as well, and maybe you can draw in reinforcements from around Canterlot."

"Oh sure," Chrysalis said sarcastically, "or maybe you could just give us a load of cyanide pills since you apparently want us to go and kill ourselves."

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not asking you to launch a full frontal assault. I'm asking you to be the nuisance to them I know you can be. Minimise your losses, keep them occupied, run, hide, attack, and hide again. I know you can do that."

Chrysalis stared at Luna for a while, then sighed and gave in. "Very well, I suppose I can do that. Can I-"

"No, you cannot abduct any ponies. Not permanently at least. Taking a few and leaving them cocooned where they can be found would be quite distracting, and definitely make it seem like a changeling invasion. Such a thing would be a priority to stop."

"Then at least I can have some fun. I assume we'll also be pulling out once you've done what you need to?"

"You assume correctly. No point staying any longer past that point."

Chrysalis hummed for a while, but she wasn't really going to argue. Simultaneously attacking three cities sounded quite entertaining, and she doubted much would be said if a few Mareitanians went missing. "Very well, I look forward to it."

"I'm glad you do. So," Luna sighed as she put her thoughts back in order, "after we give you some time to really get their attention, our agents in Equestria will attack the Shades headquarters in Canterlot, while Myself, Cadence, and Dragon Lord Ember will head to the Everfree to deal with Celestia and the castle there. Once we've started there, Twilight, Trixie, and the Wonderbolts will lead the attack on Ponyville to free the prisoners, if you're willing to give Twilight command of some of your griffons, Your Majesty?"

Hergest waved a claw, "Of course, but that's not the problem we need to worry about. How do you intend to transport that many ponies out of there? It can't be done."

"The pegasi can fly themselves out," said Twilight, "so long as we give them a little time to sort their wings out. Unfortunately that accounts for barely a tenth of those we need to move. Emperor Hergest, how many more airships do you have in production?"

Hergest spluttered at the question, "Are you insinuating that I'm building some kind of fleet? What purpose would I have for such a thing?"

"We're not saying you do have a purpose, but that doesn't mean you're not building them."

A short laugh escaped Hergest's beak, "You're not wrong there. Very well, if it means the safety of all those prisoners, I'll admit to having another three already finished, and another three in the late stages of production. We might have to acquire some air carriages to ferry the rest, but we should manage between them. There is one small problem though."

Luna barely avoided rolling her eyes. Of course there was a problem. There was always a problem. "And what might that be?"

"There's no way I can stage this attack from Griffonia. We'll need to stage it from somewhere nearer. Much nearer."

Luna could already tell where this was going, and while it did make a lot of sense tactically, she couldn't help but feel that Hergest was a little too keen for other reasons.

"I suspect you're going to say Griffonstone."

"You suspect correctly. You know I'm right though, as it's closer, and more importantly, easily defendable from the ground. The native griffons aren't likely to dispute us being there either, so there's literally nowhere better I can think of."

"Neither can I," Luna admitted. "I suppose we did also agree on it as well, so long as you remember what else we agreed concerning Griffonstone?"

"You have my word that the griffons there shall still have the full rights of Equestrian citizens."

Luna nodded, satisfied that he meant it. "Then we're agreed. While Chrysalis harasses the eastern seaboard, we shall take Griffonstone to use as a staging ground for this attack, and the next."

Amira held up a hoof, "This is all well and good, but what of my people in Equestria? What are they to do?"

"That depends," said Luna. "Can you get messages to them?"

"We can."

"Then tell them to sabotage what they safely can. Disrupt communications, burn supplies, and do whatever else they can. Tell them that if they get sent to repel the changeling attack that they shouldn't try to kill the changelings."

Amira made a face, a little disappointed at the vagueness of those plans, but she supposed that without knowing where the soldiers were themselves, or their situation, there wasn't anything definitive that they could do.

"As you wish, but I do have another question."

Luna smiled at the Saddle Arabian, "Ask then, Amira. You're welcome to contribute what you can to this, be that questions, or even tactical solutions."

"Okay, where's Faust in all this? I very much doubt you've left her out of the plan, but I find that you haven't mentioned her to be a bit suspicious."

"We have a distraction arranged for her and her alone."

"Oh?" Hergest said, his own interest piqued. "And what might that be?"

"We need to do something to the Tree of Harmony to make it effective against Faust," Luna said, carefully trimming down the facts to what she thought they needed to know. "We're confident that she won't be able to ignore that."

Hergest's eyes went half lidded. "Really? That's all you're going to tell us? I'm pretty sure there should be nothing kept secret about the planning of this rather audacious attack."

Luna closed her eyes, debating on what to tell them. She eventually decided on being honest, but found that Twilight beat her to it.

"The Tree of Harmony was created by Faust as a fusion of order and chaos to create harmony. Being the avatar of Order, the order part was easy, but without genuine chaos to infuse into the Tree, she had to synthesize her own. This is why the Tree can't do anything to her, but we hope that by introducing genuine chaos to the Tree, that immunity will end."

"Genuine chaos?" Chrysalis mused, having a better handle on what had just been explained than the other two did. "Do you mean Discord? Are you really planning on letting that clown meddle with the Tree of Harmony? You must either be braver or stupider than I thought."

"He brought the idea to us," said Luna. "Faust hates him with a passion, so he has as much of a reason to help us stop her as any of us here-"

"Then why hasn't he done anything until now?"

"Because he fears his entropic influence will damage our ability to make a plan and stop Faust," Twilight explained. "That's more or less what he said at least."

Chrysalis laughed nastily, "So basically he's hiding."

Twilight shrugged, "Eh..."

"So he introduces real chaos to the Tree of Harmony, and then what? Faust isn't in control of it any more? It can hurt her?"

"More or less," said Twilight, not wanting to go into the intricacies of how the Tree doesn't really hurt anything. At least not intentionally. "Discord has also agreed to keep Faust busy until we're done, so we don't need to worry about her."

Chrysalis leaned in closer, her expression curious. "Now why keep that a secret? What aren't you telling us? Is it that since you princesses are all bound to the Tree, you're worried it might do something to affect you?"

"It might, but if it does, we don't know what."

"Hmm, interesting."

"Don't bother," Luna said warily. "Any advantage you get from that is going to be limited, if you get any at all. The change it gives us might be a positive one. Besides, neither Cadence or Flurry Heart are bound to the Tree, so you'll still have her around."

Chrysalis sat back with a huff, "Fine, don't look at me to capitalise on any misfortune that might befall you."

"Is this really wise?" Hergest asked.

"We don't have a choice," Luna said back. "Whatever happens, happens. The important thing is that we can stop Faust. Now are we agreed on this plan?"

"I suppose so," Hergest said slowly, looking at the others for anything they had to say. "Are we not going to plan what happens after?"

Luna shrugged, "The attack after won't be so complex. Once we have the Bearers, and the Tree has been altered, we finish the arcane oubliette in which we intend to permanently trap Faust. Then we attack Canterlot with everything we have, so that while her army is distracted with all of yours, we can put an end to Faust."

"Huh, that is simpler."

"Sounds desperate if you ask me," said Chrysalis. "What if you fail?"

An awkward silence filled the tent, informing all of them there that there was no back-up plan. They either put their all into the plan they had, or they lost.

"You have got to be kidding."

"If there's nothing else to add," Luna continued, "I suppose it's meeting adjourned. Thank you all for coming."

-0-0-0-

"I have the results of the Council's vote," Cadence said as she poked her head into the tent they were sharing. "After a lengthy debate, and the assurances that we wouldn't demand military aid off them any time soon, it came down to six against one in favour of joining the pact. It seems you were right about having the summit here. As a bonus, they've offered the Night Maidens services to us, if we want them."

Luna nodded, but stayed silent as she kept on writing the documents finalising the zebras inclusion into the union. Not even when Cadence sat beside her with Flurry between her hooves did she stop.

"Are you alright?"

"Today left me feeling foolish, and I can't explain why. Besides me thinking this whole event would take longer, rather than a thirty minute meeting. They all listened to us, agreed with our plan, and that was it. They trust us to stop Faust."

"Then why don't you sound happy about that?"

Luna put down her quill and turned to Cadence, "Should they trust us? We put our all into this plan, including the creation of a union of nations, some of which have despised each other for some time, but not once did we think that we might fail, and that we should have a plan in case it does."

"You know there was no plan we could create as a back-up. We put our all into this plan, because it was the only plan."

"Was it though?"

Cadence couldn't answer that, so didn't try to. Instead she tried to reassure Luna. "I know it's risky, but our plan is a good one. We have almost everything we need to stop Faust, and we will. They believe we can, and so do I, and so does Twilight, Trixie, Nightmare, and all of them."

"I know. Maybe I'm doubting myself because we're so close." Luna shook her head, putting her worries aside. "Is Twilight and Trixie away with the Emperor?"

"They are. They'll meet us at the retreat once they're done planning the details of the attack on Ponyville, and before our invasion of Griffonstone. Chrysalis has gone too, but not before ordering one of her drones to shadow the Saddle Arabians, just to be sure. If they betray us, we'll hopefully know in plenty of time."

"That was surprisingly thoughtful of her."

"I get the feeling she's rather enjoying this," Cadence laughed. "I just hope she's still feeling this helpful once she's officially part of Equestria."

"Wouldn't that be a thing." Luna fell into a thoughtful silence, then picked up her quill to resume writing, but paused before she could put it to the paper. "This really is it then. In less than a week we'll be going on the offensive." The corner of her mouth quirked up into a smile, "About time."

Author's Note

Also known as the chapter where I have a massive build up, then run out of ideas halfway through writing, so it ends sooner than I thought it would. Ho-hum.

43. Opening moves

It turns out that griffons were sticklers for detail. While Twilight had a fine appreciation for that kind of attitude, she felt it was kind of misplaced on the battlefield where situations changed so rapidly that plans could be chewed up, spat out, and shat on before you knew it had happened.

Trixie's theory on why they were being so meticulous was that the Emperor didn't want to risk his shiny new toys. While Twilight didn't disagree, she liked to think the Emperor was pragmatic enough to know that the loss of an airship wasn't the end of the world. Losing one full of the wrong ponies might be, but the plan was to keep the airships out of range of Adepts and everything else, and ferry the prisoners to them, which seemed safer overall.

Of course that was only one facet of the plan. There had been quite a lot about troop numbers, and expected resistance, and the invasion of Griffonstone prior to that. What happened after was also a thing to think about, and that might have led on to an inadvertent planning of the assault on Canterlot. Interesting enough, but not when they weren't supposed to be thinking about that right then.

They did eventually finalise a plan though, although it was more of a loose strategy by the end. They'd swoop in, eliminate the guards, free the prisoners, take them to the airships, then be on their merry way. Simple enough, at least for the griffons. Twilight would be taking care of Starlight Glimmer, which would probably be an experience in and of itself, while Trixie had promised to secure a list of priority ponies, starting with the Bearers and their families, then certain other friends, and a certain other, other friend of Pinkie's that Twilight hadn't spent a lot of time thinking about. She still had no idea when or why Pinkie decided she was into mares, and she was fairly certain the explanation would be something she couldn't possibly expect.

Anyway, that having been all agreed on, and the griffons starting to move towards Griffonstone, the two of them made their way back to the Retreat. They got there to find that the floor of the observation area had become dominated by a mass of chalk lines that were being drawn by Luna, while Cadence, Nightmare, Starsy, Moondancer, and Daring looked on. Flurry was there too, but she didn't seem to care about any of it.

In the middle of it all was the two glaives Twilight had given to Luna, each surrounded by a maddening array of runes. "What the heck am I looking at?"

Luna's head jumped up, her tongue still sticking out of the corner of her mouth from sheer concentration. "Ah! You've arrived! Told you I'd timed this right," she said aside to Nightmare.

"Sure..."

"Is this a enchanting circle?" Trixie asked. "Because if it is, I feel Trixie might have to remind you what a circle is."

"Actually this is about six different circles, overlapping each other for a very specific purpose," Luna explained. "You have no idea how long this has taken me, so do not scuff the lines, because I might just crack and accidentally murder everyone in this room."

"I'll try not to breathe on it either then."

"Much appreciated," Luna said as she resumed drawing the lines.

Twilight cocked her head as she followed the lines, finding that it did actually make a little bit of sense, but only if looked at with the context of what they were doing. Luna wanted to enchant the glaives using the power of four alicorns, but only for certain enchantments. The strength one primarily, to make the blades near invincible. The others only needed the input of Luna alone, so the circles would allow the three of them to empower the strength rune, while Luna could empower all of them.

Since the strength one would make it impossible to add new runes later, doing it this way did make a bit of sense. It was only a bit though, as it would've made more sense to enchant the other runes first, then do the strength rune after. When Twilight pointed this out, Luna threw her chalk across the room, and screamed a little.

"Why not empower all the runes at once with the four of you?" Trixie asked once Luna had recovered enough to go retrieve her chalk.

"Because that would mean Nightmare, Cadence, and myself having control over Luna's weapons," Twilight explained.

"And is that so bad?"

"In the heat of battle, it could be, Twilight started to explain. "Say Luna's in the middle of using them to block, or strike a finishing blow, but Nightmare summons them away for some reason-"

"Probably shits and giggles," Nightmare laughed.

"-Then that'd be a problem. I also hate to think what a sharpness rune powered by four alicorns' worth of magic would do. I'd probably be afraid to put them down in case they cut straight through the floor."

"So just the strength one, gotcha." Trixie looked at the glaives, and the five runes cut into each of them, with the strength one being larger, and placed in the middle under the crescent moon design, with the others on both sides. "Seriously, I want a fancy weapon."

"You don't even know how to use a weapon."

"So? I still want one. Twi-light, I wanna fancy weapon!" Trixie grabbed Twilight and started to shake her gently, "Pleeease?"

"Do you have a weapon to enchant?"

"Um, no?"

"Then what does it matter?"

"Hmph," Trixie pouted as Luna returned with her chalk. "Spoilsport. You never get me anything nice."

Twilight decided on a future where Trixie was ignored for the time being. "So, did we miss anything while were gone?"

"We've given Chrysalis the go-ahead to start moving her changelings into Baltimare, Fillydelphia, and Manehattan," Cadence informed her. "They should be ready to start their 'invasion' soon. Then we sent Seeker and the other Night Maiden the zebras gave us back to Zebrica because we have no practical use for them. That didn't feel particularly good, but there you go. Apart from that, Stout Heart's finished two suits of armour, and has started on the third, but she still needs your measurements to make yours."

"Right, yes. I should probably go do that."

"We must insist you do," said Luna. "It's not like they can make these suits of armour overnight."

"Is that a hint to go do it now?"

"You can call it an order if you like? I should be done by the time you get back."

There really wasn't any putting it off, especially since their success could hinge on her having and wearing that armour. Turning on her heel she set off for the Equestria portal, and passed through it into the tunnel beneath the village. She could hear voices coming from the outside, so set off towards them.

In the shade of a half destroyed house, whose roof now hung over a conveniently empty space perfect for working in, were four crystal ponies, as well as Ember. That confused Twilight quite a bit, since she'd only thought that there was three crystal ponies here. The fact that one of them was considerably more sparkly than the others only made it worse.

"So you look like this all the time in the Crystal Empire?" Ember asked as they all stood around the sparkly member of their party.

"It depends on a lot of things," said Stout Heart, "but a happy crystal pony, under the effects of the Crystal Heart, does usually look like this, yes."

"I like it," the sparkly pony said, turning on the spot to try and look at herself better. "I feel... pretty."

"Mayfly?"

"Hmm?" The sparkly pony squeaked when she saw Twilight, and with a flash of purple fire changed back into her usual multicoloured self. "Sorry! We were just talking about what crystal ponies normally look like, and I thought that I'd have a go, and I'm not going to lie but it's kinda hard, and I know we're meant to be watching for danger, but we're messing around instead, and I'm so, so sorry!"

"Actually, I had no idea you were out here, but if you were supposed to be looking for danger, then... um, good job."

"Sorry!"

"Stop apologising." Twilight kicked the corner of the furnace, breaking a few flakes of rust off. "If this thing put out smoke we'd probably be in a lot more trouble."

"Twilight." Ember pointed down at the three crystal ponies that were bowing to her, and had been for a while. "You might want to acknowledge them?"

"Oh, wow." It'd been that long since anypony had bowed to her that Twilight had almost forgotten what it was like, and how much she disliked it. If there was something worse than ponies thinking she was better than them, it was ponies acting like it. "Uh, p-please stop that. I mean, you can rise."

"Have you come to have your measurements taken?" Stout Heart asked as she stood back up to full height, which Twilight had to note as being slightly taller than herself. It'd been a while since a non-alicorn or non-Saddle Arabian had done that.

"That's right." Twilight stood and smiled helplessly as Stout picked up a tape measure and laid it down the length of her back, and started calling numbers to one of the others.

"Spread your wings please."

"Oh! Sorry." Twilight spread her wings and stood still as Stout measured around her chest. In theory she knew she was as fit and healthy as an alicorn had no choice about being, but being measured always made her feel fat, and then apologetic about being fat. Rather than dwell on that feeling, Twilight decided to talk to Ember.

"Have you heard anything from the Dragon Lands about what you did?"

Ember shrugged and shook her head. "Nah, nothing so far. I'm kind of hoping that's because they all accepted it as a sensible thing to do, but I'm more realistically thinking that it might have more to do with most dragons either not caring, or planning to kill me when I get back."

"Oh, um... do you want help with that?"

"Nah, I'll be fine. As long as I can find my Dad and get the Bloodstone Sceptre back before they find me, there'll be nothing they can do. After that, all they have to do is get used to it. Really shouldn't be too hard since they never went to Griffonia anyway."

"Yeah," Twilight said noncommittally. Personally she knew there was a difference between choosing to not go somewhere, and being forced to. Yes a dragon could still go to Griffonia, but only with permission, which she supposed wasn't all that different from a lot of places, but it was the magical enforcement that made it unethical to her. Maybe dragons felt differently about that sort of thing, but not her.

"Are we ready to take Griffonstone?" Ember asked back as Twilight went quiet.

"Tomorrow, although don't expect too much out of it. Without the Bloodfeathers I doubt there's much, if any, resistance there."

"Pfft, that's boring. Seems like Chrysalis is getting all the fun then. She doesn't deserve fun."

"I think you'll find she passed fun and went straight into pleasure," Mayfly quipped. "She's probably feeling pretty orgasmic about the whole thing. She really enjoys invading. All kinds of invading."

Twilight squeezed her eyes shut against the images filling her mind with filth. "And now she's invading my thoughts too. Ugh, so unnecessarily lewd. That reminds me, can Chrysalis lay eggs inside another female?"

Mayfly's eyes went wide, "How do you even know about that?"

"Chrysalis took great pleasure in telling us."

"Oh, I suppose she would, and... she's not lying, but it's a method that tends to not get used because Chrysalis deems it impure. Besides even if the female survives the implantation process, she will usually attempt to terminate either the eggs or herself. Usually both. Even if she fails, a couple dozen changelings clawing their way out of her will definitely end her existence. Probably a mercy by that point."

"Wow," Ember breathed as she stared at nothing. "No offense, Mayfly, but changelings are really fucked up."

Mayfly shrugged, having heard it all before. "Adaptive biology has its ugly downsides. Hopefully new changeling forms can correct that, assuming others can be convinced to make the change."

Twilight shuddered as her mind bombarded itself with horrors. "I will happily force them to if it means never having to imagine any of that ever again. Ever!"

"Just be thankful that you've never had to see Chrysalis doing what she does to extend her life." This time it was Mayfly's turn to shudder.

"Oh Luna damn it! You're making it worse! Shut up, Mayfly!"

Ember held up a questioning claw, having never been told about this. "What does she do?"

"She devours her replacements after they hatch," Mayfly answered brokenly, "alive, to absorb their essence and live on herself."

"Oh. Damn. And I thought being a dragon was rough at times."

-0-0-0-

Luna was indeed done by the time Twilight dragged herself back into the Retreat. She felt exhausted, and not from exertion. Mayfly had taken to telling them about the many, many horrible things that came part and parcel with being a member of Chrysalis' hive. Twilight had wanted her to stop, but at the same time her curiosity had gone into overdrive, forcing her to not only keep listening, but to keep prompting Mayfly for more information. She currently had mixed feelings over herself about that.

Thankfully she had been blessed with a diversion from the grim realities of changeling existence, because Luna had finished her highly complex enchanting circle. Circles. Okay, so it was more of a lopsided blob that looked like someone had tipped some bubbles into an oversized magic book, but if it did what Twilight thought it would do, then it would keep the weapons as Luna's, while giving them the strength that four alicorns worth of magic should provide.

"So I'm guessing you're done?"

"Indeed I am. The knowledge that I could've been done ages ago does diminish my satisfaction quite considerably though."

There was a sharp snort of laughter from Nightmare, "I told you to wait until Twilight got back, but noooo... you had to be all confident in your ridiculous ability to make things so very wrong."

"Hush, you."

"That said, I'll be very impressed if this actually works."

"I said hush!" Luna pointed at a small dot drawn on the floor, "Stand there. Cadence, you're at this one, and you're there, Twilight, next to me."

Twilight took her spot on the floor opposite Cadence with Luna to her left, and Nightmare to her right. It was about then that it struck her that what they were about to attempt might in fact not be a good idea. How the hell were lines of chalk supposed to contain the kind of power about to go through them? Then again, she was wondering what would happen if it didn't work...

Twilight resolved to have a serious talk with herself about her curiosity later.

"Okay, on the count of three, place your charged horn to the line closest to you, then feed more power into it."

Twilight charged her horn as the others did, lighting up the dim room with a not displeasing mix of colours as Luna started to count up to three. Twilight held the tip of her horn an inch from the ground, ready to go the moment Luna said three.

"Three!"

All of them touched their horns to the circles, and nothing really happened, even as they increased the power. Most of the circle lit up with Luna's magic as she empowered the other runes, while Twilight's, Nightmare's, and Cadence's magic joined it in the final circle, where it all blended together. It was then Twilight started to smell burning, a split second before the entire thing caught fire, starting in the middle and spreading outwards.

"Keep going!" Luna commanded, and they did, right up until the flames threatened to start burning their horns.

"I think we can call this a resounding success," Nightmare snickered as Luna attempted to smother the flames. Without four alicorns feeding it the fire soon died down, leaving only lines of molten stone that glowed with heat where the chalk lines had been.

"I think we can definitely call it a lesson," Cadence commented as she rubbed the tip of her horn where the fire had gotten a little too close.

"Did it work though?" was Twilight's concern as Luna retrieved the two glaives. If it didn't work, she highly suspected that the two blades were probably ruined. She sighed with relief when Luna lifted the still pristine weapons off the floor, seeing they were undamaged. A different form of worry came to her when she saw the main rune though.

"Should it really be doing that?"

Luna turned both weapons over to look at the two runes. Most of them glowed with the silvery light of her magic, but the ones that strengthened the blades shifted from silver, to pale blue, turquoise, purple, then back to silver in no particular pattern. It didn't exactly look stable, or how she expected it to.

"How peculiar," Starsy said as he got close enough to have a look, his silent ire over the scorched and molten floor temporarily forgotten. "I've never seen something like that. At least not without it blowing up soon after."

All of them took a step back if they could as Starsy said that, but he didn't seem worried himself.

"It's rather ironic really, the power in that rune is enough to destroy the weapons, and probably quite a bit around them. At the same time, the runes are so empowered, and the blade strong enough, that it literally cannot break. Not without significant help at least."

"I'm sure Faust would be more than willing to oblige," Luna said as she of her worry faded. "Even then it would be quite the surprise for her." Luna walked over to the nearest wall and slammed the two blades point first into the bare rock, sinking the blades up to almost their middles.

"Do you mind?" Starsy growled, annoyed at the additional destruction. It only grew as Luna ignored him and started forcing the blades sideways to try and break them. Instead she broke chunks of rock out of the walls. "Will you stop? Please?"

Luna pulled the blades free and nodded as she saw there wasn't a mark left on then. Then she channelled some magic through the blades until ice started to form on them. "Everything seems to be working, so I guess we can call this a success."

"Assuming they don't blow up," said Twilight.

"Assuming that, yes. Still, until that point it is a success. No doubt I'll really get to test them tomorrow. All we need now is the Wonderbolts' final scouting report, and we're all ready."

-0-0-0-

"This seems like a terrible idea," Lightning said as the three of them hid on one of the higher... branches? Platforms? Whatever part they were of the giant tree that Griffonstone seemed to be, they were being used to hide from the scattering of soldiers on the ground below. "You know what griffons are like. There's no way they'll tell us anything for free."

"Not all of them," Rainbow said back as she watched the ground below. There was a certain griffon she wanted to find, but so far there had seen no sign of her. "Some of them can be alright once you get past the-uh... cattiness."

"Was that supposed to be a joke?"

"I thought it was more of a pun," Vapor said, shrugging when Lightning raised an eyebrow at her. "Or maybe it was an observation."

"I'm surrounded by idiots."

"How can you be surrounded by two ponies?" Rainbow quipped, getting a quick laugh out of Vapor, and managing to get a mirthful snort out of Lightning.

"I'll take that as your confession to being an idiot then. Now keep the noise down. We are supposed to be here in secret after all."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Rainbow continued scanning the ground below, only occasionally contributing to the conversation when needed to, because despite a generally jokey attitude, she was serious about finding her friend Gilda, because if Gilda didn't know the full story here, then she could at least find out, or know who to ask.

It was only a few more minutes until she finally found her target, the brown, white, and purple feathered Gilda walking by below in the company of a grey griffon, and a blue one that seemed very brightly coloured for what Rainbow thought griffons were meant to be like. That wasn't important though. Getting Gilda's attention was.

Rainbow picked a stone out of the pile she'd collected for that very purpose. Weighing it in the flat of her hoof for a few seconds she wound back and launched it, sending it flying with unerring accuracy to smack the blue griffon on the side of the head.

"Shit!" Rainbow swore as the griffon cawed in shock, "That wasn't supposed to happen! Uh..." Rainbow waved vigorously at the trio of griffons as they tried to see who had thrown the stone, catching their attention after a few seconds. She gestured for them to join her, then pulled back before any of the soldiers saw her.

"Real smooth, Rainbow," Lightning complemented sarcastically. "I'm sure a case of brain damage will really want to make them help us."

"It was an accident!"

"Sure it was." Lightning leaned over to see where the griffons were, having expected them to fly straight up. Instead she saw them climbing up the massive tree towards them. "Ooookay, why are they doing that?"

"I'm guessing clipped wings," Vapor supposed, while Rainbow shrugged. She'd ask once they got here.

It was less than a minute after that when the three griffons hauled themselves onto the branch. The blue one seemed pissed, but Gilda only seemed surprised when she saw Rainbow.

"Rainbow Dash?"

"That's right." Rainbow slapped a cocky grin onto her face, "Surprised to see me?"

"Yeah I am! Last I heard all the Wonderbolts that hadn't been killed were being kept prisoner in Ponyville. How'd you get free?"

"We were never captured. Right now you're looking at the last freely operating members of the Equestrian armed forces. But that's not important. Why the heck did you climb up here? Why not fly?"

Gilda spread her wings, showing off feathers that had been cut short. "Those bastard Mareitanians do it to keep us under control. Unfortunately for them we can still climb, so there's still fuck all they can do about it, apart from maybe burning the place down. Might be an improvement to be honest."

"I guess." Rainbow pointed a wing at the other two griffons, "So who are these two?" She twitched her eyebrows playfully, "Friends of yours?"

Gilda pointed at the grey, pigeon-like griffon to her right. "This is Gabby, who's like our mail-griffon."

"Not that I've had anything to deliver for ages," Gabby grumbled. Realising her attitude, she attempted to brighten up. "It's nice to meet you."

Gilda rolled her eyes, then went on to introducing the griffon resembling a blue tit to her left. "This is Gallus. He's kind of a prick, so just ignore him."

"Hey!"

"That's a guy?"

Gallus stared slack-jawed at Rainbow for a second, "Are you kidding me? Yes I'm a guy!"

"Sorry," Rainbow apologised. "If it helps, you're a very pretty boy."

"What the fuck!?" Gallus yelled as even Gilda and Gabby were shocked. "You know what? Forget this! Up yours, pony." Raising his middle claw at Rainbow, which she knew well enough to be rude, he left and started climbing back down the tree, swearing about ponies the entire way.

"Are you for real, Dash? I thought you'd be above using racial slurs!"

"Racial slurs? What are you talking about?"

"Calling him a pretty boy? Y'know, the whole 'who's a pretty boy' thing? We might be half bird, but there's no need for shit like that!"

Rainbow's mouth formed an 'O' as understanding came knocking. "Oh, shit, I so didn't mean it like that! I didn't even know it was thing!" She leaned over the side of the branch to shout down at the descending Gallus, "I'm sorry!"

"Fuck you, pony! You still thought I was a hen!"

"You did call him pretty, racial slurs aside," said Lightning.

Rainbow face-hoofed, and gave up trying to fix this. "Yeah, anyway, I have a question. Do all Griffonstone griffon names start with a G?"

Gilda's expression went slack, "Really, Dash? You're pushing this even more? Of course our names don't all start with a G."

"Are you sure? I mean there's you, Gilda, then Gabby, Gallus, Grampa Gruff, there's that other griffon with the green feathers. Gertrude, or whatever the hell her name is-"

"Greta."

"Right, then there's that shopkeeper Gimme Moore, that chef Gustav le Grande, and your last ruler was King Guto... I'm just saying there's a trend here, y'know?"

Gilda's eyes twitched side to side as she ran through the griffons she know, and while not all of their names started with G, quite a lot did." S-shut up. How about you tell me what you're doing here Dash? I really don't think you came just to risk getting spotted by the soldiers here. Or to piss us off."

"Uh, yeah. Anyway, these are Lightning Dust and Vapor Trail, my squad mates, and we're here to do some recon on Griffonstone."

"Recon? Recon for what? The war ended ages ago. You lost, since you don't seem to be aware."

"Yeah, we're about to start a new war. Or finish the current one. I'm really not sure."

Gilda rolled her eyes, doubting Rainbow's sanity. "Oh yeah? You and what army?"

"The Griffonian one, and the changeling one, and some of the Saddle Arabian army as well. We even have a couple of zebras helping out, as well as a dragon." Rainbow smiled smugly at Gilda's gormless expression, "Did that answer your question?"

Gilda snapped her beak shut, trying to reclaim some of her cool. "Since when does the Griffon Empire help ponies? You have to be making that up. Actually, the changelings as well, why would they help you?"

"Because Faust needs to go, and we all know it, so we've built an alliance. Well, I say we, but the princesses did most of the work." Rainbow started to laugh, "You didn't think it was just us three doing this, did you?"

"No, I didn't know what the fuck was going on! Last I heard, Celestia was helping Faust, the other princesses were missing, and Equestria was invading Zebrica!"

"All true, technically, but the princesses were only hiding from Faust. We've actually been pretty busy making friends and coming up with a plan that we're about to kick off."

"By attacking Griffonstone," Gilda deadpanned. "Really? Why the hell would you want this place?"

"As a staging area to launch incursions into Equestria." Rainbow stopped and nervously tapped the tips of her hooves together, "There's also the small issue that as soon as Griffonstone has been taken, it'll belong to the Griffon Empire again."

"What? Are you kidding me?"

"It was part of getting the Griffon Empire to help us, but don't worry, you'll still have all the rights of Equestrian citizens, and you can move to Equestria if you want. Honestly though, the Emperor's a pretty cool guy now he's chilled out a bit, so living here should be alright."

Gilda dragged a claw down her face, ruffling her feathers. "I can't believe this. Don't you think that maybe you should've asked us what we want first?"

"Look, we weren't really happy with it either, but we need the Griffon Empire's help to stop Faust, and this was the price. Believe me when I say that stopping Faust is well worth it."

"You're serious about this, aren't you?" Gilda sighed as Rainbow nodded, "Eurgh... fine, what do you want from us?"

"Basically we want to know what soldiers are here, where they are, do they have any form of contact with the rest of Equestria, and how can we stop them escaping with a warning?"

"A hundred soldiers, mostly unicorns, scattered about with no contact with the rest of Equestria, or just 'Equestria' as it's going to start being known to us, and there's only one way out of Griffonstone if you can't fly. Two if you don't mind dying when you land. Cut off the road, and they're trapped."

"Oh." Rainbow tried to not meet the eyes of her teammates, who were more likely than not thinking that they could've learnt that through observation. "Thanks Gilda."

"Sure. Anything else you want from us?"

"There's one, no, two things you can do. First off, start to quietly spread the word amongst the griffons here that they should keep their heads down tomorrow, without letting the soldiers know."

"Shouldn't be a problem." Gilda gestured with her head at Gabby, who saluted crisply and started to clamber back down the tree to start spreading the word. "What's the other thing?"

"Just hold still." Rainbow walked up to Gilda and grabbed her around the neck in a hug, "I'm glad you're okay."

Gilda happily returned the hug, "And I'm glad you're okay. It's a good job I know you're too awesome to get killed, or a griffon might have been worried, y'know? Those are some pretty gnarly scars by the way."

Even with the complement, the crack in Gilda's voice told Rainbow everything about how worried Gilda had been, and she squeezed a little tighter to reassure the griffon. "Don't you worry about me, I'm not going anywhere."

Gilda released Rainbow and tried to surreptitiously rub her eyes, "I'm going to hold you to that. I guess this means you're leaving now?"

"Yeah, but we're not going far." Rainbow pointed to the east, "Just the other side of those mountains to be honest." She gave Gilda a confident grin, "I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

"Sure. Smell ya later, Dash."

Rainbow gave Gilda a mock salute and stepped off the branch into flight, waving back at the griffon as the three of them pulled up and away. "I'm telling you, griffon hugs are the best. They're just so warm, and you know they mean it."

"Uh-huh, sure." Lightning shook her head at Rainbow, not that the blue pegasus saw it. "I hope you know we're still doing some recon."

"Yeah, I know. That really was a bit light on details."

-0-0-0-

Chrysalis could have sang, although she doubted that it'd be any song the ponies would've appreciated. An ode to how vibrant the colour of blood is does tend to draw negative criticisms. Still, there was far too much to do to waste time singing, not when there were cities to attack, and ponies to terrorize.

Life wasn't all sunshine and bloodbaths though. She had been ordered, -ordered! The audacity of those ponies!- to begin her attack on the cities of the eastern seaboard. They were lucky that this time she was relatively happy to go along with this. Next time they feel like ordering her, they'd better have some good incentive.

Chrysalis decided not to let it ruin her mood. Not when there was mayhem to cause. Gathering up a collection of four beetle shaped stones, she placed them on the table in front of her. A burst of magic activated then, joining them together with strings of what appeared to be goo, but was more like a viscous web of magic that... who was she kidding, it was magic goo.

The magic blossomed upwards into a flat disc that split in two to show the faces of the changelings leading the attacks on Fillydelphia and Baltimare, while Chrysalis herself had opted to lead the attack on Manehattan. They bowed their heads in respect to their queen, but still wore broad yet nasty grins. They knew what Chrysalis contacting them meant.

"The time has come," Chrysalis purred, unable and unwilling to keep the satisfaction from her voice. "I should hope I don't need to tell you what to do, or that I should have to remind you that this isn't worth getting yourselves all killed over. Any changelings that return with less than the proper number of limbs will be fed to my pets. Any questions?"

Chrysalis was pleased to see they weren't dull enough to actually ask her anything. She'd raised them better than that. "Excellent. I'll be in touch when it's time for us to pull back, but until then I want you all to cause some havoc and make your Mother proud."

"Yes, our Queen," the two changelings said back. Chrysalis ended the communication and allowed herself a satisfied smirk. This was going to be an unbelievable amount of fun, but before the festivities could commence, she had to make her entrance.

A flash of green had her disguised as a rather elegant looking unicorn with a light lilac coat and pale blue mane and tail, with sea green eyes. Giving herself a once over in the mirror, she smiled and made her way out of the hotel room she'd taken for the night, not bothering to check out since, due to a little bargaining with the owner, she never bothered to check in. His love, whilst cheap and empty, had certainly been flavourful.

Outside the hotel was busy, with crowds of ponies going about their business. Some nearby were washing graffiti off a wall, which appeared to be depicting a stylised image of Faust with the word 'Resist' written underneath. Quite amusing really since the ponies here would soon be relying on Faust to save them from the changeling threat. That could be an interesting challenge for the princesses to explain, that this attack was part of their plan to liberate Equestria. Chrysalis was inclined to believe they hadn't thought of that, but they did at least, annoyingly, order her to keep casualties to an absolute minimum, and civilian casualties at zero. Subdue, but do not kill unless there's no other choice.

Chrysalis suspected she might have no choice before the day was over. In fact, she was sure of it.

She'd at least been given the fun caveat that the Mareitanian soldiers were fair game when they arrived, but the Equestrian Guard were all no-no's unless totally necessary when it came to taking their pathetic little lives. Foolish really. How was she supposed to pull this off without a little shock factor to get the ball rolling? After all, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

It didn't take much looking to find some of those so called 'Equestrian Guard,' who were hanging out on the corner of the street, two mares and a stallion. Fighting to keep a sadistic grin off her face, Chrysalis trotted over to them to make her entrance.

"Hi," she said pleasantly, her gaze switching between the three ponies, a copper maned earth pony with a similar coat colour to her current one, a rather garish green coated and purple maned unicorn, and a brown and white palomino stallion. "I was wondering if you could help me?"

"Sure," the copper maned mare said with a smile. "What can we do for you?"

"Well, I was hoping that you could, between yourselves, decide which one of you wants to die first? It'd be a massive help because I don't think I could get away with killing all of you."

Chrysalis finally let her grin show as the three ponies backed away, their spears lowering towards her. The one on the left, the green and purple unicorn, seemed to be the one holding her weapon with the most competence, although the earth pony was trying, bless her. Fortunately for her that meant she got to live, so being an earth pony at least gave her that advantage.

A blast of magic punched a hole in her target's neck, and the mare fell, blood spraying from the wound as she gagged for a breath that would never come. The other two stared in horror at her, idiotically taking their eyes off Chrysalis, so it was a good job she'd already granted them mercy.

A pillar of green fire surrounded Chrysalis as she shed her disguise. Unnecessary, but it did pay to put on a show, even as screams started to fill the street from what she'd already done. Those screams only grew in frequency as she fully revealed herself, standing tall with her fangs on show.

"Boo," she said to the two remaining guards, who dropped their spears and ran. "Pathetic."

All around her were more flashes of green as her children showed themselves, and the streets filled with the musical sound of ponies screaming and running as panic ensued, bringing its friends chaos and terror with it. In the middle of it all stood Chrysalis, laughing merrily as Hearthswarming came early for her this year.

44. Territorial dispute

It was an impressive collection of griffons, to be sure. In fact it had been almost twelve hundred years since Luna had seen so many griffon soldiers in one place. The difference there was that they had been on opposite sides at the time, and Luna had been defending Equestria, rather than attacking it. It wasn't hard to say she wasn't defending Equestria now by removing Faust from its throne, but there was still a difference.

None of that was worth worrying about now though. Right now all she had to worry about was taking Griffonstone, for the Griffon Empire unfortunately, and making sure no warning got back to Faust. Their plans would have to remain unchanged if there was a warning, but those plans would become so much harder to go through with.

Luna dismissed those concerns. There were upward of ten thousand griffons here, with more arriving all the time. Only a fraction of them would be participating in the retaking of Griffonstone, but even then they heavily outnumbered the Mareitanians holding the kingdom. If the numbers the Wonderbolts had supplied were accurate at least, and Luna had no reason to doubt that they were.

The Emperor had decided to be present for this part of the campaign. Luna could only imagine he was too excited at the prospect of reclaiming Griffonstone for the Empire not to. She could only imagine his reaction to find that it was in fact a total dump, just as she could imagine him blaming the princesses for that. Griffonstone was allowed to self govern, and it was hardly the princesses fault that they revered a shiny gold thing, then governed the place into a hole when they lost it.

"Ah, there you are," the Emperor said as she entered the command tent on the site they had picked. "I was starting to think you'd gone to get a head start on the Mareitanians."

"There'll be more than enough for everyone once we get started," Luna said back. She nodded a stiff greeting to Commander Lurin, then gave a more friendly one to Twilight and Cadence, the latter playing with Flurry while Twilight sat glumly over a small black stone, sighing and nudging it occasionally. "Any news from Chrysalis?"

"Oh, you bet," Twilight said with false cheer. "I do believe her words were 'the streets are echoing nicely with the screams of my victims.' I can only hope that means she's actually doing as she's told and leaving ponies alive to do the screaming." Twilight pushed herself upright and sighed, "I've dispatched Rainbow and the others to verify that Chrysalis is being a well behaved abomination from the darkest abyss, and to see what Faust's reaction to this apparent crisis will be."

"Hopefully it involves pulling a lot of soldiers away from Canterlot and Ponyville."

"We're going to be asked some very difficult questions about Chrysalis' attack once this is over," Cadence said, breaking her attention away from Flurry for a moment. "I get the feeling that trying to look innocent while saying 'what do you expect from a changeling?' won't work in the slightest."

"No, we will have to issue an official apology for that." Luna made a face, knowing that what she was about to say was stupid. "Hopefully Chrysalis has only killed when absolutely unavoidable."

Cadence shook her head sorrowfully, "Setting Chrysalis on our own subjects as a distraction is very much a low point for us. I hope to goodness that it's not something that needs to be repeated ever again."

Luna sat down, not wanting or needing to argue with that, or about how Chrysalis would behave if she wanted the princesses to honour their agreement. If Chrysalis wanted to throw their agreement away to start executing ponies in the thousands, they were now unable to stop her without using the griffon army and ruining all their plans. Even that was assuming the Emperor would agree to help, because he was well within his right to refuse seeing as how Chrysalis being there was their idea in the first place. Luna doubted she could face the ponies of Equestria again if any of that happened.

"It's a good plan," Commander Lurin said to try and reassure them. "If Chrysalis was to step out of line I'm sure she wouldn't bother staying in touch. Why maintain that kind of pretence if you're going to be found out anyway?"

"You raise a good point," Luna agreed. "However, don't underestimate Chrysalis, or her ability to deceive. Even if she wanted to make a good impression on Equestria's ponies by sparing as many as she could in this attack, do not think that she'll hesitate to kill as many as she thinks she can get away with. I hate to think how many she's killed already."

"We really aren't going to be able to explain this, are we?" Cadence said softly. "Chrysalis will always look like a monster to our ponies thanks to this, and us with her, while the Mareitanians will look like heroes for getting rid of the changeling threat. This was a mistake. A huge mistake."

"It was a good plan, tactically," Lurin offered as a consolation. "We need the Mareitanian army out of the Equestrian heartland, and this can achieve that. Maybe things would be different if you hadn't used the changelings, but it's too late to change that now."

"He's right," said Luna. "We have no way of implementing a perfect plan here, so we'll do what we can. In the meantime though, we should probably get on with taking Griffonstone. We can refine our plan past that once the Wonderbolts have returned with their report."

-0-0-0-

"I feel like I'm going to be missing out," Trixie complained as Twilight carried her through the air over the mountains between Griffonia and Griffonstone. "Our first big step into Equestria to take it back from Faust, and all I'm going to be doing is sitting in a road making sure the Mareitanians don't get away."

"At least you won't be on your own."

"Oh yeah, I'll have fifty griffons with me, those well known conversationalists. It's gonna be a blast."

"Sorry Trixie. If you had wings it wouldn't a problem. To be honest, if it wasn't for your insistence on being involved you could've sat this whole thing out."

Trixie shook her head firmly, "Nope, I refuse to not be involved. How will I know you're not all getting it wrong if I'm not there?"

Twilight decided to not humour that with a response. Mostly because telling Trixie that previously she's occasionally been one of those things going wrong is definitely insulting, and not totally accurate since it only happened a few times at most, if even that. Now that she was thinking about it, Twilight didn't really know why she'd thought of it in the first place. Sure there was that thing where they fought at High Rock Keep at the end of the rebellion, but that's the only major time. It wasn't like Twilight had spent the entire time being perfect either.

"Anyway," Trixie muttered since Twilight hadn't said anything back, "I'm coming, and that's final."

"Okay."

Trixie raised an eyebrow at Twilight's single word reply. "Are you alright? You seem a bit distracted."

"You do know what it is that we're about to do, right? I mean, not today. Today is small fry, but tomorrow, or the day after, we're actually going to be making an attack on Equestria in the first major move to retake our country. Excuse me for thinking it's a bit of a big deal."

"Alright, no need to bite my head off. I was only asking because I assumed you were worried about what Chrysalis was up to."

"Don't remind me."

Sensing that she wasn't getting anywhere, Trixie decided to stop talking. If Twilight wanted to be in one of her moods, so be it. Trixie wasn't going to waste her energy getting Twilight to lighten up when there was no chance of success.

"There."

"Hmm?"

Twilight pointed into the distance, as the mountain gave away to the lowlands. At their very edge sat Griffonstone. "We're almost there." Twilight looked back at the griffon formations behind her being led by Luna and Commander Lurin. They'd take care of things easily enough while she dropped Trixie off.

Twilight put on a burst of speed, getting ahead of the rest of them and flying straight over Griffonstone, not caring that she was seen. If anything, if they were watching her, they weren't watching out for the real problem. That being the thousand griffons coming from behind them.

Twilight dove and pitched into a right turn that brought her to the single road into and out of Griffonstone, setting Trixie down at a tumbledown gateway that would at least make it easier for Trixie to stop escapees.

"The griffons will be here in a minute, so sit tight and don't let any Mareitanians escape until then."

"I fucking know, Twilight. Just go and get this over with."

Twilight summoned Swordy as the first attackers soared over the city, screaming their battle cries. Not that she felt like she needed to be particularly worried. Considering the disparity in numbers here, the battle to take Griffonstone should be over in minutes.

"See you soon then." Twilight flew back up over Griffonstone, trying to see where the thickest action was to get involved. In reality though, there were that many griffons flying around that it was all but impossible to see. In the end she listened out for the sound of magic as that would at least tell her where Luna was.

Luna was in what could loosely be called the middle of Griffonstone. A group of around ten Mareitanians had rallied around the statue of King Guto, and were shielding themselves from Luna with some success. Even a few unicorns concentrating a shield that small could hold off an alicorn it seems. Twilight was far from writing off Luna's ability to get in there though.

Twilight landed next to Luna as the elder alicorn paced back and forth, in no rush to get those ponies out while they had effectively pinned themselves there. Twilight was about to offer her assistance when she saw what else was around the statue. Ruined bookshelves holding the remains of what had been a library were scattered around, with the books themselves piled in heaps amongst the straw, dirt, and other detritus where they could get ruined by the elements.

"What the heck is this travesty?" Twilight asked out loud, only then paying enough attention to her surroundings to see what Griffonstone was really like. It was a total dump. In fact it was the kind of dump that gave dumps a bad name. Broken and rotting buildings, filth everywhere, and a certain smell that threatened to linger long after you had left. None of it was as her books had described.

"What the hell happened to this place?"

"You mean you don't know?" Luna asked back. "I know, and I'd not even been back from the moon that long when I found out. Their Idol of Boreas was stolen, then lost and never recovered, and-"

"I know that, Rainbow told me. What she didn't tell me was that this place was in ruins, and these poor, poor books... it's a disgrace, and a travesty."

"It's what happens when you have a population that refuses to pay taxes because they're paying it to a king that's dead. It's also proof that you should never build your national pride around things that are easily lost or stolen." Luna shrugged at Twilight, "It's the Emperor's problem now."

"I still think that maybe we should have taken a little more responsibility for this place."

"Has it also been mentioned that griffons are obscenely proud, and hate both asking for, and getting help? Because both those things are true."

Twilight growled under her breath, because Luna might as well be saying that she doesn't care. Admittedly Luna wasn't really in a position to care until a few years ago, so the blame didn't really fall on her, but Celestia should maybe have stuck her nose in to Griffonstone a little more often to see how her griffon citizens were faring without the Idol.

"I can feel you blaming Celestia."

"Tell me I'm wrong." Twilight thrust a hoof towards the Mareitanians still hiding under their shield, "Could we get on with this now?"

"Of course." Luna summoned her two new glaives and slammed them into the shield, cracking it. She then followed up with a blast of magic to the weak point, shattering the shield entirely. Before the Mareitanians could recover, both Luna and Twilight were among them, cutting down half in a few seconds. The others very quickly surrendered.

Luna tore their weapons away and pinned them to the ground using a spell that would keep them immobile while disabling their magic. "I'll keep these contained if you wish to see how the rest of the fight is going?"

Twilight doubted there was much to see now. The battle cries had died down to almost nothing, and the while the sound of fighting could still be heard, it probably wouldn't last much longer. The drop past the statue of King Guto gave her a decent view of quite a bit of Griffonstone, and from there she could see two ponies desperately trying to barge their way into a house for safety. They failed, then moved onto the next, and the next, again and again finding their entry barred.

"Where are all the griffons from here?" Twilight wondered out loud, having not seen a single griffon not wearing the armour of the Griffon Empire the whole time she'd been here, even if that wasn't for very long. Even as she pondered some griffon soldiers flew in to stop the two ponies. A blast of magic took one griffon by surprise, but the Kuua the hen was wearing spared her from any real harm. The ponies gave up after that.

"Yep," said to herself with a satisfied nod. Of course it was rather easy to be satisfied in your victory when you outnumber your opponents ten to one.

Twilight suddenly heard a commotion further away, towards what she thought sounded like the road out of Griffonstone where Trixie was waiting. She dropped off the cliff into a dive and used the momentum to pull up and speed to the roadway. She almost wet herself when the roar of some terrible beast filled the air.

"Trixie!"

Twilight pushed herself as fast as she could towards the source of the noise, hoping to get there before Trixie got hurt by whatever was attacking them. She arrived to something very different to what she expected. A large manticore was blocking the exit out of Griffonstone, facing down a force of up to forty Mareitanians that had chosen to hide behind a shield.

Twilight went blank, with no idea of what to make of what she was seeing. A big, scary manticore was helping them. There wasn't more to say about that, and Twilight was willing to accept it as maybe being feasibly possible. That didn't change the fact that Trixie should be here, and-

Twilight's mind ground to a complete halt as she spotted Trixie hiding behind the crumbling pillar of the gateway, her horn glowing to highlight the devilish grin she was wearing. She twisted her head a little, and the manticore swung a paw towards the Mareitanians. Suddenly Twilight clicked as to what was going on, and she was frankly impressed since all Trixie was doing was messing with them. Nothing here suggested it had to work, but it did.

The manticore roared again, and with it the sound of a number off griffons as those that had been with Trixie attacked from the rear, stabbing their Kuua coated weapons into the shield to quickly tear it down. Rather than watch with them, Twilight joined them, and quickly flew down into a landing amongst the Mareitanians, cutting down two before they even knew she was there.

Between Twilight, the griffons, and Trixie when she joined in, the Mareitanians soon crumbled, with the last dozen surrendering rather than dying for nothing as some suggested when they said this dump wasn't worth that kind of price. Twilight and the griffons quickly disarmed them, and like that it seemed the battle to take Griffonstone was over. All three, four, maybe five minutes that it took.

"I love how gullible these twits are when it comes to magic," Trixie said as she sauntered towards Twilight, a smug smile on her face. "I didn't even think I was trying that hard."

"Well you scared the crap out of me," Twilight complained, but not with any real vehemence. She was still rather impressed, even if Trixie was deciding to brag about it. "I thought there was actually something really nasty here."

"Aww, and you came to save me?" Trixie made a kissy face at Twilight, "How noble of you, saving the poor damsel in distress."

"Yeah, if ever there was a description of you, damsel in distress is not it." Twilight looked around as more griffons flew in and helped to solve the unicorn problem by painting Kuua onto their horns before leading them back into Griffonstone. "We did it though, we took Griffonstone."

"Yeah, woo, what an achievement," Trixie said dryly. "We take back a tiny piece of Equestria just to give it to the Griffon Empire. Worth it."

"It could be worse. Come on." Twilight nodded for Trixie to follow her as they trailed after their newly acquired prisoners as they were led to where Luna had been holding her captives. Several more prisoners had turned up, and between them all there must've been about thirty ponies sat in the square.

"We've scoured every inch of the city," a griffon was reporting to Commander Lurin as they arrived. Behind him were two unarmoured griffons, one of which Twilight recognised as being Rainbow's friend Gilda. "We haven't found any stragglers as yet, but we'll continue searching. Also, these two want to speak to one of the princesses. One of them claims to be a friend of the pegasus Rainbow Dash."

"Yes, I know who she," Twilight said as she quickly trotted over.

Lurin bowed before Twilight, "Then they're all yours. I'll start spreading my griffons out to make sure we didn't miss any Mareitanians. Then we can maybe start thinking about moving onto the Griffish isles and Trottingham once the Emperor arrives with more reinforcements."

"Excuse me?" Twilight said slowly, having not heard anyone mention anything about taking the Griffish Isles before now. "Since when is that part of the plan?"

"Since Princess Luna made it so, I believe."

Twilight turned her head towards Luna, but the alicorn was facing the other direction. "Right, I guess I'll find out about that later. Thank you, Commander." Twilight waited for Lurin to move on, then gave her full attention to Gilda. She held out a hoof and smiled at the griffon, "Nice to meet you again, Gilda."

"Are you sure?" Gilda scratched at the back of her head, "I was kind of a jerk last time you saw me."

"Perhaps, but Rainbow told me you've had a bit of a change of heart since then, so if she forgives you, I do." Twilight extended her hoof a little further until Gilda took it in a claw and shook it. "So what can I do for you, Gilda?"

"Well, that's just it..." Gilda looked around, taking in the sight of hundreds of griffons flying around. "I guess Rainbow really wasn't making it up. Good job too, because after going around sneakily telling everygriff to stay inside today, we'd look like total idiots if you hadn't turned up."

"Rainbow told you to do that?"

"She might've suggested it to us, yes."

"Anything else she might have told you?" Twilight asked nervously, her voice turning high pitched as she asked.

"That the Griffon Empire owns this place now." Gilda narrowed her eyes, "Anything else we should know about?"

Twilight looked to the grey griffon beside Gilda, who was watching Gilda with visible fear. That was enough to tell Twilight that what she said next would have to be very carefully thought out.

"Sorry about that," she said, and didn't follow it up with anything. From the back of her head she could hear Pinkie shouting 'nailed it' very loudly.

"And that's all you have to say about it?"

Twilight sighed, knowing she was going to have to explain this. "Faust needs to be stopped, but the only country with the martial strength to do that is the Griffon Empire. We did our best to get him on our side, including saving his life and foiling a coup, but the one thing he demanded is the return of Griffonstone to the Griffon Empire. That part was non-negotiable, but we did get him down to letting all griffons here remain Equestrian citizens, and to allow free movement between Griffonstone and Equestria. The only difference you'll probably notice is things getting fixed up, because the Emperor isn't going to like what he sees."

"That's not the point! Griffonstone is-" Gilda gestured around at the city, "Griffonstone is Griffonstone! It's- It's-"

"A scruffy, dirty, dilapidated pit full of money grubbing jerks?" Trixie supplied, both helpfully and very unhelpfully.

"Yes! But it's our scruffy, dirty, dilapidated pit full of money grubbing jerks! We don't need ponies, or the Empire, to tell us what we're supposed to be like!"

Trixie snorted a laugh at Gilda, "You guys have some weird priorities in life then. There is absolutely nothing here to be proud about, just like there's no pride to living in poverty."

"I know! But that's not the point! The point is that Griffonstone wasn't yours to give away!"

"I'll think you find it was, young griffon," Luna said as she came over to join the conversation. "Griffonstone has belonged to Equestria since it was taken in the last war between Equestria and the Griffon Empire. That means it is ours to give away if we must, and believe me when I say that I don't wish to give you up lightly. Unfortunately we have priorities, and stopping Faust is first among them."

Gilda growled, but seemed to give up fighting it as she sagged miserably. "Whatever. It's not like I even like this place that much. You said that we're still welcome in Equestria?"

"Very much so, yes."

"Then I might have to take you up on that. I guess I'll have to see how bad the Empire's rule is first."

Twilight smiled, glad that had been sorted out. There was still one thing she felt she had to bring up now that Luna was here.

"So, Luna, what's this I heard from Commander Lurin about taking the Griffish Isles as well?"

"A practical consideration. Where in the world are we going to keep a couple thousand ponies here, hmm? The Griffish Isles will at least give us the space we need to house them."

"True," Twilight admitted slowly, "but it's also further north than here."

"Yes, but the distance between Ponyville and here is almost the same as the distance between Ponyville and Trottingham."

"Maybe it is, but in a straight line it takes us right past Canterlot, and really close to the village where we keep a lot of very important stuff. Both of those sound like places we should avoid for various reasons."

"Then go for Griffonstone, and swing a left when you're over the ocean," Trixie said, shrugging at the both of them like it was obvious. "No Canterlot, no village, and they'll think we've come here, which has been mentioned is a difficult place to attack from the ground, so they won't come rushing in to attack. Sorted."

"That's... actually a good idea," Twilight said sheepishly. "Nice one, Trixie."

"Someone has to think sensibly around here."

-0-0-0-

Not that Twilight had intended to count, but it was another twenty-three minutes and forty-eight seconds until the Emperor's airship arrived and was secured to the upper branches of Griffonstone. Cadence flew down off the ship first, and grimaced as she landed on the muddy ground.

"Hmm, I knew Griffonstone was a little rough, but I didn't expect this."

"Everyone's a critic," Gilda grumbled from behind Twilight. The only reason she was still there was because she didn't know what else to do, and none of the other griffons here had bothered to show up and meet their new ruler.

"Hopefully the Emperor's reaction is just as muted," Luna said to Cadence as her eyes watched the airship above them. "I rather get the feeling it won't be though."

Twilight shared Luna's feelings on the matter, "We'll see soon enough."

A few minutes later the Emperor flew down from the ship, although flew was a rather strong description for the lazy glide down to the ground he performed. The thought that it was probably the furthest he'd flown in quite some time passed through the mind of at least some of the observers there.

Like Cadence, the Emperor recoiled at the filth he was forced to place his claws into as he landed. "Good heavens, why is this place so disgusting? What have you ponies done with this place?"

"We didn't do anything-" Luna started to say before getting interrupted.

"Clearly! Perhaps you should have! I thought far better of you than to think you'd force the griffons here to live in such a lowly manner."

"Griffonstone was granted the right to self govern," Luna explained. "The state of Griffonstone is the responsibility of the griffons living here, and nothing to do with us, so do not blame us for it."

The Emperor grunted, hearing what Luna was saying only as an excuse. He turned on the spot, taking in the sights, his imagination filling with visions of grandeur as he thought of what to do with the place. Griffonia and Equestria might be allies now, but that didn't mean he couldn't turn Griffonstone into a something grand to show off before all the ponies.

"I suppose it is what it is," he said after a few moments. "Who's in charge here? Is there a mayor or something I could talk to?"

Luna shook her head, "Griffonstone has been leaderless since King Guto died some time ago without leaving an heir. Since then there hasn't been anyone willing to step up and lead."

"Actually, that's not quite true," Gilda piped up in a voice that hinted at mischief. "At times when we do need a leader, the eldest is sort of who we go to."

"Gilda, no," Gabby, Gilda's grey companion protested. "We're supposed to be making a good impression."

"Is that why you're the only two out here to greet me?" the Emperor asked, "To make a good impression?"

"Griffonstone was under attack less than an hour ago," said Twilight. "I might still be staying indoors if I was them."

"Very well," the Emperor conceded grumpily. "Can you bring this elder to me, young griffon?"

"Absolutely," Gilda said gleefully while Gabby hid her face behind a claw. "I'll be right back."

"What a helpful young griffon." The Emperor took another glance around Griffonstone, his expression more thoughtful than before. "So is there anything you want me to sign saying I now own this place? Preferably using ink and not blood this time."

"I don't think so," Luna said, checking to see if Twilight or Cadence had anything to say on it. "I'm pretty sure we included that in the formation of the Union."

"Oh good, in that case..." The Emperor pointed a claw into the distance towards Equestria, "ponies, out."

The three princesses were stunned, and started flapping their jaws demanding that the Emperor explain himself when he started to laugh. "That was too easy. I had no idea you three were so gullible."

"You did have a very straight face," Luna said back in an attempt to be diplomatic. Even if it were a joke, she was still fuming inside. Even so, she had to admit that he really did get them. "Perhaps we're not in a very receptive mood either."

"Well, perhaps not, it has been a busy day."

"I'm telling you now, young missy, I ain't gonna kow-tow to no Emperor that comes here. Griffonstone don't need no king, and it don't need no Emperor!"

All of them stopped at the yelled proclamation of Griffonstone independence that came from the elderly griffon being escorted towards them by Gilda and Gabby. He seemed to be part vulture, and was wearing a rather spiffy fez that complemented his unusual mannerisms. At least, unusual for the rest of the world. He probably fit right in around Griffonstone.

Gilda bowed before the four members of royalty. "Emperor, princesses, may I introduce you to Grampa Gruff, the elder of Griffonstone," she said while Gabby continued to hide behind her claw.

The two sides eyed each other for several long seconds, which was quite a feat since it was eight eyeballs against Gramps Gruff's singular working one, but he held his own with ease. He then cleared his throat and spoke.

"I'm not saying anything until I see my lawyer!"

The three alicorns shared a look while the Emperor tried to figure out what to say. "You're not in trouble, my friend."

"Is that so? Two bits says otherwise!"

"What?" The Emperor shook his head, "Look, elder-"

"Who 're you calling old? I'm still a spring chicken yet!" Grampa Gruff fluffed up his balding chest, losing more feathers in the process, and making something in his back click. "Dang it! Gilda! Do the thing!" Gilda smacked a claw down on his back, apparently fixing whatever had jammed up, but also sending him into a wheezing cough that thankfully lasted for only a few seconds. "That's the stuff."

The Emperor's expression went cold as he stared into the innocent eyes of Gilda. "I'm told you're the impromptu leader of Griffonstone," he said stiffly. "Is that correct?"

"Hah! Only 'cause I keep drawing the short straw! I get the feeling the others might be cheating the amount of times I've ended up with it."

"We haven't drawn straws in years," Gabby said in an attempt to be helpful.

"Really? Then who the heck have I been drawing all those straws with? Why the heck am I still in charge?" Grampa Gruff stopped and stared myopically at the Emperor, "Who 're you again? Wait, don't answer if you're gonna charge me for it."

"I am Hergest, Emperor of Griffonia and the Griffon Empire, and I've met you now to discuss the future of Griffonstone. As of a recent agreement with the princesses of Equestria, Griffonstone is once again part of the Griffon Empire. I wish to see this place returned to its former glory, and as leader of the people here I'm sure you know of a lot of things that could be improved on."

"Is that so?" Grampa gruff whistled as the Emperor nodded, "In that case, I suppose the well could do with a new bucket. The current one has a few holes in." Grampa Gruff pointed at a nearby well with a bucket sat on its edge. The bucket had a couple of arrows stuck through it.

"And that's it?" the Emperor asked after a few seconds of waiting. "There's nothing else you could think of?"

"Someone might want to burn those bodies before disease starts to spread. Dunno who'd leave all these dead ponies lying around anyway."

"Nothing else at all?" the Emperor asked again, his voice sounding more and more hopeless all the time.

"I suppose a lick of paint around the place wouldn't hurt, but we ain't paying ya for it!"

"Of course. I'm... glad we had this talk, Grampa Gruff. I'm sure we'll have plenty more to discuss over the coming weeks."

"Yeah, and I bet you'll be saying them down to me from your fancy throne in the castle. Also, I ain't your grampa. I ain't anyone's grampa! Don't know why I get called it! I'm not even that old!"

"You don't seem particularly young to me," said Luna.

"That's 'cause being poor ages ya! Gimme a few bits and I'll be the handsomest griffon you ever did see." Gramp Gruff cleared his throat, "Non refundable."

The Emperor stepped between them to get the elderly griffon's attention, "You mentioned a throne?"

"No I didn't. You can't prove anything!"

"Yes you di-" The Emperor groaned, deciding to change tact. "Is there a throne room here in Griffonstone?"

Grampa Gruff eyed the Emperor suspiciously, "I might know, for the right price. My memory goes fuzzy without a little coin to keep it clear."

"I think I see why Celestia decided to keep her muzzle out of Griffonstone," Luna commented as the two griffons descended into a haggling war over the price of that information. "Nothing is free. Especially the stuff that is."

"And what's the price of that?" Twilight asked.

"Time, patience, and sanity, if I were to guess."

-0-0-0-

"Okay, so while we're off doing what we need to, Commander Lurin will lead an assault to take the Griffish Isles, agreed?"

The heads of the various people around Twilight nodded in agreement with what should've been a relatively simple thing to explain. Instead it had started with complaints about the throne room, moved on to arguments about why there was a mouldy tree stump growing a harvest of mushrooms in the middle of the room, which had then progressed into a discussion about the Idol of Boreas, and why it was a really dumb idea. Once past that, they actually managed to get on track.

"Right, good. In that case, we also need to alter the route the airships will take." Twilight placed the tip of her hoof onto the map she had unfurled on the stump, "We can't fly them directly to Trottingham, because it'll take us past Canterlot, and the place we keep a lot of our stuff. I propose a longer route that takes us most of the way to Griffonstone to throw the scent off, then turn north for Trottingham. Any arguments?"

Again there was no arguments. Twilight was still a bit iffy about their location of choice in Trottingham, rather than the far more defensible Griffonstone, but she had to concede that the Griffish Isles did present a lot more space to hide all these ponies, especially with Griffonstone acting as a bit of a red herring for any would be pursuers. Hopefully there wouldn't be any at all, but better careful than not.

"Then we have a new-ish plan, and I hope we're not going to be throwing more last minute additions into it." Twilight rolled the map back up, wondering why that simple, little thing took so much effort. "All we need now is a report back from the Wonderbolts and we're good to go." Twilight withheld her cheer. They were finally going to get her friends back!

"I wish we could also hear from one of our other allies regarding his preparedness," said Luna. "A lot of what we hope is now hinging on him." Her expression went flat, "Oh how I wish it wasn't."

"Him?" Trixie asked. "Are you talking about Discord?"

Luna shut her mouth with a click as Trixie blurted out a name she'd been hoping to keep unsaid. There was surprisingly little protest from those who had been ignorant of his inclusion in things, so feeling optimistic she decided to confirm it.

"That's right. We need him to do whatever he plans to do to the Tree of Harmony, but also to provide a distraction for Faust that she'll never be able to resist."

"Then why don't you just say his name three times backwards to summon him?"

"Because I really don't think that'll wor-"

"Drocsid, Drocsid, Drocsid!"

"-k?" Luna's ears twitched as a sensation of power filled the room, along with a tension as the shadows grew longer and darker. Then they started to crawl across the floor, piling together into the mismatched shape of Discord, who seemed much bigger and angrier than usual.

"Who dares summon Discor- Oh, it's you lot." All of a sudden the shadows were gone, and Discord seemed much more like himself. "Hi, how you all doing? Nice to see you, to see you nice!"

"I can't believe that actually worked," Luna said in disbelief.

"I can't believe you actually consort with this demon," said the Emperor.

Discord rolled his eyes at the both of them, "And I can't believe it's not butter, but no one ever wants to hear about my problems." He turned and checked out his surroundings, "Ah, Griffonstone. I thought I could smell avarice."

"I wonder who else I could summon by saying their name backwards?"

"Don't you dare, Trixie," Twilight said quickly, even though she doubted it would work. That said, it worked for Discord, so that did set a precedent.

"Spoilsport."

Twilight narrowed her eyes at Trixie, then slapped a smile onto her face as she turned to Discord. "So, how are you? Are you ready to do your part in all this?"

"I'd say I was born ready, but I wasn't exactly born. Suffice to say, yes I'm ready to fiddle with the Tree and be Faust's favourite target while you all pretend you're doing the real work in saving the world."

"Your contribution is valued as well, Discord," Cadence said to the draconequus.

"Ahh! A pretty mare is talking to me! What do I say, Twilight?"

"Why are you asking me? Wait, are you implying I'm not pretty? I can be pretty!" Twilight sighed as she heard herself, "Why do I even care right now? The important part is that you're ready, and that we're ready, and that they aren't ready."

"One might almost say I'm... nervouscited," Discord said with a grin at Twilight, knowing that she knew he was quoting Pinkie Pie.

"Still not a real word, even when you say it," Twilight growled. "Especially if you say it."

"I could put that word into every dictionary with a click of my claw."

"Oh please don't. I don't have anywhere near enough time to burn every dictionary in the world."

"If you're quite done," Luna said sharply to the both of them.

"Uh-oh, fun police." Discord held his two upper limbs out in front of him and poofed some shackles onto them. "It's a fair cop, guv'ner."

Luna eyed the strange blue uniform she suddenly found herself wearing. "Amusing. However, there is still things we must do before we set off for Ponyville. Twilight, contact Fleur to let her know to get ready to strike. As soon as we have the Wonderbolts report we shall be telling them to make their attack. Emperor, Commander Lurin, if you'd be so kind as to ready your soldiers and airships. Cadence, you, Ember, and I need to discuss what we will be doing about my sister."

"And I suppose I'm free to go?" Discord asked.

"You are, so long as you know when to do your part."

"Oh ye of little faith." With a puff of smoke, Discord was gone.

Twilight gestured with her head for Trixie to follow her, "Come on Trixie, we should probably go over what we'll be doing just to make sure. We can't afford any mistakes."

"Ugh, I was afraid you'd say that."

-0-0-0-

The reaction had been slow, but now the Mareitanians were finally getting their shit together to go and defend the eastern seaboard from the dastardly changeling menace. Rainbow wished she could see their faces when they found out how badly they'd been duped. Nothing like a good ruse to put a smile on your face, or to rip it off of others.

Trains were slowly being loaded at the bottom of the Canterhorn Mountain, and it seemed that Faust was taking no risks in defeating this new enemy. She was sending almost everything to secure Manehattan, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare. She intended to put the changelings down hard and fast. Rainbow felt she was underestimating how hard that would actually be, but at the same time Faust quite possibly didn't really know what changelings were. Overwhelming them with numbers won't beat an enemy that can hide in plain sight.

Not that it would actually come to a full on battle for any of the cities. Chrysalis had made that explicitly clear, and none of the princesses had said to go that far either. The changelings only had keep the Mareitanians occupied for a day or two, and that was it. Easy really.

Unfortunately that didn't really answer the question of what Chrysalis had been up to. Rainbow dreaded to think what Lightning and Vapor would report back from Fillydelphia and Baltimare, and she hated what they'd find when they all went to scout Manehattan before heading back to Griffonstone. She supposed she should also warn Chrysalis that the Mareitanians were coming. It was a different matter whether she deserved that warning or not.

Deciding that there was nothing more she could learn from watching the Mareitanians from a distance, Rainbow started to fly for Manehattan. Hopefully Lightning and Vapor would be done by now, and heading for the city themselves.
Lightning and Vapor spotted her first, having already reached the city together before Rainbow did, so they came to meet her first. Rainbow told them what she'd seen first, putting off hearing what they were going to say because if it was bad she didn't really want to hear it at all. Too bad she couldn't actually stop them telling her, although what she did hear wasn't what she expected.

"It was pretty quiet actually," Vapor said, sounding like she couldn't quite believe it herself. "The changelings were all over the city, and there were quite a few captive ponies being held in certain areas, but as far as I could tell most of the ponies living there were hiding indoors, perfectly unharmed."

"And there were none dead at all?" Rainbow asked. She refused to believe the changelings could've done what they did without taking some lives, as much as she wished it wasn't so.

"From what I could see I only found five dead, so unless they were hiding the bodies, I think the changelings actually did okay." Vapor shrugged, "I guess we might've been wrong."

"Yeah, let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. What's the story in Fillydelphia, Lightning?"

"Pretty much the same, actually," Lightning said, although it seemed like the admission hurt her to say. "Except I only found two dead ponies, so... yeah, I don't know. I guess that Chrysalis talks a big game, but doesn't actually want to piss us off. Is it bad to say I'd feel better about things if I'd found loads of dead bodies?"

"Yes?" said Vapor. "I'd like to think that's not something you actually want."

"No, of course not, but you know what I mean, right? Rainbow?"

"Yeah, I get it," Rainbow nodded. "I guess we're all going to have to cut her some slack after this. I'm betting that's exactly why she did it too. I suppose we should get on and see what's going on in Manehattan so we can report back to Twilight and the others."

It was only a short flight to get over Manehattan, and much like what Lightning and Vapor had described from the other two cities, things were rather quiet. Well, quiet if you ignored the hundreds of changelings buzzing around. Pony-wise it was quiet. Speaking of changelings though, as soon as they were spotted flying over the city, a couple dozen flew up in what was obviously an attack.

"Wait!" Lightning shouted at them, "We're here to see Chrysalis! I mean Queen Chrysalis! We're on your side!"

The changelings pulled off from their attack, and instead circled around the three Wonderbolts before one of them, indistinguishable from the others, hovered in front of them to speak.

"Ponies are allies of Queen Chrysalis and pony princesses?"

"Yes!" Lightning cleared her throat, "I mean yes. We'd like to see her if possible?"

The changeling changed the tone of its buzzing for a moment, then nodded. "Will take ponies to Queen, but if ponies don't want to caught consorting with a so called enemy, ponies should act like changelings. That means showing respect to Queen, and not using pronouns."

"No pronouns?" said Rainbow. "Seriously? Queen Chrysalis is still doing that?"

"The individual is the enemy of the hive," the changeling said flatly, making it hard to tell whether it was being said with distaste, or if they were just being a changeling.

"Yeah, you're apparently going to become part of Equestria, and we all use pronouns. Pretty sure you're going to have to get used to that."

"If ponies want to not get caught consorting with enemy changelings, ponies must act-"

"Like a changeling, yeah, we get it." Rainbow shrugged at the other two, hoping to convey the message that changelings are weird. "Lead on... other changeling."

They were escorted down into the very centre of Manehattan, into the square that Rainbow could never remember the name of, but had all the fancy light up billboards. There Chrysalis had built up a throne for herself where she was being waited on by a couple of terrified mares. Rainbow shot her the angriest look she could, but given the restraints of having to act like a changeling there wasn't anything she could really do.

"Ah, my loyal subjects," Chrysalis said tauntingly to the three pegasi. "What bring you here?"

"The pri- Hek!" Rainbow wheezed as Lightning elbowed her in the side, and she knew why. She'd almost said princesses, which would totally give away the link between them and Chrysalis to the ponies cowering at Chrysalis' hooves.

"The Mareitanians are coming," Lightning said instead, "as predicted. They are leaving Canterlot as we speak."

"Hmm, a little slower than anticipated, but that's hardly a problem. How are things in Fillydelphia and Baltimare?"

"Much like here, although they haven't had a warning that the Mareitanians are coming, and we won't have the time to give it." Lightning made sure to emphasize that last bit, hinting that they weren't here as messengers for Chrysalis. "Queen might want to tell them herself."

"Yes, yes," Chrysalis said boredly. "And what of our benefactors? Will you be going to tell them as well?"

"Yes, Queen Chrysalis."

"And what will you be telling them?"

"That we have done as asked with minimal casualties," which was true since they hadn't seen any more bodies in Manehattan than anywhere else. "A slight misappropriation of living ponies might be ignored if it were to end now."

Chrysalis rolled her eyes and shooed the ponies at her hooves away to join a number of others being held in the square. "Our benefactors really are bores sometimes, but I suppose I should keep these ponies away from where the Mareitanians can wantonly slaughter them and make me look bad."

"Yes, Queen Chrysalis. We shall go report to our benefactors now, with your blessing."

"Yes, yes, off you go my good little servants, and tell our benefactors that they have forty-eight hours from now to complete their tasks. I shan't bother holding these cities past then, not at the risk of being overwhelmed."

"As you wish." Lightning bowed before Chrysalis and took off with Rainbow and Vapor right behind her. "I hate that bug," she said once she thought they were far enough away.

"Pretty sure she hates us too," Rainbow said back with a snicker.

"And I'm pretty sure we couldn't have been more obvious," said Vapor. "If those ponies tell a Mareitanian about that benefactor business, it probably wouldn't be too hard to work out who we really mean."

"No," said Lightning, "but by the time that happens it really shouldn't matter. Come on, the sooner we get back to Griffonstone, the sooner we can get all of this over with. Especially since Chrysalis has now given us a time limit. That was nice of her."

Author's Note

Must remember to press publish button...

46. Fate has been cruel and Order unkind

"Good job guys," Twilight whispered as she stood at the bow of the Emperor's airship, watching the smoke rise from Canterlot in the distance. All she could do was hope beyond hope that they were all okay. More selfishly she hoped her family was okay, as well as Fleur and the filly. The others maybe, possibly, took slight, teeny tiny a back seat to those. She could tell Cadence was worried too, but like herself the pink alicorn kept it inside for now.

"The time has come then," Luna said, standing proudly beside them, Ember and a disguised Nightmare beside her. "We should make all haste to the Everfree Castle before Faust and Celestia depart."

"We should make all haste with all parts of this plan," Twilight corrected her. "But yes, it's time for you to go. Discord?"

"Yes?" Discord said back like he'd been there the entire time, rather than having just poofed into existence right then.

"Are you ready?"

"Oh please, I was born ready, despite never having actually been born. I skipped puberty too. I really don't feel like I missed anything doing that."

"Off you go then, and good luck. We all know how pleased Faust will be to see you."

Discord grinned happily, "It'll be just like the good ole days, except hopefully without the hundreds left dead from collateral just from us saying so much as 'hello.'"

Discord popped away again, leaving Twilight to sigh uncomfortably. "I really hope he was joking. I guess you're off as well then?" she asked Luna.

"Indeed. Come along Cadence, Ember, Nightmare; my dear sister awaits, and won't she be ever so glad to see us. Good luck on your endeavours, all of you. I'm sure we'll all have some interesting stories to share before today is over."

"Good luck," Twilight said as the four of them leapt over the guard rail and set off into flight towards the Everfree forest, leaving Twilight to turn to Trixie and the three Wonderbolts. "I hope you're all ready as well?"

"Oh heck yeah I am!" Rainbow exclaimed, taking off just to raise a hoof into the air. "I've been waiting ages to get our friends back, and now we're finally doing it!"

"It is probably about time," Trixie said with a smirk.

"Yeah, it is." Twilight let herself worry for a moment, but knew better than to think her friends would be angry with her when they hadn't been during that brief chance she had to see them again in Fillydelphia. She shrugged it off, then raised her head to speak to the griffon piloting the airship.

"Helmsgriff, all speed to Ponyville, and have someone signal your soldiers to get ready to attack. We have some work to do."

-0-0-0-

Discord appeared in cave where the Tree of Harmony resided, filling the cave with a bright and sparkling light that danced through the shield erected around it until it faded. He never did understand why the Tree lived here of all places. The Tree of Harmony, both a font and beacon of hope and peace, and it lived in a dank little cave in a spooky forest.

Perhaps it didn't have a choice. Perhaps it was forced to stay where it was planted, which only begged the question of why Faust planted it here of all places? It made no sense, and as far as he was concerned it was proof that Faust had always been the unhinged one, not him.

"Hello there, Treesie," Discord said to the Tree as he walked up to it. "I'm going to do something to you, and you either might or might not like it." Discord stopped just outside the shield and inspected it. With slow deliberation, he raised his eagle claw and rapped a single knuckle against the shield, shattering it like an eggshell.

"You never were the best at shields, Order."

Discord paused as the tone in the air changed. He felt... expected. Welcomed even, like the Tree was pleased to see him. That was not something he expected, and made him just a touch uneasy. Still, there was a job to do, and he was happy to do it because all of this finally meant getting rid of Order, and getting Fluttershy back. Not necessarily in that order.

Raising a claw, Discord let raw chaos well up in it, a eye hurting, mind bending cloud of impossible geometry, nonsensical gibberish, a touch of paisley, and one of the fundamental basics of the universe. There is nothing without chaos.

"I suppose I should've brought you dinner first, but I have no idea what it is you actually live on."

Discord pressed his claw to the trunk of the Tree, feeding his chaos into it as fast as it would absorb it, which was surprisingly quickly as it seems. He kept feeding his magic into the Tree until suddenly it stopped, and he let go, shaking a claw that now ached from what he'd done.

The Tree started to quiver and shake, groaning with horribly delicate pinging sounds as its crystalline structure was forced into a new shape. Discord stepped back in alarm, rather concerned that he might've royally screwed things up as the creaking and cracking filled the cave.

Slowly though the noise slowed as the Tree took on a new shape. Admittedly it was much like the old one, but far softer looking. It was still made of dazzling crystals, but the shape was far more organic, more like an actual tree, rather than being all sharp facets and jagged edges. It was actually rather beautiful, and it pulsed with a power it didn't have before.

Almost as an afterthought the Elements of Harmony were released from their branches. They regained their familiar form of necklaces and a big crown thingy, but the Elements themselves seem to have changed along with the Tree, becoming softer and rounder, and glowed with a gentle inner light that hadn't been there before, making the Elements feel alive in a way they hadn't previously.

A feel of insistence in the air made Discord take the Elements in his claws, and he didn't know how he knew, but he knew he needed to get them to Twilight. That part would prove to be easier done than said, which was good because he could feel Order coming, and she was not going to be happy to see him.

Discord clapped his claws together, popping the Elements away to the Retreat in the frozen north, where they would hopefully appear in an easy to find place, like the middle of the floor. Just in time too as the musical burst of a teleport echoed behind him. Discord put on his cheesiest grin, and spun to face Faust, his claws held out like he expected a hug.

"Order, darling, it's been far too long!"

"You! What are you doing he-" Faust stopped midsentence as she noticed the difference in the Tree's appearance. She seemed to forget Discord as she slowly walked towards it, trying to work out why it was different.

"You like it?" Discord asked, his satisfaction growing at Faust's disquiet. "I think the Tree does, although I'm sure it's just happy to be from under your stampy little hoof."

"W-w-what did you do? Why is it different?" Faust stamped around to face Discord, her confusion turning to anger in the blink of an eye. "What did you do!?"

"Nothing that shouldn't have been done a long time ago," Discord replied snidely. "Trying to synthesize your own chaos, how dare you. Nope, I decided that wasn't good enough, so I gave the Tree the real deal, and look how happy and healthy it is now." Discord wiped an imaginary tear from his eye, "Papa's so proud."

Faust responded with violence, blasting Discord with a spell that threatened to vaporise his physical form if he hadn't decided to not be standing in front of her while she did it. "I know you're angry, but I'm sure we can come to an amicable solution where we can have our kid every other week."

"Shut up!" Faust tried to attack Discord again, her magic melting a swath of the ground to molten slag as she turned to strike him.

"Alright fine, but I'm not going any lower than having her every other weekend."

-0-0-0-

"So how are we doing this?" Nightmare asked cheerfully as she, Luna, Cadence, and Ember flew low over the canopy of the Everfree. "Are we going in horns blazing? Or are we going to sneak in and find Celestia the hard way, then take her by surprise?"

Luna peered sideways at her doppelganger, "I'm pretty sure she's going to be surprised whatever we do. Personally I'm hoping she's actually here, and not-"

Splort!

Luna's words were lost to the strange sounding explosion that lit up part of the forest, reducing it to ash, cinders, and tartan carpeting. "I suppose we can take that to mean Discord has Faust's attention. I guess that also means he's done what he needed to do to the Tree."

"Do you feel any different?" Cadence asked, looking to both Luna and Nightmare for an answer.

Luna shared a look with Nightmare, who shrugged and shook her head. "Honestly, no. I hadn't even realised he'd done it. Perhaps we worried for nothing, and there are no side effects. Perhaps our binding to the Tree was only ever tangential at most. Who knows?"

"I bet Faust could give us an answer," said Nightmare. "All we'd have to be is brave enough to ask."

Luna dismissed the idea, "I'd sooner remain in ignorance. Besides, we're nearly at the castle, so let us put our minds to that first."

They dropped down below the canopy half a mile from the castle to avoid being spotted as they made their approach. Not that it would be difficult to avoid detection if they so wished, but Luna would rather see what they were dealing with first.

A hasty trot brought them to the road leading to the castle, newly made during its reconstruction, although it seemed to be used a lot less now as the flora of the Everfree started to reclaim the gravel track. Following the track towards the castle eventually brought them to a ravine spanned by a stone bridge rather than the rickety rope one that had been there previously.

"Aw, I remember this place," Nightmare said with a certain fondness. "This is where we tried to tempt Rainbow away from her friends by letting her join the Shadowbolts as captain. Do you remember, Luna?"

Rolling her eyes, Luna snorted un-amusedly. "How could I forget?"

"How indeed?" Nightmare said sarcastically since she was the one that ended up with the vast majority of their memories.

"Since the Shadowbolts were only an illusion, do you remember what we were actually going to do with Rainbow Dash?"

Nightmare shrugged, "I don't know. Were we ever going to have a sex dungeon?"

"A sex dungeon? What has that got to do with- Stars above, Nightmare, you're disgusting!"

"But a pegasus athlete like her with the stamina she has... unf, the things we could have done." Nightmare started to laugh as Luna wheeled on her with a growl, "I'm joking, I'm joking. Mostly. You actually wanted to be a good ruler to your little ponies, barring the fact they'd be dead within a few weeks of eternal night. You'd probably release her to live with the shame of having betrayed her country for a obviously false promise... for a few weeks until she died in the frozen wasteland of your making."

"Thank you for reminding me of that." Luna covered her eyes, embarrassed at how stupid that all sounded to her now, and how close she came to ending all life on the planet.

"Besides, I'm pretty sure Cadence would've been prime material for a sex dungeon once you'd broken her spirit. Only room for one princess in Equestria after all."

"Now I know you're making that up. I wasn't even aware of Cadence until after I was redeemed."

Nightmare smiled knowingly, "And?"

"And everything!" Luna smacked Nightmare on the side, "Shut up."

"Besides, in that kind of situation I'd wouldn't put a bet on who broke first." Cadence smiled as both Luna and Nightmare gawped at her. "Just saying."

"By the ancestors, will you all shut up?" Ember groaned, having heard enough. "How the fuck is this what you're all talking about? I mean, come on! Seriously?"

Luna cleared her throat in embarrassment as that topic had gone on for far too long, and should probably never been brought up at all. "Apologies, Ember. I suppose we should make our way in. There doesn't appear to be many guards around here to impede us."

"I wonder why?" said Cadence. "You'd think a place like this would be swarming with guards."

"They're likely out enforcing the ban from entering the forest." Luna shrugged, "Besides, with both Celestia and Faust residing here, guards seem a little redundant."

"Maybe Faust doesn't even want her own soldiers hanging around her castle," Nightmare added. "Not if she's hiding what we think she's hiding here."

"Only one way to find out if that's true," Luna said as she started to cross the bridge into the castle grounds. "Come on, there's no way we'll find anything out by hiding in a bush out here."

She walked slow until they caught up, but a large part of that was to give her time to observe the castle itself. The builders had done an excellent job of restoring the place, even down to the last gargoyle. It was as dark and gothic as Luna remembered it being, but there was something not quite right with it, and it took her a couple of minutes to work out. This had been the Castle of the Two Sisters, but every trace of one of those sisters, herself, had been painstakingly removed.

"Must Faust destroy everything that I have?"

"Pretty sure you destroyed this place first," Nightmare said, having noticed the same thing as Luna, and came to the same conclusion, but with the added benefit of not really caring. "You should be glad that piece of shame is gone."

Luna chewed on the inside corner of her lip as that particular memory came up. Restored as the castle might be, there was no forgetting that shame. That didn't mean she couldn't have a dig at Nightmare.

"That's right, I have you to remind me of everything I did wrong instead."

"Aw, you love me really."

"Yes, like a favourite rash, or a particularly unpleasant smell that's as intriguing as it is disgusting." Luna took hold of the heavy iron in the huge double doors of the castle, and twisted it, unlatching the door to let it creak ponderously open, wincing at the noise. "Well, if they didn't know we were here, they do now."

The inside was just as subtly altered as the outside. None of the banners belonging to Luna that had hung throughout the castle were present. Instead there were only Celestia's, giving the castle a very sunny feel inside since they favoured warmer colours. That was where the effect ended though. Restored as the castle might be, the absence of ponies made it feel as cold and lifeless as it had been for the last thousand years.

"No welcoming party?" Nightmare tutted. "What a disappointment. So, where should we start our search for Celestia?"

"We aren't. Not yet at least." There was a banner at the far end of the hall above the stairs, showing Faust overshadowing the smaller figure of Celestia, with her wings curled around the smaller mare. It was probably meant to appear like a loving embrace, but to Luna it seemed as though to say that Celestia belonged to Faust. It make her skin crawl. "I'd rather see what's being hidden in this place, because we might not get the chance afterwards. Follow me."

The layout of the castle was exactly as Luna remembered it, and Luna couldn't help but think that it was to help reinforce whatever had been done to Celestia. She'd have to know more of what had been done to be sure, but Luna wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth since it allowed her to easily guide their way to the lower reaches of the castle.

The hall of hooves had been removed, along with yet one more piece of Luna's childhood. Not that she particularly minded that part going missing because those disembodied hooves were creepy as get all out. The traps had also been removed, along with every pitfall, false door, and all the other things that made living here such an amusingly hazardous occupation. It had become boring.

It has also become home to decent amount of critters judging by the sounds as they went deeper. Squawking, barking, and other noises could be heard, as well as the rattle of cages. Luna started to dread what they were going to find down here.

What they did find was a large chamber, bigger than Luna remembered there being down here, and it was filled to the brim with cages of all sizes holding a large variety of animals from the mundane cats, dogs, rabbits, and others, to the more fantastical puckwudgies, phoenix's, timberwolves, and many more besides. All of them hollered as the three alicorns and dragon drew near.

"Ugh, it stinks like a cesspit in here," Nightmare commented of the smell so many nervous animals living in close proximity made. "What could Faust possibly want with all these?"

"I'm going to say the answer is nothing good," Luna said back. Luna lowered her head down level with a caged timberwolf that snapped its wooden jaws at her and growled. "At least this explains what happened to all the animals Twilight saw caged up here."

Cadence shook her head, "This doesn't explain nearly enough. Faust doesn't do anything without a reason, insane as those reasons might be. Why have all these here?"

"I smell ponies," Ember mentioned before any of the others could give Cadence an answer. "Maybe a griffon too, and-" Ember sniffed harder, "-maybe a kirin? I don't know, but there's definitely more than just these animals here."

Luna was about to ask where when she saw an entrance into an adjoining chamber. Shrugging at the others she went through into a room similar to the one they'd just been in, but containing cages and pens holding a different variety of creature. There were cows and sheep, a trio of griffons, a kirin, and in one pen a pair of ponies, one male, one female. The female appeared to be pregnant.

Luna walked through them, unease growing in her at the way the people in here were looking at her. The cows bayed in fear, the sheep panicked, the griffons appeared to want to eat her, and the kirin got so worked up it caught fire, which only seemed to frighten it further.

"What is going on here?" Luna asked out loud. She hoped the ponies might give her answers, but felt that hope fade with the way the ponies looked at her as well. They weren't frightened, at least not by her, although the other creatures were spooking them a little. What they were doing was worse, they were looking at her with rather blank expressions.

"Greetings, my little ponies," Luna said in as friendly a manner as possible to the blue and white ponies. "I don't suppose you could tell me why you're here? Do you know what Faust's doing with all these animals?"

The stallion whinnied. Honest to goodness whinnied. That was not a reply that Luna expected, but when he grabbed a mouthful of hay to chew on while he stared at her she knew she wasn't going to get much more of an answer.

"They don't have cutie marks," Cadence observed.

"They're missing a lot more than that," said Nightmare. "They've been made into simple animals."

"But how?"

"How could I possibly know?"

Luna probed the minds of the ponies, hoping to find some kind of spell that was making them this way, but there was nothing she could find, at least not directly. There were traces of Faust's magic, but from what little Luna could tell the magic had been used to make direct changes rather than to enchant.

Luna jerked as it came to her, "This is her plan?"

"Her plan for what?" asked Cadence.

"Her plan for 'the' plan. To create her natural order she's going to make everyone like these ponies here."

"How?"

"Maybe this could tell you?" said Ember, waving an old style ledger in her claw. "I found it in the lab setup at the end of the room, but it's written in old so I can't read it."

"Old?" Luna took the ledger and looked at the front, and the single word written upon it, Apotheosis. There was a word to fill you with confidence considering what they'd found. The inside was written in old equish, which probably made sense for Faust to use, but did make reading a slower process.

"Restituere ordinem oportet vivere incipit," Luna read out loud. "Re- Restoring order... starts with... life?" Luna read it over again and sighed, "I must be rustier than I thought. How about you, Nightmare? You seem to have a knack for languages."

Nightmare rolled her eyes but took the book to start skimming through it. "Okay, so she's acquired several species native to Equestria to begin with and intends to use the non-sapient ones to create a template for the sapient ones. Then we have about thirty pages of failures and moaning, and a rant about how the accursed Discord is to blame for her inability to do this. Oh, and then she does it the next day."

"Really?"

Nightmare tapped a hoof on the page, "It's right here, I'm not making it up. Anyway, she succeeded in transplanting the more predatory, primal instincts of a timberwolf into a griffon without making the griffon forget it was a griffon. Good for her," Nightmare deadpanned. "Returned him to cage with the two females, and- Oh, gross! That's horrible."

"I'm guessing that's nothing we want to hear about?" said Luna.

"No, but Faust converted the two females afterwards as what she calls a kindness, and that she feels terrible for not thinking of what might happen. Anyway... pleased with her success there she goes on to succeed with cows and sheep, but has been met with limited success with Ponies and the kirin. She can't stop them catching fire."

Luna started laughing, "Seems we were right about Faust's promise to the kirin."

"Uh-huh." Nightmare started skimming through the pages again. "Ah, here we are, achieved success with the ponies. Converted both and let them breed to see if foals will be as she hopes. Using magic to accelerate gestation, will discover if it works in a couple of months." Nightmare snickered at an absent Faust, "So you're literally attempting to breed stupidity. I'm sure that'll work exactly how you want."

"So that's how she intends to make this work?" Cadence said in disgust. "By forcing mares to breed with this stallion?"

"Not quite, there's quite a bit on the vector she intends to use. Basically she's created a serum that when injected into both mares and stallions will do nothing at the time to avoid panic, but subsequent generations will display the traits she worked to create. Yep, she's breeding stupidity."

Luna's blood ran cold, "Has she already started this process?"

"Uh... no, she plans to wait until after she's pacified all the nations of the world, allowing her to create templates for all sapient species to begin with. Inflicting all nations at the same time will create less panic and resistance, or so she hopes."

"Then we stop it now." Luna pointed at the laboratory at the end of the room, "We'll keep the journal as proof, but the rest of it must be destroyed."

"What about the people Faust experimented on?" Cadence asked.

"I'm afraid they shall have to be culled, to stop Faust's plans at its very source."

"What? No!" Cadence stepped in-between Luna and the ponies, "You can't just kill them because of what Faust did to them! That's cruel, and unfair, and she's pregnant! Maybe they can be cured. Maybe Discord could do something if we can't!"

Luna groaned, although she was glad in a way. She had no desire to actually kill anything here, and this gave her a tiny scapegoat in that she could now make it Cadence's problem. Perhaps there was an alternative solution though that could please both parties.

"Would you accept them being sterilized? Assuming they can't be fixed that is. Once the females have given birth at least, although the young would have to be sterilized as well. That way they can live, and Faust's treachery contained to these few unfortunate souls."

"Why didn't you think of that in the first place?!"

Luna didn't reply because saying that she didn't have the time or energy to cart these hapless beings around sounded bad even to her. She supposed it wouldn't matter in a week or two seeing as how Faust would be defeated by then, with any luck. Perhaps they could stay here for now, and Faust would likely sustain them until her defeat.

"Let's destroy this abomination of a laboratory then proceed with finding Celestia. I think we've seen enough of what Faust has to offer to not search any deeper."

-0-0-0-

Quarter of an hour later found them stalking through the upper parts of the castle. There was still no guards, and still no Celestia, although they'd barely started looking. Luna was guiding them towards what she remembered to be Celestia's old bedroom in the east wing, facing the sun as it rose. Luna had the west wing, with the nothing particular special about what it faced, although it did get some pleasant sunsets. She suspected all traces of that being her room were eradicated, which killed her curiosity in finding out.

"Is there some reason why we're avoiding the throne room?" Cadence asked suddenly, breaking a silence that had followed them for quite some time.

"No reason," Luna and Nightmare said together, giving each other a hard look when they did.

"Real convincing," said Ember.

"That is a place of unpleasant memories for the both of us," Luna confessed after a few seconds. "Pardon us if we wish to save it for last."

"Even though that's where Celestia most likely is."

There was no denying that, but Luna was determined to leave it until last so closed the subject by refusing to speak of it any further.

It wasn't long after that they heard crying, and a voice trying to sooth the one in tears. Neither of them sounded like Celestia, so with considerable caution they decided to investigate, and found the sounds coming from the room next to where Celestia's was, which was odd to Luna, because the room next to Celestia's had only ever been used for storage.

"Hello?" Luna said cautiously. There was a gasp from inside the room, and the sound of hooves a few seconds later. The door cracked open, showing a sliver of a blue earth pony mare with a pink mane wearing a maid's uniform, whose visible eye widened in surprise at what she found.

"Princess Luna? Princess Cadence?" the mare said in strongly accented ponish. The door swung open much wider, "What are you doing here? I thought you'd be looking for Celestia."

"I thought that too," Ember said dryly.

"You know we're here?" Luna asked, suddenly very worried about how this pony could possibly have known they were here.

"Oh yes, Celestia saw you coming. She's waiting for you in the throne room."

"Called it," Ember said quietly, sure no one even cared at this point.

"Who can we hear crying?" Cadence asked kindly, the sound of the crying now much louder with the door open.

"Ach, that is my sister, Aloe. She has burned her hooves."

"How?"

"On Celestia."

"On Celestia? Let me see." Cadence strode into the room to where a pink pony was sat leaning against a bed, her hooves dipped into a bowl of cold water with care being taken to not put any weight on them. The pony, Aloe, looked up in surprise as Cadence stood in front of her and lifted her hooves out of the water to use her magic to soothe them instead.

"Ooh, that's nasty," Nightmare commented on the raw and blistered hooves as they followed after Cadence. "How did that happen?"

"I'm not sure I should be telling you," the blue pony said hesitantly, wondering why a thestral was speaking over the princesses.

"Oh just tell them, Lotus! I'm pretty sure they're here to help."

Lotus nodded, accepting that. "We were giving Princess Celestia her daily massage when she saw you coming."

"Saw us coming?" Luna said incredulously. "From here?"

"You can see the bridge from the window here," Lotus explained, pointing at a small window at the end of their room. "The view is even better from Princess Celestia's room. Anyway, the moment she saw you she... turned... hot, and burned Aloe's hooves. I was lucky enough to not be touching her at the time, although I could still feel the heat. It was so intense."

"Then what?"

"I don't know, she just paced around for a while, then announced she was going to wait for you in the throne room. I brought Aloe here, and that's all I know."

"And you know nothing of what's happening in the rest of the castle?" Luna asked the mares.

Lotus shook her head, then stopped and hung it. "Only rumours, Princess, but nothing more. Queen Faust banished the rest of the staff from the castle once ponies started getting too suspicious, and we never go far from Princess Celestia's chambers on her orders. Please, help us. We don't want to be here any more."

"We never did in the first place," Aloe added.

Luna hid a groan. Not because she didn't want to rescue these ponies, but because it mean sending someone away when she needed everyone here. There was also the small problem where Ember couldn't possibly carry two full grown ponies, so that left herself, Nightmare, or Cadence to do it, and herself and Nightmare were kind of integral to her plan.

"Cadence, you're going to have to take these two to Ponyville for evacuation."

"What? But don't you need me here?"

"Yes," Luna said bluntly, "but these two need to get to safety, and Ember can't carry two ponies, but you can. Go quick, and get back here as fast as you can."

Cadence shifted from hoof to hoof, wanting to say this was a bad idea, but she couldn't disagree either. "Okay, I'll do it, but you three better be careful without me."

"Don't you worry," Luna said as Cadence scooped the two earth ponies up in her magic and teleported away, "if we're lucky none of us will have to lift a hoof to beat Celestia."

-0-0-0-

The entrance to the throne room loomed large over them, seeming all the more intimidating for what was within waiting for them. Luna had imagined this event for quite some time, and now she was here she had to admit to being worried. Her plan rested on something happening that might not actually happen.

Celestia had cracked in Zebrica, without a doubt. Whatever Faust had done to her was far from infallible. But time had passed since then, and Faust could've done plenty to reinforce Celestia's mind, assuming she even could. The real Celestia might not even exist any more.

There was only one way to find out though, and that was through this confrontation that had been long in the planning. The fact that Celestia was here waiting for it as well mean she'd had time to think on it as well, and to maybe even turn it into a trap, although Luna doubted that. The real Celestia wasn't much of one for traps, but she did enjoy games. The current Celestia probably did too.

"You might want to try going as a unicorn," Luna said to Nightmare. "Magic's probably more use to you in here."

"You're putting this off," Nightmare said back as she changed. "Stop wasting time and get in there."

"I'm not putting this off," Luna protested weakly. She totally was, and they all knew it. There really wasn't anything for it though, so she threw the doors open and strode in as boldly as she could.

Celestia was waiting for them as the twins had said, sat on the step in front of the two thrones, which appeared to be the originals as far as Luna could tell, although obviously repaired. She was wearing her royal regalia, and smiled in an all too friendly manner as they walked up to her.

"Nice to see you, sister," she said pleasantly, standing to walk up to them and close the distance.

"I'm sure it is." Luna looked about the throne room, at its columns and high stone arches. Again, apart from the complete denial of her living here, it was exactly as she remembered it. As it had been before she lost her way and destroyed it in a jealous rage.

"Do you remember the last time we were here together?"

Luna rolled her eyes, but continued to humour her sister. "How could I possibly forget? I do suspect that the way you remember it is different from the way I do."

"So you would deny abducting my mother?"

"And that's why it's different."

"How did it go again?" Celestia teleported up to the balcony above the two thrones, in front of a large stained glass window that depicted that same image of Faust embracing Celestia with her wings. "I'm pretty sure I was stood where you are now, pleading with you to stop."

"You presented a pitiful argument, if I remember correctly."

Celestia narrowed her eyes a little, "Since I was ignored anyway, I don't see how the validity of my argument matters. It certainly didn't to you."

"It was also a long time ago." Luna sighed and canted her head to the side, "What are you doing, Celestia?"

"Ah-ah! Let me finish. Now then, I was stood down there, pleading for all that was good and sane-"

"That part's true at least," Nightmare snickered quietly, earning herself a sharp glare from Luna.

"-And you were up here. What was it you said?"

"That there should be only one princess in Equestria," Luna said tiredly, "and that princess should be me."

"And then you smashed part of the balcony in your petty rage, just like this." Celestia reared up and smashed the front of the balcony in a burst of flames that carried up her legs and igniting her mane and tail into a raging inferno. When she opened her eyes again, they were darker and slitted.

Luna sighed and shook her head, and not just because Celestia had made that look way better than she had. "Oh Celestia."

"You were right about one thing at least. What you were wrong about is which princess it should be." Celestia teleported down in front of them in a swirl of flames, "What? Aren't you going to plead for me to stop?"

"Are you going to listen as much as I did? Because I'd rather save my breath if that's the case. Besides, I think you've forgotten some things that also happened, Celestia, if that's what you're still calling yourself."

"Of course it is. Why detract from something that's already perfect?" Celestia started to pace around the three of them in a circle, all of them turning to keep her in front. "I'll indulge you though and ask what it is I've forgotten?"

Luna pointed to the stained glass window, "Do you not remember me smashing that? Clearing it out of the way so I could embrace the power of darkness, and swallow your sun in a solar eclipse? Do you not remember me becoming... Nightmare Moon?"

"Nightmare Moon?" Celestia snorted with laughter, "What kind of tacky name is that? I'm pretty sure you're just making this up now."

"Ouch," Nightmare muttered, unheard.

Luna smiled, "Am I now? Show her."

Nightmare stepped forwards, her form rippling as she shed her disguise. Her coat grew black, her eyes slitted, and as an afterthought she gave herself the pale blue armour that she'd worn so long ago. "Remember me, Celestia? I certainly remember you, and the banishment you inflicted upon me."

Celestia stepped back quickly in fright, then stopped. "I know you, you're- Aaagh!" Celestia dropped to her knees as a splitting pain tore through her head, and she clutched her head in her hooves as it failed to abate. "H-how? You- Nngh!"

"Does it hurt to remember me, Celestia?" Nightmare purred, thoroughly enjoying this. "Does it hurt to remember how you banished your own sister? Oh how you cried for her."

"Silence! Give me my sister back!" Celestia froze like she couldn't quite believe what she'd just said, but a fresh wave of agony stopped her from acting on any conclusions she might have made. "What have you done to me!?"

"Nothing that hasn't already been done to you," Luna barked, happy that her gambit with showing Celestia Nightmare had been fruitful. "What you're feeling now is something Faust did to you, to bury the truth of who you are. Let it out, Celestia! Don't fight it!"

"What truth? That you banished Mother? That you tried to overthrow Equestria in your own pathetic need for validation? That-" Celestia stopped as she set her eyes back on Nightmare, and groaned as a renewed bout of pain tore through her. "Nnggaaargh!"

"Yes, I did try to overthrow you out of petty jealousy, I don't deny it, but we didn't even know Faust existed then, and we wouldn't for another thousand years. Everything you think you know about her has been forced into your head by Faust! She tried to twist the events of what happened here a thousand years ago because it made me look more of a villain if I did it all myself, but here is proof of what really happened that night. Faust didn't know about Nightmare Moon, so she never removed that part from your memories."

"Comparing yourself to me as a villain? Really?" Nightmare deadpanned. "You're not making me look good in front of her."

"Sorry." Luna smiled sympathetically, "We'll have to work on that bit later. As for you, Celestia, do you believe me now when I say not everything is a simple as Faust made you believe?"

Celestia didn't answer, having fallen quiet as floods of memories filled her mind. It wasn't that simple though, because she still didn't know the truth. Both sets of memories were as convincing as the other, and all it did was make her angry. If there was one clear thing though, the memories she had of Faust didn't quite add up at times, so if there was betrayal somewhere in this, it lay with her more than it did Luna.

"Sister?"

"Don't 'sister' me, Luna," Celestia growled in a low voice. "Even if any of what I'm remembering is true, you still have a long way to go explaining what that monster is doing here!"

"That's a bit of a long story," Luna said hesitantly. "The short version of why she's standing here now, separate to me is that Faust found Nightmare's conscience in the dreamscape and captured it. Then she gave her a body."

"Yet another of her many mistakes," Nightmare tittered.

"Don't you mock her."

Nightmare raised an eyebrow, suspicious as to why Celestia was still defending Faust. "Seriously?"

Ember cleared her throat to get their attention as they seemed to have neglected to notice something very important. "Guys, why is she still on fire?"

Luna blinked, having somewhat forgotten that little point, even though it was right in front of her. Why was Celestia still flaming? Should they be worried? Who was she kidding? Of course they should be.

"What are you planning to do, Celestia? I can understand that you're angry, but there's no need to take it out on us. Faust is to blame for this."

"And she thinks you're to blame! But right now I have two little voices in my head telling me that you're both right, which also means you're both wrong. I think it's about time to make my own decisions, and I've decided that I ruled this country alone for a thousand years where nothing went wrong. Maybe we should go back to that."

All of them stepped back as the heat around Celestia spiked. "No, Celestia, don't do this."

"Do what? Return Equestria to peace and harmony? Ever since you came back there's been nothing but trouble, and the same goes for Faust. Perhaps the best solution is to do away with all of you!"

"And how's that going to work?" Nightmare asked suddenly. "You don't have a snowball's chance in hell of beating Faust on your own. You couldn't even beat me on your own without the Elements," she added flatly, still playing the role set for her.

"Then perhaps I should start with you, just to prove I can!"

Nightmare teleported away with a yelp as a wall of flame flew at her, direct from Celestia's horn. This had suddenly become a lot more serious, and with Celestia acting this way she was more of a threat through unpredictability alone. Thankfully Nightmare wasn't alone as Luna blasted Celestia sideways into a wall.

Celestia rolled onto her front and shook her head from the impact, confusion riding her features. "You would defend that thing?"

"Nightmare is my responsibility, in all ways, so yes. Besides," Luna's face slid into a smirk, "she's not so bad once you get to know her."

"And this terrible judgement you possess is why you're unfit to rule." Celestia dodged to the side as Ember lunged for her, and threw the dragon away with a flick of her telekinesis. While she was distracted Nightmare tried to attack, but a wreath of flame dissipated her magic before it could do much more than tickle Celestia.

Luna watched with concern as the banners in the room nearest to Celestia caught fire, and the very walls steam as every last trace of moisture was boiled out of them. She thought Celestia would be less dangerous without her spear, Solaris, but it seemed she was just as dangerous either way.

Celestia laughed as she shed her protection, "Still convinced I'm weak, Nightmare Moon?"

"Ugh, please stop calling me that." Nightmare teleported back to Luna, "Could we maybe move this along? I don't like standing this close to the sun."

"Together then." Both alicorns ran forwards and attacked as one, firing beams of magic at Celestia that forced her back on the defensive. She shielded herself, using an actual shield this time, holding them both off. Eventually they ran out of steam, their attacks sputtering out while Celestia was still untouched.

Ember tried to take the opportunity to sneak behind Celestia while she was distracted. When her shield was lowered Ember pounced, leaping onto Celestia's back and digging her claws in to get purchase. That was the plan at least. Celestia disappeared, leaving her to try and hold on to a puff of flame as she fell to the ground. Before she could get back up a hoof pressed against the back of her head, trapping it against the floor as hot breath tickled her ear.

"Fool me twice, shame on me." Celestia reared up to put all her weight on her one hoof to crush Ember's head, but was stopped as Luna tackled her directly. They tumbled away, each trying to get on top, and each failing to get the proper footing to let them stay there, at least up until Celestia felt something very sharp and very cold pressed up against both sides of her neck; a pair of silvery glaives, coated in a thin layer of frost despite being so close to her.

"They were shattered!"

"They were," Luna confirmed, "and still are. These are new, given to me by Twilight." Luna smiled at the sneer that brought out of Celestia. "I want you to meet Selene and Nocturne."

Celestia shifted uncomfortably as the blades cut effortlessly into the skin of her neck, "Charmed, I'm sure."

"It doesn't need to be this way, Celestia, you know that. You're hurt and confused, and I appreciate that, but killing us all won't help."

"Are you sure about that? Because I'm wagering a millennia of peace against these few years of near constant problems since you came back, and I'm feeling confident I can win that bet." Celestia flicked her eyes downward, then teleported away when Luna did the same. "I can't believe you still fall for that."

"What can I say? I'm a sucker for the classics," Luna said shamelessly, even though her cheeks were burning with embarrassment.

"Then maybe you'll enjoy this." Celestia bowed her head, releasing a stream of the hottest flame she could conjure, firing it directly at Luna. She pushed harder, keeping Nightmare and even Ember at bay with its sheer intensity.

After a while she stopped, confident that she'd see nothing more than a husk of charred meat before her. Instead she got a shock as Luna stood with her glaives crossed before her, totally unharmed as frost crept over the floor around her, hissing as it met the glowing hot stones left from Celestia's onslaught. She wasn't even sweating. In fact, she was shivering quite a bit instead.

"That's impossible! Nothing should've survived that!"

"Could've fooled me," Luna muttered as she shook, dislodging fragments of ice off her mane. She hadn't quite expected that to happen, and would have to remember to not channel quite so much power through these new glaives. She expanded the area of cold around her, cooling the rest of the floor back to tolerable levels as Nightmare and Ember joined her, the former grinning cockily, while Ember had her claws out and fangs bared, ready to fight.

"Give up already," Nightmare sighed. "Even I could've dodged that attack."

Celestia backed off, her mind rapidly calculating the path to victory, but finding nothing. Without a good counter to Luna's new weapons, she was beaten. There was only one option for her.

"She's going to run," said Ember.

Luna nodded, "I know. Before you go, Celestia, just remember than I'm not responsible for the state you're in right now. Faust is. If there's anything of yourself left in there, please, help us beat her. Or at least think about it."

The flames in Celestia's mane flickered with a mix of green, blue, purple, and pink, and then she was gone.

Luna lowered her weapons with a sigh, "Not the result I had hoped for, but at the very least she is no longer siding with Faust. I honestly thought she'd be a little more freaked out over you being here, Nightmare."

"Me too. I must be losing my touch."

"So what now?" Ember asked, rubbing her head. She really didn't want to think about how close she just came to dying.

"Now?" Luna shrugged, "Now we hope that Celestia can sort it out in her head as she needs to. At the very least we can hope she won't get in the way of us stopping Faust. As for now, our job here is done. Let us return those beasts to the Everfree quickly, then we shall return to Twilight with the hope her news is slightly better than ours.

Author's Note

Title used shamelessly...

47. Heck, it's about time

This was it, the very thing that Twilight had been waiting to do for a long time; getting her friends back. That wasn't to say she wasn't also incredibly worried, and even feeling a little sick with it, but this was it, it was finally happening. About damned time.

Twilight stopped as her cutie marks tickled. That wasn't a thing they were particularly prone to doing, so it was incredibly noticeable. Judging by the look on Rainbow's face, she wasn't the only one that felt it. The feeling passed just as suddenly as it had arrived, but left behind the feeling that something had changed. She didn't feel any different so she had no idea what, but something was different.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Discord," Twilight said to herself as that was the only thing she could think of that could possibly be behind this.

"Talking to yourself is definitely a good sign," Trixie said from beside Twilight. "Everybody chill, Twilight's communing with the spirits, and she totally has this."

"Trixie!" Twilight hissed, embarrassed even though no one else there had really been listening. "Could you not? Please?"

"Relax, Twilight! It's a party! And all your friends are invited. I think we can forgive a little paranoid muttering in this case, just once."

"So gracious." Twilight breathed in a deep breath and sighed it out. Trixie was right in a way, not with what she actually said, but more in her implied message that it was okay to be worked up. In fact it was understandable. At least Twilight hoped that's what Trixie implied, otherwise it was actually just blatant teasing.

There were better things to think about. Much better. Ponyville was close now, and the time was rapidly approaching. The griffons were tightening up their formations, the airships were slowing their speed to not overshoot the town, and Trixie was humming a tune as she put her armour on. They were ready.

"Alright, helmsgriff, try to keep the airship near the town, and have someone signal the others to do the same. Commander Lurin, have your soldiers clear around the town perimeter, but make sure they don't fly into the town itself because of the magic cage. I can't even begin to guess if the Kuua would save them from that."

"And if they hold the prisoners hostage?" Lurin asked back.

"Then I'll save the important ones, but we'll probably have to wait until the cage is down so your soldiers can get in and clear up." Twilight didn't bother saying that she had no idea how to do that. Some things didn't need to be said.
Both griffons gave her a salute, leaving her alone with Trixie, Rainbow, Lightning, and Vapor."

"I can't believe this is really happening!" Rainbow said ecstatically. She was almost vibrating with excitement, and had been since they set off that morning. "We're finally getting our friends back! And the other Wonderbolts! And loads of others!"

"I'm aware, Rainbow," Twilight said sarcastically, but with a smile. "Don't get too carried away though, because we need this to go perfectly."

"Don't you worry about us. You should be worried about taking care of that Starlight Glimmer, and getting all the cutie marks back."

"I know," Twilight said, although there was no way she could possibly forget. Besides being a major part of the mission here, there was also the fact that Twilight had been anticipating her confrontation with Starlight Glimmer for some time. Mostly because she honestly had no idea how it was going to go. Would they fight? Or would Starlight be reasonable? Only time would tell, and there wasn't much of that to go around.

"Yoo-hoo, Equestria to Twilight!" Trixie waved a hoof in front of Twilight's eyes as the alicorn fazed out, imagining how things would go. "And we've lost her." Trixie shrugged and turned to the three Wonderbolts, "So what was it you three were doing again?"

"Prepping the pegasi to fly," Lightning said with a shrug. She pulled several pairs of scissors out of a pocket with her wing tips, "Never thought I'd fly into battle with one of these."

"What the heck are those for?"

"These are if we need to trim some feathers back into shape. Not as good as a proper preening, but we don't exactly have time for fancy work."

"Hmm, fair enough. I still think their wings are going to be too atrophied to fly, but who cares what the unicorn thinks? I mean, what could I possibly know about wings?"

"We're aware," Lightning told her, "but there's not really much we can do when the airships are already full of non-fliers, as well as a bunch of carts and whatever the griffons could scrape together."

"Besides," Rainbow said, flicking her tail irritably, "you have nothing to complain about when your job's so easy. I can't believe you're going to be the one finding mine and Twilight's friends and getting them out of here."

Trixie scoffed in mock offense, "Easy? I have to find like... thirty ponies out of a few thousand! How is that easy? Especially since I don't know who most of them are."

Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Find Pinkie and stand in the entrance. She'll do pretty much all the work for you."

Trixie held the tip of a hoof right up under Rainbow's nose, "Don't undermine how hard my job is."

"Uh-huh."

"One minute 'til go time people!"

The shout from Commander Lurin brought Twilight out of her speculations, which was branching into some very unlikely directions by then. A battle spanning through backwards through time seemed unlikely. Twilight wasn't even sure why she thought of it.

"Oh good, you're back," Trixie said as Twilight blinked a few times. "Enjoy your holiday?"

"I could've done with another week." Twilight blinked a few more times and shook her head free of her distracting thoughts. "Anyway, let's get going. Good luck you three," she said to Rainbow and the others, "I'll see you on the ground once we're done freaking out a lot of ponies with a griffon invasion."

"Sure!" Rainbow gave Twilight a quick and messy salute, "Kick that cutie mark stealing cunt once for me, 'kay?"

"Sure," Twilight said noncommittally as the three Wonderbolts flew off. There was no point saying that she might not have to kick Starlight's ass at all. "Come on, Trixie." Twilight took flight and grabbed Trixie around the chest, "Let's go and do something good."

"Yep. I can't wait to see the look on Octavia's face when she sees me rescuing her."

"I'm sure she'll be more than happy to see you."

"I know." Trixie went quiet for a moment as they flew out over the edge of the airship, "That's what I'm hoping for, to the point that I'm going to do my best to avoid dark magic today. She won't be rolling her eyes at me today."

Twilight smiled because that was kind of cute in a way. It was nice that Trixie wanted to improve her friends' opinion of her, even if it was a poor time, and not even necessary really. They all knew Trixie's heart was more or less in the right place. Probably.

"Go-go-go!"

Twilight dived as Commander Lurin signalled the attack, using a voice far better suited to shouting than hers. She felt Trixie tense as they rapidly descended, and her ears lay flat against her head. Clearly she still wasn't entirely on board with flying yet.

Twilight flared her wings as the ground came closer, pulling up less than a dozen meters above the hard and terminally-fatal-at-speed earth. She followed her forwards momentum towards the large gate that demarked the only entrance into the Ponyville prison, her horn glowing with a prepared attack as they came up to the few hundred guards waiting there, hoping to repel the invaders after having ample time to prepare. Unfortunately that meant most were inside the gates under the protection of the magical cage.

Twilight was about to question why there were any outside the cage at all when a glint of sun on steel caught her eye, and she quickly dodged as the first volley of chained nets flew towards her and the griffons. There were more than a few squawks of pain and surprise from behind her, but they pressed on as she put up a shield to block as many shots as she could.

Within seconds after that they were on the enemy, and both Twilight and Trixie fired spell after spell at them as the griffons swept in to attack. Their net launchers no longer being useful, the defenders swapped to crossbows and what spells they had, but it was clear they knew it was a losing battle as they retreated back through the gate to safety.

Twilight slowed and dropped Trixie to the ground so they could both clear out as many as they could. A strong shield over the gate stopped them from retreating, and Twilight kept on attacking them from the air while Trixie ran in, spell after spell leaping off her horn as she thinned their numbers.

Griffon calls filled the air as they recovered from the initial attack, and they flew in to attack. Some fell to arrows fired in short time they gave the defenders, but in the blink of an eye they were in mêlée range, fighting sword to sword and claw to hoof.

Twilight dropped to the ground, her horn staying busy as she made sure that the griffons had the least amount of casualties possible. Some of the ponies there tried to attack her, but before they could get close, or she could summon Swordy, a quartet of pink magic bolts cut them down.

"You could've dropped me a little closer," Trixie complained as she ran up to Twilight, covering her so she could maintain the shield over the gate easier. "I wasn't told I'd be sprinting today. Or sweating."

"So sorry," Twilight chuckled, "I didn't realise you'd forgotten what this sort of thing involved."

"I'm just saying, I'm here to fight, not run."

"Yeah, yeah."

Standing together, Twilight and Trixie kept shooting their magic, but within seconds there were too many griffons to get a clear shot. Not long after that the fight was over, and Twilight had to wonder if that had something to do with the Mareitanians having never fought highly trained Griffonian soldiers. They'd taken some losses, yes, but the griffons hadn't wavered, and had taken the outside of the gate with swift and brutal force, even as many of them spread out to check there weren't any more soldiers around the outside of Ponyville.

"Okay, Trixie, we have to knock the cage out."

"And how are we doing that?"

This was where Twilight wished she'd spent more time observing how it worked the last time she was here. Sure she'd had a quick demonstration of what it did, but she hadn't put any thought into it past that. That said, there were poles set up around the outside of Ponyville, making up part of the fence. On top of these poles sat a hefty purple gem that crackled with energy. If they weren't part of the cage, well, just what the hell were they for? At any rate, they appeared to be designed to prevent tampering from inside the prison, but not so much outside.

"Try pulling one of those crystals off its pole," Twilight suggested to Trixie, pointing at the pole just to the left of the entrance.

"What? Why me? Why don't you do it, little miss immortal?"

"I'm pretty sure it won't kill you."

"Pretty sure is not totally sure, so you do it."

"Okay, fine, don't do the fun experimental things." Twilight walked up to the pole and grabbed the crystal in her magic, which it did not seem to like as it started to violently crackle. That only got worse as Twilight tried to remove it.

"Put your horn into it, Twilight."

"You just make sure those guards inside don't shoot you," Twilight said back. She raised the crystal out of its cradle, fighting against a resistance that wanted to keep it in its place. She pulled away, pulling with her hooves as much as with her horn. The tortured scream of a spell literally being torn apart filled the air, and the cage itself lit up, showing itself as Twilight finally pulled the crystal free.

"Easy as pie," Twilight said, her hair all standing on end as the crystal tried to find something to connect with. Even free of the cage Twilight could feel it pulling, and decided that the best way to deal with it was to destroy it. Finding the nearest rock, she slammed the crystal down as hard as she could, destroying it with a violent burst of flames and lightning.

"Oh yeah, that definitely looked safe. Problem is-" Trixie gestured with her head towards the sky over Ponyville, and the angry, writhing mass of purple lightning over it, "-I think you made it worse."

"It's trying to make up what it's lost, but I don't think it was designed for that. If we keep removing crystals it'll get too weak to maintain itself. I'll keep going this way, while you go right. Commander Lurin, as soon as this cage is down I want your griffons in there and taking care of the soldiers."

Twilight waited until she got a salute from Lurin, and a weary nod from Trixie, and moved on to the next pole. It was the same process again, with her having to pull the crystal free of the cage with considerable force, but each subsequent one got easier to do. By the time the griffons were circling around overhead she was pulling them free with relative ease.
Several poles later, the cage was going critical. Sections of it were collapsing and reforming, and the air sang with the volatile crackle of energy. Pulling one more free, the cage suddenly retracted, tearing and sinking to the ground in a way that reminded Twilight quite a bit of molten cheese for some reason. An apt analogy since she hated this prison almost as much as she did cheese.

The shield pulled back, skittering over the ground in a fairly harmless way until it finally snapped back to the last remaining poles, covering only a slice of the prison opposite the gate. That would have to do, and the griffons certainly seemed to think so as they roared their battle cries and dove into the confines of Ponyville, quickly taking out what soldiers were stupid enough to be out in the open.

Now that the way into Ponyville was open, the griffons would soon take care of the soldiers and start rounding up the prisoners for evacuation. That meant it had come to the time for Twilight to carry out her one specific task. Confronting Starlight Glimmer.

"Here goes."

-0-0-0-

The dark, grey stone tower of Ponyville's warden was fairly imposing, and lay in complete contrast to the rest of Ponyville, if you ignored the fence and other less cheerful things. It had none of the charm required of any building in Equestria really, and seemed more like the place you'd find some dark magic user living in fortified solitude. The kind of place where if ponies went missing, this would be the first place you think of, and yet the last place you'd look through reputation alone.

That was one of two thoughts occupying Twilight's head as she stood at the base of it, weighing up whether it was worth the effort of going in when she could probably knock the tower down without too much effort. The other thought was wondering why Starlight Glimmer hadn't shown herself yet? Was she waiting for Twilight to walk into a trap, or was she in fact not there at all? Unfortunately there was only one way to find out.

The door into the top heavy tower wasn't very big all things considered, being roughly the same size as the stable door into the Golden Oaks library before Tirek reduced it to a smouldering wreck. It wasn't quite so cute a door as that though, with its dark oak and iron studs. It was also unlocked, which couldn't possibly mean anything good.

Inside led to a short hall that was lit by a single lamp, and on to a spiral staircase that Twilight could only see a short part of. The stairs wasn't the interesting part though. It was the shelves that lined the stone parallel to the stairs that interested her, filled as they were with glass jars containing the cutie marks of ponies. More than she could easily count.

Twilight had to stare at that for a while. How could she not? It was too bizarre to ignore, seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of cutie marks floating inside little glass prisons. The very talents and being of what made ponies themselves, kept isolated here after being taken by force.

Twilight felt herself getting riled up. It was easy to blame Starlight Glimmer for this travesty, but she wasn't the one holding the reins in this situation. Sure she'd gone along with it all, probably out of justifiable fear, but that shouldn't be an excuse to do nothing.

"Fucking hell, how far do these stairs go?" Twilight asked after a while. It felt like she'd been climbing stairs for ages. "It's like Sombra's trap all over again." An exaggeration, but it felt true enough.

Eventually, through perseverance, she made it to the top of the stairs to another door. Like the last one it was unlocked, and like the last Twilight walked through with little hesitation. She found herself in what seemed to be a house crossed with a mad scientist's laboratory, made stranger for the number of kites hanging from the rafters.

Twilight spared all that only a cursory glance, because what she was really waiting for was sat in the middle of the floor, looking directly at Twilight with an expression that ranged from somewhere between foolish bravery and bladder emptying fear.

"I knew you'd come."

"No kidding?" Twilight said lightly, sounding a lot more playful than she felt. "Was the first clue the two thousand griffons flying around outside? Or was it the fact that you've held my friends prisoner here for months that tipped you off?"

"That's not my fault!" Starlight protested, jumping to her hooves. "If Fleur de Lis and Shining Armour had taken me with them like I'd asked, none of this would've happened!"

"After what you did? I'm surprised they didn't kick you on the way out!"

"They might as well have! I regret what I did, okay? I'm sorry! I've had plenty of time to think about how wrong I was, and I admit that I did get it wrong. But this?" Starlight gestured around the inside of her tower, "This was as far from what I wanted back then as you could get! I wanted ponies to be equal, but this is forcing ponies to be unequal." Starlight slumped, her ears looking off to the side as her ears went flat. "I hate this."

"Then release all the cutie marks you took, and I'll consider that you're maybe being honest with me."

"Alright, fine, take them. I don't want them, and I never did. Faust forced me to do this. If I could ask you to wait a bit though, so you can hear me out on something, I'd-"

"Wait? Are fucking kidding me?" Twilight summoned Swordy as she stamped towards Starlight, the unicorn's eyes going wide with fear as she scrabbled backwards until she hit a table. She squeezed her eyes shut with fear as the blade was brought up under her neck and held there.

"Please, I'm sorry!" Starlight whimpered, using her magic to try and force the blade down, but finding that it was like trying to grab an eel covered in soap.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the downward pressure being exerted on Swordy. Since she should technically be the only one able to control him, either Starlight had a magical signature similar to her own, or Starlight was in fact no pushover when it came to magic.

"If you keep trying to push that down I'm going to have to start pushing up, and I guarantee you won't enjoy that."

"I only wanted to tell you my idea! I don't know why you're trying to kill me!" Starlight tried to teleport, but couldn't as her horn tingled. Clearly Twilight was suppressing that too, which only made Starlight feel more helpless. She started to cry, but stayed still before she accidentally cut her own throat. She'd heard enough about the blade under her neck to know it could bisect her without slowing down, so her squishy throat stood no chance.

"I have been waiting to save my friends for over a year now! I am sick of waiting! Here I am on the very cusp of getting them back, and you want me to wait more!"

"I only wanted to tell you my idea! I wasn't trying to stop you getting your friends back, I promise! Please..."

Twilight took a deep breath and lowered Swordy a little. She knew she'd overreacted, not that she cared overmuch that she had, but Starlight was shaking and in tears, and it was mildly impressive that she hadn't soiled herself. It was at least obvious that she wasn't hindering Twilight out of some malicious intent.

"Okay, fine, what idea?"

Starlight sniffed hard and wiped her eyes with the back of a shaking hoof. "My idea to stop Faust, to stop all of this from ever happening."

Twilight raised Swordy a little as Starlight lit her horn, but lowered it again as she grabbed a scroll off the table and unrolled it in front of Twilight. Twilight squinted at it, then stepped back as she recognised it as Starswirl's time spell. She'd had a run in with that before, even if this one seemed to have been heavily modified.

"What are you doing with that?"

"It's a time travelling spell. It allows-"

"I know what it is. I want to know what you're planning to do with it."

"Right, well, the original version of this spell only sent you back a week, and only for a minute, but I discovered that with some modifications you can go back as far as you want, and for as long as you need. There's a problem though. To do it you need an anchor point that exists in all times, such as the Tree of Harmony, or the table in your castle connected to it."

"Is that why you were trying to get into my castle?"

Starlight nodded, "Mmhmm. If I could get to that table I could go back in time and stop all of this before it even happened! You could even come with me! We could stop you going to Mareitania, we could stop Faust from being freed, and we could stop all those ponies that got killed from ever dying!"

Twilight had to admit that it sounded like an attractive idea. A potentially paradoxical one since if she'd never gone to Mareitania they wouldn't be in this mess, so she wouldn't know to go back and stop herself. Even so, saving Equestria from its current fate, as well as the thousands of lives lost... it sounded great. Too bad there was one big problem with this, and that was it could never be that simple. Yes it was hard to imagine what they could possibly do to create a timeline worse than the current one, but it was possible. As attractive as it sounded, the risk was too great.

Twilight sighed, hating what she was about to do, but it was necessary. That spell was too dangerous to be allowed to continue existing. With a flick of her magic she swung Swordy up, the blade cutting cleanly through the paper, destroying the power it held for good.

"No!" Starlight screamed as the two powerless pieces of paper fluttered to the ground. "Wh-why would you do that? Why would you do that!?"

Twilight shielded herself as Starlight attacked, using a powerful beam of magic that blew the side of the tower out. Once the glare from the magic had faded she sprang forward, bowling Starlight over. The unicorn grunted with pain, and while her mouth was open Twilight brought Swordy down between her teeth, holding him just above where he would start cutting into her cheeks.

"I really hope I have your full attention now," Twilight said slowly as Starlight tried to scream without cutting her tongue off. "I know you think going back in time and stopping this would help, but I hate to tell you that you could end up creating a situation just as bad, if not worse. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't see the appeal in the idea, because I did, but it's too dangerous. You don't. Fuck. With. Time." Twilight emphasised each word with the stamp of a hoof.

Twilight removed Swordy from Starlight's mouth, allowing the mare to speak. She didn't, instead she wept silently, leaving Twilight to think that she might have just broken the lilac unicorn. The puddle on the floor certainly attested to that. She waited a few seconds, then shook her head and turned to leave.

"We could've fixed everything. We could've stopped all of this before it even began. I was only trying to help!"

Twilight stopped and sighed, searching for the biggest bone she had to throw to Starlight.

"I know you were, but there are some things that shouldn't be done, and messing with time is one of them. Look, we have a plan to stop Faust, and we will, then this can all be over. No, it won't bring back all the ponies we lost, but your idea mightn't either. And then, even if we do succeed at your idea, there's nothing stopping Faust from getting free one day anyway. A hundred years, a thousand, or ten thousand, it doesn't matter to an immortal like her. She would have to be dealt with at some point, and it might as well be now, rather than make it a problem for the future."

Starlight looked down, thinking it over. She could see the sense in that, even if it hurt to give up on her idea. Faust wouldn't go away for good, and Faust would eventually get free, meaning all her efforts would've been for nothing. Perhaps it was better this way.

"Wait," Starlight said as Twilight started to leave again, "what can I do to help?"

Twilight almost said 'nothing,' but it would be a petty lie on her part. Starlight was a powerful unicorn, and had the potential to be a great one if she stopped being so fucking dense, and that made her useful, especially after losing Sunset. Starlight could never replace Sunset, but she could be a decent alternative. Twilight whispered an apology to her fallen friend.

"I suppose we could use another skilled unicorn, but only if you're really up for it. I'm not going to bring you along if you won't listen to what I say, or do what I ask, okay?"

"Okay."

"Good. Now how do I free the cutie marks?"

"Just smash the jars and they'll return on their own."

"Alright." Twilight went back to Starlight and offered her a hoof to pull her up with. Starlight took it reluctantly, but offered Twilight a tiny smile in return. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. You go down first."

"Why? Don't you trust me?"

"Not as yet, but my point is that there's going to be a lot of broken glass on the stairs so you're probably really going to want to go first."

"Oh, right."

Starlight hurried past Twilight and down the stairs, letting the alicorn come down at her own pace. Using her magic, Twilight knocked every single jar off the shelves, letting them smash under the power of gravity on the stone stairs, releasing their captive marks. The dark stairway filled with a dancing array of colours as those cutie marks flew for the exit as fast as they could to get back to their owners. Twilight had to admit it was actually rather beautiful, if a little messed up.

-0-0-0-

A quick shield blocked the arrow flying for her head, and a retaliatory blast of magic sent the soldier flying into the wall, and to the grave. Trixie blew out of the corner of her mouth, annoyed as she'd been doing that for a while now, but ignored it as she turned to the other ponies huddled in the room.

"Are you in here, Pinkie Pie?"

"Yep!" A pink hoof waved above the head of the other ponies. "Hiya, Trixie!"

"About time. Do you know how many houses I've searched to find you?"

"Uh... is it three?"

"...Lucky guess. Anyway, get your ass over here, I need your help."

"But there's only ponies in here."

Trixie closed her eyes, her patience frayed by that terrible joke. "I'm going to count to three, Pinkie, and when I open them again I want to see you standing right in front of me."

"Ooh, I think she means business."

"One."

"Wish me luck, Azure, I may be gone some time."

"Two."

"Here I come!"

"Three."

Trixie opened her eyes, and as she did she found Pinkie standing right in front of her, smiling politely and staring with expectation.

"Stop that."

"Stop what, Trixie? I'm only doing what you asked."

"Sure you are." Trixie pulled a folded up piece of paper out of her armour and gave it to Pinkie, "Do you know all the ponies on this list?"

"I don't know, maybe? I could probably tell easier if I read it, huh?" Pinkie unfolded the list, leaving Trixie to grimace and regret this choice. "Applejack, Fluttershy, Rar- Oh hey, that's me!"

"Well observed."

"Okay, Spike, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Granny Smith, Big Mac, my sisters, Rarity's parents, Lyra Heartstrings, and any significant others that they want to bring. Significant others?" Pinkie asked. "You mean like coltfriends, marefriends, and anypony else important?"

"I guess so?"

"So Azure can come?"

"Who?"

"My marefriend!"

"Oh, that." Trixie shrugged, "I guess so? Honestly I have no idea who's allowed to come, but priority goes to you and the other Bearers, as well as your families."

"Priority for what?"

"Evacuation, Pinkie!" Trixie growled and ran a hoof down her face, "Do you not know what's going on here? Can you not tell this is a rescue?"

"Last we checked griffons weren't our friends," a gruff yet feminine voice said from the huddle of ponies.

"That was so last year. It is now the current year, mother-fuckers, and griffons are our friends now, so deal with it. Who are you anyway?"

The pony pushed her way to where Pinkie was standing, revealing herself to be a grey earth pony with a rather straight cut, light grey mane and tail. "I'm Limestone, Pinkie's eldest sister."

"You are? Great! Are your other sisters here?"

"Yeah, and Lyra, and Azure, and a few others. Why?"

"Because this makes my job so much easier. Okay, so everyone on that list that's in here, come with me. Everypony else," Trixie said to the large number of other ponies in the room, "make your way to the exit and wait for the griffons to evacuate you. Thank you, and please have a pleasant rescue."

Trixie left the house and waited while they sorted themselves out. She passed the time by watching the griffons work, dragging the Mareitanians out of houses, dead or alive. Even though they'd tried to use the prisoners as hostages, it really wasn't working for them. They kill a prisoner, they die, they fight back, they die. The two thousand griffons swarming over the town weren't displaying a massive amount of patience, and while there might be a few deaths amongst the prisoners, wasting time by negotiating wasn't an option. They either surrendered, or they died.

Trixie stepped to the side as the ponies she wanted left the building behind her, and they stepped aside to let the rest run for the exit. It seems that her little speech was enough to convince them the griffons were here to help. There was a sentence that probably hadn't been said much up until now.

"So where are we going?" Pinkie asked, a small spring in her step as they started walking towards the exit.

"We're all going to stand around by the exit, and-"

A loud explosion cut Trixie off as a large portion of the wardens tower was blown off from the inside. All of them stood still, waiting to see what happened next, but nothing did.

"Fucking hell, Twilight, what are you doing in there?"

"Twilight's in there?" Pinkie gasped. "We should go help her!"

"No you don't," Trixie said, grabbing Pinkie with magic before she could go too far. "You're going to the gate to find those on the list before the griffons take them."

"Take them where?"

"Pinkie, I will fucking hurt you in a minute."

"Just try it," Limestone growled.

Trixie ignored her, and had a good excuse to as Pinkie started bouncing up and down while shouting. "Applejack! Hey Applejack!"

"And that's two of the Bearers," Trixie said with a shrug as the orange and blonde earth pony Applejack walked over to them, her gait seeming to suggest she was uncertain about things. There was two fillies following her, a yellow earth pony with a red mane and tail, and a white unicorn with a pink and purple mane and tail.

"I'm mighty glad to see ya, Pinkie," Applejack said with relief. "Do you have any idea what's going on?"

"Yeah! Twilight's here with a whole heap of griffons to rescue everypony in Ponyville!"

"Really? How can you be sure?"

"Because Trixie told me so."

"Trixie?" Applejack finally gave her attention to Trixie, and spent a long moment looking over her armour. "Are you supposed to be some kind of soldier, Trixie?"

Something went pop in Trixie's brain, or at least felt like it did. She pressed a hoof to her nose to make sure it wasn't bleeding. "I'm sure inbreeding can do terrible things to a pony's memories, so I'm going to remind you now that I fought with Twilight in Mareitania, remember? Yes I'm a soldier. Of sorts. Probably more like a mercenary I suppose. Whatever."

"For your sake I'm gonna ignore that inbreeding comment."

"If you want."

"Where's Granny Smith, Big Mac, and Sugar Belle, Applejack?" Pinkie asked in a not so subtle attempt to change the subject.

"I don't know, we got separated when the guards rushed us inta the houses. We lost Rarity too. Heck knows where Fluttershy and Spike are."

"Okay, well we'll find them when they go through the exit." Pinkie turned and saluted sharply at Trixie. "I'll take it from here, your soldieriness. Can you go help Twilight now? Please?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure, although I'm willing to bet she's fine." Trixie started running anyway, mostly to cover the distance rather than out of worry. The warden's tower had been built in direct opposition to Twilight's castle, outside the fence, and to the right of the gate that faced south. It was super annoying unless you could fly, and took far too long to get to.

What made it take even longer to get to was what, or rather who Trixie saw that made her skid to a halt and backpedal a few steps. "Octavia! Summer!"

"Trixie?" Octavia said, pulling herself away from a group of ponies, along with Summer and another navy coloured pegasus that Trixie assumed was Summer's marefriend. "Are you here with these griffons?"

"Actually it's more like these griffons are here with us. It's a long story. Anyway, you two, or three I suppose, are on a VIP list of ponies to be rescued, so I suggest you do that."

"Alright..." Octavia said slowly, "but I'm not going anywhere without Vinyl."

"Do you know where she is?"

"No, I lost her when..." Octavia trailed off as trails of colourful lights started racing through the sky, all of them coming from the tower. They all twirled and twisted around each other in a display of prismatic brilliance, before separating to smack back onto the flanks of ponies, giving them their cutie marks.

Ecstatic crying and cheering could be heard from everypony as their talents and sense of purpose was returned to them, along with a vibrancy that had been lost to them in both colour and attitude. Octavia gasped as her talent returned to her, followed shortly by the two pegasi.

"Goodness," Octavia gasped. "I'd almost forgotten what it's like to have a cutie mark. Although I certainly hadn't missed the talent separation anxiety. Does anypony have a cello?"

"Fuckin' a! Wubs are awesome again!"

"And I've found Vinyl," Octavia added. She waved until she caught her friend's attention, and regretted it a little as the white unicorn tackled her in a hug.

"Tavi! I can make wubs again! Isn't that awesome?"

"Yes, Vinyl, that's most excellent. Now please get off me." Octavia dusted herself off as Vinyl started bobbing her head to a tune only she could hear. "As I was going to ask, where are we to go, Trixie?"

"Just find Pinkie and the other Bearers and stick with them. I'm going to go check on Twilight." Trixie started to run, then trotted backwards again. "Also, hi Summer, thanks for not saying a word to me."

"Sorry. Hi Trixie."

"Hi." Shaking her head Trixie resumed running for the tower, but slowed as she saw Twilight come out through the door in the company of another unicorn that lowered her gaze as soon as Trixie got close enough. "You alright, Twilight?"

"I'm fine, Trixie, thank you."

"Oh good." Trixie nodded her head towards the unicorn, "So who's this?"

"This is Starlight Glimmer. Trixie, meet Starlight. Starlight, meet Trixie."

"This is the cutie mark stealing dictator that Faust uses to control her prisoners?" Trixie cocked her head to the side, "I was expecting someone a little more threatening."

"Really?" Starlight blurted. "The Mareitanians talk about you the same way we talk about Tirek, or Nightmare Moon! I was expecting something a lot scarier than a unicorn with a smaller than average horn."

"It's not small! And at least I don't smell of piss! I- Wait..." Trixie grinned at Twilight, "just how hard did you threaten her exactly?"

"Enough," Twilight replied shortly.

"Enough? You put your sword in my mouth!"

"Really?" Trixie chortled, getting a huff of indignation from Starlight. "That sounded like fun. So, yeah, anyway, are we killing her?"

"Nope," Twilight said as Starlight's eyes bulged at Trixie. "Starlight here is going to be helping us, isn't that right?"

"R-right."

"See? She won't be a problem. I suppose I should ask you how the evacuation's going?"

"It's fine. I've got Pinkie rounding up everypony on the list, so that shouldn't be a problem. All we have to do then is get everypony else loaded up, and we're good to go. And wait for Fleur."

"No problem then."

"Don't say that."

-0-0-0-

"Nope. Nope. Nope," Rainbow repeated as she zipped over town from group to group of ponies, searching for the few she recognised. Lightning and Vapor had been left by the exit to help those pegasi that needed it get ready for the long flight, meaning that Rainbow had the fun job of finding the other Wonderbolts.

"Woah!" Rainbow flapped to a stop as she spotted an orange blob huddled in the shade of Sugar Cube Corner. An orange blob topped with purple. That could only be one pony Rainbow knew.

Rainbow landed hard in front of Scootaloo, too excited to land nicely. "Hey Scoots!"

"Aaaaahhh!"

"What?"

"Aaaaahhh!"

"Why are you screaming?"

"Aaaaahhh!"

"Oh, right, the helmet." Rainbow pulled her helmet off and set it on the ground, which was thankfully enough to stop Scootaloo from screaming. "Hey, it's me, it's Rainbow Dash."

"Rainbow Dash?" Scootaloo said uncertainly, her panic changing from fear of Rainbow to fear of something else. "You have to hide!"

"What? Why?"

"Before the griffons find you!"

"Ooohhhh," Rainbow said as understanding reached her. "Nah, you got it all wrong, kid. The griffons are with us. We're here to rescue you."

"Rescue us? From what?"

"From Ponyville. Y'know, the big prison its been turned into? Do you seriously not know what's going on with you being stuck in here?"

"Of course I do! I just think its safer in here than out there!"

Rainbow had to think about that for a moment, and had to admit it did make a certain amount of sense. The prisoners were fairly isolated from a lot of bad things in here. Not any more though, which Rainbow said.

"All the other prisoners are going, so you are as well. You really don't want to be the only pony left in here. Come on, you stick with me and I'll take care of you."

"Okay... but I have one question. What happened to your face?"

Rainbow raised a hoof to the scar over her right eye, and flicked her ruined ear. "Griffon got me in... Fillydelphia? I don't even remember any more, it feels that long ago. But yeah, they messed my face up, and my ear. I know it's not exactly pretty, but-"

"Are you kidding? It looks so cool! I wish I had a badflank scar like that!"

"You say that now." Rainbow replaced her helmet and scooped Scootaloo up onto her back. "I thought scars were cool once as well. Turns out all they really are is a reminder of how close you came to dying."

"Rainbow?"

Rainbow cursed herself, remembering her audience. "Ignore me. Uh, hey, have you seen Captain Spitfire around here? Or any of the other Wonderbolts?"

"Do you mean like today? Or..?"

"Yes today."

"Then no, I haven't, sorry."

"No worries. Hold on!" Rainbow took off to resume her search, flying around in a pattern-less search that eventually proved effective when she spotted a firey looking mane amongst a group of other ponies. In a flash she was flying for them, Scootaloo holding on for dear life as she landed in front of her and saluted.

"Captain Spitfire!"

"Rainbow Dash? Holy shit, you're still alive. Hey guys, check it out, Dash survived after all."

Now she was paying attention, Rainbow saw that it was the other surviving Wonderbolts that were standing around Spitfire. Soarin, Fleetfoot, Lightning Streak, Surprise, High Rise, Pizzelle, and-

"You!" Rainbow stamped her hoof as she laid her eyes on Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser, who had once been part of her squadron before they ran away. "You abandoned us!"

"We had to," said Thunderlane. "We'd probably be dead if we hadn't."

"We are sorry," Cloud Chaser added. "We would've told you to come with us, but we knew you wouldn't."

"Too right I wouldn't! I'm not a coward! And I didn't die either! Lightning and Vapor are here too, which only proves how wrong you were!"

"Not really," said Thunderlane. "Out of five squadrons, we're all that's left. We just got lucky."

"You weren't lucky, you ran away!"

"Leave it, Dash," Spitfire interrupted. "There's nothing you can say that we haven't already said. How about you tell us what you're doing here with all these griffons?"

"That's... kind of a long story." Rainbow leaned her head to the side as she saw that all the Wonderbolts, loyal and cowardly alike, were wearing wingbinders. "What's up with those? None of the other pegasi are wearing those."

"We were considered dangerous enough to warrant it," Soarin said proudly. "It's nice to have a reputation, even if it does mean wearing this horribly itchy fucking thing."

"Our wings are probably a mess," Fleetfoot added.

"We actually came prepared for that," Rainbow told them. "We have limited room for transporting ponies, so most of the pegasi are going to have to fly to Trottingham, while we all go on to Griffonstone."

"Griffonstone?" Spitfire questioned. "Seriously, what the fuck have we missed?"

"As I said, it's a long story." Rainbow drew a blade and started cutting off the wingbinders. "Ergh, you weren't kidding," she said of the messy and overgrown wings they all had. "Start doing some stretches, and I'll explain as much as I can on the way out."

-0-0-0-

Twilight had left Trixie to get the ponies they needed together. Loading ponies on to the airships was taking too long, so she'd started to help with that, the ability to carry a dozen ponies at once proving useful.

Two full airships had departed so far, with three more to fill, not including the one that would take the Bearers and their friends and family to Griffonstone. Even then there still wasn't room for everypony, so the pegasi would have to fly, and the griffons would have to fly some in carts, or even on their backs. It was a logistical nightmare, but one that would've been a lot worse without these airships.

"Twilight!"

Twilight stopped on her journey back to the ground as Cadence shouted her name. "Cadence! You're back! How did it go?"

"Actually we found a couple of ponies in the castle that needed rescuing. I've brought them back while Luna and the others confronted Celestia. I hope they're okay."

"Me too. What else did you find?"

"Nothing good. It's... hard to explain, but we found how Faust plans to enact her plan, and it wasn't very nice." Cadence shook her head like she hated the images stuck in it. "Luna and I can explain it to you when we have more time. How's it going here?"

"Slowly. If you could help transport ponies up to the airships, that'd be great."

"Of course!"

"Thanks. I need to go check on how Trixie's doing with tracking the ponies on the list down."

Both of them flew back down, with Twilight taking a slightly different path towards the tower where Trixie had been gathering the VIP's. She slowed as she saw them, then let out a happy sob as she dived for them, landing in a tackle with Spike as her target.

"Yaaah! Help! I'm under attack!"

"Shush, Spike, it's me."

"Twilight?" Spike looked up into the eyes of his attacker, and grabbed her in a tight hug, "Twilight! It's you! It's really you!"

"It is me! And you're you!" Twilight nuzzled the top of his head, "I'm so happy to see you. All of you," she said as the others gathered around. "I've missed you all so, so much."

Without so much as a word said between them, they all piled on, laughing and crying as they jumped into the massive group hug. Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, all of them relieved to be back together, and free.

"It truly is marvellous to see you, darling," Rarity said from the top of the pile where she'd made sure to end up to avoid being crushed. "We've all missed you so. Rainbow Dash too, wherever she is."

"It's been just horrible," Fluttershy whispered. "First being trapped in High Rock, then here, not really knowing if you were okay."

"And now we're all back together again!" Pinkie cheered. "Hooray!"

Twilight nodded, but it was tinged with sadness. "I wish I could tell you this was it though, that it was all over, but it isn't. Faust is still out there, and we still have to stop her."

"We know," said Applejack. "Trixie's been catching us up. Sounds like you've had quite the adventure."

"And she told you everything?" Twilight asked nervously. The last time her friends had been told everything, they hadn't exactly taken to it.

"Everything," Applejack confirmed. "I dare say you've done a lot of good in your attempts to pull everything together for this."

"Applejack, really," Rarity tutted. "You know that's not what she meant." Rarity smiled and took Twilight's hoof in her own. "We know you've had to do a lot of things to achieve all you have. Some of it less savoury than others. I promise you though, it won't be like it was after you came back from Mareitania. We've all learnt a lot since then, and we won't make those same mistakes twice."

"We're here for you, Twilight," Fluttershy agreed, "Like you always try to be for us."

Twilight choked on a sob, ignoring the very subtle jab in Fluttershy's words since she probably didn't mean it like she said it. "Thank you, really. I-"

"Incoming!" Rainbow shouted, crashing into Applejack and laughing merrily as they rolled over and over. "Hey guys!"

"Land-sakes, Rainbow! Ya coulda just said hello without tryin' ta kill me!"

"But where's the fun in that?" Rainbow released Applejack and pounced on Fluttershy, squeezing a happy little squeak out of the yellow pegasus. "I've missed you all so much! Come 'ere, Pinkie, you're next!"

"Okey dokey! Wheeee!"

Twilight laughed as Pinkie and Rainbow collided mid-air, still laughing as they hugged and massaged their chins. Then came Rarity's turn, and even as she tutted about getting dirty for no reason, she was still laughing and smiling.

"You too, Spike," Rainbow laughed, jumping on the little dragon as he backed away.

"You seem pleased," Trixie commented as she watched the group all reunite. She was surprised when Twilight hugged her as well, and almost teleported away out of shock.

"How couldn't I be? I've finally got them back after waiting so long."

"I know, but maybe you should share your hugs out a little further." Trixie waved at Octavia and Summer as they stood nearby. "I'm sure they'd like one too."

"Guys!" Twilight shouted excitedly, letting go of Trixie to grab the earth pony and pegasus. "I'm so glad you're okay. It feels like ages since I saw you in Fillydelphia."

"That's because it has been," Octavia joked. "I see you've been busy to pull all this off."

"You have no idea. It was all worth it though."

"No argument here, although I do have a question. Why is Starlight Glimmer hiding behind the tower looking all ashamed."

"Ah, yes. Starlight, could you come out here, please?"

It took several seconds, but Starlight eventually edged out from behind the tower, her eyes fixed to the floor, her ears plastered to her head, and her tail between her legs.

"And what is she doing here?" Rainbow asked, one hoof back ready to draw a weapon as she faced Starlight. She was surprised when Rarity pushed her hoof to the ground.

"No need for that, Rainbow, darling. Starlight's not a threat."

"How can you say that? She works for Faust! She stole all your cutie marks!"

"I know, but do you want to know what she said before she did?"

Rainbow rolled her eyes, "Go on then, tell me."

"She said sorry." Rarity smiled at Starlight as Rainbow huffed, "It's nice to see you again, Starlight. Hopefully we can finally get to know you under better circumstances."

Starlight raised her head and gave Rarity a shaky smile, and let it grow as Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack returned it. Rainbow merely rolled her eyes again and said nothing until a shadow fell over them, letting them know that Luna, Nightmare, and Ember had returned.

"Oh hey, that's Nightmare," said Applejack. "You really did get her then."

"Yeah, we did. Okay, I need to go talk to Luna for a minute. You all wait here."

Twilight ran over to Luna, eager for news of Celestia. She slowed as she saw the look on Luna's face, and knew it couldn't be good.

"I'm not sure," Luna replied when Twilight asked what had happened. "I think we restored her old memories, but her new ones are still there too. At this point she isn't sure which are real."

"She also went full crazy pyromaniac," Nightmare added. "Like whoosh! Flames everywhere, including on her. She currently thinks that the best way to fix things is to get rid of us and Faust, then rule Equestria alone again. We then proceeded to kick her ass, which was nice, then she ran away, so we have no idea what she's going to do. At the very least she's no longer with Faust."

Twilight sighed, disappointed by the news. "I suppose that's something. All we can do is hope she comes around then."

"Indeed," said Luna, equally disappointed. "So barring that, today seems to have been a success. Are we ready to depart?"

"Almost. We have to finish loading, then there's a few more ponies we need to wait for."

-0-0-0-

Twilight waited down by the river's edge in the company of Trixie, Octavia, and Summer as they waited for the last evacuees to arrive by rubber dinghy. The airships were being loaded up behind them, with some screaming involved as Nightmare's existence was revealed, but that stopped after some stern words from Luna. Cadence had also been swamped by the remnants of the Crystal Legion that had wound up being held in Ponyville with the rest of the prisoners of war. They all seemed happy about it.

"Hey! There they are!"

Twilight stood at the shout from Shadow, and waved at the thestral as the rubber dinghy came into view, and trotted down to the edge of the water to guide it in. She couldn't miss the sombre feel about things though, and she knew why as there were two ponies missing, and another in severe grief.

"What's the situation here?" Shining asked as he jumped out of the dinghy to help pull it up.

"It's fine," Twilight told him. "You can relax, you've done your part. Good work, by the way, although I'm sorry for your losses. Come on," Twilight said to Fleur, helping her out and pulling her into a hug.

"So this little gang's back together, huh?" the filly said as she joined in. "Hey Trixie, Octavia, Summer. How long has it been since we were last together?"

"Since before Twilight and Trixie left to go find Starswirl's secret retreat," said Fleur. "Over a year ago."

"Seems a lot longer," Twilight said with a weak laugh as she helped her mother and father out of the dinghy, then pulled them into a hug with Shining. "I'm so glad you're all alright."

"And we're glad you're okay too," said her father, Nightlight.

Twilight let them go and offered a hoof to Honeydew as Thorax buzzed his wings to fly out of the dinghy. "It's nice to see you two again," she said, getting only a smile from the pair. "Hello again, Flicker."

Flicker nodded at her, but ignored the offer of help to jump out of the dinghy. That left only Bon Bon sat in the rear, her head down and eyes puffy from crying. Twilight's heart ached for her. Losing two of your closest friends at once had to be hard. Was hard, even.

"I'm sorry about your friends, Bon Bon."

"They did their job," Bon Bon said back, her voice breaking. She sounded far from like she meant it.

"They did, and you should be proud of them."

"I am."

Twilight sighed as Bon Bon made no effort to get out of the dinghy. She knew what rock bottom looked like, and currently Bon Bon was hitting it hard. She'd lost her entire team, which after long enough feels like family. Being the only one to survive that wasn't easy, and as an expert on survivor's guilt, Twilight knew there was little you could do to get over it other than pushing onwards.

Twilight stepped into the dinghy and laid a hoof on Bon Bon's back. "I know it won't make up for what you've lost today, but I have a pony waiting not far away that would very much like to see you. Come on."

Bon Bon reluctantly stood and let Twilight guide her out of the boat and towards where the ponies from Ponyville were congregating as they waited to be evacuated, although there wasn't many left. Among those that were left was the mint green blur that slammed into Bon Bon as soon as she set eyes on her.

"Bon Bon! You're okay! I missed you so much!"

"Lyra," Bon Bon said breathlessly, grabbing onto the unicorn and finally letting her emotions go as she bawled her eyes out.

"Bon Bon? What are you doing? What's wrong? I though you'd be happy to see me?"

"I am," Bon Bon whimpered. "I really am."

"Then why are you crying?"

"Because I lost them!" Bon Bon cried. "I lost them, Lyra! I lost my family!"

Lyra nodded and held Bon Bon, not really knowing what she meant, but more than happy to comfort her best friend as she cried her heart out. "Don't worry, Bon Bon, I'm here," she said, gently rocking her friend, "I'm here."

Twilight left them to it, a little saddened that Lyra's reunion had to be tainted like this, but there was little chance of all of them getting out of today unscathed. Some reunions would be bittersweet, while others like Cadence's and Shining's would be happier. Her own had been almost all she'd hoped for, but she couldn't celebrate that while others mourned their losses.

"I think it's time we went," Luna said. "You're all that's left."

Twilight looked around at the collection of ponies around her, seeing friends, family, lovers, and some mere acquaintances. All those worth fighting for. And they had fought for them, but they still had fighting left to do.

"Alright, come on everyone."

Between the four alicorns it was short work to transport remaining ponies to the last waiting airship. As soon as they were onboard the engines started to rumble and spin the propellers, moving the airship away from Ponyville. There was a pop behind her, and she turned to find Discord sprawled on the deck, gently smoking.

"I'm telling you now, she was not pleased to see me."

"Discord!"

Discord rolled over and caught Fluttershy in his arms, holding her closely. "Worth it though."

Twilight nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly before turning back to look at Ponyville. Celestia was stood on the roof of the town hall, her fiery mane dancing in the wind. Then there was a flash as another alicorn teleported over the town. Twilight tensed as a ball of light formed on Faust's horn, then gasped with relief as Celestia attacked Faust, either on her own agenda, or to buy them time. Either way, Twilight was thankful.

She noticed Luna standing beside her, smiling sadly as the two brawling alicorns razed parts of Ponyville. "I knew she couldn't be that far gone."

"Do you think she can come back?"

"She can." Luna breathed a deep sigh, casting her eyes down to try and hide her sadness. "She has to."

Author's Note

Okay, so, here is the thing. I have pretty much lost all interest in pony. Literally overnight, along with a load of other stuff I enjoyed. No idea why, but the arrival of new priorities in my life might have something to do with it, and certainly nothing to do with my new interest in binge watching anime.

However, this is book is so close to the end, and I'm probably on the last few chapters for writing purposes, and I'm not really willing to stop right before the end, so here is the plan. I am going to keep writing, even if it's only a few hundred words a day. To counteract the slower writing I will be posting slower so there isn't a massive gap between the last few chapters. Expect a chapter every 2 to 3 weeks. Maybe.

After that, since I had planned 5 books, I will be releasing a couple blog posts detailing the plot of the last couple of books, so you at least have some idea of what I was planning to do. Hardly ideal, but I think this is better than me ghosting on you right before the end. I always said I wouldn't do that, and I'm not.

48. Together again

The trip to Griffonstone had been relatively peaceful in the end, considering what they'd left behind. Twilight hadn't quite been able to stop her imagination from thinking about what might have become of Celestia, or of why she'd done what she did to prevent Faust from letting them escape. She'd finally, finally gotten her friends back at last, and all she could think about was Celestia. You really couldn't make this stuff up, and it'd be funny if it wasn't so annoying.

Thankfully her friends had been more than understanding, possibly because they weren't fully aware of how involved Celestia had been involved in Faust's schemes. They might've been less forgiving had they known Celestia had tried to kill Twilight, Luna, and Cadence more than once. Even if that final act was enough to buy Celestia back some sympathy, it didn't earn her forgiveness, even if in the end she wasn't exactly the one to blame.

Twilight tried to put it all out of her mind. Luna was doing more than enough worrying for the both of them. Twilight had other things to worry about, like the latest addition to their roster, one Starlight Glimmer. A mare who has, in the past, been a dictator, a talent thief, and one of Faust's lackeys, on top of being a source of terrible ideas. Having to manage her might be a challenge.

"You look like you're thinking real hard there, Twi," Applejack said as she came and sat next to Twilight, leaning against the rail like the alicorn was. "Something on your mind?"

"I'm pretty sure I've consistently had something on my mind for the last three years now, Applejack. You might have to be a little more specific."

"Alright then, what's today's bee in yer bonnet buzzing about?"

Twilight snorted a laugh, not because it was funny, but because of how happy she was to hear Applejack being Applejack again. The laughter quickly died though, because she would have to give an answer, and there was no single answer to give.

"I'm worried about Celestia, and about Starlight Glimmer. I'm also worried about what Chrysalis is up to, and what Luna might find when she tells Chrysalis to withdraw. Then I'm worried about this whole thing we've got going on in general, and whether it'll work. What Discord did to the Tree of Harmony is also something to think about, and whether it'll prove effective in pulling our plan together. Then there's the fact that I'm so worried about all this that I'm neglecting you and the others, and I'm worried about that too."

"That's not really your standard level of worry." Applejack rubbed her head, expecting to adjust her hat. It was funny how after getting used to it being gone, now they were all back together again she kept thinking it was there. "I'm not really sure what to say."

"You don't need to say anything. The only thing you could tell me to do is to not worry, and no offence, but I don't see that happening any time soon."

"I hear ya." Applejack turned so she could see the others on airship, "I have ta confess that now we're free, I'm worried too. Being a prisoner was easy, if pretty horrible. Now we're going to be a part of things, and I honestly have no real idea what's going on, even with y'all telling me. Stopping Faust? I can't even imagine how you came up with a plan to do that, let alone carried it out. It scares me how much bigger things have got all of a sudden."

"All you need to do is help us finish off the oubliette. Once that's done, you only have to wish us luck."

"I think you're going to need more than luck. That Faust, she's... well, I reckon you probably know plenty about what she's like."

Twilight nodded slowly. "You could say that," she said before laughing weakly. "That's why we have a plan. That's why we only have a plan." Twilight turned to face the others like Applejack was. She could see Pinkie and her marefriend Azure kissing. Still weird. "There's a lot more than just Equestria counting on us making it work."

-0-0-0-

The Emperor was waiting for them as they came in to land, a broad smile on his beak. Twilight gave him a wave as they came in to land, but waited for the airship to stop and be anchored in place with a ramp before going to meet him.

"It seems your mission was a success," he said before she could say so much as a hello. "I take it the other ships made their way to Trottingham safely?"

"As far as we can tell, although I was hoping your griffons would send a messenger to tell us so once they arrive."

"Most likely they will. Is Princess Luna not with you?" he asked as Cadence descended the ramp, followed by Shining Armour and a procession of other ponies as they followed the princesses lead.

"She's gone to inform Queen Chrysalis that she can withdraw her army from Equestria for now. She's also gone to see what Chrysalis has done that she shouldn't have."

"Well, yes, I suppose she should. At the very least you can all call this a success."

"Not... entirely. We aren't sure what's happened with Celestia, but she refused to return with us, and even tried to kill Luna. That said, she turned against Faust, and even attacked her when Faust tried to stop us escaping. She wouldn't stand a chance at winning, so why would she do that if she didn't care?"

"Maybe she knows you're all the best chance we have at stopping Faust?" The Emperor shrugged, "Whatever the reason, we should be thankful she did what she di- What the hell is that?"

Twilight turned to see what the Emperor was pointing at, and saw it was Nightmare as she came down the ramp, chatting with Ember. "That would be Nightmare," she explained. "Not Nightmare Moon. Nightmare. She was created by accident by Luna and myself, then unwittingly given a body by Faust. You've met her before, just not looking like that. She normally goes as a thestral, or a grey unicorn."

"Oh, marvellous... Any other big secrets you have hanging around?"

Twilight raised her chin and hummed as she thought, "I don't think so. I might have to get back to you on that."

"Be sure that you do. Anyway, I've made arrangements about shelter for the ponies you've brought, although getting the old castle into habitable shape that quick wasn't easy. Hopefully they won't be there for long."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

"So how long?"

Twilight blinked, stumped by the question. "How long 'til what?"

"How long until you're ready to go? My griffons are ready to attack at your word, as are the changelings I imagine, once they're finished withdrawing. We're all waiting on you now, although I dare say the zebras have less to do now than they did before since you sent their extremely token help home."

"Only because bringing zebras into Equestria right now is really bad idea after what happened in Zebrica, so we had no idea what to do with them." Twilight shrugged as the Emperor raised an eyebrow at her, "I'm not lying."

"Urgh, fine. Now how about you answer my question?"

"A week? Maybe two? It depends on how long it takes us to craft the oubliette. Obviously we will keep you informed about events, and we will make sure to tell you the moment we're ready. Until then you'll have to be patient."

"I suppose I will. For now I'll have the airship take you and your friends the rest of the way over the mountains to the encampment. I've had the portal moved there, with considerable care, so you should be able to move around easier."

Twilight was surprised by how thoughtful that was, "Thank you. Let my friends say goodbye to their other friends and family, and we'll be ready to go."

-0-0-0-

The streets of Manehattan were lousy with soldiers, Luna discovered as she flew over the city. There was no fighting though. Or at least none she could see. There were a few changeling bodies around, but Luna had expected more to warrant such busyness from the soldiers as they meticulously searched for their enemy building by building.

They were wasting their effort though. Chrysalis was nowhere near stupid enough to hide indoors where she or her changelings could be cornered. Manehattan was full of places only those with wings could get to, and for beings as skilled at hiding as changelings were, the soldiers stood no chance at finding anything.

On the other hoof, changelings were predatory, and only just fell short of being natural weapons, if only because they require their prey to remain alive to get any benefit from hunting. There was quite a few deceased soldiers lined up in places, so clearly the changelings were still fighting. Given enough time, they could put a serious dent into the Mareitanians.

Luna was suddenly aware of what Chrysalis was capable of when she applied herself, and had no need to spare lives. It was not a comforting thought.

"Where are you, Chrysalis?" Luna asked herself as she flew over the city streets, not caring who saw her at this point considering the trouble they'd just caused elsewhere. She'd been searching for a while now, and was annoyed that she could neither find the changelings, and that Chrysalis couldn't be bother to send one to guide Luna to her hidey hole. There was no way the blue alicorn flying around and around the city had been missed by the changelings.

A thought came to Luna. What if the changelings had already left? Chrysalis had given them forty eight hours to complete their various tasks, but that by no means meant that the changeling queen hadn't decided to skip out early. If the Mareitanians had put up some serious resistance, which was likely, then even Luna would've considered leaving early to let the Mareitanians waste time on searching instead of killing her soldiers.

"I swear, Chrysalis, if you haven't done your job as well as you've... apparently... done it... um, hmm."

More than a little flummoxed by all this, Luna decided to turn tail and go home. Either Chrysalis would turn up, or she could be dead, which brought a multitude of benefits with it, like Chrysalis being dead.

"I'm not sure what you're thinking about, but its making you altogether too happy. Maybe I should be thankful I can't actually read your mind."

Luna stopped and sagged, knowing a voice projecting spell when she heard it. Thank goodness Chrysalis couldn't actually read minds, although she was surely getting all kinds of disappointment coming from Luna now.

"Did you not have any plans to check the Statue of Friendship? The big thing in the bay that those sad little Mareitanians can't easily get to?"

That made a lot of tactical sense. Luna wasn't sure why she hadn't thought of it herself. Clearly what had happened with Celestia had slowed her wits enough to not even consider it. A long bath and some sleep would surely help.

"I'm not as patient as I look, Princess."

"Fine! I'm coming!" Flying back the way she came, Luna flew for the Statue of Friendship, the huge, tarnished copper statue sat in the bay of Manehattan. Built to commemorate something or other that happened when Luna wasn't around, and she'd hadn't bothered to find out about, the massive statue would serve as the perfect base for Chrysalis to strike from. That probably perverted its message considerably, but since it involved an alliance between ponies and changelings, they probably won some points back. The fact that Luna would've used it for the same thing as well was irrelevant.

Chrysalis was waiting on the outstretched limb of the statue that held a torch as well as an observation area that encircled it. She was leaning with both forehooves crossed on the rail, a dreamy look on her face that Luna had no desire to ask about.

"I have had the most wonderful day, Princess. It makes me sad that we're endeavouring to end it, and all future days like it, but unfortunately Faust needs to go."

"You could've sent a drone to fetch me here when you saw me," Luna said coldly. It was hard to not sound that way when dealing with Chrysalis. "I'd thought you'd abandoned your task."

"Would it matter if I had? Those Mareitanians are wasting time scouring every inch of the city looking for me or my children. No doubt they'll still be at it in a few days time. Of course I left them a few cocooned ponies and suchlike to keep them interested, so at this rate they'll barely make it back to Canterlot in time for your attack, and will be plenty tired when you do."

"So you're just playing games with them?"

"Now I am, yes. We ambushed them when they arrived, took a delicious number of them out, although not without some losses, then spent the rest of the time leading them on a merry chase." Chrysalis turned towards Luna, "I'd thank you for the wonderful time, but lets not pretend you'd enjoy that."

"Actually, I'm impressed. You did as you were more or less asked, and have excelled at keeping the Mareitanians distracted enough that you don't even need to be here."

"Oh good, that's such a relief to hear because I sent my children home over an hour ago."

Luna laughed, despite herself. At ease, laughing in the company of a fiend like Chrysalis. Strange times indeed. That quickly shifted into shame when Luna remembered what Chrysalis had done, and had to be confronted over.

"You killed civilians. Not many, granted, but enough to make it worth pointing out. I can guess easily enough why you did it, but you're changelings, so even a peaceful occupation would've been enough to cause panic."

Chrysalis sighed as her cheer evaporated. "You don't get to point me at something and tell me to do what I must, then complain about what I did do. Nopony died that wasn't in a uniform of some kind, and the panic caused by that drew the army here faster than some creepy looking talking bugs hanging around the place. You can't blame me for not thinking you might upset ponies when they find out that you sent me here, and that their loved ones are dead because of your poorly defined orders."

"I'm not blaming you. That error was on all of us. But you want your changelings to live in Equestria, and you've made that harder for all of us to make happen."

"That still sounds like you're blaming me," Chrysalis said bluntly. "So what do you want? For me to make a public apology? I'm sure that'll go down well."

"No, we will all be making that apology."

"Then what? The only thing I can think of apart from that is you reneging on our agreement and acting like our attack was just that. Is that what you're going to do?"

The other option was to kill her. Luna could imagine it quite easily. A quick summoning of her blades, a solid stroke across the neck, and Chrysalis was no longer a problem. The changelings could be encouraged to accept Thorax as their new king, and the process to bring them into Equestria would be that much smoother. All that needed to happen to make that a reality could be done within a heartbeat.

Luna didn't do it. That wasn't to say she couldn't, but she didn't. Enough blood had been shed lately, and there was plenty more to be spilled, and while killing Chrysalis solved a few problems, Luna really didn't feel like it.

"We'll think of something," Luna answered after a few seconds.

"The way you looked me then..." Chrysalis shook her head as she narrowed her eyes, "I could've sworn you were just about to try and kill me."

Luna shrugged back, dismissing the idea. "I'm pretty sure I've thought of it before."

"Yes, but that? It wasn't hatred making you think that, because I know what that feels like. That was tinged with sorrow, and felt far too close to happening."

"Hmph, like you've never thought of killing us."

"I have, but I'd rather feed off you. The love you princesses have for your silly little ponies could feed my hive for years. I suppose its that same love that pushes you along in this insane quest to stop Faust. Love can't move mountains, but it can motivate someone who can."

"Huh, I wouldn't expect such poetic things from you."

"Don't mock me, Luna. I was around to witness some of the greatest poets and bards Equestria had to offer while you were taking your sabbatical on the moon sized naughty step."

"Why must everyone feel the need to remind me of that?"

"It is rather one of your defining features."

Luna growled out a sigh, annoyed that the shadow of Nightmare Moon would always hang over her. Nightmare probably got it far worse. "You can return to your hive if you wish. You did your job, and there's no point dwelling on what could've gone differently. We'll keep you appraised of the situation so you'll know when we're ready to launch our attack on Canterlot."

"How gracious of you to sweep me back under the rug until you need me."

"And what would you prefer?" Luna asked angrily. It only got worse as Chrysalis raised a chitinous eyebrow at her.

"Why do I feel like today did not go as planned? I thought you'd be ecstatic to have Celestia back, so I'm going to assume that didn't happen."

"Not that you care."

Chrysalis shrugged her indifference to that. "Indulge me."

"No she did not come back with us. We succeeded in breaking Faust's façade, but all it did was leave Celestia unsure of which of her memories were real, so she decided that we all needed to die, and she'd go back to ruling Equestria alone."

"I see. How unusual. Where is she now?" Chrysalis asked, rolling her eyes at Luna's questioning gaze. "I'm sure that if she's willing to kill you, I wouldn't be far behind on her wish list."

"A fair point," Luna admitted. "We fought, and she escaped. Then, as we were leaving Ponyville, she was there watching us."

"And?" Chrysalis prompted as Luna went quiet.

"And when Faust appeared, Celestia attacked her, buying us the time to escape. Whether that was intentional or not I couldn't tell you, but I am thankful."

"I'm guessing that puts her back in Faust's grasp?"

"For now at least."

"Hmm. I wonder if she'll attempt to remould Celestia into something more obedient, or will she give up for now?"

"I don't know."

Chrysalis could feel how much Luna was hurting now the alicorn wasn't trying to hide it. That didn't mean she cared, or that she wasn't secretly enjoying the thought of what Celestia might suffer, but it did at least mean she could cut her new ally some slack if it meant Luna not directing that pain at her.

"Then surely the best thing would be to get on with whatever your plan is. The less time that Faust has to mess with Celestia's head, the better."

Luna nodded, then actually thought about what had been said. Chrysalis was right, of course, but Luna wasn't going to pressure events just so she could get her sister back. Rushing things could cause the plan to fail, which would be a disaster. At the same time, moping here only hindered things.

"You're right-"

"Naturally."

"-We need to get on with things. Have your changelings prepared, Queen Chrysalis, because the time is coming. Hopefully seeing them fighting on our side will at least get ponies to think."

"I'm sure it will, although having the support of the princesses would probably achieve more in that regard."

Luna hummed at the notion, "Not untrue. I will see you soon, Your Majesty."

"Oh yes you will. Farewell, Princess."

-0-0-0-

"So this is where you've been hiding out," Fleur said as they walked through the Retreat to the observation area. "To think this was hidden in the frozen north this entire time."

"Not that you could tell you're that far north," Octavia added. "It's quite warm in here."

"The orbs project both heat and light," Twilight answered to the unvoiced question, pointing at the glowing orbs dotted around the place.

"It does make it super cozy in here," Pinkie observed. "I bet there's all kinds of nice hidden corners were a couple of ponies could get up to all kinds of things in private."

"Like reading," Applejack said bluntly, "because this is a library."

"Actually I was thinking more like-"

"Land sakes, Pinkie, we know what you were thinking of!"

"Okay, okay, sheesh. You don't have to get all shouty about it."

"Sorry, Pinkie, but we're in polite company now, y'know? And there's young'uns' about."

"I'm like, sixteen now!" the filly protested, knowing full well who Applejack was talking about. "Maybe."

"Ya barely look a day past ten."

"That doesn't mean I'm not!"

Twilight smiled, happy to not only have all her friends here, but to also just hear them talking and bickering like they'd never been gone. It might not always be this way though. Soon the experiences that everypony had gone through would rear their ugly heads, and Twilight would finally see the damage that had been done. It was already fairly obvious with Fluttershy, as she'd barely said a word since being rescued. Spike had also latched onto Twilight's back and hadn't let go since.

It wasn't fair really, and Twilight knew it was horrible of her to think this, but the ponies she got back weren't the ponies she'd lost. They were... harder, more serious, and tarnished by their experiences in a large number of ways. Pinkie wasn't giggling and making jokes, Applejack wasn't so easy going, Rarity wasn't tutting at the dust, and Fluttershy was so locked up in fear at saying the wrong thing and upsetting the wrong pony that she'd decided to not speak at all. It must've been what they experienced with herself after her return from the Mareitanian civil war, so at least she understood their reactions back then a little better now.

At the very least her other friends seemed like themselves. Fleur and the filly were still upset at losing two of their ponies, but Octavia and Summer were more or less fine. Shining was also mostly okay, and happy to finally be reunited with Cadence and Flurry, although I imagine the loss of Rocky and Crème would show on him soon enough. None of them were willing to bet that Bon Bon would ever get over it, but she had been left in Griffonstone with Thorax, Honeydew, Twilight's parents, and Lyra Heartstrings, who had barely let go of her friend since their reunion.

"I wasn't expecting extra guests," a voice said as they neared the observation area. "Friends of yours, Twilight?"

"And the Bearers of the Elements," Twilight said back.

"I see." There was a flash as Starsy's projection asserted itself. "Might that have something to do with the Elements appearing here while you were gone?"

"Maybe? I don't know." Twilight looked back as Rarity cleared her throat. Fluttershy was peeking fearfully over her back. "Right. Everypony meet Starsy. He's not a ghost," she clarified.

"Then why is he see-through?" Pinkie asked, walking up to Starsy and waving a hoof through him, distorting his image. "Seems like a ghost to me."

"I am a magical projection based upon the stored mind and memories of Starswirl the Bearded," Starsy huffed. "I am not some mere ghost."

"Sure seem like one to me," Pinkie said as a final argument.

"Well I'm not, and that's final."

"Come on," Twilight said so that Pinkie'd stop antagonising Starsy, "I'll introduce you all to the others, then you can have a break while we sort out sleeping arrangements. I think we could all use a break after today. And... after the last year."

The introductions had passed pretty quick after that. Moondancer had been indifferent, while Mayfly had drawn mostly curiosity from those unaware of her. The others knew Ember to a degree, as they did Daring Do, and while Nightmare had drawn some comments, they seemed accepting of her since she had helped some of them at great personal cost. Condolences had been offered when they saw the stone bearing Sunset's cutie mark sat on a plinth at the side of the room.

There was one pony that had kept out of it though, and it was that pony which concerned Twilight the most. Starlight Glimmer was the oddity out of all here, which was an already pretty high bar to get over, and had held herself back as the others all made their introductions and reunions.

With a nod for Trixie to join her, Twilight went to confront Starlight, who swallowed nervously at her approach.

"C-can I help you?"

"Are you serious?" Trixie asked with a laugh. "Do you really think we're not going to grill you for whatever you know? Have you forgotten who worked for already?"

"But I didn't know anything! Why would she tell me? I wasn't one of her willing servants, and she knew that!"

"I know, we're just messing with you."

"Well, could you not?"

"In theory," Trixie shrugged.

"Look, I've already offered to help you, and you brought me to this incredible treasure trove of ancient knowledge, so what problem could we possibly have right now?"

"The problem is we have no reason to trust you," Twilight said before Trixie could say what she wanted. "I'm not asking you to say sorry, or prove you're with us, but I want to know more about you so I can form my own opinion."

"Really? Nopony ever wants to know about me past finding out what I've done wrong this time." Starlight frowned as Trixie laughed at her, "What?"

"Sorry, but that alone says so much about you."

"Gee, thanks. There isn't much I could say that Equestrian Intelligence hadn't already squeezed out of me. I'm sure Fleur over there could tell you plenty about me."

"And she has. I'm warning you now though, if you have a problem with her being here because she justifiably left you in your cell at Canterlot, then you can leave right now."

"That said," Trixie cut in, "if you were her, knowing what she did about you, would you have done any differently?"

"You mean would I have refused to help a mare begging to be taken with them so she didn't fall into Faust's clutches, knowing full well that Faust would make use of a mare with her skillset? Probably, but I guess that's just my opinion." Starlight looked down at the floor. "I suppose I can't totally blame her, or Shining Armour, not really," she admitted.

"Glad you think so," Twilight said quickly before Starlight could change that opinion. "Anyway, I'm not interested in hearing you tell me your backstory. I already know you grew up in Sire's Hollow, where you lost your only friend after he got his cutie mark in magic and went to Celestia's school. I'm not interested in you leaving home because your father treated you like a foal. I'm also not interested in why you blamed cutie marks for all your problems and tried to eradicate them. I will admit that I'm curious about why you thought that would work though."

"Cutie marks and talents make us different, and I thought ponies that were different could never see eye to eye and get along." Starlight shrugged. "I was wrong. Cutie marks don't make us different. Our experiences do, and I can't really eliminate that from a pony."

"Nor should you want to."

"No, I don't. Although there are plenty of arseholes out there that could use some readjustment."

"Um..." Twilight found it remarkably hard to argue with that. At the very least she could maintain that they had the right to be arseholes, even if they deserve a good beating for it. "Yeah, so, have you at least got all that out of your system now?"

Starlight eyed Twilight for several long seconds, "I guess so? Any unresolved issues notwithstanding. Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"What are you expecting out of this? Out of me? Are you so concerned about what you think I might do that you're willing to hold a pre-emptive intervention?"

"I think you misunderstand what interventions are," Trixie said flatly.

"You know what I mean!"

"No, I think that as the recipient of more than one intervention I can feel wholly assured that this is not one."

"And what could one of Princess Twilight Sparkle's 'oh so wholesome' friends need an intervention for?"

Trixie smiled darkly at Starlight, "Dark magic, and the questionable battlefield tactics that stemmed from that, like the mass and incredibly violent slaughter of enemy soldiers. Maybe even a teeny tiny case of murder that I never got punished for, since it helped us."

Starlight blinked, then blinked some more, totally stumped by that. She'd been expecting something stupidly trivial that likely only existed in her extremely narrow worldview of things, which she would mostly admit to having without too much difficulty. What she got though was... far beyond what she thought possible.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. I used it loads back in Mareitania to the point that I even deformed my horn before Twilight tore it off with her teeth after I lost my shit entirely and tried to kill her. And myself. While being sort of possessed. I even have eldritch beings of darkness claiming ownership of my soul because of it." Trixie shrugged, "Still can't stop using it though. Not entirely."

"I had an intervention over my rampant alcoholism that was developing back in Mareitania," Twilight added. It wasn't as impressive to say as Trixie's was, but it at least showed she wasn't beyond needing one. "Booze made all the bad things hurt less."

"Is that really the attitude you're taking with that?" Trixie asked, giving Twilight some serious side eye.

"They didn't stop you drinking!"

And just like that, Starlight knew she was far from being the most screwed up pony in the room. It had been a long, long time since that had happened, if ever. "Wow, you guys are- Ah... how do you even cope with, like, life?"

"Persistently," Trixie answered bluntly. "The six months I spent in a psychiatric hospital gave me enough reasons to not want to go back there, so my options are I function as a pony, or I die, which comes with some fun little caveats thanks to my idiotic use of dark magic."

"Sooo... if you'd been the one to come stop me back in my equalist days, would you have..?"

"Killed you? Yeah, probably, no questions asked. At the time at least." Trixie smirked nastily, making Starlight uncomfortable. "These days I'd at least ask you to stop first."

Starlight slowly bit down on the back of her lips, at a total loss of what to say or do, and more than a little scared since Trixie may as well said that she'd kill Starlight if she stepped out of line. Then she saw the way Twilight was looking at Trixie while shaking her head, and decided to question it a little.

"You'd have to do something pretty bad to warrant that," Twilight said to Starlight's questioning gaze. "These days at least."

"That doesn't fill me with confidence. How about you answer the question I asked. What do you want with me?"

"To get along. Maybe even be friends. I know you're a pony that's been hurt by things, and reacted to it in your own way, but it doesn't have to be like that-"

"Yeah, I know," said Starlight, cutting off Twilight before the alicorn could get going. "I had it drilled in to my head enough times. The thing is, words spoken through prison bars tend to lose their attraction, especially when they're telling me how great friendship is while giving me none. You've pretty much just put me on a leash here by threatening to kill me if I mess up, so how is this any different?"

"Because we are offering you friendship. All of us."

"Even Princess Luna? After she destroyed my village and beat the crap out of me?"

"You did try to kill her," Trixie pointed out.

"Details! Look, I appreciate the thought you're putting into this, but I'm going to help you stop Faust, then I fully expect to be thrown back into a prison cell because Equestria considers me to be a bad pony, and everypony knows you can't polish a turd."

"Nope!" Trixie said cheerily, "But you can wrap it in some nice shiny foil, which is just as good. Don't you get what Twilight's offering you? A chance to stick with us and avoid going back to prison by proving you're not that bad a pony? A pony worth something? I mean for fuck sake, Twilight and I have done some pretty heinous things, and we're apparently the good guys, so I really think that you, with a modicum of effort, could prove you're better than you were, and have a nice life out of it. All you have to do is work with us and boom, no more bad guy status."

"Just don't start any more cults," Twilight added quickly.

"Is it really that simple?"

Trixie found herself laughing at Starlight's naïve tone of voice, "We're pretty big on redemption around here. I mean look at us, two former Nightmare Moon's, one formerly evil Lord of Chaos... who isn't actually here, several ponies with more kills than you've had hooficures... and a pony whose dancing resembles an epileptic seizure. And there's me. Come on Starlight, just give it a try. You might even like it."

Starlight found that to be a weirdly compelling argument. Very weirdly. It was also accurate. Her desire to not go back to prison notwithstanding, the chance to prove she wasn't just some crazy despot sounded good. Maybe she could try being friends.

"Alright, I'll give it a go."

"Glad to hear it," Twilight said, genuinely relieved to hear that. "Just don't expect everyone here to treat you like a friend at first. You'll need to earn their trust."

"And not being a weird psychopath will do the rest," Starlight said jokingly, trailing off into an awkward laugh as Trixie's raised eyebrow informed her that she'd missed the mark by a serious amount. "Sorry. Guess I'll keep things like that to myself."

"We like self depreciating humour as much as the next self depreciating psychopath, but don't over do it." Trixie let a smile show, "But yeah, not being awkwardly weird will help."

"Got it."

"Now try and get some rest," Twilight told Starlight. "We have a lot to do tomorrow, and we'll need everypony on top form."

"Okay, I'll guess I'll do that then." Starlight pawed the grounded, showing a hint of anxiety. "Um... goodnight?"

"Goodnight, Starlight," Twilight said, with Trixie doing the same. She smiled at the unicorn then turned away with Trixie in tow.

"So how closely are we going to be keeping an eye on her?" Trixie asked quietly once they were far enough away to not be heard.

"Pretty closely," Twilight said back, stopping to stifle a yawn. "It'll be fine though. She seems like she'll be a good pony, given the chance to be. If my friends are willing to give her a chance after all she's done to them, I am too."

"Touching." Trixie shrugged, deciding it wasn't her problem. "So we're going to be making the oubliette tomorrow then?"

"That's right."

"Awesome. I guess I'll get some sleep then. G'night Twilight."

"Goodnight."

Twilight waited as Trixie headed off to her bed. After all this time they were back together. All of them that could be at least. She needed a moment to bask in that.

"It's great to have you back, guys."

Author's Note

Soooooo... regarding how I said I was going to finish all this, well, I am, but fuck me is it going slow. Even without the motivation issues, I don't seem to actually have the time lately when I do. Expect even slower updates unless I suddenly pull a chapter out of my ass.

49. We're not okay

Twilight awoke some time later to the sound of crying, and could easily tell it was Fluttershy. A stroke of pride that she could still tell such things quickly turned to shame at being proud she could work out which of her friends was crying at this time of night. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Twilight got up to see what the problem was.

She found Luna sitting by Fluttershy, a soft frown marring her features. Fluttershy herself was whimpering in her sleep, her cheeks wet with tears even though her eyes were tightly shut. She did appear to still be sleeping.

"Aren't you going to help her?" Twilight whispered to Luna, not wanting to wake the others around them.

"There have been many vile dreams dreamt this night, Twilight, and I have done what I can to ease them. In this case though, I am unable to help."

"Why not?"

"Because Fluttershy isn't dreaming."

Twilight wanted to laugh and point out the absurdity of that, but quickly thought about what Luna had said instead. Luna wanted to help, but couldn't, so that alone meant Luna probably wasn't kidding. But if Fluttershy wasn't dreaming, what was she doing?

"I know not," Luna said to Twilight's question. "I'm afraid this might be but a symptom of a greater problem. Come, let us go where we can speak more freely."

Twilight nodded, and with a lingering glance at Fluttershy followed after the elder alicorn to the observation area, which was empty. Twilight sat, her eyes still heavy with tiredness, and watched as Luna sat and yawned hard. It seemed she wasn't the only one feeling it.

"Have you even tried to sleep?"

Luna nodded numbly. "Tried, yes, but I was unable to with all these nightmares happening around me, so I did what I could to help. Even that Starlight Glimmer was having a nightmare, although all I did was stop her dreaming altogether. I'd rather expend my efforts on more deserving ponies."

"Starlight isn't a bad pony. Confused, hurt, and brimming with terrible ideas along with the power to enact them, but not actually bad."

"We'll see."

Twilight shrugged, accepting that for now. Luna had little reason to even begin trusting Starlight, so Twilight could accept that Luna did at least help the mare a little. However, none of that explained why Luna brought Twilight here to talk.

"I'm sure I don't need to explain, or even really point it out to you," Luna began after prompting from Twilight, "but your friends have changed. They have been through much, and as always these things leave their marks. Not even Rainbow has been immune to this, and with good reason. They have all been tested most cruelly."

"I realise that, but that could only be expected. Apart from their time in High Rock though, I don't see how their captivity in Ponyville was bad enough to make Fluttershy cry in her sleep."

"Trapped without hope for even a short period can have lasting effects, Twilight. No, their captivity in Ponyville wasn't overly unpleasant, but I never said it was the problem. There's no one thing we can point a hoof at and accuse of being the one thing affecting your friends. This is a more overarching thing, as you well know."

So Luna was pretty much saying that her friends all had post traumatic stress disorder. Twilight already knew she suffered from it, but to think that her friends might as well was upsetting to say the least. Unfortunately there wasn't really a cure for it. Therapy could help, but otherwise they'd have to learn to cope with it.

"So what now?"

"What now?" Luna laughed without humour, "Dear Twilight, please don't take this the wrong way, but your friends are deeply troubled. Can you even be sure you're capable of harnessing the power of the Elements at this point?"

It was a valid question, to which Twilight wanted to say the obvious answer that of course they could. If it hadn't been Luna asking, she might have.

"I don't know. I like to think we can, but until we try there's no way of telling."

"Of course," Luna said with an understanding nod. "If it doesn't work though, it will have to be up to you to fix it. Where the Elements are concerned, only you and the Bearers may have any say in their use."

"I know," Twilight sighed, right before another yawn wracked her body. "We can find out tomorrow. Good night, Luna. I suggest you get some sleep as well."

"I will certainly try to. Good night, Twilight."

Twilight returned to her bed, stopping by Fluttershy on the way. The pegasus had stopped crying now, but was still far from happy. Twilight nuzzled her cheek, smiling when Fluttershy relaxed a little. Maybe things wouldn't be that bad.

-0-0-0-

"Wakey wakey, Twilight!"

Twilight cracked an eye open to see Trixie standing over her, almost humming with pent up energy. "Whaf you wan'?"

"What do I want? Come on, Twilight, today's the day you finish the oubliette off! Shouldn't you be excited?"

Luna's warning hadn't been forgotten in the intervening hours, and did enough to drain any excitement Twilight might have had. A failure to use the Elements would show off all the cracks in her friends, as well as herself, and she felt a lot better not knowing, to be honest.

"Sleep more, save world later."

Trixie kicked Twilight on the rump, "After all the effort we've been through to get everything we need, are you seriously telling me you're not bothered, or excited? That you'd rather sleep in?"

"I'm only asking for an extra hour. Is that so bad?"

"Okay, wow. I didn't see that coming. I guess I'll get some breakfast and see you in an hour. Sheesh."

"Appreciated." Twilight breathed deeply as Trixie let her be, and closed her eyes to go back to sleep. It barely felt like seconds later when she was rudely woken up by somepony jumping on her. She cracked an eye open to find a manically grinning Rainbow standing over her.

"Come on, Twilight, get up! We got loads to do today!"

"No... need sleep make spell work good."

"Aww, c'mon Twi." Rainbow shrugged as Twilight slowly but firmly shook her head. "Fine, but don't sleep in too long."

Twilight snuggled back down under her covers as Rainbow left, and was just on the verge of going back to sleep when-

"Come on, Twily, time to get up."

"Fine!" Twilight threw the covers off herself and stood up fast enough to make herself dizzy. "I'm up! I didn't realise trying to get a little extra sleep was so difficult!"

"Oh," Shining said, a little confused by Twilight's behaviour. "If you wanted to sleep in a bit more, you could've just said."

Twilight growled, literally. "I'm sure it'd only be a matter of seconds until someone else came to try and wake me up, so I might as well give up and accept the inevitable."

"Are you alright, Twilight?"

"Fill me with coffee and ask again."

Twilight stalked to the kitchen, her head level with her body as she completely failed to even bother trying to look like she was happy. That attitude changed a little when she saw the others, and could see she wasn't the only one lacking sleep. The only ones without bags under their eyes seemed to be Trixie, Nightmare, and the three Wonderbolts.

"Good morning," Rarity said with a cheerfulness that belied her tiredness. She was also holding a cup of that divine brew in her magic, which she gave to Twilight, who drank half of it in one go. Twilight then noticed the breakfast spread of pancakes covering pretty much every inch of the table and asked about it.

"Well, Applejack, Pinkie, and I were up fairly early, and we decided that making you all breakfast was the least we could do after your valiant rescue yesterday," Rarity explained. "You do rather deserve it."

"Actually it was all Rarity's idea," said Applejack. "Pinkie and I were jus' happy to go along with it."

"That was... nice of you," Twilight said as a warmth spread through her that she wasn't solely attributing to the coffee. "Thank you."

"No, thank you, really, for getting us out of there."

Twilight nodded, deciding to let them be thankful rather than say that she wished they could've been rescued sooner. There was no point going into it. Not really. She watched as Nightmare tore into a pancake with all the savagery of a predator devouring prey, and decided to try one herself. It was, soft, fluffy, and definitely made by Pinkie. In other words it was perfect.

"So how are you all feeling today?" Twilight asked, steering the conversation to where it might give her a little insight on her friends' mental state.

"Happy to be free," Applejack said, to the strong agreement of the others. "I haven't felt so relaxed in a long time."

Fluttershy was shaking in her seat, but still managed to smile along with the others. Rarity was still generous, Applejack still honest, Pinkie still Pinkie, and Rainbow still loyal. Following that logic, Fluttershy should still be kind, but it was impossible to tell. Twilight needed to test it, if only to reassure herself that her friends at least had the basics required to connect to their Element.

Twilight picked a pancake up in her magic to disguise the use of her magic for other things. Gritting her teeth, she cut her back right leg, not too deeply, then shifted in her seat right before crying out in fake shock.

"Ow! What the fuck!?" Twilight moved off her seat to get a better look, and found she'd gone a little wider than intended. No matter. What mattered was the way Fluttershy perked up, her shaking gone as soon as she saw one of her friends was hurt.

"Oh dear! Stop moving, Twilight, and let me get a good look at it."

Twilight did so, feeling a little triumphant that her ploy had worked, although she took every care to keep it off her face. The look on Trixie's face was enough to let her know that at least one of them there could see right through her.

"It doesn't look too bad," Fluttershy said a moment later. "In fact it looks very clean. We should still put a bandage on it to keep it that way. Um... I don't actually know where the bandages are though."

Twilight teleported one to herself from the first aid supplies they kept in the observation area, and gave it to Fluttershy, who nimbly wrapped it around Twilight's leg using a mix of her wings and hooves.

"There, that should keep the nasty bugs out until it heals up."

"Give it ten minutes and you wouldn't even know she cut herself," Trixie muttered.

"Thank you," Twilight said to Fluttershy as she got back into her seat to resume eating. "How about the rest of you?" she asked.

"As well as I could be," said Octavia. "I have to admit that I'm also relieved to be free of Ponyville."

"I do feel a little trapped in here though," said Summer.

"I'll show you the portals later if you want to get out and about a bit. Stretch your wings and all that. How about you, Fleur? Filly?"

Fleur bowed her head, grief over losing Rocky and Crème still weighing it down. The filly didn't seem much better. "We'll survive. It's what we do. I just want this to be over now."

"Don't we all," said Shining. "With Cadence, Luna, and Moondancer going over things now, hopefully we can get your plan finished off, and finally make our move against Faust."

"Yeah," Twilight said noncommittally. She'd hoped the conversation wouldn't be steered in this direction, but that's exactly what had happened. Thankfully it was only short lived as the perfect distraction walked into the small dining area.

"I-I'm sorry," Starlight said as the eyes of all of them landed on her. "I'll-uh... come back after, when you're all done."

"Don't be silly, silly," Pinkie said, bouncing up and into the doorway to stop Starlight from leaving. "Everypony is welcome to breakfast! And lunch! And dinner too! Teehee! I even made some special pancakes just for you."

"Oh, you really didn't have to," Starlight said as Pinkie all but dragged her over to a seat and plonked her down.

"I know! That's the best part!" In a flurry of motion, Pinkie grabbed a plate of pancakes off the counter and placed them in front of Starlight. "Enjoy."

Starlight didn't enjoy them. Not immediately at least. She was too transfixed by the message written in blueberries on the top. The one saying 'we forgive you.' She sat, her eyes growing misty as her demeanour cracked a little more.

"You don't mean that."

"Of course we do! I even had Applejack write it, so you know it has to be true."

"But why? How could you forgive me?"

"We ain't saying you didn't do some sketchy things in that village of yours," Applejack said, trying to sound apologetic as she did, "but you sure as heck weren't happy about what Faust made you do."

"But how could you possibly know that?"

"Because you apologised to everypony before you took their mark," Rarity explained, smiling kindly at Starlight. "You also looked absolutely miserable. That was enough to tell us you weren't the same Starlight Glimmer we found in that village."

"Thank you," Starlight said in a tiny voice. Twilight could tell Starlight had already rejected the notion of actually being forgiven, because she'd done the same enough times herself to know exactly what it looked and sounded like. "I don't know how to repay you."

"You could do that by doing just one thing," Pinkie said, directly into Starlight's ear.

"Name it. If it's within my power, I'll do it."

"Oh, I think it's well within your power." Pinkie leaned a little closer, her expression curiously dark yet seductive. "The thing you have to do is... eat your breakfast. It's getting cold."

Twilight laughed as Pinkie sat back, all smiles again while Starlight stared blankly ahead.

"Are you serious? All I have to do is eat my breakfast?"

"Hey! It's more serious than that! You have to eat the breakfast made lovingly for you by your new friends! Every. Last. Bite. Don't disappoint us, Starlight."

Starlight swallowed and picked up her fork, stabbing it into the stack and cutting a mouthful free. She put it in her mouth, and whimpered. "These are amazing."

"Thanks! The secret ingredient is friendship." Pinkie patted Starlight on the head as the unicorn started shovelling the pancakes into her mouth as fast as she could eat them. "Also milk, flour, eggs, a touch of seasoning, and the stuff that goes on top. Enjoy!"

Twilight sipped at her coffee, feeling a lot better after having filled herself with Pinkie's pancakes and caffeine. Having breakfast with her friends. It was so unbelievably normal it didn't seem real. There were some people absent though, so the illusion wasn't quite fully realised.

"Where are Ember, Mayfly, and Daring Do?"

"Teaching Spike how to fly out in the Circen desert," Fleur replied, making the answer sound as mundane as possible in the hopes Twilight wouldn't be too shocked by it.

"Ah, right." Twilight decided to keep quiet about how she hadn't noticed Spike wasn't there. She assumed he was catching up on his sleep, and hadn't bothered to check on him she was that tired herself.

"Wait... What?"

-0-0-0-

Spike had wings, and Spike was flying. Both these things surprised Twilight, despite how closely intertwined they were. When did Spike get wings?

Why hadn't she noticed?

Twilight stopped and watched for a while, too ashamed by her inattentiveness to go up and join him. Yes she'd been busy trying to get everything together, getting everypony to safety, and all the other stuff, but it still felt like something she should notice.

"Twilight! Hey Twilight!" Spike flew down and landed in front of Twilight, his fangs showing due to how wide his smile was. "What do you think, Twilight? Pretty good huh, if I do say so myself."

"It's amazing, Spike. I can't believe you learnt to fly like that so fast."

"I had a good teacher," Spike said as Ember came down to land by him. He laughed as she rubbed his head.

"Only a dragon can really teach a dragon to fly," she said confidently. "A thestral might pull it off, but for a dragon it's all about how you bend the wings, which a pegasus just doesn't get."

"I tried," Daring said with a shrug, passing by in the company of another dragon that Twilight assumed to be Mayfly.

Twilight twitched a smile at Spike,"Still, I'm very proud of you. I'm sorry I wasn't here with you."

Spike shrugged, "I thought about waking you, but you looked like you needed the sleep. I mean you never even noticed I had wings, so I assumed you already had enough on your mind without worrying about me learning to fly."

Twilight hung her head to ineffectively hide her shame. Not only had she not noticed, but Spike knew she hadn't. "I'm sorry, Spike. I should've seen them, but I... I just didn't."

"Hey, Hey," Spike said soothingly, grabbing onto Twilight. "I didn't mean it like that. Yesterday was totally hectic, so it's totally fine if you missed that. Plus you've only seen me for five minutes at most over the last year before yesterday, and I didn't have my wings then. Really, Twilight, it's fine."

Twilight rubbed her eyes and nuzzled against Spike. If she were totally honest with herself, she was surprised at herself for being so upset over this. All she'd intended was to apologise and ask for forgiveness. Instead she was close to blubbering like an idiot. "I love you, Spike. I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too. I've- All of us have been so worried not knowing where you were, or if you were even okay. It felt horrible not being able to do anything about it."

"It felt horrible not being able to save you until now. It should've been the first thing I did, but I just couldn't."

Spike squeezed a little tighter, "I know. We all know. There was no point saving us until you had a way to stop Faust, otherwise she'd only come after us, and might have done something worse than put us in prison."

Twilight didn't know what to say. It was the truth of the matter, but to hear something so grim come out of Spike's mouth was disheartening. It seemed that even he wasn't beyond being affected by all that had happened. "I'll find a way to make it up to you, I promise."

"Well... saving Equestria is an excellent first and last step, so we'll call it square after that."

Twilight shook her head, "I'm doing that anyway, so there's no way I can count that."

"Then perhaps there is one thing."

"Whatever it is, I'll do it."

"Come fly a few laps with me around this awesome ruined city?"

Twilight snorted a laugh. It was a small thing, but it was so very Spike. "Alright, but I think we'll take it slow for now. We can start going faster once you have a bit more experience."

"Aww, c'mon, I'm plenty experienced!"

"Alright, I'll tell you what. If you can keep up with me for three laps, the last one will be a race."

"You're on!"

-0-0-0-

Spike didn't even manage two laps before running out of steam. Twilight had to carry him back to the portal, which she really, really didn't mind.

"Who thought flying would be so much work?" Spike said as she lowered him to the ground. "My wings are killing me."

"Give it time," Twilight said back. "They're still new, and not used to getting used. Once they're stronger you'll be giving Ember a run for her money."

Ember raised a questioning eyebrow at Twilight, "Not you though?"

"Let's not be silly now." Twilight chuckled and kissed Spike on the top of his head, "I'm proud of you though. Keep at it and you'll be a great flier."

"I thought I already was," Spike teased, punctuating his words with a yawn. "Heh, I could really go for a nap after that. Hey, Twilight, do you mind if-"

"Go ahead, Spike." Twilight nuzzled Spike as they went through the portal along with Daring and a more regular looking Mayfly, if you could call her that. "I'll wake you if I need you."

"Thanks Twilight." Spike staggered away for a few steps, then jogged back to give Twilight a hug for a few seconds before carrying on.

Twilight felt her chin wobble, but for once it was out of a desire to cry for joy rather than anything else. She sniffed and composed herself, then remembered that she wasn't alone.

"Thanks for teaching him to fly."

Ember shrugged, indifferent to the appreciation since she would have taught Spike to fly anyway. "I can't believe you didn't notice. What did you think those things on his back were?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure I even saw them. I was just so happy to get them all back, and focussed on getting everyone to safety that I didn't notice. It's not like I was told he had them either."

Ember shrugged again. It wasn't up to her to judge how right or wrong Twilight was. "So what's the plan now?"

"Now? Now it's time for serious talk." Twilight led the way to the observation area where it sounded like all the others were already gathered. It had come to the time to tell them all what the plan was, and what their part in it all would be. Some of them didn't actually have a part to play, but had earned the right to know what was going on.

Twilight stopped as they entered the area, listening to the conversations going on for a moment, and over them the sound of sniffling. It didn't sound like Fluttershy this time. In fact it was Pinkie, which was unusual, and she was sat near where Twilight was stood, which was why Twilight was probably the only one to have noticed it so far.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked Pinkie, keeping her voice down in case Pinkie didn't want the others to see her crying. Not that it was really crying. Pinkie seemed far too happy to be upset.

Pinkie jumped and rapidly wiped her eyes, "That was super sneaky, Twilight."

"I was hardly being subtle, now come on, tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing!"

"I'm pretty sure there's got to be something wrong," Twilight deadpanned.

"Nope! Everything couldn't be more right! When I joined the army it was to get our friends back. That's all I wanted, and now it's finally happened! We're all back together again!" Pinkie smiled a wobbly smile as fresh tears started to fall, "Happy tears, Twilight. Happy tears."

"Alright, I believe you. I just wish this could've been the end of it all though." Twilight also wished that all of them really were there. Sunset would've loved meeting the rest of her human friends' counterparts.

"Me too. I hope I don't have to cry sad tears too. Sad tears are the worst."

"Yeah, they are." Twilight patted Pinkie on the back and moved on to where Luna, Cadence, Moondancer, and Starsy were talking in hushed tones. Waiting patiently for them to notice her, she cleared her throat as noisily as she could to get their attention, asking if there was something wrong once she did.

"Not wrong, per se," Luna said with an awkward slowness. "We were debating the best way to deploy the oubliette, and haven't achieved much in that regard. The activation procedures are too slow."

"It's an incredibly complex piece of arcane artistry designed to contain one of the most powerful beings in existence!" Starsy grumbled back, his voice rising in volume as he went on. "You never specified that it needed to be quick as well! I'm not sure that's even possible!"

"Come on, Luna, we knew this," Twilight said to the blue alicorn. "We wouldn't need all the armour and help if we thought it was going to be quick and easy."

"Ten minutes," Luna stated. "That's how long it takes. Are you sure we can stand up to Faust for that long, even with the armour?"

That was quite a bit of time, Twilight had to admit, but it didn't matter. "We'll hold her off as long as we have to. We don't get a choice in that."

"Sadly true." Luna splayed her ears out, her irritation showing. "Hopefully past lessons on our ability to fight her can be ignored."

"Hence the armour," Cadence reminded Luna. "We aren't doing this unprepared."

Luna breathed in deeply, and let it back out in a single burst. "Fine, so we shall have to hold Faust off for at least that long. There is still the matter of deploying the oubliette. Who will be doing that?"

"It needs at least three to do it properly," said Moondancer. "Since I probably know the most about it, except for maybe Starsy, I... imagine that makes me one of them." Moondancer smiled helplessly, "Lucky me."

"That still leaves two more."

"I had thought Sunset would be one of them," Moondancer whispered, her head sinking for a second before raising to skewer Twilight with a sharp look. "Unfortunately that won't be happening."

Twilight squirmed under Moondancer's piercing gaze, "I know, but I have someone that could act in her stead. Starlight Glim-"

"Absolutely not," Luna barked, dismissing the idea before Twilight could even finish saying it. "We would have to be fools to let that mare near this. It's bad enough for her to even be here where she can hear all this."

"We don't have a choice," Twilight countered. "Without Sunset we don't have enough unicorns to activate the oubliette. Trixie's already the third unicorn in this equation, Fleur and Rarity don't have the aptitude in magic, no offence-"

"None taken," Fleur and Rarity said together.

"-And Shining will already have the task of protecting them while they work. Starlight is literally our only option. Besides, she knows magic. Is good at it even. She can do this."

"It is not her ability I'm questioning," Luna said with an imperious air. "It's her integrity I'm in doubt of."

"She wants to stop Faust. That much I can guarantee. Give her a chance, Luna."

"Were this something of significantly less import, I would, but this is literally one of the most important events in our fight against Faust." Luna flung a hoof out to point at Starlight, who cringed under the attention. "I do not think now is the time to be giving her a chance to screw up or betray us!"

"I'd probably trust her to not screw up more than Trixie," Moondancer said in the short silence after Luna's declaration.

"Shouldn't there be a 'no offence' after that?" Trixie asked back after a couple of seconds.

"Should there? Must've slipped my mind."

Trixie sighed, "Great, so I'm being viewed as the weak link even though Moondancer's magic is probably more pathetic than Fleur's. No offence."

"Some taken this time," Fleur grumbled.

"Why is Trixie now the liability? Huh? Moondancer hasn't even been in a proper fight before! Is she going to be able to cast whatever the spell is while there's a battle going on around her? Starlight has at least some experience in both fighting, and casting under pressure, which is going to be a lot more use than whatever Moondancer thinks she can do!"

"That's rich coming from the pony that falls back on dark magic every time things threaten to get just a tiny bit difficult!"

"You've hardly even left this place since coming here! Hiding here while the rest of us do the hard work!"

"Oh, so you already knew how to make a magical prison capable of holding somepony like Faust, did you? Clearly all my time here helping Starsy was worthless!"

"ENOUGH! THE BOTH OF YOU!" Luna roared, her booming voice pinning everyone to the floor and making the entire library rattle. "Save your fury for Faust. Moondancer, Trixie raises a valid point that your ability to cast under such pressure is untested. And Trixie, are you really going to be able to cast without getting distracted, or without falling into using dark magic?"

"Considering how much that would screw everything up, yeah, I think I'll manage not to." Trixie turned her head and narrowed her eyes at Twilight, "Good job defending me here, by the way."

"Sorry, but I already know you're both more than capable of doing this. What you can't do is the entire thing with just the two of you. You need a third," Twilight looked to Luna, "and Starlight is currently our only choice."

Luna stared back at Twilight for a while, then raised her head. "Starlight Glimmer?"

"Y-yes, Princess?" Starlight replied timorously, stepping forward in the hopes that Luna would appreciate any signs of keenness.

"Why do you want to stop Faust?"

Starlight blinked and frowned at the question, "Um... are you serious?"

"Answer the question."

"Because she's insane! She wants to burn the world down to save it from itself! She doesn't seem to have any issues with how she does it either, so long as the end justifies the means, which it always, always does. Then there's what she did to Princess Celestia to make her all... weird. I'm sure there's other reasons too, but I'm not aware of those since you're keeping quiet about them." Starlight stopped her outburst and tapped her hooves together. "So in conclusion, yes I want to stop her."

"You're concerned by what she did to my sister?"

"Hey, if she can do that to Celestia, she could do it to all of us."

Luna hummed thoughtfully, then looked over to their resident lie detector, Mayfly, who shrugged and shook her head. If Mayfly had been unable to sense the lies in Starlight's words, then that probably meant the unicorn was being honest. Shallow and self-serving to a degree since her concern over Celestia was actually concern for herself, but still honest.

"Very well, but should you decide to abandon us at a critical moment, I shall hunt you down and throw you into the deepest, darkest prison I can find. There shall be no mercy, and no appeals. Faust needs to be stopped, so if you can't face her, say so now."

The callousness of that threat surprised Twilight, although she could see it was pretty empty. If they failed to capture Faust, hunting down Starlight Glimmer would be the very least of their concerns. She suspected Starlight knew that too, which only pleased her further when Starlight stepped forward with a determination on her face that made Twilight want to cheer.

"I won't let you down. I mean, I don't even know what your plan is, but I won't back out and run."

Luna studied that expression of determination for a moment, then smiled. "Very good. I suppose it is time we made you all privy to our intentions. As you all know, Faust is a being of incredible power that could only be rivalled by Discord. Even then he claims to be unable to defeat her. She cannot die, and we cannot beat her into submission. Neither will the Elements do much against her, even with their recent changes."

"Is this supposed to fill us with optimism?" Trixie asked. Even though she knew the plan, hearing all this wasn't exactly encouraging.

"I'm getting those out of the loop appraised of the situation, Trixie. They need to know what we're up against. They also need to know that we have a way to stop Faust."

"I'm sure they've already assumed that."

"Hush, Trixie." Luna waited until she was sure Trixie wasn't going to talk over her again before continuing. "With the help of Starsy, whom I'm sure you've all met by now, we've devised an arcane oubliette that is capable of containing Faust and her power. It is this which we will need the aid of the Bearers to complete."

"The heck's an arcane oubli- oubi... whatever it is you said?" Applejack asked.

"It's an inescapable prison," Twilight explained as simply as she could, "but made of magic. Faust will effectively be stored inside the crystal heart I brought back from Mareitania."

"Isn't that cruel?" Fluttershy asked.

"It's considerably less cruel than her previous imprisonment," said Luna. "It's also not quite as we're describing it. To put it simply, the spell Starsy has devised will create an entire world within the oubliette for Faust to inhabit and control at her whim. She should be quite comfortable there, while removing the threat she poses to us. Sunset Shimmer conceived the idea, so all credit for that goes to her, even after she... well, yes."

Twilight waited for something, some sensation that hinted towards Sunset not being gone. There was nothing, even though the very mention of Sunset's name usually had Twilight jumping at shadows. Perhaps she truly was gone. Twilight shook her head, and looked up as Rarity raised a hoof.

"I have a question. Not to diminish your achievements, but why has this taken so long to achieve? You already have the crystal heart, so why has it taken months to even get this far?"

"Because it isn't that simple," Twilight answered. "We needed components from Zebrica, and ended up fighting a war there, and there was plenty else besides."

"Like getting the griffons on our side," said Rainbow. "We haven't been stuck here sitting on our hooves, Rarity. We've built an entire alliance to help us fight Faust."

"Yes, but... why?"

"Because Faust has an army," Luna replied. "Faust we can fight with just the few of us, but we cannot fight her entire army as well as her, so we needed allies. The Griffon Empire has proven willing to see Faust stopped, and has agreed to provide the armed forces we need to keep Faust's army distracted while we stop Faust. The Saddle Arabians and Zebras also wish to see Faust stopped, although they have little to offer militarily speaking. The only other group to offer significant military aid was the changelings."

Twilight winced at the shock that got out of her friends. Other than that, the only one that seemed perturbed was Octavia, as she and Summer were the only ones to not know, and Summer had no real idea what the changelings even were.

"Are you pulling mah leg?" Applejack yelled. "Changelings? Ya allied with changelings? What the heck made ya think that was a good idea?"

"Desperation, mainly," Luna said back calmly. "Chrysalis wants Faust gone as much as we do, and offered her aid, for a price."

"What price?"

"The means to feed her people, which Cadence provided, and a place in Equestria once Faust was gone."

Applejack rubbed her hooves down her face, "You have got ta be kidding. How could you possibly trust a snake like Chrysalis? All those changelings are nothing but filthy crooks!"

"Thorax and Mayfly are changelings," Twilight countered to Applejack's complaint. "They've both helped us a lot."

"But-" Applejack pointed a hoof at one of those changelings present, "-they ain't changelings! I mean, look at Mayfly! She's all colourful and stuff! She don't look like the kind of folk that snatch foals just to steal a mother's love."

There was a flash as Mayfly transformed, first into a pony, then a griffon, a dragon, and finally into the black, vicious form that they more readily recognised as a changeling. A final flash took her back to her normal form. "Am too a changeling."

"Thorax and Mayfly are the result of when a changeling shares love, and gives it instead of stealing it," Cadence explained, giving the two changelings a warm smile. "They become like what you see now."

"That's also what we hope to encourage the other changelings to do," Luna added. "I know you won't appreciate the false pretences behind it, Applejack, but we hope to effectively steal Chrysalis' hive out from under her by encouraging them all to become like Thorax and Mayfly."

Applejack reached up to move her hat forwards and hide her eyes, but as she was still hatless the only thing she did was mess her mane up. "You're right, I don't like that, and I don't think Chrysalis will either."

"Pfft," Rainbow scoffed, "who cares what Chrysalis thinks? She's what's wrong with the changelings. The changelings themselves aren't that bad."

"A lot of this also depends on Chrysalis herself," Luna emphasised. "If she's comfortable with playing along, then she loses nothing. However, if she chafes under our rule, and wishes to break lose from Equestria, she may do so without her hive, severely reducing her as a threat for some time. We can scarcely afford a war with the changelings, now or ever, so this benefits all of us for the time being."

"I'm afraid this is politics," Rarity said kindly, patting Applejack on the back of her neck. "I'm afraid this is beyond any of us to deal with."

"Fine, but that still don't mean I got to like it."

"We're not asking you to," said Twilight. "All we ask that you know it's for the best."

"So you're on board with this too, Twi?"

"It was her idea to begin with," Trixie said, making Twilight wince as that was something that could've gone without saying. She failed to meet Applejack's eyes as the farm pony raised an eyebrow at her.

"As Luna said, we can't afford a war with the changelings as well, so if this makes Equestria safer, then I'm glad I thought of it."

"I'd also like to point out that the changeling in the room is also on board with this idea," Fleur told Applejack in the hopes of getting her to stop whining. "Not a lot of changelings really like Chrysalis, and will happily accept some change in that regard."

"Look, I said I'm fine with it, just not comfortable. Perhaps we should go back to what we were talking about regardin' the plans to save Equestria."

"Of course," Luna said with a nod. "As I was saying, we needed allies to keep Faust's army distracted, and unfortunately there's only one way to do that. While our allies attack the Mareitanian and yak army, we shall deal with Faust and put an end to all of this."

"So more fighting and bloodshed," Octavia sighed. "Marvellous."

"Unavoidable is what I'd call it," said Shining. "There's no way to do this without it. Even if we could stop Faust without fighting her army, the army would still be a problem afterwards."

"I fear the yaks will forever be a problem after all of this," Luna agreed. "Unlike the Mareitanians, who were forced through magic to follow Faust, the yaks follow her willingly. They will not like us removing her."

Twilight waved a hoof dismissively, "That's a problem for the future. Right now all we need to do, and can do, is stop Faust." Twilight turned to her friends, "That's where your part in this comes in. We need the Elements to complete the oubliette. After that you're welcome to stay here in safety until Faust is stopped."

"And then we can rebuild Equestria and make it a happy place again?" Pinkie asked, bouncing with excitement.

"Exactly."

"Then I am so on board! Just tell me what you need me to do."

Author's Note

I'm still here, just about, sporadically posting trash chapters to save myself from doing the hard work of the finale which I'm maybe halfway through writing, maybe... I'm kinda writing it in small bits, then going to jam it all into one big chapter that might be decent, or end up a wildly incoherent mess. Time will tell, but probably not that soon.

50. Worlds within worlds

There was a chamber beneath the Retreat that Twilight hadn't been aware of, along with many of the others judging by their expressions. It was a bit annoying actually, that this had been kept a secret for some reason. Was it to protect it all in the event of their capture? Or simply because Starsy and Moondancer got a thrill out of keeping everyone else ignorant? She wanted to say the former, but she wasn't anywhere near certain enough to go with it.

Either way, it didn't matter. What did matter was the massive spell circle filling the room, which was roughly the size of the map room back in Twilight's castle. At its middle sat the crystal heart from Caverndown, and around it the three crystals they'd retrieved from Mount Chembechembe in Zebrica. The three crystals Sunset had died for.

Had Sunset known about this place as well? Twilight supposed that didn't matter either. There were bigger and better things to worry about, such as if this was even going to work in the slightest. The kind of magic that was going to be channelled through this called for more than scribbling some chalk lines and hoping it worked.

"Echo!" Pinkie shouted, giggling as her voice came back to her. "We could throw one heck of a party in here. The acoustics would be amazing!"

"Something we can agree on, finally," Octavia said to the pink mare.

"Forget your party, and forget your acoustics," Moondancer snapped at the both of them. "Just make sure you don't touch the lines!"

"Are they that delicate?" Fleur asked.

"Yes, and we have a very limited supply of it, since the source of the crystals we ground up to make this stuff was blown to smithereens!"

At least that explained where the rest of the crystals they gathered to produce the oubliette went. Grinding up those crystals and mixing them with paste would make a potent material to perform this with, and Twilight couldn't help but feel more optimistic about it now. Good job too, because many of the others didn't quite see the significance behind what they were looking at.

"Those gems are simply divine," Rarity commented. "You simply must tell me where you got them from."

"Did you not hear me say that where they come from got blown up? Along with Sunset Shimmer?" Moondancer narrowed her eyes, "Don't diminish her death by acting like we did it all for some shiny rocks!"

"Oh, apologies darling," Rarity said quickly, casting a glance at Twilight as well. "That's not what I meant to do at all."

"These are some of the most magically stable gems in existence," Starsy interrupted, possibly hoping to steer the conversation somewhere more useful. "They're going to form the lock that will keep Faust safely contained. They are a good deal more than just shiny rocks."

"Something being beautiful doesn't diminish its worth in other ways," Rarity said back to that, but seemed to want to drop the subject herself since it seemed sensitive to say the least. "So what are we supposed to do here?"

"We'll be using the Elements to empower the spell," Twilight explained quickly. "To put it simply, the more power we put into this, the stronger the oubliette is, and there is little magic stronger than the Elements."

"But aren't the Elements back with the tree?" Applejack asked. "Or are we usin' that rainbow power stuff we used to stop Tirek? Can we even still use that?"

"No idea," Twilight said with a shrug. "But it doesn't matter since I had Discord retrieve the Elements when he did what he did to the Tree." Twilight hesitated, since she didn't actually know where the Elements were. "Uh, Starsy? Moondancer?"

"Box by the door," Moondancer grunted.

"Right, thanks." Quickly locating the box by the door, Twilight opened it and lifted out her crown. "What the heck?" she said as she saw it was different in appearance, softer and less crystalline. "Why does it look different? Is this because of what Discord did?"

Luna came over and lifted a couple of the Elements out to inspect them. "They feel different too, like they're more... alive, I suppose. Most unusual. They feel just as potent as ever though."

"Rainbows to the face for everyone," Nightmare muttered quietly to herself.

"Still can't believe you let Discord mess with the Tree," Applejack said as she picked up her own Element. "Who knows what he could've done to it."

"Nothing that would hurt us," Fluttershy said back quickly. "He wouldn't do that."

"He also wants Faust gone as much as we do," Twilight added.

"Now that I can believe," Applejack laughed. "Guess I'm still sore after the whole betraying us and joining Tirek thing."

"That was years ago."

"And don't I know it." Applejack slipped her Element on around her neck and polished the gem with her fetlock. "I guess we best get to doing then. Jus' tell me where to stand and when to do the thing."

"We haven't finished the circle yet," Moondancer said coldly. "Of course I say we, but I mean I. If you'll give me a couple of hours to finish it we can get on with things."

"I can help!" Starlight offered, only to wilt under the weight of Moondancer's glare. "Or you can do it all yourself. That's fine."

"I bet she'd let Sunset help," Trixie snickered.

"Out!" Moondancer screamed. "Out-out-out! I can honestly say that the best part about all of this finally ending is that I can finally be rid of you and Twilight! Out!"

"Whoops, kicked the hornets' nest," Trixie said with a grin that only increased Moondancer's rage. "Time to hide."

Twilight rolled her eyes and shoved Trixie towards the exit. "Stop antagonising her. We can do that just by being near her."

"Oh? And suddenly you're accepting the fact that she will never forgive you?"

"Can't hold back the ocean," Twilight replied in a low voice that only Trixie could hear. "Please stop trying to piss her off."

"You said it yourself, we hardly need to try."

-0-0-0-

"Are you sure it's safe to be here?" Fluttershy asked with a whimper. She was only saying so because she knew exactly where they were, and that it was definitely in Equestria. It was also where Starlight had accumulated some of her biggest regrets, but that was a different matter.

"We haven't seen a Mareitanian soldier anywhere near this place the entire time we've been here," Twilight said back to try and assuage Fluttershy's fears. "It seems Faust has no interest in a ruined village."

"I can hardly believe you're using it," Starlight said, her voice barely containing her distaste for the place. "Couldn't you have left it here to rot?"

Rainbow flew down low, flying on her back as she drifted past Starlight. "That ashamed of it, huh?"

"Yes," Starlight replied bluntly. "But also no. I was trying to do something I thought was good, but did it so horribly wrong." Starlight sighed and pulled her mane over her eyes to block her sight, "Why are we here again?"

"Combat practice," Twilight told her. "More specifically, I want to see how good you are in a fight."

Starlight raised her head and blinked hard at Twilight, not quite believing what she'd heard. "Excuse me?"

"We're going to be fighting our way into occupied Canterlot. We already have Moondancer to protect while doing that, so if you also need protecting, I'd rather know now. I don't think you will though, not after the way Luna described your battle here."

"I do not need protecting."

Twilight smiled at Starlight. "Good. Prove it."

"Right now?" Starlight gestured at their surroundings, "Here? Are you serious? Are you sure you don't want to get Princess Luna just so you can dredge up more unpleasant memories for me?"

Twilight said nothing for a moment, then walked towards Starlight until they were face to face. "I suffer from post traumatic stress disorder," she said quietly, leaving the others to guess what she were saying. "Quite a few mornings I wake up from nightmares, or screaming because I think I've been stabbed again, right through my chest. I can still feel the blade at times, even though I couldn't at the time. Weird huh? Of course that is on top of all the other horrible things I witnessed over the last few years, some of which I did. I don't want to talk down to you about what happened here, but since you can still look Luna in the eye, I'm sure that means you don't wake up to images of her doing her best to merely subdue you."

"But-"

"But what? I just want you to show me how capable you are in a fight. This place is already half destroyed, so what is a little more damage going to do?" Twilight leaned even closer to Starlight, "Or would you rather I just attack, and you defend yourself?"

"Fine," Starlight grumbled, finally giving in.

"Great!" Twilight said, suddenly all cheer again. With a flap of her wings, Twilight flew up and looped around so that she was a couple dozen paces from Starlight. "Do your best."

"My best, huh?" Starlight reared up, pulling her most destructive spell out of her repertoire to fire at Twilight. A huge, roiling beam of energy erupted from her horn, hurtling towards Twilight, cutting a trench in the ground as it went, and searing the front of the houses. When she opened her eyes again, Twilight was gone. "Well what do you think of that, Twilight Sparkle?"

"I said to attack me," Twilight whispered into Starlight's ear, close enough to tickle the hairs with her breath, and making Starlight shriek. "I didn't say to annihilate me."

"But it was still good though, right?"

"If we needed to reduce an immobile object down to it's component atoms, I would definitely give you a call."

"That... wasn't actually a compliment, was it?"

Twilight shook her head, "It took too long, you advertised your attack, you closed your eyes, admittedly to avoid blinding yourself, and it's not worth wasting your energy on overblown attacks like that when your opponent can easily dodge it. I think you need to try again."

Starlight teleported away, turning as she reappeared to snap a quick blast of magic off at Twilight, who batted it away with a shield. Frustrated that Twilight could do that so easily, Starlight fired again and again, each bolt of magic getting no closer to hitting Twilight than the first.

"This isn't working, Starlight, try something else."

Starlight thought desperately. Twilight could tell what she was going to do too easily, even though she wasn't trying to advertise it so much. Starlight could only suppose that Twilight's years of fighting had given her a hefty insight into it. She needed to take that away.

Starlight used her magic to whip up a cloud of dust around Twilight, obscuring her vision. She then fired into the cloud, and growled when she hit nothing. That growl turned into a gasp and a dive to the ground as a single blast of purple magic soared right for her.

"Now that was creative," Twilight complimented. "Against an earth pony or unicorn it would've probably been quite effective, so long as that unicorn couldn't shield itself, or dissipate the cloud."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming," Starlight grumbled as she pulled herself up off the dirt.

"But I have wings." A powerful gust of wind blew the cloud away, blinding Starlight for a moment as it swept over her. "You're getting better though. You're creative, and you don't hesitate."

"Then how about this?" With a shout and a spell, Starlight duplicated herself, and had both versions of her run towards Twilight as they both attacked, mirroring each others spells and actions.

"The fuck?" Trixie swore as she saw the effectively corporeal illusion. "She's better at illusions than me too? Fuck you, Starlight Glimmer!"

"That's because it's not an illusion!" Both Starlight's shouted as they hammered spell after spell into the shield Twilight had surrounded herself with. "It's a duplicate!"

"So it's a living thing as well?"

"No! I'm the living one," the two Starlight's screamed, pointing hooves at each other. "Oh crap, I made it too real."

Twilight quickly solved the problem by destroying the Starlight on the right, reducing it to a poof of magic residue while the two of them were distracted.

"How did you know that wasn't the real me?" Starlight whimpered, rather terrified of the cold efficiency with which Twilight eradicated the duplicate.

"Because it was shooting fake magic."

"Oh. Right."

"Shields test!" Twilight laughed as she fired a scattering of magic at Starlight, who quickly put up a shield to block it all. She really could've made one heck of an Adept under the right situation.

"Are you crazy!?"

"I'll try not to answer that too honestly," Twilight replied with a laugh. "You've convinced me though. You can probably take care of yourself out there."

"What about killing?" Trixie asked. "Can she do that?

"I don't know, and hopefully it won't matter," said Twilight. "Between you, me, Luna, and Nightmare, I'm sure we'll cope with that being a problem."

"So that's it then?" Starlight looked hopefully at Twilight, "We can stop fighting now?"

"Yeah, we're done."

"Oh good. It felt like you could kill me far too easily at any moment. It wasn't a nice feeling."

"I give off that feeling?"

"You did seem uncomfortably confident in your ability to beat her," Trixie told Twilight. "It even gave me chills."

"Oh." Twilight shrugged, dismissing it as unimportant since there wasn't that much of a question over whether she could really beat Starlight in a straight fight. Twilight hadn't even been trying. "I guess it doesn't matter. We should probably get back and see if Moondancer's finished yet. The sooner we can finish the oubliette, the sooner we can-"

"Stop Faust," Trixie sighed with a roll of her eyes. "You've been saying that for months."

"And?" Twilight raised her nose, a little embarrassed since she had been saying that for a while now. "It's still true."

"Yeah, but you sound like a twat every time you say it now."

-0-0-0-

Moondancer was still working under the guidance of Starsy, meaning that there was still nothing to do until she was done. That was useful to Luna because as soon as Twilight returned with her friends, it meant she could collar the six Bearers and take them somewhere quiet.

"We need to talk," she said sternly once she had them in a quiet corner of the library. "While I'm sure you're all happy to be back together, and free, you seem to be overlooking a rather large and important thing. Are you even sure you're capable of using the Elements at this point? It has been some time since you were all together."

"Isn't that a bit much, Luna?" Twilight said back. The fact that Luna could stand there and say such a thing felt selfish to Twilight. Luna was only concerned about how well they could function, not the ponies themselves. "Now we're back together there's nothing we can't do."

"You say that, but I can hear the lack of conviction in your words. You're afraid that this won't work because you don't know how you all feel about each other, but rather than face that now you'd let it trip you up at a critical moment."

"We're fine," Twilight stated. She stood to leave, Rainbow right behind her, but barely made it two steps when Rarity spoke up.

"What if she's right?"

Twilight turned her head away and cursed to herself. She had hoped this wouldn't happen. She'd hoped this wouldn't happen because she had no idea how to fix it.

"We have been apart for some time, and I must confess some feelings of betrayal still lingering from those early days."

Twilight sighed and faced the unicorn. "You know why we couldn't save you, even though we wanted to more than anything."

"It ain't just that," Applejack spoke up. "It's because of what happened in Mareitania that made us all targets. Rainbow and Pinkie were lucky enough to escape getting captured, but they only wanted us because of what you did. My brother almost died because of it."

Twilight let her rear sink to the floor, her legs no longer capable of supporting her weight. "You- If I had known they were going to come after you I would've done something, no, anything to protect you and your families!"

"We aren't blaming you, Twilight," Fluttershy said in a near whisper. "We know you wouldn't have let this happen if you could've stopped it. But that doesn't change that it did happen."

Twilight held her breath, then let it escape slowly. "I d- I don't understand. Are you blaming me or not? Even if you say you don't, it feels a lot like you are."

Rainbow laid a hoof on Twilight's shoulder in support, "Are you guys for real? You're seriously saying that it's Twilight's fault this happened? Luna and Celestia are more to blame than she is! Flitter getting captured and telling Faust all about you deserves more blame than Twilight does!"

"Flitter was only captured because Faust wanted to learn about me," Twilight said weakly, correcting Rainbow because Flitter deserved none of the blame. "I think I get it. You aren't blaming me, but you think I'm responsible, and that's why you feel betrayed."

"Not me!" Pinkie chirped in an attempt to break the somber mood. "You wanted nothing more than to get our friends back after they were captured, but Luna and Celestia talked you out of it because of how totally impossible it was."

Twilight laughed and shook her head, "No, Pinkie, it's fine." Twilight raised her head and cast her magic to summon the Elements from downstairs. She placed each one on their bearer, and finished with placing the crown upon her head. "I wondered why the Elements didn't seem to have any reaction to us picking them up earlier. I guess I know why now. What can I do to fix this?"

Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy looked to each other, but found no answers. Was there a way to fix this?

"How about an apology?" said a voice from the entrance to the alcove they were in. All of them looked to the newcomer, finding it was Spike who made the suggestion. "If you did something wrong, you should apologise, right?"

"But Twilight didn't do anything wrong!" Rainbow argued. "Have you all lost your minds or something? Faust is the one responsible for all we've been through."

Twilight smiled as she pulled Spike over to her and held him in her legs. "No, Rainbow, he's right. I'm not saying I did anything wrong either, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't apologise." Twilight smiled as she drew in a cleansing breath, and prepared to make the apology of a lifetime.

"I'm sorry this happened to all of you. I'm sorry that you four were taken by Faust, and that you had to suffer through all you did. I'm sorry we didn't come to save you, even though Rainbow and I wanted to. We even tried after Equestria fell, but Faust had already taken you from High Rock, so I'm sorry we were late. I'm sorry that Faust wasn't handled better so this didn't happen."

"There, she apologised so-"

"I'm not done." Twilight smiled at Rainbow, "I'm sorry to you too, that you've had to fight so much in a war we could've prevented, and I'm sorry that you got hurt doing it. I'm sorry that I had to stop you saving our friends, even though loyalty demanded you to do it. Thank you for sticking with me through all of this."

Rainbow froze, dumbstruck. Her chest shuddered, and she quickly had to rub a tear away. "Aww, jeez..."

"I'm sorry to you too Pinkie. You risked yourself and your sisters in an attempt to get our friends back, and I'm sorry that you felt the need to do that. I'm also sorry that in the end you never got what you started out for. I'm sorry that you had to fight, and that the things you saw and went through made you stop fighting. Nopony should see the things we have."

"Hey, it's okay. It all worked out in the end, right? And I even got to meet Azure because of it." Pinkie frowned and rubbed her hooves together, "Sure we lost ponies, and it hurts that we did, and I will never forget them, but I guess that's what happens in war. I forgive you, Twilight. I forgive you because I never blamed you."

There was a spark from Pinkie's Element, and it started to glow with a soft inner light. A second later Rainbow's did the same, then Fluttershy's. Applejack and Rarity shared a look, and with a nod they silently forgave Twilight, lighting their own Elements up. The only one that remained dormant was Twilight's.

"Perhaps the one that needs the most forgiveness is yourself, Twilight," said Luna.

"Forgive myself?" Twilight laughed bitterly, "How does one do that again?"

Pinkie sprang up, standing on her hind legs with her front ones in the air. "With a little help from your friends of course!" She jumped on Twilight, tackling her to the ground and nuzzling the alicorn playfully. She was joined a second later by Rainbow, then Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy, creating a laughing pile of ponies.

Twilight laughed too, holding them close and keeping them there, and as her Element lit up she decided it was good to be forgiven, and even better to be loved.

-0-0-0-

"I think I can only describe this as being dizzying," Starlight said of the completed spell circle. "I mean, I'm pretty good at magic, and I can barely work out half of what's going on here. I can see a bunch of stuff about binding, and something about seeing what you're thinking, I think, but the rest of it? No idea."

"It's probably best you stay ignorant," Starsy told her. "This has taken us months to research and create, and we don't have the week spare needed to explain every intricacy of it all."

"That felt like an insult."

"That's because it was," said Trixie. "Him and Moondancer seem to enjoy passive-aggressively insulting people."

"And do you at least give something as good back?"

"Not always," Trixie admitted, averting her gaze.

"Not important right now," Twilight said to the both of them. "This is going to be one of the largest and most power intensive spells ever cast, so I really think that you should be thinking about that instead."

"Right." Trixie nodded firmly, then shrugged. "So how are we doing this?"

"I have no idea."

"You can start by taking your designated places," Moondancer told them, looking to the crowd of other ponies in the room in the hopes they would do the same. All of them did, finding that their positions around the circle were marked with a copy of their cutie mark. Except for Twilight and Trixie, whose positions were marked by their initials. Clearly the effort required to recreate their marks wasn't high on Moondancer's list of things to do.

"Um..." Starlight raised a hoof, "I can't find where I'm supposed to go."

Moondancer pointed to a space filled with an image depicting the sun symbol of Sunset Shimmer's cutie mark. "Don't scuff it, and don't go thinking you're an even half way decent replacement for her, because you're not!"

"I wasn't trying to be," Starlight said back as she took the position originally meant for Sunset. Having to step into a dead pony's shoes, and then getting explicitly told you weren't that pony, was weird and totally unnecessary. She decided to say nothing more on what was clearly a touchy subject.

"I expect this works much like a regular enchanting circle?" Luna asked as Moondancer and Starsy made some last second checks. "Touch your horn to it and pump magic into it?"

"Essentially yes," Starsy confirmed. "We've designed the circle to require as little additional input as possible, so all you have to do is work on squeezing as much magic out of yourselves as you can."

"What about myself and the other Bearers?" Twilight enquired since she wasn't sure if she was here as an alicorn or a Bearer at this point.

"I've been told that the Elements tend to use you as a focus," Starsy said, pausing what he was doing to ask some very pertinent questions that should probably have been asked before now. "Was I informed correctly?"

"Uhhh... I suppose so, but I don't think it's quite that limited. If you want me to act as their focus I suppose I can, although I feel like that's expecting a lot of me."

Luna smiled sympathetically at Twilight, feeling the smaller alicorn's unease. "The Elements will know what to do. Trust them."
"I do, but that's a lot of magic that's going to be going through me, and we can't be sure as to exactly how that magic works any more after Discord did what he did."

"Trust them," Luna affirmed. "They won't harm you."

"Alright then." Twilight took a deep breath, still not feeling particularly confident about it, but sure that there was only one way forward at this point. Three other alicorns, three unicorns, and the other Bearers were counting on her to make this work, and she wouldn't let them down. "How do we begin?"

"We'll begin when you're ready to channel the power of the Elements," said Starsy, an excited grin on his face. "Oh, one more thing. This is probably going to get very bright, so you all might want to close your eyes once we get going." He nodded at those that were crowding around the doorway to watch what was going on, "You included."

"Aww," the filly whined, "but awesome magic!"

"Awesome magic is not worth having to read by touch for the rest of your life," Starsy scolded. "Close your eyes."

"Booo! Fun free zone!"

"There is nothing happening here that has anything to do with fun!"

Fleur cleared her throat, stopping the filly before she could make a comeback. "Starsy, was it? I feel I should inform you now that the filly is a giant pain in the ass, and that you should ignore her."

"Hey! That's not fair!"

"It's also true." Fleur smiled at Starsy, "Please, continue."

"Right," Starsy said, missing the point entirely, and not caring anyway. He waved at Twilight, "Miss Sparkle, when you and the other Bearers are ready, you may begin."

That was definitely easier said than done. Twilight eyed her friends as they closed their eyes and focussed on their Elements. Elements that were no longer the same. Not exactly at least. Would it feel different to use them? Did they have more or less choice about what the result would be? Could they really do this?

Twilight was given her answer as the Elements of the others lit up. If they could do it, then she could as well. Closing her eyes, Twilight reached out for her Element, and found herself being bathed in a calming sensation that made her gasp at how sudden it was. The other surprise was the sensation of understanding she received. The Tree had accepted all the things she'd done, whereas before it had nearly rejected her for what she'd done in Mareitania. It was willing to at least meet her halfway since she had at least tried to act in the best interest of Harmony, even if things didn't always work out.

Had the introduction of Discord's chaos, true chaos, done this? Was the Tree no longer stuck looking at the world through the narrow window Faust had given it? Had disharmonious actions for harmonious results become something it could tolerate now? Twilight suspected she would never really know as the Tree probably had a far greater degree of freedom in which it could now make its own choices, and dictate its own actions.

Could it kill? There's a question Twilight thought she'd never have to ask. She had a feeling that the answer would be if it had no other choice. Right now it had that choice, and it chose to go with what they were doing. It knew what Faust had suffered through her imprisonment, and had no wish to do something even remotely as cruel.

Twilight bowed her head and touched her horn to the enchanting circle as the power of the Elements filled her, using her as a vessel. That part she was familiar with. The difference this time was that before their change controlling the Elements was like directing a spray of water from a hose, being rather linear in its purpose. Now it was like trying to channel a river that could follow any number of paths, and hoped you enjoyed the ride.

The circle lit up in a rainbow as the Elements filled it with power, and with a shout from Starsy the rest of them applied their own magic to it. Theirs was like a candle compared to a blowtorch though, in comparison to the power the Elements were providing. They could probably have propped the entire thing up on their own.

The room filled with a dazzling display of multi-coloured lights as the spells written into the circle were activated, and the crystal heart at its middle spun rapidly as it absorbed the magic being pumped into it, along with the three crystals that surrounded it, orbiting it rapidly as their own enchantments were written into them. Then all at once they lit up as the enchantments were completed. The oubliette was finished.

After a minute the light died down, and Twilight found herself lying on her side, having apparently collapsed at some point after the spell was finished. She really didn't remember getting there though, and she felt thoroughly wrung out.

"Closing my eyes did nothing!" Trixie groaned from nearby. "All I can see are colourful blobs floating around."

"That was rather intense," Luna agreed. "More importantly though, did it work?"

"I'm afraid one of you will have to tell me that," said Starsy. "All I can say is that it at least looks like it worked."

Twilight pulled herself up onto her front, and blinked rapidly to remove the afterimages plaguing her vision. When they'd mostly gone she looked at the oubliette, finding it sat where it started, but floating above the ground with the other crystals slowly orbiting it.

"How can we tell if it did work?" Twilight asked Starsy. She did try to probe the oubliette with her magic, but the sting of pain from her horn told her to leave it alone for now.

"The only way to be totally sure is to test it," Starsy replied after a few seconds.

"And how do we do that?"

Starsy gave Twilight a look. "By testing it," he said slowly.

"Yes, okay, but test it on what?"

"On me."

"What!?" Twilight shouted, and she was far from alone doing it as several of the others did as well, although the loudest by far was Moondancer.

"Why would we do that? You can't be serious!"

Starsy smiled warmly at Moondancer, seeing the tears in the corner of her eyes as she tried to comprehend his words. "I am serious. I'd always intended this from the beginning. Despite everything, I do still love Faust, and this gives me the chance to be with her. I know I'm not the real Starswirl, but in the oubliette I could be. We could be together again."

"But what about us?" Moondancer squeaked. "What about me?"

"I am sorry, Moondancer, but my mind is made up. Besides, the spell is incomplete without me. The oubliette would contain Faust, but she would be trapped in a white void. I need to go in there to build the world she'll inhabit, otherwise she'll never stop seeking a way out, and might even find one. I need to do this."

B-but..."

"Let us return to the observation area. There's something I need to do before you place me within the oubliette."

-0-0-0-

A solemn air had filled the Retreat as they filed back up to the observation area. Even those that had only just met Starsy knew something serious was going on, and maintained a respectful silence for those that had known him longer. The only one truly upset though, was Moondancer. The others realised that what was happening was for the best, more or less. They at least wanted to respect Starsy's wishes.

"So he's really the mind and personality of Starswirl the Bearded?" Starlight asked in a whisper as Twilight filled in her and those less in the know about who and what Starsy is. "And he really loves Faust? I almost hate to imagine how that came about."

"His cock must be as big as his leg to please somepony her size," Summer said airily. She blushed as she realised what she'd just said out loud. "Sorry."

"While I can neither confirm nor deny anything concerning how well hung he is," Twilight said awkwardly, "it must have worked somehow because Starswirl is Celestia's father."

"You're joking, right?"

Twilight shook her head, "Not in the slightest. Faust herself said it, and Starsy confirmed their relationship."

"Hold on," Starlight said, remembering the other alicorn in the room, "what about Princess Luna. I thought her and Princess Celestia were actual sisters?"

"Half sisters. Luna has a different father."

"Really? Who?"

Twilight looked at the back of Luna's head, the twitch of the blue alicorn's ears telling her that Luna was listening, so she decided that discretion was the better path here. "That's not for me to disclose." Not least because finding out that Sombra was Luna's father tended to weird ponies out.

"Oh come on, you can't just dangle that in front of my nose!"

"It's not for me to say," Twilight reaffirmed. "Ask Luna if you must, or Nightmare if you really want to, but you're not getting anything more out of me."

"But Luna's scary," Starlight whined. "To me at least."

"Tough. Anyway, the point of all this was that Starsy wants to be with Faust, and her being with the pony she loves will placate her a bit too, and they can have their sort of happily ever after together, trapped in an entire world inside a crystal. End of problem. I hope."

"Sounds too easy."

Twilight snorted, "It's been anything but. Anyway, shush up."

"So what do you need to do?" Luna asked as they arrived in the observation area.

"A couple of things," Starsy responded. "The first involves what will happen to this library after I am gone." Starsy pointed to a drawer in one of the desks lining the window to the outside, "If one of you could open that and take out the bronze medallion within?"

Luna did so, taking a minute to root through the contents of the draw before finding the medallion, picking it up by the chain it was on. "What would you like me to do with this?"

"I'd like you to put it on Moondancer."

"Huh?" Moondancer said dumbly. "Why do I need it? What is it?"

"This medallion confers to you all the rights as custodian of this library." Starswirl smiled at Moondancer as Luna slipped the medallion over her head. "Starswirl's retreat, along with everything in it is now yours to use as you see fit, and I could not think of anyone better suited for the task. Protect the knowledge, share it with others, the choice is entirely yours. I wish you luck, whatever it is you do."

Moondancer held the medallion up on the flat of her hoof as tears slid down her cheeks, meeting a smile on the way down. "Thank you, Starsy, I- Thank you."

"As for the second thing..." Starswirl waved a hoof up at the large armillary sphere dangling from the ceiling where it had been perpetually spinning for the last millennia. At first nothing seemed to happen, but after a moment it slowed, more and more until it was still, the various rings sitting parallel to each other and the floor. The centre orb split, bathing the room in a golden light that came from within.

"What the heck is that?" Trixie asked as the source of light left the orb to float down into Starsy's outstretched hoof. "It feels weird."

"This is the Gift of Life, given to Starswirl by Faust so very long ago so that he might continue their mission to bring balance to the world. A more terrible source of trouble there has never been before. I want you to put it into the oubliette with me."

"I don't wish to overturn your choice," Luna said quickly, "but why? Surely such a thing is capable of much good in the right hooves. It might even cure those poor souls we found in the Everfree Castle."

"Perhaps," Starsy admitted cautiously, "but it's so very hard to know whose hooves are the right ones. I thought I was once, but considering my failures with the sirens and changelings, I was wrong. It's best that it be put somewhere it cannot cause any more harm. It'll also aid me in building the world inside the oubliette."

Luna sighed bitterly, "Of course it will. Is there anything else you need to do?"

"No, I am quite ready. All I will say is that it has for the most part been a delight working with you for these past few months, and it has certainly been a delight seeing you again, Luna, and meeting you, Moondancer. I wish you all the best of luck in your upcoming endeavours, and thank you for following my wishes for Faust."

"Amen," said Trixie. "So how are we doing this? You never told us how."

Starsy rolled his eyes, "That is rather dependent on you, unfortunately, and upon a unicorn I barely know anything about beyond her having severe social issues."

"Moondancer isn't that bad."

Starsy frowned at Trixie, then glanced at Starlight. "I wasn't talking about Moondancer."

Trixie wilted under the gaze of both Starsy and Moondancer, "Heh, my bad. Surely you can see why I might have made that mistake though?"

"Not at all. Anyway, the spell you need is written into the three crystals orbiting the heart. All you need to do is to concentrate your magic on one of the crystals each, and let them do their job. Unfortunately, that will take time."

"How much time?" Twilight asked suspiciously.

"A few minutes. Ten at most."

Twilight nearly choked on her tongue at hearing that. "Ten minutes? We've got to keep Faust distracted for ten whole minutes? Are you kidding me?"

"As I said, it could be less."

Twilight sat and groaned into her hooves as Fluttershy patted her back. "Ten whole minutes. I think we'll be lucky to last two."

"Come on Twilight," Trixie said with sarcastic cheer, "you just gotta believe in yourself!"

"Say that again when I'm a bloody smear on the floor of Canterlot castle."

"It'll be fine," Luna interjected. "Between our magic and our armour, we will hold her off for as long as it takes, and protect Trixie, Moondancer, and Starlight until it is done."

"I'll be there too," said Shining. "I can't fight Faust, but I can deflect at least a few spells."

"Shining, no," Cadence protested. "She could kill you with one hit if she wanted to!"

"Then at least I'll have gone down fighting to save the world."

"Maybe a cloaking spell," Starlight suggested before Cadence could say anything else. "Faust won't attack us if she doesn't know we're there."

"That's just going to take more time," Twilight grumbled. She shook her head and dismissed it all with a wave of her hoof. "We can discuss that later. Right now we need to get Starsy into the oubliette so he can finish it. After that, there's only one thing left for us to do."

"I imagine there's considerably more than one," said Luna, "but I think we all know what you mean. Moondancer, Trixie, Starlight, you may begin when ready."

"Why us?" Trixie asked back.

"Because you're the ones doing it in Canterlot, so getting a bit of practice in might help. Now get to it."

"Fine." Trixie pointed her horn at one of the crystals orbiting the heart, and reached out with her magic to grab it, followed shortly by Starlight, and far more reluctantly, Moondancer. The three crystals stopped their orbits, and moved so that they formed a triangle around the heart, one at the bottom, two at the top. As soon as they were in place, the heart started to rotate as complex runes started to form in the air around the oubliette.

"This doesn't seem like it's taking that long," Rainbow observed as they sat watching the proceedings.

"This bit doesn't," Starsy told her. "It's the spell designed to grab Faust and get her into the heart that takes the time to form. For a being like her, it takes a lot of power to do."

"Oh. Nuts."

"Quite."

They kept watching as things went on, and a noticeable build-up of power formed around the oubliette, that started to crackle as arcs of magic jumped off it to the ground, and between the crystals.

"I do believe it's almost ready," Starsy announced. "Which also means it's time for me to go." He smiled at the ponies around him, "Farewell, all of you, and best of luck in stopping Faust and rebuilding Equestria."

They all chimed their goodbyes, even those that barely knew Starsy, then shielded their eyes as the oubliette flared with power. When it died down and they uncovered their eyes, Starsy, along with the Gift of Life, was gone.

"I guess that's it then," Luna said after a few moments. "The oubliette is now complete, which means it's time for the final part of this venture to happen. I shall go inform the Emperor of our success."

"And I'll tell Chrysalis," said Cadence. "No doubt she doesn't wish to fight hungry."

"Then let us be about it."

Twilight nodded, preparing to go inform the zebra council, and the Sultan, but found herself watching Moondancer for a moment as the mare wiped her tears away. Moondancer hadn't lifted a hoof in battle, and yet had lost two ponies dear to her. Life really was cruel at times.

Twilight sighed and stood, saying a quick goodbye to everypony before she went. Hopefully this could end soon before they lost too much more.

"This was way too much effort just to help Starsy get laid."

"Shut up, Trixie."

-0-0-0-

This was everything Starsy had hoped to avoid leaving Faust in; an endless white void. As empty and soulless as the abyss itself. A place where only madness could breed. It was also going to be his home, once he'd made some adjustments.

Raising a hoof, Starsy smiled, pleased as he changed from a simple illusion to something more solid and living. It seemed that his theory on the oubliette not caring on the difference between an actual soul or a construct like himself, was paying off as it made him alive, while total exposure to the Gift of Life did the rest.

Taking a deep breath for the first time ever, Starsy found himself giddy with anticipation. He and Faust would finally be together again, where they could live in peace and happiness in each others company. Maybe even try having a family. To do that though, he needed to create somewhere for them to be.

Raising the Gift of Life into the air, Starsy tapped into its power, using it to bring shape and form to the empty space around him. Hills, streams, trees, animals, and everything a world needed sprung up around him as fast as he could think of them, topped off with a sky reaching to the distant horizon. A sun formed, warming his face with a sensation he'd only remembered from the real Starswirl. He could see the appeal.

An entire world to inhabit, all to himself and Faust. It was almost too good to be true. True it was though, although there was still something missing, and that was Faust herself. Hopefully they didn't take too long getting her in here. They had a lot of time to make up for after all.

Author's Note

Proof that I'm still here, plodding away slowly. I've run out of buffer now though, so you get the next chapter whenever it is done. Whenever. It's pretty lengthy, and I'm not exactly writing it very quick as you may have noticed. Someday though, it will be complete.

51. All in

It was a couple of hours before dawn when Twilight was gently woken by a hoof kicking her on the ribs. Granted it wasn't too hard, but to go from sleeping peacefully to getting kicked in the ribs was always going to hurt for shock value alone.

"Wakey wakey sleepyhead," Trixie said with an aggravating amount of good cheer. "Today's the day, so there's no time for laying around."

Today might've indeed been 'the day,' but that was no excuse for doling out such unkind methods of rousing ponies. Twilight tried to convey that through a glare, but she might as well have been trying to shatter a rock with rude words for all the difference it made to Trixie.

"I'm trying to sleep."

"Pfft, no time for that."

"I've just spent the last three days flying over half a continent and back! I'm tired!"

"Sleep when you're dead."

Twilight's expression went flat. "That was definitely below the belt."

Trixie at least had the decency to look slightly ashamed. "My bad. Obviously. Look, you need to get up because Luna will yell at me if you don't. Is that a good enough reason for you?"

"Quite the opposite, actually." Twilight curled back up in her blanket, "I look forward to hearing it from all the way over here."

"Alright, fine, make me use extreme measures if you must." Trixie leaned in close to whisper right into Twilight's ear, "If you don't get up, I'm going to teleport you. Fuck knows where you'll end up."

"You wouldn't."

"Oh heck yeah I would."

"You're mean."

"Yes I am. Now get up, come on, we have stuff to do."

Silently, and with considerable regret for having to leave the warmth and safety of her bed, Twilight got up and followed after Trixie to the observation area. The smell of pancakes hit her nose first, which made finding the massive breakfast spread less surprising, but no less pleasant.

"What's going on?" Twilight asked, "What's this for?"

Applejack gave Twilight a smile, "Pinkie and me figured that since you're all going to be putting yourselves in danger today, the least we could do was give y'all a good breakfast. Again." Applejack's smile slipped, "Seems to be about all we can do around here."

"Hey, no need for that, you've done plenty."

"That's mighty nice of ya t' say, but we all know the true heroes is all you. All we did was put up with being prisoners for a while, which, while not great, didn't require a huge amount of effort either."

Twilight could see Applejack was going to argue this no matter what she said, so decided that dropping the subject would be a lot faster. "Well, whatever you want to say about it, anypony that can fill me with pancakes is a hero too."

"That ain't no problem. C'mon, dig in. I don't think you'll have much time before Luna has you traipsing off to get your armour."

"Armour?" Twilight has been so caught up with things that she'd almost forgotten about their armour. Good job she'd been given a reminder. "Right, yes, I will definitely need that."

Apparently Twilight was the last to arrive, as the others were already chewing their sizable breakfasts. When did they even get this many plates? Weird.

As Twilight started eating, Luna cleared her throat, her expression sombre. "Sorry to disrupt this occasion with mention of what we're doing, but I just wanted to check we were all up to speed on the plan. As you know, Chrysalis and Commander Lurin will be leading the changelings and Griffons against the Mareitanians, and Lightning Dust will be leading the Wonderbolts and a couple thousand griffons against the forces stationed in Canterlot."

While we're all storming storming the castle and finding Faust?" Trixie asked.

"She has to be aware that something is up by now," said Fleur, "even if she isn't sure what it might be. I doubt she expects thirty thousand griffons and changelings to launch a surprise attack."

"Quite," Luna agreed, "but we still can't be sure of what she'll do. We need to make sure she knows we're coming, because if she joins the battle a lot of griffons and changelings will die, and we won't get the same opportunity to defeat her. We need to storm the castle as soon as the attack begins, if not before."

"And what if Celestia is there?" Cadence asked. "What if she tries to stop us?"

"Then we'll stop her back," Nightmare said back with a shrug. "We don't have the luxury of time to deal with her all nicely nicely. I really doubt she'll be in an position to stop us though, or do anything really. I doubt Faust has finished 'fixing' her yet."

Luna nodded at Nightmare, "I agree. On the off chance that Celestia is there and does oppose us, we shall simply have to put her down hard and fast so we can deal with Faust. Then hope she forgives us for that."

Twilight chewed rapidly and swallowed before the melancholy atmosphere could drag the topic too far off course. "Alright, but what about the actual attack? Obviously we're fighting Faust, but what about the rest?"

"The way I've thought of it, we go in first, and clear the way to Faust, then engage her. The rest follow us in and set up the oubliette, hopefully without getting the attention of Faust. If that does happen, Shining will have to do what he can to protect them."

"I could set up an invisibility field," Starlight offered quickly. "That should help us go unnoticed."

If Luna was surprised by such a helpful offer from Starlight Glimmer, she didn't show it. "Very well, if you think you can, then do so by all means. Anyway, we need to keep Faust distracted for the duration it takes the oubliette to do what it needs to, and Lightning Dust, you need to keep the soldiers outside distracted."

"Or make them dead," said Trixie. "That works too."

Twilight cringed and tried to surreptitiously look around at her friends. None of them seemed particularly comfortable with that being said, and Fluttershy looked like she wanted to leave while Rarity appeared to be on the verge of saying such things weren't suitable for the breakfast table. They kept it to themselves, thankfully, but they obviously couldn't hide it either. A shared glance with Rainbow confirmed she wasn't the only one seeing it.

"While I shan't openly condone their deaths," Luna said, perhaps picking up on things as well, "you know as well as any here that you must do what you have to, Lightning Dust."

"Yes ma'am," Lightning responded quietly.

"So why isn't Spitfire leading the assault on Canterlot?" Fleur asked, her own curiosity allowing her to change the subject at a convenient time. "She is still your captain, isn't she?"

"She asked us to lead it," Rainbow answered for Lightning. "Something about us having a better handle on things since we haven't spent months in trapped in Ponyville. Of course she only said they'd take part if we raided the Wonderbolts HQ for gear, then decided to make Lightning Dust be the lead anyway. Don't know what the fuck Spitfire was thinking at the time. Maybe she realised that they were a bit rusty after being in prison so long."

"That was not a vote of confidence," Lightning grumbled.

"Hey, I'm not saying you can't do it, but leading a couple of thousand griffons into battle isn't something I'd want to do either," Rainbow insisted. Lightning just sighed back.

"If you feel you can't do it," Luna said after a few seconds, "don't force yourself to. That would be worse than the alternative of saying you can't."

"No!" Lightning blurted quickly. "I can do it! It's just... a lot more responsibility than I'm used to. It's a bit unnerving."

"Don't worry," said Ember, giving Lightning a confident smile that was more predatory than friendly, "I'll be there with you. You'll be surprised at the difference a dragon can make."

"That... might help," Lightning said slowly.

"Then I shall leave it to you to decide if you can or can't do it. Although I suggest you decide quickly." Luna crammed the last of her breakfast into her mouth, and finished her coffee, "It is time we were on our way."

-0-0-0-

It was still dark in Starlight's village, which Starlight hated it being called, although that was the plan since it being dark meant that they weren't late for the attack. There could be no greater display of ineptitude than being late for the one thing they put so much effort into.

Frankly, Twilight wished it could stay dark. Not because she wanted to put off the coming battle. Far from it. She was looking forward to this all being over, one way or another. No, she wanted it to stay dark because that meant not looking at the armour she was going to have to wear. The same armour that had Trixie rolling on the floor in laughter.

"It's so fucking pink and sparkly!" Trixie choked between guffaws. "You are going to look absolutely fabulous when you're fighting Faust."

Twilight made a face and avoided the bemused smirks of all the others there that didn't have to wear the armour, because it was exactly as Trixie described it; pink and sparkly. A five year old filly with a poor grasp of style and a bucketful of pink glitter couldn't have done much worse.

"Fuck it, I'd rather let Faust kill me than have to wear that," Nightmare said coldly. "I would, in actual fact, prefer to be seen dead, that's how bad this is."

"It's not that bad," said Cadence. "At least it's a pale pink, and not hot pink. It might look better in the daylight as well."

"Like I'm going to take you saying that with any degree of seriousness." Nightmare poked her set of armour, "Why? Just... why?"

"Because the crystals were pink," Stout Heart, the crystal pony armourer that had made these suits explained. "There was literally no other colour they could possibly be."

"They weren't pink when we collected them!" Twilight shouted. She quickly hung her head. When had she become so uppity about armour colour? It's not like she disliked the colour. "Sorry."

"They might not have appeared pink in a cave underground, but I can assure you, these crystals were pink." Stout gave them an apologetic smile, "If it helps, it felt bad making something like this in such a colour. This isn't something you go to war in."

"Glad you agree," Nightmare growled. "Aren't you saying anything, Miss fashionista?"

Rarity blinked at Nightmare, "What could I possibly have to say? It's been impossible to keep up with the latest trends trapped in Ponyville. This could be the height of fashion for all I know right now."

Nightmare's expression went flat, "I assure you, it's not. Oh come on," she added quickly as Luna started to put her armour on, "please don't make me wear this."

"We don't have the time to argue, so start putting it on. You too, Twilight, Cadence."

Wordlessly they all put their armour on, although Trixie made sure to make up for how quiet they were by sniggering the entire time. She wasn't exactly alone either.

As for the armour itself, it was actually quite light and comfortable, although it did give the impression of not being very durable. It felt like a solid blow would shatter it, even with assurances from Stout Heart that it was a bit tougher than that.
Lifting her helmet in her hooves, Twilight placed it on her head, lining her ears up with the holes. Apart from her wings, horn, ears, tail, eyes, and nose, she was covered by the armour. Unlike rune warded armour it felt natural to wear, and didn't interfere with her magic at all, and the light weight meant flying should be simple enough. The colour still sucked though.

"Hey Twilight! Think fast!"

Twilight barely had a chance to register the words before a barrage of magic from Trixie struck her. She yelped in surprise, but certainly not in pain as the armour scattered the attack as soon as it made contact. "Damn it, Trixie! You scared the crap out of me!"

"But it was worth it! Your stupid looking armour actually works!"

"Of course it works! Otherwise I could pick it up with my magic!"

"Oh... right. My bad."

"You don't even care, do you?"

Trixie shook her head with a smile, "Not in the slightest. Buuutttt... your armour works, so now we know you probably won't be vaporised seconds into the fight. Isn't that great?"

Twilight closed her eyes, waiting a beat before continuing anywhere. "Yes, thank you."

"Still not worth it," Nightmare said with a grimace. "I feel ridiculous. Probably as ridiculous as I look."

"I don't know," the filly quipped, "that's a pretty high bar to get over."

"Nevermind how we all look," Luna snapped. "The point is that we are ready to go. Moondancer, is the oubliette secure?"

Moondancer patted her hoof on the crate beside that was holding the oubliette, "It's ready."

"Excellent. Then it is high time we were away."

"She's right," said Twilight, turning to her friends. "Hopefully when you next see us, Equestria will be free again."

Pinkie bounced over to give Twilight, then Rainbow a hug. "You two be super careful! Well, all of you need to be super careful. Even you, Starlight. All of you need to stay alive for the 'we saved the world' party." Pinkie twisted her hooves together anxiously, "It wouldn't be right if anypony was missing."

Twilight looked away. She wasn't about to make promises she couldn't keep, even if she had a better chance of keeping them than others. "We'll try."

"Please do," said Rarity, giving Twilight a hug before the others all did the same, ending with Mayfly who buzzed mournfully, if that was possible. Suddenly having so many of her friends here seemed like a bad idea, because it made it so much harder to leave. She had to though, so all she could was hope that as she swept Trixie and Starlight up into the sky was that they really would make it all back.

-0-0-0-

They intercepted the griffons and changelings just to the west of Baltimare, and Twilight had to say that it was an impressive sight. The six airships seemed to be dwarfed in comparison to the mass of beings flying around them, and they weren't exactly small to begin with.

They flew for the lead airship, the Emperor's flagship that was leading the way. The deck was mostly empty, save for those griffons flying the machine, so they had plenty of room to land. They were only empty now though. Soon these decks would likely be filled with the injured, leaving no room for anything else.

Twilight tore herself away from the images her imagination was supplying to address the two other people that were on the airship; Commander Lurin, and Queen Chrysalis, who rolled her eyes from her position on the bow while Lurin greeted them.

"Glad you could all make it. I was seriously debating what I was going to do if you hadn't."

"It would be rather foolish of us to fail to turn up at this time," said Luna. "At any rate, we are here and everything seems to be going to plan so far, although if it were to go wrong before we even got to Canterlot, well... shame on us, frankly."

"Right." Lurin gestured at the crate that had been brought with the ponies, "So is that the secret to our victory in there?"

"It's hardly a secret," Trixie deadpanned. "I'm pretty sure we've told you all about it."

"Well, yes, but it's existence still isn't well known. We certainly have to hope that Faust knows nothing of it."

"We're heading into a trap if she does," said Twilight. "In which case we've probably already lost, and we just don't know it."

All of them nodded sullenly, easily imagining such an outcome, but still hopeful that it wouldn't come to pass. They had been working as secretly as they could, and while they took a risk with the Saddle Arabians, the lack of past attempts to stop them suggested that Faust knew nothing of their plans.

"You look ridiculous," Chrysalis commented on their armour as she sauntered up to them. "At least it should be easy enough for Faust to find you."

"And good morning to you too, Your Majesty," Luna said evenly, having expected comments like these from Chrysalis. "I trust you and your changelings are prepared for the coming battle?"

"We are, although fighting to save this country still leaves a bad taste in my mouth." Chrysalis extended her neck until her and Luna were almost nose to nose. "You seriously better keep your word after all this."

"Of course we will. All of us enjoy not having to sleep with one eye open."

Chrysalis pulled her head back with a smirk, "Good, otherwise I was going to have to expend a significant amount of energy working out how to unravel your Pact, then figure out a strategy for effectively invading Equestria, and then, well, work out how to contain you lot as well as Celestia. Keeping your word would be much easier for all parties involved."

"Lovely as always to be working with you," Luna said dryly. "Commander Lurin, how long do you think until we are in Canterlot?"

"Depending on the winds, a couple of hours, so if you have anything you need to do before the attack, I suggest you do it now."

"No, I think we're ready, but you might want to start rotating groups to land on the airships for a break before the attack begins."

"I've already begun, but thank you for the suggestion." Lurin bowed to the princesses, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have plenty to be doing."

"Don't we all."

-0-0-0-

"So you and Lightning really became the Emperor's bodyguards for a while? Really?" Spitfire gave Rainbow an incredulous look, "I find that hard to believe."

"Hey, the Emperor's pretty chill once we broke him out of his bubble. None of this would be happening if it wasn't for him."

"I'd like to point out that I saved the Emperor by not talking," Vapor said sullenly.

"We know," said Soarin, "and you must be hard as nails to go through what you did without cracking. Full respect to you, Vapes."

Rainbow grinned at Vapor as the pale pegasus melted a little under the compliment. "Yeah, we've been up to all kinds of crazy stuff over the last few months. I mean, if you think getting the griffons on our side was nuts, I don't know what you're thinking about the changelings."

"That the princesses have brought a time bomb into Equestria," Fleetfoot said back. "How can any of you trust her?"

"That's just it, we don't, but we kind of have a plan that will hopefully kind of force her to either comply, or leave. It's a bit of a long winded explanation, but basically there's a thing going on that involves Thorax that we hope will convince the changelings to all become nice."

"That was incredibly ambiguous," said Spitfire. Rainbow merely shrugged.

"As I said, it's a bit of a long winded thing to try and explain, but you'll understand once you realise that Thorax is who we hope will end up in charge of the changelings. If we can make them all like him, then Chrysalis is pretty much queen of nothing, so she either has to go along with it to remain queen, or she leaves."

Spitfire made a face, "Sounds like you're playing with fire to me."

"Nope. She agreed to this alliance, and even came to us to make it, so if she doesn't like it that's her problem. We'll keep our end of the agreement." Rainbow sighed and grinned, she couldn't deny that she liked the plan herself. It felt good to deceive the deceiver.

It had been great catching up with the Wonderbolts. There was so much they'd missed while in prison, and having to tell them about all the wacky, and less wacky adventures they'd had with Twilight and the princesses had been a great way to pass the time. That time was quickly passing though. Canterlot was clearly visible in the distance now, and the Mareitanians had to have spotted them coming.

"I guess it's showtime then," Rainbow said with a sigh. "Lightning Dust? You ready?"

Lightning stopped her pacing, which she been keeping up for a while, to give Rainbow a semi confident smile. "As ready as I'm gonna be. If you have any pointers you want to give me though, Captain, I'm all ears."

Spitfire thought about that carefully for a moment. Her initial reaction had been to make a joke, but there was no benefit in doing that as it certainly wouldn't help Lightning. Instead she tried the honest route.

"Just keep your head and you'll be fine, and try to remember that no matter how hard you try, you can't always bring everyone back with you. It's a harsh truth, but there's no avoiding it."

"Right." Lightning's stance sagged. She'd been running through her head every possible scenario she could come up with in an attempt to plan around them and spare all the lives she could, on her side at least. Spitfire's words cut through the middle of all that.

Thankfully Twilight arrived to give her a distraction, even if that distraction was to tell them to get ready. "We're up guys. We're splitting off early to attack from Canterlot's blind side, and you're all coming with us. Get ready, because we're in the air in two minutes."

"You heard her," Spitfire said. "I want to see-"

"Uh, Cap?" Soarin interrupted. "You're not in charge, remember?"

"Right! I was just testing." Spitfire cleared her throat awkwardly, "Lightning, if you would?"

Lightning took a deep breath and nodded once to herself. "Alright Wonderbolts, I want to see you strapped up and ready to go in less than a minute. Our job is to support the princesses while they take down Faust, and they will not be failing because we couldn't do something as simple as distract some ponies. Altius volantis, Wonderbolts!"

-0-0-0-

"I'm going to assume them shouting their cute little motto means they're ready?" Chrysalis asked Luna as they stood together with Lurin, Cadence, and Nightmare on the bow of the airship.

"It does. That also means that it's time for us to go, so this is all up to you two now." Luna saluted Lurin and bowed a little to Chrysalis, "Good luck to both of you."

"And to you," Lurin returned, while Chrysalis showed her fangs in a grin. "Hopefully, by the time you're done, the Mareitanians will have been defeated, and the yaks too I suppose."

"That doesn't mean you have to wipe them out wholesale," Cadence said quickly. "If they surrender, you must accept it."

"Unconditionally," Chrysalis purred. "If they surrender, and we are to accept it, it's because it's unconditional."

Cadence hesitated, giving Luna a chance to speak over her. "Agreed. They are in no position to request conditions, and we are in no position to grant them. The most we can promise is fair and reasonable treatment. Now come along Cadence, it is high time we were going."

Both Chrysalis and Lurin watched as the princesses left with their charges, leaving them alone for the time being. Nothing was said for a while until Chrysalis snorted and turned to the griffon. "I sincerely hope you plan to keep your griffons out of me and my children's way?"

"My forces shall do what they must, Queen Chrysalis," Lurin replied coldly. "Their job is to eliminate the Mareitanians as a problem, as it is yours as well. Follow the plan and there will be no issues."

Chrysalis chuckled happily, "So you aren't easily cowed. Good. That resolve will come in useful. Lead your forces well, Commander, because I'll be counting on your support from the air."

"Oh, so now you do want my help?"

"Of course! I'd rather see dead griffons than dead changelings any day."

Chrysalis didn't wait to hear what Lurin had to say to that, and took off to join her changelings at the fore of the formation. The airships were slowing down to maintain a safe distance from the Mareitanian army below. The army that was barely in a state of readiness as they hurried into formation, not that formations really meant all that much when being attacked from above.

Unfortunately certain aspects of their foes were at least prepared enough to raise a shield over the army, although stretching it as far as they were left Chrysalis questioning just strong it was. That weakness could be something she could capitalise on.

They were almost above the shield now, with one side still considerably more prepared than the other. Clearly the Mareitanians hadn't expected a large scale assault of this degree ever, let alone right now. It was going to be easy pickings, and as Chrysalis ordered her children to ready themselves, she knew she'd be picking the most.

"Attack!" Chrysalis roared. "Rain hell upon them!"

The front most changelings dived for the shield, their inherent magic turning them into streaks as they dove and slammed into the shield in a move that stood a reasonable chance of killing them if they messed it up. The shield quivered and shook under the impacts, but held, which Chrysalis hadn't expected, but was more than prepared for.

While her children continued to batter at the shield, Chrysalis led a number of changelings down to the ground at the edge of the shield. If they couldn't go through the shield, they'd go under it, which was an option they had as shape shifters. The world flashed green as Chrysalis transformed herself into a badger while her changelings transformed into an array of different creatures.

As one they started to burrow under the shield, mostly unnoticed by the Mareitanians who were too preoccupied with the attack from above to worry about anything else. They regretted that quickly once they found that the changelings were inside the shield with them.

Chrysalis transformed back into her usual form before she was even fully out of the ground, while around her, her changelings transformed into a terrifying collection of huge and dangerous beasts, ranging from huge armoured insects, to deadly manticores. They charged the Mareitanians, slicing through and trampling them with wild abandon.

Chrysalis kept back, choosing instead to use her magic to blast the enemy soldiers, sending their broken bodies flying with bursts of pure force, hoping the airborne cadavers would disrupt those maintaining the shield. It was also really funny to watch. It's not like she felt the need to conserve energy either, as with the amount that she'd been feeding off Cadence recently, she had magic to spare.

The wave of changelings rumbled forwards, meeting no initial resistance from the Mareitanians who hadn't been prepared for fighting the kind of thing that has jaws bigger than your head. As they fell back the Adepts maintaining the shield had to as well, and with their departure the shield grew weak. It was only a matter of seconds after that point that the shield collapsed, and the rest of the changelings joined the fight.

The changelings surged forwards with the extra support, driving a wedge into the Mareitanians. Chrysalis kept back from the front, maintaining her use of magic to fight. This also allowed her to keep a better eye on things, such as when a group of ponies managed to get their spears under one of her changelings transformed into a giant scarab, using its own weight to force the spears into it. Elsewhere a manticore was charged by a couple of yaks, breaking its neck and killing it.

"Damn it," Chrysalis hissed. Their charge was beginning to falter, and if the Mareitanians could hold them here, the changelings would be whittled down piecemeal. At least that's what Chrysalis thought, until the roar of thousands of griffons reminded her that they weren't alone in this fight.

Colourful blasts of magic and arrows shot into the sky as the griffons swept in, although the arrows did the most damage by far. The Kuua did its job in protecting the griffons from the magic being used against them, with only a few falling to overwhelming concentrations of it. Even so, it did rain griffons, as a couple hundred of them fell to that opening barrage.
That was quickly turned around as the griffons made contact. Being able to get through that initial barrage of magic made all the difference as they cut a swath of destruction into the pony soldiers. Even as Chrysalis watched an opening was made that allowed her to push even further on.

"Push on, my children!" Chrysalis shouted, urging her changelings to take advantage of the gap before it closed. She needn't have worried as the griffons came back around for another pass. This time they joined the fray, fighting weapon to weapon, and claw to hoof against the ponies. It seemed a costly way to fight, but as Chrysalis craned her neck to see what was going on, she realised that she was only witnessing a small portion of the fighting.

The grounds all around the base of the Canterhorn were consumed by the fighting. Chrysalis had allowed herself to only focus on one part of it, failing to even see half of the true scope of things. That could've been a costly mistake if the griffons hadn't been there. She couldn't allow herself such foolishness. Taking back to the air she decided to rain fire on her foes rather than scuffle with them in the dirt.

Taking in the sight before her, Chrysalis chuckled to herself. The initial attack, as well the broad strikes from the griffons had scattered the Mareitanians. Unless they were to regroup now they'd be picked apart piece by piece until there was nothing left. Chrysalis smiled as her horn glowed with destructive energy. No way in hell was she going to let that happen, not when there were still so very many Mareitanians left.

"Take your time, princesses; the day is far too young to finish this too quickly."

-0-0-0-

The flight over the Canterhorn wasn't easy with the wind blowing as hard as it was. It left Twilight wondering why the city didn't feel it to anywhere near the same degree. Perhaps the altitude really did make that much difference. At any rate, the wind was slowing them down enough that she was worried that the attack on the Mareitanian army would start before they were ready to launch their own strike.

"Almost there," Rainbow said, although it was a debate over who she was saying it to. If Rainbow was finding it difficult, then perhaps it was actually difficult, which made Twilight feel a little better about it. That said, Luna was powering through it with a dignity that Twilight couldn't hope to match, alicorn or not.

They did eventually reach the top though, just as the changelings and griffons reached their own targets and began their attack. Even from this altitude it was easy to see the stir this was creating in the city, even at this sleepy hour. They wouldn't have much time before Faust made herself involved, so they needed to make their presence known now.

"Once we've cleared around the castle, follow us in," Luna instructed Cadence as she passed Moondancer and the crate containing the oubliette over. Twilight did the same with Starlight a second later, but kept hold of Trixie. "We can't risk these ponies, or the oubliette, so be careful."

"Nice to see I'm excluded from being kept safe," Trixie commented. "I'm important too!"

"Yes, but you can handle a fight," Luna said back. "Now did I make myself clear, Cadence?"

Cadence spent a moment juggling Moondancer, the crate, Starlight, and Shining Armour around in her magic before answering. "Yes Luna, I can manage that just fine without the need for coddling."

"Very good. Lightning Dust, you may begin your attack whenever you're ready. I suggest you be ready now though."

"Yes Princess." Lighting looked to Rainbow and Vapor, getting a confident grin and a nod back. The other Wonderbolts seemed ready to go as well, as did the griffons. It really was now or never.

"Alright, we strike on my mark. Watch your wings in those tight spaces, and be sure to check your targets. We do not want civilian casualties, so be careful. Now on three! One! Two! Three! Attack!"

All of them dove on Lightning's order, the princesses, Nightmare, Ember, and the Wonderbolts heading for the castle, while the griffons spread out to cover the city. For once they flew in silence, keeping their customary battle shouts silent so as to not alert the city defenders. Only when they were barely a hundred meters above the city did they finally call out in a deafening cacophony that surprisingly distracted the defenders more than the attack below did. The griffons carved into the defenders with no resistance at all.

Those around the castle were a different story though, and with good reason since their job required them to be ready. Even so, they were far from expecting a trio of alicorns to drop in with an angry unicorn, a dozen armed pegasi, and a dragon for company, let alone all the griffons.

Twilight dropped Trixie into a running landing towards the castle door, letting Trixie take care of the four guards there while she pulled off to join the attack on the soldiers in the courtyard. It wasn't an easy attack to join though as griffons swooped from all directions. More than once she had to hold back a spell to avoid hitting friendly targets.

A wall of flame leapt around the south of the courtyard as Ember blocked off the singular ramp up to the castle. There were other, less obvious ways up that the soldiers would no doubt resort to, but with the main way cut off they couldn't hope to get the numbers needed up to the courtyard fast enough to present a serious problem.

Twilight gave up trying to fight around the griffons, instead choosing to drop to the ground. All that showed her when she did was that the fight out here was pretty much already over. Shields and magic were simply no competition for what the soldiers were up against in this situation.

"The way in is clear," Trixie reported as Twilight made her way over to the castle entrance. "I haven't actually opened the doors yet though. I thought I'd let the big, strong, immortal alicorns do that."

"Right, of course." Twilight pointed her horn upwards and launched a flare, signalling for Cadence to join them. While she waited for the pink alicorn and her passengers to arrive she looked around. Luna and Ember were mopping up some stragglers, Nightmare was taunting a duo of holdouts hiding under a shield, and the Wonderbolts were circling above.

"Lightning, Rainbow, down here please!" Twilight shouted, drawing on the two pegasi, as well as Vapor, down to her. "You know to keep this place clear once we go in. We can't be attacked from behind when we're trying to stop Faust."

"Yeah, we know, Twilight," Rainbow scoffed. "Do you seriously think we'd let any of these bastards get to you?"

"It's not a matter of what you think, but what you have to do. Keep Ember up here guarding the entrance. She can fill it with fire as a last resort if it comes to it."

"Yes ma'am," Lightning said quickly before Rainbow could roll her eyes again.

"You don't need to call her ma'am," Rainbow said quietly.

"We'll take care of everything out here."

"Good, thank you." Giving them a nod, Twilight trotted over to the other princesses, leaving the three Wonderbolts to get on with other things.

"And here I was hoping that Ember would be sticking with us," Lightning muttered. "I guess it doesn't matter, not when we need to get back into the fight before those griffons start making a mess."

"Isn't it kind of specist to say that?" asked Vapor.

"Isn't it kind of redundant to say that since battles aren't what you would call clean," Rainbow said as well.

"Both of those things are true, now shut up, and let's get moving."

-0-0-0-

The battle for Canterlot had quickly turned into a stalemate, or that's what it seemed like at least. You could suppose that there is only so many ways you can react to a massive influx of armed griffons, and the Mareitanians had opted to go to ground, which was easy for them really, and make it difficult for the griffons to get them.

In any other situation that might've been fine, except that it endangered civilians, and if they all caught wind of what was happening in the palace and decided to rally, the griffons would be very hard pressed to stop them. That meant that they had to be taken care of, which was a messy proposition, but one that would have to happen anyway since they planned on permanently taking the city back.

"Damn, Chrysalis does not mess about," Rainbow commented on the battle below on the plains around Canterlot. "Changelings are pretty intense when they aren't holding back."

"Keep your eyes on what's happening here," Lightning scolded. "The last thing you need to be is distracted."

"Sorry, but it's that or look at Ponyville." Rainbow waved at the ruins of Ponyville in the distance, still smouldering after the fight that happened there between Faust and Celestia. The only part that seemed untouched was Twilight's castle thanks to the protections the Tree of Harmony granted it. "I mean, seriously, they even took out my cloud house. Or it drifted away ages ago. Whichever."

"Or you could pay attention to what's happening here. Just a suggestion."

"Yeesh, yes moooom."

"That's better, young lady." Lightning scanned the city below here, trying to figure out a way forwards, finding it in a fairly straightforward place. At the end of a street, trapped in a dead end were a number of ponies huddled under a shield with some griffons watching them from the rooftops. They must've been trying to find shelter, but ending up cornering themselves in their haste. Now they were stuck, trapped until the unicorns gave out and dropped their shield, giving the griffons their chance to finish them off.

That was a strangely unimportant part of things though. Trapped with the Mareitanians were some Saddle Arabians, who were supposedly on the side of the Pact. It appeared as though they'd been assigned to guard Canterlot, or some were at least. This gave the attackers an opportunity, but it would cost the Saddle Arabians if they weren't careful.

The three Wonderbolts joined the griffons on the rooftops, putting a stop to the taunts the griffons were shouting at the trapped ponies. She did consider asking them to surrender, but there was a small problem with having nowhere to keep prisoners. That was a problem. A solvable problem, but still a problem.

"Lower your shield and drop your weapons," Lightning said loudly to the ponies below. "Do that and you shall be unharmed. You can't hold that shield up forever."

"They aren't going to surrender," Rainbow scoffed as the trapped ponies quickly discussed their options. A discussion that the Saddle Arabians were strangely excluded from. "I'm not sure the Mareitanians even know what that word means."

"Give them a moment at least," Lightning said back.

"I could give them two, but it won't matter."

Rainbow was right, and they all knew it. If they kept pushing the Mareitanians would probably attack, giving the griffons the opening they needed to take care of them, but that meant more dead griffons. The other option meant dead Saddle Arabians. Both options meant dead Mareitanians.

"Damn it." Lightning waved the nearest griffon over to her. "Can you tell the others in a language that the Mareitanians can't understand to get ready to attack, and also to not touch the Saddle Arabians?"

The griffon gave her a stiff nod and started passing her order around in their native tongue. Or that's what she hoped was happening. She had no way of telling. The griffons started to get ready though, so she assumed that they got the message. All they had to do was remind the Saddle Arabians of their allegiance, and this was sorted. If only Lightning had better memorised how to do that...

"Ki... kid... kidma something? Shit."

"Best choice of leader here," Rainbow teased. "Can't even remember a two word sentence."

"And I suppose you remember it just fine, do you?"

"Of course not, but it wasn't my job to remember it."

"Oh, sure, sure, only I have to remember everything, lead the attack, and make sure some unicorn doesn't blow your head off while you're daydreaming. Seriously, Rainbow, just-"

"Khidmat Sultanik," Vapor interrupted, an edge to her words showing that she was getting annoyed at the two of them. "That's it. Khidmat Sultanik."

"See? Vapor's useful," Lightning said primly. She cleared her throat as Rainbow and the griffons gave her a look, then looked down at the ponies below, or more specifically at the Saddle Arabians with them.

"Khidmat Sultanik! Khidmat Sultanik!"

All of them waited as the Saddle Arabians shared a few nervous glances, then with a nod drew their swords and swiftly beheaded the unicorns maintaining the shield, catching the Mareitanians completely off-guard. They weren't given a lot of time to think about it as the griffons were upon them a few seconds later.

Lightning led her wing in, side swiping a unicorn before taking out a Mareitanian that had turned on the Saddle Arabians in the hopes of getting a little revenge. She needn't have worried though as the Saddle Arabians seemed to have little problem taking care of themselves at close range. Several dead bodies lay at their hooves, blood pouring from the substantial wounds their swords left behind.

Together they quickly finished off the rest of the Mareitanians, who had been less than prepared for an attack from behind as well. There had only been twenty to begin with, and there were none left now. With the threat taken care of, Lightning stood before the Saddle Arabians, who offered her a bow.

"Are you all okay?"

"H-yes, th-hank you," one of them said in a way that made Lightning's ears twitch. He spat on one of the corpses on the ground, "It is a rhelief to not be serving these traitorous dogs any fhurther."

"That can't be a real accent, can it?" Rainbow asked in a whisper. "It's way too..." Rainbow waved a hoof, "theatrical."

"Shh." Lightning smiled at the six Saddle Arabians, "Thanks for getting us through the shield. It'd been a lot harder without you. Uh, how many more Saddle Arabians are there in the city?"

"A few hundred of us. The rest reside on the plains behlow."

"And can you convince those in the city to start fighting back? If you're all mixed in with the defenders, that can give us an opening to start taking care of things if they did."

"Of course! That is our purpose here, is it not?"

Lightning grinned, relieved at having been given such a huge break. If she could get Rainbow and Vapor around to the other Wonderbolts and tell them about the Saddle Arabians and what the plan is, then remind them of the phrase to get them on their side, things could get easier. Or they could create a new plan...

"You've been here for a while now, I guess," Lightning said to the apparent leader of the Saddle Arabians. She was going to make him the leader if he wasn't. "Is there somewhere in the city the Mareitanians would fall back to in a situation like this? Besides the castle that is."

"Hmm..." The Saddle Arabian scratched his chin, "without the castle it is difficult to say. Somewhere large in a central location with a roof to protect them from the griffons. Somewhere they could hide until help arrives."

"The opera house on the central layer would be my guess," said one of the other Saddle Arabians, whose gentle expression conflicted with the blood splatters her white coat had.

"Hmm, h-yes," the stallion agreed, "that would be a good place. If h-you want to stop the Saddle Arabians from gathering their strength, you should stop them gathering there."

"Actually, I have a better, or possibly worse idea."

-0-0-0-

"This is a terrible idea," Spitfire said once she'd learned the plan from Lightning herself, "but not totally without merit. I just hope that it goes the way you hope it will."

"Feathers crossed, yeah." Lightning looked up as more griffons raced across the sky, giving a halfhearted impression of chasing ponies down. That's all they were meant to do though, for now. The Mareitanians needed to believe that the griffons were still after them, which they technically were, and that the Saddle Arabians were guiding them to safety. It was a carefully concocted lie, but it had a grain of truth in it since some of the Mareitanians had gathered in the opera house anyway. It just wasn't going to end how they wanted.

"If this fails, you're going to be getting a lot of people killed on both sides."

"I know!" Lightning snapped back. "That was probably going to happen anyway! If you want to take charge, Captain, be my guest!"

Spitfire shook her head, "It doesn't matter who's in charge now, there's no changing this plan. As I said, I just hope it goes the way we want."

Lightning bit her tongue, knowing that blowing up at Spitfire right now wouldn't help no matter how understandable the others might find it. Instead she put her mind to the real problem.

The opera house was a large building with a small open space around it, because Canterlot rarely allowed for big open spaces. At the very least it had several carriage lengths of space between it and the neighbouring buildings. That space was rapidly filling up with Mareitanians who were determined to hold that point. The trick here was to force them into the opera house itself, and there was only one way to do that.

"Are there many more Mareitanians out in the city?" Lightning asked Rainbow, who had been put in charge of keeping an eye on that situation.

"Not many. The griffons are scouring the city, and the Saddle Arabians are doing their job pretty damn sweetly. The Mareitanians have no idea that they're on our side."

"Good, because that is very important to the plan." Lightning watched the opera house as more ponies ran in to the vicinity, the griffons peeling off before the large number of ponies there could take them down. "I think we're almost ready. Everyone head out and start rounding the griffons up so we can start pushing the Mareitanians into the opera house."

"On it!" Rainbow replied, with the other Wonderbolts giving similar replies. They rushed off to do as they were asked, leaving Lightning to think about things. Or in other words, mire herself in doubt.

"I should never have been put in charge of this," she grumbled to herself. The potential loss of life she was about to incur weighed heavy on her mind. How did the princesses live with this burden all the time? It was baffling. It was even more baffling to think that they wanted to, like they enjoyed this sort of thing.

Lightning knew they didn't really, but the argument in her head didn't allow for that kind of rationale.

"Five minutes and we'll be ready to push," Fleetfoot reported, the first of the Wonderbolts to return. "Are you really sure about this, Lightning? The Mareitanians have to know we'll attack them here."

"Yes, but that's what we want. We have to assume that they'll fall back inside the opera house for safety. Hopefully some confusing shouts from the Saddle Arabians will help them do that."

"Yeah, but then what? We keep them there until Faust is beaten? That doesn't mean they'll give up. If anything it could make them fight harder."

"I guess Spitfire didn't tell you the rest of the plan?" Lightning made a face as Fleetfoot shook her head, "Figures. The plan after that is that we have a fire breathing dragon."

"You're going to burn the opera house with them inside it? Really?"

"No, not quite," Lightning said sheepishly. "We're going to encourage them to leave it again, in a disorganised hurry, right into our trap."

"That's-" Fleetfoot stopped herself and shrugged, "I was going to say that's horrible, but I don't think I have anything to back it up with. It's going to be a slaughter, plain and simple."

Lightning nodded once, "It could be. Hopefully they'll realise it's futile to fight and give up."

"Yeah, maybe." Fleetfoot swung a hoof aimlessly, wishing she had something to kick. "How the hell did things get so fucked up that the only way we have to stop the Mareitanians is to kill them all? Did we forget to tell them that surrendering is an acceptable tactic?"

"Along with reminding them that turning on their allies and conquering them is not okay."

Fleetfoot winced at the very unsubtle meaning of Lightning's words. "Yeah, I get it; we made one of the finest militaries in the world, then got to watch as they turned on us. I hardly need you to remind me."

Lightning sighed, feeling guilty. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

"There's no point denying it either." Fleetfoot looked up and smiled as the other Wonderbolts started to return, "I guess now isn't the time to be thinking about it. I think we're ready to go, Captain Dust."

"There's a name I didn't think I'd never want. Ugh, whatever." Lightning shook her head and looked around as the griffons lined up ready to attack. Many of them were starting to look weary, which was enough to indicate that this had gone on long enough. One more serious push, and they could end the fight to take Canterlot.

Lightning waited as the final round of orders were passed around the griffons. Everything was set, so there was no putting it off any longer. With a silent signal given my a wave of her hoof, the attack was started.

A ring of griffons constricted around the opera house, eerily silent until they were close enough to make their silence unnecessary. Once again their customary battle shouts filled the skies as they swooped in to the open space around the opera house, dodging and weaving though the arrows and magic as they dove.

Lighting and the Wonderbolts hung back from the opening attack, unfairly letting the far more numerous griffons take the hits. There wasn't that much difference in it though as they were soon upon the enemy. In a flash they were weaving through the Mareitanians, and seconds later they were pulling back up. Lightning hadn't hit anything, but the blood on one of Rainbow's blades suggested that she had. Hopefully it hadn't been a griffon, but it was rather hard to tell in a fast and confusing melee like that.

Within seconds of their attack the shields started to go up, unfortunately trapping a few griffons under them that were swiftly taken down once they lost the freedom of movement. It would only provide a temporary relief for the Mareitanians at best as the griffons started hammering at the shields with their Kuua coated weapons. The Wonderbolts took a different route, launching bolts of lighting in rapid succession to obliterate the few shields that weren't obscured by griffons.

Lightning's ears twitched as she heard shouts to fall back into the opera house, and she shared a grin with her wing mates as their plan fell into place. Watching from above, she could see groups of Saddle Arabians directing ponies in to the opera house, subtly making sure that they were the last to get to the large glass doors that fronted the building. When the last of the Mareitanians were in they turned and ran back, joining a ring of griffons that was forming firing lines around the entrance.

Everyone held their breath to see if the Mareitanians would come back out, either thinking that the Saddle Arabians were counter attacking, or even to get revenge on them for seemingly switching sides, but they stayed put. For now at least. It would only be a matter of time before they tried something. Lightning, and everyone there knew they would have to act first.

"Guess they know that the Saddle Arabians have betrayed them now," Rainbow said conversationally. "They have to know they're fucked. There can't even be that many of them left, can there?"

"There's enough," Lightning said back. She was going to say more, but she stopped as Ember flew in on lazy wing beats, one of her claws occupied by a large emerald that she was biting chunks out of like it wasn't made of an unfeasibly hard material. "Where did you get that?"

"Some stressed out pony threw it at me from a castle window. I mean, it was kind of a dick thing to do, but hey, free food, y'know?"

Lightning blinked as Ember finished the emerald off. That emerald from the castle that probably held significant historical value, if not actual value, and was getting eaten by Ember like some common piece of fruit. It almost hurt to watch.

"So what's going on here?" Ember asked. "I was told you needed me?"

"Uh, yes," Lightning said as she realised that the piece of cultural and historical vandalism she was about to perpetrate far outweighed some emerald getting eaten by a dragon. "I need you to set fire... to the opera house."

"Opera comes in houses? I thought you ponies could literally sing anywhere you wanted at the drop of a hat."

"Please don't fuck with me, Ember. Can you do it or not?"

"Can I set fire to things? Why yes, yes I can. You could almost call it a specialty of mine."

Lightning rolled her eyes, "Can you just do it? Please?"

"Alright, but, and I can't believe I'm being the voice of reason here, but those ponies in there have to know they're screwed. Why aren't you giving them a chance to give up?"

"Do you think they would?" Vapor asked.

"Heck if I know," Ember replied with a shrug. "I'm just wondering why you aren't even giving them the option. You have to have at least one griffon for every one of them, so how much trouble can they be?"

Lightning looked at the opera house, thinking of the ponies within. Did they really think they had a chance? Were they willing to die fighting a battle for Faust that they couldn't win? She supposed it didn't matter now that the matter of surrendering had been brought up. They would have to ask.

"They're trying to break out through the rear entrance!"

Lightning jolted at the shout, having not been expecting it. "Can you hold it?" she shouted back at the griffon who reported it.

"Not for long. If you're going to do this thing, you need to do it now!"

"Damn it!" Lightning cursed, feeling the chance to request a surrender slipping through her hooves. Hesitating now could ruin the entire plan and send them straight back to square one. "Ember! Get that place alight now!"

"Alright then," Ember shrugged. She flew down towards the roof of the opera house, breathing a wave of flame over it, repeating the action several times until the entire roof was engulfed in her purple flame, at least until the timbers caught, slowly shifting the colour to a more normal orange.

Lightning felt nothing but regret as the building burned. This was so far beyond what the plan should've been, whatever it had been in the first place. Now they'd trapped the Mareitanians here between a rock and a hard place, and what? They thought this was going to end well?

"Get ready!" Spitfire shouted past Lightning, having clearly given up on expecting her to lead effectively. "As soon as it's clear they intend to attack, you open fire, and you do not stop until they do!"

There was an almighty crack as the burning roof sagged. The Mareitanians had to be running out of time, and it wasn't as if they didn't have the strength to break out of the place since it was entirely unlocked. Much longer and the smoke and fire would take care of a lot of them.

As soon as Lightning thought that the doors burst open, but rather than surge out to attack, the Mareitanians staggered out, coughing and gasping for air as smoke billowed out through the now open doors, which also introduced a rush of oxygen into the building, feeding the fires.

"Come on," Lightning whispered, wishing for the Mareitanians to hurry up and get out of there. Much longer and the roof would collapse. The griffons seemed indifferent to the idea, but the Wonderbolts weren't. Especially not Lightning, who was having to hold herself back from having to help. She couldn't for long.

"Come on! We have to help them!" Lightning yelled, her voice strained with guilt. She rushed forwards, planning to help drag the survivors to safety for there was a clear path for more to escape the inferno. Instead, what she got was an arrow in the chest from a terrified, soot stained, and wild eyed mare. It hardly seemed fair really.

-0-0-0-

"Nooo!" Rainbow screamed as she saw Lightning get hit. She had barely moved an inch since Lightning had rushed in like an idiot, and now she wasn't anywhere near enough to help her friend as she crashed to the ground, unmoving. Without thinking Rainbow flew in to grab Lightning and get her out of there, and she wasn't alone in that, but all the Mareitanians saw was more enemies attacking them. The conclusion felt very foregone from that point.

Rainbow dodged a poorly aimed bolt of magic, drawing her blades without thinking, and half a second later had the blood of the unicorn upon them. Immediately after that the griffons joined her in the attack, falling upon the already struggling Mareitanians like a swarm of flies.

Rainbow blanked it out, her only thought being to find Lightning while there was a chance she might have survived the arrow and the landing. She darted through the fight, dodging some of the attacks that came her way, sometimes retaliating with deadly effect. All the time she was searching, but it was pointless trying to find one downed pony in the fray.

Seconds passed like minutes as the fight continued, and Rainbow found herself getting sucked further into the fight as more Mareitanians rushed out of the burning building. That only ceased when the roof finally collapsed, although the flow of Mareitanians was slowing before that, so the majority of them had to have made it out, only to die to the attacking griffons instead.

Slowly the fight came to a standstill, with pockets of Mareitanians surrounded by griffons. It was clear that they'd given up the fight, and didn't argue as they were asked to drop their weapons. There was barely a couple hundred of them left at this point, and were in no condition to fight anyway. Even they could see there was no surviving this if they carried on fighting.

Normally Rainbow would be relieved, but at this point she couldn't care less. As soon as she thought it was reasonably safe to do so she resumed searching for Lightning, although she now felt pretty numb while doing so. She wasn't alone in her search either as all the other Wonderbolts, save Spitfire who was busy taking command, searched with her, picking through the bodies until they found the one they were looking for.

It wasn't long before one of them found her. Rainbow rushed over as soon as she heard the shout from High Rise, but slowed to a stop as she saw him uncovering her body and pulling her from amongst the others. The arrow was still protruding from her chest, hitting her just above where her armour covered.

Rainbow sat hard, her mind a cold hard blank. She tried to remove her helmet, her hooves fumbling with the clasps until she finally undid it, allowing her to finally tear her helmet off and throw it aside, letting her tears fall.

"Rainbow..." Vapor croaked from beside her. Rainbow turned to look at the pale pegasus, finding her expression as torn with grief as her own. She tried to find her voice to say something, anything back, but it was gone. What was there to say anyway? Vapor had lost Sky Stinger and Lightning now. What right did she have to tell Vapor it would be okay? Or some other meaningless platitude?

Rainbow flinched as she felt legs take hold of her, and choked when she realised it was Vapor leaning against her. She knew what it meant though, that after everything it was just the two of them that made it through. Lightning had come so close to the finish line, and ended up losing a battle with her conscience instead. That honestly didn't make it hurt any less. If anything, it made it hurt a whole lot more.

-0-0-0-

Standing before the sealed doors of Canterlot castle, Twilight had to admit there was certain feeling to the situation, an anticipation that she couldn’t quite put a hoof on for a few seconds until the realisation hit her at once. She was excited to be invading the castle. Not because it meant stopping Faust and ending this farce, but because invading Canterlot castle wasn’t exactly something you got to do every day, or ever really. It was patently absurd, but that’s what made it interesting.

“You’re smiling weirdly and I don’t like it,” Trixie commented as a grin crept across Twilight's face. What she said only seemed to make it bigger.

“We’re invading Canterlot castle. How many times in a lifetime do you think you get to do that?”

“In your supposed lifetime? This is probably only the first time for you. I wonder what the second will involve?”

Twilight held back a shudder, “I hate to even imagine the sort of scenario that would require us to do all this again.”

“But what if you’re invading it because you’re the bad guy?”

“Gee, Trixie, that was such a fantastic vote of confidence in me. I feel much better now, thank you.”

Trixie ducked her head, “Sorry. It sounded a lot better in my head. A lot of the things I do are like that, to be honest. Anyway, when are we heading in? I’m asking because standing here doing nothing feels pretty pointless.”

Twilight looked back to where Luna was delivering some orders to the griffons that would be following them in to secure the castle once they’d done the hard work of taking it. They’d also be escorting Shining, Moondancer, and Starlight in, although that seemed unnecessary.

“I hope the girls are managing fine with Flurry Heart,” Cadence said with a wan smile as Twilight's gaze drifted over her. “Probably not the most pertinent worry I could have, but there you go.”

Twilight gave her a smile back, keeping to herself her agreement on how pertinent that worry really was. The fact was though that if Cadence had time to worry about Flurry, then they really ought to be getting along with things.

“Luna,” Twilight said loudly, her patience finally giving out, “don’t you think it’s time we were getting on with this? They’re only going to get more prepared in there, not less.”

“I am very aware of that, Twilight, but I have very specific orders to give concerning the wellbeing of the staff here. Anyway, I do believe we are ready to go, so if you’ll prepare yourselves we can begin our attack.

Twilight nodded and lined up to the right of Luna, while Cadence went to the left with Trixie staying just behind. Together they built their magic up to unleash against the great doors, hoping to batter them open in one swift move using a magical battering ram. The air hummed with the build-up of potent energy as a roiling orb of magic formed. A few seconds after that they released it, obliterating half the door, and destroying every bar and lock holding them so that the remains swung open to crash against the walls.

All of them switched to shields as the soldiers holding the entrance fired back, although the amount of fire was far less than the number of soldiers suggested there should be. Many of them were trying to recover from the spray of burning splinters the carnage of the door had sent their way. They weren’t given the time they needed though as Trixie fired her own magic indiscriminately into the mass of soldiers, along with Shining and Starlight, although the latter was considerably more reluctant in using her magic on already wounded soldiers. Trixie more than made up for that.

“Move in!” Luna commanded, dropping her shield and summoning her glaives to charge in amongst the soldiers. Twilight and Trixie followed suit, with Swordy coming into play. Cadence hung back. There was no point in expecting her to join in for this part of the fight. Instead she maintained her shield as Shining and Starlight continued to take pot shots.

There was barely fifty soldiers here, defending the main entrance to the castle, and a third of them were pretty much out of the fight just through the doors being blown open. Another third fell to the combined fire of two alicorns and three unicorns, while the remainder stood no real chance after that. Without shields they were susceptible to the long range attacks, and once Luna and Twilight closed to melee the fight was pretty much over. Less than a dozen remained to throw their weapons down once the alicorns had bloodied theirs.

“This cannot possibly be all they have defending this place,” Luna said as the griffons moved in to secure the prisoners and clear the dead. “Would they be so foolish as to leave their Queen without protection?”

“Not that she needs it,” Trixie said quickly. “Or that they could stop us with more soldiers. Be a bit of a waste really, throwing their lives at us like that.”

Luna deflated a little, “Those are both valid points. My concern is that Faust isn’t being defended because she isn’t here to be defended.”

“Only one way to find out,” Twilight said back. “Let’s head to the throne room and see if Faust is there. Shining, follow us in with Starlight and Moondancer, but keep back until we’ve engaged with Faust.”

“Shouldn’t Trixie stay with us as well?” Shining asked slowly, frowning as Trixie barked a laugh. The frown grew as it because apparent that was all the reply he was getting.

The castle on the way to the throne room was relatively clear, save for the occasional member of the castle staff caught out in the open. All of them relaxed as they discovered who was entering the castle and happily obeyed when they were directed towards the outside where the griffons would keep them safe.

Nearer the throne room was a different story though. Soldiers wearing a shinier, more elite looking armour were guarding the doors, and seemed ready for a fight. An even mix of unicorns and earth ponies, a dozen of each, waited for the princesses.

“Ohh, so very intimidating,” Trixie said dryly, rolling her eyes. “I think they think that the fancy armour makes them better fighters or something. I look forward to informing them that they’re mistaken.”

“Said Trixie in her fancy armour to the three alicorns in similarly fancy armour,” Twilight said back in a equally dry tone. She sighed as they eyed the guards, who were equally content to wait for the alicorns to throw themselves on their defences. “I don’t suppose anyone has a plan?”

“Only if you count that as a plan?” Trixie said, pointing a hoof to the side of where the soldiers were located.

“I don’t see anything,” Luna said back after a few seconds.

“You will, assuming she doesn’t wuss out.”

All of them kept waiting a watching after Trixie's cryptic comment, and it took about thirty seconds to find out what it was she was alluding to. A wisp of midnight blue smoke was creeping around the corner behind the guards, subtly coiling through their legs until it bellowed up with enough force to send most of the guards flying. A peel of malicious laughed echoed through the stone hall for a few seconds before its originator seemed to remember herself enough to put more effort into attacking instead.

Twilight, Luna, and Trixie galloped forwards to assist Nightmare, cutting down many of the guards before they could recover enough to put up a fight. Twilight tried her best to go for nonlethal methods of dealing with them, seeing as how their freedom from Faust was hopefully nigh, but Nightmare was swinging her axe with such wild abandon that half of them were killed before Twilight could finish subduing them.

“I was wondering where you had gotten to,” Luna said to her doppelganger as the darker alicorn wiped the blood off her weapon.

“I was scouting the castle since it seemed like it might be a useful thing to do.”

“Was displacing your armour also useful?”

“It’s around the corner,” Nightmare grumbled bashfully. “It fell off me when I turned into a cloud. That’s not important though. Faust is here, and she’s waiting for you- well, us, in the ballroom. That ponce Blueblood is in the throne room. Celestia's here as well, although she’s not in a very good condition right now. We should probably help her before dealing with Faust, and you know I mean it if I’m saying it.”

“Yes, yes, you hate my sister, we know.”

Nightmare’s eyes tightened. “I hope you’re as offended as I am right now when your issues are dismissed so flippantly!”

“Dear Nightmare, what do you think created you in the first place? Now then, since dying might only improve Celestia's day, we will deal with Blueblood while you replace your armour.” Luna paused with her magic holding the door, “Although a dead Celestia would be no use at all. Is she-"

“Going to die imminently?” Nightmare shook her head, “No, although whatever is going on with her does look like it hurts.”

“Then let us deal with this fool quickly.”

With as much dramatic flair as she could be bothered to muster, Luna threw open the large doors to the throne room, and walked through them with a confident strut towards the throne at the far end where Blueblood was secretly hoping the four guards there with him would prove more effective than the two dozen he posted outside. As their semi-lifeless forms were thrown to the sides of the room like sacks of straw, he suspected they would not.

“You won’t win,” he said after a few seconds of watching his aunt, Cadence, and some other unimportant ponies get closer to him. “Faust can’t be stopped by the likes of you.”

“Perhaps,” Luna said back evenly, “but I’ll still have the satisfaction of knowing you won’t be around to see her victory.”

“You can’t do that!” Blueblood argued, mirroring the shocked and pleading words of Cadence since even he could quickly work out what she was alluding to.

“Why ever not? Twilight, what is the accepted punishment for treason?”

Twilight gave Blueblood a pleasant smile, seeing where this was going. “I do believe that under Equestrian law the punishment for treason is life imprisonment, with an eye to rehabilitation if possible.”

“There!” Blueblood yelled triumphantly. “You can’t kill me for anything!”

“However,” Twilight continued, “under the wartime act, during wartime such laws may be suspended for the security of the nation, especially for an individual already guilty of a previous charge of treason.” Twilight let that sink in for a moment, “Of course that’s rather irrelevant to the situation since Equestrian law doesn’t really exist after its replacement with Mareitanian law, where the punishment for treason, and a great many other things, is death.”

“Beautifully concise as always, Twilight,” Luna said back with a bow of her head. “The fact of the matter is, dear nephew, you have no means with which to plead your innocence, and zero chance of us listening anyway.”

“I am an unarmed non combatant-"

“Who just had nearly thirty soldiers try to kill us. Even more amusingly was that you thought it would work. Yet another reason why you’re such a disappointment.” Luna shook her head sadly, “I’m afraid you’ve left me no choice, nephew. If it helps, I regret the grief this is going to cause Celestia to give me.”

Luna swung her glaives up then down, bringing them down on the back of Blueblood's neck. Cadence near screamed in shock, but even she held it back when Blueblood’s head failed to roll free of his neck. Instead he slumped forwards to the ground, sliding to the bottom of the dais steps in a pile, still whole, and still breathing if very much not conscious.

“Well he definitely thought that was real,” Trixie said with a laugh as she saw the trickle of urine that Blueblood left behind him on his journey to the floor. “Wait, why wasn’t it real?”

“Quite,” Cadence agreed with a uncharacteristic growl. “I’m not sure what I would’ve done if you had.”

“Oh relax,” Luna chuckled. “I only wanted him to think it was real. Dying would’ve been a mercy compared to what’s going on in his head right now.”

“And that’s it?” Trixie asked incredulously. “That’s his punishment? A trick and a scary dream?”

“Good heavens no, that’s just the beginning. As the one to have suffered the most from his betrayal, Celestia shall be the one to decide his fate, once he’s been put on trial of course.”

“Trial?” Trixie pouted at Luna, “Seriously?”

“Without Faust, someone has to have the hoof of blame pointed at them,” Twilight explained. “Celestia doesn’t really qualify, although there will have to be some kind of justice for what she did in Zebrica, and for her attack on the thestrals at Nostralis. Anyway, Blueblood is currently the best pony to put on trial for this since unlike all the others, he went along with this willingly.”

“And you’re sure about that?” Cadence asked.

Twilight rolled Blueblood onto his back, exposing the small scar he had on the inside of his front left leg, left behind by the crystal implant he had to prevent Faust's mind control magic from working. “I’m absolutely positive. On the other hoof though, I have no idea why he never told Faust about the implants everypony had.”

Luna dismissed it with a wave of her hoof, “A mystery for another time. Now we should go and find my sister, and hopefully put an end to her suffering.” Luna grabbed Blueblood and hefted him into the air, only to dump him back on the ground thirty seconds later outside the throne room where some griffons were securing those soldiers that hadn’t been killed.

“This is a priority prisoner,” she said to them. “Please ensure no harm comes to him.”

The two griffons looked at each other. “When you say that, do you mean that no harm should come to him,” the female of the pair started to ask, “or that no harm should come to him?”

“I mean it literally,” Luna iterated. “He will remain unconscious for some time anyway, so trying to hurt him would be totally wasted effort.” She leaned a little closer, “That doesn’t mean you should try, just so you are aware.”

The hen gulped, “Yes Princess Luna. We’ll-uh... take care of him right away.”

Luna watched as the two griffons dragged Blueblood away between them. “I wonder if I would have been better off saying nothing at all. No matter.” Luna shook her head and turned to face Nightmare, who had managed to replace her armour, which must’ve been quite the feat without having help to do so. “Perhaps you had best lead us to Celestia now.”

“Certainly. Let me just take a moment to contain my joy.”

“Now, please.”

“That’s fine, it’ll only take me a few milliseconds anyway. And... there we go. Follow me.”

-0-0-0-

The rest of the castle was relatively untouched, which was disconcerting in a way, like it had been completely separate from all that had happened. The halls were swept, the plants watered, and the ornaments meticulously dusted. Apart from the removal of any iconography relating to the night sky, it was like they had never left. This also led to the question of how Nightmare knew where she was going.

“Stop acting like I didn’t spend all of five minutes checking this place out,” Nightmare said in a semi playful tone as she led the way. “Celestia is just up ahead, and then you’ll maybe give me a little more trust over simple things like this, yes?”

“Then maybe we can go find Faust before she gets bored and decimates our army?” Trixie asked. She raised an eyebrow at the looks she got in return. “You know I’m right. It’s more or less convenience that she’s waiting for us.”

“Trixie does raise a point,” Luna agreed begrudgingly. “Nightmare?”

“Literally three doors away.” Nightmare trotted forward to the door she indicated. “Riiiight in here. Prepare yourself though, it’s a little weird.”

Luna grimaced at the smile Nightmare gave her, and pushed the door open fully expecting to find a perfectly normal room. In fact, it should’ve been the reading room that lay between hers and Celestia’s chambers, if her memory served her right. It did, but she couldn’t have told you that at the time.

The reading room was gone. Totally gutted and emptied out of everything, including windows. All that was left was a perfectly empty room that had no sources of light other than from what was at its middle, which also cast the walls into shadow, making it hard to tell how large the room really was. That was an unimportant detail though, since the source of light was Celestia, strapped to a bench. Around her swirled a ever shifting collection of fragmented images, all projected from the device clamped on her horn.

“Are those memories?” Cadence asked as she caught a glimpse of herself in one of the rapidly shifting pictures.

“Indeed, it would seem so,” Luna replied darkly “The question is if they are hers, or ones Faust wants her to have.”

“Or both,” Twilight added. “I’m pretty sure I just saw two versions of the same memory, so to speak. You know what I mean. I have no idea what any of this is though. Is Faust editing her memories again, or is she stripping them away to make Celestia more of a blank slate?”

“I’m guessing it’s not a pleasant process judging by the look on Celestia's face,” Trixie commented, having taken the time to actually pay attention to the individual these memories belonged to. Celestia’s eyes were wide, yet her pupils shrunken as her eyes rolled back in her head. She was groaning around the rubber bit in her mouth that her teeth were clamped down on. “You might want to fix this.”

“Oh Celestia,” Luna sighed. She went to remove the device on Celestia’s horn, but kept faltering as she found that she didn’t know how to get it off, and couldn’t see any discernible method of doing so. She suspected that it was made so that only Faust could use it so as to prevent any tampering from those that had reason to do so. Even then, the possibility of making things worse by removing it incorrectly was a concern that needed addressing. “Twilight? Any thoughts?”

“Me? What the heck do you think I know about this? This isn’t anything I’ve ever seen before. All I would suggest is that you be careful taking it off in case it does something permanent to Celestia’s mind.”

“Yes, thank you for that insight,” Luna said flatly. Luna stared hard at the device, sure that Faust had given it some lengthy and complicated name that she couldn’t even begin to guess at. She was quickly coming to the conclusion that without knowing more, there was only one practical solution to this problem; Celestia would have to lose her horn.

“Apologies for this, sister.” In one quick movement Luna summoned one of her glaives and swept it down over Celestia’s head before anypony else could even think to stop, or at least question her.

Celestia screamed into the bit in her mouth before her horn had hit the floor, and convulsed violently in her bonds as blood spurted from the stump of her horn. Luna tried to hold it in using her magic, but Celestia was thrashing hard enough that bits kept slipping through, hitting the other occupants of the room.

“Ugh, that almost went in my mouth,” Nightmare tutted as she took a step back. She then saw the way Cadence turned to glare at her. “What?”

“How can say that like this is nothing!? Luna just cut her horn off!”

“Yeah? And? What are you yelling at me for? I didn’t do it, even if it was exactly the same thing I would’ve done, except with, y’know, a massive grin on my face along with a sprinkling of gleeful laughter.”

Cadence failed to think of anything past that, so instead shifted her ire onto Luna. “What were you thinking?”

“That I didn’t know how to get that thing off, that I couldn’t leave it on there, and that this method was hopefully the best solution short of asking Faust nicely to take it off.”

“It also stops Celestia being a danger to us,” Trixie said with a thoughtful nod.

“There is some merit to what she did,” Twilight agreed. She blanched at the sharp glare Cadence shot at her. “I’m not saying that I would’ve started with that, but given the lack of further information to help remove that thing, this is probably what I would’ve done in the end as well.”

Cadence blinked and took a step back. “Well this is new. Apparently by remaining the only reasonably sane pony here, I’ve become the anomaly. Who could’ve seen that coming?”

Trixie shrugged at her, “Hang around with enough crazy ponies and you’re bound to lose a few of your marbles eventually.”

“I’m-" Cadence groaned loudly, “I don’t even know what to make of any of this any more.”

“Then make nothing of it and wait quietly,” Luna said back, paying no attention to the look Cadence gave her in return. “Celestia? Can you hear me, sister?”

“Mu cath mah fathing morn off!”

“I don’t think we need to remove her gag to work that out, do we?” Trixie said, only just managing to keep the snigger out of her voice. “I’m surprised she’s lucid enough to even say that much though.”

All of them backed away as a sudden surge of flame erupted from Celestia’s mane and tail before they settled back into her usual trio of colours. They waited, hoping that they weren’t about to see a resurgence of the fiery being they faced in Zanzebra. Cautiously optimistic about the continued lack of flame, and encouraged by a rather pointed look from the mare in question, Luna removed the gag.

“I would be most grateful if you could bring me a glass of water, and if possible something for the headache I had from before you cut off my horn.”

“Sister?”

“Yes it’s me you... urrgh...” Celestia squeezed her eyes shut and laid her head back with a grimace. A second later she slammed her head back on the table, again and again until Luna forced her to stop.

“Sist-"

“Don’t... call me that,” Celestia growled. She groaned again, her eyes going softer. “I’m sorry, Luna, I- Something’s wrong. They’re all still in here, and I don’t know which are real.”

“Your memories?” Luna asked, getting a weak nod in return.

“Generally speaking, the ones making us out to be the bad guys,” Trixie said lightly. “You should probably ignore those.”

“And any memory you have of Faust from before two years ago,” Luna added. “You never actually met her before that.”

“It’s not that simple.” Celestia turned her head and cracked one eye open to squint at Nightmare. “That is also going to require some explaining.”

“That is a she,” Nightmare said haughtily, “and she does not need to be explained to likes of you, Celestia.” Nightmare stood resolutely still as Celestia’s mane flared again as she struggled against her bonds. “That said, I have no desire to be your enemy even if I would be first in line to give you an ass kicking, should you require one. Besides, the reason you hate me is an actual, solid reason. Perhaps you should hold on to that, because I happened, whereas Luna’s little rebellion against you and Faust didn’t.”

“Both of them sound ridiculous when you say them like that,” said Twilight.

“I heard myself. Whatever. When you’re done coddling Celestia I’ll be over here with Cadence, waiting to go fight Faust.” Nightmare paused at how stupid that sentence alone sounded, but decided to leave it be with a shake of her head.

“So you really do have a plan to stop her?”

“We do.” Luna released her hold on Celestia’s head, pleased that the bleeding seemed to have stopped. “How do you feel about that?”

“Honestly? Nothing but relieved. I’d rather have no mother again, much more than one that treats me like this. I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me the plan? Does it have something to do with that wonderfully pink armour you’re wearing?”

“It might,” Luna said cautiously. While Celestia wasn’t being hostile, her attitude still seemed like it was a long way from what it used to be. Her horn had been removed, and she was shrugging it off like it was nothing, and hadn’t even happened. “Excuse me if I don’t give you all the details at this point considering all that has happened.”

“A reasonable concern, Luna, but far be it from me to even want to stop you at this point, let alone actually try. Frankly, I hope you make her suffer.”

“Okay, that is definitely not Celestia,” said Trixie.

“But it’s one we could get used to!” Nightmare chortled. “She has sass. I like sass.”

Celestia winced as the rest of them shared a look, “Apologies, I... I don’t know why I said that. I wouldn’t normally. Or at least I don’t think I would. It’s hard to tell any more. Perhaps it’s best if you just left me while you carry out your plan.”

“Are you going to be okay here, on your own?” Cadence asked, her concern for Celestia bringing her back into the conversation.

“I’ll be fine, thank you Cadence.” Celestia smiled, although it was a little shaky at the corners. “You all have your job to do, and I have mine, even if it is to stay out of the way.”

“That’s a relief since we had no intention of freeing you until we know what the full score is,” Nightmare said, smiling as the others all cringed awkwardly.

“Oh, well, far be it from me to argue then. I could use the time to think a bit anyway.”

Luna gave Celestia a warm if slightly uneasy smile, “We’ll be back as soon as we are able, sister. If we do not, you know why.”

“Then wouldn’t the smart thing to do be untying her so she can escape from Faust if we fail?” Trixie asked Luna.

“Until we know what is going on in Celestia’s head, no offense-"

“None taken.”

“-It would be wise to use caution.”

“Besides,” Celestia said, giving her own answer, “Faust would only hunt me down again, and possibly do something worse than she already has. At least now I could feign compliance and maybe earn myself a reprieve. No offense. I don’t wish to doubt you, but this is Faust we are talking about. Your victory is hardly assured.”

“Exactly,” Luna agreed, “although I do feel as though our chances are better than that. Anyway, we should be going now. Faust won’t wait forever. See you soon, sister.”

“See you soon... Luna,” Celestia returned, clearly still unwilling to confirm Luna as being her sister by more than genetics. If that affected Luna, she didn’t let it show.

Nightmare led the way out, her head held high as the others shuffled uncertainly towards the exit. Luna came last, lingering as she kept glancing back at her sister. Even out of the room she held back, giving Twilight a chance to question her.

“Diagnosis?”

“Diagnosis, Twilight? What is this, a hospital? There is no diagnosis for that, Twilight, beyond saying that her personality may or may not have been fractured by all that has been done to her.”

“I’m impressed she could be that lucid after having her horn cut off,” Trixie interjected. “Her tolerance to pain must be through the roof!”

“Perhaps,” Luna murmured, not entirely sure that Celestia hadn’t forgotten she even had a horn through all that. “Time will tell where Celestia is concerned, but for now we have wasted far too much of that. Let us be away to the ballroom to finish this.”

-0-0-0-

They found the others lurking near the entrance to the ballroom, the oubliette held in Moondancer’s magic. They couldn’t be described as being raring to go, not all of them at least, but there was obvious relief that the party of alicorns had finally turned up.

“Where have you been?” Shining whispered as loudly as he dared. “Any longer and I was going to start thinking that we’d have to do this without you!”

“We had things to do,” Luna replied curtly. “All that matters is that we’re here now. Have you seen or heard anything from Faust?”

Shining shook his head, holding back a sigh born of impatience at the princesses being gone so long. “Not a thing. I couldn’t even tell you that she’s actually in there. The only thing suggesting that she is in there is that she doesn’t seem to be anywhere else.”

“Then that will have to do.” Luna stared hard the large double doors to the ballroom, as though she wanted to blast them open through the weight of her gaze. “Wait here for us to engage her, then enter under Starlight's cloaking spell and pick somewhere subtle to begin your task. If she does spot you, then it is up to you, Shining, to protect Trixie, Moondancer, and Starlight where we cannot.”

“Understood.”

“Good luck to all of us,” Trixie said quietly. She gave Twilight a smile, “Try not to get killed.”

“What? Just me? I’m flattered.” Twilight gave Trixie a hug, made awkward by the armour they were both wearing. “We’re all counting on each other here, so it’s probably best that none of us die.”

“Probably, but, y'know, if you alicorns want to take the deaths for the team, that’s fine by us mere mortals.”

“Your warmth is an inspiration to us all. Besides, we probably have a bit of time to play with since Faust is bound to monologue for a couple of minutes, so try to enjoy that time as much as possible.”

“Less talk, more go!” Nightmare groaned as Twilight and Trixie talked, although they was hardly the only ones she was directing it at. “Seriously, can we stop putting this off now?”

“Indeed,” Luna agreed. She walked up to the doors and gestured for Twilight and Cadence to join her since Nightmare was there before she had to be told. “For Equestria,” she said, pushing the doors open into the ballroom and entering.

The ballroom was bare, save for a chaise lounge at the far side of the room that was holding the reclining form of Faust. There were no guards, although it had been observed that Faust had no need of them, but it really did mean that Blueblood had taken all of the guards for himself. Possibly on Faust's orders since they’d actually agreed to protect him over their Queen.

Faust stood, flipping a book shut as she did and placing it down on her seat. “It’s lucky for you that I’m well versed in patience, otherwise today would’ve gone very differently. In the beginning at least. I’m expecting the outcome to remain much the same.”

“Us dead and you victorious?” Nightmare asked, earning herself an unamused glare from Faust. “What? Didn’t expect to see me again after sealing me up in a dungeon?”

“You were a mistake, nothing more, and one I should’ve taken greater steps to eliminate.”

“And yet only one of many you’ve made,” Luna said before Nightmare could make her comeback.

To their surprise, Faust nodded in agreement. “I’ve underestimated you, I admit. Time and time again you have all managed to put yourselves in exactly the right place at the right time to thwart my plans. You even managed to break Celestia and turn her against me, which did come as a surprise. One which you will be paying for.”

“You broke her in the first place!” Cadence shouted, her voice cracking. “So much death and suffering, and for what?”

“Thanks to you, almost nothing,” Faust growled. “That’s why I’m going without a plan now. You are what’s standing between me and my goals, so if I’m to succeed, you must go. My army can be rebuilt, my lands retaken, but so long as you’re around I will never be allowed to reach my goals in peace, therefore my only logical course is to destroy you.”

They scattered into the air as Faust attacked, firing a beam of magic that seared the marble floor in its passage, leaving behind a mess of molten rock. Clearly none of them were so keen as to test out their armour so early into the fight. Especially if it didn’t work quite as well as advertised. They split up, spreading about the room in constant motion so that Faust could only ever really see one of them at a time, switching and changing who attacked and when, not that they planned any particular method in doing so.

Twilight held back a little, doing her best to examine how Faust both attacked and defended herself. She hadn’t even moved yet, instead relying on shields to protect her as Luna and Nightmare threw spell after spell at her. They might as well have been throwing water balloons at her for all the difference it made.

“Attack together!” Luna chastised, encouraging to use their magic in unison. They did so, simultaneously firing beams of magic at the shield protecting Faust, who raised an eyebrow in mild surprise as her defences started to splinter. Then in a flash she was gone, and they cut gouges into the floor with their magic before they could stop themselves.

“Where did she go?” Cadence asked, quickly getting her answer as a blast of baby blue magic struck her from behind. She screamed, mostly out of habit as the most that happened was that she was sent tumbling through the air for a few meters before being able to right herself.

“Found her,” Nightmare said with a chuckle, quickly turning to attack again as Cadence patted herself in a quick search for injuries. She found none, so while the armour had been unable to negate all of the spells force, it have certainly rendered it mostly harmless, which was as much as they needed really.

“So that’s how it is,” Faust muttered as she deflected Nightmare's magic. “You’re going to make me work for it. Tell me, how effective do you think that armour is against physical attacks?” As to prove her point, Faust teleported again, this time to behind Luna who quickly dodged away as Faust bucked. Rather than keep running, Luna spun, summoning her glaives and crossing them in front of her to catch the next blow.

“I dare you to try shatter these,” she growled.

“So Celestia wasn’t lying,” Faust said with amusement, flinging a quick spell at Twilight who was hoping in vain to catch Faust off guard. “You do have new weapons.” She raised an eyebrow as she scanned the magic within the two glaives, “They barely seem stable though. Who made these?”

“All of us, together.”

Faust snorted a laughed, “How touching. No wonder they’re a mess. Still,” Faust lit her horn, summoning a broadsword that glowed with a soft inner light that shimmered with every movement. “This is Viribus, a blade forged when I was still young. He’s never taken a life in all his millennia, but I think we’re willing to make an exception for you.”

“So dramatic,” Nightmare snickered. “Luna, just... please, kill her already.”

Luna nodded, setting her stance. This wasn’t exactly going as she had expected it to, but if Faust wanted to play games, that only aided towards their actual goal. Flourishing her glaives, she lowered herself into a fighting stance and readied herself. She only just managed to catch Viribus with a glaive as Faust swung the sword with a speed that defied its size, but that sort of thing happened when magic was involved. At the very least her own weapons hadn’t shattered from the force, even if she felt her horn twinge from the impact.

Twilight watched on as the two alicorns fought, barely keeping up with the elaborate dance of blades. The spell the fight seemed to have on her would’ve remained unbroken too if it weren’t for the twitch of her ears as a new and subtle tone reached them. Casting her sight around she finally spotted Trixie and the others in the corner of the room nearest the entrance. They had already set the oubliette up and were concentrating on activating it. The only one not actively doing anything was Shining, but the stiff nod he gave before the cloaking spell went up told Twilight that he was ready to do his duty. All they had to do was theirs.

A sharp clash of metal on metal brought Twilight back to the fight going on between Luna and Faust. They had crossed their weapons with Faust forcing Luna's downward with little apparent effort. Luna snarled and pulled away, letting Viribus fall to a stop barely a centimeter from the ground, and readied herself for a new attack when Faust froze, her ears twitching as she noticed the tone.

“What is that? I know that sound...”

Twilight’s blood went cold. If Faust could sense the oubliette, and more importantly, what it was, then there was every chance that she could find where it was, or even run from it if she wanted. Naturally that would be a disaster, so they would have to do everything to keep her mind occupied. Twilight snapped off a quick yet strong blast of magic that Faust blocked with ease. At any rate it seemed to break the spell the fight seemed to have over the rest of them, and they all joined back into the fight.

Luna swung low, dodging beneath Viribus to strike at Faust’s legs, only just nicking her front left one as she jumped away, no longer allowing herself to be so distracted. They poured all the magic they could into their attacks as Faust faltered, trying to stay on her hooves as she kept a shield up.

“Keep going!” Luna shouted, encouraging them to keep Faust pinned as she tried to crack the shield with her glaives. She had almost succeeded in creating the tiniest crack when the shield pulsed, knocking them all back far enough for Faust to rally. She swung Viribus at Luna, knocking one of her two glaives away and reversing the direction to strike at Luna's head. She missed, and only just pulled back in time to avoid Luna re-summoning her glaive and planting it in Faust’s neck as her other glaive warded Viribus off.

“And why are you getting all the fun, huh?” Nightmare asked, pulling her battle axe from the ether and swinging wildly.

“Wait!” Twilight shouted after Nightmare, but there was no reaching her over the sudden burst of maniacal laughter that slipped out of her mouth as she raced for Faust. To her credit, small and insignificant as it might have been, her attack did put Faust off balance, allowing Twilight to get a spell off that seared across Faust's back, leaving a patch of burnt hair. It wasn’t really much to show for their efforts, but it was a start.

A throaty growl erupted from Faust as she batted Nightmare’ axe away to direct a stream of magic at Twilight, who drove behind a pillar to escape it. She winced as she felt the pillar disintegrate under Faust’s power, and was thankful when her attention was drawn elsewhere. Unfortunately that elsewhere was the ripple of a shield that had apparently been conjured from nothing to ward off the effects of Faust’s spell.

Twilight yelped as she realised her mistake, and forced herself to run back out to attack Faust in the hope that she’d immediately forget what she’d just seen. She shielded herself and charged the larger alicorn, screaming as she ran, partly from determination, but mostly from the abject terror she felt doing it. Nopony should ever wonder what it feels like to have their body turned to ashes in a split second and scattered to the wind. Thankfully that last part was slightly irrelevant after the first, but right then it seemed a significant concern.

Thankfully Twilight’s sudden attack pulled Faust’s attention away from the mystery shield, and also held it long enough for Luna and Nightmare to attack as well, scoring some solid hits on Faust with their magic, which was probably less effective than their weapons would’ve been, but it was something.

“Don’t stop!” Luna both begged and commanded as she continued to pour her magic into her attack, trying her best to keep Faust off balance. If they actually succeeded in beating her here, getting her into the oubliette would be relatively easy. It wasn’t to be though as Faust forced herself to shrug off the magic that was searing her flesh.

“Insects!” she growled as she finally established a shield. “You. Are. NOTHING!”

“Cadence!” Twilight yelled at the pink alicorn fluttering anxiously nearby, unsure of what she was supposed to do. “Help us!”

Cadence nodded quickly, charging her horn to strike at Faust’s shield, only to hit nothing as Faust vanished in the blink of a eye. Luna and Twilight only just avoided hitting each other as their magic lost their target, and Twilight had barely just recovered when Faust reappeared in the air next to Cadence, her rear facing the pink alicorn.

Time seemed to go slow as Faust unleashed the strength held in her legs, bucking Cadence with the sound of a high speed train impacting a wall made of crystal. Cadence's armour shattered around the impact, along with bones beneath as the kick sent her flying away. She crashed into one of the marble columns around the room, smashing through it before smacking into the floor and sliding to a stop, unmoving and surrounded by chunks of marble and razor sharp shards of crystal.

“Cadence!” Twilight shouted, although her voice was hardly the loudest as Shining bellowed his wife’s name. Faust’s head immediately whipped around to the source of the shout, a triumphant grin on her face.

“I knew it! I knew there had to be more to this ill conceived attack of yours!”

Twilight, Luna, and Nightmare did their best to stop Faust, but now she was sure something was amiss there was no distraction they could make that would pull her away from that shout. Shields, spells, weapons... even placing themselves between Faust and her target wouldn’t stop her. All they could do was fight and watch in horror as Faust fired a beam of magic that tore through Shining's shield like it was wet tissue paper, revealing what was happening within.

“Are you using Starswirl's own magic to try and stop me?” Faust asked incredulously as Trixie, Moondancer, and Starlight swallowed their fear and kept casting. “Did you really think that would work? Did you really think that Starswirl would’ve created a spell that could harm me?”

By Twilight’s estimate the oubliette was close to finishing. They were so close! Another minute, maybe two, and Faust would’ve been stopped, but now the all powerful alicorn knew that they were only trying to distract her from the true threat, even if she was unknowing of what that threat really was.

Luna and Nightmare threw themselves at Faust, all pretence at even trying to win gone as they tried to stop her from disrupting the oubliette. Viribus blocked Nightmare’s battleaxe as Luna tried her best to remove Faust’s front legs, but it was pointless as Faust vanished from between them, leaving them to narrowly avoid hacking each other apart.

“Do something, Twilight!” Trixie pleaded as she watched the now farcical fight from the corner of her eye. Twilight nodded, determined to do anything and everything. Shining was down for the count, the shock at having his shield torn through with such ease knocking him unconscious, so she really was the last line of defence. Unfortunately her own shields weren’t strong enough on her own to hold against Faust either, so as Faust reappeared, a spell ready on her horn, there was only one thing to do; throw herself into the path of the spell and hope her armour did its job.

Twilight grunted as Faust’s magic clashed against her armour covering her with a feeling not unlike pins and needles. Faust didn’t even try to move, or use a different spell, or anything. She just kept blasting away with her magic until she either succeeded, or Twilight's armour failed. With a similar lack of alternative action, Twilight took it all, gritting her teeth against the growing sensation of static that seemed to move to all parts of her body, including inside it. Her only relief came when Luna and Nightmare recovered enough to attempt another attack.

Twilight gasped as she was released from the flood of magic, although she could barely tell through sight as her vision swam with bright and colourful blobs. About the only pertinent thing she could tell was that her armour was no longer pink, instead being as white as snow, and just as fragile seeing as how pieces of it cracked off from her movements alone. No way was she going to be able to do that again.

“Stop her teleporting!”

Twilight nodded vaguely at the suggestion, her senses unable to discern who had given it at that very moment. Thankfully doing such a thing wasn’t beyond her since her magic was still working, so she cast and maintained the spell as she waited for her senses to catch up.

When her sight did return after what must’ve been only seconds, but felt much longer, she saw Luna and Nightmare grappling with Faust, doing everything they could to keep her sword at bay, and her horn pointed away from themselves, Twilight, and the oubliette. They may as well have been battling a full grown dragon for all the success they were enjoying.
Spurts of magic erupted from Faust’s horn as she tried to disrupt the three unicorns casting around the oubliette, but Luna and Nightmare did at least manage to keep her horn pointing away so that the most Faust could do was carve gouges into the floor, walls, and ceiling of the ballroom. All Twilight could do was watch with a rapidly growing sense of horror.

“How much longer, Moondancer?!” Twilight shouted back at the unicorn, making her flinch, which wasn’t hard considering how utterly terrified she appeared to be. Starlight wasn’t far behind. If Twilight were to guess, Trixie was actually doing most of the work.

“I don’t know! I don’t know! We can’t force it to go any faster!”

“Fine! But are we talking like a minute here? More? Less?!”

“I said I don’t know!”

Twilight grit her teeth and abandoned her questioning since it wasn’t helping. If it wasn’t even close to finishing, then they might as well give up now and flee while they still could. Hopefully it wasn’t that bad. Maybe they wouldn’t get a chance to find out either way as Twilight was too occupied with preventing Faust from teleporting to even consider helping Luna and Nightmare keep Faust pinned. A fight which they were rapidly losing.

Faust had decided to ignore her wounds in favour of stopping the three unicorns, and was doing her best to shrug off the two alicorns holding her, even if it mean slowly impaling her shoulder on one of Luna’s glaives. She might not know what the oubliette was, but since it was here she knew enough to think it could potentially be a threat to her.

Viciously throwing her head back in a way that had to have hurt to do, Faust smashed the back of her head into Nightmare’s face and lit her horn with a blinding flash, dazing the dark alicorn for the two seconds she needed to kick Nightmare off. As soon as she did she ducked her head, narrowly avoiding Luna’s other glaive as Luna took the only desperate option left to her; remove Faust’s horn, head, or both. A gambit that never had a chance as Faust had to have been expecting it through the entire fight. Dodging the strike, Faust swept her hooves under Luna, lifting her up then slamming her down on the ground hard enough to crack Luna’s crystalline armour.

Spitting blood, Faust pulled the glaive from the flesh of her shoulder and tossed it away as she stalked towards Twilight and the others, a slightly manic look in her eye. Twilight swallowed and looked desperately to Luna and Nightmare to do something, but Luna was struggling to even breathe, while Nightmare was blinking the stars out of her eyes, still blinded by the light from Faust’s horn. No help was coming from them.

“It seems you’re out of options,” Faust commented, noting Twilight's building panic. “Not that there was likely to be any other outcome from this.”

Twilight blinked stupidly, a little bit dumbfounded that Faust was choosing to talk now of all times, but she never had the chance to decide what to say back as Faust started to form a spell that would probably turn Twilight into a smudge on the floor, as well as the three unicorns behind her. Dropping her spell to stop Faust teleporting, Twilight raised a shield, doubtful that it would make much difference, but hopeful that it could buy the others an extra few seconds to either activate the oubliette, or at the very least give Luna and Nightmare time to recover. Closing her eyes, Twilight let fate decide the outcome.

Much to her surprise, neither happened as her shield held, albeit not without help. Cracking her eyes open, Twilight found that Cadence had come around enough to reinforce her shield, even though she barely had the strength to raise her head. Shining was also with her, having regained consciousness long enough to crawl over to his wife and lend her what support he could. Feeling her hope recover, Twilight looked back to Faust, only to lose it again as she saw the way Faust was staring at her with disdain, right before she doubled the power of her spell.

A brief crackle was all the warning they had as the shield splintered, then exploded with enough force to send Twilight flying into Trixie, as well as send Moondancer tumbling away. The only one that kept her footing was Starlight, but as she nervously watched Faust walk towards her she decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and that living was better than either, and teleported away while babbling apologies.

“No!” Twilight cried as she felt the magic of the oubliette destabilize. She leapt to her hooves and teleported to the oubliette, desperately grasping at the wildly flailing threads of magic that spun out from the oubliette, trying everything she could think of to keep it from failing completely. Her horn ached as she worked, already worn out by her exertions, but the alternative was too terrible to continence.

“Twilight!”

Twilight glanced up at the shouted warning from Trixie, remembering that there was still something in the room that she maybe had forgotten about for a split second. Faust was still stood where she’d been previously, a sceptical look in her eye at Twilight’s actions as she slowly formed another spell to finally end Twilight, who knew she had no means of escaping. Not knowing what else to do, Twilight closed her eyes and hoped that the oubliette felt like activating in the next few seconds.

An overwhelming sense of power bloomed within the ballroom, but without even opening her eyes Twilight knew it wasn’t the oubliette, or Faust. It was something else entirely, and it seemed to be rapidly approaching from her left, from where Trixie had been. She snapped her eyes open in time to catch Trixie skidding into position in front of her, a writhing, swirling cacophony of conflicting magics around her horn forming a shield just as Faust unleashed the spell meant to end Twilight.

Twilight screamed as the spell obscured Trixie from her sight, not even caring about words as she thought she saw Trixie get obliterated. But the glare subsided and Trixie came back into sight, fully intact, and her shield turning Faust’s magic aside. Twilight was speechless. Not only had Trixie brute forced light, dark, and unicorn magic into working together, but was doing it in such a way that it could hold back the magic of Faust. For now at least. It was clearly taking its toll as Trixie sank onto her knees under the onslaught.

“Hold on!” Twilight yelled, putting everything she had into the oubliette to try and expedite whatever it was doing at this point. To her right she felt more than saw Moondancer re-joining her, and after what only had to be seconds the oubliette started to slow as a bright light glowed from within it.

Twilight’s legs almost buckled with relief, but that feeling quickly died as she looked back at Trixie, who was barely managing to keep upright. Twilight screamed Trixie's name, who looked back at Twilight and smiled just as the oubliette pulsed with power, and Faust unleashed her rage once again. Twilight closed her eyes against the light as it threatened to blind her, but it quickly subsided. All was quiet as she dared to open them again, scared of what she would see.

The most noticeable thing was that Faust was gone, presumably now sealed within the oubliette. Trixie was also gone. Twilight felt her heart try and force its way out through her throat, but forced it back down. Crawling forward on legs that barely felt capable of moving, Twilight made it to the spot Trixie had been standing, finding nothing of the blue unicorn save the scorched and twisted remains of her armour.

“Trixie?” Twilight asked weakly, hoping beyond hope that this was some incredibly unfunny prank, as much as she also knew it couldn’t be. These twisted scraps of metal, sat in the confines of a burn mark seared into the marble floor, was all that remained of Trixie Lulamoon.

Twilight choked as a flood of grief consumed her, but it was so overwhelming to the point she could barely express it at all. Her throat closed up, her heart thumped within her chest, and all she could do was stare at the broken armour, all other thoughts lost to her. She'd lost Trixie, and right now nothing else mattered.

"Trixie!"

-0-0-0-

Luna sighed, closing her eyes to concentrate on breathing, even using magic to encourage the air into her lungs. Even indisposed as she was she had been able to see what had happened as they teetered on the brink of failure, then snatched victory back at a cost. A cost worth paying perhaps for the defeat of Faust, but not one any of them really wanted to pay. The four alicorns were the ones that were supposed to take the hits, yet in the end it was Trixie who lost her life, valiantly sacrificing it for victory, even if she were only thinking of Twilight at the time.

“Fuck,” was all she could think to actually say.

“I think that sums it up,” Nightmare muttered, still covering her eyes with a hoof. “Of all the underhoofed things to do, blinding me is what she went with? Does that bitch have any idea how sensitive my eyes are to bright lights?”

“You do realise that Trixie is dead, don’t you?”

“What part of me being blind don’t you get?” Nightmare replied snippily, only to stop as what Luna said sank in. “Oh... Shit.”

“Quite.” Luna bit back on anything else she had to say, knowing full well that it would likely devolve into a string of expletives that would do little to help the situation save make her feel a little better. She may not have been as close to Trixie as Twilight was, but she was still fond of the mare. Losing her hurt, to say the least.

“I’m guessing that since we’re not under attack, Faust is gone?”

“She is.”

“Oh good. Hooray victory.”

“Excuse me if I don’t celebrate right at this very moment,” Luna remarked as she watched Shining pull Cadence her hooves, the mare wheezing and cringing in pain as he did. Even so, both of them were keeping an eye on Twilight. None of them were close to being able to comfort her though, not yet.

“Shining,” Luna cloaked, suddenly aware of how dry her throat was, “could you head outside and find someone that knows what’s going on, please?”

“But-"

“It’s fine, Shining,” Cadence said with a brave if shaky smile that faded quicker than it arrived. “Go on.”

Grunting irritably, Shining galloped away, leaving the departing echo of his hooves as the only sound as Twilight had gone quiet as she stared at Trixie’s empty armour. After a few moments Moondancer started to check over the oubliette, although what she was hoping to find was anyponies guess. At least she had the tact to stay quiet about Trixie, even if she did give Twilight an occasional glance.

Things continued like this for a few minutes until Shining returned, a griffon hen in tow who struggled to decide between bowing or saluting the princesses, and settled on a mix of both until Luna waved at her in the hopes that she’d stop.

“What’s the situation outside?”

“Canterlot has been secured, although parts of it are kind of a little bit on fire, but we’re taking care of that now.”

“And the battle below?”

“Still continuing Your Highness. We have the upper hand, but the Mareitanians aren’t giving up.”

“Probably waiting for Faust to come and swing things back in their favour,” Luna said evenly, both unsurprised and disappointed. “Clearly we shall have to go and convince them to give up. Nightmare?”

“Don’t ask me,” Nightmare whined. “All I can see is a big amorphous blob of colours.”

Luna cursed under her breath as that meant asking Twilight, which was not something she wanted to do in the slightest. Walking steadily over to the prone mare, Luna stopped by her, wishing she had Celestia’s gift for words as right now she had none to give in comfort.

“Twilight?”

Twilight looked up at Luna, her eyes red, puffy, and horribly desperate, like she needed Luna to tell her right then that it was worth it. That stopping Faust was worth losing Trixie. Luna knew she could say as much, and that she wouldn’t be entirely wrong to do so, but wasn’t so dense as to not realise that would be completely the wrong thing to say, now and ever.

“I'm sorry Twilight, truly, but this isn’t over yet. The battle still rages below, so our duty isn’t complete yet, not while our allies still fight.”

A dozen choice phrases along the lines of ‘fuck off' jumped to the front of Twilight’s mind, along with the knowledge that Luna was right, but she was tired. So very tired, of all of it. She almost wanted to attack Luna just so she wouldn’t have to go and fight elsewhere.

“I know,” she said instead. What she wanted mattered little in the end she supposed, and what she wanted was to have Trixie back, even if that weren’t possible. At the very least she wanted to be left alone with her grief. “Let’s get this over with.”

Dragging a body that felt heavier than lead off the floor, Twilight gave one last lingering look at Trixie’s remains, what there was of them, and reluctantly followed after Luna, keeping her eyes on the floor the entire way, not interested in what was happening around her when there were others that could deal with it. It wasn’t until they were out of the castle that she decided to pay attention to the hundreds of griffons holding hundreds of ponies prisoner with the aid of the Saddle Arabians.

Even over the noise of the prisoners and their guards the distant roar of the battle below could still be heard, if only faintly. That would have been her only concern if she hadn’t heard the sobbing of a pony that sounded like they were trying to not cry. A pony she knew all too well. The Wonderbolts were nearby, surrounding the pony that was crying. Luna just gave a quick, if sympathetic glance, then carried on.

Twilight pushed her way into the circle of pegasi, finding Rainbow in the middle, with Vapor to her side as she clutched on to the body of Lightning. Twilight’s heart sank even further. Her own pain was one thing, but seeing her friends enduring that same anguish triggered an unexpected anger in her. Pushing that aside for now, Twilight went to press a hoof to Rainbow's shoulder in comfort, but barely got halfway before the weight of her own grief dragged it back to the floor.

“Twilight?” Rainbow asked shakily as she tried to unsuccessfully rub her eyes free of tears. “Is it- Is it over?”

“Faust is gone,” Twilight replied, omitting the fact that the battle wasn’t over yet. “W-w-we lost T-Trixie.” Twilight swallowed hard, trying to stop herself from breaking down. “She- She gave her life saving- saving me.” Saving an immortal, Twilight thought bitterly. If that wasn’t a waste of Trixie’s life, she had no idea what was.

Twilight sighed as Rainbow stammered out her sympathies, but found herself looking at Vapor instead as the mare stared at nothing, unshed tears lining her eyes. How much pain and loss had they had to endure to see the defeat of Faust? Even outside of the ponies Twilight knew personally that had died, she was aware of plenty more, and knew that the losses Equestria had endured in the war were significant. All because of one fucking pony. One fucking pony that still had others fighting and killing in her name even after she had been defeated.

“I need to go,” Twilight announced suddenly. “There's still one thing left to do.”

Twilight ignored Rainbow's shouts as she turned and trotted determinedly away from the group, her speed increasing alongside her anger until she was galloping past Luna and out into the skies above the battle. A sea of black, brown, and grey had surrounded the colourful mass of Mareitanians on three sides, and was pushing to surround them ever further. Even so, the Mareitanians, along with whatever yaks were left kept fighting. Why wouldn’t they stop? Why were they so determined to destroy everything in the name of an insane mass murderer like Faust? How did any of this benefit them?

It didn’t matter. All of this started with the Mareitanians, and now it was going to end with them. They brought this upon the world by unleashing Faust, and they were going to pay for it, for every life lost, for every home burnt, for every minute of every hour that they made others suffer, and for every scrap of pain that Twilight had been inflicted with over the last two years.

Twilight was barely even aware of the tears in her eyes, or the dark magic crackling on her horn as she dove for the Mareitanian lines, paying no attention to the shouts of Luna behind her. She pulled up at the last second, her horn blazing with power as she released a wave of black lightning that reduced a dozen ponies to ash. She circled around and did it again, and again, and again, whittling away their numbers until they either gave up, or ran out of soldiers.

She wheeled around again, her breath coming in short, sharp grunts as she lined up for her fifth run, so focused on destroying her enemy that she never saw Luna coming at her, tackling her right out of the air. They both slammed into the ground, rolling over and over through the mud and the dead until they slid to a stop with Luna standing over her, her eyes sorrowful yet determined. That was enough to stop Twilight for a moment, which was all Luna needed to summon a flash of silver and hold a blade to Twilight’s horn.

“Please don’t make me do this,” Luna begged. “We have endured enough sorrow today without adding more. Please, Twilight, stop this.”

“Stop what?” Twilight asked, tearfully yet angrily. “Stop fighting the enemy? After all they’ve done?” she asked, her voice cracking. “If they won’t give up, then all they can do is die!”

“True, but have you actually given them a chance to surrender? Or do they not deserve one? Are they no longer also victims of Faust’s machination to you?”

Twilight fought for the right thing to say, to convince Luna to keep fighting, but Luna's words kept working their way into her thoughts. She wanted the Mareitanians to give up, but at what point was she giving them the chance? She really only lying to herself, because what she wanted them to do was die.

“I- I-"

“I know, Twilight, I know.” Luna pulled back her blade, allowing Twilight to pull herself up. “To inflict pain onto those that hurt you, it’s only natural to want that, to make them pay. But that is not how we move forward. To end this completely, we must end it properly. Or at least try to.”

“But... they killed Trixie,” Twilight said back weakly, her protest sounding pathetic even to her.

“Faust killed Trixie, not the Mareitanians.”

“But they’re the ones that released her!”

“I know, but our own poor decision making, and Celestia’s, led to that. If we had told them about Faust, about how dangerous she was, perhaps this could’ve been avoided. The Mareitanians were doomed to this outcome as soon as they opened her cell door. We cannot fully blame them for this, which is why we need to end this the right way. If they choose to keep fighting, that is their error, and not ours.”

Twilight took the hoof Luna offered and stood to shake the mud off her wings as her legs trembled with exhaustion. Guilt settled in her gut with the realisation of what she had almost done- had been doing, if Luna hadn’t stopped her. As she slowly returned to her senses she saw that the fighting had paused, with the griffons and changelings pulling back as the Mareitanians huddled under the flimsy shield they had put together.

Luna stepped out into the gap between the two armies, her head held high to hide how weary and hurt she was. Twilight stayed back, watching carefully as Chrysalis smirked at her.

“I must say that was quite the display.”

“Shut up.”

“Oh come now, there’s no need for that-"

“Chrysalis, you just saw what I can do. Don’t push me.”

“Yes, yes, poor you, etcetera... etcetera. Never mind me who just lost many hundreds of her children fighting for Equestria of all places. Oh no, your feelings must definitely come first.”

Twilight grit her teeth and ground her hooves into the mud, angry at how right Chrysalis was. She’d be damned if she’d say that though. Thankfully she was given a distraction by Luna as she raised her voice to be easily heard over everything else.

“Ponies of Mareitania, and associated allies, Faust has been defeated. Without her you have no reason to keep fighting. Surrender now so that we might end this senseless loss of lives. You know what will happen if you do not. Lower your weapons and lower your shield, I beg of you.”

“We will never surrender!” came the bellowed reply of what was distinctively a yak. “For the glory of Nirmat-ack!”

Luna raised an eyebrow at the sight of a couple of ponies silencing the yak by kicking him in the ribs. All through the mass of Faust’s remaining forces, short lived scuffles broke out as the yaks were all silenced through the medium of violent beatings. Through it all one pony pushed until he was at the front, his eyes meeting Luna’s with a thoughtful frown.

“General Wick,” Luna said in greeting. “From your treatment of the yaks I rather suspect you had anticipated this.”

“Perhaps. Is Faust truly defeated?”

“She is. Twilight and myself wouldn’t be standing here if she weren’t.”

Wick nodded thoughtfully, apparently not even bothering to waste time debating whether Luna was lying or not. He already knew they were losing, and even if Faust was undefeated, she wasn’t here trying to save them. He wasn’t really sure what she’d done for them to be honest. His doubts had been multiplying rapidly since Zebrica, and weren’t going away any time soon. At the very least he had no desire to die here for nothing, which was why he had quietly spread the word that if Faust lost they should surrender, forcing the yaks to comply if necessary.

“Lower the shield and put down your weapons,” he said in what he hoped was his last order. “It’s over. We lost.”

More fights broke out amongst the Mareitanian forces as the yaks protested against his command, but at this point the yaks were so few in number that they couldn’t put up any real resistance. For the most part ponies threw down their weapons, many of them seeming quite relieved with the outcome.

“Good choice,” Luna sighed, her own relief being quite obvious. She stepped aside and sat beside Twilight, letting her wounds and fatigue show as the griffons moved to secure the Mareitanians and yaks. “Very good choice.”

“Is it really over?”

Luna looked at Twilight with surprise as the smaller mare asked her question. Then she pondered the answer, as she knew well enough that while the war was over, with a victorious outcome, there was still much to do.

“This part, certainly,” she replied after a few seconds, taking hold of Twilight in a gentle hug. “Now we can rest and rebuild.”

“And mourn.”

“That too.” Luna pulled Twilight into a hug as the smaller mare started to cry brokenly, looking so much like a lost and scared child. All the while all she could think of was how none of it really ended. Equestria, and all of the nations involved would bear the scars of this for many years to come. The most they could hope for is that they at least be peaceful years.

Author's Note

So, here we are, at the end of things, almost. Can't believe it took me so long to do this, but it took be a month alone to write the fight with faust, which was literally one of the hardest things to do here, and really sapped my already dwindling motivation. Probably why it ended a bit abruptly, and why I could've done better in a lot of other areas too, but it is what it is. At least I can say I did it.

From here there should be one more chapter and the epilogue, which will come when they're ready (not even started yet lol), so watch this space.

Never forget.

52. The end for some

Cadence tiptoed around the wreckage strewn about the room, avoiding shards of wood and whatever else was left of the furniture that had occupied this small room in the servants quarters, about as far away from everything else in the castle as you could get while still remaining within it. The only thing that had been left unscathed by the wave of violence that had torn through the room was the bed, upon which was huddled a coil of sheets, obscuring the alicorn within.

Cadence stopped at the foot of the bed, as confounded by what to say today as she had been for the last eight that had passed since Faust’s defeat. Every day she came here in the hopes of convincing Twilight to do... something, but the only thing that really changed was the smell that was growing increasingly worse with each passing day. Perhaps today might be different though since she had news that might interest Twilight. Or so she hoped, because nothing else so far had, not even her friends. All she did was hold on to a small trinket in the shape of a ourobourous, staring blankly at it and everything else.

“Hey, Twilight.” Cadence frowned as Twilight failed to even stir at her words, but persevered. “The griffons have found the members of the Mareitanian council. They’ll be here later today to sign the peace treaty, officially ending the war. I know you haven’t been well lately, but the leaders present from each country of the pact need to sign it, and since you’re in the castle, I hope that would include you. The Emperor, Sultan, and two of the Zebrican council members have already arrived to do so.”

If her words made any difference to Twilight there was no sign of it. If anything she curled up a little tighter.

“Please Twilight, at least think about it.” Cadence waited a few seconds to see if Twilight would show a sign of having at least listened, but still nothing. Keeping a sigh buried within until she was well away from Twilight, Cadence turned and left, returning the room to silence, at least for a time. A few minutes later the sound of indistinct skittering entered the room, not bothering with opening the door, but coming right under it. Seconds later a flash of green filled the room, leaving a dark form in its wake that sneered in disdain at what it saw.

“Truly I have never seen a sight more wretched and pathetic than this,” Chrysalis commented as she took in the sight of Twilight. “And that smell is beyond compare. Honestly Twilight, when was the last time you even considered washing? How you mammals all live with your skin, and fur, and sweat, just... ugh, how can you stand it?”

Seeing that her taunts were getting no reaction, Chrysalis turned her attention to the rest of the room, grinning at the mess Twilight had made. Smashing everything in a fit of rage. How very un-princess-like. It almost brought a happy tear to her eye. Almost.

“I’m fairly certain this stuff must’ve belonged to someone. I’m sure they’ll be happy to know you destroyed it. ‘Oh thank you princess, I really hated having things bigger than a matchbox. Yet another problem you solved for us. Hurray...’ What they’ll be less pleased to see is that the treaty ending the war has my name on it, and yet two of the much lauded princesses are missing. How very peculiar, they might think.”

“Get... out...”

“Heavens, so there is life in there. I was starting to think I was talking to a rock. Or a corpse.” Chrysalis giggled as Twilight tensed, “What? Too soon? I suppose it must be really, to be reminded that Trixie is dead. Such a tragedy, dying fruitlessly for someone who can’t die themself. Makes you wonder what she was thinking, y'know, before Faust turned her to dust.”

Chrysalis grinned triumphantly as Twilight exploded out of the bed in a blaze of dark magic, ready to strike Chrysalis down in vengeance for mere words. Chrysalis was more than prepared though, and had been secretly gorging on Cadence’s love for the last two days in preparation for this. It didn’t hurt that Twilight was attacking blindly either, more like a wounded and cornered animal than anything else. Deftly blocking Twilight’s magic, she grabbed her and threw her to the ground, pinning Twilight and standing on her horn to block further spell casting.

“There she is! There’s the real Twilight Sparkle, full of fire and rage! About time we saw her again.”

Twilight struggled against the pin, surprised that she was no more able to move Chrysalis than she were a mountain. “Why are you doing this? You have nothing to gain from this!”

“No, but unfortunately for us both the world still needs Princess Twilight.”

“The world can go to hell!”

“The world is hell, Twilight Sparkle. It wouldn’t hurt so much if it wasn’t. At the same time though, that pain you’re suffering is completely irrelevant to that very world. It doesn’t care that you lost something precious to you, and it certainly doesn’t care that you feel like you can’t go on. To the world your feelings are dirt; present, but very, very inconsequential.”

“I hate you.”

“I’d be surprised if you didn’t,” Chrysalis snickered back, “just as you’d be surprised if I didn’t hate you. I hate all you ponies, with your laughter, and happiness, and inferiority, and I especially hate that I have to depend on you for survival. The world of ponies falls, I fall with it, which is why I’m here dragging you back into the light, because the ponies need you to reassure them, to help them grow. Things that I could never do, nor particularly want to.”

Chrysalis released Twilight, allowing the alicorn to sit up and rub her now aching horn. The world shouldn’t have to need her, or if it did, it shouldn’t have taken Trixie from her.

“Well? Say something!”

Twilight shook her head, the dull ache of grief returning to her as her anger subsided. “It hurts so much...”

“Then bury it! Bury it until you forget it was ever there, or talk about it I suppose, whatever you ponies do, just stop sitting here wasting her rather touching sacrifice.”

“But that’s just it! It was pointless! I can’t die! She could! She did...”

Chrysalis stared up at the ceiling and groaned, “How are you so very dense? You're making me have to contradict myself now. Yes she might have sacrificed herself to save you, because doing so meant stopping Faust and saving the world. All you precious little ponies, griffons, zebras, and whatevers now get a chance to live long and happy lives because she and so many others gave up their chance at living theirs. Frankly you’re just insulting her by sitting here and doing nothing. It’s now yours, and the other princesses job to ensure those sacrifices didn’t go to waste.”

Twilight lowered her head as tears slipped silently down her cheeks. Why did all of this have to be so hard? Was she to even be denied the chance to grieve? To be forced to keep working through her pain? Is that what Trixie expected of her when she threw herself between Twilight and Faust?

Before Twilight could even begin to hazard a guess in answer, the door slammed open, letting in Luna and Cadence. “We sensed an explosion of dark mag-" Luna started to explain when she noticed Chrysalis standing over the crying and dishevelled Twilight. “What did you do, Chrysalis?” she growled, readying herself to attack as Cadence tried to pull Twilight away from the changeling with little success.

“Straight in with the accusations I see,” Chrysalis deadpanned. She pointed a gnarled hoof at Twilight, “As you can see I made her move, which is something you have all failed to do.” A sly grin crept onto her face, “Are you proud of me?”

Luna scowled at Chrysalis and subtly shook her head in distaste before looking to Twilight. “Are you unharmed?”

“Like there’s anything she could do to make things worse,” Twilight mumbled. There were too many people in her room right now. Exactly three too many. The sound of hooves running towards them suggested that number was only going to grow. It would appear that Chrysalis was right to some degree as she could feel both Luna and Cadence building towards asking her if she was ready to get on with her Trixie-less life. They hadn’t asked it yet, but it was only a matter of time.

“See?” Chrysalis gloated. “If I can’t make things worse, that means I have a high likelihood of making them better, therefore, I’m helping.” Chrysalis let her face go slack as she heard herself. “Dear me, I’m helping the ponies... of my own free will no less...”

“What do you want from me?” Twilight asked as Chrysalis suffered her small crisis of conscience. Out of the corner of her eye she could see all of her friends except Rainbow crowding around the door. “I’m done. Totally fucking done. Faust is gone, Trixie is-“ Twilight forced down the lump in her throat, “Trixie’s dead, and I’m all out of fucks to give.” She cringed at the reaction of her friends. Apparently she still had one or two fucks to give.

“And this is how you intend to spend the rest of your existence?” Luna asked, seeming to abandon the sympathetic tone of voice she’d been using so far. “Dwelling in a room of broken furniture, clinging onto that ring Trixie kept in her ear?”

“It’s my choice if that’s what I want to do. At the very least you can’t expect me to get over this in a week.”

“No, I don’t.” Luna sighed heavily, “I wish that I could easily give you all the time you desire, but the world hasn’t stopped revolving for the death of one pony, no matter how dear they might be. At the very least I must insist that you be present for the signing of the treaty. We literally can’t do it without you.”

“And after that? What can’t you literally do without me then? And after that? And that? And so on and so on? I know it’ll never end.”

“I believe that after that you start working on your referendum of whether us princesses be allowed to continue ruling.” Luna rolled her eyes at the surprised expression Chrysalis had picked up. “I’m pretty sure you were determined to abdicate anyway if you failed, so if you want an end point where you’re no longer required to do anything, it lies there.”

“And when were you going to mention this to me?” Chrysalis asked. “If you were hoping that-"

“Oh hush,” Luna growled. “Your position in Equestria would remain unchanged regardless of the outcome, if that’s what you’re worried about. Apart from that, currently it’s an issue that’s entirely internal to us princesses at the moment.”

“But an Equestria without princesses?” Applejack asked. She took off her newly acquired hat and twisted it her hooves. “Are you absolutely sure about that, Twilight?”

“Positive. After our massive list of screwups, I no longer consider us princesses fit to rule. Unfortunately I can’t just abolish princesses, so I’m going to let the public decide. Cadence, however, will retain her rule of the Crystal Empire, since that’s not under Equestria's control.”

“But what’s the alternative?” Rarity asked.

“Democracy.” Twilight held up a hoof to waylay the next question, “I know what you’re doing, and it annoys me that it’s working. Stop trying to distract me from my grief with inane questions. Where’s Rainbow?”

“She's with the Wonderbolts,” Pinkie answered. “They’re making sure Canterlot is safe with all these ponies here for the signing. She’s not moping over Lightning if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Fine, I get it.” Twilight dragged herself to her hooves. “Look out world, here comes Twilight.”

“I’m sure the world might appreciate it if you had a shower before shaking hooves with anypony,” Rarity quipped.

“The world’s too picky, but fine, whatever. If you could get me Rainbow and Vapor I’d appreciate it.”

-0-0-0-

Twilight had decided upon the showers in the guards barracks since it was currently empty. That part was important as it allowed Twilight to sit slumped under the running water with the top of her head pressed against the wall. She wasn’t ready for, well, anything to be frank, and that was manifesting itself hard right now. What they really expected her to do at this moment in time, with her heart torn in two, was beyond her. Honestly, she felt scared without Trixie here to both mock and support her.

“Wow. Not what I had expected to find when I was asked to come here.”

“Hey Rainbow,” Twilight mumbled, not bothering to remove her head from against the wall for several seconds as the effort needed to do so eluded her. “Thanks for coming. You too Vapor.”

“What’s this about, Twilight?” Rainbow asked, her impatience clear in her voice. Twilight knew why, because these two were taking the exact opposite tactic to Lightning's death that she was taking to Trixie’s. Namely, be as busy as possible, and hope the pain never catches up. From the haunted look in Vapor's eyes, it wasn’t going entirely to plan.

“I'm sorry about Lightning,” Twilight said, getting straight to the point. From the way Rainbow stiffened up, the point landed somewhere sensitive. “She... She didn’t deserve that.”

“Did any of us?” Rainbow snapped back unapologetically. “How about the next time you try to sweep world ending threats under the carpet you nail the fucking carpet down as well.”

Twilight winced. It would’ve been hard not to. “I know, and I’m sorry. About everything.”

“Well... Don’t be.” Rainbow sat hard and sagged as Vapor leaned sympathetically against her. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing anymore. The war ended, and we won, somehow, but without Lightning and the others that... yeah, it feels like we lost. I keep catching myself wondering if it was really worth it.”

Twilight opened her mouth to refute that, but found herself without an actual argument. There was no doubt that what they had done was unquestionably the right thing since Faust was hardly going to back down. Whether it was worth it though, that was a lot harder to be certain about when she considered the personal losses. Balancing the life of Trixie against the world was easier when Trixie had remained alive. Sunset too, as well as the overwhelming number of lives that had been lost in the war.

“Really though, Twilight, why did you want us here?”

Twilight stopped herself from spiralling back into despair to see that Rainbow had straightened back up, her grief forcefully buried underneath an air of duty and responsibility. Twilight envied her ability to do that, even if it was probably no better for Rainbow than what Twilight was doing to herself. Vapor was just... it felt painful to see how listless she was, doing little more than following Rainbow around on autopilot.

“I needed to see how you are, and to, I don’t know, apologise?” Twilight shook her head, “I really don’t know. If nothing else I’d like you to be there with me for the signing.”

“Us? Why?”

“Because as hollow as this victory currently feels, it’s a victory nonetheless. One which you and Vapor are also responsible for. Technically the war doesn’t end until the armistice is signed, and you wanted to see this through to the end.”

Rainbow nodded, knowing that Spitfire had already given her permission to be there, so it was pretty irrelevant for Twilight to ask, but since Twilight didn’t know that, she supposed it meant something for Twilight to ask like this. “Alright, we’ll be there. I’m pretty sure the rest of your friends are going to be there as well though.”

“Even Moondancer?”

“Even Moondancer. “

“Oh, well, good. How is she managing without Starsy?”

“It’s hard to tell with her, you know that. You could always ask?”

Twilight snorted a single laugh at that idea. “Now Faust is defeated there’s no reason for her to not try and kill me as many times as she can, so I’m going to take a pass on that.”

“Probably a good idea.” Rainbow shrugged at Twilight, “So how long are you planning on spending in that shower? We’re literally all waiting for you.

“Can’t I have another couple of hours?”

“How pruney you planning on getting?”

“Unrecognisably so, if I can.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, “You have until I find a way to motivate you out of there. No promises on how long that will take.”

“I’ll take it.”

“Cool. I’ll see you in a few minutes then.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Twilight asked as the two pegasi wandered out of the room. A minute later a clunk echoed through the exposed piping for the shower, followed shortly by the shower losing its hot water. Twilight squeaked and leapt out of the now freezing spray, an insult ready to fly at Rainbow as loudly as possible, when she found herself smiling. Someone was a jerk to her, and she was smiling. That couldn’t possibly mean anything good.

-0-0-0-

“Thank you,” Twilight said to the politely smiling maid that was holding her regalia out on a cushion for her as she entered the throne room. Holding it in her magic for a bit, she inspected it, having not worn it for quite some time. It didn’t seem as heavy as she remembered, but it never would’ve. All the silly things she used to worry about when she first became a princess seemed laughably far away now.

She slipped it onto her head, purposely leaving it a little crooked, and looked around the room. As Rainbow had said, all her friends were there, except those that couldn’t be. There were even quite a few ponies that she didn’t know, but there was no way this event was going to go without a massive amount of press attention and witnesses. Other than that though, the only other ones here were those that needed to be here.

“Why's he here?” Twilight asked aloud, the words slipping out accidentally as she laid eyes on Prince Blueblood, who was sat by the throne in shackles and under guard by a quartet of griffons. Judging by the bags under his eyes, and the droop in his stance, Luna's revenge was still ongoing.

“He is here because...” Luna began to explain before realising that she wasn’t sure herself. His trial wasn’t to happen for a while, so why he was here was a mystery. “He’s here because I wanted him to see there was no victory for tyrants like Faust, I suppose. Maybe I just like the way he glares at me every time I suggest he gets a good night’s rest.” Luna shrugged, “Perhaps as Equestria’s chief collaborator he needs to see that he lost.”

“We’re basically swinging our victory dick in his face,” Nightmare explained.

“Ah, right.” Twilight looked around the room, wondering something else at that point. “Speaking of, where’s the oubliette?”

“In safekeeping, as is Celestia,” said Luna. “I’ll tell you when there are considerably less ears around. As for now, since you’re here we can get things under way.” Luna gave a small bow to the Emperor, who was waiting patiently by a round table in the centre of the room, alongside Cadence, Chrysalis, the Sultan Batal, and the two zebra councillors Fumbo and Kifuniko. Daybreak was also there, along with Lord Hayfield, Ivory Spire, and Sour Mash, all of them representing Mareitania, although Daybreak was the only one not under significant guard. Daybreak gave Twilight a weak smile when he caught her eye, but the other three were resolutely staring at the floor.

“Nice to see you back with us,” the Emperor Hergest said jovially as Twilight took her place at the table alongside the other princesses. His expression softened a little as he noticed Twilight's weary expression. “I’ve heard that we owe our victory to your friend. She won’t be forgotten for that.”

“She wouldn’t be forgotten anyway,” Twilight muttered.

“We certainly wouldn’t forget her contributions,” said Daybreak. “Instead we were forced to repay you all with betrayal. I really am sorry about Trixie.”

“I’m really not sorry about Snowbright though,” Twilight said back. A small lie perhaps, but he bought his death on himself.

“Yes, well, I’m going to try and remember him as the pony he was, rather than the arsehole he became.”

“Uh-huh...” Twilight didn’t bother argue that he’d always been an arsehole to varying degrees. “And the rest of you?” Twilight asked of Hayfield, Ivory, and Sour Mash. None of them said anything, but all of them seemed regretful. What exactly they were regretful for though was anyponies guess. Twilight dismissed her thoughts of them, forcing herself back to business. “So, what now?”

“Now we all sign this piece of paper, and the war is officially over,” Luna explained. “However, since it was a victory achieved by the pact, the pact must sign it.”

“It also isn’t a surrender,” Twilight noted. “That strikes me as being rather odd. Why is that?”

“For reasons,” Luna said with a shrug. “Without Faust, Mareitania has no leader to do the surrendering, hence why we went looking for these four. We're just trying to do things a little differently, especially since the Faust problem was somewhat our responsibility to begin with.”

Twilight closed her eyes, only then realising that she didn’t actually care all that much. The important part was that it was over. “So where do I sign?”

Luna picked up a quill in reply, quickly signing the document before passing it to Cadence, who did the same. Twilight signed it beneath Cadence, before passing it to Chrysalis, weirdly enough, who signed it with a surprisingly fanciful signature. After her the Emperor signed, then the two zebras, and lastly Batal, before it stopped before Daybreak, who signed it without hesitation.

“I’m not signing it,” Sour Mash stated as his turn came around after Hayfield's and Ivory's. “Faust is the one at fault here, not us and not Mareitania.”

“So that wasn’t your military that conquered Equestria?” the Emperor asked.

“Yes, but as Princess Luna just said, Faust being there was Equestria's responsibility, so maybe-"

“Just sign the fucking paper, Sour Mash!” Ivory suddenly snapped. “There’s no point in pointing hooves when our so called leader, using our very definite army, left three countries in ruins, one of which being our own! Just fucking sign it!”

“Apparently she didn’t take having Faust’s control over her shattered very well,” Chrysalis whispered aside to Twilight. “I’ve heard she even tried to kill herself over what they allowed Faust to do.”

“Stop acting like you’ve never tried to conquer us,” Twilight whispered back. “We appreciate what you did to help us retake Equestria, but you have no moral high ground here.”

“And you’re supposed to be the Princess of Friendship, so maybe don’t bite back when I’m trying to be helpful? Or is that level of moving on beyond you?”

“I- Nngh... sorry.” Twilight breathed deeply to try and clear her head. As much as she didn’t feel like it, being nice to Chrysalis was something she should probably do while Chrysalis herself was trying it.

“It isn’t valid if it’s signed under duress,” Sour Mash argued back at Ivory, only stopping when he saw her murderous expression. “But I guess that doesn’t count if you’re the one duressing me. Fine, I’ll sign it.”

“Much appreciated,” Luna said as she pulled the document towards her once he and the others were done. “And now we can truly declare this wasteful and needless war... over.”

Twilight folded her ears back as much of the room exploded into clapping and cheering, the noise hurting her ears. The war had ended just over a week ago to her mind, so this was just ceremony as far as she was concerned, but she wouldn’t begrudge others being overjoyed that this bloody affair was finally over. Too bad it wasn’t actually the end of things though.

-0-0-0-

“So this is where we discuss the actual issues?” Chrysalis asked some hours after the signing. The intervening time had contained a dizzying array of press meetings and speeches as the news was spread to every corner of the world via the power of the free press.

“Insofar as we can,” said Luna. “We still need to get on to explaining your role in liberating Equestria, and what happened on the east coast. It’s going to be hard to get ponies to accept what happened there, let alone the joining of your people with Equestria. Fortunately though, that one can wait. For now we need to discuss Mareitania.”

“What about it?” Twilight asked morosely. Why did everything have to be about that fucking country?

“About it’s rather imminent collapse,” Hergest supplied. “Between the rather untenable weather situation that has developed there, and the diversion of almost all resources to the war effort, Mareitania has been left on the edge of disaster. Crops aren’t growing, ponies are starving, and without Faust and her mind control, the ponies there are somewhat upset.”

“I can already tell you have a plan,” Chrysalis said sharply. “The smugness is radiating off you. How about you just tell us.”

“Do changelings have no appreciation for dramatics?” Hergest asked with a roll of his eyes. “Fine. Since Equestria is in no position to lend direct aid I have taken the liberty of preparing a force of griffons to enter Mareitania. For starters they’ll take care of the weather, then we’ll start bringing in relief supplies while we encourage those four over there,” Hergest pointed at the four Mareitanians in the room, “to rebuild their government.”

“Saddle Arabia is also willing to supply relief aid to the Mareitanians as well, although considering the distance and the trouble with shipping it, it won’t be an immediate thing.” Batal shrugged, “We will do what we can.”

“As will Zebrica, as a gesture of goodwill,” Fumbo added with a gesture as Kifuniko nodded beside him. “However, with a large portion of Zanzebra still in ruins, our aid might also be limited.”

“I’m willing to send some changelings as labour,” said Chrysalis. “Might cause less issues since they can look like ponies.”

An annoyed grunt drew them to look at Sour Mash, who gave the impression that he wanted to punch something. “What even makes you think that Mareitania wants more interference from foreign countries in our business? Hasn’t there been enough of that already?”

“The alternative is that we leave Mareitania to starve,” Luna answered simply. “If that is what you truly wish, it is no water off our backs to make that happen. I do wonder how long it would be until you complained that we abandoned you though.”

Sour Mash stood sharply, the stamp of a hoof ringing around the room. “That isn’t fair!”

Luna stood as well, cutting off any further comment from anyone else as she walked up to Sour Mash until they were practically nose to nose. “Fair? Is it not fair that we’re willing to put you four back in charge of your country despite having no credible reason to do so? Is it not fair that instead of forcing you to sign an unconditional surrender we’ve allowed you to sign an armistice instead, from which we can build better relations? Is it not fair that instead of demanding reparations for what your army did we’re offering you aid when you need it?" Luna glowered silently at Sour Mash as he wilted before her. "Do not think you can tell us what fair is.”

“Objections withdrawn,” Sour Mash mumbled, prompting Luna to nod in satisfaction and return to her seat. “I do have one legitimate concern though. Our ponies might not want us back in charge, or indeed any of what your offering past making the rain stop.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Cadence said in as conciliatory a manner as she could. “The unfortunate truth is that right now, Mareitania needs us, and you.”

“They’re right,” Daybreak said firmly, having grown sick of Sour Mash's objections himself. “The path ahead for us is unfortunately paved with humble pie, so suck it up.” Anything else you two want to say?” he asked of Ivory Spire and Lord Hayfield.

“Only that you stop acting like you’re better than us just because Twilight broke you free of Faust’s control ages ago,” Ivory grumbled back.

“Ugh, sorry.” Daybreak smiled apologetically then stood and bowed to the rest of the room. “We gladly accept these conditions, and although we can offer you nothing in return right now, I hope we can do so in the future.”

Hergest slapped a claw on the table,” Excellent, I shall have the order dispatched at once, unless there’s anything else we have to discuss right now?”

“No, I feel that will do for now,” Luna replied. “At least until tomorrow. As for now, Twilight, I’d like you to come with Cadence and I.”

-0-0-0-

“Where are we going?” Twilight asked, although it wasn’t hard to guess since they were heading towards the secure vault beneath the castle.

“We’re going to ensure that there are no more secrets between us,” Luna replied cryptically. “You asked where the oubliette was, and we are going to show you. Then we’re going to visit our other dirty little secret.”

“Celestia?”

Luna just nodded. Eventually they came to the Vault, guarded as it was by a quartet of Night Guard, who gladly let them in. Inside the vault Twilight was led to a side chamber with further security. A bright light exited the room as the door swung open, which was not only coming from the oubliette, but from the two shields containing it, one silver, the other teal.

“What kind of security is that?” Twilight asked, tapping a hoof against the outer teal shield. She may as well have struck a rock.

“The personal kind.” Luna gestured to some runes drawn onto the floor and ceiling. “We’re waiting for yours as well. That way, if anyone wants to get in here, they’ll either have to be insanely powerful to break those seals, or be pretty creative in getting all three of us to release them, and I mean really creative, since none of us would ever want to see Faust free again.”

“But-" Twilight stopped, her question vanishing before she could even say two words of it. Instead she found herself staring into the patterns of light the oubliette emitted. She wondered what kind of life Faust was making for herself in there with Starsy. Whatever it was, she didn’t deserve it, not for the crime of taking Trixie away from her.

With a growl Twilight started pouring her magic into the waiting tunes, only just avoiding using dark magic. If anyone wanted Faust free again, they would have to willing to face Twilight first, and that would be their first and last mistake. She’d sooner die a thousand deaths than go through with this again.

A blaze of purple light filled the room, growing brighter as Twilight practically emptied herself of magic. Nothing and nobody was getting Faust out of there. Even if they got to the oubliette, it was damn near impossible to crack that open.

“Easy Twilight,” Luna warned as Twilight started to edge into burnout. “I do believe she is very much secured now.”

“Never again,” Twilight snarled in reply, but relented, letting her magic fall away to nothing. A solid purple barrier now surrounded the oubliette, almost obscuring it due to the similarity in colour. “I don’t suppose we could fill this room with concrete as well, could we?”

Luna smiled at the suggestion, “That would prove to be its weakest defence. This vault is sealed with triple layered enchanted steel, a heavily enchanted door than can only be opened by one of us three, and has the usual compliment of guards, as well as us to defend it. Faust is going nowhere.”

“Good. I hope I don’t have to hold you to that. Now, I’m sick of even thinking about Faust in the slightest, so let’s get out of here.”

“Very well,” Luna said, very much agreeing herself. “Let’s go visit my dear sister. I’ll warn you now though, she is still a little... strange.”

-0-0-0-

Out of mercy to Celestia, they’d placed her back in her old room, maybe in the hopes of using the familiar surroundings to keep her calm, or because nobody could bring themselves to actually imprison Celestia in, well, a prison, no matter if her mind was warped, forcing her into fighting for the wrong side. Twilight wasn’t going to begrudge anypony that, but she did take issue with the room not even being locked.

“Aren’t you even the slightest bit concerned she might escape?” Twilight asked Luna as she held the still unopened door in her magic.

“Without her magic, Celestia can’t open her own door,” Luna explained, pulling the door open to reveal that the doorknob on the inside had been taken off. Twilight stared flatly for a moment then rolled her eyes.

“Is she at least restricted from flying away?”

“Of course, Twilight, I’m not stupid.”

“I know a pony that might beg to differ,” said the voice of Celestia from within the room. “But considering what happened to her, I guess you can claim otherwise.”

“Yes, we all know how highly Faust thought of me,” Luna replied with a forced cheerfulness. “I reckon she was just jealous of me getting less prison time than she did.”

Celestia cackled, actually cackled, standing the hairs on the back of Twilight’s neck straight up. She entered the room cautiously, finding Celestia laying on her bed upside down with her wings spread. A golden, bejewelled cap covered the stump of her horn. Apart from that though, she was entirely undressed, which, while not unusual in itself, became weird when Celestia did it.

“Had enough of a good look yet, Twilight? Like what you see?”

Those words alone crashed through the memory Twilight had of her former mentor. It was obvious to see that Celestia was far from being back to herself.

“Sorry,” Twilight mumbled, climbing onto the couch in the room. It felt waxy to the touch, which it never had been before. When she asked, she was told that pretty much everything had been made fireproof in the room.

“I keep getting these little outbursts,” Celestia explained in a now uncomfortably cute voice. “One moment I’m just sitting here, minding my own business, trying to get the blood flow back into the rather sad remains of my horn, the next, poof! I’m on fire. Rather annoying really. I’m starting to run out of reading material because of it. Luuuuna, fireproof my books for meee...”

“Stop catching fire, and we’ll talk.”

“But I like it.” Celestia clapped her hooves together, somehow making a burst of flame between them. She giggled, then rolled onto her front to look Twilight in the eye, her expression serious, and more like the Celestia Twilight knew.

“I’m sorry about Trixie.”

Twilight choked, her throat going tight. Why was it that every time she felt like she was getting a handle on her grief, somepony had to go and remind her of it. A few seconds later, strong legs and soft white feathers enveloped her as Luna and Cadence watched cautiously.

“I’m sure the Summerlands have a lot more insults flying around now with her there.” Celestia tensed, having realised what she’d just said. “Sorry Twilight, I’m still-"

“Not quite right? I’d noticed.”

“I’m not sure I even remember what right is, or used to be at least. It’s all rather vexing to be entirely honest. I wasn’t rude to you when you came in, was I?”

“Not really, no.”

“Good, I can at least remember that correctly. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on in my head these days if I’m honest. Apparently I tried to seduce anypony who came in here yesterday, but I could’ve sworn I spent most of the day reading.”

“That was four days ago,” Cadence said quietly. “Thankfully you’re a bit easier to handle without your magic.”

Celestia sighed and massaged her temple, then smiled weakly at Twilight. “I’m sure I’ll get the hang of this new life eventually. Maybe if I had a sex slave?” she asked Luna hopefully.

“For the last time no. Work out your own frustrations.”

“But Luuuuna... it’s hard with just my hooves...” Suddenly Celestia smacked her head against the side of the sofa, almost knocking Twilight off in her surprise. “Will you shut up? I’m trying to have a civil conversation with my former student!”

“You can talk to her?” Twilight asked as she watched a sliver of blood run down the side of Celestia’s head.

“Of course not, but I do occasionally catch myself talking rubbish at times, and I know it can’t be me saying it. It’s complicated.”

Twilight sat in silent thought as Celestia returned to her bed. Maybe there was one who knew enough about Faust’s magic to do something. “Could Discord maybe do something about it?”

“Like I’d let that clown anywhere near me,” Celestia scoffed. “It’s crowded enough in this head as it is. Besides, isn’t he already occupied with fixing those morsels you found at the Everfree castle?”

“Morsels?”

“The ponies, griffons, and such like we found as part of Faust’s experiments into formulating her ‘plan.’” Luna explained. “Discord reckoned he could fix them, and given the lack of alternatives, we let him.”

“Far too trusting, if you ask me,” Celestia muttered.

“And he’s earned a little trust of late,” Cadence chided. “He does seem to be having some success as well.”

“You can still keep him as far away from my head as you like. It’s been messed with enough. But it’s not just your choice though, is it! Oh shut up.”

“Excuse me?” Twilight asked, looking sideways at the other two, and getting a shrug back.

“Internal dispute,” Celestia explained. “No matter what Celestia might insist, I know she’s in here, and ugh, she’s so damn whiney. It isn’t enough for her that we’re at least on the same page as far as Equestria and all that is concerned.”

“And... what page might that be?”

“That Faust stays buried, and that Equestria is ours to protect. Now we just need to work on the finer details. What finer details? I’m just one pony! You’re a figment!” Celestia sobbed, “Why can’t you just go away?”

“Riiiight...”

“Forgive me Twilight, but I’m afraid I might be like this for a while. I just need some time to clear up these errant thoughts and memory lapses, and I’ll be right as rain. Pfft, like I’m going anywhere. Perhaps you best go for now, but do please visit again. Bring lube.”

“Uh... sure, I guess. What’s the lube for?”

“You. I have big hooves." Celestia suddenly cringed, "Ignore me, please.”

“I’ll make sure she does,” Luna interrupted, scooching Twilight out the door as quickly as possible. “I’ll be back later with dinner.”

“Is it you?”

“We’ve talked about this. I’m your sister.”

“Government lies, I assure you. Please take care, Twilight.”

Twilight stood watching Celestia’s sorrowful expression as Cadence pulled the door shut. “That was... confusing, to say the least. To think that could’ve been you and Nightmare if she hadn’t gotten out.”

“Don’t even joke like that. I have no idea what’s going on in Celestia’s head, and it scares me to think she might always be like that now.”

Twilight patted Luna on the leg, now regretting joking about it. “I’m sure we can come up with something.”

“I know, but it still hurts to see her this way. She is my sister after all.” Luna sighed and shook her head as she tried to put it out of mind. “Anyway, we have one more stop to make, and I’m not sure how you’re going to feel about this one.”

-0-0-0-

Twilight didn’t know where she was being led, and at this point was getting pretty tired of being held in suspense. Was it so hard for her to be informed about where she was going? The comment on how much she might not like it didn’t help. If it was a memorial for Trixie, she was... going to have to walk away. She just couldn’t deal with that right now, no matter how much she needed to.

They were greeted outside the door to wherever they were going by Shining Armor, which sent a giant pang of guilt through Twilight. He'd been badly hurt in the fight against Faust, and she hadn’t even so much as asked how he was since then.

“Hey Twily,” Shining said with a gentle smile, clearly holding no grudge over being ignored. “How you doing?’

“I should be asking you that,” she said, failing to meet his eye. “You were hurt so bad, and I didn’t even bother asking about you-"

“Don’t worry about it,” Shining replied, dismissing her worries with a wave of his hoof. “You’ve had a pretty tough time lately, so I wasn’t going to hold it against you.”

Twilight disagreed. “That’s no excuse since I’m pretty sure we’ve all had a tough time lately. I’m sorry.”

“And you’re forgiven,” Shining said with a shrug. “Anyway, I’m not the reason you’re here.” Stepping aside, Shining held the door open with a hoof, letting Twilight enter, although she didn’t make it far before her ass hit the floor. Everypony was inside. Or at least, everypony still alive. Flour, Octavia, Summer, the Filly, her ponyville friends, Pinkie's sisters, Mayfly, Thorax, Bon Bon and Lyra, Moondancer, Daring Do, Nightmare, and plenty of others aside those. Even then they couldn’t distract her for long from the massive notice boards covered in photos of ponies.

“What is all this?”

“Ah! I’m glad you made it,” Fleur said cheerfully, trotting up to Twilight. “This is a-uh... small project I started on a whim when I was hanging around the other day. I started going through the records of the ponies that... lost their lives, and I started copying their pictures and sticking them on these boards. Even now I’m not really sure why. Anyway, Octavia and Summer started helping, then your Ponyvilly friends, Bon Bon and Lyra, and it just seemed to grow.”

Twilight peered at the boards, seeing the photos and a small note below each one with a name, and where they fell. Most of them she didn’t recognise, but since there were thousands it seemed unlikely she would. The only ones she really recognised were some of the Wonderbolts.

“Obviously there are still a lot missing,” Fleur continued to explain as Twilight kept looking, “and some don’t have pictures, and I can’t really include the griffons that died, or the changelings, but I hope to get all the Equestrians that died on there, and please say something to stop me babbling like a loon...”

“Why? How many times do we have to do this?"

“I don’t know,” Fleur answered earnestly. “I just- I just- I just had to, okay?”

“And this is where you get me to dramatically stick a picture of Trixie up?” Twilight stopped on a photo of Shadow's missing leg, along with an IOU. “Really, Shadow?”

“Bitch owes me a leg,” Shadow snickered.

“Take it down,” Fleur ordered immediately. Clearly it wasn’t meant to be there. “Now.”

“Fiiiine. Excuse me for trying to bring some levity here.”

“Anyway,” Fleur said, momentarily eyeing Shadow as she took the offending picture down, “I’m not asking you to do anything. Mostly you’re here because we all are. We made it Twilight, and I know it hurts that we lost some, but we made it.”

Twilight gestures with her head towards the wall of pictures, “None of these did.”

“I know. Twilight, just... give me a break, okay? I’m not doing this out of some misguided belief that it’ll help us heal, or whatever. I’m doing it because I started a thing, and now we’re all here, so either stick up a picture of Trixie, or stand back and let us get on with it. Otherwise fuck off back to your room, and try again when you feel more like participating.”

Twilight took a mental step back at Fleur’s outburst and immediately felt guilty. Here she was moping over Trixie, acting like she was the only pony who knew what grief was when everyone in this room had lost someone. Some had lost more than she had. Everypony in Equestria probably lost somepony. With that realisation came the next that this project wasn’t because it had to be done, or anything near. It was a coping mechanism, pure and simple.

“I’m sorry, Fleur, I’m being an ass.”

“So long as you realise that, then we’re good.” Fleur smiled lopsided at Twilight, then waved Octavia over, who held two pictures up for Twilight to take.

“Turns out there aren’t really a lot of photos of Trixie off the stage,” Octavia said in a semi apologetic voice. Twilight looked at the picture, finding it was of Trixie during a performance, wearing her signature hat and cape. “Honestly though, I don’t think anything else would do her justice.

“No...” Twilight replied as she swallowed down the lump in her throat. The other picture didn’t help as Sunset grinned cheekily at her from it. She stared at it for a moment, then passed it back to Octavia. “Let Moondancer do that one, but don’t tell her I said so.”

“As you wish.”

Twilight sat back and watched as she hugged the picture, wishing more than anything that she could hug the real thing. She was openly crying now, and even if she had been the only one she wouldn’t have cared. Bon Bon was crying as she pinned pictures of her team up with assistance from Lyra, and both Rainbow and Vapor were failing to fight tears as they stuck up pictures of Lightning and Sky Stinger alongside the other deceased Wonderbolts.

Pinkie, her sisters, and her marefriend Azure put up a picture of a brown pony that Twilight didn’t know, but assumed to be part of their team. Only Maud and Limestone managed a to keep a dry eye between them. Not far away Shining was putting up some pictures as well, presumably of ponies he knew in the army. Shortly after Moondancer put up her picture of Sunset.

Twilight scanned her eyes over the display, her heart aching in indecision. “Where should I put her?” she asked Fleur.

Fleur rubbed her eyes and smirked at Twilight. “I thought you knew Trixie.”

Twilight twinged, stung by the implied insult, but only for a moment as she worked out what Fleur really meant. Trixie wouldn’t settle for being in amongst all the other pictures. Oh no, she would’ve demanded much more.

With careful deliberation, and exactly measurements, Twilight pinned the picture onto the wooden border of the display along the top edge, above all of the others. If Trixie wasn’t going to be noticed, she wouldn’t have wanted to be there at all.

Twilight stood back, and leaned into the embrace of as many of her friends as could fit around her. Thousands of lives lost, yet ultimate victory had come down to the actions of a few. That was probably the cruelest joke of all. Still, they had done it. The cost had been heavy, but they had done it.

“Fuck doing anything like this again,” the filly said to resounding agreement.

53. Epilogue

“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you mare and wife. You may now kiss the bride.”

Applause broke out as Mayor Mare stepped back and let the two brushing brides lift the veils from over each others faces and embrace in a kiss that would be considered chaste compared to some that Twilight had seen Summer and Nightglider get into. Still, she was happy for them, even if she had difficulty expressing that for... reasons. Those reasons mostly being the various empty seats spread around the area.

While it had been over a year since the defeat of Faust, feelings still ran strongly for a lot of ponies in attendance. Vapor had never come close to being the same since, and there were plenty of cracks in Rainbow’s stoicism if you knew when and where to look. Twilight herself was, by her own admission, a total mess, and well, she could hardly claim to hold the crown on that. The war had affected everyone to some degree.

That, however, wasn’t the main issue. While Summer and Nightglider had not been so crass as to arrange their wedding on the anniversary of the day that the war had ended on, they had instead been thoughtful enough as to provide provision for those no longer with them. Placed throughout the assembly were chairs kept purposely empty of all but a modest placard bearing a name. There had been no need to ask what they were about since Twilight had been sat next to two of them bearing the names of Trixie Lulamoon and Sunset Shimmer, while at the other end Moondancer sat pointedly not looking at her.

Twilight understood why they had done this, and she had to admit it was at least thoughtful, but it also served as a big fat reminder of all the ponies they had lost, bringing with it an unhealthy amount of pain on what was supposed to be a happy occasion. Twilight honestly wanted to smash the chairs to pieces, but obviously refrained because making a spectacle of herself wasn’t really going to do anything other than make her look like a twat. So she sat, tried to look happy, clapped when appropriate, and wished for the moment when she could get away from those damned reminders of what she’d lost.

Thankfully the end came, and with all due haste she slunk away from the ceremony as fast as she dared. The reception, as moderately catered as it would be in these trying times, would be held in a couple of hours, giving her much needed time to sit and breathe, away from the crush of ponies, her friends sympathetic looks, and those damnable chairs.

She chose to spend that time by wandering back to her castle, to a small patch of garden nestled amongst the roots around the rear, where a small statuette of Trixie in her magician’s finery stood permanently reared. Beside it was a similar but more subdued figure of Sunset. There was no plaque. Twilight didn’t see the point. Those who knew it was there didn’t need to be told who these two ponies were. Truthfully though, it was only really Twilight who came here. The others mostly used it as a place to find her.

“Hope you enjoyed the wedding if you came, both of you. Honestly though, it was kinda hard to focus on it when you two were spending so much of my time distracting me by not being there.”

Twilight sighed and slumped onto the ground to poke at the grass. “I suppose it was still nice though. Rarity did a great job on their dresses, and Mayor Mare tried her best to keep a joyous tone to the event even with three princesses there along with all the ghosts of dead ponies that had been invited. I- I wish-" Twilight choked as a lump grew in her chest, and she buried her head in her legs to hide her tears from any onlookers. “I wish you could have been there.”

“I have the most distinct feeling that this is a bad time.”

Twilight half shrieked at the voice that came from behind her, and fiercely rubbed her eyes free of tears as she turned to confront it, finding Celestia sat behind her, watching her with polite curiosity. As she had been since the fall of Faust, she wore no vestments save a golden band on her horn which prohibited her magic.

“Shouldn’t you be at the wedding?” Celestia asked.

Twilight sucked in a deep breath as she thought of how to react, but nothing came to her so she sighed explosively instead. Several meters behind Celestia was Nightmare, who had been given the unenviable task of being Celestia’s minder, a job she both loved and hated in equal measure. Mostly it was her duty to ensure Celestia didn’t take her inhibitor off, and returned to Canterlot after whatever errand took Celestia’s fancy for the day. She grinned apologetically at Twilight, but elected to say nothing, which Twilight took to mean that maybe Celestia had a purpose here.

“I’ll go back in a bit,” Twilight replied lamely as she mentally fortified herself to seek the point behind why Celestia was here. “Weren’t you invited?”

“I was, and while Cadence and Luna were happy to go, I had other distractions, uh... distract me.”

“Sure.”

“I see the rebuilding of Ponyville is going well.”

“Why? Is that of personal concern to you after you so thoroughly destroyed it?”

Celestia raised an eyebrow at Twilight with a surprisingly stern expression. “Seeing as I bought you the time to escape with your friends, at considerable cost to myself when I had little reason to help you at the time, you could show a little more appreciation.”

Twilight nodded to herself as Celestia did maybe have a point. “You’re right. I’m sorry. How have you been lately?”

“Better, now that I’m allowed out and about.” Celestia glanced at Nightmare, getting a raised eyebrow in return. “I do question Luna’s choice of chaperone for me though. Honestly though,” Celestia lay down on the ground by Twilight, “like yourself, every day is a trial. It’s exhausting. I just want to be myself again.”

“Yeah.”

“I also wish Luna would give me some actual duties again. I appreciate that maybe I’m not in a fit state to rule, but there’s no reason I couldn’t help out.”

“Didn’t you propose a bill suggesting that should Luna fall, sole rule of Equestria would be given to you? Didn’t they also find you rummaging through the armory looking for a weapon capable of killing an alicorn?”

Celestia winced. “In my defence, I’m doing a lot better since then. Luna also burned the bill in front of me while looking me in the eye, just to be sure I got the message. It took me ages to write that without magic, not that it matters.”

“I was surprised to see that it wasn’t written in crayon,” Nightmare quipped. “I mean, the plan to hide Luna’s body was, but still.”

“It was all I had at the time!” Celestia caught herself, closing her eyes and exhaling slowly. When she reopened then, she seemed more like the old Celestia. “Apologies. Nightmare should know better than to get me started like that.” She sighed again and stared at the small memorial for several long seconds. “Has it really been a year already?”

“A year and five days,” Twilight stated flatly, “not that I’m counting. Much. It really has flown by though.”

“And is it getting easier for you?”

“Not really. I am getting better at working through the pain though.”

“By which you mean burying and ignoring it.”

Twilight snorted a laugh, “Who knew that terrible piece of advice from Chrysalis would be the most useful I’ve had on the subject.”

“It isn’t exactly a long term solution,” Celestia replied carefully.

“It’ll do until I’m not too busy dealing with the rebuilding of Equestria.” Twilight stood and stretched the stiffness out of her body, wanting to change the subject, or leave, which was more preferable. “Right, not that I don’t enjoy our time together, but I have a wedding to get back to.” Twilight turned and started to trot away before the lump in her chest threatened to stop her breathing at all. “See you soon, Celestia, okay?”

“Actually, Twilight,” Celestia stood, raising herself to her full and regal height. “I do have a reason for seeking you out, other than pleasantries.”

“Oh brother,” Twilight muttered to herself, stealing herself for what was about to come. “And what might that be?”

“The reason I wasn’t at the wedding, it’s a good one.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Celestia, then glanced at Nightmare who smirked back, which was all the reason Twilight needed to actually take this semi seriously. “Yes?”

“I was at Ponyville hospital, attending a most peculiar birth. Well, not the birth itself as such, that was quite routine, but the pony that was born was peculiar.”

“Okaaayyy... so what was peculiar about the pony?”

“She was blue,” Celestia replied dreamily, “a lovely shade of blue.”

Twilight’s expression went flat as Nightmare rolled her eyes. Clearly Celestia was more concerned about playing with her than actually telling her what this was about.

“Anything else?”

“She has the cutest little wings, and-"

“It’s an alicorn,” Nightmare interrupted as her patience ran out, “who’s blue with a silvery mane, purple eyes, and a ready made cutie mark that seems somewhat reminiscent of Trixie’s.”

“Wha-"

“I thought we agreed I was going to tell her!” Celestia exploded, her mane flaring up for a split second.

“That was before I discovered you were just going to waste time.”

“Why must you ruin everything?” Celestia sighed and turned back to Twilight, only to find that she wasn’t there any longer. “Honestly, I’m not even angry any more. I understand, I really do. No pony has the time for silly old Celestia anymore.”

“Uh-huh,” Nightmare grunted, not caring in the slightest. “So, since Twilight will be busy for a while, you want to head to the reception and get white-pony wasted?”

Celestia rolled her eyes and scoffed, “While I find that phrase both offensive and inaccurate, sure, let’s go.”

“We could make it a drinking contest?”

Celestia’s eyes glinted with mischief, “Might we get Luna involved?”

“If I know Luna, which I do, we can, without a doubt, absolutely get her in on this.”

“And if she loses, what might my prize be?”

“A smack around the ear if you continue that line of thought. Honestly...”

-0-0-0-

Twilight poofed into being in front of the hospital and charged in through the doors, trailing smoke as her rapid, near instinctual teleport set a few of her feathers and tail hairs smouldering. Skidding to a halt in front of the reception desk, causing the mare there to shrink back in fear at the sight of the wild eyed and smoking alicorn that just burst in, she demanded as regally as she could right then to know where she needed to go.

“Alicorn foal! Blue! Where? Now!”

“I-I-I'm sorry, but the parents aren’t seeing anypony right now-"

“I will burn this hospital down if you don’t tell me!”

“Princess!”

“Figuratively! I will figuratively burn it down! In fact, I won’t even do that.” Sucking in a deep breath, Twilight reined herself in. “Just, please, tell me where I can find the alicorn foal. It’s important.”

“Is- Is she in danger?”

“Uh...” Twilight’s eyes darted side to side as she rapidly formed a lie. “Not right now, but we... need to make sure that this isn’t some kind of changeling plot to... make their own princess?”

“You mean the foal might be a changeling?” the receptionist asked, her eyes going wide. “Can ponies give birth to changelings?”

Twilight almost gagged as the remnants of long past conversations with Chrysalis came to mind. “It’s... not impossible. Please, I’m just here to make sure she’s a genuine alicorn.”

“Um, okay then. She’s with her parents in room seventy-four, and please try to keep the noise down.

“Right, no slamming doors, incoherent screaming, or threatening to burn the hospital down, got it.” Twilight smiled apologetically as she moved on, forcing herself to keep her pace down to a steady trot as she made her way to the room where Trixie apparently was.

Twilight stopped, the idea of Trixie not being dead finally jamming its was into her head in a way that got her to ask some important questions, like was it really Trixie? Why was she an alicorn? If she was returning as an alicorn, why was it in this manner? And, why was it happening over a year after she died? If a pony pregnancy lasts ten months, where was Trixie for the other two?

The distinct feeling that something really wasn’t adding up followed all the way to the room, slowing her steps, along with the fear that none of this was real, that she’d foolishly allowed her hopes to be raised by two ponies that have at times had a less than stellar relationship with the truth.

Opening the door, Twilight stepped in to the sight of the two parents cooing at the newborn, although they quickly stopped when they saw her. “I-I’m sorry! I’ll come back later!”

“It's alright,” the mother said with a smile, “Princess Celestia told us to expect you. Would you like to see her?”

Twilight swallowed hard and nodded as the foal was unwrapped from its swaddling, revealing the tiny blue alicorn, with her silvery mane, and resplendent cutie mark. The foal woke, peering up at Twilight with large purple eyes. She truly was a perfect, miniature copy of Trixie, if you ignored the addition of the wings.

“Trixie,” Twilight said breathlessly, her heart racing and her doubts forgotten.

“Trixie?” the father asked. “We haven’t even named her yet.”

Twilight ignored him, her world filled with the tiny Trixie that was reaching her hooves up to Twilight’s face. Pressing her nose to the offered hooves, Twilight’s heart melted as the foal giggled.

“It’s really you.”

Author's Note

Aaaannnndddd... we're done. Been sitting on this for months, so it's probably time I posted it, bringing an end to my horse story writing career. Still haven't watched the final season btw, so forcing myself to give an at least half arsed ending to this was a push since I no longer have my mind quite so occupied with pastel ponies. Also left a ominous ending situation which would've been an opening to another two stories and so on and so forth. I still intend to do a couple of summaries for those stories, so maybe in another year's time, we'll see.

Anyway for all of you that followed this all the way to the end, thanks for sticking around. Love you all. :heart:

1. Screw the plan? There is no plan!

Daring Do pushed her hood back to give Canterlot one last lingering stare as it shone in the moonlight, at this distance looking none the worse for the terrible events of a fortnight prior, where not just the city, but Equestria fell to the conquest of the alicorn Faust. Daring still felt like she was missing something in the reasons behind Faust's conquest of Equestria, but her ignorance did nothing to change the fact that Faust had won.

Daring sighed and turned away from the sight, stilling her wings to let her gently glide down to the interior of the Castle of the Two Sisters, within which she quickly sought out a portal to a location far in the frozen north, beyond Faust's sight.
The secret retreat of Starswirl the Bearded, although no longer a secret to some, was currently acting as the supposed salvation of the world, as not only did it shelter three of Equestria's four crowned princesses, and several others, but the knowledge it contained in its vast library might hold the key to stopping Faust. That is to say a lot of ponies were doing a lot of reading in the hopes of making a plan.

"What news Daring Do?" Princess Luna asked as she spotted Daring Do trot up to them in the large observation area to the outside world, a cold blue light shining in through the large window casting her dark coat in a contrast with the warm lamplight from within the retreat. Daring could just about hear the roar of a permanent winter's storm outside, even through the thick, enchanted glass.

"Nothing good." Daring shrugged off her rough woollen cloak, and replaced it with her pith helmet. "Griffonstone has fallen without much of a fight, along with the Griffish Isles."

"Blast." Luna stamped her hoof in an indignant outrage, "I had hoped the griffons would at least try to resist a little, but I suspect the rule of one pony is as good as the rule of another to them, and Commander Theron now has what he wanted."

"My contacts also suspect that Faust is going to make her move on Mustangia."

Luna winced guiltily, as the small country of Mustangia had been a faithful ally in the failed war to keep Mareitania from conquering Equestria, and had paid for that failure by having its already small military near wiped out. "Ah. I suspect King Garland shall put up less of a fight than the griffons."

"With good reason," Cadence snapped at Luna from nearby, as she bounced her foal Flurry Heart in her legs. "What purpose would fighting back serve him now? Other than to get more of his ponies killed that is."

Luna didn't rise to the bait, as she knew Cadence was referring to her own flawed tactics in the war. "I wasn't saying he should, but was simply observing that he wouldn't. Mustangia wouldn't last a day if they tried to fight back."

"Anypony would be a fool to try and fight Faust right now," Cadence grumbled.

"Then how are you proposing that we stop Faust if not by fighting her at least in some capacity?" Luna asked the pale pink alicorn, who failed to reply, instead choosing to stare through the window, out at the frozen north. Luna shook her head at Cadence, then returned her attention to Daring Do. "Any news of my sister?"

"None I'm afraid. It's like she's vanished off the face of Equestria."

"We'll find her. Perhaps not soon, but we'll find her. Her help will likely be needed if we are to resolve this."

"Maybe. Apart from that though, I have nothing."

Luna nodded in appreciation, "You have my thanks Daring Do." Luna chuckled lightly, "There's a sentence I never thought I'd say. Nonetheless, your assistance has been of great use to us."

"I don't suppose there's been any progress in the couple of days I've been gone?"

"Alas, no." Luna looked up at the higher level of the library where Twilight Sparkle had sequestered herself along with Trixie, Rainbow Dash and the two Wonderbolts, Lightning Dust and Vapor Trail, the changeling Mayfly, and Sunset Shimmer. "Although I suspect some aren't trying as hard as they should be."

Daring glanced around at the ponies left downstairs, consisting of herself, princesses Luna and Cadence, the foal Flurry Heart, and Moondancer, who was happily reading through a large tome. There was also Starsy, the magical curator of the retreat, although she couldn't see where he was exactly. "Any idea what they're doing?"

"Not a one."

-0-0-0-

Rainbow slammed down her book in frustration, "Agh, this is so annoying! I don't even know what I'm supposed to be looking for!"

Twilight sighed and lowered her own book, "Ways to cut through rune warded materials, that don't involve using two types of magic to overload it."

"You're saying words, but all I'm hearing is noise." Rainbow pushed the book away, "Why aren't we just doing the two magic thing?"

"Because we're planning to break into a fortress like High Rock keep, so we need something a little more subtle than that. It also produces an awful lot of heat, and I'd rather not cook our friends if they're bound in the stuff."

"I still think we should be putting our efforts into stopping Faust first," Mayfly said, not reading anything because she largely didn't want to intrude on the ponies doing it. "She feels like the higher priority."

"A quick rescue mission isn't going to hurt anything," Twilight told the changeling. "Besides, Luna, Starsy, and Moondancer have that covered for now, although you can go help them if you want."

Mayfly shook her head, "Atmosphere down there feels toxic."

"I know Luna and Cadence aren't getting along very well but-"

"Not the problem, although it is exacerbating the issue. Princess of Love is the main problem. Separation from the one she loves, on top of losing Equestria, the Crystal Empire, and her ponies, is causing heartbreak within her. Very bad for one like her. Her child is the only thing keeping her from doing something foolish, I feel."

"Oh." Twilight craned her neck to try and locate Cadence down below, although she came nowhere close. "That's not good. I'll have a talk with her once we have our friends back."

"I get the feeling that talk would be more useful now," Sunset Shimmer said flatly, keeping her eyes on her own tome. "I think we've all seen enough to know what happens when alicorns lose it."

"Cadence can handle it for a little longer, and hopefully Daring can find some news on my brother, which might help."

"Twilight..."

"I can't do everything at once, Sunset!"

"A five minute talk isn't going to hurt."

Twilight rolled her eyes at Sunset, "I also get the feeling that it isn't going to help either. A piece of good news, like rescuing our friends, might help more."

Sunset sighed, but relented with a nod. "Alright, but this is taking too long. Perhaps we should stop trying to be sneaky with this, and ask for help?"

"Don't you dare!" Twilight said urgently, but it was far too late to stop Sunset as she cleared her throat.

"Starsy?"

A small mote of blue light floated into the alcove they occupied, emitting a short, bitter sigh as he changed into a translucent image of Starswirl the Bearded, upon who he was based, and created by.

"While I realise I'm created to be at your beck and call, I am not at your beck and call. What is it you want?"

"What do you know about runic warding?"

"It absorbs and nullifies magic," Starsy said bluntly. "Was there anything else, or can I get back to work now?"

"How do you get through it?"

"Through it? As in cut through it?"

"Yeah."

Starsy ran a hoof through his illusionary beard as he thought, "The idea rather is that you don't do that, but the best way to get through it is to mar the runes enough to stop them working."

Twilight sat up, suddenly a lot more pleased with Sunset asking Starsy. "How would you do that?"

"Depends on the material that the runes were placed upon of course, but any source of intense, non-magical heat would do the trick. Ideally though, you would want to use dragon fire."

"As in the chemical stuff, or the actual fire from a dragon?" Rainbow enquired, her own interest piqued.

"Both would suffice, but the alchemical solution is probably harder to come by at this moment, and tends to be a lot less manageable once unleashed. Actual dragon fire also has other properties that allow it to burn through almost anything, given time. Now was there any other inane questions you might have, or can I depart?"

"That's all, thank you Starsy," Sunset said with a smile, prompting Starsy to leave. "And to think we could've done that days ago," she said sarcastically to Twilight. "Oh well."

"Except it means we're no better off than if we were using two kinds of magic to destroy the runes," Twilight pointed out. "Dragon fire is still rather hot. Perhaps we'll be better off thinking of something else."

"Or we could ask an actual dragon," said Rainbow. "That Dragon Lord Ember that rules the dragons was pretty cool, so I think she'd be alright with us just asking about it. Maybe she might even want to help us since Spike was her friend and all."

"But we still need a plan for when we get to High Rock!" Twilight whined, stopping as Rainbow stood and pulled her wing out.

"You're part pegasus now Twilight, that means you have to learn the fine art of winging it. There's a portal here to the dragon lands right? It'll take hardly any time to go ask."

Twilight yanked her wing out of Rainbow's grip, "Have you even seen High Rock keep?"

"Nooo... but I know it's like a fortress of some kind."

"And knowing that, you want to wing it when we get there?"

Rainbow flapped a hoof at Twilight, "Fine, we'll think of a plan for High Rock, but we don't need a plan for going to find a dragon. Y'know, beyond the plan of actually finding a dragon."

Twilight sighed heavily, "Okay, I guess not. Who's coming with us?"

"Anything for a chance to spread my wings," said Lightning Dust, getting a nod of agreement from Vapor.

"Awesome. Mayfly?"

"I'm coming."

"Sunset?"

"And miss a chance to see the dragon lands? No way! I'm definitely coming."

"Great! Let's go then." Twilight led the way for a dozen meters, before it struck her that somepony was missing. She turned back, grumbling under her breath, and found Trixie face down in an open book, snoring. Twilight fixed that by smacking her on the rump.

"Fnuh... wha'?"

"We're going to the Dragon Lands."

Trixie blinked the sleep out of her eyes, and stretched slowly like a cat. "Neat."

"That's it? No questions?"

"Not really. I think blowing High Rock up with a dragon is a great idea."

"But that's- Y'know what? Close enough. Let's go."

Twilight took the lead again as they headed to the portal chamber, meaning she also got to be the pony receiving the full weight of Luna's disapproving glare as they reached the entrance.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"The Dragon Lands."

Luna frowned delicately, "The dragon lands? Why in the world are you going there?"

"To talk to Dragon Lord Ember."

"Again, why?"

"Because I might need a dragon to break my friends out of High Rock keep."

Luna nodded thoughtfully, "Ah, I see. Absolutely not. We have far too much to get done here for you to go gallivanting off. Finding a way to stop Faust is our highest priority, Twilight, you know that."

"Okay, I put off getting my friends back because you were busy failing to defend Equestria, so I had to find this place instead. Good news, we found it! Bad news, we were too late to save Equestria. So, since we now have the time, I am going to get my friends back," Twilight narrowed her eyes at Luna, "and you aren't stopping me."

"But we don't have the time! We need you here Twilight! We need all of you here! Your friends aren't going anywhere."

"Luna, get the fuck out of my way."

An amber body with a fiery mane interspersed itself between Twilight and Luna, "Will you stop? You've been at each others throats for a week now! I've had enough of it." Sunset turned to Luna, "Is me agreeing to stay here and help you a good enough compromise?"

"I'd rather have both of you," Luna blanched as Twilight bared her teeth, "but yes, I agree. Apologies Twilight, I don't mean for you to not save your friends, but-"

"But you're all caught up with stopping Faust, I know. The thing is Luna, I want my friends back, and I'm tired of putting it off for something else. You have Sunset now, so go research to your heart's content while we save our friends."

Luna opened her mouth to speak, but turned it into a nod and slinked away, leaving Twilight to try and fight her anger back. "Thanks Sunset."

"Eh, I can see the Dragon Lands some other time." Sunset pulled Twilight into a hug, "You go save your friends."

"Will do. See you soon."

Sunset departed with a wave, leaving the rest of them to make the journey to the portal chamber. A small set of shelves had been set up there, mostly to hold the Wonderbolts' combat uniforms and weapons, which the three Wonderbolts quickly availed themselves of.

"Is that really necessary?" Twilight asked as they donned their gear. "I didn't say we were going to High Rock straight away, did I?"

"And if we do?" Rainbow countered. "Nothing wrong with being ready."

Twilight shrugged at the argument, and moved to the portals instead, searching through their markers to work out which one was needed. She found it, and directed her magic into the gem above it to activate it, lighting it up with a purple glow. A second later the portal came to life, showing the bare, red rock of a cavern as a pile of golden coins, gems, and other treasures tumbled in through the portal.

"Dibs!" Trixie shouted, pouncing on the riches.

"Oooookay... that's not what I expected," Twilight said as Trixie scooped the riches up and tucked them into the corner for later perusal. "At least that means the portal's working."

Twilight walked forwards, through the portal, and immediately fell over as her hoof slipped on a pile of gold, sending her sliding down over the mound of treasures until she reached the floor. She grunted as Trixie slid down after her and bumped into her, but the others had the sense to use their wings to get down.

"What is all this?" Lightning asked, staring at the mountain of gold with awe. "There's so much of it!"

"Since we're in the Dragon Lands, I'm guessing it's a dragon hoard." Twilight stood and dusted herself off, then froze as she remembered something about dragon hoards. They belonged to dragons. The soft "uh-oh" from Trixie confirmed her suspicion that there was a dragon nearby.

"And what do we 'ave 'ere?"

Twilight turned and looked up, and up, and then up some more at the massive dark green dragon sprawled over the hoard, his face framed by orange horns larger than a tree, and his body adorned by black armour you could fit a town in. "Oh boy."

"Looks like we have some thieving ponies in my 'oard!"

Rainbow was the first to speak, clearing her throat hard enough to get stuck half way through the motion. "Actually Dragon Lor- I mean, former Dragon Lord Torch, we're here to speak with Ember. I mean, Dragon Lord Ember, yeah!" Rainbow coughed nervously, "Could you tell Ember her friends are here to see her? Please?"

Torch raised his head and bellowed, "Ember, your friends are here to see you!" There was a lengthy pause before a much quieter and feminine voice replied to him.

"I have friends? What do they look like?"

"Ponies mostly." The former Dragon Lord squinted suspiciously at Rainbow, then moved his piercing gaze over the others, lingering on Mayfly for a moment, before stopping on Twilight. He snaked a claw out, and before Twilight had a chance to not be too terrified to run away, he grabbed her left wing between two claws and picked her up by it.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow! Nyagh!" Twilight squeaked as she was dropped again and landed on the ground with a solid thud. "Urrgh..."

"There's one of those princess ponies here with 'em," Torch shouted again to what could only presumably be Ember.

"Is it the big white one?"

"Nah, it's a little purple one."

"Little purple one? Hold on."

It was some time until Ember flew into view, the small, at least compared to her father, blue dragon aiming straight for the ponies and changeling. She hovered in the air, looking down at the crumpled form of Twilight, then landed to pick up Twilight's head in her claws, studying the dazed and cross-eyed expression with interest.

"Oh yeah, that's definitely a princess. Nice going dad, I think you almost killed her."

"Nah, she'll only come back if I do. The others always did."

"Hey Ember!"

Ember turned to the pony that had spoken to her, her eyes lighting up with recognition of the rainbow mane and tail. "Hey... uh..." Ember clicked her claws as she tried to remember the pony's name. "Nope, it's gone. Who are you?"

"Uh, I'm Rainbow Dash."

"Right! Rainbow Dash! You were here with Spike when he helped me become Dragon Lord." Ember looked about with interest, "Where is he?"

There was a groan from Twilight as she finally managed to sort herself out and find where upright was again. "Actually, that's part of the reason why we're here. Spike's been captured along with some of our other friends, and we were hoping for some help to get him back."

There was uproarious laughter from atop the hoard, and a crash of coins as Torch rolled onto his back to hold his stomach. "Hah! Helping the ponies! That's a good one. Good luck finding a dragon willing to do that!"

"Why? Don't you like ponies?"

"Pfft, you don't even make a decent snack, but no, it's nothing to do with you being ponies, or a changeling. Dragons don't help, and haven't for a long time."

"You mean you did once?"

"We did once upon a time, and thought about it plenty since then, but our help was never needed, so we turned our attention to building our hoards and getting fat and greedy, and over time we lost interest. Barely any dragons alive know of a time before that now."

Ember nodded to her father's words, "It's quite an interesting story actually. Oh, hey, can we show them the cave?"

"What? Of course not! Only dragons are allowed in there."

"Excuse me? I am the Dragon Lord, aren't I?"

Torch snorted at his daughter hard enough to knock her over, "Then why are you even bothering to ask me?"

"Because old habits die hard." Ember stood and folded her arms to glare up at her father, "We're going to show them the cave."

"And so we are." Torched sighed at his daughter, "I'm supposed to be a retired Dragon Lord, enjoying a life of leisure, not showing our secret history to the first people to come wandering in through a magic mirror all willy-nilly. Where's my respect, eh? Nowhere, that's where."

Stars lit up in Twilight's eyes, "Secret history of the dragons?"

"Now, dad."

"Alright, alright, we're going, and don't forget the sceptre. You'll need that to get in." Torch rolled off his hoard and sauntered off towards the exit of the cavern, leaving the rest of them to follow at the kind of pace creatures without quarter mile long legs usually travel at.

"You're being quiet," Twilight said to Trixie as they followed, taking a quick detour for Ember to grab the magical Bloodstone Sceptre, symbol of the Dragon Lord.

"I was trying to work out how to kill it. Y'know, just in case."

"It? You mean Torch? Pretty sure that's a him." Twilight frowned thoughtfully at Trixie, "Is that really your first response when you meet new people? Trying to figure out how to kill them?"

"Only the giant scary ones! Seriously, he was huge!"

"Aww, my dad's a big softy really," Ember said conversationally, like she hadn't just heard Trixie say she was working out how to kill her father.

"He is?"

"Oh yeah. He could've eaten me along with my siblings, but I was always his favourite." Ember scowled at the ponies as they looked at each other unsurely. "That was a joke."

"It was?" Trixie said timorously.

"So laugh!"

"Ahahahahaha!"

Ember laughed at the ponies as they dutifully tittered at Ember's command. "You ponies are too easy. I'm lord of the dragons, not the ponies. You don't have to laugh because I tell you to. Of course, if I hear you saying how you're going to kill my dad, I will rip off your head and use it for a foot rest."

"Ahahahahaha!"

"That wasn't a joke."

"I know," said Trixie, "and that laugh wasn't fake, but you, I'm pretty sure I could-ack!" Trixie cried as Twilight smacked her around the head with the boniest part of her wing. "Ow."

"For the love of Celestia, shut your mouth Trixie."

Ember nodded with approval at Twilight, "I like your style of ruling your subjects."

"Oh, Trixie gives me plenty of reasons to want to hit her. She's about to give me another if she doesn't keep her mouth shut." Twilight grinned as Trixie shut her mouth with a click. "Could we not say such things about the ruler of the dragons, hmm?"

"Fiiiiine."

"Good girl."

Daylight filled the entrance to the cavern where Torch was waiting patiently for them. They all blinked in the light, and those that hadn't seen it before stared in amazement at the rocky, volcanic landscape, inhabited by dragons of all sizes that lazed around, or flew through the skies.

"Come along little ponies," Torch said jovially. "I've pretty sure you're not fire proof, so try your best to not fall into any lava or anything."

Most of them took wing as Torch clambered over the rocky landscape with ease. Twilight dragged Trixie along with her, the unicorn for once not complaining since it was better than burning to death, and found herself being paced by Ember as they flew.

"So what's the story with Spike being missing?"

"Have you heard much of Equestria being attacked?"

"Not really."

"Oh, well it is, or was anyway, since we've now lost. Spike and some of my friends were taken as captives by Faust, who's the one attacking us-"

"Yeah, I've heard of her."

"You have? How?"

"You'll see, although I was under the impression she'd vanished ages ago."

"Imprisoned actually, by Princess Platinum."

"Who?"

"Princess Platinum? One of the founders of Equestria? You really don't know who that is?"

Ember shrugged at Twilight, "It's not like there's a way for me to learn Equestrian history out here."

"Oh, okay, that's fair. Well, Faust was imprisoned by Platinum, because Platinum wanted Faust's unborn child Celestia to use as the ruler of Equestria, then left Faust locked up in Mareitania until they let her out just recently, and then she brainwashed the Mareitanians to attack Equestria, because she hates everything about us because of Platinum, and now she rules both countries."

"And that led to Spike being kidnapped, how?"

"You know what the Elements of Harmony are?"

"Sort of."

"We'll my friends and I are the bearers of those Elements, and Faust wanted to kidnap us to stop us being a threat to her plan. Spike was captured at the same time."

"So she didn't get all of you then?"

"No, just three of us, and Spike."

"Huh." Ember tapped her sceptre against her chin, "So now she's harmed one of my dragons. I suppose that does kind of mean I should have an issue with her. Count me in on getting Spike back."

"It does? Yes!" Twilight pumped her hoof in the air, "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that."

"Does that mean we can skip the history lesson?" Trixie said quietly.

"Nope."

"Ugh, stupid... princesses and their ceaseless need to be know-it-alls."

"Of course," Ember continued, "I can't guarantee the help of any other dragons. I can get their attention long enough to boss them around a bit, but getting them to do something they have no interest in doing is a bit beyond me."

"We only need a dragon's fire to get us through some magic-proof defences. I'm not asking for a full grown dragon to batter down the walls of a fortress."

"Even though that'd be awesome!" said Rainbow. "Are you sure we can't keep that as a back-up plan?"

"I could probably convince my dad to do it," Ember mused.

"We'll keep that as a plan b," Twilight said firmly. "Your help should be more than enough."

"Will you lot stop lollygagging?" Torch grumbled from his spot outside the massive stone doors that led into what was likely an even bigger cave. A flame motif decorated the dark brown doors, with symmetrical pairs of dragons creating the flames. In the exact centre of the doors was a large red gem, much like the stone held in the claw-like end of Ember's Bloodstone Sceptre.

"You're going to like this," Ember grinned. She raised her sceptre and waved it in a arc. The stone in the end flashed brightly, and was mirrored by the larger stone in the door. A moment later the ground shook as the massive doors split apart and retreated into the mountain.

"I was under the impression that dragons had no magic," Trixie said of the spectacle. "There's no way that wasn't magic."

"We don't have magic in the way you would think it, but we do have it." Ember waved for them to follow her, "You're lucky to be seeing this you know. Only dragons have ever seen this."

"Then why are you showing us this?" Trixie asked.

"Because most dragons haven't seen it either. Mostly because they don't care. Someone might as well see it." Ember drew a breath and exhaled pale purple fire into her unoccupied claw. Her claw aflame, she walked up to a bare circle of rock on the ground just inside the entrance of the cave, and traced some runes around the edge of it that burned with her purple fire. That done, she slammed her open claw down in the middle, sending the runes scurrying away in multiple directions, towards several large braziers that lit up in purple before turning to a more normal orange.

Ember grinned as they stared incredulously at her. "As I said, we don't have magic as you would describe it. A lot faster than lighting them all manually."

"I am learning so much today," Twilight said breathlessly. "Can all dragons do that?"

"Sure, as long as they learn how. Unsurprisingly, most don't bother. There's only a few bloodlines left that bother passing the knowledge on to their fledglings, and my dad happens to be one of those that does."

"My little Ember was a natural, naturally."

"But how?" Twilight gasped. "We had no idea dragons could do that!"

"Eh, we had plenty of time to work it out." Ember pointed to a mural carved into the stone of the cave, depicting several dragons hatching from eggs. "We were the first species to walk this world, long before any of the others came about."

"You mean like you are now? Or as a less evolved form?"

"Like we are now."

Twilight groaned loudly, "And what I learnt from Starsy barely two weeks ago has already been contradicted. According to him, there were no intelligent species until Discord created them. How were you made before that?"

"I don't know, I wasn't exactly around at the time, but it's said we were born from the earth itself, rather than as the creation of the gods. We were separate to the rest of the world, and chose to keep it that way, for a while at least. We lived off the land, built our hoards, and kept to ourselves until something changed in the world."

"What changed?" Rainbow asked.

"The birth of the gods." Ember led them to another mural, showing two images. One was a majestic alicorn, and the other a misshapen creature of various different animals. It wasn't hard to work out that they were supposed to be Faust and Discord.

"Discord's effect on the world was obvious, but ever more destructive was Faust's. She wanted nothing more than to stop Discord from changing the world, but couldn't. Their battles destroyed more than she could ever hope to protect from him, which caught the interest of our ancestors."

"Discord and Faust fought?"

"Like dragons," Torch chuckled.

"They did," Ember confirmed, "and Faust's fanatical desire to destroy Discord wiped entire species out, and reshaped the world in incredibly destructive ways. Our ancestors, fearful of what damage the two of them could do, decided to stop them."

The next image showed a sky crowded with dragons, bearing down on Faust and Discord, interrupting a battle between them, and separating them. The next image showed the dragons forcing the alicorn and draconequus to agree to a enforced peace.

"Although we're not immune to magic, we were resistant enough to it to overwhelm them. We forced them to make peace, and although it was tentative, it held enough for them to never openly fight again, although that didn't mean all was peaceful between them. Our ancestors swore a vigil to intervene should they ever fight again, or threaten the world."

"I'm guessing that didn't happen then," said Lightning.

"Actually, it did. A thousand years ago, Discord flooded the world with his chaos, and Faust wasn't there to balance him out, as she'd vanished shortly before that, although she was actually imprisoned according to the purple princess here. We should've been there to stop Discord, but by that point millennia had passed, and the dragons had lost interest. Being largely unaffected by Discord's magic, they made no attempt to stop him, so Princess Celestia and Luna had to instead."

"So you got lazy."

"We did," Ember sighed. "We were mighty once, enough to stand up to gods and demons, but now we hoard treasure and squabble amongst ourselves. We'll never be what we were, but I at least want to honour our ancestors, which is why I want to help you stop Faust."

"Okay, I have a question," Trixie said, waving a hoof to get Ember's attention. "You're talking like both Discord and Faust were villains. Sure they fought, but surely they weren't both villains."

Torch chuckled at Trixie, "Typical pony ignorance. Neither of them were villains for being what they were, but they were making a mess of the world."

"So you don't hate Discord for changing things?"

"Why would we? Entropy, change, evolution, whatever you want to call it is good, usually. If Faust had her way, this world would've stagnated without Discord to keep changing things up a bit. Adversity forces us to thrive, where stagnation would be the death of us all. A balance needed to be struck, and funny enough, Faust going missing, and Discord getting turned to stone, struck it for a while. Now they've both returned, and things are going to crap again, although I get the feeling Faust is to blame for all of it this time."

"But what about the Tree of Harmony?" Twilight said to Torch.

"A false improvement. Sure it maintains harmony, but only for the ponies, and only in Faust's favour. If she truly made it to be a balance between order and chaos, it would affect her just as much as it does Discord."

"But why do that?"

Torch shrugged, "She knew Harmony was the key to this world's survival, so she tried to create the Tree, but without Discord she couldn't make it true harmony, and I don't think she really wanted him to help. To introduce true chaos to the Tree would encourage it to change, and would turn it into something she mightn't be able to control. Obviously, that wasn't something she actually wanted, so tried to synthesize her own chaos, and succeeded enough for the tree to function, although its magic is still pretty biased in her favour."

"So the Tree's a lie?"

Torch shrugged at Twilight, "It does the job it's supposed to, and does it well enough. You can't really expect more from a bloody tree than that. I'm not saying it's a lie, or that it doesn't work, but it is biased."

"So that's why it won't work against Faust," Twilight said. "It's all her own magic, and you can't turn magic against itself."

"Not directly," said Torch, "but indirectly you could get that tree to do any number of things against Faust. And remember, it's the magic of the tree that's biased, not the tree itself. It probably wants to help you plenty, but can't."

"How do you know all this?" Rainbow asked the two dragons.

"Little pony, I'm near four thousand years old. You pick up a few things over that kind of time."

"Oh wow, Celestia and Luna must look like kids to you."

"Eh, maybe teenagers, but that's not really the way to look at it. I don't see you as children, but as very young adults."

"I don't get this," Trixie said out loud, to nobody in particular. "Was there really a point to showing us all this? I'm not saying it wasn't interesting, but all we've learnt is that Faust has been a control freak for a really long time."

"Do you want my help, or not?" Ember growled.

"Of course I do! But there's only three points to your history. You were born as a species, you didn't like what Discord and Faust were doing, so stopped them, then spent thousands of years doing fuck all. Not exactly a deep and involving story there."

"Ah, she's not wrong Ember," Torch laughed. "We even got lazy at writing our own history. Still, you're doing your old drake, and your ancestors proud by helping these ponies stop Faust."

"Thanks dad." Ember tossed the sceptre up to her father, who snatched it out of the air. "Keep an eye on things while I'm gone, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, about time those buggers out there had a good yelling at. You go do what you got to do, and I'll make sure this place is still here for you to come back to. Only you better make sure you come back to it."

"Hey, no worries dad, I'll be back." Ember flew up and pecked Torch on the end of his massive snout, "And if you try to keep the sceptre when I get back, I'm going to be pissed."

"Wouldn't dream of it, because I'd just do it if I wanted to, now have fun!"

Ember flew back down and landed next to Twilight as they started to make their way back out of the cave, "So what is it you actually need me to do?"

"We're going to go to Mareitania to break into a large, magic proof keep, to rescue my friends, including Spike. We need you to burn through the runes preventing us from using magic on the building."

"So the- "Ember quickly counted on her claws, "-seven of us are going to invade a hostile castle to rescue your friends, only this time its the dragon that's doing the rescuing?"

"That's right."

Ember grinned a grin that would've sent sharks running in fear, "This is going to be awesome. Who knew you ponies could be so metal?"

12. Keep your friends close, and your enemies not close

Plumes of sand kicked away from Fleur's hooves as she paced up and down the beach. She'd finally given up on cursing the filly's name, and had never started on cursing Twilight Velvet and Nightlight since Shining was listening, but as soon as the three showed themselves she had plenty of words stored up for them.

"Argh! Where are they?!"

"I'm sure they're coming, Fleur," Shining replied calmly. "Honestly though, I'm starting to think we should start sending Bon Bon and her team on these sorts of things. Now I think about it, why did we send my parents and Swift?"

"Because they're the least obvious amongst us?" Fleur shot back, annoyed that Shining was only having this revelation now, when Fleur had suspected a few hours ago that hey, we have professionals for this kind of stuff, why don't we send them?

"Alright, no need to take it out on me."

"If I don't take it out on somepony, I'm going to explode!" Fleur shuddered with suppressed anger, but even she, master of the poker face as she was, couldn't hide that beneath the veneer of petulant rage she wore she was deeply worried, and prayed that the filly was okay. She wouldn't say it, but Shining's parents took a major backseat where the filly was concerned.

"Would now be a good time to point out that you never gave them an exact time to be here by?" Honeydew asked as she sat quietly on the beach nearest the boat. It was unnecessary for her to be off it, but there was something about being on solid ground that she missed enough to get back on it at every opportunity.

"Yes, it is a bad time to point that out," Fleur growled back. "Besides, I said to be here when it gets dark." Fleur pointed up at the moon shining brightly in the sky, "I think we're well past that point now! It was such an easy instruction too!"

"Hopefully the others will find them on the way here," Shining said, interrupting the two mares before an argument could start. "All we can do is wait."

"What do you think I'm doing?!" Fleur half screamed. "Grah!"

-0-0-0-

"I know this may come across as fairly obvious, but they aren't here."

Bon Bon nodded in agreement with Rocky's assessment of the situation, noting as he had that there was no sign of the filly, Twilight Velvet, or Nightlight. It had her wondering why those three were being used for this sort of thing, and not themselves. Even better, they'd gotten as far as the steelworks in their search, so they'd pretty much already done the job that the three ponies were sent to do in the first place.

The steelworks themselves were lit up like a Hearthswarming tree, with spotlights filling the construction site with enough illumination to make it seem like daytime. Masses of ponies were scurrying about, cleaning up the mess that had been made earlier, and it was now fairly clear that this place was going to be very well protected until it was rebuilt. For that reason alone it was unlikely that they could do anything to prevent that.

"Should we move our search towards the city?" Rocky asked as Bon Bon hadn't made a move or noise since Rocky had spoke.

"Crème, Flicker, and Thorax have that covered for now."

"Then what are we doing?"

"The filly's, Twilight Velvet's, and Nightlight's job, in case they don't come back."

"Isn't that a bit much?" Rocky enquired after a quiet moment. "None of them have any reason to be picked up by the soldiers, or the Shades."

"Can you think of better leverage to use against Shining Armour and Princess Twilight than their parents? I can't. The Shades had to have gone looking for them by now, and must have worked out they're missing, meaning they're probably wanted ponies too at this point." Bon Bon shrugged, "I'm not saying it's a definite, but it's possible."

"Well ain't that a kick in the teeth," Rocky grumbled.

Bon Bon shrugged, "You know I'm right."

"Yeah, I know. I'm still going to be holding out hope this time though. That kid's way too plucky to get caught like that."

"Have you seen all the flattened grass leading up to here?" Bon Bon asked Rocky, motioning to the path through the vegetation that led to the steelworks. "I doubt that is just a coincidence."

"Do you have an issue with me having a little hope? Dear Celestia, I hope I'm right just to see the look on your face."

Bon Bon patted Rocky on the back as patronisingly as she could, "Don't get your hopes up big guy."

Rolling his eyes, Rocky reached back with hoof, grabbing a monocular and holding it up to his right eye as he got a closer look at the construction site. "No griffons that I can see, although I can see a couple of yaks. Weird."

"Weird how?" Bon Bon asked.

"Huh? Oh, just weird seeing yaks standing around like that, amongst ponies. Even if they weren't wearing bright colours, they'd still stick out like a sore hoof." Rocky pulled a face as he spotted a couple of ponies in the dark grey gear the Shades used, "Shades confirmed. Guess I shouldn't be too surprised they'd be investigating this."

"Well within expectations so far," said Bon Bon. "Not sure why they'd send yaks though. If anything, having them around breakables is a really bad idea."

Rocky nodded, but his mind had temporarily wandered somewhere else. "Bon Bon, it occurs to me that we've sent Flicker and Thorax into the city to do the hard job. Crème should be fine, but Flicker's half insane, and Thorax is a clueless bug monster. I think this might've been a bad idea."

"You might think that, but the reason they've gone is that they seem to be better at staying out of trouble than we are."

"What are you basing that on?"

"...I have no idea," Bon Bon said after a few seconds. "Nevermind, it's too late now, so just keep your eyes on what we're doing."

-0-0-0-

"I swear I saw her!"

Crème rushed to press her hooves to Flicker's mouth, stopping her from yelling. The last thing they needed was some soldiers coming to find out what all the shouting was about. Thorax thankfully wasn't doing anything, which was nice considering that she thought he'd be the most trouble.

"Don't shout. Really, really do not shout. Yes, I accept that you may have seen Black Rose, but you don't need to scream it in my ears in case she hears it as well."

Flicker whined and sank down as she realised what she might have done, but when she first mentioned it to Crème, the mare didn't seem to care at all.

"I'm going to release you now, and you best keep your voice down."

Flicker nodded and wiped her mouth as Crème removed her hooves. "Sorry, but you know who that is, so why aren't you worried?"

"Is getting in a panic really going to help?"

"It might where she's concerned."

Crème sighed, but kept her complaints to herself. "You know it won't. If we see her, we'll keep our distance, but otherwise finding those three is our primary concern."

"Okay, I-" Flicker stopped and pushed a hoof back through her mane, "Okay. I'm okay. Where do you think we need to go?"

"They haven't been around here," Thorax supplied helpfully, saying that he couldn't smell them when Crème raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

"You can smell ponies?"

"Changelings have a great sense of smell, although I don't think you'll like the reasons why."

"I suppose I wouldn't." Crème gave Thorax a half lidded stare for a few seconds, then shook her head. "I guess that explains why changelings were so hard to get the jump on. You think you're sneaking up on a changeling, and boom, nothing but rocks."

"Actually, those rocks were probably the changelings."

"You can change into rocks?" Crème pouted as Thorax nodded, "That might've been nice to know a few years back. Anyway, since you're so sure they aren't here, do you know where they have been?"

"Um, no, I don't know that."

"Then we'll just have to keep going until you pick up their scent, or whatever it is you do."

Thorax nodded meekly. He wasn't about to say it, because he was smart enough not to, but he could feel Crème's dislike for him. He could feel Bon Bon and Rocky's too, but they weren't an immediate problem, whereas Crème was smothering him in it. It hurt his tummy. "Where should we start?"

"If I knew more about those three I could tell you. I guess we should just head for the city centre, and hope they passed through there."

Thorax hesitated, giving Crème all the cue she needed to lead the way, not that she wasn't anyway since she knew the others wouldn't have any idea where they were going. Thankfully the streets being quiet helped them make haste, even as it increased their chances of being spotted. More than once they had to hide from soldiers.

"Getting anything?" Crème asked as they neared what she believed to be the city centre.

"A lot of ponies have been through here," Thorax replied, sounding unsure as he sniffed the air. "It's hard to tell." Thorax walked forwards slowly, his sniffing continuing in a immensely inequine manner until he reached a statue. "I think I've got them!"

"Are you sure?"

"I-I think so? The filly has quite a distinctive odour."

"What odour might that be?" Flicker asked, her curiosity overriding the fact that she really mightn't want to know.

"I think you ponies call it puberty?"

"Oh. That's kind of creepy, dude."

"Oh, sorry, but you asked me, remember?"

"Where did they go?" Crème asked, her patience fraying a little further. It frayed a little more as Thorax walked in circles, his nose close to the ground. "Well?"

"That way," Thorax said, although he sounded anything but sure. If it wasn't for the fact that he'd pointed right at a shop with a boarded over window, Crème might've told him he was wrong.

"So they stole from a shop," Flicker deadpanned. "Subtle."

"I very much doubt that was the case," Crème said back as they walked up to the shop. "Chances are it was already like this, so they decided to have a look. Maybe it's linked to the attack on the steelworks somehow."

Thorax sniffed at the door, and under it. "They definitely went inside, but... then they left again, going somewhere else."

"I think we should too," said Flicker. "If the Shades are here, and this shop is linked to the attack, then they're probably watching this place." The dark grey unicorn ducked her head as she looked about, "This was a bad idea. Crème?"

"Which way did they go, Thorax?"

Thorax started following the trail, better able to follow it as he became more familiar with what he was smelling. He increased his speed, as the lesser number of ponies that had been through the area made it even easier. If it wasn't for the others he'd have been tempted to fly, and was subconsciously halfway through the motion of spreading his wings when Crème grabbed him roughly and dragged both him and Flicker around the next corner. He was about to ask her why when she pressed a hoof to her lips in a shushing motion.

The cue taken, all three of them pressed back into the shadows, keeping quiet as a duo of stallions in dark grey garb walked past them, barely meters away. Neither of them stopped, content to keep following where they thought their quarry had gone. No breath was dared to be drawn until they were gone.

"That was too close," Crème whispered, leaning out of their cover to make sure the two stallions hadn't doubled back. "Seems you were right, Flicker."

"What now?" Thorax asked. "We can't follow the trail if they've gone that way."

"No, but I already know we're heading back towards the steelworks." Crème glanced both ways up the street, then gestured for the other two to follow her when she was certain it was safe, leading on a more circuitous route to the steelworks. "I think at this point we're going to have to assume they're not in the city, or if they are they've been captured."

"You know Fleur's going to make us rescue them," Flicker said sullenly. "I don't think we're going to get away with such a thing with Black Rose around, not after the Hayfield incident."

Crème grit her teeth at the mention of what happened at Hayfield, and how Flicker's and her own ineptitude ended up in the death of her teammate Tootsie Roll as she rescued them. Unfortunately she couldn't say Flicker was wrong either. "Do you have any suggestions?"

Flicker shook her head, not saying out loud that if this were a Shades operation, those missing would be left to their fates. "All we can do now is report back what we know to Fleur, and hope that she's reasonable in what she makes us do."

"We're not even sure they've been captured," Thorax reminded them. "Perhaps they got lost on the way back to where we were supposed to meet."

Crème laughed quietly, "Thorax, you're new to this, so I'll forgive you your naivety, but no. We always assume the worst has happened, because nine times out of ten it has."

"Surely the worst would be that they were killed?"

"While that would be bad, it isn't actually the worst. Dead ponies can't say where their friends are, while captured, living ponies, can." Crème gave Thorax a sideways smile as he thought it over, "Surely infiltration tactics and all that goes with it would be important for a changeling to learn?"

"Not like that. Besides, it's a lot easier when you can change your disguise in the blink of an eye. Changeling infiltration is more about fitting in, rather than being unnoticed, which again is a lot easier when you can look like anything."

"And the attack on Canterlot?" Crème asked, curious as to what Thorax's answer would be.

"That was a mistake, and not just because it failed. It should never have happened in the first place. Ponies aren't our enemy, but Queen Chrysalis doesn't want to think that."

"Guys," Flicker interrupted, "focus. Where are we going, Crème?"

"Past the stadium and out through the station, then looping around back to Bon Bon and Rocky at the steelworks."

Flicker stopped dead, "Are you serious? The station is likely to be heavily guarded."

"Exactly, they won't actually be looking for anyone there, so we can slip right past."

"That's stupid, and you know it's stupid."

Crème grinned at Flicker, saying nothing until the other mare sighed.

"Fine, I was tired of living anyway."

"Atta girl." The way was still clear, so Crème made as much haste as she dared as they made their way towards the station. The stadium on the way was lit up, and there seemed to be noise coming from within which seemed to be worth investigating. With a word, Thorax transformed into beetle, and flew up to the top of the stadium wall. A minute later he flew back down.

"It's full of ponies," he said once the flash of his transformation died away. "Or a couple of hundred at least. None of them were wearing uniforms of any kind, so I don't know if they're soldiers or not."

"I don't think they're Mareitanian soldiers if they are," Crème said thoughtfully.

"Prisoners of war?" Flicker asked, getting a nod from Crème.

"It seems likely, and it's a good way to keep them busy, while making groups like ourselves hesitant to attack because we'd risk harming our own. I guess they're really pulling out all the stops to get this steelworks rebuilt." Crème growled under her breath, knowing there was nothing they could really do to stop it now. "Let's just get out of here."

It wasn't a long journey to the station past the stadium, and while it was busy, there was also the unexpected sound of trains. Whatever was happening here wasn't being done in half measures to still be going on this late at night.

"Still think this is a good idea?" Flicker asked, getting a look from Crème that told her to not push her luck.

"Do you mind, Thorax?"

Thorax nodded, transforming yet again and flying up over the station. It was a similar situation to the stadium, only the ponies were being hauled out of train carriages and lined up in groups of ten or so, and chained together by metal collars to keep them under control. He watched until the carriages were empty, and the soldiers started to lead the prisoners out of the station towards the stadium.

Thorax hurried back to the others, transforming before he'd even landed to tell the others to hide. Less than a minute later the prisoners started to file past. Crème watched the procession with interest from her hiding spot under a large cardboard box she'd found, the slot in the side giving her an ample view. Many of the prisoners looked... defeated, and even though there wasn't the most obvious clue of having pegasi present, it was clear they weren't Mareitanians.

"That's the pony that broke my horn!" Flicker whispered harshly from her hiding spot in the shadows where she was mostly relying on her colouration to hide her. "There, the orange one with the blonde mane."

Crème nodded, knowing that Flicker was referring to Applejack, one of the Element bearers, and she could see the mare pass by, her head bowed. Crème shifted her position slowly to get a slightly better view, and spotted the other Bearers in the mass of prisoners, all chained up in different groups, probably intentionally.

Crème allowed herself to swear when she was sure it was safe to do so, and emerged from under her box. "Princess Twilight isn't going to be pleased about this. At the very least we now know where her friends are."

"I never thought that Faust would do something like this," Flicker said as she walked back into the light. "She's always held herself as being so morally superior, so why would she use the prisoners like this?"

"Necessity, I'd say." Crème shrugged, although she did agree with Flicker as slave labour really didn't seem like Faust's usual mode of operation. Either she wasn't aware of this, or she was desperate enough to get the ball rolling on rebuilding that she agreed to it. "We need to go."

"Why? Is there a rush?"

Crème closed her eyes and cursed, as that had been neither Flicker's, or Thorax's voice. It was a voice she recognised though, if only for it's smooth yet haughty tone.

"Unless you want me to kill your friend here, I suggest you show yourselves."

Crème walked out into the open road, followed by Flicker, keeping a short distance from the four Shades and two dozen soldiers there, the leader of whom was holding a knife to Thorax's neck in a well manicured hoof.

"You didn't think you'd actually shaken us off, did you?" Black Rose tittered. "You certainly didn't think that by having your direct route cut off that we knew you'd probably come through here. So predictable."

"Thorax, what the hell?" Crème said to the changeling, drawing a twitch of anger out of Black Rose as her dialogue was apparently ignored. "I thought you were good at hiding."

"My hiding place was already... uh, occupied. Sorry."

"It's fine. Well, it's not, but y'know." Crème sighed, and returned her attention to the pony that so desperately wanted it, and ignored Flicker as she danced on the edge of a panic attack. "So, Miss Rose, what the fuck do you want?"

"So crude," Black Rose tutted. "I don't think it should be too hard to guess what I want. I want you to surrender, peacefully, unless you want your friend here to be hurt, and then I want you to tell us where the rest of your friends are."

"Why? Couldn't you get the ones you already have to talk?"

"Excuse me?" Black Rose said with genuine confusion. Crème raised an eyebrow, subtly showing her surprise about that. At least that meant the Shades didn't in fact have the filly, Twilight Velvet, and Nightlight, so there was some good news.

"Sorry, we were searching for our compatriots in the city, and assumed you had them. Oh well."

Black Rose paused as she became conflicted, and opened her mouth to speak, only to turn it into a laugh. "You almost had me there, sending away some of my helpers here to keep searching." The smile dropped off Black Rose's face, and she tightened the blade to Thorax's neck. "Surrender."

"Why can't you just fuck off!" Flicker screamed suddenly. It was so petulant it even made Crème groan. It also gave her a chance to catch Thorax's eye as he used them to gesture towards the station. Not sure what he meant, Crème did nothing.

"Oh Flicker, you should know I'll never stop. Now I'm going to ask a third and final time, because I don't even know who this is, so I couldn't care less if he dies, meaning it's all on you. Surrender."

"Don't!" Thorax shouted. "Run!"

"Don't be ridiculous-" Black Rose started to say, but stopped as the pony in her grip lit up with a green fire that had her letting go pretty quick. When the fire cleared, the pony was gone, and in its placed was a large, four armed bear with antenna, and a large wasp-like stinger where its tail should be. "What in the world?"

"Run!" the bugbear roared, it's deep rumbling voice echoing off the buildings. He grabbed a soldier and flung him away as pair of insectoid wings buzzed to life, lifting him into the air.

"Time to go." Crème grabbed Flicker and dragged the mare after her as she gawped at the beast Thorax had become.

"What is that?" she shrieked as Thorax tore through the soldiers, bashing them against things, and each other, but making no actual attempts to kill them.

"That's a bugbear, and it's Thorax, and he's saving us, so get your hooves moving and let's go!" Even though she was occupied with fleeing, the irony wasn't lost on Crème that it was a changeling saving her. She made a mental note to apologise to Thorax for her attitude towards him, if he returned. As a pained roar chased after them, she could only hope he did.

"Not so fast!"

Crème glanced back, seeing Black Rose and the other Shades chasing after them, and thanked her lucky stars that there was only one unicorn with them. That did still leave them outnumbered, but if they could keep ahead of the earth ponies they'd be fine until they reached Bon Bon and Rocky.

The train station was mostly empty now, save for a few ponies managing the train, but none of them looked ready to chase after anything the Shades considered to be a target. They leapt down from the platform onto the tracks, and started to head towards the steelworks, following what Crème hoped to be the cargo route that went straight to it.

The four Shades weren't giving up though, and over the open ground the earth ponies gained an advantage in speed, and were already catching up. To make things worse, bolts of magic started to fly through the air towards them as the unicorn was given an unrestricted field of fire. Even though he didn't hit anything, dodging the attacks cost Crème and Flicker valuable speed.

The Shades were hot on their heels as the steelworks came into view, and kept up as they turned off the tracks and started to run up a small hill nearby. Black Rose was about ready to tackle Flicker when a pale pony rose up out of the long grass covering the hill, and struck her with two hooves on the side, winding her and sending her flying.

The shock of the attack slowed the other Shades down as they decided between helping their leader, fighting back, or retreating. Their decision was aided as a large red stallion charged at the small group, a knife in his mouth that he buried in the neck of the unicorn. After that, magic started to fly at them from one of the unicorns they'd been chasing, so they made their choice and fled, grabbing Black Rose on the way.

"I... am so happy to see you guys," Crème gasped, collapsing to the ground and rolling onto her back as she greedily sucked in oxygen. Flicker joined her a second later, only with less flair as she flopped onto her belly and stayed there. "They almost had us."

"If we hadn't spotted that unicorn flinging magic around, they might have," said Rocky. "I'm guessing it was a trap?"

"I don't think so, but I think we were spotted while we were searching."

"I see the changeling didn't make it. Pity, that."

"He just saved our lives," Crème snarled at the obviously not sorry Rocky. "He turned into a bugbear and took on twenty ponies so we could escape. I think for that he deserves our respect."

"A changeling," Rocky said flatly. "You want me to respect a changeling?"

"Yes, I do."

"Bon Bon, remind her why we don't respect changelings."

Bon Bon turned to face them, having been watching the retreat of the Shades. "Rocky, shut up. If Thorax saved them, he's okay in my book. More importantly though, was there any sign of the other three?"

Crème shook her head. "The only thing I can say is that they weren't captured by the Mareitanians. Where they actually are is a mystery though."

"Are you sure the Mareitanians don't have them?"

"Positive," said Flicker. "Black Rose wouldn't have let it show if she had, but she was confused when we mentioned them, so they're not with her."

Bon Bon waited to get a nod of agreement from Crème before fully accepting Flicker's answer. "Alright then. I think from here we can only assume they'll make their way to us in their own time. For now, we should get back to Fleur and report what we know."

Crème rolled onto her front and pushed herself back onto her hooves. "There's more. The stadium is full of Equestrian prisoners, and there were more being brought in off a train. We can only really assume that they've been brought here as labour, unless the Ponyville prison is that full it can't contain them. The Element bearers were also with them."

Bon Bon swore, knowing that using the prisoners had to be a tactic to prevent further attacks. Doubly so to use ponies as important as the Bearers. "I guess we'll have to find out how widespread this tactic is." Bon Bon tapped Flicker on the side, and offered her a hoof to stand up. "Let's go."

"What about Thorax?" asked Flicker. "We can't just leave him."

"I'll be impressed if the Mareitanians can suss out a way to contain a changeling on their first encounter," said Rocky. "If he's alive, he'll make it out."

Crème hit Rocky on the side, "Don't be a bastard all your life."

"What? You know I'm right."

"Even so." Crème swiped Rocky in the face with her tail as she started to head back towards the boat. "Flicker and I owe him, so if he doesn't come back I can assure you that I'll be going to find him."

"You better not let Honeydew know you're after her changeling."

"Rocky," Bon Bon said sternly before Crème could do anything. "I strongly suggest you knock it off."

"But-"

"Now."

Rocky nodded once, "Yes chief."

Bon Bon winked at Crème, then started to head back down the hill. They only made it halfway down when an erratic buzzing reached their ears. All of them searched about for the source, with Flicker finally spotting the bugbear that was Thorax flying towards the top of the hill. More than once he dropped in the air, barely recovering enough to continue. He almost made it when his wings gave out entirely, and he fell to the ground with an almighty thud.

He was back in his changeling form when they reached him, curled up at the bottom of a crater as greenish blood oozed from cuts and cracks in his chitin. He was still breathing, but that was the only sign of life coming from him.

"Shit," Crème cursed. "Shit-shit-shit! Thorax," she half shouted, shaking him, "Thorax, can you hear me?" If he did, Thorax didn't respond, and Crème was about to search for something to bandage him when Rocky scooped the changeling up and over his back.

"They had to have seen that at the steelworks, if they aren't already chasing him from the city. We need to get him out of here before we even think about patching him up."

"Right, okay. To the boat?"

Bon Bon nodded, "As quick as we can."

-0-0-0-

The anguish in Honeydew's voice when she saw Thorax was like a physical force, pushing the ponies bringing him back to the ground. "What did you do to him!?"

"He saved mine and Flicker's life," Crème told her as Rocky gently lowered Thorax to the ground. Bon Bon ran to the boat, intent on getting as many medical supplies as she could, although that still left the glaring problem that they knew barely a thing about treating changelings. Ignorance be damned though, she was going to try.

"Why was he in a position to need to do that?" Fleur demanded to know, pulling Crème to the side as Honeydew clung onto Thorax and cried.

"There's a lot going on in that city, and it's crawling with Shades and soldiers. They've also brought in prisoners from Ponyville, either as labour or a living shield against further attacks."

"There's yaks at the steelworks too," Rocky added as he tried to wipe the gooey green blood off his coat. "Only a couple, but they're there. Didn't see any griffons though."

"The Element bearers were with the prisoners too," Crème added to finish.

"So you got caught?" Fleur asked, her voice hard.

Crème bit her lip, and nodded sheepishly. "Black Rose was there, and she got a hold of Thorax before we could leave. He turned into a bugbear and fought the soldiers off so we could escape. Rocky also managed to kill a Shade."

"I see. I do still have one overriding question though. Where is the filly, and where is Shining's parents?"

"We don't know. We do know the Shades don't have them, or at least aren't aware of who they are if they do, I suppose. Should've thought of that sooner. Sorry Fleur."

Fleur sat hard on the beach, a move she knew she would regret later consider the places sand could get into. She watched numbly as Shining and Bon Bon did their best at patching Thorax up, but they knew it was fairly hopeless since both of them had learnt changeling anatomy by taking them apart, and neither of them knew much save what simple observation could teach them. Honeydew sat next to them, hooves over her mouth as tears streamed down her face.

After several minutes Bon Bon stepped back and sat, tossing another piles of blood-soaked bandages to the side. "I don't know how to do this. Nothing's stopping the bleeding, nothing. Chitin just doesn't work like skin.

"Need... 'nother... changeling," Thorax croaked.

"Thorax!" Honeydew cried, rushing forward to take his head in her hooves. "Please Thorax, stay with us. Stay with us! Stay with me!"

"So... tired."

"No! You have to stay awake! You have to!"

"I-I don't think... I don't think I can."

Honeydew shook Thorax gently, and planted kisses on his forehead. She pleaded with him to stay awake, but all of them could see it was a hopeless battle as his breathing became increasingly shallow. "Please, Thorax, don't go. Please don't go, I need you!"

"You'll be... fine."

"But I-" Honeydew swallowed back the lump in her throat that fought against what she was trying to say. "I-I love you, Thorax, I love you so much."

"Love... you..." Thorax drew his final breath, his body going still as Honeydew wailed. All of them there, even Rocky, had nothing to say. A changeling had just given his life to save ponies, and had a pony fall in love with him, in what was two firsts for all of them.

"Why?" Honeydew screamed, wheeling on Crème. "Why did you let this happen?"

"I didn't want it to!"

"We should never have agreed to help you! We should've just run away and lived in peace like I wanted! Now you've killed him!"

"I-I-I'm sorry! I... huh?" Crème stopped as a soft pink light started to suffuse the area, coming from Thorax.

"You're sorry? You're sorry! And that's it? That's all you have to say for yourself?" Honeydew frowned as a wide-eyed Crème pointed behind her, and she noticed the pink hue everything had taken. She turned, finding that Thorax's body was floating several inches off the ground, and glowing. "What? Thorax?"

The glow increased, turning white and forcing the ponies to look away lest they be blinded. It endured for several seconds, and when it faded, Thorax was laying on the sand again, although it could only be assumed that it was Thorax. His black chitin was gone, replaced by a green and orange shell that covered his taller body. Long diaphanous wings trailed behind him, and two large, beetle-like antlers adorned his head.

Honeydew nervously padded over to Thorax, her anger forgotten in the face of this new development. A spark of hope flickered in her heart, and bloomed into a supernova as Thorax stirred. "Thorax?" She crouched down by him and shook him, "Are you okay?"

An eye that had once been pale blue cracked open, showing the new shine of the purple eye beneath it. It swivelled about unfocussed until it stopped on the crying visage of Honeydew. "Honeydew? What just happened?"

"I'm not sure, but you're alive. You're alive Thorax!" Honeydew grabbed Thorax and kissed him on the lips, his surprise quickly vanishing as he returned it.

"Shining," said Fleur, getting the stallion's attention as the kiss continued, "I don't suppose you have any insights on this, what with you being married to the Princess of Love? Anything at all?"

Shining shook his head, a clueless expression on his face, "Not a one, but I'm sure we've just seen the power of love in action right now. Cadence would've loved it, pun fully intended. To be honest, I have no idea what just happened. This was such a rollercoaster of emotions, I'm still a little dazed. I think I might even have a spot of emotional whiplash, if that's a thing."

"Yeah..." Fleur raised an eyebrow as Crème shuffled up to Thorax, showing a nervousness uncharacteristic of the mare, although that might've had something to do with the death glare Honeydew was giving her.

"Uh, Thorax?"

"Crème?" Thorax looked around as Crème said his name, and smiled at her. "Hey, you're okay. And Flicker too. Good."

"Yeah, about that." Crème sat and knotted her front hooves together, showing her anxiety. "Thanks for that, what you did for Flicker and me. I know we haven't all been the nicest to you, so for you to go and do that when you didn't have to, that was pretty awesome. I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks, and I promise I will be nothing but nice to you from now on. The others too, hopefully."

Thorax held out a hoof towards Crème, "Friends?"

Crème nodded and shook it without hesitation, "Friends. Now I do have one question for you. What the heck happened to you? You aren't even injured any more, and you look different. Was that supposed to be like a changeling ascension or something?"

"I don't know," Thorax answered. "I really, genuinely, don't know what happened. Nothing like it has ever happened to a changeling before, that I know of at least."

"Do you feel different?"

"Yeah, I feel stronger, more powerful, I guess? It's hard to describe."

Crème smiled crookedly at Thorax, "Well whatever it is, I'm glad you're alright."

"No thanks to you," Honeydew spat at Crème. "Or any of you!"

"Honeydew, don't," Thorax said calmly, giving her a loving smile. "I chose to help them, so what happened is as much my fault as it is theirs."

"How can you say that? You almost died because of them! In fact I'm pretty sure you did die!"

"But I didn't, so it's okay. I'm not entirely sure what did happen to me, but I promise you I'm fine."

Honeydew sighed, and held on to Thorax, pressing their necks together. "I just don't want to lose you."

"You won't." Thorax kissed Honeydew again, then blushed as a throat was cleared behind him. "I think we have an audience." He turned and smiled awkwardly at the others, his cheeks still flaming. "So, what's the plan?"

"Uh..." Fleur started to say, unsure of where to begin. "Well since you now appear to be a changeling alicorn of sorts, I guess we can put you into the okay category, meaning we still have a bunch of bad news to deal with, and three missing ponies."

"Look out below!"

Fleur looked up in time just to see the filly falling towards her, wings outstretched in a glide that would've been more impressive had she been more in control. As it happened, she had the exact amount of control needed to crash into Fleur and send her bowling over into the sand.

"Pfeh!" Fleur coughed, spitting out sand that had ended up in her mouth as she'd face-planted onto the beach. "What the hell, filly?"

The filly stood, shaking sand off her. "Sorry. Guess I'm heavier than I thought, although you could've tried catching me."

"I barely had time to do anything! And where the hell have you been?"

"Notralis, home of the thestrals."

Fleur had been prepared for a great many places and excuses then, but the simple and honest delivery of those five words stunned her, and all she could manage to utter was a dopey sounding "Huh?" It was made better when a half dozen thestrals landed on the beach, two of them pulling a cart holding Shining's parents, and a thestral Fleur knew well enough to be pleased to see.

"Good evening, Director, General," Greywhisker said to Fleur and Shining. "It's good to see you both well."

Shining spoke before Fleur could, although his answer was no less confused for getting there first. "Greywhisker? What are you doing here?"

"Returning some ponies that belong with you, and I also wish to talk to you. First though, I very much recommend you get out of here. We weren't the only ones to see that flash, and there are soldiers on the way... here." Greywhisker swallowed as he saw Thorax, "What's that?"

"That's a changeling," Fleur answered him, "although we have no idea why he looks like that ourselves. Please don't try to kill him."

"That's the gayest looking bug I've ever seen."

"Or insult him." Fleur cocked her ear as a distant rumbling entered it. "Time to go I think. Crème, get on the helm, and let's get out of here."

-0-0-0-

They'd just had time to wave at the soldiers arriving on the beach before speeding away into the darkness. It couldn't be much longer before the Mareitanians started to figure out how to use boats of their own, but until then, they could enjoy their immunity.

"So what did you want to discuss, Greywhisker?" Shining asked, leading the Captain down into the living quarters of the luxury yacht where Honeydew was still with Thorax, making sure he was still there and alive by clinging onto him. Most of the others didn't know what to make of what happened, and seemed to be content with not questioning it. "Thanks for keeping my parents and the filly safe by the way."

"You're welcome, although was more a happy accident than anything, since it led me to you. Mostly, my thestrals were wondering why they were spying on the steelworks after we had attacked it."

"That was you? I guess you're still fighting then?"

"Partially," Greywhisker sighed. "Mostly it was a test to see if any griffons would be sent there. There was not."

"So they are gone then."

"So it seems," Greywhisker nodded. "Our scouts spotted two groups flying towards Griffonstone a couple days apart, but when they investigated the city, there weren't any Bloodfeathers or Golden Claws. We suspect they may have gone to Griffonia."

"But the Princesses are there!" Fleur exclaimed. "Faust must've caught wind of it and sent the griffons to apprehend them."

"Good luck to them then," Greywhisker said with a shrug. "I doubt the Mistress would go down without a fight, and neither would Princess Twilight. Personally, I'd come to the conclusion that Theron had gone to enact whatever plan he had against the Emperor, although I didn't know the princesses were there. After Canterlot, I'd assume they'd be in hiding."

"Princess Celestia is still captured as far as we know, but the others have escaped Faust's notice for now, and are now trying to forge an alliance with Griffonia in an attempt to stop Faust." Fleur smiled as Greywhisker raised his eyebrows, "It's been a busy couple of weeks."

"So it would seem." Greywhisker looked up and nodded his thanks as Twilight Velvet brought him and the others a drink. "I'm afraid none of us are in a position to worry about the princesses at the moment, so they shall have to look after themselves. The attack was also done to distract the Mareitanians away from searching for our home. If they find Nostralis..." Greywhisker shook his head silently, unwilling to say the words.

"We understand," said Shining. "I imagine Nostralis is probably the only place in Equestria not under Faust's control, so keeping it that way would be good."

"Not least because I can easily imagine Faust's opinion of thestrals considering what she thinks of Luna." Greywhisker shuddered. "We would also like to fight back, but we're stretched thin as it is with having to gather intelligence and protect our home, as well as keeping it supplied, which is why I'm glad we found you. If you're willing, if you put your efforts into gathering intelligence, we'd be happy to strike any targets you can give us, since we'll have one less thing to do."

Fleur gave Greywhisker a crooked smile, "We'd happily work with you in any capacity. To be honest, I'm just happy to know we're not alone in this. If you want us to gather intelligence, that's what we'll do, although we'll have to try and find a way to cover all of Equestria to be fully useful."

"Anything is appreciated."

Bon Bon cleared her throat, grabbing their attention. "If you don't mind my asking, Captain, who or what exactly is searching for your home?"

"The army," Greywhisker said slowly, unsure of who else it could possibly be.

"And the Shades aren't involved in any capacity?"

"Our scouts have seen a few of their agents around Hollow Shades."

Bon Bon nodded, now sure of what their next move had to be. "The Shades are getting their noses too deep into everything, and it's about time to take a bite back. If you want Nostralis to be safe," she said to Greywhisker, "and if you want proper intelligence," she added to Fleur, "then there is only one thing to do. We need to destroy the Shades. Cut off their head, destroy the body, and burn the rest."

Fleur made a face, but agreed entirely as the Shades always seemed to come into everything that they did. She looked to Shining and Greywhisker, silently seeking their opinion, and got two nods in return. "Very well, although I have no idea how you intend to do that."

"Simple." Bon Bon grinned at them, "Step one is killing Black Rose."

"And what's step two?"

"Killing the rest of them. The fun part is, we can even start step two before step one is done. It really is the perfect plan."

"It's also the shortest plan. You can't actually be serious, can you? The Shades always seem to have the upper hoof, while we always seem to get by on luck, and miracles," Fleur finished, thinking of Thorax.

"This'll be different. Right now we know Black Rose is in Fillydelphia, and is also investigating the attack, which might lead her to the thestrals, and eventually their home. If we take her out, the investigation slows, the thestrals stay safer, and we kill the biggest threat to us, and I know you're going to say it's dangerous, but this time it'll be different. This time, it's us going on the hunt, not the other way around."

Fleur wanted to say no. Very, very much so, but that was also the cowards path in this case. High risk, high reward was the name of this game, and even if they made no moves, they were still playing it. "Alright, permission granted, but I want to make one thing very clear. If you're not sure you can do it this time, you give up and try again. Doing this is enough of a risk without adding to it."

Bon Bon saluted, "Understood."

"Then get yourselves prepared, and Flicker?"

"Hmm?" Flicker looked up at Fleur, having not been expecting anyone to talk to her. "Yes Fleur?"

"You have until tomorrow night to relearn how to fight with your magic. I will not have you going in with a handicap, is that clear? Your horn is healed, and you're away from Faust's mind control, so you have no excuses now."

"Actually," Greywhisker interrupted, "I have an idea if you want a little extra insurance for Miss Flicker there. There's a private medical centre in Baltimare that was hired to do some of the crystal implants. It's currently empty, due to how things are in Equestria right now, but they are still fully stocked as far as we know. We haven't had the time to go there ourselves, but if you put going after Black Rose off for an extra night, that place should have crystals to protect her with, as well as medical supplies my thestrals sorely need."

"And you can help us do that?"

Greywhisker shook his head, "Until the Mareitanians give up searching for Nostralis, I'm unwilling to go that far. It shouldn't be a difficult task for you though, and we can meet back around here tomorrow night."

Fleur groaned internally, but nodded. "Alright, we can do that. Bon Bon?"

"We'll get it done, ma'am. Hopefully Black Rose will still be in staying in Fillydelphia a little longer. Although, if Captain Greywhisker could put a couple of his thestrals on finding out where the Shades have based themselves, that'll speed things up on our end considerably."

"I'm sure we can manage that." Greywhisker finished his drink and stood, a smile on his face. "Feels like we're actually making some headway." He started to head back out onto the deck, when he remembered something. "Almost forgot. Your young filly mentioned that you wanted an extra flier for recon, and we have a volunteer if you want them."

"Uh, sure," Fleur said, a little surprised by the change of topic. "Who is it?"

"Shadow Seeker, whom I know you're familiar with. I know she's injured, but she's more than capable of flying around for scouting purposes."

"Injured?" Fleur asked. She'd barely paid Shadow much attention other than to acknowledge she was there with them, but she hadn't noticed she was injured. It wasn't until she followed Greywhisker back on deck and saw Shadow chatting with the filly that she learned exactly what he meant. "Oh. Oh Shadow, I'm so sorry."

"You mean you don't want me?" Shadow sagged and lowered her ears, "It's fine, I get it, I'm useless now. Can't even do a non-combat role now..."

"I meant I'm sorry that happened to you. If you're still able to fly, you're more than welcome to join us as an extra pair of eyes in the sky."

"For realzies? Yes!" Shadow grabbed the filly and pulled her into a bone crushing hug, "This is going to be so awesome!"

"Back here tomorrow night then?" Fleur asked as Greywhisker took off, the remainder of his thestrals taking off with him.

"Somewhere around here. My thestrals will find you. Good luck."

"You too." Fleur watched for a moment until they were out of sight, although that didn't exactly take long in the dark, then spent a moment looking at Shadow, her imagination filling in the gaps as to why she seemed so down until right now. Then she thought fleetingly at Thorax, although he still didn't make any more sense to her. Lastly, she stopped on Crème. "Set course for Baltimare, Crème, we have a hospital to steal from."

"Aye aye, Captain." Crème spun the wheel, then stopped. "Wait, what?"

"You heard me. Filly, raise the jolly roger, it's time for some pirating."

"Uh, it's already raised," the filly said, pointing to the flag fluttering in the wind. "I haven't bothered to take it down."

Fleur sighed, dismayed at the lack of theatrics her crew displayed at times. "Whatever, let's just go."

Author's Note

Thorax is now the prettiest of all the bugs. This will have significance at some point. Just not now where I'm failing to provide adequate character responses to it.

31. Two roads, one destination

Twilight hummed to pass the time as she healed Trixie using one of her devices. Those things that felt like the only actual, definite positive to have come out of her life over the last few years. It was funny how life worked sometimes. Sure there were other positives too, like new friendships with those she worked with, Trixie being a prime example, but otherwise the healing devices seemed to be about it. Any positives gained in her victory in Mareitania had in the long run been cancelled out, and turned around completely by them losing Equestria, and more besides. Too much more.

"You have that look like you're thinking too hard," Trixie murmured, too tired to put more effort into her words.

"There's a look?"

"Sure is. You get this glazed over, distant look in your eyes, like a starving mare that's just seen a hayburger stand, but has no bits, so just stands there staring and drooling in despair. I mean, I honestly can't tell if you're pondering the mysteries of the universe, or debating what flavour the sky is, but there's definitely some serious thought going on there. Thinking about Sunset?"

"No, actually. I'm thinking about the net positives I've achieved over the last three years, and concluded that these poorly named healing dohickeys are the only ones that haven't come back to bite me on the flank."

"Yet."

Twilight sighed, "Yeah, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised when they do. Anyway, how are you feeling?"

"Better. Weak as fuck, but better. I'm guessing that's the blood loss?"

"I tried to keep as much of it in your body as I could, but there was just so very much of it coming out."

"Cute." Trixie nodded her head towards the hut's other occupant, who was deeply asleep, "How's Luna?"

"Opting to sleep through it." Twilight made a face at the mass of bloodied bandages covering Luna's flank where Nightmare had carved a chunk out of Luna. "If that's the kind of thing Solaris can do, I think we need to find a way to destroy that weapon. Especially with Celestia so on the edge."

Trixie waited a beat for Twilight to say more, but there was nothing coming. "On the edge of what?" she asked.

"Madness, by the looks of it. Her new personality is not coping well with what's going on. Then there's the thing where her mane caught fire, and one of her eyes went slitted like Nightmare's... she's having some serious issues. Unfortunately that probably makes her more dangerous for us than not."

"Oh good, I'm glad we have something more to worry about. For a moment there this seemed too easy."

"You can remember what easy is? I thought easy was little more than legend at this point, on account of how nothing ever is."

"Meh," Trixie said dismissively. "So... how's things going with the invasion? Actually, where are we for that matter?"

"We're in Marebasa. It's a village built where the long route and short route to Zanzebra reconvene. Basically this place is right on the Mareitanians path to Zanzebra. Nightmare's doing what she can to slow them down and whittle away their numbers."

"And once they reach this place?"

"We fall back to Zanzebra, and attempt to stop them there."

"Oh." Trixie stared straight ahead for a moment, then shrugged, "Nothing too major then. Are the Mareitanians really attempting this without more reinforcements?"

"They still outnumber us, and still have their usual advantages, so yeah. If we were leading their attack, would we be doing any different?"

"Sure we would. We'd conquer the rest of Zebrica first, then lay siege to Zanzebra, forcing the zebras to either surrender or fight us on our terms. Going for a quick victory by taking Zanzebra and the Council is risky as fuck. We also wouldn't have waited for the zebras to gather their strength."

"That last point cancels out the one before it. Without the zebras putting up some kind of resistance, Zanzebra would be an easy target. Then the zebras would either have to attack their own capital, and likely lose, or give in. Taking Zanzebra quickly was the right decision. Waiting for Celestia to turn up first was not."

"So you're saying that they pretty much fucked themselves."

"In a word, yes. Unfortunately they still have a decent chance at winning, even after waiting, and having a decent chunk of their forces killed or run away."

"We just had to go and make the best army ever, didn't we?" Trixie grumbled. Trixie stopped and swivelled her ears as she heard hoofsteps, "There's somepony outside. Or somezebra, or whatever. Something with hooves is outside the door."

Twilight snorted a laugh as the door to the hut was opened to allow a male zebra in. He was wearing the uniform of the Rangi, and looked as if he had run the entire way there.

"Something to report?" Twilight asked.

"Uh, yes, Princess. I was one of those that was to sabotage the Mareitanians encampment after they left it."

"Okay, good. I'm assuming it went well?"

"Uh, no, it did not. Once the Mareitanians departed the kirin returned to the camp. They reclaimed their weapons and armour, and currently occupy the camp. They appear to be disagreeing over what they should do."

"Riiight." Twilight scratched her chin, at a loss for what that meant. Rearming themselves was bad, but the fact that they had waited for the Mareitanians to leave, and weren't chasing after them, was promising.

"Twilight, get Autumn and go talk to them," said Trixie. "They probably won't attack if it's just the two of you, and maybe you could convince them to just go home."

"But I was supposed to be joining Nightmare to help slow the Mareitanians down."

"Which is more important here? You killing a few soldiers, or you preventing a couple of thousand kirin from joining them?"

"When you put it like that..."

"Off you go then." Trixie shooed Twilight away with her hooves, "I'll be fine until you get back." Trixie tried to push herself up, but quickly changed her mind as something in her abdomen twinged. "Agh, make that I'll probably be fine."

"Alright, but when Luna wakes up, tell her what's going on, and to finish healing you."

"Will do, boss lady. You go have fun."

-0-0-0-

Twilight had found Autumn sitting by a fire, staring intently into the flames. What she'd hoped to see in them was anyone's guess, but they probably weren't providing her with any answers to her questions, such as 'what the hell am I supposed to do now?' The answer to that came from Twilight, and Autumn wasn't particularly keen on what she'd heard.

"I'm going to say that at this point, me dead is high on their list of priorities, even if they have other things to worry about more."

Twilight settled in next to Autumn, "Or they're looking for answers to the same question you are."

"And I suppose the answer to that is to join you?"

Twilight chuckled sheepishly, "In an ideal world, perhaps, but I'll settle for all the kirin going home and staying out of this war."

"That'd be nice," Autumn said laconically. "Maybe they might listen to you if you ask nice enough, but me?" Autumn shook her head slowly, "They don't even want to look at me."

"So you won't help me?" Twilight sighed as Autumn shook her head again, "I see. That's unfortunate. That means I have to kidnap you now."

"Excuse m-" Autumn tried to ask, but the question was turned into a scream as Twilight flew sharply upwards into the night sky, dragging Autumn in her wake. "What do you think you're doing!?"

"Enlisting your help."

"That suggests this being voluntary! Which it is not!"

"Alright, I'm conscripting your help, if that's what you prefer." Twilight grinned back at Autumn, "Whatever it is you call it, you're helping me."

"This is highly unethical!"

"I know, right? It really is."

-0-0-0-

The distance to the Mareitanians' old camp was covered quickly enough, and the dark made it easier to spot the few camp fires the kirin had lit. Compared to the numbers that had been there previously, the kirin seemed to be swamped by the half destroyed camp, occupying only a small portion of it.

It was that portion that Twilight avoided for the time being, until she at least knew what to expect, other than a rain of arrows and a heavily armed welcoming party. Of course that assumed the kirin were hostile towards her, which seemed likely, but maybe they were a touch more ambivalent than they were before.

"That can't be good."

"What can't?" Twilight asked back to Autumn's words.

"Not all of those campfires are actually campfires. I suppose at the very least they're sat still instead of fighting each other and destroying every thing."

Twilight had no idea what Autumn was talking about, but could only assume it had something to do with the kirin and what they turned into. Some of the fires did have an unusual colour to them now she was looking.

"You better keep me safe," Autumn added a moment later.

"I will." Twilight flew down to land just outside the light provided by the fires and niriks. She tried to make her presence as obvious as possible, but the kirin seemed to be curiously uninterested, even when she started to walk amongst them. They seemed more interested in Autumn, but not by much.

"That's Rain Shine," Autumn whispered into Twilight's ear, pointing to a large kirin sat by a fire. "She's the leader of my village. You might want to talk to her."

"Or we could talk to you, Autumn."

Both Twilight and Autumn turned to face the speaker, and although the face of the kirin meant nothing to Twilight, Autumn sighed with relief.

"Fern Flare, you scared us."

"What are you doing here, Autumn? I told you to stay away from us for a good long while."

"And that's exactly what I was trying to do, but the princess here had other ideas."

"Princess?" Fern Flare studied Twilight closely for several seconds, and cocked her head slightly. "Why are you here?"

"I'm hoping to find out what the kirins' intentions are. Are you going to carry on fighting for Faust? Or are you going to go home?"

Fern Flare snorted with mirth, "Good question, because we honestly don't know. Some want to carry on fighting, some want to go home, and a few even want revenge on the Mareitanians for various reasons." Fern gestured towards a nirik, "As you can see, more than a few tempers have been strained by this."

"What do you want, Ferny?" Autumn asked.

"Me?" Fern shrugged, "I'm fine with any option that doesn't result in us fighting for Faust. Come on, I'll take you to Rain Shine so you can convince her to decide on something."

Twilight followed after Fern Flare towards Rain Shine, who didn't make any sign of acknowledgment towards any of them. She looked absolutely miserable, which was an emotion shared by a great many other kirin if Twilight were any judge. What had happened here was causing a greater effect than Twilight thought it could have.

"Rain Shine?"

The large grey kirin looked up from her introspection as Fern Flare said her name, then started as she saw Twilight. Then she saw who was behind Twilight, and narrowed her eyes a little.

"This is Princess... uh..."

"Twilight," Twilight finished for Fern Flare. "I am Princess Twilight."

"You're sided with the other princesses against Faust," Rain Shine said, making it clear it was a statement and not a question.

"That's right."

"And you, Autumn Blaze, have some nerve to come back here. Do you not realise what you've done?"

"I wanted you to go home," Autumn squeaked in a mouse's voice. "I wanted things to go back to the way they were before we went into the stream of silence. I wanted us to laugh and cry, and be... normal again."

Rain Shine's expression softened as Autumn ducked her head, letting a tear run down her muzzle and drop to the ground. "I'm sorry Autumn, but without the cure, I don't think things can ever go back to normal. We have no choice but to go back through the stream."

"Why though? Are you all so afraid of becoming niriks? There are niriks over there right now, and they aren't hurting anything! They're controlling it! Why can't we all do that? I will even show you how if you want?"

"Could you guarantee that we would never become niriks again?"

"No, because that's not what I'm trying to do! We can't not be niriks, but what we can do is control what the nirik does. Just because we turn black, grow fangs, and catch fire doesn't mean we aren't ourselves."

"I suppose," Rain Shine admitted, not sounding very convinced, "but that doesn't change our situation now. We're trapped in Zebrica with nowhere to go, and none of us can agree on a course of action. Some of the villages have already left to try and get back home, while others want to approach the Mareitanians for another chance." Rain Shine shook her head, "There's no unity between us any more."

"We can probably find you a way back to Equestria," Twilight said, putting herself back into the conversation. "We have no desire to fight the kirin, and really don't expect you to change sides, but if you want to go home, I'm sure us princesses and the Zebrican Council of Elders could find you a way home. You could technically walk it, so long as you don't mind walking for a thousand miles through Griffonia."

"I suppose we could. It'd probably be for the best if we did go home since we're not exactly welcome here any longer. Perhaps the journey would do us good."

"So... you're going to walk it?"

"Since you say we can, yes," Rain Shine confirmed.

"Oh, well, okay." Not the response Twilight had expected, but it was one she was more than happy with. "Will you try to convince the others to go with you?"

"As many as I can, yes."

"Thank you," Twilight said, dropping into a small bow. "I'll inform the Griffon Emperor that you shall be travelling through his lands. I expect that he'll leave you alone if you leave his griffons alone."

Rain Shine returned the bow, "That would be acceptable, thank you."

"Then I shall get that arranged as soon as I can. Safe journey." Twilight started to leave, and was about to spread her wings when Rain Shine told her to stop. That's what she initially thought at least.

"Are you not coming with us, Autumn?"

"You want me to come with you?"

"But of course." Rain Shine smiled, "We're all going home. Including you, if you want?"

"Yes! I mean yes! That was the exact same thing!" Autumn bounced on the spot in overwhelming excitement, "Aaah! Yes!"

Twilight smiled at the kirin, pleased that she was having her wish answered. "I guess this is it then, you're going home with your people."

"I am!" Autumn grabbed Twilight in a too tight hug around her neck, "I'm going home! We're going home! Eeeee!!"

"I'm happy for you," Twilight rasped, "really. Thanks for getting us to this point."

"Eee-ee-ee-hee-hee!" Autumn squealed happily.

Twilight patted Autumn's leg until the kirin let go, then said a last farewell, without bothering to mention that Autumn had left her belongings in Marebasa, because she didn't want the extra work of transporting it. She had enough to do just flying to where Nightmare and the Wonderbolts were without adding a trip for some luggage.

Still though, Autumn had gotten a mostly happy ending, and had done what was asked of her, which was as much as could be hoped for really. The most important part was that the kirin, or majority thereof, weren't fighting for Faust, and as far as Twilight was concerned, that at least deserved a hoof pump in celebration.

-0-0-0-

"Trap six failed," Lightning reported, trying to keep her voice even, when really she wanted to sigh her heart out and swear a whole bunch. "I hate to say it, but they're pretty much anticipating everything now."

Nightmare, still disguised as Cadence, nodded listlessly. "Are we at least thinning their numbers down a little?"

"They might've lost a couple hundred to injuries, but that's it. Nothing short of a direct attack is going to really slow them down."

"What about Ember?"

"Won't get close now, not after Celestia went after her. I hate to say it, but we really need Luna and Twilight back in the picture to make a difference now."

Nightmare didn't say anything to that, and not because she automatically wanted to say she didn't need their help. That kind of thinking had no right to interfere at a time when they needed all the help they could get. At this rate, the Mareitanians would be no more than a day behind schedule if they couldn't be slowed more.

Pitfalls, booby-traps, ambushes... all of their efforts had amounted to very little as the Mareitanians pressed ever further towards Zanzebra. They were getting closer to needing a miracle, but none of the local deities seemed to be in a sharing mood.

"What I wouldn't give for some explosives," Nightmare muttered. "Are Rainbow and Vapor ready at trap seven?"

"It won't work."

"What do you mean?"

"Because it won't! Their Adepts are on constant alert now. As soon as Rainbow and Vapor are spotted, the shield will go up, and the trap will be defunct."

"Have them try anyway!"

Lightning stopped short of shouting Nightmare's name out loud, but she was still annoyed. "This isn't working. You know it isn't working! We need to come up with a new plan!"

Nightmare bit her tongue, and her lip, and pondered for a second how ponies ate anything of substance with the dull, flat teeth most of them seemed to have. Sure her usual teeth were designed for a more carnivorous creature, but it felt like something so innocuous as a sandwich might prove a challenge without some proper teeth to tear into it with.

"What would you propose?" she asked. "Giving up entirely?"

"Of course not, but at this rate we could lose more zebras than the Mareitanians could lose soldiers, which isn't how you win a war. We need to fall back to Marebasa and regroup, and if necessary fall back to Zanzebra to formulate a proper defence."

"And give Celestia a clear run to Zanzebra? That won't do."

Lightning looked up at the cloudless sky and sighed. It was too hot even without her flight suit, and she had no desire to argue, but why Nightmare was so insistent on pushing this plan was... insane.

"The final trap will slow them down if nothing else will."

That much Lightning had to admit was true, but only because an actual battle, rather than just an ambush, would do that. There was one major problem with it though, and that was the fact that the Mareitanians outnumbered them almost two to one.

"You're going to get all those zebras killed if you go ahead with that. The Mareitanians can't be stopped like this!"

"And how do you know that?"

"Because while you were in Mareitania, I was participating in the war to protect Equestria. I fought the Mareitanians! I know what they can do! We tried traps, and ambushes, and everything! And nothing stopped them for long! Nothing!"

Nightmare stared coolly at Lightning for a moment, then shook her head as she looked down at her map, barely visible in the dawn light. "Go tell Rainbow and Vapor to prepare. If they should fail, prepare trap eight."

"You're just throwing lives away."

"If eight should fail, prepare trap nine."

"You're impossible."

"Now, Lightning Dust," Nightmare said without looking up.

With a growl of frustration, Lightning flew off, leaving Nightmare to calmly study her map in peace for a moment, then fold it up. Lightning was entirely right of course, but the problem was that there wasn't much else in the way of options to try instead. Yes the Mareitanians outnumbered them here, but the chances were that they would outnumber the zebras in other places as well, so what did it matter if they fought here or in Zanzebra? Maybe buying the time here would make the greater difference in the long run? It was impossible to tell.

Nightmare angled an ear as the rumble of thunder crashed from a clear sky. The three Wonderbolts had hopefully triggered trap seven, consisting of three rows of jars containing oil buried underground, with a collection of metal rods to conduct the lightning and ignite the oil. In theory at least. Nightmare had been unsure of that one herself. Hopefully it had worked.

-0-0-0-

"Oh look, shields. What a massive surprise," Lightning said sarcastically as their combined lightning strikes flickered over the magical protection, then died out. "I don't know about you guys, but I think Nightmare is out of her mind if she thinks doing what we're doing will work."

"She's just trying to buy time, like we all are," Rainbow said back to Lightning as they quickly flew away from the Mareitanians. "That's kinda why we're here."

Lightning rolled her eyes as the Mareitanians continued their march below them, totally unfazed by the lightning strikes, or their intent. "And it's working so well. So well, the Mareitanians don't realise how dead they are right now, that's how well it's working."

"Alright, you don't have to be am ass about it."

"No, I really feel like I do at this point. The Mareitanians are going to push us to the last trap, and those zebras are going to be slaughtered. I know it, you know it, the Mareitanians know it, and I'm pretty sure the zebras know it as well."

"Lightning's right," Vapor agreed. "Getting all these zebras killed here won't make a massive difference, but fighting at Zanzebra with more zebras, and the princesses, that could stop the Mareitanians. At the moment we have a bunch of zebras outnumbered two to one, an alicorn that won't fight Celestia, no protection against their magic, and a dragon that's noping every suggestion to get close enough to use her fire. This is pointless."

"Alright, you're right," Rainbow said, finally seeing their point. "How do we convince Nightmare we're right?"

"We shouldn't need to," Lightning growled. "She should be able to see this isn't working. She-"

"Knows perfectly well."

"Twilight!" Rainbow cheered as her friend flew up to them. "Wait, how did you know what we were talking about?"

"I just talked with Nightmare, and she told me Lightning had doubts."

Rainbow drew in a sharp breath, then it stuck as doubts of her own crept in. Doubts about who it was that was actually in front of them. "Nice try, Nightmare, but you aren't fooling us."

"Aren't I? Excellent! Good to know I'm not working with idiots."

Rainbow cringed at the voice that came from behind her, and she turned to find that Nightmare, still disguised as Cadence, was right behind them. "Ah."

"Of course I'm a little disgusted that you think I'd try to deceive you all like that. Do you really think so little of me?"

Rainbow slowly turned back to Twilight and poked her with a hoof. She seemed real enough, as did Nightmare when she did the same thing. "I'm not apologising."

"I wasn't asking you to," Twilight said flatly.

"I was going to," Nightmare said quickly, "but I get the feeling Twilight's going to give me 'the look' if I do."

"Yes I am. Anyway, what I was going to say was that we can't afford to lose so many zebras here, so we're going to fall back to Marebasa for now while we come up with a better plan. Ten thousand zebras will be a lot more effective than two lots of five, so chances are we might end up falling back to Zanzebra to-"

"Put up a better fight," Lightning said with relief. "Thank you!"

"There's also the small problem that we've lost track of Celestia," Twilight added. "I scouted around the Mareitanians twice, but couldn't see her anywhere. She could be trying to find out what we're up to, so we should change our plans to stay ahead of her. I've already told Ember to start moving the zebras to Marebasa, so she should be wondering what we're up to for a while."

"Sounds good," Rainbow said while Nightmare sighed.

"I can't help but feel that Celestia's up to more than just spying on us," she said. "Especially when we left Marebasa relatively undefended, with a wounded Luna and Trixie as easy targets."

Twilight's eyes went wide, and without saying a word she turned for Marebasa and flew as fast as she could, the others chasing after her.

-0-0-0-

It was harder to see in the daylight, but even from a distance they could see the thin trails of smoke rising from the village of Marebasa, indicating that the village was at least partially aflame. No big surprise where Celestia and her weapon was concerned.

Twilight could feel herself quivering with both fear and anticipation as they flew ever closer. Luna would survive a confrontation with Celestia, one way or another, but if anything had happened to Trixie, Twilight didn't know what she'd do. Hopefully she had nothing to worry about, and the flashes of magic coming from the village gave her a bit of hope.

Celestia was fighting Luna in the village centre. It was a rather one sided battle, but Luna was at least holding Celestia at bay for now, relying on her shields to save her since her mobility on the ground was limited thanks to her leg. Trixie was nowhere to be seen.

"Celestia!" Twilight shouted, catching the attention of the white alicorn before she could further attack the battered and beleaguered Luna. All of them scattered as a powerful blast of magic roared through the air towards them, meaning that Celestia still wasn't in a talking mood. A mood that soured only further when Luna capitalised on Celestia's distraction to attack, sending her sister flying.

"You three go find Trixie while we take care of Celestia," Twilight said to the three Wonderbolts while Celestia was indisposed. "If she's hurt, do what you can until we can take care of her, and any other injured you find."

"Got it!" Rainbow said quickly, racing off with the others in tow to start searching.

"I am most pleased to see you," Luna said with palpable relief as Twilight and Nightmare landed between her and Celestia. "Much longer and I was going to have to consider negotiations," she joked.

"We don't negotiate with terrorists," Celestia spat as she extricated herself from the remains of the hut Luna had sent her flying into.

"You're the one attacking a small, peaceful village of zebras, and I'm the terrorist?" Luna asked in disbelief. "Really?"

"These zebras forfeited their innocence the moment they gave you shelter." Celestia pulled Solaris from the rubble and pointing him at Luna, "However, if you all were to surrender, I might forgive them."

"Forget that," said Nightmare, "I- Hold on." Nightmare picked up a length of twine she'd spotted on the floor nearby, and cut a piece off, using it to tie back her long and currently pink, purple, and yellow mane into a ponytail. "Finally, I can see properly. Anyway-" Nightmare fired a spell at Celestia, which she barely dodged, "-what were we talking about?"

Celestia retaliated quickly, firing a beam of magic at Nightmare using Solaris, while her horn did the same towards Twilight. They split up, taking to the air to stop Celestia from being able to watch both of them. One would attack from one side, while the other kept Celestia distracted. Not that it made a lot of difference as Celestia managed to intercept all their attacks, even if she was starting to unravel again. One of her eyes was squeezed shut, and traces of flame were sneaking into her mane and magic. She seemed determined to not give up though.

-0-0-0-

"Trixie! Trixie!" Rainbow flitted from building to building, shouting Trixie's name in the hopes that she might get a shout back from the unicorn. The village wasn't even that big, but between the three Wonderbolts searching, Trixie still hadn't been found. "Trixie!"

Rainbow stopped as the overpressure from a powerful spell could be felt even in the air, and it rattled the entire village, demolishing parts of it even further. That's when it occurred to her that Trixie was just as likely to be buried under some rubble as she was to be somewhere else.

"Urgh, this is so messed up! I miss the old Celestia."

"I don't know, the old one seemed kind of whiney."

Rainbow turned around rapidly, then looked down to see a unicorn pointing a crossbow at her. He didn't seem particularly worried as he stood there, chewing on the end of a thick cigar, blowing the occasional smoke ring.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Rainbow enquired.

"Me? I'm the tooth fairy. Couldn't you tell?"

"So you're a Shade then?" She could only assume so from his nonstandard armour.

"Special tactics branch actually."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, having not heard of that, but she could only assume that he was a branch of the military much like the Wonderbolts and Hard Corps had been. "And you haven't killed me because..?

"Because I'm a sporting fellow, and I thought I'd give you a chance. I also don't have orders to kill you, even if you are one of the Element bearers."

"This seems like a terrible idea. I can already tell from you using a crossbow that you're not Adept material, so I think I can probably take you."

"Before I finish squeezing this trigger?"

Rainbow grinned at the stallion, "Probably not, but you'd be hitting air."

"How about a little wager then?"

"Winner walks away with their life?"

The stallion grinned back at Rainbow, "I see you've played this before."

"Yeah, for like the last year or so, and it sort of implies there are some kind of rules to this, when really there isn't." Almost as if to emphasise her point, Rainbow reversed the direction her wings her flapping, quickly forcing herself to the ground to land in a crouch while she drew her right blade. From the crouch she sprang towards the Shade, slicing her blade across his neck in a move that nearly decapitated him. That all happened in the space of a second, during which the Shade had barely reacted before it was over.

"That, and I always win," she muttered as his body crumpled to the ground. He was just one Shade though, and she doubted he came alone, meaning that the others had probably encountered more of the Shades, and that she should probably go and help.

It was a good idea that she did as she found Vapor hiding behind a wall from two mares, a unicorn and an earth pony, both armed with crossbows. Both of them were waiting for Vapor to show herself, and neither of them were in a rush to flush her out. That would prove to be a mistake as Rainbow rushed for them, impaling the unicorn on her blades and using the body as a shield against the earth pony's crossbow, before tossing the body at her to knock her over. Before she could get back up, Rainbow landed on her, stabbing downwards.

"Are you okay?" Rainbow called out to Vapor.

"Yeah, I'm okay," her friend replied, popping her head up over the wall. "I think they wanted to capture me."

"Huh, mine didn't. Have you seen any more of them?"

"Yeah, there was a few more with a prisoner. I think they had Trixie. I don't know if there are any going after Lightning though."

Almost as if to answer her question, a peal of thunder boomed around the village that could only have been Lightning. Both of them hurried towards the source of the sound, and found Lighting circling high above three soldiers, one of which was very much deceased.

"There are three more taking Trixie that way," Lightning said, pointing northwest, the direction that the Mareitanian army was coming from. "I'll take care of these two while you go get her back."

"On it," Rainbow said, flying in the direction Lightning was pointing. As she had said, there were three more soldiers running in that direction, the largest of which was carrying a bound and unconscious Trixie. The earth pony was flanked by the two others.

"They're running right towards Ember and the Zebras," Vapor said suspiciously. "I'm not sure how far they expect to get doing that."

"Celestia was probably supposed to pick them up once she was done subduing Luna. Obviously that wasn't as easy as she hoped it would be." Rainbow pointed at the unicorn on the right of the stallion carrying Trixie, "You take her, I'll take the other. Quietly. If we can take them down, and the big guy before they work out we're here, this should be easy."

"Okay."

Both of them tucked their wings to dive down, and held their blades back to stop them whistling and alerting the soldiers. It worked, and the soldiers were totally unaware they were under attack until the two pegasi were on them.

Rainbow sliced down, her enchanted blades making much easier work of their armour than Vapor's could. She severed her target's spine with a single blow in front of her shoulder blades, then looped around in front of the stallion carrying Trixie and planted her hooves on the ground as she skidded to a stop. He tried to stop himself as she held a blade out in front of him, but failed and ran onto it, his eyes bulging with shock before he crumpled to the ground.

"I guess they weren't expecting any pegasi today," Rainbow commented as she sliced through the ropes binding Trixie to the stallion, freeing her hooves, then pulling the sack off her head. Blood was oozing from a cut above Trixie's left eye, and she seemed a bit battered and dusty, but was otherwise okay even if she was still out cold. The bigger problem was the inhibitor on her horn, but that was quickly rectified when Rainbow found the tool to remove it.

"It's time to wake up, Trixie," Rainbow said, tapping Trixie's cheeks. "I really recommend doing so since Celestia is attacking Twilight, Luna, and Nightmare right now. Trixie?"

Trixie's eyes flickered, and she groaned. "I had the best part of a building dropped on me when I was already hurt. I think I'm allowed a little rest."

"Rest when you're dead."

"Gladly." Trixie opened her eyes and squinted against the glare of the sun, then pulled Rainbow's wing out to give her some shade, much to Rainbow's annoyance. "Do I need to guess how well things are going if you're here rescuing me?"

"You don't remember anything?"

"Just pain. Copious amounts of pain. Then a bright light, followed by a little more pain, which led to me being here getting rescued."

"Celestia's here, attacking Luna."

"That seems unfortunate. I'm guessing she's had some help by now if you're here?"

"Do you even care?" Vapor asked.

Trixie shrugged at Vapor "I have one rule in life. Never get between two or more alicorns having a fight."

"That's an oddly specific rule."

"You'll be surprised by how much use it gets these days."

-0-0-0-

Luna was the weak link in the fight. As soon as they tried to make a definitive attack on Celestia, Celestia would attack Luna, and she was too weak now to defend herself well enough. Twilight was wondering why Celestia was so determined to kill Luna, but all she could do was fight and react.

Celestia wasn't holding up well either though. Her frustration at not being able to get anywhere was causing more cracks to appear in her visage now, and she was openly crying as she fought, although it was hard to tell if she even knew she was doing it, or why.

Twilight grit her teeth as Celestia's magic bored into the shield she had over herself and a prone Luna. The dark blue alicorn looked sorrowfully at Twilight, apologetic at not being able to help, and guilty that she wasn't able to fight her own battles.

"Have you thought of any way to destroy Solaris?" Twilight hissed through her teeth at Luna.

"No, I haven't. It took Faust to destroy my weapons, and I suspect it would take Faust to destroy hers."

"So we got nothing then."

Luna went quiet for a moment as an attack off Nightmare distracted Celestia. "I didn't say that. Perhaps we do, if we turn its own strength against it." Luna scratched an enchanting circle into the dirt in front of her, "Separate Celestia from her weapon, and we shall do what we can."

"How do we separate it from her?"

"That requires you to render her either dead, or unconscious. Either would do. Any other ideas would be yours to come up with."

"Great..." Twilight held her breath, then released it sharply. "Okay, we'll get it done."

Twilight dropped her shield to attack Celestia, her spell bouncing off a quickly conjured shield as Solaris traced after Nightmare, who quickly evaded every attack made against her. Twilight knew that trying to fight Celestia into submission was a serious case of long odds, as she only seemed to be growing in power. That was likely an illusion created through Celestia becoming only more reckless, but it was an illusion that worked. Perhaps they needed a different tact. One that played to the strengths of at least two of them there.

Twilight channelled all the magic she could into Celestia's shield, daring her to either break her stance and finally move, or lose the shield and become vulnerable. Celestia stood her ground, fighting Twilight while Solaris fell idle. Nightmare took the opportunity to attack as well, forcing Celestia to split her attention back to Solaris to attack her as well.

It was a mystery as to why Celestia hadn't fled as yet, but Twilight wasn't going to waste the opportunity if she didn't have to. With a final push she broke Celestia's shield, then teleported to attack Celestia from behind as she tried to recover.

Celestia stumbled from the attack, finally breaking her stance as Twilight knocked her down onto one knee. Again Twilight didn't waste the chance as Nightmare pushed her own attack, and grabbing the largest block of masonry she could find, she slammed it down on the back of Celestia's head. The fact that plan had worked only demonstrated how close to exhaustion Celestia had to be.

Solaris tumbled to the ground, suddenly cool without Celestia to feed her emotions through it, and Twilight snatched it up in her mouth to drop in front of Luna, who quickly set to work carving a rune into the spear's shaft, but not without considerable difficulty as the other runes fought to keep the weapon pristine. She was barely a quarter of the way into carving it when Celestia started to stir.

"Nightmare! Do whatever you have to to keep her from waking up!"

"Like what?"

"I don't know! Use dream magic, or something!"

Nightmare looked pissed for a moment, then nodded stiffly as a trail of magic linked her mind to Celestia's. Instantly her expression turned pained, but it seemed to be working, whatever it was she was doing. All that left was what Luna was doing as she struggled to carve the rune onto Solaris, leaving Twilight with nothing but to fret and feel useless until Luna was done.

"Almost got it," Luna growled, her jaw clenched as her magic cut into Solaris. Twilight would've liked to have seen what Luna was carving into the spear, but she was watching Celestia as she fought against whatever it was Nightmare was doing.

"There!" Luna exclaimed triumphantly. "All we need now is to get Celestia's magic into the enchanting circle."

"How the hell do you expect to do that?"

Luna stood and placed a shield over Solaris and the enchanting circle, leaving the outer edge of the circle exposed. "Protect me, and I'll take care of it. Nightmare, release her!"

Nightmare did so, and Celestia roared back into the fight with a burst of flaming magic that sent Nightmare flying before she was able to do anything. She was slammed into the side of a building, breaking the wall down over her, which was just as well as her disguise slipped off as she passed out.

"You'll pay for that!" Celestia shouted. Puzzlement passed over her face as she tried and failed to pull Solaris back to her, then snarled as Luna grinned at her. "Give him back!"

"You want him, you fight for him."

Celestia attacked Luna using an overwhelming burst of magic. Twilight shielded both herself and Luna from the sustained attack, and held it as long as she could, only trying harder as she saw the run-off from Celestia's magic light up the enchanting circle. With a pulse of power, the rune came to life.

"All yours!" Luna laughed, releasing Solaris. Celestia quickly brought him to her side, then gasped as the weapon trembled. Patches of cold fought with the searing heat of the other enchantments the weapon had, and the more power she forced into it, the worse it became.

"What. Did. You. Do!?" Celestia raged, only feeding yet more power into Solaris, even if unintentionally.

"Can't you tell? Don't you recognise the runes I forged my own weapons with?"

Celestia snarled at Luna, but was cut off by a scream of tortured metal. Solaris wasn't made to work the way it was being forced to now, and the conflicting magic within it, as well as the hot and cold, was tearing the weapon apart. "No! No-no-no! Stop!"

Solaris exploded with that final outburst from Celestia, peppering the area with shards of metal. Twilight shielded herself and Luna again, while Nightmare seemed safe enough under her wall. Celestia wasn't so well protected though, and it was only her armour that saved her from the worst of it. Blood streamed from a dozen deep gashes on her head and neck, and it was only a small miracle for her that it wasn't worse.

Twilight didn't give her a chance to recover, and blasted Celestia, knocking her away into the side of a building. Before she could press the attack, Celestia vanished, teleporting herself away to safety.

"Quite the victory," Luna laughed before collapsing to the ground. "With Solaris gone, Celestia should be much easier to handle."

"Can't she forge a new weapon?"

"Perhaps, but I suspect she won't. She remembers the burden that weapon was at times, so I doubt she would create one with anywhere near the potency Solaris possessed."

Twilight nodded vaguely as she started to excavate Nightmare. The black alicorn was still very much alive, but the blow to her head was keeping her quiet for now. Twilight was sure she'd be loving the drubbing they just gave Celestia otherwise.

She looked over as Trixie, Rainbow, and the other Wonderbolts ran into the square, and was incredibly relieved that they were all okay, even if Trixie appeared a little worse for wear. It was then she saw the head of Solaris buried in the wall nearby, and pulled it free. A large crack marred the facsimile of Celestia's cutie mark, and she couldn't help but find that appropriate considering what was happening to the alicorn it belonged to.

"Oh no, you beat her before we could do anything to help..." Trixie said with a quiet sarcasm. "What a pity."

"Somepony had to." Twilight placed the head of Solaris down, and finished digging Nightmare out. A single eye squinted at her, meaning that Nightmare would probably be back to her old self in no time.

"Don't look into Celestia's head," she grumbled. "Really, really do not. That was an experience I could happily spend the rest of my existence not repeating."

"I know this might not seem like the biggest problem we have right now, but where are all the zebras that live here?" Rainbow asked as Twilight patted Nightmare on the back and took a moment to look back at the spearhead.

"They have fled to Zanzebra, as I instructed them to," Luna answered for Twilight. "We would be wise to do the same. If we truly wish to stop the Mareitanians, Zanzebra is the only place we can do it now, with the full might of ourselves and the zebras against theirs. I pray it shall be enough."

Author's Note

Autumn gets her happy-ish ending. Someone had to.

45. Pop goes the weasels

"I understand. I'll let you know when it's done, if you can't tell anyway. Take care, Twilight."

Fleur let the speaker stone fall dead as she tapped a hoof on the table before her, not caring what complaints she drew for scuffing the varnish. The time had apparently come to make their attack on the Shades' headquarters here in Canterlot, which also meant a lot of other things were going to happen, and if what she'd heard from Fancy about Manehattan, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare was true, were already happening. Here's hoping they didn't regret having the changelings do all that.

Fleur sighed and dragged herself out of her seat. Her comfortable seat in her comfortable home where she'd just spent a rather comfortable week after having crept back into Canterlot along the train tracks and through the sewers. Now that enjoyment was coming to an end, and she didn't relish the feeling at all, selfish as it was.

Being back here, safe and comfortable under the noses of the Shades, instead of running around the Equestrian countryside being hunted, had been a very welcome change of pace, and now she was possibly going to have to give that up. If it wasn't for the fact that she was still a wanted mare she would be tempted to not do anything. That's all she would be though. She wouldn't actually betray everything they'd fought for on a self-indulgent whim.

Fleur told herself to stop whining and pushed herself into a trot as she made her way to where the others were. Fancy Pants had been more than gracious by letting them all stay in his home, even at the great personal risk it offered. He'd even been giving them what pertinent information he could dig up that might be useful, such as the current fact that neither Faust or Celestia were currently in Canterlot, and that the throne was currently being kept warm by Prince Blueblood, who was little more than a glorified hoof-shaker since Faust held all the power.

Fleur opened the door to the living room where the others were all waiting, given that was all they had to do until they were given the word that they could get things moving again. Bon Bon, Rocky, Crème, Flicker, Shining Armour and his parents Twilight Velvet and Nightlight, Shadow, Thorax, Honeydew, and last but not least, Swift Wings, aka the filly. Not all of them would be involved, and not all of them would make it through this. It'd be a miracle if they did.

"It's time," Fleur announced loudly yet firmly.

"Dinner's ready already?"

Fleur gave the filly a long, cool stare, hoping that she might pick up that now really wasn't the time.

"Right, shutting up."

"You've heard off Twilight?" Shining asked, his parents just as interested.

"Yeah, and things are kicking off. Chrysalis has staged an invasion of Manehattan, Fillydelphia, and Baltimare in an attempt to draw Faust's army away from here and Ponyville. Considering what Fancy told us, it worked, and that means it's now our turn to do what we need to before Twilight and the others can come in to do what they have to. Twilight also said they'll be starting their attack just after dawn, which gives us a little more than twelve hours to get this done."

"Plenty of time," said Bon Bon.

"I know. It's also your show now since I won't be participating in the attack."

Bon Bon nodded at Fleur, "Alright. I know we've gone over the plan a dozen times, but I want to go over it once more just to be sure." Bon Bon smirked as the others groaned, "I'm sure there'll be no complaints, hmm?"

-0-0-0-

"Your escape route's all set up," Fleur said to Shining, the roar of water falling over the edge of Canterlot making her have to raise her voice to be heard. "We'll meet you down the bottom ready to make our way to Ponyville for evacuation with the rest. Hopefully we have enough time to get there."

"We will," Shining assured her. "Everything is going to work out fine." Shining looked over at the row of barrels lined up along the side of the river, "Can't say I'm looking forward to doing that again though."

"Why do you think we're walking down?" Fleur said with a faint smirk. "No way am I doing that twice. Once was too many." Fleur grabbed Shining around the neck in a hug, "Take care, and do your best to come back."

Shining returned the hug, "I will." He held it for a few seconds and released her. Nearby he saw his parents doing the same, and he knew his father had to be wracked with guilt over leaving his wife and son to go on a near suicide mission. The problem was that he had no combat instinct at all, and would easily become a liability in this situation. Maybe if they'd had more time to get him ready he could've come, but running all the time like they had for weeks, the time had evaporated. Now he was stuck leaving with Fleur, Honeydew, the filly, and Shadow, who was not pleased even if she accepted that a three legged thestral indoors was less than ideal.

Twilight Velvet and Nightlight kissed deeply, then broke apart as tears slid down both their cheeks. Wordlessly Nightlight grabbed his son and held him. "You both better come back to me."

"We will." Shining pulled out of the hug to give his father a cocky grin, "You know nothing stops this family."

"Be that as it may, I still want the both of you to stay safe and, well, y'know?"

Fleur made a face as they all embraced again, then glanced over to where Thorax and Honeydew were making their own goodbyes, except with a lot more tears from Honeydew who seemed convinced Thorax was going to die. There seemed little point in trying to convince her otherwise since it was a distinct possibility, as much as nobody wanted to admit it.

Fleur stopped looking at any of them. Her injuries from Mareitania and generally weak magic had given her an out from all this. What that didn't show was how damned glad she was about that, or that she was glad for the filly, or for Twilight in a way, because if the worst should happen, at the very least she still has her father.

"Alright, wrap it up," Bon Bon barked. "We're on the clock here, and it's ticking down pretty quick."

"Alright," Fleur said, trying to sound like the leader she felt nothing like, "you all know what you're doing, and- And..." Fleur shrugged, not knowing how to end that, "good luck, all of you."

"Kick some ass!" the filly cheered as a final note.

"I'll kick one just for you, filly," Rocky said, grinning confidently. He gave them a wave and turned to way into the darkness of Canterlot's sewers, followed by Flicker, Crème, and Bon Bon, the later giving Fleur a nod. A few seconds later the rest went after making a few last second goodbyes. Both Nightlight and Honeydew stared after them long after they'd gone out of sight.

"I guess we should be going then?" the filly asked after a while. She didn't get an answer, and waited a little longer before searching for one again. "Fleur?"

"Huh?" Fleur blinked rapidly as she realised she'd been staring blankly into the tunnel. "Uh, yeah, we should go. The last thing we need is for them to worry about us as well." Hooking a leg over Honeydew's withers, she started to pull the mare away. "Come on, we need to be ready and waiting for Thorax and the others when they're done."

Honeydew snarled and smacked Fleur's hoof away, "How can you say that!? You just sent them all in there to die!"
"Nopony forced them to go," Nightlight said. He at least seemed a little more in control of himself. "They'll come back, Honeydew. I know they will."

"You're all deluded."

"And we can't wait until you're proven wrong," Shadow said back. She started walking towards their more cautious route out of the city, spreading her wings a little for balance. "Come if you're going to, Honeydew. We aren't going to force you."

Fleur started heading after Shadow, as did Nightlight and the filly. Thirty seconds later Honeydew made her decision and followed after them. She didn't say anything, but at least she was coming, which was good enough for them.

-0-0-0-

"I'm so glad these sewers aren't used any more," Crème said as she led the way to their destination, her horn lighting the way. "If this is to be my last few hours living, I really rather not spend it smelling of shit."

"Do we have to act like we're going to die?" Thorax whined. "There's nothing saying that all of us can't come back from this."

Rocky clapped a hoof on Thorax's back, making the changeling stumble. "Let's not get our hopes up thinking we'll all come back from this in one piece. Besides, out of all of us, I'm willing to bet you're the most likely to make it back out."

"That doesn't mean none of you won't!"

"Relax," Shining told the changeling, "and stop shouting. Of course we all plan on coming back from this, but let's not pretend we all are, because it'll only hurt more when not all of us do. Fatalistic, I know, but that's the way it is."

"Will you all shut up?" Bon Bon said, her patience fraying as she was trying to keep count. "I can't think with you all chattering away in a noisy, echoing pipe."

"Sorry, Chief," Rocky apologised. "You heard her, no talking unless it's important."

Bon Bon sighed and got her head back down, following the route that she memorised step by painstaking step to beneath the building the Shades occupied. They took a left, then twenty six paces later a right, which they then followed for sixty eight paces before taking another right for thirteen paces. "We're here."

"How can you tell?" Shining asked. The sewer pipes all looked the same to him.

"Because I spent time working it out." Bon Bon pointed to her left, "About three meters through there is the basement of the building we need to get into. If you'd do the honours, Shining?"

"Right, uh, yeah." Shining started cutting into the wall of the pipe with his magic, trying to do it with both haste and caution so as to not alert the ponies in the building. "It's a good job the Shades relocated to outside the castle, because this'd be a lot harder otherwise."

"You mean this isn't hard?" Twilight Velvet asked back. She raised an eyebrow as her son shrugged, "I hate to think what you do consider hard."

"I think this is going to be plenty hard," said Flicker. She hefted her crossbow in her magic, checking it over. "I'll be glad to finally put an end to this though. Tonight, Black Rose and the Shades die."

"More than that," said Rocky. "Just think, in a week this entire thing with Faust and Mareitania could be over."

"Let's not count our chickens before they hatch," Bon Bon chuckled. "Stopping Faust is princess business. I'm settling for what happens tonight. How's it going, Shining?"

"Uh, I've done like half a meter at most. Don't rush me."

"Sorry."

-0-0-0-

It took another ten minutes before they made a hole to peek into the room beyond the sewer, and all they found was a room in darkness save for the pale blue-green glow from a couple of gemstones set into the top of a box attached to the wall. Other than that, and a few dusty pieces of furniture, the basement was empty enough to carry on digging into.

"Is that the security system?" Rocky asked as he passed the satchels he'd been wearing through the hole in the wall.

Taking the bags in her magic, Crème pulled them through and lowered them to the floor as Rocky climbed through. "That's it, or at least the power for it, just like the blueprints for this place said. It appears to have been modified though, and recently. I'll have a look."

Letting the others come in through the hole, Crème opened the box and shielded her eyes as light spilled out of it. Usually a magical security system had three spell systems for detection, controlling locks, and an alarm. This one seemed to have at least twice that many, with ones for motion detection, some kind of automated shield system, and fire suppression, which was usually handled separately. She had no idea who could've modified this, but they really knew their stuff.

"What do you think?" Bon Bon asked Crème since she'd been staring into the box for several seconds without doing anything.

"Whoever did this was told to make no mistakes. Failsafe systems, redundancy systems, and a trigger for the alarm if this gets tampered with. Unfortunately for them, they didn't really think that the simplest way to prevent any of these from working was to remove the power. Probably why this was hidden down here, to make it harder to find. Too bad for them this is where we started."

"So you can disable it?"

"Sure, lemme just-"

"Stop!" Twilight Velvet shouted. "Don't you dare remove anything!"

"What? Why not?"

"Because that's only the primary system. Deactivating that will activate the secondary system and set an alarm off. Do not touch."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because every wealthy pony in Canterlot has security like that, and I'm familiar enough with how it works to know what will happen if you remove those power crystals."

Bon Bon sighed. She knew it couldn't have been that simple. "How do we deactivate it then?"

"First you have to deactivate each security node on every floor of the building, and the secondary system along with it. Then you can safely turn off the primary system, by which point we've already wasted loads of time, and been discovered a dozen times over."

Bon Bon groaned and rolled her eyes. "Of course. I guess we are doing this the hard way then. Rocky, you're on demolition duty. Shining Armour, Twilight Velvet, and Thorax, you're securing the building. Nothing gets in or out, including sounds. Crème, Flicker, we're going to see if Black Rose is in, otherwise this is going to be a partial bust if she isn't. Let's move."

"Guess I'll set us up the bomb then," Rocky said quietly as the others left. He started to pull bundles of dynamite out of the satchels he had. "Lucky me."

-0-0-0-

There was a considerable degree of truth behind the idea that certain services never sleep, which is why it was gratifying to find that the building provided rooms for the Shades to sleep in, rather than force them all to go home every night. Perhaps it was more of a consideration because their actual homes were back in Mareitania, and this was a temporary measure until they found homes here, provided they even wanted to.

There was one downside though. If they set the alarm off, there would be a lot of angry and armed ponies trapped inside the building with them. That would be something they had to deal with though as Shining enveloped the building in a subtle shield that would stop doors and windows from opening, and noises from escaping.

Shining kept an eye on his mother as she stared at the pony on the front desk, her throat cut and her life bled away. They had no idea if she was actually a Shade, but being where she was meant that she had to be silenced, and in this case silenced meant killed. It was a lesson that Shining had never really learnt, so those far less initiated than himself had to be a little freaked out.

"Okay, is the building secured?" Bon Bon asked, not seeing any difference beyond Shining's horn glowing.

Shining nodded firmly, "It is. Nothing is getting in or out."

"Good. Thorax, Mrs Twilight, make sure to protect Shining. If any word of what's happening in here gets out, we're in serious trouble." Bon Bon paused and swivelled an ear as she heard struggling, then the sound of a body falling. "That said, we might end up in trouble anyway." Bon Bon gave them a smile and went to the desk where Crème was searching through the various papers, "Find anything?"

Crème pushed a book over to Bon Bon. A quick look told her it was a checking in and out book, and that around thirty Shades were currently in the building, including one Black Rose. The rest were either out of the building or on deployment to the eastern seaboard. "Good, she's here." Bon Bon frowned as Crème continued searching, "What are you looking for?"

"Clues about the different departments. We might as well see what the Shades know about what the princesses are planning. The last thing we need if for them to know all about what the princesses are doing, and set a trap for them."

"I'm pretty sure that if they wanted to make a trap they wouldn't have sent all their soldiers off after Chrysalis, because they'd know she and the changelings were just a decoy. Still can't believe we're allied with them," she added with a grumble.

"Be that as it may, I still think we should learn as much as we can before we go. Who knows what stuff they know that we don't?"

Bon Bon groaned but relented because it was in theory a good idea. "Alright, but we're only searching as we're going. We don't have time for a full dive into what they're hiding."

"Understood, I-" Crème choked as a stallion calmly trotted into view, and grabbed a knife off Bon Bon's belt while pushing her down. She whipped the knife forward in an arc over her head, throwing it through the air to land in his neck, cutting off his ability to shout, and eventually to live. "I think we best be getting on."

"Agreed. You three," Bon Bon said to those holding the door, "be careful, and if things get too hairy, fall back to the basement to give Rocky as much time as you can."

Shining saluted Bon Bon, "You got it."

"Come on Crème, Flicker-" Bon Bon started as Flicker seemed to appear out of the shadow of a potted plant. "Could you not scare me when I'm already jumpy?"

"Sorry."

"Let's go."

-0-0-0-

The dorms occupied the top floor, leaving four floors between that and the ground to search through. So far they'd only found a few Shades working late into the night, and they'd been taken care of with relative ease. Other than that, their searches weren't proving particularly successful. They hadn't turned up anything of interest, and it was surprising how much of what the Shades were doing that was dedicated to finding the princesses, and their means of getting around so quickly.

There was also the dark zone around the Everfree Castle that had been set up to keep nosy individuals out. Whatever they were doing there had Faust paranoid enough to essentially ban all access to the Everfree forest. From that they could only assume what was going on there was bad enough for Faust to know that nopony could ever find out about it.

"Hey, I found something on that magic powered tank we took out," Crème said as she skimmed through a filing cabinet. "With the loss of all the researchers they discontinued the project. Instead they relocated the funds to researching long range artillery. That sounds... bad."

"Anything in there about that artillery?"

Crème skimmed through the files and shook her head, "Not that I can see, unless it's working under a code name. I get the feeling this cabinet is for stuff they've finished with because there's not a lot of stuff in it."

"Then why are you even looking? We need current stuff! Not old stuff!"

"Alright, I didn't know that when I started looking." Crème closed the filing cabinet and started skimming over the desks around her, but found nothing useful. It did occur to her though that the highest concentration of useable information would probably be with Black Rose, since it stood to reason that pretty much everything had to pass by her at some point.

"Wha- What are you all doing here? Oh shit! It's you!"

Thankfully the bolt from Flicker's crossbow flew faster than the mare that found them could summon her magic to set off an alarm. Even so, Crème did her best to suppress the unicorn's magic until she drew her last breath, and sighed in relief when she did.

"This is too risky," Bon Bon decided. There wasn't enough of them to split their attention between searching through the intelligence here, and keeping an eye out for trouble. They needed to pick one thing to do, and it needed to be the one thing they actually came here to do. "We're ending this. Crème, take point. Flicker, watch our backs. Let's kill Black Rose and get out of here."

Falling into a loose formation, they made their way to the stairs. Unsure of where Black Rose was exactly, they could only work with what was her most likely location on, or at least near the top floor. Being the head of the Shades she mostly likely had a room to herself, which would make things easier in a way provided it had something to differentiate it from the others.

The next two floors gave them nothing either, except for a few more ponies to silence. It left them wishing they had more than just the barebones architectural blueprint of the building to guide them, because while it gave them the layout of the building, it didn't give them the slightest idea where what they wanted was.

The next floor showed promise, and had a setup that catered more to individual offices, rather than an open plan like the previous floors. This hopefully meant that Black Rose was here, or at least her office.

"There." Flicker pointed to the double doors at the end of a corridor. Nothing said that it belonged to Black Rose, but it was the only office that had double doors. That probably meant it was the biggest, and therefore belonged to the pony in charge. "That has to be it."

"I find that to be a weak assumption," Crème said, even as the three of them moved to investigate. "But who cares what I think?"

Bon Bon shushed Crème and put her eye to the keyhole to look inside. A large desk sat at the rear of the room, while around the edges were various cabinets that held a mix of files, weapons, and even a selection of alcohol. There was still no definitive proof of who the room belonged to, but Bon Bon was willing to make bets at this point.

She pointed at Crème, then at the door. "Check the door for alarms and open it," she ordered, taking a step back to allow the unicorn to work while keeping an eye out. There was nothing, and a couple of minutes later the door clicked as Crème's magic turned the lock after disabling the alarm connected to it.

"The security in this place is bordering on severely paranoid," Crème commented as she pushed the door open, letting the others in. "It's pretty new too. I'm guessing what we pulled in Fillydelphia got them all concerned."

Bon Bon said nothing until she closed the doors behind them. "Cut the chatter down, Crème. We are on the job here."

"This is definitely Black Rose's office," Flicker said as she sniffed the air. "I'd recognise that perfume anywhere."

"And I suppose that's all the proof we need," Crème said dryly. She opened a draw of the desk and started to go through it while the other two did the same around the rest of the room. There was nothing in it, at all, while the next held writing implements. The others didn't contain much either, so she supposed that the good stuff was in the other cabinets. "Any luck?"

"Nothing that's going to give us any form of advantage," said Bon Bon. "Suspicious individuals, wanted ponies, which mostly seems to be us and the princesses, various others reports, and according to this report here even the Shades are getting concerned about the state of Mareitania. Not because it's falling apart and the weather is out of control, oh no, but because the population are showing signs of unrest and disloyalty. I wonder why..."

"Hah, how blind could they possibly get? Either of you found anything about Smile? Last thing we need is the Shades getting their hooves on the stuff we had in there."

"Nothing in here," said Bon Bon. She nudged her head towards a door in the back right of the room, "Why don't you go see if there's anything of interest in there?"

"On it." Crème trotted over to the door and tried the handle, finding it unlocked. That made sense since there wasn't anywhere for a key to go. Pulling the door open, she trotted through into a bedroom of all things, but she didn't have time to process that because something went click, and a searing pain stabbed into her back that quickly went numb and cold as her legs collapsed under her. All she remembered then was an alarm blaring.

"Crème!" Bon Bon screamed as Crème fell to the ground, a crossbow bolt sticking out of her back. She ran over to her fallen comrade, and tried to turn her to see if she was alive when her eyes met the occupant of a four poster bed in the room beyond. It was none other than Black Rose, who quickly grabbed a knife from under her pillow.

"I'll kill you!" Bon Bon screamed, running and jumping onto the bed to kill Black Rose before she was ready. She was too slow, and the best she could do was deflect the knife in Black Rose's hoof with her gauntlet before getting kicked away into the wall, leaving a sizable dent in the plaster.

"I knew it! I knew this would happen one day!" Black Rose said triumphantly as she stood on the end of her bed, towering over Bon Bon. "You just couldn't give up, could you?"

Bon Bon sniffed and spat onto the carpet, "I'll give up when you're dead. Flicker, barricade the office door. Nopony gets in or out of here until us or her is dead."

Flicker took one look at Bon Bon, then Black Rose, who blew a kiss at her, and made her decision. No way in hell was she going to attempt to get between those two. "I'll buy you what time I can."

"Oh Flicker, you never were the bravest."

"Shut up!" Bon Bon pawed at the carpet, "You're going to pay for killing Tootsie Roll and Crème, you bitch."

"Uh-huh." Black Rose jumped down off the bed at Bon Bon, bringing her knife down in an overhead strike that Bon Bon quickly rolled away from. She swung a hoof, narrowly missing Black Rose's jaw, and chased as Black Rose jumped away.

"Y'know, Flicker could've just shot me," Black Rose jeered as she danced backwards away from Bon Bon. "Would've been a lot easier."

"No chance. I'm killing you myself." Bon Bon stopped by a chest of draws and hooked a hoof around a vase of roses, flinging it towards Black Rose. The mare ducked, letting the vase smash against the wall behind her, showering her with water and pottery fragments. She wasn't given enough time to recover before Bon Bon was on her again, punching her in the face.

Black Rose staggered away, hissing with pain. "That was a cheap shot."

"Like you're one to judge." Bon Bon went for Black Rose again, but found herself having to stop as the earth pony dodged past her and jumped for the bed, grabbing one of the pillars and using it to swing herself around and kick Bon Bon on the side, sending her flying into a wardrobe, smashing its doors.

Bon Bon grabbed a dress in her hooves and pulled it down as Black Rose jumped at her, catching the knife in the fabric and wrapping it enough so that it wouldn't cut her. She jerked it to the side and kicked Black Rose back far enough to let her get out of the wardrobe. Unfortunately Black Rose had managed to keep hold of the knife, moving it to her mouth since holding it in her hooves was proving too much of a hindrance.

Bon Bon widened her stance as they faced each other. She could hear Flicker grunting as ponies tried to force their way into the office, so she knew time was running out. All the same, she waited for her opponent to make the first move.
Black Rose spun and bucked Bon Bon, who dodged the attack easily. She tried to turn back around, but found that her front left hoof wouldn't budge. The glow of magic surrounded it, and she was about to blame Flicker when she saw the horn of the other unicorn lit up. Clearly she wasn't as dead as they thought.

Bon Bon didn't waste time wondering what was wrong with Black Rose. She attacked, but Black Rose ducked low, tripping Bon Bon. Black Rose's hoof was still stuck, so before she got stabbed Bon Bon grabbed Black Rose around the back and around the neck while her back hooves pinned Black Rose's down.

Bon Bon tried to get her gauntlet up to finish Black Rose off, but with her hoof now free Black Rose was able to get it up to hold Bon Bon's weapon back and try to pull her other hoof away from her neck. Neither of them could overpower the other, not until Black Rose twisted her head enough to get her knife where she could cut Bon Bon.

Bon Bon growled, suppressing the pain as the knife cut into the flesh of her jaw. She returned the favour by biting on Black Rose's cheek. Black Rose screamed, forgetting her fight against Bon Bon's weapon for just a second, but that was all it took for Bob Bon to pull her weapon up to Black Rose's neck and flex her hoof, extending the blade to stab Black Rose just under the jaw.

Bon Bon held the stance for a moment until Black Rose went completely floppy, then threw the body off her. She pulled herself to her hooves and stared at the corpse as she pressed a hoof to her cheek.

"Bon... Bon..."

In a flash Bon Bon forgot all about her injury to run to Crème's side. The pale mare was even paler, and sweating heavily as she drew in each painstakingly slow breath. "I'm here, Crème, I'm here. I thought you were dead."

"Will be, soon. Can't feel my legs, or anything."

Bon Bon grimaced at Crème's laboured speech, and at the arrow sticking out of her back, just below the withers. Blood was dripping out of Crème's armour and soaking into the already red carpet.

"I'm done for."

"Don't say that! If we can find you a healing thingy we can save you!"

"I'm not even going to make it out of this building, Bon Bon, let alone Canterlot. Leave me and go."

"I'm not leaving you here to get blown up with the rest of these scum!" Bon Bon rubbed her eyes as tears spilled down her cheeks, stinging where it met her cut. She sat down beside Crème and cradled her head in her hooves, "I'll carry you if I have to."

"There's no time. Go!"

"I'm not leaving you, and that's final!"

Crème didn't try to fight Bon Bon over it again. It was stupid, what she was doing, but if it meant not dying alone, or being blown to smithereens, she was okay with it. Besides, she knew there was nothing she could actually do to stop Bon Bon, not when she appeared to be paralysed.

"Flicker, are we clear?"

Flicker slowly walked into view, her expression hard with sorrow. "Yeah, they've gone."

"Then help me get Crème onto my back so we can get out of here."

"I think they went downstairs."

Bon Bon closed her eyes at what that meant, and hoped that Shining, Thorax, and Twilight Velvet could at least hold their own for now. She still wasn't leaving Crème though, not when there was a chance of saving her.

-0-0-0-

"Is that all you got you fucking cunts! Your grandmothers can fight harder than this!"

Shining watched from a polite distance as his mother took on a team of Shades from the safety of the front desk, requiring little more than the occasional shield as assistance. He knew his mother was... excitable, once you got her going, but this was far beyond anything he'd seen before. She fought like a mare possessed.

"I'll be wearing your balls for earrings before day is over you pussies!"

A mare possessed with a particularly foul mouth.

Of course the fact that his mother was currently playing the role of a one mare army was an indication that something had gone incredibly, and even fantastically wrong. His first clue had been when the alarm had gone off. The second had been when a dozen armed ponies had stormed in wanting to know what was going on. They'd pushed them back to behind the front desk, but that was it so far.

"Thorax, I need you to- Thorax, stop hiding." Shining waited as Thorax the turtle changed back into Thorax the changeling. "Get behind those Shades and do something about them. If we don't get them to pull back we're in trouble."

"I thought your mother was doing okay."

"My mother is going to get herself killed. Go help her." Shining rolled his eyes as Thorax transformed again, this time into some small, fast, and flying creature as he quickly flew away from Shining to behind the Shades out of sight. The only thing Shining knew about Thorax doing anything was an unholy roar of what sounded like a big cat. A very big cat. All Shining heard after that was some painfully organic sounds, shouting, and then the sound of hooves rapidly retreating.

"Come back you cowards! I'm not done with you!"

"Mother, stand down-"

"Don't you tell me to stand down young stallion!"

Shining closed his eyes and waited a beat before continuing. "I'm sure they'll be back soon enough, so you'll get your chance then."

"Um, guys, we have a problem!"

Shining groaned as he heard those words from Thorax, then felt his heart sink as Bon Bon walked into sight, a gravely wounded Crème slumped over her back. Flicker wordlessly joined Twilight Velvet behind the desk, while Shining tried to think of what to do.

"The room where we found Black Rose was booby-trapped," Bon Bon explained without being asked. "We've killed her, but..." Bon Bon shook her head.

Shining failed to think of anything, even as Crème fluttered her eyes open. She didn't seem to be able to lift her head though, and considering the placement of the arrow in her back, and the way she hung limply over Bon Bon, Shining was mostly impressed that she was still alive.

"Alright, let's get her out of here so we can get her help. You go ahead to the ba-"

"Incoming!"

Shining swore as more arrows thudded into the wood of the desk, and again as his mother returned fire with an almost insane amount of glee. The Shades had recovered far too quickly, and seemed to have found some extra help. They also seemed to have found the bravery to rush the entrance, maybe in an attempt to get help, or maybe out of a desire to get out of the building away from danger.

"Damn it!" he swore. He reinforced the shield around the building and ran for the desk, sliding into cover behind it and returning fire. It was while he was doing that he spotted a few ponies run past the rest, right towards the basement where they'd left Rocky undefended.

"Thorax! We need these Shades gone!"

"On it!" Thorax transformed again, this time into something vaguely beetle-like, using its thick armour to shut off the arrows. It also had jaws capable of biting a pony in two. Shining learnt that one when Thorax decapitated one of their assailants. He had no idea what that creature was but it was pushing the Shades back.

Shining, Twilight Velvet, and Flicker intensified their fire, striking down a few of their targets, and pushing them back. Taking a moment to reinforce the shield once more, Shining led the way out from behind the desk to make a run for the basement, doing his best to shield Bon Bon as she slowly walked with Crème.

"No..."

Shining pricked his ears at that single, despair laden syllable, and followed it down into the basement where he saw Rocky slumped over against the wall, a trio of corpses around him. He was still alive, but he was heavily injured. At the rate he was bleeding, he wouldn't survive much longer.

"Damn it," Shining growled. If they hadn't been pushed back to the front desk they wouldn't have left Rocky on his own, and this wouldn't have happened. To make matters worse, the remnants of the detonator were scattered across the floor, along with the receiver, and a whole bunch of other stuff. They'd totally fucked it.

Shining put a shield over the entrance to the basement once Thorax was through it, with blood dripping from his mandibles. Safe for the moment he walked over to Rocky as Bon Bon and Flicker tried to help him. Crème was on the floor nearby, unmoving, but eyes solidly on her stricken teammate.

"Too many," Rocky wheezed, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. "Couldn't... couldn't save the demo stuff."

"It's our fault," said Shining. "We got pushed back and left you on your own."

"It's my fault for setting off the alarm," Crème countered. "If I'd been more careful, none of this would've happened."

"There's no point in placing blame!" Bon Bon shouted, her normally calm attitude gone with the prospect of losing two of her teammates. Her friends. "We've killed Black Rose, so all we can do now is get out of here and try to get you help."

Rocky coughed, splattering blood on the floor. "Not happening, Chief."

"We aren't failing another mission," said Crème. "I still have my magic, so I can set off the explosives."

"But- But you'll have to stay here to do that."

"I know."

"No you don't," Rocky said quickly. "If you can jury-rig the wiring and connect the detonator to it, I'll set it off."

"We don't have time for that," Crème said softly. "You'll be dead before we're even finished wiring it together. You know what we need to do, Bon Bon. We aren't ending this on a failure."

The agony of having to pick the best of several poor choices tore at Bon Bon, and Shining did not envy her that position. This war was about to cost her her entire team, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Alright," she said weakly. "Shining, bundle the loose wires into one quickly. I... need a little time."

Shining did as he was asked, gathering together all the loose wires he could find. That didn't stop him from overhearing though, not that there was much to listen to. The three of them sat quietly, not saying a word, while Flicker hovered nearby, unsure if she was welcome or not. It was only when Rocky motioned her in that she sat with them.

"It's been a hell of a ride," Rocky said after a moment, his chest rattling with each breath. "I couldn't think of a bunch of better, or crazier ponies to do it with."

"It has been an absolute honour to lead you," Bon Bon said back. "I wish I could get to carry on leading you."

"We all knew what we were getting into back when we signed on with Smile, let alone this," Crème laughed. "We should count our lucky stars we made it even this far."

"We'll tell Tootsie you said hi," Rocky joked, but there was no laughter as he coughed uncontrollably, each breath getting harder and harder to come by. He eventually stopped and groaned, "Fucking... urrgh. I hope you're going to take care of yourself, Flicker. I can't deny that it's been nice knowing you."

"I-" Flicker choked, her words failing as the barrier broke. Tears flooded from her eyes, and with nothing she could say she hugged Rocky and kissed him on the cheek. She was very surprised when he raised a hoof and moved her lips to his own, even if it meant her tasting his blood.

"Should've done that a while ago," he chuckled. "Goodbye Flicker."

"B-" Flicker choked, and kissed Rocky again, then nuzzled Crème in a quick farewell before running out through the hole in the wall as fast as she could.

"Literal lady-killer," Crème snickered. "You need to go, Bon Bon. Chief."

"I know." Bon Bon hugged the both of them, then stood back to give them a salute that Crème was only able to return by lifting her hoof in her magic. "I'm going to miss you."

"Doesn't mean you need to rush to get where we're going," said Rocky. "Now get going, all of you."

All of them saluted as went, with Bon Bon waiting until last to go. Even then she lingered, and it was fairly obvious that a large part of her wanted to stay. She knew she couldn't, or that she'd be allowed to, so begrudgingly she left, leaving the two of them alone.

"I never thought it'd come to this," Rocky said after a few seconds. "I'm glad I'm not doing it alone though, no offense."

"None taken. I feel the same." Crème closed her eyes and sighed. As stupid as it sounded since she couldn't currently feel a thing, she was scared it was going to hurt. She was scared about dying too, but she was determined. There was no point lying about her state though. If the external bleeding didn't kill her, then the internal bleeding might, and if that didn't, getting flung over a waterfall in a barrel with an arrow in her back would probably finish her off. There was no escaping this.

"How long should we give them?"

"A... couple mins."

Crème tried to nod, and it hurt her that she couldn't even do that. This was no way to live. She closed her eyes to try and hold her fears in, and listened as Rocky's breathing grew slower and slower until it finally came to a stop.

"Goodbye, Rocky. I guess I'll see you soon."

Taking hold of the bundle of wires in her magic, Crème created a single spark, and-

-0-0-0-

Shining stumbled as it felt like the entirety of Canterlot jumped with the explosion. Crème had done it then. All of them had done it. It had taken sacrifices, but they had finally put an end to the Shades.

They still had to get out of Canterlot though, and that would prove to be a lot easier with the massive distraction they'd just been given. Not that they were easy to see down here anyway.

"I'll fly ahead and find Fleur, let her know you're coming," Thorax said as Shining helped Flicker into a barrel. He didn't wait for Shining to countermand him, not that Shining had any intention to do so, and turned into a tiny bird to fly away.

"This is so fucked," Shining sighed as he pushed Flicker's barrel out into the current. He wasn't sure if it was better to lose teammates quickly, rather than slowly so there's time for goodbyes. That level of emotion was unhealthy in certain situations, and only worked this time when he was there to give them the time they needed with shields.

"Language," Twilight Velvet said noncommittally as she climbed into her own barrel.

"Not the time, Mother." Shining sealed her barrel and pushed it off as well, leaving just him to wait for Bon Bon to slowly emerge from the sewer tunnel. His heart ached when he saw her, and the only way to describe the way she looked was broken. She was now the sole survivor of her team, and while he'd never been in that position himself, he'd heard enough to know that it was beyond rough.

"Come on, Bon Bon," he said as kindly as he dared to without sounding patronising, "we need to be in Ponyville soon."

"I should've stayed with them."

Shining picked Bon Bon up and placed her down in her barrel. There could be time for survivor's guilt later, when there wasn't a whole lot more to do. He pushed the barrel out, then jumped into his own, sealing it tightly and using his magic to propel himself into the current just far enough away to hope he didn't land on Bon Bon's.

"I seriously hope I never have to do any of this again."

-0-0-0-

Fleur bit her lip, powerless to do little more than watch as Nightlight, Shadow, and Thorax pulled the barrels from the river and opened them. The news had been given about Crème and Rocky, and while there was no shock about losing some of them, that didn't stop it from hurting. The fact that Honeydew and Nightlight had reason to be relieved didn't help, because it made her want to tell them to fuck off.

Flicker was the first out of the barrel, her eyes red and puffy, and her horn cracked again, presumably from the trip down. It was hard to tell what she was crying from the most though, the pain or the loss, and she settled down on the riverbank without so much as a word.

Thankfully Twilight Velvet had endured the trip down in better shape, and eagerly embraced her husband as soon as she was free. Fleur couldn't begrudge them that happiness though, not really. If she were in their position, she'd be just the same. That was a position far away from where Bon Bon was.

"I am so sorry," Fleur said as Bon Bon climbed out of her barrel and sat limply on the ground, watching the smoke rising from Canterlot. "If there's anything I can do, just let me know."

"Unless you know of a way to bring them back, there's nothing you can do."

Fleur nodded, accepting that for now. The fact that Bon Bon managed to say that without lashing out spoke well of her, and Fleur wasn't going to push a mare that didn't want it right now.

"Okay, but we can't linger here for long. We need to get to Ponyville for evacuation, along with a certain Lyra Heartstrings, whom I believe you know quite well." She'd certainly been mentioned enough in the past. Fleur glanced over to where Shining and his parents were embracing. Seeing the others so happy and relieved had to sting for Bon Bon when she'd lost so much. "I'm pretty sure she'd be happy to see you."

Bon Bon nodded listlessly, and padded over to an inflatable raft that was nosing into the water, helping Flicker up and into it along the way. Thorax and Honeydew were already in, leaving the rest of them to get in when they were ready.

"I hope this was worth it," the filly said to Fleur as the larger mare helped her in. The filly might not have actually cried, but it was plain to see in the creases of her face that it was hurting her.

"It will be. With Canterlot distracted they won't be in a position to assist the soldiers at Ponyville very quickly. That, and stopping the Shades will leave Faust in the dark for now. Hopefully."

"I hope you're right." The filly jumped into the raft, followed by Fleur, Shadow, and Twilight Velvet. Shining and Nightlight pushed the raft into the river, and took up the paddles to guide them safely to Ponyville. Just in time too as on the distant horizon a flock of griffons could be seen, their armour shining in the first light of the new day as they escorted several large airships towards Ponyville. The first battle to free Equestria was about to begin.