Winter was here, and it didn't slow war down in the slightest. Battle would rage in the blizzards, and blood would stain the snow. It was the start of December, and the ice was a second enemy. We would lose many soldiers just from the weather, while the darkness' soldiers just withstood the temperature with ease.

With Trixie gone, the darkness appointed two new agents to carry out her duties; a former wonderbolt named Spitfire, and a griffon named Hawk. Spitfire was very blunt in her tactics, but Hawk was clearly the brains of the operations. Powerful and quiet, he didn't let anything go and took no chances to gloat that were offered. It frustrated the general because he wouldn't give away a part of his plans to her.

Often, Hawk's abilities in tactician surpassed even Twilight's. He knew how to make use of every soldier, and saw nothing as expendable. Every one of his soldiers could kill four of our's and that wasn't good when we had less than a tenth of his military strength.

In a panic, Twilight had dumped all of our resources into military technology. Every little advance was necessary and she saw no price as too high to get it.

With a little luck and time, Jewel was able to invent some kind of vest that could stop bullets. It was made out of Kevlar, and we often just referred to it as a bulletproof vest. We started packing our special operatives with them. Unfortunately, they were too resource heavy and time consuming to make to give to every soldier, so instead we focused on giving them to the most important.

Another interesting add on, was the mounted flashlight, making illuminating the dark far easier, and thus made it easier for our warriors to cut through the dark much more efficiently.

With these new additions we were seeing significant improvements, but not enough to change the tide of the war. It was a start
though.

The world seemed to always throw us curve balls though, as today we would be seeing something we thought we'd never see. I was with Twilight in the war room at the time with Vinyl Scratch and a few others. Bursting through the door, a guard was panting heavily as he tried to compose himself. "Ma'am!" He wheezed.

"Private, you know entry into the war room is forbidden, so I hope this is important." She scolded as she adjusted her glasses.

He stood at attention. "Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am! I knew you'd want to hear this yourself though. I could hardly believe it if I had not seen it with my own eyes..."

Twilight stood up straighter and gave him a gesture to suggest he hurry up with his story. "Spit it out then."

"Ma'am, Trixie is at the city gate, requesting an audience with you." He replied.

We all fell silent, even Twilight. That certainly wasn't news she was expecting to hear. "You're sure it's her?" She said after the shock wore off.

He nodded. "Positive ma'am, I would never forget that face."

Twilight turned around in thought. "But Dash killed her... How...?"

"We already scanned her, she is unarmed and her horn has been removed." The guard added.

"Damn it... Dash spared her... But why...?" Twilight was almost ignoring the stallion's input entirely.

"Ma'am, what should we do about her request for an audience?" He asked.

Twilight looked around the room and smiled. "This room contains the greatest warriors Equestria has to offer. If Trixie is up to something, she wouldn't be wise to pull it here."

I noticed Vinyl grinned at that comment.

"Bring her up, but keep ten guards on her at all times. I also want sharpshooters with a shot on her every second until she gets to this room. Keep her face concealed so the citizens don't panic." Twilight instructed.

He nodded. "Yes ma'am!" He quickly scurried off to deliver her order.

"You're actually going to bring her here so we can execute her then?" Vinyl grinned.

"Negative, Vinyl." Twilight sat back down in her chair. "Let's hear what she has to say..."

Vinyl growled. "Ugh, why bother? Kill her while we have the chance! She is practically delivering herself to us!"

"Exactly. She isn't this confident unless she knows she's safe, so something tells me she has something she knows we want if she is willing to risk her safety so greatly. Do you honestly think she would face all of us and arrogantly think she can win?" Twilight explained.

Vinyl shrugged. "Maybe the wasteland air has fucked her brain up. I mean you're right in that she stands no chance, but I still say humoring her is a waste of time. I could be home rubbing one out right now and that would be a more productive use of my time."

That was a lovely thought. "Thanks for sharing..." I commented.

Vinyl grinned. "Hey, sometimes you get a little tension built up... You should try it Torch, you look like you haven't been laid longer than I haven't." She chuckled.

"That's enough." I silenced her.

She just rolled her eyes in annoyance. It was always difficult controlling her.

Sitting in silence, we all drew our arms and aimed them towards the door as it opened and a cloaked mare trotted in in front of a bunch of guards. Twilight gestured for the security to back off. "We should be fine from here. We're more than a match for her." Twilight said.

The team nodded as they left us with the hooded pony. Trixie stood in silence waiting to be addressed. Twilight merely stared her down for a few moments, none of us lowering our weapons. "Remove your hood." Twilight commanded.

Obeying, Trixie lowered her hood and brushed her mane out of her face. Twilight sighed and shook her head. "How are you still alive?"

"Rainbow Dash took my horn off as I attempted to escape with a dark spell. In the final moments, however she decided not to kill me. She said that killing me would only make her like me, so instead she spared me and forced me to live a life on the run. I wasn't welcome back with the darkness after my horn was lost, as my usefulness as an agent was significantly reduced. Not to mention, I had failed and our masters didn't take failure so lightly..." She explained.

Twilight shook her head again. "Dash had a change of heart after all... I suppose she really was sick of all the violence... Nonetheless, now that you are foolish enough to deliver yourself to us, I think your punishment for your crimes is in order."

"Actually, I came here to make a deal..." Trixie's expression remained stern.

The group laughed. "And what is it you want?" Twilight asked with a smirk.

"Total amnesty for my crimes. Complete forgiveness and citizenship here in Equestria." Trixie replied.

Vinyl was quick to chime in. "No fucking way!" She spit.

"Vinyl!" Twilight barked. The white unicorn kept her teeth bared and her eyes on Trixie as she sat back down. "And why would you think you're in any position to make a deal with us? Why would you think that we would even humor such a ridiculous request?"

Trixie remained serious. "You don't have much of a choice. In eleven days it won't matter what you decide. So if you don't believe me, then you may as well kill me because we'll both be dead by then anyways. If I have choose to die by you or the darkness, I'll choose you every time."

"Let me do it, Twilight!" Vinyl drooled. "One right between the eyes! I'll make it quick!"

"Silence, Vinyl or I'll put you outside." Twilight ordered.

Vinyl grumbled, but kept relatively quiet.

"Very well, granted. Complete amnesty for your crimes. Don't make me regret that decision." Twilight said.

Vinyl couldn't stay silent to that. "No fucking way! I won't let you let her off the hook like that! Have you forgotten how many she's had killed!? She’s laid waste to Equestria with no remorse! You're going to let her off, and live here among the citizens she terrorized!?"

"Vinyl, I said silence. I know Trixie well, she isn't this confident to put her own safety at risk unless she truly knew something. She is not one to gamble on a bluff, as she knows I will see through any bluff she could make." Twilight adjusted her glasses. "Now tell me what you know."

Trixie nodded and approached the table. "For months I was studying who our masters were. See, we received orders and commands from transmissions from an unknown source. None of the agents were permitted to know where our orders came from." She grinned. "Naturally, that answer wasn't good enough for me. I did some digging and I discovered that they come from some kind of beacon near the back of the Manehatten stronghold."

"Skip to the point, Trixie." Twilight rolled her eyes, clearly only interested in the bit that concerned her and not the semantics of it.

"Well, after I discovered that, I finally figured out where the orders came from, and where the darkness came from." She said.

"Where?" I asked for Twilight.

The azure hornless unicorn pointed up.

"The sky?" Twilight rose a brow in confusion.

"More specifically, this." Trixie threw some photographs onto the table from her saddlebag. "I had these taken with a high powered telescope." She added.

We all leaned in to get a good look. There was some kind of metal vessel floating in the vast emptiness of space. I squinted trying to make out what it was. "It's huge..." I commented.

Trixie nodded. "Its bigger than Canterlot even."

"Wait... You mean... They're in space?" Twilight blinked trying to take this all in.

"Correct, they orbited over this planet for millions of years. Their ship’s technology cloaks them from ordinary telescopes, thus why we never noticed them before. However with a spell I was able to see them. They sent down darkness spawns to infect our planet and control it millions of years ago." Trixie explained.

"So they have been watching us for all this time... Why?" I asked.

Trixie smiled. "We're cattle to them. They wanted us to get stronger so when they finally did destroy us, the energy they got would be massive. They intend to keep us around for slave labor as they scrape up this planet for resources and then they will use our husks under their control to conquer other planets. We are being bred into super soldiers for them."

"So they have been gently guiding us all this time...? We're essentially their creations?" Twilight blinked.

"Correct. Their powers are vast. They more or less forced our evolution, and they were going to enjoy the rewards." Trixie answered.

"Why did you say they 'were' going to enjoy the rewards?" I asked.

Trixie sighed. "After how much we have resisted them, they are done wasting time with our kind. The weapon they fired almost seven years ago... That was a prototype. They have been working on the finished version for years now and within eleven days... It will be ready to fire."

"If that was just a prototype... What kind of damage are we looking at?" Twilight kept her eyes locked on Trixie.

Trixie paused and looked to the floor. She mumbled, but no one in the room heard what she said.

"Trixie!" Twilight barked.

Trixie looked up. "Total..." Her voice was very soft. "Nothing will survive... Flora or fauna. It will leave the surface of this planet smoldering rock."

"So they are cutting their losses and trying to get what little they can out of their investment then?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yes, once we are all gone, they will send a mining team to scrape up the resources left from this planet and move onto the next one."

"How can we stop them? If you knew that this would happen in eleven days yet you came here, you must have figured that we could do something about it." Twilight inferred.

Trixie reached into her bag and retrieved more documents. They appeared to be some kind of maps of the Manehatten stronghold. "The beacon we received orders from is located in the heart of the stronghold. I can give you codes to bypass some of the security. You could sneak a small task force in, and I am certain there is a way to reverse the signal from the beacon to send you up to their ship. However that'll take the greatest mind in Equestria." Trixie gave a smile to Twilight as she said that last part.

"How will we overpower an entire ship?" Twilight asked.

Trixie grinned. "Up to this point, they have had their minions do their work for them. I am willing to wager they don't have a very powerful military on board. Probably just engineers and scientists. They won't even anticipate you getting on board."

Twilight grinned. "I like it."

"How do we know this isn't a trap? Trixie could be luring us into the darkness stronghold so we walk into their hooves." Shining Armor pointed out, whom had remained silent this entire time.

"Because Trixie will be the one putting in those security codes." Twilight smirked.

Trixie obviously was not expecting that. "Huh? No way! I came here for protection, not to be put right back into danger!" She protested.

"Then I suggest you stay close to us and cooperate. If you do anything to harm this mission, you will be shot in the head. If you wish for us to trust you, you'll need to prove you can be trusted. You have much to atone for." Twilight lectured.

Vinyl sat up a bit. "So let me get this straight..." She began. "This whole time, they have been using us to destroy ourselves? And they were just chilling on their ship not a care in the world?"

Trixie nodded. "That sounds about right."

"In-genus bastards..." Vinyl commented.

"Alright, I am declaring a task force for the job now. Torch, you're in obviously; I want the Rainbow Edge on this mission. Shining Armor, you're also in and as much as I will regret it later, you are too Vinyl. I don't know what will be waiting for us, so I could use your battle expertise. I will be coming along myself as well, and we will have sargent Applebloom and medical officer Fluttershy." Twilight explained. I got the impression this was not negotiable.

"I am coming too." Luna chimed in.

We all blinked in unison, a bit shocked to hear that news. Twilight was the first to object. "Princess, you're too valuable to risk on this mission. If something should happen to you-"

Luna cut her off. "The same could be said for any pony in this room. You're all equally valuable. I may not understand much, and my experience may inhibit me from being helpful, but I will not stand aside any longer while my people suffer. I refuse to sit up in my chamber while you all risk your lives. It's time I put my life on the line like you all have bravely done for me and Equestria." Luna drew her blade and held it up. "I will offer my sword as well. This darkness has taken more from me than anypony here. It took my kingdom, my people, and my dear sister..." She grew quiet as she reminded us all of that fact.

Apparently, my own brother and Vinyl Scratch slayed a mutant Celestia themselves. I could only imagine what that fight must have looked like.

The room fell silent followed by me speaking up. "I would be honored to have your sword, Princess Luna."

She smiled, but Twilight kept her look of anguish. "Luna..." She began.

"It is not negotiable." Luna halted Twilight. "I will be fighting alongside you all."

Vinyl smirked as her bloodshot eyes seemed to pop out of her head. "Well, as much as I don't like the idea of Trixie coming with us, my blade hungers for the darkness. Imagine how surprised they will be when we show up!"

Twilight sighed and nodded. "Very well, Luna shall accompany us then."

"Also..." She added. "Keep Torch alive at all costs. She takes precedent over everypony here, do you all understand?"

I leaned in. "Huh? Why?"

Twilight turned to me with a serious expression. "That sword is powerful. It may be the weapon that decides Equestria's fate. However the sword is useless without a master. We can not risk losing you now. It will take too much to find a new wielder, and time is not something we have a lot of."

I shrugged. "So I am an important piece in this game of chess?"

She nodded. "A piece too valuable to risk. You will be suited with combat armor, protection spells and our armor piercing rounds. Same with Luna. Everypony else... I will only say this once; don't get yourself killed."

The group all nodded in acknowledgement.

"We will need to leave about three days before the completion of the weapon. That beacon remains off until they send out signals. It will take about three days to get there, and we will need to arrive while the beacon is active, which should be about two or three hours before they plan on firing it." Trixie explained.

Twilight nodded. "Alright, then I want everypony to be in their top physical form by then. Spend the next few days training. This is going to be hell, and the future of Equestria may depend on your abilities."

"No pressure then." Vinyl laughed.