The Mare Who Laughs was walking around Vanhoover in disguise, her coat had been dies black, she had blue extensions hiding her green mane and tail, a grey, dingy cloak was draped over her with the hood pulled down low to conceal her face. She would have preferred to be wearing her more audacious outfit, but for now it did better to keep a low profile while she scoped out the town. From her left in the alleyway she heard a stallion clearing his throat.

A slate grey earth pony stallion stepped from the shade holding an envelope in his hoof. Tossing the envelope at The Mare Who Laughs hooves, he said, "A message from my master for you." He then slipped into the alleyway and exited the far side, disappearing into the crowd.

The Mare Who Laughs smiled as she narrowed her eyes where the strange earth pony had disappeared. Cackling to herself, she picked up the envelope, opened it and read the letter inside.

I have been watching you since you first caught my attention in Canterlot. Though your execution has been sloppy, it has none the less been...entertaining. I have a mutually beneficial proposition for you. If you're interested, come by my office. I'm sure you know where it is by now, everypony knows where it is.

-Blueblood

The Mare Who Laughs crumpled the note as her mane went limp under the extensions. Blueblood had intrigued her and she'd visit him even if it was to put a smile on his face. She began to laugh hoarsely as she turned back to go to her current safe-house on the edge of town.

Two hours later a carriage pulls up to a skyscraper with a gilded spire. The Mare Who Laughs steps out of the carriage still in disguise flanked by eight of her henchponies. As they reach the front door, two doorponies open the door for them and let them in. As they reach the elevator, a young mare steps out of it wearing a red suit with gold braids, letting The Mare who laughs and her henchponies in. "He's waiting for you in the penthouse.", the young mare says. The Mare Who Laughs smiles as she presses the button for the penthouse. The bell rings as the doors slide open silently. Two guards dressed in flowing red robes point her to the large frosted glass double doors at the end of the hallway. The Mare Who Laughs reaches up a hoof to open the doors when they swing open on their own with a soft click.

"Come in my dear.", Blueblood says from his office chair, the back turned to the door. Once he hears the group enter the office, he presses a small button on the chair causing the doors to close with a soft click. Swiveling the chair around, he looks up on the group and says, "Thank you for coming." He pulls out a brandy sniffer and a bottle of cognac, "May I offer you some refreshments. I have a particularly nice two hundred year old Neighpolian." He pours the cognac into the sniffer, swirls it around, inhales the aroma and takes a sip.

The Mare Who Laughs cocks her head to the side as a wide smile spreads across her face and cackles.

"Maybe cognac ins't your preference.", Blueblood says calmly, "Hors de oveurs?" He jingle a small bell and a small door in the side of the office opens. A butler walks through carrying a tray in his teeth, on it were several small crackers with cheese and vegetables on them. Placing the tray on the desk, the butler bows and calmly back out of the room back through the small door, closing tightly behind him. "Please feel free to partake of any refreshments you so care to.", he says gesturing to the tray.

The Mare Who Laughs pulls out a knife from under he mane and began walking around the desk cackling maliciously.

"Pity.", Blueblood said in a disappointed tone, "I was hoping you'd enjoy some refreshments before we talked business." He laid his forelimbs open as he raised his chin. "Very well, do your worst."

The Mare Who Laughs slashed the knife across Blueblood's throat laughing hoarsely as the blood poured forth from the wound. She pulled his limp body from the chair and flung it to the floor. Sitting in the chair, she took a sip of the cognac and prepared to speak. Her eyes went wide when she saw Blueblood rising from the floor.

Blueblood held his hoof over the gash in his throat and said in a raspy voice, "Get...out...of...my...chair."

The Mare Who Laughs snatched off her extensions revealing her green poofy mane and threw her head back in manic laughter. "Bluey Bluey Bluey! Aren't we full of surprises?" She spun herself around in the office chair. "Whee!"

Blueblood reached up with his blood covered hoof and yanked her out of the chair, then sat down, green wisps of smoky energy flowed out of the corners of his eyes as the wound on his throat closed. Clearing his throat, he spoke, "It's not very amicable to be rude to your host." Sitting in the office chair, he allowed the wisps of energy dissipate. "Seeing as you'd rather dispense with pleasantries and get right down to business, then allow me to offer you my proposal." He opened the drawer on the desk and pulled out a folder. Slapping it on the desk, he said, "In here are the photographs of the five surviving element bearers."

"You mean four.", The Mare Who Laughs cackled as she rose from the floor.

"If you're implying that I'm mistaken, then you're wrong. I never make mistakes."

The Mare Who Laughs opened seeing the photographs. As she spread them out, her eyes burned with hate and her mane became limp when she saw a few photographs of Twilight sitting on a beach in a wheelchair. The corners of her mouth twitched as she tried to sneer.

"Ah good, I see I now have your attention.", Blueblood said rising from the office chair. He walked over to the fireplace, lit it then opened a small box on the mantle and took out a cigar. Lighting the cigar, he asked, "Cubray?"

The Mare Who Laughs took a cigar and lit it, blowing out the blue-grey smoke as she asked, "So what is your proposition and what is in it for me?"

"Ah, so you are amicable after all.", Blueblood said smiling, "I have a dream to burn this country and raise a new one in my own image from the ashes. If you agree to my proposal, you'll have a place in my new world and I can ensure anything you want, gold, gems, stallions, mares." He ran a hoof across her cheek, "If you refuse, well it would be a shame to discard such a useful tool."

The Mare Who Laughs flicked the cigar into the fireplace. "All I hear is talk. Is your proposal to bore me into tears?"

"So crude.", Blueblood scoffed, "Very well. My proposition is simple, I'll arrange for a foalnapping of the five remaining element bearers. After I deliver them to you, you can do to them whatever you want. Just ensure they stay out of my mane." He reached a hoof back to the mantle, pulling down a sack of bits and a sealed envelope. "As I token of good faith, I offer you an advance payment for services and the knowledge of whom you were before your 'accident.'"

The mare Who Laughs took the sack of bits and tossed it to a henchpony. She then took the envelope, looked it over for a moment then tossed it into the fireplace. "I'll arrange a little get together for them after you bring them to me. I just have one more request."

"Name it."

"I want to make sure Luna is invited to the party too.", The Mare Who Laughs cackled as her mane became a pompadour.

"I will do what I can.", Blueblood replied.

The Mare Who Laughs nodded chuckling. As she turned to leave, she flicked the brandy sniffer onto the floor where it shattered spilling the cognac. "Oops! AH-heeheehee-oh-heeheehee-oo-heeheehee!"

After The Mare Who Laughs and her henchponies had left the office, Blueblood pushed a button the intercom, "Send in the independent contractor please."

A female griffon with purple highlights on the crown of feathers on her head and an eye patch over her right eye walked in the door.

Blueblood tossed her two small pouches of bits. "I have two jobs for you. First, when this Bacon-head finally comes up for air, I want you to deal with him or her. Second, keep an eye on the nutjob, when she takes care of the element bearers, make sure she disappears, she ultimately cannot be controlled and I can't have any tools I can't control."

"Yes sir.", said the griffon as she hefted the pouches of bits before backing out of the office.

It was dark and the moon was barely a sliver above the horizon when the griffon walked into a dive on the rough side of town. The place reeked of stale beer and cheap cigarettes, guttering candles on the walls and tables dimly lit the place causing ghostly shadows to dance on the walls and floor. Giving the place a once over, she walked to a booth in a shadowy corner where a silhouetted pony sat in a dirty booth. Sitting down, she said, "You got my money?"

The silhouetted pony laid a satchel of bits on the table.

Hefting the satchel, the griffon said, "Blueblood has hired the terrorist to foalnap the elements."

The silhouetted pony nodded its head then tipped its head to the side.

"I forgot how much of a pain in the flanks you shadow guard are.", the griffon said, "If you want my reasons, then it'll cost ya."

The silhouetted pony tossed two bits across the table.

Picking up the bits, the griffon dropped them into the satchel. "I owe Rainbow Dash a fighting chance. She may be a total twat, but I at least owe an old flight school buddy that much. Can I buy you a drink."

The silhouetted pony shook its head then pointed a hoof across the room.

The griffon looked to where it was pointing the looked back seeing she was alone. She sighed, "Fucking pain in the flank shadow guard." She walked up to the bar and ordered a drink then slammed down. Tossing a bit on the bar, she said as she headed to the door, "You shouldn't water your drinks down."

Luna stood on the balcony watching the stars through the telescope when the door behind her opened revealing a silhouetted pony. Without turning from her telescope, she said, "Didst thou make contact with the mercenary?"

The silhouetted pony nodded.

"Very well. Leave the report at my throne, then notify my brothers and sister.", Luna said adjusting the focus on her telescope.

The silhouetted pony bowed and closed the door.

Celestia was awoken by a soft tapping on her bedroom door. Pulling the blindfold off her eyes, she sat up and said, "Come in."

The door opened revealing a silhouetted pony.

"Did your brothers come across some information?"

The silhouetted pony nodded and tossed an envelope across the floor.

Taking the envelope in her magic, Celestia opened it and read the message inside. "Thank you and dismissed."

Bulwark stood still as a statue sleeping when the click of hooves drew attention. Opening one eye he saw a silhouetted pony standing in front of him. "What do you need shadow guard?", his deep voice rumbled.

The silhouetted pony raised its hoof holding an envelope.

Bulwark levitated the enveloped, opened it and read the letter. "Dismissed.", he rumbled.

The silhouetted pony bowed and slipped away into the shadows.

Midnight was walking through the halls of the palace in though when the click of hooves on the stone caught his attention. Looking to the polished floor he saw the reflection of a silhouetted pony. Summoning his magic, he made himself vanish from the pony's mind.

The silhouetted figure cocked its head slightly in confusion. Suddenly the candles lit reveling the pony.

Standing next to the pony, Midnight dropped his magic. He took a moment to inspect the pony. It was a unicorn mare with an azure coat, greyish-violet eyes, her mane was a light cornflower blue with pale cerulean stripes, her face held an almost unreadable neutral expression. "I take it you're one of the shadow guard?"

The mare nodded.

"So do you have a message for me or are you simply trying to follow me?"

The mare held up an envelope.

Taking the envelope, Midnight opened it and read the letter. "I have new orders for you. Take a dozen of your brothers and guard the element bearers."

The mare bowed, turned and walked off.
********************************************************************************************************

It had been a a month since Sunset had gotten her new weapons, she sat in a mostly empty box car eating a can of applesauce and looking through some pictures of several buildings in Vanhoover that had been provided to her by a shadowy pony, the dim light of a lantern flickered giving illumination. She paused on two photos, one of a warehouse and the other of an abandoned theme park. She scowled grimly at the two photos as she tossed the now empty can across the box car. "It seems too easy.", she grumbled too herself. She knew better than to get optimistic as no intel about any of the buildings were provided, not even a basic blueprint or a floor layout. She sneered thinking that maybe Celestia had sent her in blind in hopes that the terrorists would kill her. She had a week until the freight train reached Vanhoover and she'd spend that time gathering intel. She pulled on her marine corps training and combat experience in formulating her first steps in gathering intel. Somewhere in the city would be a records building holding city maps, building permits and blueprints of all the buildings, all she'd have to do is ask a passerby or two where to find the hall of records. Then all she'd have to do is get her hooves on some supplies to begin interrogating the few terrorists she could snatch off the streets, rope, rags, towels, buckets and water would be easy enough to procure, a funnel and a length of hose would also be easy to find, however quarts of oil would be harder to find, may be she could use lantern oil as Equestrians have yet to invent cars and motor oil. She decided to let it sit for now as she leaned back to take a short nap and let her mind refresh itself.

*Monochrome's Journal Vanhoover day 15*

Dear Journal,

I've been searching for two weeks here in Vanhoover trying to find some information about how Blueblood plans to foalnap the element bearers. So far I haven't found any information on what his plans are or even him. To quote an old Jamanecan friend, "He's harder to find than a green snake in a sugar can field." I responded to a break in at the hall of records last night. There were no deaths or serious injuries, just a few night watchponies knocked out and stuffed in a broom closet. Other than the back door kicked in, there was no damage done to the building and the only things reported stolen were a few maps of the city, several building permits and some blueprints, nothing that they didn't have spare copies of in the basement of city hall. It doesn't match the MO of the terrorist, it almost smacks of somepony gathering intelligence. As I was leaving the building. I bumped into an odd griffon, literally, it was wearing dull red chain armor with black accents and a half red half black metal mask with only one eye hole on the left, strapped to its flank was a broad bladed sword. Outside of its odd manner of dress and sword, it seemed to radiate an aura of danger, outside of what griffons normally do. When I asked what it was doing there, it just turned its masked face to me then walked off without saying anything to me, most unusual, I must keep an eye out for this new dangerous player.

Yours truly, Monochrome

P.S. The next time I see that griffon, maybe I can get it to talk by tossing it a few bits.*

*War journal entry 17*

Spent the first three day in Vanhoover finding out where the hall of records was and then another three staking the place out to get the staff rotation. After getting the intel from the hall of records, spent the next two weeks staking out the old warehouse counting the number of terrorists entering and leaving. Four guards posted at each entrance on four hour rotations, every two days a small convoy of wagons bring in barrels and boxes. Managed to snatch two terrorists that had snuck off to get drunk. Interrogated them and found that there were at least fifty terrorist inside at all time. Spent the next two days formulating the attack plan and another two days making enough explosive to rig up to a cart to blow the doors off.

Celestia sat in the kitchen eating breakfast, she switched on the radio and twisted the dial until a station came in.

This is Hot Print with KCDN out of Vanhoover. Top story this morning, a brutal attack on a warehouse that was thought to be abandoned. When police arrived on the scene over fifty bodies of ponies suspected to work for the wanted terrorist known as The Mare Who Laughs were found riddled with strange holes matching the attacks carried out by the wanted vigilante known as Bacon-head that carried out similar attacks in Manehattan and Whinnyapolis. When asked about the attacks matching the wanted vigilante, the police refused to give a statement at that time. We now go live to Bartlett on the streets with-

Celestia switched off the radio and looked down at her pancakes. She poked at the with her fork, suddenly finding that she had lost her appetite.

A guard burst into the kitchen. "Your highness! There has been an attack in the castle!"

Clestia rose quickly from the table knocking her chair over. "What?!"

"Twilight Sparkle and Dask Shine appear to be okay, though when the guards came to help her, she lashed out with her magic and injured several of them, she's not letting anypony get near.", the guard continued, "We're still searching the castle grounds for the other four element bearers."

"Where is she?!"

"She's in the hallway in the east wing."

"Go get Luna!", Celestia shouted as she pushed past the guard.

Twilight held a very upset Dusk in her forelimbs gently rocking him, an expression of anger and fear on her face. Around her were the unconscious forms to five nurses and the broken forms of eight ponies wearing red body suits, smoldering gashes lined the walls. "Shh! Shh! It's okay. Mommy's here and she won't let any bad ponies hurt you." When she heard hoofsteps come up behind her, she turned the wheelchair with her magic, fired off a blast of magic and shouted, "GET THE FUCK BACK! I WON'T LET YOU HURT MY SON!"

Two nurses scrambled for cover behind a column. "It's alright Ms. Sparkle. We're just trying to make sure you and your colt are okay.", one of the nurses called out, "Please, just let us help you."

Twilight fired a blast of her magic blowing a chunk out of the column.

"Twilight Sparkle!", Celestia shouted walking down the hallway, "I need you to calm down. You and you're foal are safe. Nopony's going to hurt you or him." Celestia took a slow gentle step forward giving a gentle smile. "It's alright, you're colt is safe.", she said in a soft, calm tone.

"GET BACK!", Twilight shouted firing a blast of magic.

Celestia raised a wing blocking the blast of magic, her shoes making sparks as she was pushed back. She went to step forward again when Bulwark stepped next to her. "Allow me sister", his said in a soft rumbling voice.

As Bulwark walked forward slowly, he said in a calm and clear voice, "Be calm young Twilight." When fired a blast of magic at him, he harmlessly deflected it away without breaking his stride. Twilight unleashed a continuous stream of magic of magic at Bulwark who simply raised a wing dispersing it across his body harmlessly as he continued his slow walk froward. Once he reached Twilight, he placed a wingtip on her horn causing her magic to stop. He threw his forelimbs around her withers and pulled her in for a gentle hug. "Shh!", he said softly, "You're safe now. No bad ponies are coming for your colt."

Twilight tried to pull back from the hug but found she was not strong enough. Soon the warmth of his body and the tightness of his hug made her calm down. She leaned her head against his chest and began to cry softly. "I was so scared.", she said her voice cracking as the tears flowed, "When those ponies leapt out at me from the side room, all I could think about was keeping Dusk safe."

Bulwark said nothing, he just gently stoked his hoof along Twilight's mane comforting her.

A guard walked up to Celestia and whispered in her ear, "Good news, bad news. We found Rainbow Dash, she's in the medical wing being checked out right now. She appears to be fine other some bruises and scrapes. The other three element bearers and Luna appear to be missing."

Celestia took off down the hallway to Luna's room. Reaching her sister's room, she slowly opened the door and looked around. The room showed clear signs of a struggle with broken furniture laying around, the broken bodies of ten ponies in red body suits laying around, the window had been broken out. Walking over to the window, she notice some blood stains and a dark blue feather laying on the sill. Looking out the window, she saw the bodies of three more ponies laying on the ground far below wearing the same outfits. A soft groan caught her attention, turning her head she saw one of the ponies in a red body suit slumped against the wall waking up. Walking over, she snatched the mask of the pony revealing a dark blue mare with black mane. "Who are you?!", she shouted in anger, "Who do you work for?!"

The mare laughed as she reached her hooves to her head and chin. "Long live the hoof." She then cranked her head around breaking her neck.

Luna stood on a cloud high over Canterlot as she scanned the city for any signs of the ponies that had attacked her. She then settled onto the cloud and entered into the dream aether knowing that the element bearers were also the target of this attack. Soon she found the unconscious minds of Fluttershy, Applejack and Rarity. Tethering the three element bearers minds to hers, she pulled out of the dream aether, leapt off the cloud and flew back to the castle. She knew Celestia would quite literally tear the place apart until she found her.

Gilda stared at her reflection in the mirror in the bathroom of her hotel room in Whinnyapolis as she stitched up the gash in the side of her neck after her fight with Sunset on top of a nearby building twenty minute earlier. She hissed in pain and slammed a talon down on the counter as the needle and thread bit through her flesh one last time. Tying a knot in the thread, she clipped the excess off, smeared some ointment on the stitched up wound and wrapped a bandage around it. She then inspected her body and wings, other than some gashes in her feathers and a few scratches where a few bullets had grazed her, she was unharmed. Preening her wings and plucking the damaged feathers out, she said to herself, "Damn she's good. Whoever Bacon-head is, she's well trained and knows how to use those thunder sticks well." She tried to remember if she'd ever seen a pony before using similar weapons before. Gilda the walked into the other part of the hotel inspecting her gear. She ran her mind over the events of the fight and how her opponent kept coming, even after she had her weapons knocked to the ground, how she pulled the knife and slashed Gilda across her neck. She ran her talons across where the bullets had pitted her metal mask and had put gashes in her chain armor, she made a mental note to change out her chain armor for solid metal breastplate when she got the first chance.

Sunset sat in the dingy loft counting her ammunition as she looked at the dried blood on her K-bar where she had fought against Gilda earlier. "Who was that griffon?", she said to herself. She inspected her gear, long parallel gashes ran along the sides of her armor where the griffon had raked its talons along her armor trying to get at her flesh below, a long narrow gash in the butt stock of her shotgun where she had used to to block the sword from splitting her skull. cleaning the blood off the knife and wrapping tape around the butt stock of the shotgun, she walked over to hastily constructed loading station.

Author's Note

Thank you all for reading so far, the next chapter should be the finale and then I'll do a couple of epilogues.
I hope you all enjoy.

I will try and take all criticisms as constructive.