An hour after the attack started, the castle and streets were silent once more. Ponies emerged from every nook and cranny of the castle grounds as the bodies of the changelings were thrown over the edge and the wounded civilians and soldiers were taken to Canterlot General Hospital and to the the hospice inside the castle. Some had to be sent to Ponyville after being examined. It was unclear if anypony was replaced this soon, but hopes were somewhat high.

Nexus and Brand Fire stayed out to oversee the preliminary damage control. Four hours pass and the sun started to rise. White Knight informed the Commanders that the princess' requested them ASAP, and neither were in a position to deny it. The two left White Knight in charge of the scene as Nexus flew both of them to the castle. Outside the throne room, Nexus waited for Brand to fix himself up before entering. Nexus elected not to bother since his uniform was singed and tattered from the fighting.

Once inside, the two saw the princess, Dust Storm, and even Discord discussing what had just transpired. Well, Dust kind of stood there, but the rest were talking.

"AH! Commanders, so happy you could make it." Discord said as Nexus and Brand approached. He snapped his fingers and a table with tea appeared with them all sitting around it. "Care for some chamomile tea?"

"Discord." all four princess' scolded.

"Oh come on! I didn't even get a chance to have some fun at the Gala. At least let me have my tea."

"Discord, this is serious business." Nexus said.

"Um, yeah. Why is he here again?" Brand asked.

"We didn't exactly invite him." Cadence added.

"Just get rid of it." Luna said rolling her eyes.

"Fine." Discord snapped his fingers again and all but the teapot vanished. "Then you can't have any." He said turning away with his pot sipping from the spout.

Nexus found that the most tame thing he'd ever seen Discord do; that is until he bit off the spout. Nexus raised a brow at it as he chewed on the ceramic pot then looked to Dust who was utterly lost.

"Go back to our room Dust. I need to talk with the Princesses in private." Nexus said.

"But-"

"Dust, this is important." Nexus said cutting her off before she could object.

Dust sighed but understood to some degree. She slowly walked from down the carpet of the throne room and to the open doors.

"So, what do we know at the moment?" Celestia asked.

"Minimal damage to the castle. Except for the wall." Brand told.

"We didn't kill all of them, but the ones that lived retreated. We have Orion and his troops checking each house to ensure everypony here is pony." Nexus added.

"This is the final straw." Cadence said. "We have to find Chrysalis before she does something worse."

"This wasn't Chrysalis." Firebrand interjected. "The changelings were wearing armor. Diffidently not her style."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked.

"He means; armor equals organized military." Nexus added.

"They're right you know." Discord said biting the top off of the pot. "Chrysy didn't do anything directly here."

"What are you talking about?" Celestia asked.

"I hate to say it; but I think Sombra was behind this." Nexus said.

"That can't be. You said it yourself; he's weak." Luna said.

"He was. It's the only other logical option. This wasn't just some invasion, it was a test of our response time."

"That tears it." Celestia said. "Brand Fire?"

"Princess."

"I want you to take over Commander Nexus' investigation." Discord was seeming quite entertained hearing Celestia take the investigation away from Nexus. "You are to find whomever attacked Canterlot and ensure that it will not happen again."

"Sister-"

"Luna, I understand that Nexus is capable, but I trust Brand Fire more than I do him. If it is Sombra, then his findings on the investigation are sound and pertinent to Brand."

"Your highness, are you sure? Nexus does have things under control with this investigation." Firebrand asked.

"Absolutely. You will hand over everything won't you?" Celestia asked looking to Nexus.

Nexus could feel his eyebrows trying as hard as they could to touch one another out of anger. He looked to Luna hoping she would try to talk some sense into her sister, but Luna only offered a depressed look. She hated it as much as he did. "Of cores Princess Celestia. It's all in Sergeant Ephialtes' quarters. I'll get them to Captain Brand before the end of the day. As it is I have much more pressing matters; as I'm sure we all do after the past few hours." Nexus said with a disappointed undertone.

"If they are not delivered to him or me by noon, we will seize them."

"Understood Princess."

"Good. Now do you have an estimate on damage to Canterlot?"

Nexus drowned out the rest. He knew that this wasn't going to go well. This didn't seem right. It made sense that Sombra was behind it, that he sent the changelings to test the response of Canterlot. But why not attack now? There were no explosions, no screaming, no blood and bodies flying about; everything was trying to return to normal again. What could Sombra be up to? This had to be some kind of trap. He could tell Brand wasn't sure of this either. Nexus was confident that he could do just as well, if not better than he had in the investigation considering Brand had more resources. But a doubt hung over both of them that this wasn't going to go as well as hoped.

After Celestia and Brand stopped talking about the damages, Nexus was dismissed along with Luna. Nexus followed the hall way towards The Tower of the Moon with Luna in tow. She was quite, he could feel her uneasiness and he wasn't even looking at her.

"If you got something ta say, spit it out." Nexus said bluntly.

"Lunarus, I'm sorry. But Tia is right. Your search has been uneventful in the apprehension of Sombra or Chrysalis. It might be best if-"

"If Celestia walks all over you when you try to give input. I know that she's looking out for Canterlot and all, but does that mean she can just shoot you down like that."

"Lunarus, it's not that simple."

"I know it isn't. I see that, and I bugs me. You have as much say as Celestia in any of this! Hell, Princess Twilight has more say then you! You can't tell me that doesn't bug you."

"It does concern me Lunarus, but things like this are going to more and more problems if we fight her."

"You're afraid?"

Luna looked down as they reached an oak door with frosted glass and Nexus' full name and rank on the door. "I am afraid Lunarus. I'm afraid that I'll lose what I've worked so hard to get. I'm afraid to lose you."

"What'd you mean?"

"If Tia thinks you're not capable, not trustworthy, she'll disband the Evening Guard and send you out of Canterlot."

"Why out of Canterlot?"

"If she doesn't trust you now, you can't be trusted to stay in Canterlot."

"What about Goldenchord?" Luna froze again at the mention of Nexus' ancestor. "He was brought to Canterlot after the dispassion of the Armada. Why am I am the acceptation?"

"Because your more dangerous!" Now it was Nexus' turn to freeze. "Goldenchord surrendered and you never do. Goldenchord may have been a great soldier and general but he knew that fighting wasn't always the answer."

"But being a doormat isn't any better than fighting."

"Fighting isn't going to solve anything Lunarus. You know that!"

"But doing nothing isn't going to help either Luna!"

"Lunarus, stop being a child!"

"You need to wizen up Luna! Celestia is repeating her mistake and so are you. One of you needs to change before history repeats itself. Now if you'll excuse me, Princess, I have work to do." Nexus said slamming his door.

Luna groaned in annoyance and stormed off as Nexus sat down at his desk. The office was well furnished and pleasant to look at. The walls a tan-ish orange with several paintings of day, night landscapes and one of the night sky covered in billions of stars. A brown couch sat to the right opposite a tall book case with several large books on law and a few leisure readers he liked to enjoy on break. Two electric lamps sat opposite his white pine desk and black rolling chair with two black filing cabinets next to the lamp on the right. Behind the desk, a large window overlooked the west horizon and the rest of Canterlot.

Nexus' desk was fairly neat with a few scattered papers over the calendar mat. He had a phone off in the right corner and a picture of himself, Dust, his mother, father and Luna. He thought of it as a family picture but at this point he wasn't sure if he could consider Luna apart of his family after what he said. It had been taken just after he got out of rehabilitation and the eye patch was taken off. Nexus sighed and turned his attention to all of the papers on his desk just as a knock came at the door.

"It's open." Nexus said loud enough to be heard on the other side.

The door opened to reveal Ephialtes and Hestaria carrying as many boxes of papers as they possibly could.

"What's going on here Nex?" Hestaria asked dropping her stack of four boxes on the floor next to the door.

"Yeah, what's up with Knight coming up to us and saying we had twelve hours to hand over all of our info on the changelings and Sombra?"

"Celestia has ordered that we turn over the investigation to Commander Firebrand." Nexus said stacking the papers in his metal hoofs.

"What?! Why?" Hestaria asked stunned.

"She feels that our methods are not successful and that Brand Fire can do better."

"Did Luna approve of this?"

"She didn't say no. Why are you bringing me the boxes anyways?"

"They're copies of everything. We figured that you wanted to keep going anyways."

A small grin crossed Nexus' face hearing Ephialtes say that. "You'd be right. What do we have on the invasion?"

"Well," Ephialtes began. "I have Orion tracking the changeling's trail and from his last report, they're on the move west."

"Everfree?"

"No." Hestaria interrupted. "He's past that point. He's on his way to Baltimare with the trail still strong."

"So what does that mean for us?"

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Ephialtes asked.

"Saddle Arabia."

"I was thinking Flying Base of Doom, but Saddle Arabia works too."

"So long as Brand doesn't know this, we can get as much done as we can."

"Unfortunately that's just the good news. The bad news is we can't find out who the changelings are working for."

"I was too busy killing them to notice this but I'm sure you did; did the armor they were wearing have some kind of symbol on it anywhere?"

"That's the best part." Ephialtes opened one of the boxes he was levitating and took out a small shield shaped piece of metal black markings.

The markings looked like a green eye surrounded by a crown of dark red and black crystals.

"You two keep in touch with Sergeant Cutler, I'll handle what I can from here. And please tell me-"

"All of the original files are already on their way to Brand's office." Hestaria said cutting him off.

"Great job you two. Take a nap and get back to work. You've earned one after last night."

"Thanks Nex." Ephialtes said dropping the boxes he was levitating and balancing on his back.

Nexus slumped back in his chair as Ephialtes and Hestaria left his office, shutting the door behind them. He spun his chair around and walked it over to the window.

"What are you planning you bastard?" Nexus grumbled to himself as he stared out over the western horizon.

Author's Notes:

Nexus doesn't want to talk to me right now so... Leave a comment for the Jaws reference! I guess....