Far, far away, a lavender colored pony slept deep and calmly, knowing nothing of the impending danger.

Warm rays of sunshine shone through white silk curtains, covering a large window. The light illuminated a bedroom. It was too big for one pony alone, it could have easily been an entire dormitory, yet still it had only one inhabitant plus a dragon. The unreasonably decadent furnishes and golden overwhelmingly beautiful ornaments did a poor job at filling the pressing emptiness of the room but did great at displaying wealthiness.

As the light of dawn steadily conquered the darkness of the past night, the front between night and day slowly crept over the purple alicorn’s face. Twilight, gently pulled out of Luna´s realm of dreams and back to reality, opened her eyes and blinked at the with gold ornamented marble celling.

The young alicorn let out a long yawn and stretched her limbs to awake her muscles. Twilight struggled against the power of the soft matrass that was trying to pull her back under the warm blanket. After months of sleeping in a field bed, this night’s rest had been heavenly. But, through the power of sheer determination, she won and rolled out of bed.

A little wobbly on her hooves, Twilight stretched again and opened the curtains that had blocked most of the sunlight. The glistening light suddenly exploding in front of her eyes and flooding the room blinded her for a brief second before her eyes adjusted to the brightness of Celestia´s day. Spike did not notice any of this. He had been sleeping next to Twilight in the huge bed and was still calmly snoring. Twilight decided to let him sleep.

On the other side of the window was the city of Canterlot. The heart and crown jewel of Equestria, the beacon of harmony, was just like her awakening for a new day.

Twilight stood there for a moment and enjoyed the marvelous view over the city her room had. She had a perfect view of the tidy cobbled streets, the marble facades and the shining gold roofs. The streets were already beginning to fill with ponies going after their everyday lives. In the far distance, Twilight could even spot a gathering of small dots which she promptly recognized as Ponyville.

Thanks to its position in one of the highest towers of Canterlot castle, the scenery her room offered was breathtaking, but quickly grew old for somepony who had been to Canterlot so many times. If only the reason for her being here today was not so serious. Nothing she could see was interesting enough to grant it a longer look. Twilight turned away from the window and headed for a big wardrobe that was on the opposite side of the room.

Inside the wardrobe where dresses and everyday clothes in all different shapes and colors from the best materials, made by the best seamstresses. None of them Twilight recognized as hers. The room had been hastily prepared upon her arrival, despite her having instantly stated that it was not necessary. But despite the huge selection of clothing, Twilight had only eyes for one specific piece of garment. The only piece inside the wardrobe she knew, because she had brought it with her.

Her horn lit up and she grabbed a dark brown uniform that hung on the very left side with her magic and pulled it out.

The dress uniform was made of the finest cotton and the finest silk on the inside. A few centimeters above the end of each sleeve there was a cuff with two golden stars and a crown, symbolizing the tiara of Celestia. Next to the cuff were four golden strips going all the way around the sleeve. Further up the sleeve, on the shoulders, were shoulder straps but those did not bear any insignia.

Twilight slipped out of her nightgown and into the uniform. The collection of medals, which was quite sizable for her age, weighed her chest down quite a bit.

Already in training, Twilight had managed to climb the ranks, and when she graduated from the Royal Officer’s Academy of Guard and Army, she was already at the rank of a colonel.

It was a meteoric rise, even for somepony of royal blood. Every now and then, in those rare quiet moments when she had time for herself and only herself, she wondered: just how much was and is her career being influenced by her horn and wings.

While Twilight was buttoning up her uniform using her magic, she used her hands to get into a pair of shiny silver horseshoes.

If she had joined the armed forces just a few months earlier than she did, she would have had to wear armor instead of a fabric uniform. In all honesty, she was glad that she did not have to wear uncomfortable, heavy and oily armor. Unlike the royal guards, these poor lads still had to wear their traditional set of golden armor and helmet. They did not even get modern weaponry.

Lastly, Twilight placed a brown visor cap on her head and opened the door to her room. Outside in one of the many corridors of Canterlot Castle, Twilight made her way to the dining room. On her way, she politely greeted every servant, guard or janitor she came by. Twilight was in a bit of a hurry, so it was rather of etiquette than actual politeness. Equestria stood for friendship, peace, friendliness and harmony, but sometimes, the only thing that seemed “Equestrian” about Equestria in all the hectic and urgent matters was the carefully upheld façade.

Throughout Twilight’s time as commander of the RTDH, she had been traveling the various frontiers of Equestria, always on the quest of protecting the territorial integrity of the kingdom. Whenever she was far away from the core lands of Equestria, she felt like she entered an entirely different country.

Twilight turned around corner and saluted a pair of guards patrolling down the hallway.

Out there, in the far-off regions in the west or east, poverty ruled together with its despicable but unavoidable companions, crime and corruption. Twilight had always tried her best to fight the neglect of these areas and the ponies living in them. But she could only be in one place at the time, and the places that needed help were many. In addition to that came the fact that she was never meant to stay at the focal point of misery for long. The princesses always sent her to the places where foreign forces tried to undermine or threaten the boundaries of Equestria. Once her mission was done and the enemy defeated, she was ordered elsewhere.

Twilight turned another corner and headed down a large spiral staircase.

This time, she had been called back to Canterlot, even before her mission was actually finished. Although not authorized by Celestia, she still came as fast as she could. The issues in the capital were far more pressing than a group of rogue griffons raiding farms on the far eastern extends of Equestria.

Since a few days, their great and as gods worshiped rulers, princess Celestia and princess Luna, did nothing but argue and disagree over everything you could argue or disagree about, no matter how unimportant it was. They questioned every decision or action the other wanted to make. It was like they tried to purposefully hinder their respective duties. Why they suddenly behaved like that was a mystery. That was why Twilight was here. She had to try and defuse the situation before it escalated.

Reaching the end of the staircase, Twilight walked down yet another hallway. The castle was sheer never ending.

And as if the current situation in Canterlot was not bad enough already, shortly after her arrival, Twilight had received the information that communication to multiple villages and settlements near the border to the land claimed by the Changelings had been disrupted, which could only be due to a series of raids. As much as Twilight wanted to take her troops there and bring security and order back to the ponies living there, she had more important matters to address. But still she swore to keep an eye on that matter as well. Just in case the changelings would get any ideas and might try something bigger than just small-scale raids to steal love. She had already sent a letter back to her troops at the griffon frontier to be ready for a quick redeployment to the west.

Across another intersection and Twilight was finally at her destination. The two guards guarding the entrance of the dining room moved their spears out of the way to let Twilight pass. It was almost hilarious at this point that the royal guards, with their reputation of being Equestria’s elite, were still wielding spears when the army had long transcended to the use of firearms. But Celestia herself had personally forbidden any kinds of firearms to be stored, manufactured or used all around Canterlot after the events of the royal wedding.

Twilight had always thought this was because of traditional thinking, but the more experience she gathered while dealing with these weapons, the more she started to think that this might not be the only reason. The destructive power of rifles, grenades and bombs was immense, maybe even more dangerous than magic. The powers of the unicorns could wreak a lot of havoc, but only when they were utilized by gifted and well-trained individuals. A rifle, however, did not require any talent to end a life.

Twilight still remembered the expression of terror on Celestias face, when she found out that the changelings had looted the armories at that fateful day. And she would probably never forget the images of Canterlot’s street being littered with bodies.

Celestia had been greatly concerned for Twilights safety throughout the entire battle, especially as the casualties were ramping up, because she insisted on leading the defense herself and from the front. Concluding in retrospective, Twilight had come to the realization that the fact of Alicorn immortality had always been tested by magic and time, but never by fire and lead.

“I wonder if,” Twilight said quietly, but could not finish her thought as she was already entering the dining room.

Readjusted her uniform before entering, Twilight stepped through the wide door, the guards opened for her.

Inside the room, which’s size had more similarities with a mess hall rather than an actual dining room, was a giant table that reached almost from one end of the room to the other. The decorations in the room, together with those on the table and even the stained-glass windows were split into two along an imaginary line in the middle of the room. On the right side of the room, where princess Luna sat and grimly consumed a pile of pancakes, the decorations were all in a deep blue and violet theme while on the opposite side where Celestia sat, all the decorations and wallpaper were white and gold.

Twilight had thought about this moment since her arrival in Canterlot yesterday. She had to figure out a way to greet both goddesses equally and at the same time, to not give one of them the feeling that she preferred or believed more in the other one. The solution she came up with was quite simple. Upon entering, she bowed, facing the imaginary border of night and day themed decorations.

She remained in that pose for a good while, waiting for somepony to say something, but the silence dragged on. The princesses had not been precisely happy about her sudden arrival. As Twilight had to learn, the generals had not informed either of them and the princesses still seemed to be displeased about that. Usually, Twilight would feel extreme feelings of guilt because she disappointed her tutor and princess, but the urgency of the matter overshadowed that. The last thing they needed now was another 1000-year banishment.

As nopony said anything, Twilight took a seat on the only other free chair in the middle of the long table. The silence continued for the entire breakfast, and Twilight had absolutely no problem with that. If neither princess said anything, no fight could erupt. Instead of speaking, the two princesses just threw glares at each other when the other did not look.

Every once in a while, Twilight looked up from her meal she had barely touched and glanced over to Celestia and Luna. The diarchs did not look back.

If Twilight had had the chance to skip this unpleasant ceremony, she would have taken it at moment´s notice. She could not think of anything more uncomfortable than having to literally foalsit the two mightiest beings on the planet to prevent total disaster.

Not that she did not believe in her goddesses and their ability to lead pony kind, but with the current tension going on between them it was just necessary for somepony to supervise them until the situation was resolved and she had found the reason for their distrust.

Twilight’s thoughts were racing. Something about this just felt wrong. Twilight still did not know what it was, but something about the tension between the princesses, the situation on the changeling frontier, it all had to have a connection. It all felt like a very bad omen. Her stomach told her that something was happening. Something big. Something she felt like she should have noticed already but was still hiding in the shadows.

Her hunger was gone. Her stomach was turning. There was something she did not know about, and it drove her crazy.

After breakfast was finally over, Luna went to bed, which granted Twilight the free time she needed to investigate her premonition. And there was only one place in the castle where she could do that.

It did not take her long to reach the military district of the castle. The high command of all equestrian forces had a whole area of the castle for its own. The military section was huge, reaching from the naval departments to the flying corps, but Twilight only needed one department: the communication and logistic coordination department.

The department was located in one of the smaller towers on the west side of the castle. As she was approaching, Twilight could already hear tense chatter. The closer she came, the louder it became.

The communication and logistic coordination department was nothing more than a large room filled with desks. It was one big messy office. The walls were filled with all sorts of maps, the desks were covered in mountains of papers and folders.

As Twilight stepped through the door and onto the creaking parquet, the chatter died.

“Attention!”

All the present ponies stood up. Two dozen pairs of eyes stared at her in silence.

Just a few years ago, Twilight would have been deeply uncomfortable by so much attention, but now she was unphased by it.

“Who is the commanding officer here?” she asked. Her tone was demanding and stern.

One of the stallions took a step towards her and saluted. “Interim commander captain Swift Transmission, at your service, sir- eh, ma’- eh, your majesty,” the captain stuttered.

Interim? twilight thought. She wondered what happened to the previous commander and how suddenly he must have been relieved from duty to be replaced by a captain. However, this was a question for another time. “Captain, yesterday I learned that we lost contact with several units along the changeling frontier. What is the current state of things on that matter?”

Captain Swift Transmission suddenly began to avoid eye contact and scratched the wooden floor with a hoof. There was no answer.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, her patients slowly dwindling.

“This isn´t really my area of responsibility and competence to talk about this. I was strictly instructed to only report to my direct superior and to otherwise not act on my own.” Swift Transmission said quietly.

Twilight shook her head in disbelief. “What?”

“I am only the interim commander until the major general returns. My authority is very limited. The general staff should be able to answer all your questions, however, your majesty” Swift Transmission said almost sheepishly.

The general staff? Twilight would rather ask a changeling personally for the information instead of bothering with the staff, despite them being the ones calling her to aid. The high command was dominated by elderly, conservatively thinking, overly cautious and mostly severely incompetent officers. It was incomprehensible for Twilight, how princess Celestia could allow these fossils to continue leading, planning and coordinating the army. Most of them were old veterans of the royal guard: good soldiers, maybe even experienced fighters, but terrible strategists. And they were arrogant and smug. Twilight could not stand them. There were good generals, but not in the ranks of the marshals. They were nothing but a self-serving old elite.

Captain Swift Transmission raised an eyebrow, only then did Twilight notice she still had not answered him.

“Captain, you are ordered to only report to your direct superiors. Would you say that a princess is your superior?” said Twilight cold.

“O- of course, princess,” said Swift Transmission, and nodded quickly.

“Would you also say that a princess stands above a general or marshal?”

He nodded again.

“Then would you be so kind and please tell me about the current situation of the western frontier?” Twilight did not like to play out the princess card, but in situations like this, it saved her a lot of time and energy.

Swift Transmission was visibly uncomfortable with his task at hand. “But I am not at fault when the marshals get wind of this violation of areas of responsibility.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and gestured to him to finally get going.

“Multiple battalions and smaller units all over the changeling frontier have stopped responding. Every gathering of ponies living in that area must keep in contact with us, as a kind of early warning system, but several towns, settlements and cities have stopped responding to our calls as well. We have the orders to issue the instruction to be on alert and report any sighting of the enemy immediately to all units nearby those we lost contact with. But so far, we haven´t received anything.” Switft Transmission said, sounding like a prerecorded message. “The swarm has become more cautious; one should think that a force of such size is easy to spot.”

This did not sound good.

The swarm? Twilight thought. No. There could not be a swarm. At least not a single big one. They would not be able to reach so many places in such a short time or at the same time. The changelings must have split up their forces. Twilight’s thoughts were racing.

If the changelings had indeed modernized their forces, like she anticipated, it would create a whole new and not to be underestimated threat to their west. On one hand, Twilight was terrified at the thought of an organized, large-scale invasion by the changelings, on the other however, she felt somewhat thrilled. This was so much more exciting than everything that happened while dealing with the griffons, yaks, bat ponies or zebras.

Twilight’s mind went into overdrive. In that case, she had to make plans, request a redeployment to the west, gather more information. This finally gave Twilight the opportunity to request more forces and turn the RTDH from being just a mobile task force to an actual capable fighting unit. Twilight wanted to estimate chances and predict and calculate possible outcomes, but there were still too many empty variables. But at that moment, the only thing she should actually think about is if were actually the changelings or just a harmless incident that blocked communication.

“Do you know if it is actually the changelings that are at fault?” asked Twilight. Her cold and demanding tone perfectly masked her stressed state of mind.

“We could rule out the possibility that anything magical or natural interfered with our communication. The posts don’t try to send replies.”

“So, it is the changelings?” Twilight continued asking. This time, she could not fully prevent stress from creeping into her tone. As she fell silent again, Twilight took deep breaths. This usually helped her to calm to. Don’t overreact. Especially not in front of so many ponies, she told herself.

The alicorn´s worry transferred to the other ponies in the room. Several ponies began to uneasily shift around in their workplace. Twilight knew that as an alicorn, she had to set the example, but it was impossible for her not to worry. The possibility that this could become a second Canterlot but many times bigger was too real.

“It´s the only plausible explanation, your majesty,” said Swift Transmission, his voice becoming more and more uneasy as the consequences of the current events dawned on him.

“Is the high command informed? Do the princesses know?”

“I wrote it into my daily report. It is lying on their desks.”

Twilight sighed. So, they probably don’t know yet. What did I expect? She thought. “Has your department any guess or actual intel on the hostile force´s strength? Speed, concentration, anything?”

“No, your majesty. As I said, we haven´t received any reports from any units that we have lost connection with. We assume that there are no survivors to tell us anything about the foe,” replied Swift Transmission.

No survivors, Twilight thought. That seemed like a good working, and for the changelings in no way too radical a strategy to conceal themselves.

“They are not messing around,” Twilight muttered so quietly that nopony could hear it but herself. The imagination of so many dead ponies should have shocked Twilight beyond measurement, but it only made her snort in anger. She had successfully calmed herself down. Twilight had taken a step back and looked at the whole thing not as a princess of Equestria, but as a strategist. Only seeing the cold numbers and facts, and not the lives attached to them.

While Twilight was thinking, Swift Transmission´s face lit up. He had one actual piece of information he could give to Twilight.

“Your majesty, if may follow me. I have something I need to show to you.” Swift Transmission said, suddenly a lot more confident than just moments ago.

Twilight gave him a curious look and followed Swift Transmission into a different room.

The room, Swift Transmission led twilight to, was a small backroom of the main office. On the wall opposite the door was a large map of all of Equestria. But the map did not only show cities, rivers and mountains. The map was littered with weird symbols that no civilian would understand. Good thing Twilight was no civilian. These were symbols of stationed units, forts and outposts.

In the very west of the map, most of these symbols were studded with small red pins.

“The pins are cities and units we have lost contact to, right?” asked Twilight and the captain nodded.

“Usually, we use this map to mark who answered us, so we don’t lose track of all the different units and departments. But when there is a,” Swift Transmission coughed once, “interference, we mark the area that is affected.”

“When did they start their attack?”

“That is impossible to say. We don’t have frequent contact with the frontiers. There are so many departments and units in that area that we just send a message to them every few days and they respond to it with a short report.” While he spoke, Swift Transmission´s voice got quieter and quieter as he saw the expression of the alicorn slowly derail.

Twilight opened her mouth and spoke tense and very quietly, “do you want to tell me that we have no idea when they entered our territory or when they attacked our troops and therefore have no clue where they are now and how fast they are moving, and they are basically roaming our territory freely?”

Captain Swift Transmission winced, before he tried to escape Twilight cold but furious gaze by slowly and carefully moving backwards. His entire body trembled under the upcoming anger of the alicorn. Even some ponies in the other room were trying to gain more distance.

“O- of course not, your majesty. Our calculations resulted in them being somewhere around here,” Swift Transmission hastily mumbled to calm her down. While he talked, he pointed to the map to show Twilight where he meant.

Twilight was not sure if they actually had tried to calculate where the changelings were or if the captain was just trying to appease her. She decided to show goodwill and assumed that they actually tried.

To say that the changelings had advanced fast was an understatement. If this captain was right, they would be almost in Vanhoover. Twilight wondered, what were their strategic goals, what did they want to achieve? Currently it looked like they were just going forwards, but she was sure that they must also have a better plan than this.

Twilight analyzed the symbols on the map. They were mostly reserve and militia units, nothing she believed could stop the changelings if they threw all their weight at them. She scratched her chin.

“Do your calculations also include an approximate number of casualties?” said Twilight still looking at the map. “How many ponies were in all those units combined?”

Swift Transmission looked over to one of his subordinates, who seemed to immediately understand what he wanted.

The pony began to look through the mountains of papers, scribbled something on a small piece of paper. Twilight began tapping the ground with her right hoof in anticipation. Finally, he was done and handed over the small paper to the captain. “Assuming every unit we lost contact to has been completely eradicated, we estimate about 20 thousand,” Swift Transmission said. He did not speak quickly or calm and collected. His voice sounded like he was forcing the words out his throat.

As Twilight heard the number, she wished she had glasses, so she could take them off in shock. “Twenty thousand?!” she exclaimed, and the entire room jumped at the sudden noise.

“At least,” Swift Transmission added shyly.

Twenty thousand dead ponies. At least. And this in less than two days. This was a catastrophe.

“Captain, I have to speak with the commander of the western frontier. Now,” commanded Twilight. Swift Transmission, clearly taken by surprise with the sudden order, stumbled over his hooves, almost fell and then saluted and ran out of the map room.

While Twilight continued to scan the map with all its pins and symbols, she could hear Swift Transmission talk in the other room, probably into one of the many telephones in the office. They just had to get the good troops over there and consolidate the front. If she and the RTDH got relocated to the west she could easily help out stabilize the situation until reinforcements arrived, even though open conflict was not what her troops trained for or were meant for.

They had to be sent over there. They were the only Equestrian troops with actual experience in combat. This experience would be priceless. Twilight knew who was in command of the west, and it did not boost her confidence.

She left the map room.

“You there,” she said to a present Pegasi officer, “please ask the commanders of the Pegasi units in the west to fly reconnaissance missions. We need to know the location of our enemy. Inform everything that can fly. If necessary, ask the Wonderbolts, we need to get some useful and reliable information.” Twilight knew she had no command over the Pegasi units, but she hoped they would see the the necessity.

The Pegasus saluted and began to write on a scroll. Twilight, however, covered her forehead with her left hand. It felt very warm. Why did this have to happen now? Why could they not have waited a few more days until the problem with the princesses was dealt with?

Then it hit her. Now she began to see how it was all connected. This could not be a coincidence. The changelings had to have spies in the castle. This was the only logical reason for how they could have known about the princesses. What if they did not only exploit the situation, but even created it. The idea that the changelings could not only be able to successfully infiltrate the castle, the most secure place in Equestria, but also manipulate the princesses into fighting again, actually frightened Twilight.

If this really was the case, who could she still trust and who was a changeling spy? Without the infiltrators exposing themselves accidentally, they had no real way of knowing who was trustworthy and who was not.

Spike! Twilight thought. The dragon was probably still asleep in her quatre. What if he also already got replaced? Twilight´s panic level kept rising.

Her thought process got interrupted by the captain tapping her shoulder and speaking to her.

“What do you mean, has more important things to do?” yelled Twilight.

“He will explain himself to me,” muttered Twilight while she stormed out of the department. “If he wants to or not.” With determination in her heart, Twilight made her way to the only pony she knew that was stupid and selfish enough to put personal matters over potentially the future of pony kind.

Author's Note

Originally i had planned a diffrent chapter to be number 4, but i reorganized and rewrote a huge part of the story, because otherwise the timeline would be unclear. I never really tried writing canon characters before, so please have mercy. I for myself enjoyed exploring and thinking about how Twilight could react and behave in my au and the given circumstances. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! More chapters are on their way.