Telvanni raced across the ground, Ponyville drawing closer and closer with every four metre bound. Twilight was on his shoulders with a array of spells readied.

Gilda was readied with her halberd right behind them, flanked by Swapper 3 4 who was carrying Vinyl.

Behind those four was the army that the New Lunar Republic had amassed.

The pounding of hooves was matched by the blood pounding through the veins of the warriors as they rushed to Ponyville's aid.

They were answering Scoot's call to arms!

~~~~~~~

The Wonderbolts and Scootaloo were damn near impossible to beat. With Sweetie using her magic to create a defense and Scoots or the 'Bolts decimating anypony who made it through the defense. The only thing that had Scoots truly pissed was that Celestia was actually leaving back to the Castle and her Imperial soldiers were now moving on the rest of the town, sending it's occupants scattering and screaming for safety.

"Spits, we need to save these civilians yesterday!" Scootaloo roared.

Spitfire could only grunt, she knew they didn't have the horse power to fight their way to the townsponies defence.

~~~~~~~

Ponies scattered this way and that, skirting around a lone grey mare as she trotted the opposite direction towards the oncoming enemy soldiers. Once all the civillians had passed her and it was only the mare and a line of angry soldiers did anypony get a good look at her.

She wore bright white robes accented with scarlet with a raised hood with a beak like top hanging over her muzzle. At her side was a rapier and on her forehooves were two odd bracers. She uttered but one sentence before drawing her blade.

"Obscultate cantu."

The nearest soldier hefted his broadsword to find the end of the cowled mare's rapier kissing the fibres of his heart. He was dead in mere seconds. From there two more soldiers rushed forward. The first swung a nasty looking mace that the mare deftly piriuetted around while the second accidently put a slash meant for her into his fellow soldier. As the second stared aghast at his acts he barely had time to register the sword tip that tickled the back of his throat.

"Venite, musicam ludo!" grinned the mare under her hood.

At this challenge a hulking stallion in heavy armour bearing a large battle axe stepped forward.
"Your death wish, fool!"

Rather risk her rapier to the force of the large axe, the mare flicked her forehooves, short blades made to resemble cello bows, complete with razor sharp wire strings, shot from her bracers.
"Mors vult nobis omnibus."

The soldier merely smirked. What could two small blades possibly do against his armour or weapon? Lurching forward the soldier swung his axe up the ways first before slamming it right back down. The surprise came from realizing he'd completely missed his target. Jerking around he relocated his target on his right, jerking his heavy cumbersome axe towards the hooded mare again.

Instead of dodging again the mare leapt gracefully over the blade and thrust her twin wrist blades into the neck slot that allowed the stallion to move his head. The death was instantaneous, but it cost her time. In that time another soldier had made an attempt to strike her from behind but found a sharpened steel 'vinyl record' in his throat before he could make contact. Spinning about the hooded mare's cowl fell, revealing grey fur, twin lavender eyes, and a darker grey mane.

"Scratch, you made it!"

"Ah, you know how it is Tavi, you get caught up with the gang and forget the time until the last minute. Now, how's bout we take Ponyville back, eh?"

"Assentior!"

~~~~~~~

How it happened the gods only know. One second the 'Bolts had Scoots and Sweetie secured, the next the two groups were on opposite sides of the town!

Scoots and Sweetie were making a glorious team, Sweetie turning any loose item into a spinning weapon/barricade while Scootaloo used her natural dancing skills and a little help from her mother to dodge in and out of the typhoon of items luring more than a few fool soldiers to their deaths.

"How're you holding SB?!"

Sweetie swayed slightly from all she'd done so far that day. "Tired...don't know...how much long....longer I can keep this....up..." the filly replied, doing her best to incorporate the words into the song her out of breath body was just barely sustaining.

Almost as if to prove the point the entire barrage of magically held items fell as Sweetie collapsed into the dirt. Scoots was over her brave fillyfriend in milliseconds as the soldiers pressed their new advantage.

"Oh, yeah, you lot are tough as a Glascow budgie aren't yall?! Yeah that's right, pick on the two fourteen year old filles, you're all really tough!" In contradiction to her own words Scoots lobbed a throwing knife into the nearest soldier instantly killing him. At that four soldiers bum rushed her. just as they got a metre away a large feathery form slammed into the from above, breaking ribs and shattering spines.

"Which one of you buckers thought attacking my bucking neice was a good idea?! All of you? More fun for me then! Scoots, get your mare friend back to the castle a.s.a.p and get her to Shy!" Gilda barked as she hefted her halberd towards the enemy soldiers.

As Scoots took off Spits had just made it back over and offered her aid.

"Hey Griffon, you got room for a mare in your fight?" Spits grinned cheekily as she readied her mameluke.

Gilda grinned predatorily towards the Imperial soldiers. "Just stay out of my way!"

~~~~~~~

Neither Luna nor Celestia were on the battlefield. With that stated, there was no way in hell you could convince anypony that they hadn't attended it with the death and destruction being wreaked by Twilight and Telvanni. The former actually didn't have it in her heart to kill and was focusing on nothing but defensive spells while the latter was something no Imperial soldier knew how to fight.

The Imperial knew the pack tactics of the four legged canids called Timbre wolves, and they knew the ambush tactics of the Diamond dogs. On that note neither species was particularly smart.
What they face now was a highly intelligent battle worn soldier that was taller than the tallest member of their force and ten times as strong. To top that was the fact that Telvanni's body was a weapon in of itself and his constant shifting from biped to qaudriped made it impossible to get a lock on his fighting patterns.

Twilight's impenetrable defenses coupled with Telvanni's unparallelled fighting prowess came together to form an impenetrable pairing.

~~~~~~~

Hacking a nearby Imperial in twain Gilda used her seconds long reprieve to cast a look over at Spitfire and the other Wonderbolts as they defended against any and all attackers.

"So then 'Ms. Firebird', what makes the Wonderbolts want to join up with the Lunar Republic. Last I checked you were all loyal to Celestia!" the gryphon snarked.

Spitfire grimaced as she answered. "Celestia lied to me, purposely sent me on a mission to kill Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty and a fellow 'Bolt and on top of all that, I messed up bad. Call this an attempt to amend my mistakes."

Gilda agreed with the pegasus' reasoning but made a mental note to make it quite clear exactly how the Wonderbolt Captain would make her 'amends'. In the meantime it was war!

"On your left Spitfire!" snapped Gilda as she took one out of a pair of pegasi down.

Spitfire had rounded in an instant and sent a furious slash right into the attacking ponies face before taking to Gilda's side. "It's time we pushed through to the Lunar forces I think!"

Gilda just nodded and grinned.

~~~~~~~

Octavia and Vinyl made the perfect duo. Their movements fluid and rhythmic, playing off of one anothers strengths and defending eachother's weaknesses in perfect harmony.

"So, broke out the old vampony slaying gear, eh?"

"Well you know how it is Vinyl. Ruffians harass the town folk and there are only so many Ponyvilleans that know how to actually fight. I figured that you would be coming along at some point anyway, though I figured you would have had your bass cannon."

Vinyl couldn't help but suppress a chuckle. "You know how it is, some venues just can't handle the amps."

Octavia understood, as the bass cannon would have destroyed buildings as well as any enemies and they were here to save Ponyville after all, not destroy it.
"Well then, I guess some finer tuning never goes out of style, no?"

"Not at all Tavi, not at all!"

~~~~~~~

Most war is considered organized chaos, a jumble of fighting groups all mashed together but working decently together in a team. That could not be said for the battle that was taking place at the moment.

The Solar forces far outnumbered the Lunar forces that had arrived, but the problem came from the fact that A) nopony expected the Lunar Army to arrive and B) the fact that while the Solar had more training with weapons and armour, the Lunar had more experience with death, having to kill encroaching hydras, cockatrice' and manticores in the Everfree. Even with that in mind the nauseating smell of blood, the screams of the dying or wounded and the general horrors war had to offer left at least a fourth of both sides incapable of continuing the fight.

To top that the Lunar forces had only hit on one side and the Solar soldiers on the far end were still trying to detain or in some cases even kill the townsponies!

~~~~~~~

Sparkler stood furiously in front of her wounded mother and younger sister Dinky. They say you never see a ponies trues nature until a crisis event, and the true could be said for the tenacious young mare. With a hoof axe in each hoof Sparkler made it quite clear to the four soldiers that they wouldn't touch her family without a fight.

"Yeah, you four were all big and brave kicking my mom while she tried to protect my sister! What, am I too much of a mare for you to handle?!"

Sparkler never did get her answer because at that moment Big Macintosh and Doctor Whooves slammed into the four soldiers scattering them like bowling pins.

"Never worry Ditzy, Macintosh and i are here to escort your family to safety, isn't that right?"

"Eeyup."

"Precisely, now, allons-y!"

~~~~~~~

The gardener ponies, mostly all earth ponies, had never figured their talents to be any use for much outside of making food or growing flowers. Now that they had their own lives and the lives of others, the hardy ponies, most of which had already experienced great hardship due to attacks against the Elements, discovered they were more than ready to use nonlethal force to protect each other.

"Carrottop, I've got my roses in place, you ready on your end?!" Roseluck called.

The orange mare she'd called to giggled. "Yep, we'll show these guys what happens when you mess with Ponyville!"

Seconds later a large group of soldiers came racing down the lane in search of ponies. What they found instead was how painful it was to step on a multitude of thorn covered roses.

"Yeeouch, where'd these come from?!"

"Argh, my hooves!"

Carrot Top grinned and nodded and the windows of the surrounding houses all opened wide. From there teams of school colts and fillies as well as numerous earth ponies began bucking rotten produce through the windows and into the groups of soldiers who quickly found themselves covered in a rancid paste that choked and gagged them everytime they tried to breathe.

"Yeah, and stay out! That'll teach you to step on our turf!" Roseluck called out as they watched the soldiers fall back.

~~~~~~~

Ponyville was a strong town. It's proximity to the Everfree as well as its mutlitude of assaults from anybeast after the Elements had hardened it and it's ponies to the hardships of the world. The problem was that for every ten ponies ready for a fight, there were another 6 who couldn't or had family obligations. Five prime examples were Aloe, Lotus, Mrs. Cake, and Pound and Pumpkin Cake. Mr. Cake had stayed behind to buy them time.

The the mares barreled down the streets as fast as they could, fifteen or so soldiers on their tails. Tears streamed down the faces of the mares, but they knew they couldn't stop yet. Mrs. Cake knew that unless she got her childrehn away her husband's sacrifice would be for nothing. She could mourn later.

Almost as if fate conspired against them Pound Cake chose that exact moments to twist and fall off of Mrs. Cake's back. The mare quickly stopped to sweep her child but one of the lead soldiers was there making to stab his sword forward. Just as the blade shot towards Mrs. Cake she found her vision obstructed by the familiar hues of Aloe. The brave mare had thrown herself in between the soldier and Mrs. Cake with but one final plea.

"Save the children..."

Lotus let out a cry of anguish and charged the soldiers in grief stricken rage while Mrs. Cake secured her children yet again and ran.

She could hear Lotus' cries over those of her two wailing babies.

~~~~~~~

Twilight and Telvanni were the primary force pushing into the enemy lines. They had pushed back enemy lines and gathered up the gardener ponies, then Gilda and the 'Bolts. Then Telvanni, sure that most ponies were already safe, really started to let loose. Even Twilight started to get a little more reckless and violent, but still managed to hold back from killing ponies.

Using barrier magic, Twilight would push a gap into the enemies front lines which would quickly be filled in by Lunar Repubic soldiers. Whilst that was taking place Telavnni was currently holding most of the main front on his own. It was by choice of course, because most anypony would have gotten in his way. Spitfire and Gilda made mincemeat out of any aerial assaults, the combined forces of the Wonderbolts and Shadowbolts being too much for the Empire to handle. Twilight herself was currently being guarded by Vinyl and Octavia, both of whom made sure nopony came close to her.

It didn't take long for the Imperials to begin to retreat, realizing they had severely misjudged the power of their enemies.

That was about the time Telvanni came bounding up to Twilight.
"As they fell back, I heard that there were two ponies still being pursued out to the west of town. Hop on Twilight!"

Nodding, the mare secured herself and Telvanni was off.

~~~~~~~

Logically it shouldn't have been possible, but logic had never held much sway over what a pony of Equestria properly driven could do. Mrs. Cake was being escorted by none other than her husband as they tried to evade the Imperial soldiers chasing them. Mr. Cakes normally canary yellow coat was crimson with blood, most of it actually being his own. Two spear shafts were broken off inside his body, yet he still pushed on.

"Come.....on honey.....almost fre....free...I can feel it!" Mr. Cake sputtered as he continued moving forward unsteadily.

The couple continued a bit more when they rounded the corner to find themselves facing twelve of the Imperials.

"S...Sta....Stay back....Run honey....save...the kids..."

Mrs. Cake understood what was happening all over again. Her husband Lemon Cake was giving his life, staying back to save his kids.
"I love you Lemon, and the kids love you too."
With a sob the mare turned and ran.

Lemon smiled as his mind recollected all the moments shared with his twin children. Those twin beings that made his life worth it. With a feral scream the stallion threw himself forward with all intents and purposes of buying enough time.

He didn't even feel the blades cut deep into him. Funny what blood loss does to you.

~~~~~~~

Twilight felt ice cold fear grip her heart and Telvanni pounded the ground to try to gain on the Imperials that were catching up to the fleeing mare. All their sprinting, all their hard work, was about to be for naught. As Telvanni carried Twilight into safe teleportation range, the mare fell and the soldiers quickly surrounded her, hacking away with their weapons.

Two seconds flat and Twilight had both teleported and sent a kinetic wave to throw the stallions from the mare they'd been chasing. As Twilight drew closer, bile and sorrow rose up in her body. Before her laid the ruined body of Mrs. Cake. Just as Twilight was about to break down, she saw something even worse.

Pumpkin Cake desperately clung to Pound Cake while shaking him. The foals mind couldn't comprehend why her brother refused to wake up. Couldn't comprehend why her usually warm comfy brother was suddenly so cold and stiff. Couldn't understand that her brother...was dead.

Twilight snapped.

The unicorn's mane and tail erupted into flames as she looked about to see the soldiers she'd thrown had surrounded her. Regardless of any peril, the mare tore a rift into the ground that immediately swallowed up four of the twelve soldiers before closing again.

Next five ponies, pegasi, lunged at her, and in her grief induced rage Twilight didn't think once about ripping their wings from their bodies before lifting them hundreds of hooves into the sky and dropping them. Didn't even wince as they struck the ground.

The other three ponies, two unicorns and an earth pony, were all that was left after the five second rampage, and they were eager to attempt escape. They all three turned to run, and Twilight, without a single thought to the live of the ponies, callously crushed two of them into paste before dragging the last one, a unicorn, back to her.

"She was only a mother trying to protect her foals! She couldn't hurt you, she couldn't hurt anypony. But you, you chased her down like an animal and you butchered her, and you slaughtered her son and now? Now that poor filly has to grow up all alone...." Twilight stammered, beginning to lose focus. The unicorn captive attempted to use this as an opportunity to drew a dagger with magic, but Twilight caught his actions in a flash as her expression hardened.
"She has to grow up alone....and its all your fault!"
With a cry of anguish and rage, Twilight ripped the unicorns horn from his head and drove it into his body again and again and again. She continued to slam the impromptu shiv into the corpse as her scream continued to tear from her throat and as she was blinded with tears and the unfairness of it all.

She was still stabbing the ruined mass as Telvanni's soft, warm, comforting paws wrapped around her and pulled her close.

~~~~~~~

The battle was won, but at terrible cost. While the actual casualties of the battle were low, as it was the first major battle in centuries and not many ponies were truly ready to strike a death blow, but the mental and emotional toll was far worse.

Pinkie had bee one of the worst casualties so far, her entire being practically deflating and becoming depressed at the new of her 'families' deaths save for Pumpkin Cake, who the pink mare had adopted. Nopony saw Pinkie smile any more if Pumpkin Cake wasn't there with her.

Many of the soldiers were having trouble coping with the mass horrors of war as well. It wasn't helped by the fact that there were still wounded being treated five days after the battle.

Morale was at an all time low.

~~~~~~~

Telvanni sighed as he padded back into his room. Twilight hadn't moved an inch in the past five days, but thankfully she was still eating, albeit it she claimed it wasn't for her, but she was eating regardless. Many scenarios played out through the Alpha's mind on how to get the unicorn to move before he finally settled on one he knew would get the unicorn's attention.

Letting loose a feral howl, the lycan slammed his fist into the stone wall shattering bone and dislocating joints.

In a heartbeat Twilight was all over the lycan's paw, using her advanced magic to reset and heal the bones in an instant.
"By the stars Telvanni, why would you do that, you could have seriously hurt yourself!" Twilight chided worriedly.

Telvanni let out a pained smile.
"You've stared at the same brick since you've returned from the battlefield. I had to do something."

At this reminder Twilight's ears dropped down and flattened against her head.
"I....that's because I killed them all, and I turned into a monster...."

The lycan's amber eyes softened as her wrapped his hooves around Twilight.
"Tell me Twilight, why do you think, out of everybeast that fought, that you are the monster?"

The unicorn gave a pained whine as tears filled her eyes and a lump formed in her throat.

"Because you crushed ponies? Because you tore the wings from pegasi and watched them fall to their deaths? Because in your pain, sorrow and grief you struck back, blow for blow, what those soldiers had struck against what you held dear? Do not consider yourself a monster for that my love, for I have done such a deed myself." Telvanni admitted.

"Yo...you did?"

"I was gathering fellow Lycans to join our cause, mine and Luna's anyway, and Celestia's thrice damned Captain got wind of it. His solution? Eradicate the Lycans as a species. I went into a village one day to find every Lycan dead, down to the last pup. Then, as if to rub it in my face, they spit every murdered pup on a spear for all to see. The fools didn't stop and use common sense though, and I tracked them easily. Once there, I killed everypony, but I did not kill them easy. In my thirst for vengeance I shattered one fourth of the troops legs and left them to die. Then I eviscerated another fourth of them and tied the trailing ends of their intestines to a slow moving water wheel. The third fourth I burned alive, and the final fourth I buried alive under the charred remains of the third fourth. Finally I found the Commanding Officer who'd ordered the massacre in his tent crying like a babe. I knocked him unconscious, then tore out his vocal chords. Once that was done, I took him with me just outside of Canterlot, and in the dead of night I tore down a hoof wide spruce and sharpened it to a thirteen hoof long stake. I skewered the stallion alive on it, I still remember the silent screams and the pleading looks as his ass was torn wide, and his gurgles and tears as the stake force his neck straight and shattered his jaw as it made its exit. That bastard learned you can survive for a full day when I planted the stake outside the Castle for them to find in the morning with a sign saying 'Never Forget' on it."

As Telvanni finished, he himself was also shedding tears and Twilight realized that she had not suffered as bad as her mate. "I'm sorry Telvanni, you've been through so much, and here I am moping over this on-"

Telvanni just shushed the mare.
"Never feel sorry for that Twilight, for you have suffered too, far more than I ever wanted you to. All I meant with that tale, is war can bring out the worst in anybeast, even if they have the best intentions in mind, and that what you did was the right thing to do, because it was merciful compared to what they could have been through. There is nothing wrong with you, Twilight, and you are no monster. You're just a beautiful mare who hurt for her friends."

Telvanni led Twilight over to their shared bed and the two reassured each other that they were no monsters.

After all, monsters can't feel love.

Author's Note

Welp, Feels away!

New chapter is up, and I've got the Twi/Vanni reactions up to the battle here. Again I'm not necessarily focusing too hard on Twi/Vanni relations at the mo because I really want to flesh out the Scoota/Belle(because I think those two are precious together)

As for who died in battle and who didn't and why.

Sparkler Dinky and Derpy survived because I have a major soft spot for that family grouping and plan on doing a few things here or there with Derpy or Sparkler.

Aloe and Lotus died because I didn't know what to do with them. Seriously, what good would two shop less spa runners be in a war. I tried to integrate them with the Cakes though.

Now for the Cake family.

I needed Twilight to snap. I mean just fucking lose it. I imagine Twilight would be more distraught upon finding, say, Lyra and Bon Bon dead or something, but to know Mr. Cake is 99% probably dead, and that you just saw soldiers cut down a mother and her infant son, both of whom you know well, and to realize that the daughter is now an orphan, and to have been just out of reach, just a second too late to stop it.

Yeah, I need Twi to lose it big time for this to get further. Twilight needed to learn that shit happens in war, and war is truly terrible, but its why you fight that matters most.

The Cake family incident also allows me to toy with Scootaloo and Sweetie's maturity levels a bit while opening up for something I've been itching to do.

Pinkie Pie still manages morale, but Pinkamena Diane Pie has decided it is time to fight!

Fianlly, huge apology for such a long wait for this chapter, but on the plus side, my writers block for this story has finally cleared up due to my fucking around on "From Ashes" so Yay!