A new order

"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.