Being that there was no room left on The Red Koi, the two-hundred Cadre members boarded the miriad warships, cramming them with warm bodies. Their trek would be arduous, but the extra reinforcements would certainly turn the tide of the upcoming battle in the alliance's favor. The crew of The Red Koi gathered at a round table set up near the center of the main deck, Bethany right in the middle along with Luna, Pisces, Draven, and Marshall Durand. Bethany seemed like a no-nonsense sort of mare; she laid out a map of Caven Isle and got right to the point, directing the crew's attention to the drawing of the north bank of the river which eventually spilled into the Grand Sea.

"Alright, so the changelings are sending out some vampire fodder to defend the edges of the river. Those scrubs'll be wiped away in no time by Pisces." Bethany explained as she moved her finger across the map, stopping right at the harbor. "The city has an unbreakable defense along the north and west wall— our only viable route to the palace where Alptraum is hiding is from the east. You'll have to break through their defenses built up across the harbor."

"You can leave that to me." Pisces chimed in with a bravado to his voice that none could match. "I'll be able to sweep away their defenses with ease."

"I'm sure, but you and Luna have to be careful. These changelings are paying extra close attention to you two, Luna especially. They have no desire to let Luna face Alptraum, and if it comes down to it, they'll be sending the Four Generals to deal you guys." Bethany warned them both as she pointed to the inner wall of the city that surrounded the castle in a second layer of protection. "Defense is tight here, we'll need all our big guns to bust their bunker."

"I'll be crowd control, I can take out mobs with my Brand's power," Rummy said as he opened up his right hand and held it out, sparks of gunpowder igniting in his palm. Though, admittedly, he was still drained from his fight with Thatchet. He was reluctant to show weakness in the presence of his sister.

"Good, Rummy," Pisces nodded as he turned to Draven and Twilight. "I need you two to join Rummy. You both can hold off multiple opponents at once, and you'll be able to reinforce the infantry as they clash with their forces. If it comes down to it, you can help us with the Generals as well." Pisces' eyes wandered for a moment as he looked for Dross in the crowd of ponies. "Twilight is Dross still tending to-?"

"I'm here, Gramps, don't worry," Dross responded as he barged through the crowd to get to the Twilight and the others. "I just had to check on a patient is all." Dross dusted his long coat off as he stood beside Twilight at attention. "What's the plan?"

"We'll be attacking the harbor. You'll join Twilight and Draven as we advance towards the palace," Pisces informed his carpenter. "By the way... how are our wounded faring?"

"Winslow and Cyro are injured badly. They've both lost a lot of blood— Cyro more so than Winslow. They both won't be able to fight. Fluttershy and Jhettei seem alright. Though, Fluttershy is at Winslow's bedside. She's a little shaken up." Dross answered.

"Fluttershy..." Twilight thought to herself as she clutched her tight chest. "I can't imagine what she's going through right now..."

"I'll be needing both of them, Dross. Go fetch them for me. They'll accompany Draven and the rest of the reinforcements." Pisces ordered his changeling rear admiral. "We'll need all the help we can get."

"I'll go with you." Twilight grabbed Dross by the shoulder and followed him as he made his way the door which led to the lower deck. "Fluttershy will be a little uneasy if you try to get her up here. She's too timid..."

"Alright..." Dross agreed as he grabbed Twilight's hand and led her through the crowd.

"Raiel, Spike, and Nick, I want you all to come with me. You'll help Luna scale the inner wall." Pisces commanded the trio.

"And I'll help too!" Daisy sang.

"Though my power has somewhat returned with the Eclipse Blade in my hand, my magic is still severely hampered by the Blood Moon. My flight capabilities are not as adept as they once were. I am not fast enough to dodge grapeshot from their cannons. I'll need help from you, Spike." Luna looked over at the young dragon on the other side of the table.

"Me? What'll I do?" Spike wondered; he was already nervous.

"You'll be a rocket, so to speak. You shall grab onto me and use your flame to help boost me over the wall. I need your speed to help dodge incoming fire." Luna then glanced over at Nick, who seemed to be fiddling with one of his chains. "And you, Nick, you can create portals with those chains of yours, correct?"

"Oh, yeah!" Nick jumped to life, hyperactive and rowdy.

"Good, perhaps I can use them to speed up my advance even more?" Luna proposed to Pisces, who seemed to agree with her plan.

"What'll I do?" Gin piped up, eager to join the fight.

"You stick with Rummy and Draven— you'll be aiding the army," Pisces ordered her.

"Aye, aye." Gin gave him a sloppy, moderately sincere salute and a cocky grin; she was still pirate at heart after all.

"Alright, now that we're all settled into our respective roles, I should give these last two warnings to you all..." Bethany leaned in, directing the other's attention to the north and south sides of the inner wall. "The changelings have got some kind of secret weapon— a 'metal beast' of some sorts. Be wary of that. Also, Alptraum has company in his castle, real nasty company. He's with Basim Bjiora, the King of Kusckamaj."

"Bloody hell... that lunatic?" Draven shook his head uneasily; he dread the thought of facing such a feral beast in battle. "What's he doing here?"

"He's most likely getting a taste of what the changelings have to offer. I have reason to believe they'll be allying with one another." Bethany said in a low and grave tone of voice.

"Who's Basim Bjiora?" Spike asked the ponies gathered around the table.

"He's a sadistic, psychopathic animal with no regard for his subjects. His nation, Kusckamaj, on the south-eastern tip of the Blacklands, is one of the richest in the known world— his wealth surpassed by only Goldblood Gaines'. He has immense power to boot— one of the most experienced Brand-users in the world." Luna had a hard time coming to grips with the reality of the situation. "Damn it all, if Constantine secures a partnership with him this war shall last for five years more at the least. Knowing him, he probably won't hesitate to join the fight and sate his thirst for violence."

"We'll just have to be on our guard then," Pisces reassured Luna. "The day shall be won, Princess, I can promise you that."

"I certainly hope so," Luna shook her head worrisomely. "If Alptraum lives through this assault, we won't have another chance at defeating him."

"What do you mean, Luna?" Spike asked.

"The Blood Moon doesn't just put a damper on my power, it drains me. If we are unsuccessful today, Alptraum's Blood Moon will most assuredly kill me." Luna said with a solemn look on her face.

"We've got you, Luna. Don't worry." Rummy smiled, rubbing the bandage on his forehead. "There's no way we'll let that bastard get away with what he's done."

"Alrighty, I think we can wrap this meeting up in a nice bow. Cadre, to arms!" Bethany called out to the neighboring miriad warships.

"Prepare yourselves!" Pisces shouted at his crew, who all scattered and grabbed their weaponry.

"To arms, stallions!" Field Marshall Durand ordered his battalion on the nearby ships.

As the crew gathered their guns and their courage, Bethany sighed, leaning up against the main mast of The Red Koi. Spike, still curious, shuffled towards her awkwardly, not knowing how to instigate a conversation with such a mare. Although she was serious, she also appeared a little disconnected, distant. Her eyes seemed to slowly move back and forth aimlessly, watching the sky above.

"Hey... um-, so you're Liazo's sister?" Spike figured it would be best to get right to the point— well, as close as 'right to the point' as he could get.

"And you are...?" Bethany raised a brow at the odd purple lizard in front of her.

"Spike," The young dragon gave her a smile as he put out his hand for a shake. "Nice to, err... meet you."

"Bethany Ace," Bethany turned to face him, tossing her auburn hair to the other side of her head to let him see more of her face; she certainly looked a lot like Liazo. "So, Lee mentioned me to you or...?"

"Yeah, my friends and I met him during a little trip to Ausrüstung. He told a friend of mine about you, and... I guess that information kinda trickled down the grapevine?" Spike shrugged his shoulders nervously.

"I'm surprised he still lives in that shit heap after everything it's done for him..." Bethany shook her head, taking pity on her unfortunate brother. "What were you doing in a place like Ausrüstung?"

"Taking down a crazed cult and killing the Sorcerer of Mind. The usual..." Spike joked as he loosened up a bit; Bethany appeared to be a lot calmer in her natural state.

"Heh. Never a dull moment in Ausrüstung, huh?" Bethany smirked, fiddling with a piece of obsidian in her hand. "Yeah... life in the Cadre gets pretty boring sometimes. I'm glad it's starting to get interesting nowadays."

"So... unrelated question, but you can control obsidian, right?" Spike inquired, yearning to see Bethany in action.

"Only if it's a part of my blood. I can't replace the obsidian in my body with other obsidian." Bethany stated as she held the shard firmly between her fingers.

"Huh, weird," Spike said as he thought of another question. "How did you end up with the Cadre?"

Bethany grinned as she reconstructed her old memories. "Well, once my brothers and I went our separate ways, I found my calling in Ccrondil as a hired assassin. I was good, but-."

"You got hired to kill a royal guard by the name of Syrune..." Galaeron stepped into the conversation, a cocky grin on his face.

"That didn't work out to well, did it?" Syrune laughed as she twirled a knife in her hand.

"You know these two?" Spike said, realizing that Galaeron and Syrune knew about her scouting operation the whole time.

"Yeah... I got the shit kicked out of me by these two idiots, and then they asked me to join their club," Bethany scoffed to herself as she thought back to her fight with them almost ten years ago. "Wasn't even a fair matchup... two on one?"

"We spared her, took her under our wing, and taught her our ways." Syrune continued as she placed her knife in the holster around her belt. "You turned out alright I'd say..."

"So you were working for us this whole time?" Spike asked Bethany as he processed the new information.

"Sorry, we had to keep it a secret, that's just Cadre policy." Galaeron apologized.

"Yeah, I stayed behind in the palace after the attack to keep watch until the time was right," Bethany added.

"She is my father's third and most secretive bodyguard, Callicera's Shadow," Raiel chimed in, overhearing their conversation from afar. "Her duty is to perform espionage in the face of an insurrection and relay it to the royal family."

"I'm a ghost." Bethany gave Spike a playful wink as she raised her left hand, making it disappear entirely with her secondary ability. "They never see me coming."

"Invisible?" Spike gawked at the outlandish power. "Whoa..."

"Well, that one dragon did, though... weird." Bethany recounted her experience in the castle the day before when she faced off against the changeling ambassador.

"Dragon? What dragon?" Spike asked.

"Oh, the changeling ambassador, Fang..." Bethany cocked her head to the side as she took a good look at Spike's face. "You know... he sorta looks like you. Maybe that's the case with most fire dragons, who knows."

"Looked like me...?" Spike thought back to the river near Ponyville when he came face to face with his double at the beginning of his journey. That doppelganger was the whole reason he ended up on his journey in the first place. "Is that the same dragon I met at the port a month ago?"

****

Fluttershy sat at Winslow's bedside in the medical deck of The Red Koi, looking down at his broken blade wrapped in cloth at her hooves. "Oh, Winslow... I'm so sorry about your sword."

"It's alright... it was getting dull anyway." Admittedly, he cared dearly for his father's blade. "I can always get a new one."

Winslow and Cyro laid on beds on either side of the medical deck, accompanied my numerous neighboring stallions with gruesome injuries. Cyro had been rendered unconscious from blood loss, and Jhettei stood at his bedside for hours, waiting for him to return to consciousness.

"Poor, Jhettei..." Fluttershy frowned as she saw the anguish in Jhettei's eyes. "This war has been nothing but pain and senseless violence."

"War is an inevitability in life, Fluttershy. Sometimes violence is unavoidable... sometimes loss too..." Winslow placed his hand on her shoulder as she began to cry. "You just have to have the courage to face it."

"But I'm not strong like you or Spike, or-..." Fluttershy trailed off as Winslow held her hand.

"You're stronger than you think, Fluttershy. You've gone through so much already, and yet you are more concerned for Jhettei's well-being than your own. That kind of selflessness takes compassion, and that kind of compassion takes strength." Winslow comforted her as best he could, but she still seemed unconvinced; perhaps she would always be on the fence.

"Fluttershy, Jhettei, we need you two for our final assault. You'll be helping out the troops on the ground as they fend off the changelings." Dross interrupted them as he and Twilight descended the staircase at the other end of the medical deck and marched over to them.

"You want me in the battlefield? Again...?" Fluttershy couldn't get the image of her father out of her head. "I'm no good to you out there, not if Winslow isn't with me. I might-..."

"Fluttershy, you'll be okay. I'll be there with you," Twilight insisted, crouching down beside Fluttershy as she glanced over at Droyuz leaning against Winslow's nightstand. "You'll have you father with you too."

"Fluttershy, don't worry... I'll be alright," Winslow assured her as he let go of her hand. "Go. protect your friends. I shall remain here and wait for your return."

"Okay..." Fluttershy bowed her head, uncovering the spec of courage hidden beneath her self-doubt. She grabbed Droyuz, staring at her reflection for a moment before looking back up at her friends with a determined glare. "I'm okay."

"Jhettei, are you ready?" Dross asked his crewmate, who stared down at his comrade with worrisome eyes. "He'll be fine, Jhettei, he's in stable condition. He'll be conscious by the time you get back."

"Yes... I know," Jhettei didn't seem too keen on leaving his long-time friend behind like this, but as a Northlands monk, he had a duty to uphold; to defend those who cannot protect themselves— the citizens of Ccrondil. He mumbled under his breath as he turned away from Cyro. "I shall return, old friend."

****

Luna stood at the bow, feeling the brisk wind swipe at her face. In the back of her mind, she had hoped the high winds would wipe away the darkness clouding her mind; the pain, the anger, the regret. The Eclipse Blade shuddered at such thoughts, sensing the conflict within her. If she could not commit herself to the horrid deed, then the blade would surely fail her. She had to be rid of Alptraum, of the scourge that plagued Ccrondil. Yet, at the same time, could she kill Lothwick? Just envisioning his face nearly brought her to tears. How could she be so naive all those years ago? Was it youth or love that blinded her to the reality of Lothwick's situation?

"We'll be there within an hour at the most..." Pisces sighed as he felt the cool, misty breeze of the water as they barrelled forward through the river to their final battle. "My crew is ready for the fight of their lives, but... are you, Princess?"

Pisces had known Celestia for thousands of years, and thus, he knew Luna's story well. he knew of Lothwick, of the Sorcerers, of Leere and the fate of the seraphim long ago. He was much closer to Celestia than even her. After the thousand years she spent on the moon, Pisces became her replacement during that time, comforting Celestia and being her shoulder to lean on. He knew of her family's strife, her own struggle. His wisdom was through blood and sweat, and hers through pain and tears. They were one in the same, and yet, he conquered his fears in battle. Luna was still wrapped in her doubts, a victim of her own regret.

"I'm not sure, Pisces... I'm just not sure." Luna closed her eyes as she tried to quell the frustration building up inside of her. "I know what I must do, my goal is clear— right in front of me. Yet... I cannot bring myself to do the deed. I cannot kill him." Luna choked up a bit as she leaned against the ship, staring at the mountains to the south.

Pisces breathed in deeply as he leaned against the outer railing of his ship beside Luna. "When I was a boy, my village was ransacked by pirates. We were driven from our homes, forced into slavery. My mother and father were rulers, not fighters. They were the first to be killed. Ever since that day I've wondered, could I have done anything? Could I have saved my parents? Could I have not cowered and fought instead?" Pisces smirked as his wise eyes met with Luna's. "But I know those questions are nonsense. I cannot change what happened. I harbored that hatred and regret for thousands of years after. It was only until I met your sister that I finally figured it out. We cannot change the direction of the winds that blow us through this life, but we can adjust our sails. The past is the past, what happened shall never change. But we can change the future. Not just for ourselves, but for everypony around us. You have that power, Luna. What you choose to do with it is up to you."

"I'm not as strong as my sister, Pisces. I'm broken, all mismatched and out of place. I'm not warrior ponies believe me to be." Luna dragged herself down into a deeper pit of depression.

"Your sister is strong in mind, a tactician. She has won countless battles, led her kingdom in your absence. But she is weak in heart— it was damaged by years of solitude, years void of her dear sister. You, however, have scorched your heart in the fires of anger and jealousy, and yet it remains beating. While your mind is damaged, your heart still plays its rhythm. You have heart, Luna. Set aside your thoughts for a moment and listen to it. I cannot convince you to kill Alptraum, Luna. Only you can convince yourself. Do what you feel is right, and the rest shall take care of itself." Pisces grunted as he lifted himself off the railing and walked away.

"Pisces, wait..." Luna sighed as she turned to face him. "I'm sorry for the way I've treated you since my return to Equestria. I believed you to be my replacement, but... now I know better. She loves you, so much. I'm regretful that I never bothered to meet you before all this happened. I never realized how well you knew her... how much you love her."

"I'd conquer heaven and hell for that mare." Pisces rubbed the wedding ring on his finger as he gave Luna a salute and a grin as he descended to the main deck.

"Hey, Gramps! We need ya down here!" Rummy shouted to Pisces.

"I'm on my way, son!" Pisces replied as he trudged down the stairs.

"Lothwick..." Luna smiled as she looked to the north, spotting her husband's palace far in the distance. "I'll free you. No matter what it takes."

Author's Notes:

This is it, folks. This is the last chapter before the final battle for Caven Isle! I hope you're ready! This is gonna be a bumpy ride! As always, I hope you enjoyed! See you in the next chapter!